Monday Morning

I had a busy day yesterday. Seems like I am writing that a lot these days! But anyway, I woke up early, did my asana practice, ate and went to teach the 10am class at Breath and Body Yoga. We did a great back bends sequence which culminated in eka pada urdhva danurasana and I think it went very well. I am endeavoring to show the Teacher Trainees of that group of a variety of approached to teaching Anusara Yoga other than a flow-based approach so this weekend I used very little vinyasa. Still not the same as how an ongoing class of mine runs but a good representation of the method, none the less.

We backed up a few steps in our observation training to great affect. We ended the day with much less confusion, upset and anxiety. the more I teach Ansuara Yoga to different groups in different regions the more I am convinced that learning this method just cannot be rushed. It jsut takes time to get it in one;s body, to translate that experience into our verbal instructions as teachers and then for the loop to be completed with our students actually understanding and doing what we are asking them to do. Something is kind of cool about that because at every step of the way, the process seems to thwart over zealous ambition. Yet, one has to have a fair amount of drive to engage and follow through on the process. So its a spanda, as always.

And the more I teach this method and the more i help people learn how to teach it, I find that extra pressure rarely helps anyone learn better or grow more. Some time the intensity of the teacher creates a feeling of pressure, sometimes our own tendencies toward perfectionism create the pressure, sometimes people seem to have a time frame goal in mind that makes sense but is somewhat arbitrary based on what needs to happen (like they vow they will be certified within the year but (A) they are not ready and (b) the process is not all within their control) and then that external time frame creates a feeling of pressure and of "having to get this by a certain time" which then generally creates the opposite outcome.

I think we have to be with these teaching a long time before they work on us enough to really be ready to teach Anusara Yoga well. the cool thing is it happens little by little. Weirdly, though, we get Teacher Training material in a huge download and then we think, "oh, I have to go home and do all of that tomorrow" which is just not true and just adds more of the above mentioned pressure. Really, as we learn these new teacher training skills, we simply have the opportunity/challenge/invitation to incorporate more and more of them into our teaching. And we can do it in manageable chunks. For instance, work on breath-based instructions for a few weeks. Then weed out indirect commands and excess -ing words and incomplete phrases that just dangle in the air like, "coming to the front of your mat" or "Stretching up." then refine your sequencing. then hone in on observation for a while. And so on. Don't leave Teacher Training and think you have to do it all tomorrow and be good at it right away. Chances are you can't and you won't.

Anyway.

I came home from the day of teaching and got ready for Anne's bridal shower which I hosted at my house. We had a fun turn out of folks- I am sure we missed several of you in the invitation process as it was somewhat rushed getting it all together due to my schedule- so I apologize if you weren't invited. It was kind of a last minute thing. Most of the people there we know from yoga so it was fun to hang out together socially as opposed to being in class. Anne got great gifts and seemed to enjoy herself and the celebration a lot.

Today I have no public work scheduled, just a day of some email, some meetings and some asana which I am looking forward to. And I just got an email from Darren with the flyer for our New Year's workshop! I am pretty darn excited about this event- Me, Noah and Darren in Tucson for New Year's Eve weekend with 54 of our closest friends. (Seriously- space is limited so sign up now- www.yogaoasis.com. We are purposely keeping this small so we can really help people grow their advanced postures and so we can have an intimate, soulful gathering.) What better way to ring in a new year?

All right, that is about it for now. More soon.

Sunday Morning

Well, we had a full day with Teacher Training yesterday. I taught the 10:00am class at Breath and Body which was fun. It is a very interesting thing to teach the public classes at Breath and Body because when I am not teaching them, they are Baptiste classes. So, once a month I come in for a weekend, along with a handful of people who regularly study with me and I teach the classes. I have a good time and I think I do a good job but it's an interesting expression of Anusara Yoga for a few reasons.

One reason is that while the two methods share a lot in common, there are plenty that is different so there are times when the Baptiste people are asked to go way outside their familiar zone of practice, which sometimes goes well and sometimes not so much. I always remember how Manouso Manos used to give this teaching about change: He would ask the group, "Know how to make a young person go crazy in yoga? Ask them to do the same thing every class. Know how to make an older person go crazy? Ask them to do something different every class."

