Sciatic pain

I haven't blogged in forever. I'm writin today because I had such a freaking wonderful experience teaching today at avenues yoga.

My plan was to do some shoulder loop work and side body work leading to full urdhva danurasana. However I asked the students if they had any specific requests and a gentle man said sciatic nerve stuff because he has been getting sciatic nerve pain. Then other groined and nodded. One women said she just saw a massage therapist because her sciatica was bugging her so bad. Right then I throw out my class plan and my brain was going wild with universal principles, secondary principled of alignment we could do and the different mucles that are probably overly tight or weak that was could be happening, as well as range of movements that I know help lengthen or tones those muscles to create more balance.

I'm in my second semester of massage school and it is so freaking awesome or this stuff to come together in my understanding. John Friend is a serious genius I know there has been negative talk going around about Friend but my hat is off to him. The principles he created are amazing. I share some of the upa stuff with my anatomy and sports massage teacher and they say it is all very sound information.

Anyways continuing on with my class. We focused on the loops or the lower extremity: ankle loop, knee loop, femur loop. Most of te students had there thigh bones going forward, were hyper extending and some had the majority of their weight on the inner/medial edge of foot. So we worked leg loops, spreading the toes, tops of shins forward enough not to hyper extend and tuns of femurs rooting back to the hamstrings. We also did lots of inner spiral. I learned in massage school that  our sciatic nerve is the size f your pinky and it gets pinched when you laterally rotate thigh so medial rotation of thigh is amazing thing to do.

I told a silly story I've made up about the love life of my quadriceps femur bone and hamstrings. You see ms.Hamstrings is married mr.femur However mr.femur has a little afair going with ms.Quadriceps. So he likes to go get with her (moving the head of the femur bones forward) and that is an atrocity. It ruins everything. Everything being your body and that is probaly a little exateration but you get the point. So in yoga we get to really practice rooting the femurs back. It's marriage counseling!!!
Got to go to shook


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advanced practice

Went to Adam Ballengers Advanced practice at Centered City Yoga. He talked about listening to our mind versus listening to our heart. Our mind is similar to our ego and our intellect. These want to make us happy and doesn't always consider the deeper purpose and more long term happiness. Adam used the example of milk chocolate. It might make you happy in the short term but but doesn't make you feel as good in 30 minutes or in a day or week. He went on to say we need to parent our heart. When the brain suggests a short term fix to happiness we remind the brain that maybe eating 10 bars of milk chocolate isn't the best choice if we want to align our self in a way that continues to cultivate happiness.

In class I jotted down a quote I really resonated with:
"do you line your body up with your brain or do you use your brain to line your body up with your heart", "Goal: to feel intuitively good".

It was a great practice I saw some friends who I haunt practiced with in a bit. We did partner work in various arm balances. I love how partner work builds community. I partnered with two yogi's I haven't worked with much before and I feel like after working and sweating with them we are a lot closer. So cool! We did lots of inner spiral/ expanding spiral work in the legs and the arms, + core work to link the legs and arms together.

Adam also talked about the recent articles that has come out about John Friend. He reminded us that Anusara Yoga is a system of yoga, and that anusara yoga has not changed. Its not John  Friend yoga. Reminding us that we can still like and practice anusra yoga without agreeing with everything John may or may not have done. This made sense to me. People make mistakes. It can be easy to place people up on pedestals and think they are perfect, but the best anyone can ever be is human. I am interested to see how John handles this situation.

Gratitude

Its thanksgiving week so I have been cultivating, thinking, talking, and teaching about Gratitude. I taught a few classes focusing on an aspect of first principle, side bodies long. Having long side bodies gives us more room to fill our self with thanks (and thanksgiving food). We also did some refinement work in the shoulders. One thing I often see is when students lengthen their sides they also take the shoulders up toward the base of the head. This fires the upper trap muscles and adds to stress and tension. We worked on keeping the side bodies long while keeping the neck long, cultivating and holding our self full of gratitude while not adding more stress to our life.

