week 3 mentorship homework

Life has been pretty crazy lately with my birthday, xmas, yoga studio shifts, school ending, new school starting, health problems... One of the things that feel to the side was some of the Christian Sell mentorship homework. This afternoon I had some free time I quickly did an aassigment (heads up this is not perfect just wanted to do it). I havent taught this class yet. but i did teach a class this morning with a similar theme that i kind of expanded off of for this assignment

Personal-> universal: I have been thinking about what I want to cultivate in myself for 2011. I want to create more space around my heart so I can live in my heart and respond from my heart and with practice I hope to keep my heart open no matter what situations, issues, poses... I face
The Anusara yoga philosophy: tells us that every moment and every experience is an opportunity for us to live in our heart.
Define concept: Space “three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space) Patience “Patience is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patience)
What it means to me: Space is very important to me because when I create this expansion in my chest I can more easily live in my heart and I can respond with patience in more appropriate ways then if my chest was closed and constricted.
Chit Ananda: When we create space around our heart we can express patience in any situation.
Refining chit ananda: “when we know this expansion (state of spaciousness) we can express our self with patience (feeling quality) because we can reside in our hearts through any situations”
Tie into UPA: Opening to grace creates space up the sides of our body and into the front and the back of our heart creating a quality of patience for us to move through this practice being very aware and connected to the heart
Tie into upcoming class: Today we will practice creating space around the heart with patience as we face difficult poses while keeping our awareness in our heart and working toward urdhva danurasana.
Verbs: Open, length, broaden, expand, lift
Adjectives, verbs and feelings: Patience, endurance, softness, fortitude, calmly, constancy, perseverance, enthusiasm, compassion, aspiration
actions and heart feelings linked:
• Lengthen from your waist up toward your armpits with enthusiasm
• Expand the circumference of your heart in all directions with perseverance
• Lift the belly away from the pelvis with softness
• Soften the skin to the bone with patience
• Move the thigh bones back with fortitude

Definitely feel like I am struggling linking up to adverbs, adjectives and feelings. But am really enjoying how these homework assignments are inviting me to think in new ways (so much so that my brain hurts :D)

Happy Holiday...my present to you!

Here is my holiday present to you! I hope if helps you find different ways to connect back to you heart on your path.

Here is a list of main heartfelt qualities/ intentions that we want to cultivate in our self and our students. (I got this list from The Anusara Yoga teacher Training Manual)
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Kindness Playfulness Joy Non-clinging

Spaciousness Gratitude Yield Devotion

Discrimination Willpower Compassion Steadfastness

Courage Patience Contentment Sensitivity

Endurance Resilience Gentleness Concentration

Mindfulness Surrender Humility Softness

Acceptance Enthusiasm Forbearance Love

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Use these intentions to connect more fully with your heart. They are heart-based feelings that can provide guidance.

Enjoy and many smiles to you,

Kimberly Achelis Hoggan-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copy these words into a word document and insert a table around them (so you get nice squares, couldnt ge the format to work in blogger) print these out on thick colorful pieces of paper, cut out the words and put them in a cute little sack along with the instruction card and handed them out. I am using mine daily but I find instead of using the bag it is easier to put them in a little bowl which I leave at my altar.
Many blessing, lots of love and smiles
Ho Ho Ho
Kim

Refinments

Last night I took Matt Newmans class from Prana Yoga in Trolly Square, it was awesome. We talked a little about the gunas which are qualities of nature: tamas (not enough), ragas (to much), sattva (just right). We all have these gunas in us and they all very. It takes a lot of self inqury to notice where we might have to much where we might have to litte, and from this self study we can start to make refinements in ourself to create this more harmonious state of being.

At one point during the class he mentioned how none of us are perfect and we all have our “issues”, areas, or specific principles we need to work on to bring more balance to the pose. I remember when Matt would say something similar to this when I first started Anusara yoga, and although I knew my practice wasn’t perfect, I did not know what specific refinements I needed to make in order to create a more harmonious outer pose and create a more harmonious inner experience. When he said this last night (after lots of practice, dedication, and self study) I knew what my natural tendencies are so I was able to take specific refinements to create a more sattvic experience.

(The areas I am working with are side body length, taking my back bend into my upper back by rooting the tailbone more, and watching my right elbow because it has a tendency to hyper extend).

If you show up to Matt’s class for one of your first yoga classes ever and he says something like that you might think “I suck, I cant even balance in any of these poses…other people have issues…no. I cant do any of this…” Or something...