As I contemplate the teaching he gave on the subject, I think its not so much an age issue (although that may be part of it) I think it is a temperament issue. Some people are drawn to those practices that have a high degree of routine involved and for a variety of reasons they like that and grow within that structure. Others are drawn to those practices and methods that have a lot of variety in how the asana is practiced, sequenced and performed and those people learn to grow and change within that situation. All that seems to go well until a super-structured sort of person lands in a variety situation or when a variety person lands in a structured situation. When that happens one has to go beyond the first rung of preferences determined by basic temperament. And seriously, this is not easy for most folks.

Another reason that it is an interesting kind of gig is that it is just not my class. I step in to teach an ongoing class that the people at that studio love and adore so they have a substitute teacher (And would rather have their usual teacher!) and so I have a group of people getting used to "me and my ways" which is markedly different than stepping into a class I have taught for years and have grown in a certain way and in which I have established a certain culture and way of working and rapport.

So teaching these weekends always gives me a lot to reflect on and work with which is kind of cool. Truth be told, I think that is at the essence of teaching- this sort of reflection. My sister told me about being at a workshop with Patricia Walden, senior Iyengar teacher who is one of my yoga heroes to be sure. Anne told me how at a certain point, Patricia reflected out loud on what was happening with her teaching in the class. She said something to the effect of:"I probably should have stopped with that pose... everyone was feeling so good at that point in the class and now you are deflated... I was so excited to get to the more advanced posture that I had planned for today that I may have missed the fact you were not quite ready... and now we leave with you not feeling so great..."

Both Anne and I discussed that the impressive thing about her teaching is not just her presence, her brilliant sequencing and her totally bad-ass practice and x-ray like vision with her observation. The real impressive thing is that this far into her teaching career, she is so reflective about what she is doing and so transparent about it and just without a big ego attachment. She is still refining herself. From her example, I think that, as teachers, we may never advance to a point where we are always, 100% of the time pitching the perfect thing to the group without any misses. Nope, that is not seasoned teaching. I think seasoned teaching is more about the willingness to constantly reflect on our teaching- to courageously confront our misses, to analyze how we might improve, to acknowledge and validate our successes and triumphs and so forth.

I think John Friend is brilliant in this domain also. I remember years ago, he taught a partner exercise in a weekend workshop. I had been with him before when the exercise worked really well- it had been a group very well-practiced in Ansuara Yoga and they took to the exercise like a fish to water, so to speak. A few months later he tried the same thing in an area where people were less experienced in his classes and it just didn't work well. He looked at me with a gleam in his eye and said, "Well, that was a train wreck!" And then he backed up, did a more basic approach to the posture and the assist and the group was totally successful. What was remarkable was not that he did it "perfectly," but that he had no problem acknowledging it didn't work and making an immediate shift and adaptation for the group. In fact, so often in teacher training he says things like, "I am a good teacher because I have made more mistakes than anyone else." I love that about him.

So we worked a lot yesterday with observation skills and that was difficult for many of the trainees. In reflecting on the day, I have come up with some things to try today to back us up a few steps earlier into the process to see if we can have a bit more success today and build a little more confidence and clarity. We are really into the thick of the Teacher Training process now where we are breaking long standing habits and I am holding the students to a higher standard and where they have more than one ball in the air to juggle. It is not easy. Teaching Ansuara Yoga is not easy.

Like John so often says, we have a lot to manage at any one time and keeping it all going in an effective way takes a lot of practice. And we can bet we are going to miss the mark a lot. So that's the thing- Are we reflecting? Are we sorting out where we are off-track and how to get better? So once again we get to see that having a high standard is not an easy thing but better to fall short of a high standard than to achieve mediocrity without flaw. just sayin.

