thanksgiving eve class

I taught a class at the yoga center on thanksgiving eve.

I like thanksgiving because it is a day where we are consciously grateful for the many blessing we having and the many teachers, friends, family and strangers who share compassion with us and support us. I think we should be grateful everyday for all that we have but thanksgiving is a nice day to come together and consciously acknowledge the beautiful souls and many blessings in our life.

The Anusara philosophy teaches us purna. Purna is one of the six attributes of the Absolute and means fullness or perfect completeness. Meaning that the universe is perfectly full it has everything it needs and each one of us is perfectly full. We have everything we need to be happy and content. We are full of beauty, blessing and supportive loving teacher, friends, and family.

When we acknowledge how full we are of blessing and have gratitude for all that we have we can express more generosity and love to each other and our self.

I handed out paper and pens to the students at the beginning of class and gave them all a moment to write a few things that they are grateful for and had them put it under their mats. I encouraged them to bring this purna, this fullness into their asanas by bringing to mind what they are thankful for maybe even imagine people’s faces or whatever it is that makes them feel full inside. This is what I love about asana. It isn’t just a pose we are holding with good alignment but it is the bhava, the heart quality or feeling that we cultivate.

The class had a wonderful energy to it. Some people even had a few tears.
I also started and ended the practice with a reiki inspired meditation that I saw Elena Brower do on yogaglo where you rub your hands together creating heat and then place the hands gently over closed eyes allowing the heat of the hands to help the eye balls and eye lids soften. I even used the quote she used from Dr. Douglas Brooks “We don’t live with the way the world is, we live with the way we see the world”. I encouraged students to choose a soft loving gaze this holiday season full of compassion and generosity instead of dry stressed out not blinking stare full of to do list and potential family drama.

I am thankful for my loving husband who makes me smile everyday! I am thankful for my many teachers whom I am inspired by and learn so much from. I am thankful for my students who laugh with me and help me grow as a teacher. I am thankful for my friends and family who give me so much love and support. I am thankful for the beauty of the world and the kindness of stranger. I am thankful for myself, for wanting to see how I can grow so I can show up the fullest (purna) in all my relationships.

Letter of Reference for kim achelis :)

I am in the process of putting a portfolio together that will hopefully help me get more teaching jobs and workshops opportunities. I wrote my dear teacher and friend Nathan Hayes whom I studied with in Washington. His response made me laugh a little, cry a little and smile a lot!  Nathan has been an enormous part of my practice my time spent with him in multiple trainings and teacher trainings helped transform my personal practice (asana, pranayama, meditation). I can’t wait to come back to Washington to take more lovely classes with him

To Whom It May Concern:
I have known Kim Achelis for the last several years, as a student, substitute teacher, and workshop presenter at our yoga studio in Olympia, WA.

Kim’s lives, breaths and exudes yoga. Her adeptness in the practice of asana, her understanding of the depths of its rich tradition, the boldness, creativity, humor, big-heartedness and insights she displays, on and off the yoga mat, are truly remarkable and an inspiration for others.

In the circles of yoga practitioners, Kim is a natural leader. I have personally watched many students at our studio gravitate in her direction enthusiastically, wanting to learn from her and share in her knowledge of yoga and her joy for life.

I also have had the opportunity to observe Kim teaching at the studio, and can say, without reservation, that she would be an asset in most any setting where yoga is taught. She makes things fresh and fun for the students, in a natural and compelling manner, that both inspires and appropriately challenges students. She is clear in her instructions, engaging and connecting with them, and offers balanced, safe, sensible sequences that allow students to experience the extra-ordinary.

Many students at the studio who have taken a class with Kim have come to me and raved about her style of teaching.

In my opinion, Kim’s strengths as a yoga teacher are: 1) the depth of her own personal practice and her knowledge of its tradition, 2) her natural enthusiasm and creativity, 3) her inner drive to continue to evolve as a teacher and person, and 4) the humility and genuineness of her heart.

Dated: Nov 2010
Nathan Hayes, Director
Living Spirit Yoga

assignment #1 Heart Based Theme

I am just starting the mentorship program with Christina Sell. I am so excited. Here are some of my thoughts and theme ideas from our first assignment which was to build a theme going from the Personal to the Universal and then apply that one theme to each of the UPA's or to some aspect of each of the UPA's.
What is a challenge you have faced in the last year?
Over the last year I have struggled with what I want to do in my life. I felt tremendous pressure from my family and friends that I should be going school, but what I was studying no longer felt right to me. I didn’t feel like the direction my life was going was where I wanted it to go.

What lessons did I learn from this challenge?
I learned and hope I continue to learn is to come back to my heart and reflect on the actions I am taking, and on the path I am on to make sure that it is making me happy and is making the relationships I am in more fullfilling. (other lessons I learned: it wasn’t my family and friends that were putting pressure on me but I was creating it and adding more stress to an already intense situation. I learned I need to be honest with myself, do what makes me happy but also surrender to the flow of Grace.)

How does this tie into the Anusara Yoga philosophy?
The Anusara Yoga Philosophy teaches us that one of the purposes of life is to have revelations of our intrinsic goodness and a sense of unity with each other, the world and Spirit. Following our heart leads to these revelations.

