BELIEVE

I was talking to my good friend and teacher Jen Hecht about my "trust yourself" class (see earlier blog). She then gave me a wonderful qoute from Elena Brower:

"BELIEVE in yourself. BELIEVE that you chose the right family, and the perfect parents for your mission. BELIEVE that all the people around you are your teachers, here to show you the way. BELIEVE that you’re able to handle everything that comes to you. BELIEVE that you will get an answer whenever you really ask. BELIEVE that you can have every conversation elegantly. BELIEVE that you are on the correct trajectory to your highest freedom every time you tell the truth."- Elena Brower

What stories have you been telling yourself?

Jen and I got together yesterday to continue our mission. We are working towards maksikanagasana 2 (dragonfly 2) its going to take multiple practices to get there. To do this pose you bring a leg behind your head, twist your body over the other leg and balance on your hands, simple right ;). To see Kathryn Budig gracefully demonstrate this fierce pose visit: video.  So yesterday Jen, her dog Bo, my dog Dharma, and myself gathered in a park and played. I have so much fun practicing with friends, I work harder and go deeper then I would if I were alone. Thank you Jen.

Last week we were able to get our foot behind our head but couldn't get the foot to stay. For example I would take my right leg behind my head and then I would hold my food in place with my left hand. We watched Kathryn's video and admired how she could take both of her hands in front of her heart and the foot stayed in place behind her head. When I tried to bring my hands in front of my heart my leg would fly back down to the ground like a rubber band shooting across a room. I thought "I will never be able to do that, ever, impossible". Even as we practiced yesterday I kept telling myself unconsciously and consciously this story of not being able it. Funny that I was right back to telling myself I wouldn't be able to do a pose after having just posted a blog on the subject. Anyhow a lot of shoulder work, and skull loop, and tada my foot stayed!!! Jen snapped a picture of it.




What stories have you been telling yourself that are not true and are holding you back? Tell yourself good stories, reach for the stars and keep reaching :)
                                                                                                                                                                               

eka pada sirsasana

parsva dandasana

Just got back from memory groove park where I practiced with Jen Hecht. It was a great experience it was our first time getting together like this. Mission: We both wanted to work on getting our leg behind out head, stand up and possibly take it into parsva dandasana (video below). We both brainstormed good poses that would help us build into the pose and main principles that would really help us. We worked deeply into the hips and the three hamstrings. Focused on getting into the deeper muscles and past the more superficial muscles. Lots of side bodies longs and strong shoulder and skull loop. It was a total blast! We both got the leg behind our head laying on our back, rocked up did a forward fold, then managed to stand up in uttansana (standing forward bend) with our foot hooked and then all the way up to standing and then fell out. (dont know the sanskrit names) It was soo fun, I never thought I would be able to stand and keep the hook. We didn't make it to parsva dandasana but it was an awesome journey and it was just our first time. We are getting together next week to work on it again. Our results from the practice is that we need alot of length and particularly low back length so we can find more strength at lifting our torso up, plugging our shoulders in and really working the skull loop to keep leg in place. Jen brought Darren Rhodes new book so we played with alot of fun twists.

So grateful for Jen. I feel so much stronger when I have a friend reminding me. Reminds me of the story of Hanuman, he forgets he has all these powers and strengths and his friends remind him and then he can access that place and defeat the bad guy :)

(quick post but thought if I waited to blog about it I would run out of time or forget)

Here is a video of Kathryn Budig gracefully getting into and doing parsva dandasana.





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.

connet to your fullness from within

Summary…. This week I taught a private to a husband and wife, a group private for faculty teachers, and three public classes. In all the classes (in different ways) we focused on rooting the femur bones back, and inner spiral.

In one class I talked about the full moon and how it reminds me of purna which is Sanskrit for perfect fullness. Recently the moon. I look at the full moon and think of purna, perfect fullness. I encouraged students to be perfectly content with where they are in life, in the moment, in the pose, and that that contentment will allow them to feel full. Full of the divine essence that fills us all in such abundance.