So the steps are, showing up, self observation, study, refinements = BLISS

I think we can learn how to create more ease in our life with this equation as well. At first maybe people don’t realize their life might not be in balance, because they haven’t even looked. But then once they take the time to look inside they might realize they might be experiencing a combination of ragas, and tamas and not very much sattva. Its like if you have never taken an Anusara yoga class you might not know that you have a tendency to collapse in your low back (although you might experience back pain). But once you show up on the matt and start moving around, and really feel the body, you might think hmm.. my back hurts in back bends… Then through more practice, more study, more personal awareness you will beginning to see that if you use the refinements of the principles and the loops you will beginning to see that these little adjustments create such ease in the body mind and spirit both on and off the mat.

(opps dont have time to finish off to a day of skiing!!)

Parents and husbands

One thing I have been doing recently is to consciously pause throughout the day and think of the things I am grateful for, in my life, in the day, in the moment. These pauses of remembrance of the love and support I have in my life really made me feel good inside, so I started to keep a gratitude diary. In this diary I just write down a few things I am grateful for. I do this whenever I remember throughout the day and every night before I go to bed. (Studies show that if you write three things you are grateful for before bed you will sleep better).

I have been noticing a theme in my journal. my husband Tyler Hoggan, makes it on the page every day. I feel so fortunate that I have a loving, funny, intelligent, adventurous husband.

I have a friend who is going through divorce and it heartbreaking. I have witnessed and experienced divorce in my own family and it causes such pain and unease for the people involved. I was thinking about the relationship between husband and wife and the relationship between family members, for example a daughter and her father. When you say “I do” you are forming a family. But one difference is that a relationship between father and daughter can never be completely destroyed. When I was younger I was a troubled teen. I was sad, confused, rebellious and as a result I caused so much pain to my family member and those I love. I used to have horrible fights with my dad and I would say some of the ugliest things, it brings tears to my eyes to think back on these times and how my dad must have felt. I took actions that caused pain and disappointment to so many close to me. But now after taking some time to heal, finding true friends and choosing to persue things that cultive health and happiness in my life, I now have really stronge compassionate bond with my dad and with my family. No matter all the crap we experienced years ago we have so much love for each other.

It makes me sad that husband and wife don’t always seem to do this “til death do we part”. (Don’t get me wrong I am not saying there are not situations where a divorce can be appropriate). However from what I have witnessed a husband and wife can go throw a few bad actions, a few bad fights and then they end it. I like to think of marriage as a conscious commitment to making a family with that person. And that no matter what comes up (for better or worse, for sicker or poorer) you will stick together and work really hard and in the end I think the wound or whatever it is can help strengthen the relationship.

This was a random thought. Anyways I am very grateful for my husband and all the support, love, and laughter he brings into my life.

Lotus flower, and therapy

I have wanted to see a therapist for a very long time. As a teacher I have people coming to me for advice and I say these wise things, but I never have felt that I had someone to go to talk, ramble about my “problems”, and seek advice. I was scared at first to find a therapist because I felt like everyone knew me as a yoga teacher whom dedicates almost all her time practicing and studying yoga, and has “no problems”. I thought that getting a therapist meant an automatic confession to my life isn’t perfect (not that I ever said it was). However I remember reading one of my favorite teacher’s blog, Maria Cristina (blog.mariacristinayogi.com). She talked about how she has seen a therapist for years and how important her therapist is in her life. I never forgot that.

I often think about how being a student of yoga, we can create a lot of pain and conflict for our self because we are consciously doing really, really hard work to better our self so we may connect to Our Self, Shiva, God, Nature, Spirit, Breathe ____(enter your blank here) more fully and show up more fully in all our relationships with our self, friends, families, strangers, and nature. I sometimes think how different my life would be if I wasn’t doing this work, if I was just content and accepted everything as it was, kind of the whole “ignorance is bliss”.

It is like a lotus flower. A lotus flower starts buried in the mud (in Anusara we look for the good so this mud isn’t bad it provides the nutrients we need) But at a certain point the mud doesn’t serve us, and we start doing this work that helps us rise toward the surface keeping our roots planted deep in the mud. As we reach the top we emerge and open one petal at a time, to blossom fully in the sunlight.