Tie it into Chit (consciousness) and Ananda (bliss)?
When we know what’s in our heart and what makes us happy we can express more delight, courage and joy.
Apply the theme to the UPA’s:
1st principle Open to Grace: Focus on foundation of hands and feet. When we use good foundation with care and intention we protect the body and put more meaning into our practice. We also do this as we decide what we want our life to look like and what path we want to take. If we use care and continue to check back in with our foundation, actions and where we are on our path we can maintain the integrity and the intention of our practice and our life. (Class type ideas: backbends)

2nd principle Muscular Energy: Focus on the midline. When we are thinking about what makes us happy it is important that we draw into our self, that we come into the core of our body. Muscular energy also creates strength and it requires a lot of strength to create change in your life if you are no longer happy, and it also requires strength to continue on a path that your heart wants. Muscular Energy also creates steadfastness and a commitment to doing the work necessary so to create the kind of life you want (Class type idea: handstand work and inversions)

3rd principle Expanding Spiral: Focus on the inner thighs going in, back, apart and wide. When we really listen to the heart and when we look inside of our self we expand into our self and into our potential. When we choose to take a path and act in ways that reflect the heart we touch our self, our relationships, and the world in a deep way. This looking within, this inner widening allows to come into our self and really contemplate what we want, taking in all the possibilities. It is the expanding spiral so we are looking at all the options possible. (Class type idea: hip openers)

4th principle Contracting Spiral: Focus on scooping the tailbone and the lift of the low belly. When it comes to following a path that makes us happy we need to be specific and steadfast. You have to be specific and have a strength in your decision. What exactly makes you happy? How specific can you get? What activities can you do to allow you to experience more happiness? It is the contracting spiral it is getting specific and doing the action. When we scoop the tail bone under we create stability and engage the core. You could say being specific and doing it takes guts (haha) (Class type ideas standing poses and forward folds)

5th principle Organic Energy: focal point, root to rise. We need to come into our self and see what makes us happy and we have to have integrity and use effort, but there also needs to be a surrendering and a celebrating. An attitude of “I have done all that I can and now I am going to enjoy the ride and shine.” This surrounding takes the energy from the focal point into the foundation creating a strong base (root) and then from this base, from all this work we have done through the other UPA’s we extend from the base and raise high to the sky (rise) in a celebration of the heart. (Class type idea: backbends or inversions)

bday and xmas wish list

Every year I compile a wish list of books. Some friends and family have been asking so I thought this would be a good place to list them :)

Art and Fear: Observations on the perils and rewards of artmaking by David Bayles & Ted Orland
Letters to a young poet by Rainer Maria Rilke's
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott's
The Splendor of Recognition. Swami Shantananda's translation on Kshemaraja's
Refining the Breath by Doug Keller
The Anusara Syllabi Poster
The Heart of Meditation by Sally Kempton.
John Grimes' A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
The untethered soul: the journey beyond yourself By Michael Singer
Shadows on the path by abdi assadi
The Actor By Hugo Cory
Be love now by Ram Dass

I am interesting...thats what I was told today

Today I taught a yoga hour at the yoga center. I love that the yoga center offers this yoga hour. It is so affordable. Even at studios that offer pay what you can, I never would pay only four dollars so I love that this class is only four dollars. Recently more than ever I hear that the price of yoga classes is stopping people from starting or continuing their practice. This four dollar yoga hour allows everyone the opportunity to practice yoga without feeling guilty for spending too much money.


Today in class there was a man who was new to me. He was older and he started to talk about how much he loved inversions because he heard that it turns the off switch to the brain. I told him that inversions are also cardiovascular. They actually strengthen the hard and tone the heart because the heart has to pump hard to get the blood all the way up to the feet. Inversions also bath the brain in blood while oxygenating it.

We then had are asana practice which was really fun. It was a very big range of students and I felt like my teaching style slightly changed to get on to the students level. I am a very passionate and fiery teacher and I feel like that comes out a lot when I teach. Today I felt much more grounded and calmer teacher and I think it was well received by the students. Of course I still was light hearted as I taught and we shared some good laughs.

At the end of the class as the students were rolling up their mats this man announced that he had a riddle. He said “what is the difference between Kim (me) and a rubber band?”…..”Nothing” he said. I replied with a big smile…”a heart, hair, toes….I can think of lots of differences between me and a rubber band”. After he put his props away he came up to me and looked into my eyes and thanked me for learning all that I have learned and for taking the time and putting effort into sharing it with the students and him. As he said these words I felt my inner body get brighter and my heart open more fully. What wonderful words to hear as a teacher and a student passionate about yoga. Then a few minutes later as he was leaving he looked at me again with those genuine eyes, and he said “you are very very interesting”. I paused not knowing what to say and then replied “err I’d rather be interesting then boring”. He continued to look at me began to shake his head and said “very very very interesting” walked down the stairs I hollered ‘have a beautiful day” and he was gone.

What an interesting experience.