Saturday Morning

Everyday I have been wanting to get some time to sit down and write but this has been a super busy week. (I did manage to get to the river once and do my practices but no time for writing and reflecting with all the email, video reviews, classes, podcasts, meetings, etc. (Speaking of which last week's podcasts are up- Live Form the Castle 7, 8, and 9 were the classes I taught this week. Check them out. Remember- these are live classes- raw, uncut, not trying to meet every mark for certification, just trying to give a good solid class! So enjoy with that in mind. The sequences and dates are listed if you click on the title of the podcast. Print that out and you have a guide to use as you practice. www.shop.christinasellyoga.com)

It is a Teacher Training weekend at Breath and Body Yoga and so far it is going really well. Zoe M (one of the fabulous luminary yoga teachers in Austin) came to take class last night to celebrate her birthday. Desirae gives a free class on your birthday so keep that in mind. It's one of the many generous things she does at that studio- along with a $10 yoga-teacher-drop-in-rate to support yoga teachers in coming to class.) SO we worked on some back bends with the theme of beauty and courage- two qualities I think really describe Ms. Z.

I have several ideas percolating in my mind that I want to write about one is really about how yoga- regardless of what kind you do- seems to facilitate deep growth and change in the people who practice it. I have had several profound conversations with yogis lately telling me how their involvement with yoga- all different styles, mind you!- has helped them overcome personal challenges, deepen the quality of their relationship and truly provide a lifeline of sanity and support in dark times.

So I think its worthy to consider in a day and age where methods compete and try to assert their "rightness" in the market place. I think, the direct evidence I see, is that it is all working pretty well. Different emphasis perhaps, different expressions fo the same principles and certainly different practices abound. But at the end of the day I really think we hgae more in common with each other than we have in opposition. I really wish as a larger community we would drop the whole 'use music or not use music" discussion and the 'to flow or not to flow" discussion, and the "right place for the drishti" and the righteousness around the bandhas (or lack thereof) and instead, anchor ourselves in our practice, open our hearts to others and their practices and instead spend our time talking about how this practice is helping us grow, change and evolve into who we most truly are and can be. I wish we would testify more about the deepening of our relationship with ourselves and the loosening of the bonds of self-hatred that come to practitioners of every style. I wish we would talk more, and feel more, how connected we are to ourselves, to nature and to those we love as a result of our yoga and stop using yoga-style conventions to create one more wedge between us and someone else.

All right -- enough said on that for now.

Along those line, I did get the most wonderful testimony from a student and friend , Lauran Janes who shared with me a piece of her writing. Lauran is a great teacher here and is owner and founder of Love Yoga Coop and she said she would be happy for me to share her writing on the blog. I hope it moves you as it did me. Seriously, I think we live in the presence of greatness around here.

Woman, Finally

Time warp.

Highschool’s long over.

Crows feet now decorate your smiling face. You are dreaming of babies, babies, babies. You are ‘over’ having to be that all-powerful-famous-rich person and have moved on to being honest, living with integrity, devoted to love-based values and loyal to your family.

Loud music seems a lot louder than it used to. Stilettos seem like an overall bad idea.

You don’t cancel plans with friends any more because you intentionally make half as many plans.

You’ve forgiven all the major criminals in your life.

You’ve forgiven yourself.

You’ve accepted yourself.

You respect yourself.

You still make mistakes, but they are no longer held up as evidence as to why you’re ‘not enough’.

You don’t pounce on your ringing cell phone anymore.

You canceled your ‘text’ plan.

You schedule email ‘hours’ a couple times a week and hike, play, make love, work, relax, teach, cook and enjoy life in the moments between.

You prefer reading to watching television.

You have a sharp discerning eye.

You’re not angry anymore.

You don’t speed when you drive.

You kindly let others into your lane. Why not? What’s the rush?

You make time for your friends.

You cook for your friends.

You listen to your friends.

You laugh a lot.

You are relaxed and you help others relax.

You stop eating long before you’re full.

You mostly choose colorful fruits and vegetables... and dark chocolate, the expensive kind.

You can afford a $5 chocolate bar - you’re all grown up now. And though you rarely drink, you can tell the difference between a Shiraz and a Cabernet.

Your husband loves you with a hug, not a cage.

He admires who you are and how you are.

He kisses you on the tip of your nose.

He kisses you everywhere.

