Thursday, November 5, 2009

Thursday Morning

Well, let's see.

Yesterday was busy- as most Wednesdays are these days. Focus on Form at 9:30, a walk on the greenbelt, lunch with Kelly, filming my online mentor group, prepping for my local mentor group, an inversion practice, Level 2/3 at 6 and local mentor group at 7:30 and then I came home to do upload this weeks online lesson. I finally got to bed around 11:30, happy to hit the hay.

But it was a good day. We did padmasana in Focus on Form and did lot of forward bends and claspy things leading to kurmasana at 6:00. (J-Man with the Inner Spiral breakthroughs made my night as did seeing Noelle back in class after so many moons.)

Here is the 6:00 class sequence. Major emphasis was shin stability with both shin loop and shins in and hip opening with fine tuned and specific applications of inner spiral.

Child's pose
AMS
uttanasana
prasarita padottanasana-C
anjaneyasana
virabhadrasana 1
Clasped parsvakonasana
Parsva utthita hasta padangusthasana
Bird of Paradise sequence
Supta padangusthasana
Maricyasana 1
Uppavistha konasana
Parsva uppavistha konasana
revolved, clasped uttanasana
clasped uttanasana
tittibasana
malasana
bakasana
clasped uttanasana-kurmasana
uttanasana with shoulder stretch
savasana- (Mark it on your calendar folks, we did a full ten minutes! Of course class went 10 mintues late but oh well!)

The cool thing about class as far as teaching it went was that the students were so well trained in basic form that we were able to work in a more refined way than we often are. For instance, so often in class we are dealing with the "How to's of basic form" like getting a wide stance or squaring your hips in Vira1. Last night's group had such good basic form and were so strong that we were able to work on the back leg shin in the standing poses which is a bit more obscure yet very potent in terms of affording access to the hips.

Two funny things happened this week relative to teaching yoga here in Austin:

I told this story in class on Tuesday but someone came to my class on Thursday and said, "You know, I find the fact that you laugh in class a distraction from the potency of your spiritual message." (So I am thinking, "Dude, the laughter is the spiritual message... sigh.)

And then yesterday as Kelly was coming into class he held the door open for someone who thought their class was in the Chakras Room. Upon realizing it was my class they told him, "I can't go to her class this morning. I do not want to have to think. I want to space out and move and sweat." So, I am thinking, "Well, she made the right choice for herself- had she walked through the door, I definitely would have asked her to think and spacing out would not have been an option." Oh well.)

Neither person was being critical (Or at least I did not take it that way.) What made it funny was that they were right on in terms of their observations- we do laugh and explore deep concepts in a light-hearted way and I absolutely consider yoga class a strong call to attention not a time for spacing out so I can hardly argue with what they said. Anyhoo- another day in the life.

And in the world of shameless promotions-
  • Immersion Phase 2 starts this weekend at Breath and Body. Still room so join the fun. www.breathandbodyyoga.com
  • December 9-14 is Phase 3 Immersion in Tucson with me and Darren and a special weekend with Paul Mueller Ortega. www.yogaoasis.com
  • January 8-13 Phase 1 Immersion in Tucson with me and Darren!
  • February 4 begins a new 12-week cycle for Online Mentoring. If you want information about that please email me at christinasell108@gmail.com.
  • February 12-20 is a retreat in Mexico. www.milagroretreats.com
  • March 13-20 is a retreat in Costa Rica. The format on this one has been changed to a conference style approach s check it out. www.innerharmonyretreat.com
  • And for those of you planning ahead and wanting teacher training we start 100-hours of Teacher Training at Breath and Body Yoga in April.

All right then. Have a great day.

1 comment:

Eco Yogini said...

hm, this was interesting. I have only recently (past three months) had direct experience with Anusara yoga and it has definitely been a positive, although different, one.

I usually feel uncomfortable with spirituality in yoga as being extremely serious. Most of the time because my spiritual roots aren't 100% yoga (being Goddessian) and it doesn't seem to foster a sense of openness of acceptance...

I practice with some friends who aren't quite as open to new or different yoga practices yet, and sometimes I find myself getting frustrated with their comments of: "I just ignored all that spiritual-insert thinking part". they are missing so much. at the same time- it's a gradual process for so many, and I was most certainly where they are now four years ago.

When people are ready... :)

Many Blessings