The Velour Music Group and WAnderlust Festival sent an email out that included statements from some of my favorite teachers sharing their thoughts on Gratitude. It was such a pleasure to read I wanted to share:

"When I count my blessings over the last year I always consider who and what helped me to know myself more clearly, including that which has helped me to see my shadow because it empowers me to more effectively transform myself. Even some of the painful events of the year can be seen as gateways to connect to the very essence of my heart. I see all of these as blessings, as the revelatory power of Grace, as the principle of the Guru. I give thanks to all of my teachers, to my students, to the full spectrum of my friends, and also to the challenging people in my life."John Friend

"Gratitude is a state of being. When I'm in the state of gratitude, I'm in my heart, I'm focused, I'm open, and ready for everything. I'm able to give so much more of my listening and my attention, and I feel heard and received. When I'm grateful, I feel connected to myself, my kid and especially my parents. Plus Dr. Emoto has proven that the sentiments of Gratitude and Love together create the most symmetrical and beautiful water molecules(!). Consistent levels of gratitude might be my proudest feat this year." Elena Brower

"Gratitude is one of the greatest healing emotions for bringing your brainwaves and heart rhythms into unison. It can melt the toughest situations and heighten the ordinary moments to profound realization. Gratitude opens the chambers of our heart so we can really feel while we are alive - our beloved, our kids, friends, each morsel, where we rest our head, the beauty, the transforming difficulties, our teacher's grace. The passing moment is the soil of gratitude that helps us wake up and appreciate what we have now before it is gone. That is why Thanksgiving is such a favorite holiday. As the earth goes into its fertile retreat, let us take time to remember, celebrate and taste the core of all that we love." Shiva Rea

"I'm grateful for all the ways that my yoga practice continues to inspire and amaze me. The global yoga community is a growing presence of peace on the planet, I give thanks every day for all the yogis, students, teachers, artists and musicians who are helping to usher in this emerging renaissance of Love and Spiritual Understanding. Peace." MC Yogi

Sleeping

I have a fascination about body posture. I find it so interesting that body positioning can either create more discomfort and disease in your life or it can cultivate ease, better health, and a better attitude. The more I study alignment the more I worry about my sleeping position. I toss, turn, sleep on my arm, tweak my next, bend my knees awkwardly... I have wanted to ask a Certified Anusara teachers if they have any recommendation for sleeping but either didn't have the courage to ask or I forgot.

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thebluevinecollective.org

I was watching my Anusara Teacher Training DVD's with John Friend and this topic came up! John said that he gets asked this question a lot. He said no he doesn't recommend a certain mattress or pillow (darn that would have been to easy). He said that when we get misaligned during our sleep that is a result of some misalignment's that happen during the day. He said these misalignment's should be addressed during the day, and at night JUST SLEEP. This is not the answer I wanted to hear. During the day I work my alignment but still at night I toss and turn and wake up with some kinks and soreness.

I did a practice with my teacher Adam Ballenger last Saturday and he talked about how hatha yoga is two parts. It includes the action, one definition of hatha is to strike. He also talked about how the "tha" in hatha means a receptivity, a pause where you see your results of your action. I have heard Adam teach something similar to this in a public class relating it to car singles. You car will let you know when the engine needs to be worked on, or when you are low on gas.. But we have to "tha" we have to listen to that information.

So this gives me an opportunity to practice the "tha". The results, misalignment while sleeping tells me that I need to change what I am doing during the day. Although I was hoping John would give an answer like ____ pillow and you sleep perfectly. But now I just have another way to "tha" to notice the effects of my practice. 

Immersion with BJ Teacher Training with Adam

So blissed out from this amazing week surrounded by such great souls. I was so lucky and won the scholarship to take BJ Galvans Immersion 2 at The Yoga Center. It was great to take the immersion 2 a second time from a different perspective. I took it the first time from Adam Ballenger both certified Anusara teachers did a phenomenal job presenting the information to my heartmind and body. My understanding deeps so much as I continue to hear the same teaching over and over and in different ways. Anusara's philosophy of intrinsic goodness touches my heart and influences my practice deeply. Being able to learn/feel these virtues through the gross body is amazing. I wasn’t able to finish BJ's full immersion because I took Adam Ballenger’s teacher training. It was quite a switch going from being immersed in yoga from the aspect of the student to learning to teach this method. However BJ shakti-fied me up so much going into the TT was really lovely, I felt anchored in my center where the heart qualities come more easily.