I feel like I have been buried in mud and I am trying to find my way to the top of the surface so I may open fully with honesty, compassion, patience, and joy. I recently started seeing a therapist and now I feel like as I make my way toward the surface I have a helper that can help me navigate through or around obstacles.

reflection on a yogi tea qoute, i dont agree

Yesterday I updated my facebook status to:

‎"the purpose of life is to enjoy every moment" Yogi Tea

I kept thinking about these words throughout the day. I love the “the purpose of life is to” “every moment”. But throughout the day I kept rubbing up and finding resistance with the word enjoy. Lately I have been trying to cultivate some shifts to bring about health transformation in my life and in my spiritual practice. As I do this, I would have to say there is a lot of stuff that is coming up that I am NOT enjoying. However as I make these shifts and make little changes here and there I am able to stay more mindful and more aware of every moment.

I think this yogi tea quote would have resonated with me in the past. I think when I thought that I could ENJOY every moment what I was really doing is not being mindful almost numbing myself out to the moments that were not enjoyable. I have learned that some moments are full of incredible sadness, hurt, frustration, fear, loneliness, tiered, and confusion. The key is to not put these in a box and push them away so that you can enjoy every moment. It is about being aware, present and mindful during every moment. So no matter what is happening whether it is ecstatic joy, deep pain or somewhere in the middle, When we are present to the emotion that is present, and allowing that emotion to deepen your relationship with yourself and others… that is the purpose of life!

meditation

Recently a new student asked me if I could write up a quick blog explaining some basic meditation info and suggestions. Here it is.


I think of meditation can be a great tool for anyone in life, allowing us to cultivate a better relationship our whole self and the world around us. Meditation also allows us to slow down so instead of being in a state of constant reactivity we can mindfully choose how best appropriately to respond to any given situation.

There are lots of different meditation techniques out there. But in the yoga world there are two general categories. There is a dual type of meditation (classical yoga) and a non-dual type (tantric yoga).

In the dual type (classical yoga) they believe there is two things the you (purusha) and the other (prakriti) and that you want to get all the other (prakritic) stuff away so you can just experience yourself.. In this meditation you try to still the mind and have no thoughts. I tried this for years and struggled so much. How can I not think? In this form of meditation even when I could empty my mind I still felt very stiff, scared and not very joyful. I also felt like I was bad at mediation. (In my therapy session today we talked a lot about this "I am not good enough" mind set and I notice how much I do this subconsciously.)

The other type of meditation is non-dual meaning everything is one and that oneness is pure of joy, bliss, peace, stability, love... so that even thoughts aren’t seen as something bad because everything is one. I like to think about this in pulsation. Right…everything pulses, our breath, the cycles of nature, even the particles that hold things together are made up of small particles that pulsate and create a sold entity. So if everything pulses and this pulsation is made out of bliss, then why should we try to stop it? That would be like trying to stop the sun from setting. For example if I sit and meditate and my mind is a little more active that day I just sit with that. I try not to get pulled really hard into one thought I just let the thoughts come and go. As if I was lying on my back watching the clouds pass by. I don’t think my thoughts are bad and the fact that I can’t stop them I am bad in this non-dual way we allow every experience to be an opportunity for us to find some more peace or joy in life. here is a link to one of my blogs that talks about having thoughts while meditating (http://authenticselfyoga.blogspot.com/2010/01/mental-naming-learning-to-...).

Here are a few other techniques.
1. counting the breath: as I sit or lie to meditate count my breath inhale 1, exhale, 2, inhale 3 and so on and so on until I get to 10 then I start working backwards inhale 10 exhale 9 inhale 8..however if while I am doing this counting meditation and I get distracted I start back over at 1. I rarely make it to 10. It doesn’t really matter if I do make it to ten it is just a nice way of calming and centering.
2. Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing): a way to cleanse and see clearly while cultivating a more harmonious balance between the left/feminine and right/masculine sides of the body. Close off the air to the left nostril (with the ring and pinky finger of the right hand) exhale through right and inhale through the right nostril then close of air to the right nostril with the thumb exhale through left and inhale and repeat.
3. Mantra: I love mantra. Mantras are using a sound or phase and repeat it over and over either silently or out loud to yourself. The theory behind it is the sound vibrations effect our vibrations and bring that mantra/or affirmation into our being. Here is a link about hindu gods and their mantrashttp://authenticselfyoga.blogspot.com/2010/05/mantra.html
4. audio: I also really enjoy listening to audio meditations and following along. Some of my favorite Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, and Harshada Wagner

Restorative Yoga Class

I took a yoga class that Lululemon Athletica hosted (part of their 12days of complimentary fitness classes of Christmas). Scott Moore offered a wonderful restorative class at Prana Yoga. It was so great! I felt like I really got the opprotunity to turn “off”, rest, restore and rejuvenate. During the practice Scott said something that really helped me understand the value of restorative yoga.


