Basic Elements that are in every class of mine:
•Heart Quality: What do you want the students to feel?
•Alignment Focus: What alignment element will you tie in
through all of the poses? That plays a key role in the peak pose? That connects
to the theme/ and heart quality?
•Theme: What
insight or teaching do you want to weave through the class that is life
affirming and can be taken off of the mat? That connects with the heart
quality/ apex?
•Anecdote: How will you personalize the teaching
with connection to your own experience and make it relevant to your students?
•Apex: What
pose are you building too?
•Sequence: How
will you intelligently guide students through the postures?
HEAL!
DON’T STEAL! Theme:
Asteya
•“To
one established in non-stealing, all wealth comes.” —Yoga Sutra 2.37
•Do
not steal from others
•Do
not steal
the moment
from yourself
(distraction), experiencing life as it is. (avoiding messy)
•Do
not steal others reputation by gossiping.
•Do
not steal health from yourself.
•Do
not steal from future generations/ Use only what you need. (plastic bags 10x
out)
Gandhi also saw how important the
practice of ‘non-stealing’ was and considered it one of his '11 Vows', in which
he expanded beyond the physical act of stealing – importantly – that ‘mankind’s greed and craving for
artificial needs are also stealing’.
Asteya
on the yoga mat
Do
you push yourself beyond healthy boundaries because:
A.You
will hurt your body, stealing health from yourself.
B.You
think you
are not
“good enough”.
You intrinsically
good enough no posture decides that. Remember action over form. Let
how you
treat yourself
and others
(ahimsa/ satya)
give you the experience of enough.
C.Experience
yourself open
and accepting of
exactly what
is unfolding in that moment. Taking actions to keep yourself safe and present. Do
not rob yourself of experiencing life as
it is
Having
strong desires brings ‘dukkha’…In each
moment, we have the opportunity to experience a vast array of emotions and
sensations – yet we tend to cling only to those which seem pleasant and
enjoyable. This aspect of clinging a little too tightly to pleasurable
experiences is known as ‘raga’, and although the experience itself may be one
of joy of happiness, the action of trying to hold onto it out of desire
ultimately creates more suffering or ‘dukha’.
Heart
Quality: Self worth/ non-stealing
‘desire or want is the cause for
stealing’ Swami
Sivananda
The root
cause of Asteya = “I’m
not good enough….”
The need to steal essentially arises
because of a lack of faith in ourselves to be able to create what we need by
ourselves
Exercise:
Practice Abundance
Practicing
knowing that we have enough, and we are
enough, is the key to wanting and desiring less, and therefore feeling a lot
more whole and happy within ourselves.
Anecdote
•Missing
the experience of life because I am distracted.
For example: being on my phone instead of being present with my kids. Being so in my head biking I miss the beauty of nature.
•Missing
the experience
of life
because I
want to
avoid the
messy parts
For example avoiding the feelings of life that are not enjoyable like grief and loss. Alignment focus
•Foundation
of
feet:
•Root down through
four corners
of feat
evenly and toe pads
while lifting inner/ outer arch of feet.
•Related to theme: Getting present. How are we stealing from our
self and others?
•Muscle
Energy
•Using the muscles to draw into our
self creating stability
and setting up for inner and outer spiral.
•Related to theme: Getting stable. How can we heal instead of steal?
•Inner
Spiral
•Starting at
the big
toe mound
draws an
energetic EXPANDING spiral up the leg moving the inner
heels, inner knees, inner
thighs and pelvis IN + BACK + WIDE
•Related to theme: Turning deeply in. Where and how can we take action? How can we cultivate self worth?
•Outer
Spiral
•Starting at
the top
waistline
engages the power of the hips drawing an energetic CONTRATING
spiral down
the leg
lengthening the tailbone, narrowing the
sit bones, pressing the thighs forward, widening the knee and ending in the
outer edge of foot.
•Related to theme: Powerfully extend out. How can we act to others to up level healing vs. stealing?
Sequence(IS= Inner Spiral OS= Outer Spiral AMS= Adho Mukha Svanasana EPRK= Eka Pada Rajakapotasana )
Mediation/ Chanting
•Inhale-
how can I heal myself? Exhale- how can I heal with others/ the world?
Warm up
•Surya
Namaskar A 3x
Basic
•Tadasana
extend leg backwards notice natural tendency to outer spiral instead IS
•Tadasana
""- Lunge IS- tadasana balance 3x standing pigeon manual IS
•Table
IS/OS - cat/cow- neutral
•Table
shalabasana
•AMS
leg lift
•High
runners lunge IS- high runners lunge twist [block]
•Virabhadrasana
2
Harder
•Hero
[blanket]
•Virasana
•Parsvottanasana
[blocks] manual IS turn foot to pinky edge- plant foot IS
•Urdhva
Prasarita Eka Padasana - natarajasana
•Urdhva
Prasarita Eka Padasana -
Garudasana
•Dolphin
•Active
EPRK prep
Apex:
•Straight
leg Virabhadrasana 1 prep- bend knee Virabhadrasana 1
•Virabhadrasana
1
Cool down
•Janusirsasana
•Janusirsasana
twist
•Upavistha
Konasana root femurs
•Baddha
konasana
Shavasana/ meditation
Apex: Virabhadrasana 1
Action over form!
•Open
hips
•Asymmetrical standing
poses, pigeon,
Virasana
•Open
shoulders
•Cobra, eagle,
AMS
•An
understanding of how to use MUSCLE ENERGY to protect the knees and allow the
actions of inner/ outer spiral
•Standing poses
•An
understanding of
how to
use INNER
SPIRAL to
square up the hips
•Standing tadasana leg extensions,
asymmetrical standing poses, cobra
•An
understanding of how
to use
OUTER SPIRAL
to protect
low back, root down and drive spine up.
•Asymmetrical standing poses, cobra,
pigeon