The immersion was great opportunity to spend more time at The Yoga Center. The owners Lyndsey and Sheldon have created such a great community and have such a great vision for Anusara yoga in SLC and I am so happy to be a part of this community. I also treasured making immersion friends from TYC. When you go through any intensive training where transformation happens you bond strongly with each other in a really sweet way. I will be reviewing my notes and will post another blog about immersion/TT.

I just got back from lunch with BJ before she got on the air plane. Its nice to bond with a teacher and see then not just in the yoga class room. I normally get shy around other teachers who I admire and don’t get to know them better as a result and I am so happy I got to spend more time with BJ. I think I will even be assisting her on her tour next year, possibly Costa Rica (which would be a dream come true)

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA to all the great teachers I humbly bow.

to learn more about these rocking teachers check out their websites:
http://www.heartcoreyoga.com/ BJ Galvan
http://www.adamballengeryoga.com/ Adam Ballenger

The Universal Principles of Alignment and Secoondary Principles

Was doing some online browsing and research and stumbled upon a Yoga Journal article: Go with the Flow: Alignment in Anusara, by John Friend wrote,  in the article John highlights the universal principles of Anusara yoga as well as secondary principles. I love it when I find these principles explained by others the slight difference in explanation always helps it sink that much deeper into my awareness. I though Friends explanation was great so here it is.

 

The Universal Principles of Alignment

• OPENING TO GRACE 

• Having the intention to place oneself—body, mind, and heart—in alignment with the flow of supreme consciousness. This involves approaching asana practice with an attitude of softhearted devotion.
• MUSCULAR ENERGY A drawing of energy from the periphery of the body into the Focal Point (see below), which increases stability, strength, and physical integration in the pose.
• INNER SPIRAL An ever-expanding energy spiral that moves outward from the core; it runs from the feet up through the pelvis into the waistline area. Inner Spiral rotates the legs inward, moves the thighs backward, and widens the thighs and pelvis.
• OUTER SPIRAL An ever-narrowing spiral that moves inward toward the core; it runs from the waistline area down through the tailbone and out through the legs and feet. Outer Spiral rotates the legs outward, moves the tailbone and thighs forward, and draws the pelvis and thighs closer together.
• ORGANIC ENERGY An outward extension of energy from the Focal Point through the core lines of the body to the body's periphery, which increases expansion, flexibility, and freedom in the pose.

The Secondary Principles

•  FOCAL POINT Alocalized power spot within the body. Muscular Energy draws into it, and Organic Energy extends out from it. There are three possible locations for the Focal Point: the core of the pelvis, the bottom of the heart, and the upper palate. In any given pose, only one Focal Point is active. The active Focal Point is the one nearest the most weight-bearing part of the pose. When the three possible Focal Points are equally weight-bearing, the pelvic Focal Point becomes the active one by default.
• SIDE BODY LONG Lengthening the sides of the ribs so the tops of the shoulders come in line with the base of the neck.
• SHOULDER LOOP One of the seven energy loops within the body. This loop originates in the upper palate and flows backward to the base of the skull and down the back of the body to the bottom of the shoulder blades. When you engage Shoulder Loop, the head moves back slightly and the shoulder blades move down the back. At the bottom of the shoulder blades, the loop begins arcing forward and upward as it draws the bottom tips of the shoulder blades in and upward, toward the heart. The loop continues forward and up to the palate again as it lifts the chest and opens the throat.
• INNER BODY BRIGHT A soulful expansion of feeling and vital energy from within the body that gives the outer form of the body a buoyant fullness. This attitude is created in the first principle, Opening to Grace, in which the fullness of the inner Self is embraced so the inner luster of Spirit naturally shines forth.

To view the complete article visit: http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1330?page=2

yoga= skill + action. Dont just react choose how to respond!