The Loops

One of the refinements we use in Anusara yoga has to do with loops. The loops are a series of specific, interconnected trajectories of energy in our bodies starting with the feel and going all the way up to the skull. I like to think of them as bike gears that intersect and move in opposing directions from one another.

The seven pairs of Loops are:

Ankle
starts at the base of the shinbone just above the ankle. It moves down the back of the heel,forward along the bottom of the foot, then back up through the center of the arch to the front of shin base.

Shin
starts at the base of the shinbone just above the ankle. It moves up the back of the calf muscle to the top of the shins just below the knee, forward through the top of the shin, then down the front of the shin back to the base of the shin.

Thigh
starts at the top of thighbone in the core of the pelvis (pelvic Focal Point). It moves down the back of the leg to the top of the calf muscle, forward through the top of the shin, and then up the front of the leg through the lower abdomen back to the Focal Point.

Pelvic
starts in the core of the abdomen in line with the middle of the lumbar and a place just below the navel. It moves down from the middle of the lumbar to the middle of the buttocks in line the bottom of the sacrum, forward through the floor of the pelvis (pelvic Focal Point) to the top of the pubic bone, then up the lower abdomen to just below the navel. The Pelvic Loop has the same direction of rotation as the Thigh Loop. However, they have opposite effects on the alignment of the body. The Thigh Loop moves the top of the thighs backward, while the Pelvic Loop moves the top of the thighs forward.

Kidney
starts in the core of the abdomen in line with the middle of the lumbar and a place just below the navel. It moves up the back from just below the kidneys to the bottom of the shoulder blades, forward through the top of the diaphragm (heart Focal Point) to the base of the sternum, then down the solar plexus to just below the navel.

Shoulder
starts at the center of the upper palate (skull Focal Point). It moves down the back of the neck and the upper back to the bottom of the shoulder blades, forward through the bottom of the heart and the top of the diaphragm, then up the chest and throat from the base of the sternum to the upper palate.

Skull
starts at the center of 7. the upper palate (skull Focal Point). It moves back and up along the back of the skull, forward over the top of the head, then down the face back to the upper palate. The Loops interconnect with each other and so influence each other as they are independently activated. For instance, as you Outer Spiral the legs the Pelvic Loop is activated, which in turn will help to increase the Kidney Loop.

As we get older our body through bad alignment starts to go against the loops. Coroners used to identify the age of a dead person by looking at these loops and the more they were out of alignment the older they are. After learning about these loops it is very interesting to people watch. I am a student and one of my professors has the loops way out of balance I want to go to go align he all class.

Reference:
Anusara Teacher Training Manual
Anusara Master Immersion
Awesome loop photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharonfrost/26593683/

Focus on shoulder loop and inversions

The main theme of the class was chit ananda. The reason we or at least I practice is to learn more about myself. In this learning about myself I see what my strengths are and what my weaknesses are. I see where I need to make a shift in my life with regard to my habits, behaviors, people and situations. These shifts allow me to align more fully with the flow of life and as a result I experience more happiness and bliss.


Shoulder loop
We tend to roll our shoulders either forward and down or forward and up. Try this. You’ll notice your heart sinks away as the shoulder blades disconnect from the back of the heart. Keeping this position take your hands to your trapezius and feel them...Do they feel hard? Engaged? Yes they probably do. When we hold our shoulderes in this position we are actually cultivating more stress, pain, and tension in our neck, head, and life. When we hold our shoulders like this we also strengthen our trapezius which I also call the “disconnect from heart muscle” because the traps pull the tips of the shoulder blades away from the neck.

This is the chit part of chit ananda. We learn about our self “oh yeah. I do hold my shoulders in this position a lot and that explains why my neck always hurts and I have pounding headaches”

Then we apply the knowledge. Now lengthen the side body, draw the shoulder blades up to your ears take the head of the arm bones straight back and slide the tips of the shoulder blades toward the heart. The tips of the shoulder blades actually assist in curling the heart more open. Do this and feel your trapezius muscles again. Wow! They aren’t engaging, the neck feels long and lengthened. How cool. When we do this we are working and strengthening the rhomboid muscles which I also call the “connect to the heart muscle”.

This is where the ananda comes in. Ananda is bliss. SO from learning how to align the physical body in a way that doesn’t cultivate pain leads to us being happier...CHIT ANANDA!

We did lots of fun little exercises that helped the students feel this plugging into the heart and using the rhomboid muscles we also did this in contrast of unplugging so the students could feel and compare the difference. I really enjoy being able to teach a skill with a few simple steps in multiple poses like tadasana, uttanasana, plank, chaturanga, AMS, AMK... I saw the light bulb go on in many of the student’s heads.

Inversions
Inversions are any position where the heart is over the head. Really common inversions that are in just about every asana class include Down Dog and Standing Forward Bend. More advanced inversions include handstand, forearm balance, headstand, and some backbends. I really enjoy inversions because they allow me to find another perspective and another vantage point. When I feel stuck in my life, or have a problem, or just need more clarity I find holding some of these inversions for a longer period of time to be very beneficial. After inversions I feel more clear, grounded and more ready to respond appropriately to the situation that life hands me at any given moment.