Getting into bed with him is like landing softly in Love’s tender arms.

He’s your best friend.

Other women no longer scare you.

You cheer on the hot-bodied 19 year-old who bubbles over with gleeful enthusiasm for every subject under the sun. “You go girl,” you whisper to her. (And you send her a silent prayer of protection as you watch her sexuality spill unconsciously onto every passer by. She’ll learn.)

As for those women who glare with jealousy, who roll their eyes, who still gossip...you’re heart goes out to them.

You’ve learned to meet female cruelty with indifference. This was not easy.

You no longer strive to meet the demands of society or race to match society’s pace.

You take up yoga or move to another country to remember your natural cadence.

You discover space and quiet within you.

You discover a deep Peace - a Peace that words can not touch but that deeply touches those around you.

You embody Love.

People experience you as Love.

And this is enough.

You are Woman, finally.

Wednesday Night

Well, I had a great day of teaching today. I started the day with Focus on Form at 9:30. We had a really full class. Kim Schaefer had requested shoulder stand and so we worked a lot on preparing for that today. We made a strong foray into cobra and then worked on trikonasana and then made it to halasana and sarvangasana. It was a great class and people worked with such strength and dedication. It was really fun to have so many new and familiar faces in the room. I feel like we really covered some ground.

I met Kelly at home for lunch, did some work on the computer and then did my asana practice and planned my evening class. There was a lot of cross over today between my practice and the 6:00 advanced class. I worked a lot with Inner body Bright-- like in the biggest way ever- to see if that could be the primary prep for back bends. It went very well in my practice and it seemed to help people open up well this evening. More on this idea later but I am really into exploring this-- like how can we really use the inner body more and the muscles a bit less, in a sense. How can we, by lining up internally, create a kind of set and setting for the natural capacity of the body to arise more optimally.

We did ustrasana, urdhva danurasana, dwi pada viparita dandasana, urdhva danurasana to ustrasana and back to Urdhva danurasana and then we worked on drop backs and standing up. It was a full experience. At one point I got a little worried that I was just giving orders- I came in so focused with such a big agenda that I was absorbed in the teaching and then began to wonder if I was even smiling. (hopefully the students know by now that that is just how I show my love-- by being super-focused so we get to a very cool pose, with our body and mind prepared and honed.) And wow- the students in that class are so dedicated and they are getting so skillful that it was really great fun.

vajrasana, fingers interlaced, arms overhead stretching

childs pose

down dog

repeat first three poses with non dominant clasp

uttanasana

sirsasana

urdhva namaskar, palms flat together, no cheating

utkatasana X3

vira 1 X2

anjaneyasana

handstand

trikonasana with heel on wall, take hands to urdhva namaskarasana to vira 2 to prasarita paddottansana with hands clasped

classic parsvottanasana

ustrasana

thigh stretches at wall

ustrasana

urdhva danurasana, dwi pada viparita dandasana, urdhva danurasana

urdhva danurasana to ustrasana to urdhva danurasana to ustrasana

drop backs and standing up at wall

drop backs and standing up with partner or alone

Down dog

adho mukha parsva vajrasana

bhradvajasana

uttansana , buttocks on wall

parsva uttanasana, buttocks on wall

uttanasana

legs up the wall

All right- I suppose that's the main thing up right now- I am really just feeling a most wonderful flow of energy right now. I feel busy but so very inspired by the direction my life is moving. Equally inspiring is watching how our Austin community is evolving and maturing and how many fertile seeds and blooming flowers there are here. Mandy has an application in for certification, Jess Goulding is about to apply, Hannah has a video for me to watch and so all that is really cool. Mark and Hannah will be moving to Boston but Chris Muchow a-soon-to-be-certified teacher from Denver is moving here and Jason from Dallas is planning to move here. Jeremiah is going to step into some of Mark's classes at The Castle and we are over halfway through a cycle of teacher training at Breath and Body so a new flock of Anusara-trained teachers are coming up. I know more is going on than all that, those are just the things that come to my mind immediately. So we find ourselves in a vital community of growth and change and its a fun thing to be part of.

