Tuesday Night

Well, last night was great fun. Both the 4:30 and 6:00 class were well attended and both groups were attentive, skillful and hard working. I talked a little about resolutions in both classes. Interestingly enough, very few people in either class had made any. I had lots of double dippers but I forgot to write their names down... Terry, Susan, Kelly, Anne, Mike, Catherine, Jesse, Meg, and a few other I cannot quite recall...

At 4:30 the theme went from resolutions to support. The thing I really love about New Year's is it is a time when many people (At least in theory, not evidenced by my informal survey, however.) are making resolutions. It reminds me of this idea we talk about a lot in yoga that has to do with using the power of the group and the community to help you in your practice. There is this whole idea that you really cannot do the yogic work alone, nor are you intended to. (yes, a case can also be made that no one can do your work for you and so forth and this is also true.) For instance, amongst those who worship Shiva as the Absolute, there is a tradition of chanting Om namah shivayah at certain times of the month. So wherever you live you know you, when you are doing this at the same time as thousands of other people. The idea is that your efforts get pooled together with everyone else who is doing the practice and therefore magnified and the energy available for transformation is exponentially increased.

So really, New Years is kind of like that. But in a lot of ways, so is every yoga class. We can come together to utilize the group's energy, focus and commitment to strengthen ours. And while we are drawing on other people they, in turn, are drawing on us. It is a cool thing to consider. This is why I LOVE group practice. (And you can join us today at 2-4:30 at The Love Shack for the New year's practice....) So anyway- 4:30 all of that went into support as the theme. We worked with muscle energy and did parsvakonasana, trikonasana, parsva uthitta hasta padangusthasana, anantasana and variations, vasisthasana and variations and supta padangusthasana. Fun times.

At 6:00 I had a very tame back bending sequence planned that covered all the basics one needs to do urdhva danuarasana. But then I got going and we were off the sequence (in my mind) by the end of Surya Namaskar and we went into eka pada rajakapotasana back bends. So many people touched their toes for the first time it was just really incredible. I love the look someone gets on their face when they feel their own toe behind their head! People worked so hard and so willingly followed my directions and the result was some really great breakthroughs. I used the theme of the hero's journey and how one must be resolute (link to resolutions!) to keep the hero's heart open no matter what is happening, etc. So we used resolute strength in the legs (muscle energy) to lift the warrior's heart (inner body bright) and bring it into its expression. (Shoulder loop) Again, fun times.

All right then, lots to do before the practice.