One thing that was reaffirmed for me over the weekend with john friend was the power of yoga. That what we do on that mat can help us make huge shifts in our life. Our practice can help shift our perspective and gives us tools to not just react and fall into our habits/addictions but instead to choose how we will respond. Yoga helps us make these shifts by fostering awareness, intention, and skill.
We all have tendencies. We all are inclined to react to situations in certain ways. Just think how you react when a car cuts you off…Our reactions are our tendencies which become habits that can become addictions. For example, when you get sad your reaction is to have a cigarette. This reaction soon becomes a habit and the more you do this habit the more likely it is it will turn into an addition. If we cultivate awareness we can notice our tendencies. We can begin to observe that when we get sad our tendency is to have a cigarette. But instead of reacting and going with our tendency we can skillfully choose how we want to respond which can reinforce our intention. Maybe skillful intervention includes taking deep breathes, reciting mantra, going on a walk, journaling...
What is important is that we don’t just throw away the habit; instead we shift the energy so we can turn it into something productive that helps up lift us. That helps make us a better person. Our tendencies are based off a reaction that was triggered by an emotion, which was a reaction to some stimuli. Our tendencies are triggered from these reactions, smoking a cigarette was just one example other include alcohol, over eating, under eating, taking out your emotion out on someone else, self pity/hatred, gambling… The main negative emotions that trigger these tendencies include sadness (I am not good enough), anger (you are different then me) and fear (I want to control everything, and I am afraid of loss). The more we cultivate our awareness the more we will be able to notice when something triggers one of these emotions and then we can start to notice what tendesnisies we have based off these emotions. If we can witness these emotions and learn how to be with them we can shift them with our skill and our intention. Yoga gives us the skills to choose how we respond instead of reacting out of instinct, habit, or addition. When we choose how we respond we can shape our life and use our actions to make us a better person, more generous, more patient, more companionate, more stable, more uplifting, more calm, more grounded….

We can start building our ability to notice our inical reactions and tendencies in our yoga asana practice. What happens when you come into a pose that you are awesome at? What happens in a pose you can’t do the full expression of? What happens in warrior two? What happens in pigeon? What happens when you hold a forward fold for a longer time? If we start to notice the feelings that arise in a pose for example anger, fear, sadness. Then we can begin to follow that emotion and see what tendency it trigger, drifting off with thought so you don’t have to be with it, or facing fire with fire and trying to dominate the pose, telling yourself you suck. When we notice this we can instead of reacting out of our tendency we can choose a different way (love, patience acceptance and compassion). One that helps us shift our life for the better. Our yoga practice allows space for “rocking shits in our self and everyone around us” (JF)
Look at your tendencies:
• Where do you tend to physically place yourself in a yoga room?
• Where does your mind tend to go in each pose?
• How do you tend to react when someone cuts you off in traffic?
• How do you tend to feel when someone says something nice about you?
• What is you reaction when someone you love yells at you?

sunday morning practice with John Friend Q&A's (mercury in retrograd, anger, supreme) + asana notes

I woke up Sunday morning feeling so great. Like I wrote in a previous post I completely loved saterday afternoons topic during practice about samskaras, so I woke up reved for more. John again started the morning session with questions, here are a few with some of the main points we discussed.


Q: mercury in retrograde, how do we work with it?
A: In any situation find how to utilize it for your advantage! If you look at the word retrograde it stars with “re” as in “review” or “re-evaluate”. We can use this time when mercury is in retrograde to our advantage by pausing. Pause and go back and look at your stuff. John said when mercury is in retrograde he goes and reads all the emails that were skipped and went unread. When we try to go forward during this time we find our self stuck.
Q: how to deal with other peoples anger
A: In Shiva-shakti tantra there are skillful ways to interact with any kind of energy
We can deal with anger negatively in 3 ways:
1. We put our self down. We feel guilty.
2. We meet fire with fire. We get angry.
3. We get scared and run away

