Monday Morning

Well, I am in Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix waiting for Darren to pick me up. We are going to take a trip up to Prescott before our Immersion starts on Wednesday. I am looking forward to seeing everyone up there even if only briefly. The travel this morning was uneventful -thank God, after my last plane journey which, if you remember, was fraught with delays and an unexpected overnight stay in Dallas!

So the weekend in Corpus Christi went well. At one point several people said, "This is really starting to make sense," which made me very happy. The thing is that from my vantage point the system and the teaching methods are very simple, clear and orderly. But I know that from the other side of the experience, the endeavor to teach Anusara Yoga feels daunting and complex. It is a very interesting disparity to be right in the middle of. I find it a fun challenge though- to devise ways to teach people to teach and ways to keep clarifying my explanations and the experiential exercises I offer in order to help people see the possibilities that teaching people in this way has. It is always different with each group to really discover what the group needs in order for the lights to come on.

Anusara Yoga is such an empowering method of yoga to teach and to learn. As teachers we really want our students to understand the yoga they do and to be empowered to approach it intelligently and with great joy. It is a tall order yet, so worth it.

I have a lot on my mind these days about current trends in yoga and what seem to be pros and cons of yoga's ever-increasing popularity. On one hand and for the most part, I am so psyched that more people are availing themselves of the practice, the teachings and the beauty that is yoga. And also, I wonder a lot these days about what it means for yoga to be a household word and to have become such a mainstream endeavor. I think there are some significant trade-offs that seem to be getting made in how it is practiced and taught and in what the yoga student expects and wants. Truth be told, I do not have a politically correct rap to share about it quite yet, so I think I will just have to stop there for today.

Mom and Dad get into Austin today and I am gone. They close on their house tomorrow so by the end of the the day on Tuesday the whole family will live within a few miles of each other. Crazy. We have not all lived that close together since before Anne went to college! I am excited about it and am pretty impressed they were up for a new adventure.

That is kind of it for now I suppoe. I think it is about time for me to hunt down some food while I wait. There is a 2-hour time difference this time of year between Phoenix and Austin and my belly is growling like it is still in Austin. As Winnie-the-Pooh might say, "There is a rumbly in my tumbly. So perhaps this bear should find some honey..." (or a veggie burrito as this particular bear likes Mexican food.)