Thursday yoga hour class at the yoga center.

I absolutely love this class. Every time I leave I feel so good, like the student got what I was saying, and like there was a real connection with the students. Today I had three students (still working at growing the class). M mom came (one of my most loyal students), a great yogi and friend came, and a complete newbie came who was so open and excited about starting yoga. What a great great group!

I talked about experiments. As I was thinking about what I wanted my theme to be this idea naturally came up which is surprising because lately all of my themes have been connected to the shift of seasons, the doshas, grounding… So I was very excited when this idea popped into my head.

I talked about how what we do on the mat; the physical postures we put our bodies into are an experiment. Sometimes the experiments are more successful and sometimes they are less successful. But there is also a second experiment going on. The first one is less important. It is the external one what the pose looks like. The more important experiment is our attitude. No matter how the first experiment goes, no matter if we can do the full expression of the pose or not doesn’t matter it is the attitude behind it. Can we stay positive, optimistic, and connected to our heart? I know sometimes when I practice and I can’t do the full expression of the pose (for example Hanumanasana) I see my neighbors and the teacher doing it and I get frustrated, I think why can’t I do that, sometimes I go even farther and notice I am frustrated I can’t do the pose and then I get mad/disappointed in myself for getting frustrated. We come to the practice of yoga to help us grow and be more happy and full. However sometimes the practice can help us perpetuate this negative self talk cycle. So the experiment that is super import is can we keep our attitude bright, can we stay positive, can we have faith no matter what the exterior pose looks like.

We did lots of hamstring and quad openers, got into the hips, did wall work, and worked up to Hanumanasana. I think Hanumanasana is a perfect t pose for being aware what is going on inside as we work toward a really hard pose that most students can’t take the full expression of.

I did a great job connecting to the theme throughout the whole class!

I talked to my friend after class. this student, she doesn’t know it but is sooo incredibly inspiring to me, she has such a wonderful attitude, a lightness, an optimism, I want to be more like her  Anyways we were talking about yoga teachers and she pointed out that every teacher has “there thing”. We talked about one teacher, whose “thing” is curling, curling the tips of the shoulders blades back toward the heart to open the heart. (How lovely). I asked her what my theme was and she said it was strength. She said that when she leaves my class every cell seems like it has been connected to a whole, she feels stronger after. She said she also loves how I tie =the theme in throughout the whole class. She also mentioned that as she looks through her Anusara notes she is reminded of me because I point out similar things. I FELT SO HAPPY WITH MY SELF AS A TEACHER.

Life is great, full of obstacles but the practice of yoga makes obstacles fun; it turns life into an experiment. When we know we are working with an experiment we can alter the ingredients so we can get different results.