All right, more tomorrow. I need to stop writing this and start writing a workshop description for Valerie over at Sundance in Friendswood, TX. I am going to be teaching there the last weekend in August so, if you want to make a trip, check it out. I always have a good time there with her students- they are so open-hearted and sincere and Valerie has been practicing and teaching Ansuara Yoga since the very early days with John. She as one of the first people to invite me to give a workshop here in Texas when I first moved here so I always feel so happy to go there and so supported by her. It can be a daunting thing to move somewhere new (it was for me) and any helping hand can be like a lifeline. So Valerie was kind of like that for me. Great lady. Heart of Gold, to be sure.

I think, once again, that is what is part of my inspiration these days. I work with amazing people- as students, as colleagues, as my teachers and as my friends. And while it is often bumpy and filled with trials and tribulations, we keep going and find a way to grow together, learn together, laugh together and share the ride in the most authentic way we know how. I feel very lucky in this regard.

Home Again

Well, I made it home from Los Angeles in one piece. I was more than a little tired because me and Noah and Tracy (Noah-ji's lovely wife) were up late into the night talking and then my taxi came at 5:30 am. But the inspiration of the weekend carried me quite nicely and I was very happy to arrive home and see Kelly, the dogs and a lovely a batch of correspondences to catch up on.

After lunch I did some work on my computer for a while and then went to Peggy's class. She taught a somewhat unusual sequence with A LOT of supta padangusthasana work and went into simhasana in lotus (which I covered in Sunday's session in LA-- the planets must be in alignment or something) and which was totally perfect after a day of traveling to release apana vayu and settle my nervous system a bit. Good stuff.

Kelly and I ate dinner and sdid some work last night and then this morning I met up with Gioconda, Zoe and Jenn W. for Gioconda's flow class this morning. And guess what she started with? Supta padangusthasna and guess where she went with it? Padmasana. See, I am telling you, it comes in waves like that.

After class I had some bodywork with Will and then mett Gia and Kelly fgor some food in the cafe and then Gia went to teach a private and Kelly and I went to Lululemon where they were having a sale. Lots of great deals and LOTS of cool new things in the store also. It was great because I got a chance to talk to the girls there about the upcoming Salutation Nation on August 7th at 9am. Think about it- almost every Lulu store in the country is sponsoring one of these events on that day. Salutation Nation- get your asana outside! We will have a great outdoor venue, lots of people, snacks and music and Christina Sell (yep, that's right, ME!) teaching the class from 9:00-10:00. So please plan to attend. I am super psyched about it and really honored to be asked to teach. I can't wait. Please come.

After that I came home and Anne came over and we did a practice. More work in the hips with some cool sorting out of akarna danurasana. Not an easy pose for me but I got some good insight about it, thanks to Light on Yoga. So look forward to that work in one of the advanced classes this week.

Other than that, I am just filled with a lot of inspiration and gratitude for the weekend in Los Angeles. Maria Cristina did a great write-up, I think some details of the weekend can be found there. The thing I am left with- over and above the content of the weekend, which I must say was pretty great (And you will actually be able to purchase it on Yoga Glo soon so stay tuned for that announcement.) -- is the profundity of the love that was present in the room and amongst the group of people assembled. Anusara Yoga is so well established in Los Angeles that the group was dedicated, sincere, well-trained, well-practiced, curious, open and ready to work very hard. I received such a warm-hearted welcome and such tremendous receptivity to my teaching that I was blown away again and again by the group. There was really something special happening.

Noah and I talked about it a little bit. One thing he said is that because there is so much yoga in Los Angeles-- yoga of every kind, with well-known and skillful teachers-- anyone who is doing Anusara Yoga is doing it because they really want to be doing it. There is every other choice imaginable there and so when a person finds Ansuara Yoga and its a fit for the,, it is easy to find lots of classes, to immersion oneself in it and the students are not there wishing it was flow because flow is right down the road in abundance! As is Iyengar Yoga. As is Ashtanga Vinyasa. It makes sense and whatever the reason, it made for a fantastic environment in which to teach and the community assembled there was a picture to me of some of the best of what we have to offer as a method.

