So Full

We continued wok n the theme of fullness and considerations of aparigraha in Wednesday night's class at San Marcos School of Yoga. The Levels 1&2 class worked on basic back bending adding the inner spiral and pelvic loop to the work of the shoulder principles. People worked quite hard and improved a lot, although it might not have been so crowd-pleasing! The Beginning class learned Organic Energy and applied it to a variety of poses like urdhva hastasana, Adho mukha svanasana, supta padangusthasana, vriksasana,parsvakonasana and trikonasana. Something was in the planets on Wednesday night as a lot of people were absent.

Whatever planetary disturbance had people missing on Wednesday was cleared up by Thursday night's classes in Austin. We had a super fun group at 4:30 doing back bends and exploring the principles upside and in motion. We are setting the stage with urdhva danurasaan to learn how to go from handstand to urdhva dnaruasana, from standing to urdva danurasana and from headstand to urdva danuarasana and then back up to standing from urdhva danurasana. So even though we did not do all of those variations yesterday, that is where all of those exercises are going. And what full-hearted efforts people brought.

And I promise that next week we will bend forward so do not miss it. Jenny and Victoria teased me that I they cannot ever remember me teaching a forward bend class. And well, the truth of it is that in advanced I usually combine the arm balances with the forward bends and the deep hip openers, making the forward bending a little obscured. I figure you can practice janu sirsasana in any class but how often do you try to put your leg behind your head, you know? Anyway-

The 6:00 hatha class was full as well with lots of familiar faces which made it easy for me to give some deeper, detailed instructions. We worked on opening the sides of the trunk and on incorporating inner and outer spiral into the standing poses and then took that into some seated floor postures like parivritta janu sirsana variations and then krouncasana. We will keep applying all that toward surya yantrasana and some arm balances as time goes by and as hamstrings open!

The 7:30 class had a lot of new folks in it and so we reviewed some of the principles for cobra. Esther and Jennifer are both observing/assisting in that class and so the students got lots of help and also got some Teacher Training lessons. What was awesome was the sense of humor everyone brought to that class. It was really fun and funny. I am really hoping that we will be able to build on some of the regular attendance (Like Ann, Brian, Mark) in that class so we can begin to build on previous lessons like we are at 4:30 and 6:00.

And Susan, Mike and Susan, Jesse, and Skye all double-dipped and came at 4:30 and 6:00. What fun.

One of the things I love about Anusara Yoga is that we teach with heart-based themes. When I first realized I was going to "have"to do this to get certified I was a bit resistant to the idea, to say the least. But as time goes by I understand that these virtues we speak of and that we seek to bring to life in asana are so important to my life as a yoga teacher and as a person. Speaking to these themes is a huge transformational opportunity. Talking about Perfect Fullness all of this week has tuned me into the perfect fullness that is in my life and in my heart in a way that teaching nine classes of just straight alignment would not. I love that. This is called Matrika Shakti- The Power of the Word.

As much as I love the nitty-gritty of physical alignment and I absolutely believe that these virtues are present in practice whether we talk about them or not, when we do talk about them something happens. They grow brighter, more conscious within us. The implicit becomes the explicit and we can participate with these qualities in ways that are skillful and life-affirming. What a gift. What a job.