Saturday Morning

Well, the days seem to be flying by.


On Wednesday we worked a lot with strategies for teaching the UPA's in class. Teacher Training is so interesting. I am always completely fascinated by the process of it. We spend A LOT of time talking about teaching a fair amount of time practicing teaching drills and yet, none of that is actually teaching a class. However, the strange thing is that each of those components that we make into teaching exercises and drills is part and parcel to the art of teaching. We keep using the metaphor that TT is like learning to play the scales and teaching class is more like playing jazz.

On Thursday we spent the whole day working on Heart-Based Themes. We reviewed the Christina Sell Formula for Developing Heart-Based Themes and refined it and honed it even further and play with putting it into action. The group did very well and made a lot of progress over the three days. Really, we all agreed that it was at least a year's worth of things to practice and refine.

And that is really the point of TT at a certain stage in the certification process. Don't worry so much about keeping all the Anusara Yoga Plates spinning in the air (so to speak) if you are new to teaching Anusara Yoga. Start working in pieces and get comfortable with the small manageable chunks along the way. Like for a given period of time, work mostly on instructing with the breath or using the primary flows and the breath or adding in a heart quality or just work A LOT on verbal adjustments and observation or on refining your demonstrations skills. Focus on one aspect of teaching Anusara Yoga until you gain some mastery over that and then add in another component.

Today we being the Asana Intensive which is going to be great. After talking about yoga for three straight days, its going to be fun just to teach and do.

Love Shack 10:30-1:30 and 3-6. Both days. Be there.

Well, its been a few days since my last entry- things got kind of busy around here. And so now I have some pictures to share, if not a blow by blow account of what happened in class. We had a really great last day today.

Darren and I went back and forth with the asana class this morning. He started off with the standing poses and handed it off to me for pinca and handstands. I added in some big upper back openers with the chair and with the block in paryankasana. I gave it back to him for hip openers and quad stretches. I got it back for some ustrasana, pigeon droppings, urdhva danurasana, dwip pada and then he brought it home with scorpion. We had such a great time and I think it was one of my favorite classes yet.

We spent some time in the afternoon reviewing the certification process and then practicing inversions, pranayama and then we had our closing circle. I was really just blown away to hear all that people shared and experienced. I think this week opened up a lot of doors inside us all. The overwhelming theme that repeated itself was how these three weeks together really helped us all to open to the support and love that is there for us. It was there in everyone's sharing- the gratitude and feeling of luck to be together and to go so deep into our hearts together. Definitely words fall a bit short but wow, what week and what three weeks.

So many times this week Darren and I just looked at each other in amazement at where everyone's asana practice had moved to. We were in new territory and it was hard to believe at times that these were the same people who started with Immersion this fall. Everyone just got so good!

On a personal note, I went through some pretty profound changes and soul searching throughout the time this Immerison has been in session. I do feel so much different- stronger, more insightful, more connected to myself as a result of turning all kinds of things upside down within myself for a while. IN some ways I feel like I made a big circle to come back to some of the same things but the journey was so clarifying that the "same old place" is nothing of the sort-- it is new territory all its own.

SO, well, time to hit the sack. Its an early flight out. I hope you Austinites can make it to the Love Shack for practice. I am looking forward to to it