getting ready for Anusara teacher training with Adam

I have been reviewing and re reading The Anusara Yoga Teacher Training Manual & the Master Immersion pamphlet by Anusara found John Friend as I prepare for Adam Ballengers Anusara Teacher Training Program.

 Every time I look through these two great sources of wisdom I am reminded of why I love yoga so much. These teaching, the philosophy, the attitude all speak so deeply to my heart. I am first and for most a student, but being a student and having this practice transform every aspect of my life makes me want to share what I have learned with others. Being in pain, doubting your self and your worth, and feeling like the world is against you is not fun... I have been there and I still travel back to these feeling, but what I am reminded of when I come back to my mat or back to my breath is that I am not alone, I am worthy, I am full, and that I am in fact connected to this one, as John says, "pulsating ball of bliss".

I took Immersion 1,2, and 3 from Adam last year as well as teacher training 1. During teacher training 1 it was clear to me that I still needed to integrate and learn more fully the material we went over during the immersion before I would be ready to learn how to teach this wonderful life affirming philosophy and alignment techniques to others. Now it has been over a year since I completed the immersions. I have continued to study and practice regularly with Anusara teachers and I do feel like the information has been digested and felt on different levels in my own practice. I now feel ready and very excited to take this next step in my own personal and teaching practice.

1st principle OPEN TO GRACE

Opening to Grace=(setting foundation, inner body bright, outer body soft)

We are inherently whole, complete, and perfect. There is nothing we need to get or get rid of! Everything we need for our own fulfillment we already have.

Grace is: It is always there. It is a force that lives in us, that is us. We all experience it and we are all it. John Friend describes it as a force which reveals to us our true nature.

Open to Grace: This first principle really has three components. The first is setting the foundation. The second is to expand on the inside (“inner body bright”), and this expansion happens from a remembrance of fullness. The third component is a softening of the outer form (“outer body soft”).

Foundation: be steadfast and determined in your foundation. Root down with commitment. Our foundation reflects our intention. So open to grace, and acknowledge where you are. Know that who you is perfect right now you don’t need to add or subtract anything so be strong in knowing your greatness and show that greatness by your foundation. Foundation center of wrist/ankle lines up with second toe/finger. Four corners of food/hand root down. A stance that creates stability and freedom.

Inner Body Bright: After we invoke a remembrance we create a full expansion on the inside. Extend from the pelvis up to the pallet of the moth and up the sides of the neck. Lengthen the side body, and the front and the back of the torso. Expand the circumference of the rib cage in all directions.

Outer Body Soft: When the inner body is bright your outer form can soften onto that fullness (part of outer body soft is melting the heart). Allow the outer body to soften and naturally release without losing the expansion you created with inner body bright.

Contemplate to remember:
Opening to grace starts with a remembrance.
What do you love? What do you value? What do you cherish?
From this inner remembrance we expand, we fill our self with this remembrance and create inner body bright, and with this remembrance we find that the outer layers naturally soften.

Another way to cultivate a remembrance is by bring the attention to the breath. The breath is a reminder of how marvelous and precious life is. As we in inhale we expand and as we exhale keeping the expansion we soften.

To me Grace feels like:
When I think of opening to grace I remember the times when I feel small but very connected to what is bigger than me. For example when I am standing on a mountain peak looking down, when I am looking up at the shining stars and full moon, when I am looking into the vastness of the ocean. In all of these situations even though I feel small, I naturally find my standing firm where I am (foundation) and lifting my whole self and heart up higher (inner body bright). When I stand taller like this I think it is my inner body being proud of who I am and that I am connected to the moon, the stars, the ocean… Around this there is a settling, a “it is all going to be okay” feeling and I relax on the periphery (outer body soft).

Language:
• Soften
• Shri
• Reflect balance
• Stability and freedom
• Inner body bright
• Outer body soft
• Natural expansion from FP
• Expand in all direction
• Side body long
• Be open like the sky
• Soften the skin
• Fullness of self
• Expand here
• Lift
• Regal
• Receive
• Remember your greatness
• Open
• Lengthen
• Remember something you love, that you cherish

References:
Anusara teacher training manual
Anusara master immersion packet
Ellena Brower
Zhenja La Rosa