He talked about how Mickey Mouse uses a spell to make brooms and mops come alive to clean the floors. Mickey was using this clever trick to get more things done at once, but pretty soon he didn’t know how to turn them off, let alone where the “”off” switch was. I deffinitly feel myself do this in my life. I multi tast, i am always going going going. Sometimes I forget I need to slow down, and when I remember I sometimes find it hard to actually settle down.

Scott talked about how that is the invitation that restorative yoga offers us, a way to find the “off” button, and a way to push it. This is how we can restore our self. Something else Scott kept saying throughout the practice was this idea that you don’t have to do anything in a precise way, and your pose doesn’t need to look a particular way. Instead you put the body into a general shape and then you allow yourself to make little shifts until you can find the ease into which to release deeper. That reminds me that all our off buttons can look different, and we can even push them in different ways. But the bottom line is, through this wonderful multi facetted practice of yoga asana, meditation, and pranayama we are given the invitation to let go, drop into this moment, and surrender so we may restore our body mind and spirit.

Thanks Scott and Lululemon Athletica for a great mid day practice.

leading the practice. stability during holidays with OS

Yesterday I taught the practice at the yoga center. It was pretty exciting because as I walked into the center, and as I looked out over my mat at the layout of the studio and the carpet floor I realized this would be my last practice in “this” space. The doors to the yoga center close Monday for the start of renovations. There will be lots of exciting changes being made to the space. The ones I am most looking forward to is new bamboo floor and raised ceiling. The renovation will start on Monday December 13 and be completed by January 3. We will continue to have all of our regularly scheduled classes during this time at a temporary location just down the street at 2101 East Murray Holladay Road. Maps are at the studio but it's easy to find!

For the practice I talked about instability. How during the holidays life can seem more chaotic and we can feel a sense of instability. I mentioned how when I experience this instability I feel more connected to something on the surface that is more superficial and I experience feeling like anxiety, fear, and judgment.

The Anusara philopshy is non-dual meaning that we are connected to something very profound and more eternal. You can call this whatever you like God, Shiva, Nature, Breath, Yourself, Nature, Science (enter your _______________ here). In order to connect and remember this eternal aspect of our self I need to draw into myself away from the drama of things that happen on the superficial and move deeper into my core and heart. Here I experience more compassion, joy, softness, and acceptance. Although with the craziness of the holidays and life sometimes when I draw in and connect to this higher essence I can loss the connection quickly.
So I need to not only draw in and remember this more eternal part of myself but I need to find even more stability by anchoring myself into this more eternal place that can still handle the drama but in a less reactive way.

We worked on muscular energy (muscle to bones, core lines to focal point, and midline) this was a really nice way to cultivate and remember the strength that we have.

Then we started to introduce outer spiral with lots of partner work and questions and clarifications. Oh yeah how could I forget. And some pretty phenomenal metaphors and similes. As we talked about outer spiral I really wanted to explain that it is more than tucking the tailbone (although that is a part but if you just tuck the tailbone that is closer to pelvic loop) but that contracting spiral has this wrapping aspect to it that narrows the back of the pelvis and expands the front of the pelvis. This wrapping of the iliac crest I was talking about like a clam shell. Toward the end of the class. One of the students mentioned a pearl inside our clam shells. I went nuts. What a wonderful connection. I haven’t completely refined it but I like this idea that through wrapping our clam shells around the head of the femur bone we create stability to open up our clam shell (which even makes sense because contracting spiral creates an opening in the front of the hips) and this opening of the clam shell reveals the pearl which is the opportunity to experience more length up the spine and the shashumna that leads to organic energy. (I am just adding to this as I write so again not totally refined).
We had lots of fun. Really great students. One who student whom I have known for a while and I was even her student at one point was there so it was really fun to share that with her.

tele skiing and anusara shin loop!

Today I went tele skiing with my husband at Alta. It was a wonderful day! the sun was shining, no clouds, fresh powder, just wonderful. Now I am not a skier I was a professional snowboarder for awhile but I kept getting hurt (broke my back and hurt my knee). These injuries are what motivated me to start my asana practice. Anyways thats a different story. After my body heeled I could still snowboard and still do ticks but through all the yoga I was getting into the “completive mindset” no longer interested me. So last year I switched to tele skiing.

