Advanced Intensive Day One

Day One of the Advanced Intensive is quickly drawing to a close. I am making a cup of tea and looking forward to resting. I got a chance to talk to John a little about my book. I have given him the first tow sections I have completed in rough draft and he liked it so far. He and I will talk more as the week goes on but he said good things about it and was very supportive, which is good because the plan is for him to publish it. Great that his intital feedback was positive. He had some good suggestions about how to improve it and so that is awesome also.

The day was fun. John's teaching was strong but softer and deeper than it has been in other years. Alot less pushing and more focused on the inner experiennce which is great. I got some insight about going from dwipada viaparita dandasana back to sirsasana and so that was good. I need to practice it some more but I have some hope for it that I have not had in the past.

After the afternoon session Noah and I went out to dinner and schemed about some projects to work on together in '09 so that was fun. Look forward to the two of teaming up together on a feew weekends. Maybe some Teacher Training seminars as well.

And now a few scenes from the day:

Here is Darren introducing John.

Closer up. Darren and John.
My friend, Noah.
My new friend Todd from Berlin, formally from Los Angeles.
My friend Jordan Bloom. (he is like 7 feet tall.)
Meg and I were practicing next to one another and we thought it was worthy of note that over a hundred people were in the room doing supta virasana with no props. (However, that woman in the purple pants really needs some! If she were in my class I would so be bringing her a blanket or two!)

This kind of thing is really a sight to see at any advanced intensive. The same hundred or more people are now all doing eka pada raja kapotasana 1. No instructions, no major build up, no "get a strap and get a partner." Just "Okay now, let's do eka pada rajakapotasana- please grab your foot." Crazy. This is just not something you see every day in the average yoga class. Oh, right- its the Anusara Yoga Advanced Intensive...that explains it!

All right- tomorrow I will write more. For now, I must tend to some other things.