Wednesday Night

ANNOUNCEMENT--

 GROUP PRACTICE ON CHRISTMAS EVE. 

CASLTE HILL FITNESS CENTER. CHAKRAS ROOM.

 11:00am-1:00 pm. 

$15. 

PLEASE COME!

So, now that the commercial is over, let's see. what to say...

 I have a had a busy few days and so I am just now sitting down to write a few notes.

Monday morning after I wrote on my blog, I practiced asana. I spent the early afternoon working on  my computer and catching up on things with Sam. Then I met up with Anne for Peggy's Advanced Class. After that I met Kelly for a walk on the greenbelt.

Tuesday morning I spent on the computer which was awesome. I mean, time at the computer is not exactly my idea of awesome but it was awesome because I actually cleared out two email mailboxes! So for a brief moment in time, both inboxes were down to zero. Of course, now they have some things accumulating but nothing too pressing. I went to the clinic to have acupuncture while Kelly was on duty there which was great and helped me a lot. After that,  Mom and Dad came over lunch- I made black bean soup, which I must say was fantastic.( I have one of the best black bean soup recipes ever, thanks to Shelley up in Vancouver.  But I digress.) Later in the afternoon, I met up with Gioconda, Anne, and Sam for a lovely back bend practice. We worked with lots of chair back bends and a sequence that Patricia Walden taught at a workshop Anne went to with her this year. Good times. Kelly and I made dinner and watched our favorite Christmas movie, Christmas vacation with Chevy Chase.  Makes me crack up every time.

Today I taught Focus on Form at 9:30 which went really well. I was super pleased with the sequence and the studentship. We worked on the loops of the legs with a lot of thigh loop emphasis to seat the femurs and did a lovely foray into virasana, supta padangusthasana, triangmukaikapada pascimottanasana, and krouncasa.  After lunch Kelly and I went to San Marcos to do some bank business.  I came home, did a practice and then we went up to The Castle for the 6:00 class. We did a lot of work with Inner and Outer spiral to visvamitrasana (the variation in Light on Yoga without holding the  foot over the head. It was deep strong work and everyone did quite well.  Not easy stuff, mind you.

I used a theme about "loving anyway" which was inspired by Natacha's Facebook update today. She said something along the lines about what do you do when you wake up and feel in a funk and the Path of Love feels very elusive. My immediate reply was, "love anyway." Not because it is easy but because the Love is paved by our efforts to bring love to bear on whatever situation we are in. I said this to Kelly and he said, "Do you really feel that way?"

And I was like, "yes."

 To which he replied, "I do not really think of you like that."

Anyway, that led to an interesting talk about what I mean when I say "love anyway" and what he think when he hears it. His point was that I am not a "lovey" person. My point was that I am dedicated to moving in the direction of Love in a fairly single-minded way. I was like, "Kelly, Love is my whole thing. That is it for me. That is what I am all about." (Okay, sure- as we all know, I have my bad habits of consciousness, don't get me wrong-- but I am pretty serious about this stuff.)

And its not an ooey-gooey-sacharin-sweet-kind-of- thing I am talking about here. The Path of Love, to me, is fiery, consuming, passionate, challenging, messy, frustrating, wonderful, inspiring, devastating, desperate at times  and just everything a good affair should be and is. And like I said, I think the Path of Love is paved by our efforts to love. And making efforts to love in the face of a funk- and obviously "funk" exists on a continuum- is, in itself, walking the Path of Love in a very direct way and therefore makes Love not as elusive almost by definition.  And after all,  what is our other option? We know where the road of the opposite can take us. At least I do.

I think that is why I love asana so much- the action of doing it shifts our state of consciousness. Be very clear here-  we do not have to want to practice to do it and have it benefit us. (This is the "love anyway" link.)  In asana, if we put our bodies into these shapes, then the shapes themselves shift us. I mean really, how cool is that? And it works even without a heart-based theme! (Don't tell John I said that though! I am kidding. However, while we are on the subject,  my advice to all of you is this: do not bring this idea up at a Teacher Training when he is talking about heart-based themes and heart-based language because he will start to twitch a little bit. I am teasing now but seriously, to teach Anusara Yoga you have to a have a theme. Deal with it. Learn to love it. It is part of what makes us us! Okay, I have officially digressed... Forgive me, my Anusara Yoga teacher trainer self came in just now!)

Back to my point-- One of my teachers in India said in class one time that the "asanas are the postures of the happy human being." I love that because it says that if we assume the shape, the shape changes the way our energy flows, the change in the prana affects our mood, our way of seeing ourselves and each other and all that happens whether or not we want to roll out our mat or whether or not we are in a funk. I mean, what a boon to have been given something so effective. We are the lucky ones, us yogi's. We have a very direct root back to the Path of Love when we feel estranged from it or when it feels elusive.

Anyway, that was 6:00 class with a lot of somewhat grueling work in the hips and some snazzy arm balances. After that we came home for dinner and  after dinner Kelly and I watched Charlie Brown Christmas and The Grinch. (Can you get the theme here about how we get in the mood for Christmas at our house?)

Tomorrow, I am taking Mom to the oncologist, meeting with the girls for a practice and then Kelly and I are planning to make a dinner at home and relax a bit. I've been busy since I have been home although a lot of that time has been filled with nice long asana practices which is how I most like to use my time when I am home. The time in Texas seems to be flying by and the advanced intensive in Tucson is now just a week away. Wow. This is an exciting time.


All right, remember, come practice Christmas Eve with me at The Castle. It will be great.