Today was my 4rth day skiing this year and I was still trying to get the hang of it. One thing I always struggle with is putting weight into the front of my boots when I ski rather than leaning into my heels and putting my weight back on the ski. As I was working with this today I was reminded of shin loop in Anusara yoga. Shin loop starts at the base of the shinbone just above the ankle. It moves up the back of the calf muscle to the top of the shins just below the knee, forward through the top of the shin, then down the front of the shin back to the base of the shin. (this helps you not hyper extend your knee). This is the same action we are creating when we put weight into the front of our boot.

When you ski like this with shin loop you are taking a very aggressive attitude, “I am in control, and can choose where I want to go”. When you don’t do shin loop and lean into the back of the book and collapse onto the heel, although you think it is less scary, it says “oh no! Where am I going? I have no control! I might get hurt, AHHHH!”

I feel this way in my life too. If I shift my weight forward and have an aggressive attitude that I want to take control of my life. I want to be in the driver’s seat. I want to be making actions that serve me fully. I want to consciously respond to situations I am in, instead of reacting impulsively. When I have this attitude I can control where I want to go with more skill. However sometimes (just like in skiing) I think if I just lean back, let things happen, blow things off it will be easier. That is when I start to make bad choices. I start to hurt the people I love. I get way off of the path I want to be on.

Today was really fun because I was working with dropping my knee way low in powder and turn. In each turn I could feel myself lean back into of my boot and I would think, take control of your life, take control of your turn. I would shift my weight forward and it was like magic. I have never done such nice pow-pow turns. Made me smile big, and remember that Anusara freaking rocks! The principles, the loops, the philosophy, isn’t just to be practiced on that mat but can be applied to anything or situation in your life.

I see this a lot in students feet when they practice. They naturally shift their weight back and collapse on their heels. I remind them we actually can create more health, and stability in the body if we distribute the weight evenly and creating the calf energy of shin loop.
FUN FUN DAY!

**I am teaching the practice this week (Friday)at the yoga center 540-740 by donation. I am very excited**

heart based theme mindset

For the past two weeks in the mentorship program Christina Sell has been teaching us how to cultivate heart based themes going from the universal to the personal, or the personal to the universal. She encourages us to take a challenge in our life, any of our experiences, definitions of words, and poems to help us take a big idea (universal) and make it more relatable to our students (personal). She said that what is so great about Anusara is that it is a philosophy of totality. So really anything!!! can be turned into a heart based theme if you keep looking. She said because it is a system of totality anything can lead you back to the heart even the deepest sadness.

At first when I learned how I could use all these different aspects of my life to develop a heart based theme I felt overwhelmed. But now I feel like part of my brain or maybe it is my heart is getting rewired toward “heart based theme”. Now multiple times throughout the day something will happen and I naturally go “ah ha this could be a theme”. This is really cool because it reminds me of the universal, of the non-dual life affirming philosophy of Anusara yoga. I then run it through the 5 principles thinking how I could relate that experience to each principle. It makes me wish I had more classes to teach. I feel like themes are pouring out of me and I don’t want them to go to waste.

Last night I was with a good friend and he told me that mosquitoes when they bite you they also inject an anticoagulant/lubricator as part of their saliva. This keeps the blood moving and you don’t die. And that the bump and the itching sensation we get from mosquito bites aren’t actually from the bite but from them injecting there saliva into us in order to save us. He told me that and I thought, this could possibly be a theme. Haha haven’t thought the theme through and as I write this I don’t know how accurate it is that this injection it to stop us from dying, but thought it was funny that this random fact(?) he told me made me think heart based theme and remember my inner divinity! Leslie Salmon told me when she did this mentorship program with Christina Sell she felt like she had been given the keys to the kingdom. I feel like I have been given a key to look at everything as a reminder of Spirit and of the heart.

mantra

Mantra has always touched my heart and has always been a regular staple in my meditation practice. However lately I find myself practicing more and more, even when I am not practicing I can almost hear a quite back drop of my mantra going with in me. I also have found myself suggesting to some of my friends who are working through some stuff to find a mantra or affirmation they connect with to use as a tool. Since mantra has been on my mind I was happily surprised to open my yoga journal and find so much of the issue on mantra and kirtan.

