monday

I had such a lovely day. After a week of being envious of my yogi friends studying with John Friend my plan is to go soak up their inspiration in their public classes. This morning I took a class from Jen Hecht at Prana which was so great. Later in the day I took a class from Lyndsey Marie at The Yoga Center. Both of these ladies where beaming with shakti and I got some really great instruction and wisdom that I am very grateful for.

So this is what is getting me even more excited. After taking Lyndsey's class we got a chance to chat and I think I might be getting another opportunity to teach there! I started teaching at the yoga center over 5 years ago when it was run by Leslie Salmon and I was 18. I feel like I have grown up so much in the yoga center and my heart and smile is beaming from the joy of this opportunity.

I will be subbing a class at The Yoga Center this Thursday 5:45-7:15. I will be subbing for a certified Anusara teacher Tiffany Wood and I am super excited and honored to be able to teach in her space.

First Principle

This morning Tyler and I were talking about doing chataranga out of alignment and how much it can hurt your body over time. I mentioned that just doing chataranga with good shoulder alignment can actually heal shoulder injuries because you are training the body and inner body how tho hold itself on and off the matt.

Tyler then mentioned that one of his favorite qualities he has gained through yoga is the ability to lengthen his spine and maintain that length through out the day. Tyler practices yoga once and a while and he rarely comments on the benefits he experiences so this made me smile. I said "oh, oh that's on aspect of first principle". He kind of shrugged. One aspect I love from the practice is how now through out the day I expand my torso brightly, this is also an aspect of first principle. I asked if he noticed an expansion with the length, "yes, its like a balloon coming up in my chest" oh my, this made me even more giddy. He looked slightly confused. "How does all this length and balloon in your chest make your feet feel?" Tyler said his feet feel so feet feel good and his knees are not hurting as much.

I stopped the conversation at this because it was early in the morning and as much as I would love to continue to talk about first principle spontaneously showing up in our life it was early in the morning and I don't think Tyler shared my excitement. I wish we could have taken the conversation a little deeper. Yes, Tyler confirmed that he experiences  physical aspects of first principle: good foundation, side bodies long, inner body bright.  But I wander if he also notices an outer body softer. And what really gets my wheels turning is wandering if he has been noticing that he is putting the highest first? and to talk to him about the other non-physical aspects of first principle that we learn through practicing yoga asana.

Off to work, this was just so good that I had to blog before I left.

Spanda baby

Today I taught a class at Avenues Yoga. My theme was on pulsation (spanda). We talked about how everything is in pulsation: your breath, heart, the days, seasons, thoughts, moods, whats happening in your job, relationships, even the smallest atomic particle that can be scientifically measured is in a state of expansion and contraction. I wanted the students to experience this pulsation in a non-reactive way.

I have myself experienced getting attached to certain pulsations, the when things naturally change it causes a lot of distress. However if we can let the pulsation happen, acknowledge it may not be what we want but that this is normal, like the old chiche goes "the only thing constant is change". So pause for a moment and if there is an area in your life that doesn't feel like it is going smoothly remind yourself that it is part of the pulsation. There is also alot of yoga study about negative patterns showing up over and over again (sansakars).

I also pointed out that mercury is in retrograde. Sometimes mercury passes the sun in rotation and this is a good time to be thinking about the future, inventing things, and making plans. However when mercury is in retrograde it is moving back behind the sun so it is a very appropriate time to revise what is happening in your life. To be non-reactive. Mercury in retrograde always makes my mind go vata, very windy and all over the place.

We opened the hips and the shoulders, peak pose was dancer. Main principles was expanding spiral (inner spiral) and contracting spiral (outer spiral). We also worked on kidney loop. After class multiple students came and gave me hugs and said how much they enjoyed the class and how good they feel. This makes my heart smile big. That gave me confidence and put al ittle shuffle in my step :) After yoga I worked with Soul Garden preparing for a beautiful wedding.

Anusara Inspired?

Wow it has been so long since i have blogged. Busy busy busy. I have been wanting to write up my phenomenal experience from wanderlust. I have so many pages of scribbled notes. One highlight was talking to my friend Doc. He reminded me that all I need to be inspired is 40ish teacher training hours and then a certified teacher to watch my class. I would be so honored and stoked to be part of the merry band of the Anusara community. Before the wanderlust festival there is the anusara inspired gathering and I would so love to be a part of that next year :) I am planning on doing teacher training 1 (i did part of teacher training 1 with Adam Ballenger last year), and teacher training 2.

more soon