I wanted to connect with the idea that we are all ready full as we worked with rooting the thigh bones back and inner spiral. When we are looking for fullness we only need to turn within our self and we will find that our fullness is there. It is an act of remembrance. So many times we strive and we reach and we try to acquire more so that we can become full, this is the mistake because we only need to look within to see we are already full. So when our femur bones move forward toward the psoas this is like us reaching to the material world to find our fullness (which is the mistake) instead we need to root, femur bones back toward the hamstrings, this is a looking and rooting into our self to remember that we are full. That we have everything we need inside of our self.

I also connected this to inner spiral. Inner spiral is the expanding spiral. One of my teachers Jen Hecht says that inner spiral is like opening the doors. That is what we need to do to experience our fullness. We need to open the doors to our self/heart/soul to see we our full. The opposite of inner spiral, of opening the doors is slamming the doors on the idea that we already our perfect and full within our self. Slamming the doors is saying that we would rather look outside of our self to find this fullness. This will only lead to more and more unhappiness.

So that’s what we did...lots of hip stuff, really working inner spiral and rooting the femur bones back and remembering that we are perfect and full as we are! It can be hard just like asana practice can be hard but it is so worth it when we remember our own goodness and fullness!

When you realize you are perfect just the way you are and that you are always full of spirit and are an expression of Grace, you feel perfect and full (Purnatva). One mantra I use when I feel like I am not perfect, not full, or I feel defeated is….”I am perfect and whole”...A simple mantra/affirmation but it helps shift my mood and energy tremendously.

Dana Faulds, Perfect Emanation:

"The perfect emanation is

alive inside each one of us

right now. I'm not denying

my imperfect translation,

my stumbling fits and starts,

or my dark side.

Yet look at what is

manifesting! Witness how

the thread comes off

the spool without tangles,

how the tapestry of life

weaves itself

using me a loom."

10 habits to avoid

I feel very fortunate to work at The Yoga Center in Utah. Wednesday 5:40-7 and Thursday 12-1. The center is owned by Anusara-Inspired teacher Leslie Salmon who is currently going through the certification process. Leslie encourages and helps her teachers to continue to study and grow. She has a lovely library that we can “check out” books from. It is so nice to have support as a student and teacher of yoga…

Anyways on Thursday I arrived early so I could do some light asana before teaching my class and instead I found myself browsing in the library. I came across: Textbook of Ayurveda, Fundamental Principles by Vasarly Lad M.A.Sc. I have been very interested in Ayurveda for the past 3+ yeas. I have taken many workshops from Arun Deva, Shiva, Andrejs Gailis…As I flipped through the textbook I came across a list “10 habits to avoid”. Seeing them all in a list was really interesting, I have heard of most of them before yet I definitely have a habit of doing many of these. This list motivated me to put more effort in creating balance in my life style. I wrote the list down and thought I would share it here.

1. Overeating
2. Eating without real hunger
3. Emotional eating
4. Drinking fruit juice or excess water or no water during a meal
5. Drinking chilled water at anytime (this one is super hard for me I love ice water but I also know the cold water puts out our digestive fire)
6. Eating when constipated or emotionally disturbed
7. Eating before 7am or after early evening
8. Eating too much heavy food or too little light food
9. Snaking on anything except fruit between meals (I hadn’t heard this one before)
10. Eating in compatible food combinations such as fruit with a meal
Very interesting.

I am so excited john friend is coming to The Shop in Park City Utah on Monday to teach immersion 3 which I will be volunteering and hopefully observing and then I am taking his intermediate/advanced workshop next weekend.

Other fun yoga happenings:

• Jen Hechti s teaching The Practice tonight at The Yoga Center 5:40-7:40 by donation
• Jen Hecht and Matt Newman are teaching The Practice tomorrow at Snowbird Cliff Spa 1-3 (could be off on the time) 20$ includes spa and pool.

Have a lovely day.