Jia Uttal says “Externally, we’re just singing repetitive songs with simple melodies and a few Sanskrit words. We try to put our analytical minds to the side and sing from the heart. We try to channel whatever emotion we’re feeling into the song. Then the magic happens: Walls constructed long ago come crumbling down. Wounds that we never knew were there beginning to heal. Long-submerged emotions come to the surface. As we sing, we immerse ourselves in an endless river of prayer that has been flowing since the birth of the first human beings. And somehow effortlessly, we move into a meditative state that creates a safe haven for the flower of the heart to unfold. (18YJ Dec2010)” HOW LOVELY!

a drving metaphore

I have been thinking the about the different attitudes we take out of our freedom when we drive. We can distract our self with radio, friends, phones, thoughts... When we drive like this we can easily get lost or in an accident. We can agitated our self as we drive getting angry, stressed, and in a reactive mode, possibly flipping or yelling at other drivers. When we drive like this it is hard on our heart and we could possibly cause an accident. We can choose to drive mindfully being aware of what is going on around us. When we drive like this we can consciously choose where we want to go, how we want to get there, and we can choose how to respond to a situation in the most appropriate way. This is just like our life! We are given a vehicle=our body and the road= the path we are on in life. We also have the same options to distract our self, to contract and get agitated, or being mindful and present. I have found the more I practice being mindful on the mat the more able I am to be mindful in other parts of my life, even when driving. The Anusara philosophy teaches us that at our core we are intrinsically good and when we are mindful and present we can more easily experience our own goodness and the goodness of others.  From this connection to our innate goodness we can express more patience and compassion to our self and others.

"Guru" heart based theme

On wednesdays class at the yoga center this is the theme I used.

Recently one of my teachers, Christina Sell, has been talking and writing a lot about her Guru. She often writes about her Guru and when I hear about her or anyone’s Guru I feel myself contract with jealously. Thinking how rare a relationship is between a physical guru and a chela (disciple). Not even John Friend founder of Anusara yoga would be considered a Guru. But then I remember the Sanskrit world “Guru” which is comprised of 2 root parts. Gu= darkness and ru=light. So Guru= is anything that leads you from darkness to light. We remind our self of the Guru in the first line of the invocation when we sing gurvea. One of my favorite translation of gurave is “this teacher can reside within you and/or around you”. The Anusara philosophy teaches us that there is wisdom that resides within us, and when we draw into that wisdom with honesty we can express more skill, patience and stability in our life. We will work with outer spiral today in standing poses to skillfully create more stability and strength in our practice.

It was a really great class pretty full of students who seemed to really connect to the inner guru aspect of the class. Recently in my life there have been lots of shifts and changes that are being cultivated and in order for me not to get lost in shifts or fall into bad habit I need strength. Lately I have been drawing alot of strength from this idea that I have a guru within me!


One of the new studio owners (how crazy) Lindsey took my class which created a few butterflies in my belly but I tihnk I did a good job and stayed true to myself as I taught. Hope we liked it :)

heart based theme idea

Christina Sell week two.
wow this week Christina explained a few more ways to start developing a heart based them that goes from the universal  (a big philosophical teaching) and bringing it to the personal and connecting it with chit ananda and the UPA's. She gave us so many my mind keeps day dreaming about all the many heart based themes i could create form my experience, challenges, word definitions, and poems. Because I have all these new ways part of me is hesitant to fully dive in. (hence to recent blog posts but lots of stuff in my head). Figured I needed to dive head first in so thought I would post a short idea.

Courage. The root word for courage is “cour” = “coeur” which is heart in French. In Latin being courageous translates to be heartful. When we are trying to find the strength to do something courageous we should remember to draw into our heart. In the Anusara Philosophy there is the idea that we are all intrinsically good. When we remember that naturally pull into the heart and we find strength to express our self courageously and with joy. In tonight’s class we will play with some balance poses that will require us to draw into the mid line (ME) and into our heart for the strength to express these poses fully and with delight.
As I continue to build the theme throughout the class I would mention that in Sufi-ism the heart is considered the ‘house of the divine’ they say if you completely connect with the heart you are promised a state of no fears, and no worries.
I also might try to think of some link btw wizard of oz and the lion with courage.

more heart based themes to come.

on another note there have been many exciting changes and shifts about to happen in my life. I am going to go to massage school in January which is going to turn my world upside down and really challenge me and my normal teaching and practice yoga schedule. AND the yoga center got sold!!!! but i am confident the new owners are going to continue to cultivate it  and they continue to bring more anusara love and teachers to the space.

more soon