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.

heart based theme mindset

For the past two weeks in the mentorship program Christina Sell has been teaching us how to cultivate heart based themes going from the universal to the personal, or the personal to the universal. She encourages us to take a challenge in our life, any of our experiences, definitions of words, and poems to help us take a big idea (universal) and make it more relatable to our students (personal). She said that what is so great about Anusara is that it is a philosophy of totality. So really anything!!! can be turned into a heart based theme if you keep looking. She said because it is a system of totality anything can lead you back to the heart even the deepest sadness.

At first when I learned how I could use all these different aspects of my life to develop a heart based theme I felt overwhelmed. But now I feel like part of my brain or maybe it is my heart is getting rewired toward “heart based theme”. Now multiple times throughout the day something will happen and I naturally go “ah ha this could be a theme”. This is really cool because it reminds me of the universal, of the non-dual life affirming philosophy of Anusara yoga. I then run it through the 5 principles thinking how I could relate that experience to each principle. It makes me wish I had more classes to teach. I feel like themes are pouring out of me and I don’t want them to go to waste.

Last night I was with a good friend and he told me that mosquitoes when they bite you they also inject an anticoagulant/lubricator as part of their saliva. This keeps the blood moving and you don’t die. And that the bump and the itching sensation we get from mosquito bites aren’t actually from the bite but from them injecting there saliva into us in order to save us. He told me that and I thought, this could possibly be a theme. Haha haven’t thought the theme through and as I write this I don’t know how accurate it is that this injection it to stop us from dying, but thought it was funny that this random fact(?) he told me made me think heart based theme and remember my inner divinity! Leslie Salmon told me when she did this mentorship program with Christina Sell she felt like she had been given the keys to the kingdom. I feel like I have been given a key to look at everything as a reminder of Spirit and of the heart.

Wednesday = fun day

Wednesday was a crazy day! I got a call from Matt Newman and was invited to a yoga class at his house. I was so excited. The problem was that I was to teach a class at the same time at The Yoga Center. I tried very hard to find a sub but I could not. I contacted the studio owner and I thought I would cancel my class so I could expand as a student and a teacher by attending Matts private yoga class.

After school I went and taught a class at Waterford. I teach weekly classes at Waterford for their faculty 345-445. This is one of my favorite classes. Such wonderful people and so open to whatever I offer. I have been working with this group for over a year and I truly feel that they have helped me grow into the teacher I am now. When I arrived I was a little late so I ran into the building leaving my notebook behind. I have a notebook where I outline the idea of the class along with the theme. I normally improvise off of the outline but I always, always bring it with me. It is like my saftey blanket as a yoga teacher. However today I ran into class without it. As I was running and realized I forgot my book I thought about recently certified Anusara teacher Maria Christina. She has been blogging about how she has stopped overly planning her class and instead is being present and is offering what is wanted. I thought I should do that today. When I entered the class I asked how people were doing. A few people said they had “homework neck” i.e. their neck hurt because they have been looking down to grade papers. One student came up to me and asked me to look at her chaturanga because her shoulders where hurting after a class she took previously that week. And another student asked me to go over keeping the shoulders integrated when reaching up. She said “there must be something wrong with me”. After receiving this information I thought shoulder loop, we will work on shoulder loop. This was totaly different then I planned. I don’t even know how I thought up the poses and the order but they all worked so well. We did partner work. It was so great. There were many ah ha moments for many of the students. Each student talked to me after class and expressed how much they enjoyed the class. One woman said I need this every class. It was really moving and helped me realize that I don’t need to overly plan and memorize the class I want to teach. That I have the knowledge and wisdom in me. I have practiced and studied a lot and that I can spontaneously teach what is needed in that moment.

After the class I also decided (I actually decided as I was running to Waterford) that I was going to teach my class at the yoga center. I knew Leslie (the studio owner) would be fine if I canceled. She is a wonderful woman and really wants everyone, her teachers included, to grow as yoga students. However I wanted to be responsible and dependable although I did have a feeling like no one would show up because my two regular students both told me they would be missing today. However I had four students show up. Three of which were new to me. Everyone loved the class, I think. Two of the new students where a couple, they had come to two other classes at the yoga center that week. The women had a hurt back and read my bio and thought I would be perfect. Though out class we had lots of fun, lots of laughs, after class the women pulled me aside and said this is what she had been looking for. That she REALLY APPRIACETED my personality. What a tremendous compliment. My heart melted.

GREAT DAY. TEACHING AND LIVING.

I also got a new hula hoop from my new friend Sara Bear Hogan! She is so wonderful. I love my new hoop. The colors are magnificent! It is light I can do many tricks I couldn’t do before. And it is collapsible. Please check her out. http://hoopology.weebly.com/

Morning Class with Wayne Belles

I am one happy lady. I just got back from taking lovely Anusara certified teacher Wayne Belles at The Yoga Center (4689 S. Holladay Blvd). This is a new weekly class he will be offering! I have a lot of papers to write but I want to quickly share what I learned today.

Wayne started class by talking about transformation. He said if we even look at how our poses have transformed since our first Anusara class. I really enjoyed it when he said that it takes a long time to transform some of our poses but that is what is so great. If we learned the poses and the refinements quickly we wouldn’t learn as much. He also said toward the end of the class that it is when we plateau in our practice, when the fireworks stop and the honeymoon stage is over. That is when the real practice begins. How inspiring. When we sat in the beginning he said notice the breath and I loved this. He said when all those wonderful thoughts come into our mind about our life simply bring your awareness back to the breath. When I first started practicing I thought the thoughts and the chatter in the mind that needed to be overcome and dominated in order for us to experience the stillness (a classical yoga view) now I know that I don’t need to overpower then and shut them off but I can just be with them. But I loved Wayne’s description that they are good. Just like we are intrinsically good. But we can still shift our attention back to the pauses in the breath.

Highlights that are helping me transform my practice and life:

• Uttanasana: we worked on knowing when we are hyper extending and when we are not. I always thought I hyper extended in uttanasana so I kept a slight bend in my knees. Today we learned a trick where if we feel the behind our knees, the eye of the knee. It should feel soft, if we hyper extend the back of the knee becomes very hard.
• AMS: I have been feeling like my arms are wonky in down dog. Remember the base of the arm has an inner rotation to it and the upper arm has an outer rotation and the eyes of the elbows should gaze “softly” at each other.
• AMK: handstand work. How fun, thanks to Leslie mentioning she wants to hope up. I have been working alot on handstand but I have been feeling a little blocked with my feet. I had been flexing them really working the pinky toe edges back. Wayne reminded me that I want to floint them. Floint = Barbie feet. Not pointed but not flexed, pinky toes still pulling back.
• Urdhva Danurasana: the first urdhva we did Wayne yelled Kim arm bones back. I tried I thought I was doing it. When I came down Leslie (The Yoga Center owner, and soon to be certified) mentioned that I need to extend my heart more to the front of the room. I went up again and Leslie applied resistance to my legs so I could actively reach my heart forward and she pulled my shins in the other direction. How amazing. I tried to pull my arm bones back and my heart forward. It definitely felt different more open. Then Wayne came over and pulled my more into shoulder loop. How amazing I was working with two lovely teachers and I felt so wonderful in urdhva. Then I got to try it again on my own. Not the same bliss is being supported by two others but feeling better.

Wonderful class , looking forward to my Tuesday mornings. Come join me J

Papers to write

Kim

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.

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.