we are powerful

I will keep this short and sweet just wanted to update my blog with the class I taught tonight at the yoga center.
Theme: I have been working on some of my “stuff” lately and it has been hard and sometimes I don’t think I have the strength to do it. Then I remember that I am full of Shakti, the creative power of Universe that moves through the things around us and through us. I remember that I have so much power and strength! I just sometimes forget. In the class I talked about how yoga can build strength, but yoga also provides us with the opportunity to tap into and access the tremendous amount of strength we all reading processes. Sometimes it takes facing a challenging situation, or a challenging pose fully for us to experience this abundant source of power.

in class we focused on ME hugging into the midline. The class was very playful and seemd more like a workshop with the students asking really wonderful questions. We did lots of unique variations I have been trying at home to help me refine aspects of ME and it was fun to try it out on these students (ginue pigs). I think they really enjoyed it.
This is one of the many things I love about Anusara yoga. It has given me an attitude to look for the good. Instead of going this, sucks, my life sucks, why does the universe keep throwing curve balls at me… I can say, wow this is really hard, but what a great opportunity for me to dig deep and access this power and strength, and what great things will I learn when I face this challenge fully.

Thai Massage

One of the classes I am taking in massage school is called Survey of Body Work. This three hour class meets once a week and each week a therapist comes in to discuss a modality that they specialize in. I really love this class because we are being introduced to phenomenal people who are so passionate about a particular modality that they are in. I absolutely love experiencing someone’s enthusiasm for any form of healing. Last week a good friend of mine Janet Peacock came and in talked about Thai Yoga Massage. One thing she mentioned that really resonated with me is that this form of massage brings about four specific Divine states of mind including:

1. loving kindness
2. compassion
3. equanimity
4. vicarious joy

I think this is so great. That as a therapist you cultivate a state of loving kindness to everyone, you cultivate a state of compassion, you see everyone as equal, and you are happy when others are happy.... How great is that. I feel like when we open our self up whether it be as a massage therapist, a yoga student/teacher, or a student of life we are invited to experience these four dive states of mind.

roses!!! self love!!! shoulder loop and kidney loop

February is the month of love and I think with valentines and the hallmark industry a lot of the emphasis of love gets put on someone else. Like the love you have for your family or your significant other, which is an important relationship to celebrate! But I think it is important to also celebrate the love you have for yourself and the relationship you have with yourself. Today in class we focus on shoulder loop, kidney loop and lip loop (smile). We cultivated physical strength to hold are arm bones, collar bones and shoulders back (shoulder loop) as well as physical strength in the core as we expanded into the kidneys (kidney loop). As we worked these refinements of alignment we deepen our relationship and our understanding of our self as we shine more brightly, celebrating the love we have for our self. (This alignment also physically create less stress, tension and headaches, how awesome is that?!)

Shoulder loop. One of the seven loops (or eight if you count lip loop) in Anusara yoga where we energetically and physically draw the arm bones, collar bones and scapulas back and into the back of the heart. When I was learning shoulder loop I was so excited. I tend to be a very enthusiastic yogi. With this enthusiasm for shoulder loop I didn’t realize that I was also sticking my floating ribs out tremendously. This not only allowed my core to miss out in the heart opening experience but it also compressed my kidneys. Now as I practice opening my heart with confidence and strength I also make sure to practice another loop, kidney loop, where I pull the floating ribs in and expand into my kidneys. This action invites my core to join into this celebration of opening the heart while providing a more stable base.

As I was thinking about teaching a class where I wanted to do back bend asanas, I wanted to work on shoulder loop and kidney loop I was trying to think of some good metaphors. Since it is Valentine’s Day I have been inspired by the beautiful roses I have been seeing I wanted to talk about opening up like a rose, the uncurling of the peddles. Going from a place of contraction like the bud of the rose, or the shoulders rounded forward, to a place of expansion and an opening of genuine beauty. I love how when a rose or any flower is open I don’t think “that flower would be more beautiful if that pedal was a different color…” I just think “wow pure beauty!” I wish I could look at myself and not pick at things I wish were different and instead just see the pure natural beauty. So this opening is how I am going to link shoulder loop. But how will I get this metaphor to work for kidney loop?…..I thought when a flower is in a bud the stem is straight and when the flower opens it does NOT all of a sudden put a kink in the middle of the stem. If it did that it would snap the stem in half which would cause the flower to die. No the stem stays strong which supports the opening of the bud. SO as we work shoulder loop we to need to maintain the integrity of our core by practicing kidney loop.

Ta Da!! That is how I am linking shoulder loop and kidney loop into the theme of self love celebration + our relationship with our self + roses...

The class went great. I wrote this blog before and fine tuned it after. But one thing I realized while teaching the class that was wonderful and not fully planned. Was that the loops are really a refinement of the practice. Asking the students to really observe where they are in the pose and what their shoulders and ribs are doing and based off that non judgmental observation make these refinements to experience more of an opening… that focus, patience and awareness really helped deepen the relationship each student had with themselves. (it was wonderful to be a part of that)