We can also deal with anger positively in 3 ways:
1. We settle and our patient
2. We are generous and loving
3. We help them skillfully address their anger
Q: Shiva Shakti tantra and the 6 attributes of the divine.
A: (I know these attributes and have been talking about them regularly in my classes. I think these six attributes are amazing and we often forget that they exsit with in us!) John said these can be good responses to who is God? What is God? That was really cool and allowed me to connect to these attributes in a different way.
1. Ananda, blissful, joy of radiance
2. Chit, aware, alive, awake, self knowing
3. Svatantrya, ultimate freedom, not bound by anything
4. Spanda, has a pulsation
5. Purnatva, lacking nothing, completely full and perfect
6. Sri, the highest form of goodness, sacred

We can summarize these 6 attribute with chit ananda. Which is also why we practice yoga…To know more and to be happy. I find myself thinking about chit ananda all the time. I recently started going back to school studying therapeutic recreation and am feeling really busy. What I love about school is that the more I learn (about anything) the more I learn about myself. All this learning helps me be happy because I am learning who I really am. Learning more helps me look at my junk, my stuff. This self examination, chit (knowledge) helps me to get rid of habits and stuff that isn’t help lift me up and keep doing the things that do. When we look at our stuff we see where we make mistaks. And we all make mistakes I know I do. We make mistakes because we loss the connection to the highest because we loss the connection to the clear, bright, rocking delight. But once we are aware (chit) we can make changes. (read my previous post about Ma Durga and how Durga can help cleanse us of these cycles and a mantra to help)

In the morning practice “we held space for rocking shifts in our self and everyone around us”

Asana notes:
• Bakasana: get low, flat back at fist then round your back puff into your kidneys. Pelvis should be in line with heart
• In the transition in vinyasas keep the finger pads rooted. Finger tips never come up that is a sign of being lazy on our path
• AMS-> chaturanga arms with knee bet over arm
• Sputa virasana-> push up with arms in ½ urdhva-> come up to camel (head last)
• Urdhva danurasana one hand to front of femur bone, bend the elbow on the floor lightly touch head then push back up
• In urdhva danurasana hands are positioned slightly out

My teaching:
tomorrow/wednesday 540-7 at the yoga center
thruday 12-1 only 4$ at the yoga center
 
I have cut back my teachign schedual so much. It is weird not taeching more and at more locations. I will be starting a private weekly session with waterford highschool faculty. i did this last year and it was such a wonderful experience. When we started everyone was telling me I am not good, I am a begginer, will this be easy... By the end they were rocking cant and asking questions like. Can you tell a differnce in our attitude we are all getting along better as faculty and the with the students. cant wait to continue our work. I am also hoping to sub alot and do privates or group privates. The cut back was to help me focus on school and my own practice.
 
Happy evening
cheers

saturdy afternoon practice (my favorite) with JF at the shop my notes and thoughts

Saturday Afternoon with John Friend at The Shop in PC, UT:
(This was my favorite of the workshops. I love hearing about myths and using these amazing stories as inspiration for practice. I loved talking about samskaras these cycles in us and how we can use our practice on and off the mat to transform these cycles. Turning ash to gold. Just being with John makes me want to work harder, throw more of my tendencies into the fire so I may rise and shine brighter and so I may help others do the same)

Ma Durga (divine mother)
• Myth: There was a buffalo demon who meditated on Shiva. Shiva is very easily pleased and he likes it when you meditate on him. Shiva asked the demon what he wanted, and the demon asked for immortality. Shiva said I can’t give you immortality but I make it so no God or Goddess can harm you. Soon the buffalo demon started to take advantage of this and he was killing and terrorizing people. The gods and goddess got together and they created a new god, Durga. Each of her weapons was gifted to her by various gods: Rudra's trident, Vishnu's discus, Indra's thunderbolt, Brahma's kamandalu, Kuber's Ratnahar, Lakshmi gave a pretty face…Ma Durga went out to find the demon and once the demon saw her he fell in love with her and said “run away with me and lets terrorize the world together” Durga cut off his head.
• Durga helps wake us up to a higher state of consciousness.
• She is goodness in a fierce form, she cleans you of all samskaras.
• She rides on a tiger which represents the shakti that we are riding.
• Durga is connected to Shiva, she is a transformer.
Samskaras: Sam= complete or joined together, kara= action, causing or doing. Samskaras are mental and emotional patterns of things/habits/addictions that hold you back through which we cycle over and over again during our lives.
Samskaras (3 basic categories)
1. Sadness: we don’t see our self as full. We see our self as imperfect (depression, low self esteem, self destruction)
2. Anger/hatred: we see patterns. We notice and create separation, that person has dark skin I don’t like that, that person is tall I like that…This separation creates hatred and anger.
3. Fear: we are afraid of loss, loss of friends, and loss of our life. We think we need to control everything around us (money, time, people)

