Thursday Night

I had hoped to type up a scintillating description of "working with Carrying angles in back bending postures" for my blog entry but I may have to table the entry for another day or so. I got a ton of emails about it, which was great. So many that I thought the best place to talk about it is here but it will take a bit more time than I have to devote to a blog entry this evening.

Wednesday was a great night of classes in San Marcos. We cancelled our Monday night classes due to the increase in my travelling schedule and Kelly starting school on Monday nights. There is really just no one here to teach it. But we still have Wednesday night happening and the Level 2/3 did lots of upside down work. They made their first foray into handstand, we did headstand and pinca and shoulderstand last night. And some great work in danurasana. The Level 1/2 class has made great strides under Kelly's guidance while I have been gone. Supta Padangusthasana 2 was so impressive, almost everyone had their toes down to the floor!. Love it!

I spent 2 hours this morning in the dentist's chair today having my tooth drilled on for a new crown. Not my favorite way to spend a morning, let me just put it out there. It actually left me feeling a bit rattled all day and a bit out of sorts.

My classes in Austin tonight were super fun. I had been really looking forward to seeing a bunch of folks tonight but so many people were not there. It was a bit odd. The advanced class has never been that small even when we first started it. Several people said that the schedule did not list me being there, which is too bad. But anyway, I loved seeing the people who were there and I think we covered some awesome material in both classes. I, as always, wished we had more time in the advanced class because just as we were really getting into the meat of things with the carrying angles in back bends we had to stop because time was up. Oh well, more for later. And the Hatha class was nice and intimate and so people asked great questions made super refinements and I really had a good time teaching.

My joke was that it was an all time low in the 4:30 class because I had two people walk out within the first 10 minutes! I was not even being intense yet. I was not even warmed up! We had only done 5 poses! Anyway- it was kind of funny. People walk out. It happens. It actually hasn't happened to me in a long time but that class has a certain flavor and if you do not want that flavor, it really is best to leave, I suppose.

I enjoyed being back in Austin teaching and I had a lovely chat with Tabatha (My one double dipper tonight) and Pamela and Jess G. I got some great support from the gang about my schedule I am attempting to sort out- which was awesome.

All week I worked with the theme of Essential Goodness. It is the first of the six attributes of The Absolute that John outlines in our Anusara Yoga philosophy. It is a lovely theme in my opinion because the whole of Anusara Yoga philosophy kind of boils down to this central idea. That there is a Flow of Grace and That Flow is Essentially Good. We are part of That Flow. Therefore, we, too, are Essentially Good. Furthermore, through yoga, we can discover and express That Goodness. That is it. Really. You can study the Gita, The Sutras, Kashmir Shaivism and the rest of it. Really, you can and I think you should. But when it gets down to it- this is our philosophy. There is fundamentally Good Pulse to EVERYTHING and we can tap into that Goodness and learn to be established there. To me, this is a very inspiring thing to consider. And it is never boring. (I mean, really, what are you going to say? "Blah, blah, blah, yeah, yeah, yeah... I wish she would stop talking about how good we are...I am so tired of considering my essential worthiness..." I don't think so.)

All right then. I get on a plane at 7:30 am to go to Idaho to teach this weekend. Perhaps in an airport along the way I will get to the carrying angle post. Be patient. It is coming. Now, I have to go pack.