Thursday, June 11, 2009

Thursday Morning

All right, so 5:30 came pretty early this morning but I made it to the Mysore practice again and so that was great. I just stay after savasana and do my seated meditation practice- which is fantastic after the asana practice I must say- and then home to get on with my day. Well, honestly, first to eat. My god, the early wake up and the strong practice and I am starving at 9 in the morning. Usually my appetite doesn't kick in until around 11 but well in this case, I was ready for a real meal when I got home.

Yesterday was a good day of teaching. I taught three very different classes. I really enjoy the Focus on Form class at Castle Hill. With their ample prop supply, and with the intention there to create a class specifically for the "focus on form," I feel kind of like I am returning to my roots. These classes remind me a lot of how I taught in San Marcos and in Prescott before that. I really enjoy breaking the different poses down, explaining things specifically and working on fewer poses in a class. And it is nice teaching a group of people specifically there for such purposes. So fun. we worked on straightening the legs with inner and outer spiral in uttanasana, prasarita paddottanasana, and trikonasana. It went very well.

The 4:30 class at Breath and Body Yoga was a steady, methodical and slow foray to eka pada raja kapotasana. I minimized the flowing aspects of postures and I minimized the standing poses and focused on hips opening and quad stretching poses while also doing work on getting the arm bones back and the upper back to bend. Everyone did so well and many people got their foot for the first time so that was exciting, as it always is. It was cool because now that I have been teaching there for a while I can see that certain pieces are really taking root and coming alive in people's bodies.

At 7:30 I went to teach at Bodhi Yoga and I did something I really rarely do- I asked for requests. Janelle asked for Handstand and Sheldon asked for visvamitrasana. And so we did both. We had a great time- again, less surya namaskar, lots of explanation and lots of work. The students there were so open and receptive and eager to learn and implement my suggestions. Almost everyone ended up in the final pose and so that was quite fun. Kelly surprised me and showed up for class and he said, it was the best class of mine he has been to in a long time. So that was high praise. He said, "You know I really like flow classes but I also like working on fewer poses to just get a chance to really get better at them." So that was a cool thing to hear.

I have been going on as of late about how I like many formats for classes and practice and I really do. And I really see how they all have their pros and cons relative to what you are trying to accomplish. In terms of wanting to get a practice in and getting stronger in a range of basic poses, nothing really beats a good flow class. But in terms of understanding and applying basic technique to advanced postures and really understanding how best to approach new poses safely and effectively, nothing beats taking some time out to study, learn through demo and repetition. (My opinion, obviously.)

Okay- that is the summary of yesterday. Today I have some prep work to do for this weekend's immersion, an acupuncture appointment and then class and practice. Fun stuff.

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