Durga is a form of Grace that clears away this film on our heart because she slays these lies/cycles inside of us

Ways to invocate Durga:
• Visualization
• Mantra bija sound: Dum
o Mantra: om dum durgahyei namaha

May I shine the light of awareness on these cycles within myself. May I look at my habits and my tendencies. John said that some of these habits may be deep seated but they CAN BE TRANSFORMED.
“I want to be a better person” “I want to change my habits”

When you are faced with your habit and you say NO. Friction happens which creates tapas (fire/heat). This heat can help transform our bad habits. Turning ash to gold.

• Yajna: sacrificing what is blocking your heart.
o That is blocking you from your greatness. You create a lot of heat for Yajna when you hold a pose. Much more then you would if you just repeated it a lot.
• It is in our tendency to react. We need to reprogram our self so we don’t react instead we choose how to
respond!

Pranayama:
• Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing):a way to cleanse and see clearly. Close off the air to the left nostril (with the ring and pinky finger of the right hand) exhale and inhale through the right nostril and repeat.
• Sahita: inhalation/retention/exhalation in increments of 4. 4:16:8
o During retention the fire grows; don’t grip onto the holding instead practice 1st principle, inner body bright. This will build prana inside, like building light. “Feel yourself with light that is transformative”

Refrences:
John Friend
http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/1318

my notes and thoughts from saturday morning int/adv. with John Friend

Here are some of my notes and thoughts from the inter/adv. workshop with John Friend at The Shop in Park City (I am very greatful to Leslie S. who recommened me transcribing my notes so I dont end up with another notebook of messy handwritting)
John Started the class by asking for questions...
Someone asked the question:
“How would you teach abdominals without interrupting the apana vayu (downward moving energy)?"

John responded by saying that most people (especially in the west) consider the core to be the rectus abdominis “six pack”. But really the core is the vertical channel that runs through the core of our body. It is from this subtle vertical channel that our physical body is building upon. This subtle body can be thought of as an etheric double. The core of our body, this energetic channel isn’t just vertical and straight has spanda (pulsation of prana).

We talked about how we don’t have anything in our body that is perfectly straight. Everything has a curve like our spine. Our spine can hold tons of weight if you use good alignment which holds the natural curvature of the spine for example in sirsasana. But if you were to straighten out the spine and then make it weight bearing that would be very unsuccessful. So cool. When John was talking about this I was thinking about how straight is similar to perfect. If you have a curve and you want to make it straight, you want it to move in a way toward perfection. However, john was pointing out that perfection isn’t straight. I feel like in my life I strive for perfection but this reminded me that perfect is never straight we become not perfect but more fully our self when we align with our uniqueness, our curves and the curvature of our spine.

Back to the original question. Most people (especially in the west) think of the core as the rectus abdominis, so they really work that area which makes the front of the belly tight. This tightness will pull the tailbone under. But people also tuck there tailbone under so their booty doesn’t look as bad. When you tuck the tail bone under like this you make your back flat which hurts the ligaments between the discs which can make you more prone to disc problems. Fun Fact: L5 SI is the most commonly injured dist for this reason. This tucked action and flattening of the back causes prevents the energy to go down and ground toward the earth (apana vayu). This disturbs the downward flow of energy and causes energetic and physical constipation, agitates the nervous system, feeling unsure, unconnected, anxious, nervous, ungrounded…

(I was so immpressed that this question guided the whole asana practice. We worked strongly on open to grace and inner spiral and outer spiral so we could feel the grounding quality and the flow of apana vayu while created dimond strength of the core)

“when we line up with life the beauty happiness”

We then talked about where the soul is located body?
How some philosophers say it is in the head, but when you take that view the head becomes superior and everything bellow the head becomes inferior (reminds me of how a lot of people think and act)
John said the soul is located in our pelvic area and that in fact the word sacrum comes from the word sacred. John didn’t say this but I think it is very interesting that the sacrum (5 fused vertebra) resemble a downward facing triangle, a symbol that shows from the divine to the embodied.

We are:

Divinely manifested

Embodiment of the supreme

Breath Awareness:
Focus of the floor of the pelvis. As you inhale notice what happens do you feel an expansion or do you feel a contraction? As you exhale notice what happens, do you feel an expansion or do you feel a contraction?

If the energy is moving “correctly” the inhalation should case the pelvis to expand and the exhalation should cause the pelvis to contract.

Making beauty through asana…SHRI

I was watching one of John Friend’s Yoga Teacher Training DVD’s today and he was talking about reasons we practice yoga. He said one reason to practice yoga is to co-create with the divine, so we may bring more beauty into the world through our artistic expression. I love this! We all have the power to create beauty though our own freedom! We can choose to co-create with the Universal! Through the practice of Anusara yoga, by aligning with the divine and remembering the Universal, we experience delight.

Through the practice of asana, pranayama and remembering the heart we draw into ourselves (muscular energy). Through this drawing in we find our inner luster, we remember our divine nature, and we remember our beauty. In drawing in we see and experience our intrinsic goodness. We have this moment of AHHA, like an inner sigh, as we recognize that we are an expression of this one divine essence! Through this recognition we can shine out (organic energy). We shine out our glorification of this inner recognition. When we come to this place of inner connection and recognition and shine out from this divine space, we add the most beauty possible to the world.

In this DVD, John used a metaphor that I really liked and used in my classes today (at Flow and Kula). John said it is like we are all an instrument and our instrument is unique to each one of us. No one in the world has the same instrument as us. With our own instrument through alignment, breath, and our heart connection we can play the instrument and make the most beautiful noise. A noise that no one else can make, a noise that is truly ours to contribute to the whole. When we practice with heart and alignment we play our instrument as best we can. We contribute this sound to the whole in our asana class making a beautiful orchestra! Not only do we contribute our unique instrument sound to our asana class, but we contribute our beauty to all the yogis worldwide, contributing to the global orchestra. John said that we can also think of ourselves as a whole orchestra and that each part of our body is its own instrument. Through aligning each part of our body correctly and being very aware of all the different body parts/ musical instruments, we contribute to one orchestra. (What a lovely metaphor)

I have been practicing mainly Vinyasa, and Prana Vinyasa Yoga for many years and have recently found Anusara yoga. When I think about this metaphor, especially the one where I am the whole orchestra and each part of my body is its own instrument that contributes to the beautiful sounds of the whole orchestra (my whole self), gets me thinking about how I used to perform asanas. I thought I was getting pretty good. I looked good in the pose, I could hold it for a long time, but now I realize that not every part of my body was involved in the pose. I had trained myself to come into a pose and collapse and just allow my bone structure to hold me up. I wasn’t playing all my instruments in the most beneficial way. Yes, it was easy because I wasn’t engaged. Now when I do yoga, even if I am in a basic class, every pose I come into, and every part of my body, every instrument is contributing someway to the whole.

This is Shri. Shri means “radiance” in Sanskrit, it can also be translated as beauty or that which is inspiring. Shri is essential beauty, something that lifts and opens your heart. Shri is the recognition of our intrinsic goodness. The effervescent light that shines from within when we align with the divine and we experience a AHHH...sensation in our mind body and spirit.

May we align with the divine in our asana poses and in our life so we may choose to contribute more beauty to the world, and with this wonderful life we have been blessed with.

Happy day to you, may we all reflect and connect to our heart on and off the matt.