Add to that, teaching with Noah was fantastic as always. Noah is smart, creative and potent as a teacher. I always learn a lot from him both in the classroom and in our conversations when we are "off duty", so to speak. He has been one of my best friends in Anusara Yoga since the very beginning of my involvement when I went to workshops with John. We had an immediate connection because we both went to the same college. That may not sound like a big deal on the surface but Prescott College is a very unique learning environment that only appeals to a very few people (there were like 15 people in my graduating class) and so generally those of us grads who meet each other have an immediate bond and affinity for one another. That was how it was with me and Noah and we have been friends ever since.

I think having a good teaching partner is a lot like having any good partner in life. If affords both security and freedom and as many people told us after the weekend, " 1+1, in this case, equalled 5." Also of note, I very much felt my other favorite teaching partner, Darren Rhodes, in the room throughout the weekend as I shared so many of the nuggets of wisdom and asana refinements I have learned from him in the time we have worked together. This part of my teaching work I find very inspiring these days because as John is travelling so much and is teaching so much of the Shiva Shakti Tantra to large groups in distant lands, I am still learning from his great teachers!

It reminds me of one of our central philosophical tenets in Ansuara Yoga and that is that the seat of the teacher is held by the group, it is held by the community. Rather than one person being responsible for 100% of the information, the idea is that the kula holds the teaching as a group. Don't get me wrong, John is the leader of this grand and beautiful art project we call Ansuara Yoga but he has trained so many people so well that there is an abundance of talent, insight, and knowledge in the people I call my friends that I keep feeling inspired to this very day. So that is fun.

So, here's a picture of me and Noah at the end of a long weekend but very much lit up from all the love. (Noah will be coming here Halloween weekend so don't miss that!)

Thursday Morning

I had a full day of yoga fun yesterday. I woke up, did my sitting practices, ate breakfast and taught Focus on Form at 9:30. We had a strong class but it was deep and technical. I worked a lot with instructions about how to create stability- specifically, how to tone the backs of the legs in standing poses and how to stabilize the shins in standing postures. We took that work into twists and made it to ardha matsyendrasana. IF we had more time we would have gotten up after that and looked at parivirtta trinkonasana but, well., I think the point was made. That class is a fun class to teach. It is a mix of levels in terms of bendability but it is a very mature group of practitioners in terms of awareness and refinement. People come to that class wanting to "Focus on Form" which makes for a fun time for me. Instead of having to "sell people alignment" as is the case in some situations, this group of people comes in the door wanting it. So that certainly makes my job easy and enjoyable.

It is much the same way at 6:00. that is such a bad-ass group of people. So hard working and so dedicated. We have a very regular group of folks who attend that class now and I feel like we are really building something right now which is amazing. Last night we worked with the theme of creating unity and connection and friendship with ourselves and we work in the forward bend and twist genre of poses culminating the work with a quick foray into krouncasana, for Jeremiah. (its his goal pose this year so I am doing my part to help out!)

The sequence:

• centering
• invocation
• Child's Pose
• Down Dog
• uttanasana
• malasana
• uttanasana
• malasana
• uttanasana
• deep lunge forearms down
• deep lunge, quad stretch and twist
• parsva vajrasana
• parsva uppa vistha konasana
• agnisthambasana
• parsva agnisthambasana
• parsva uppavistha konasana
• janu sirsasana
• anjaneyasana
• parivritta parsvakonasana
• urdhva prasarita eka padasana
• utthita hasta padangusthasana
• maricyasana 4, variation
• krouncasana
• uttanasana
• sarvangasana
• supta badha konasana
• savasana

And if that sounds good to you, you can purchase the audio of class from www.shop.christinasellyoga.com.

After Focus on Form I met Bekah for Matt's Flow class at Kula Yoga. That was fun. I hadn't seen Matt in like a year since we both stopped teaching at Yoga Yoga so that was great. His class is as supportive, nurturing, and challenging (the squats and lunges were really something!) as ever and you get all that wrapped up with his compassionate, dry sense of humor. Not a bad deal!

I had lunch at Wheatsville, answered some email and then met Gioconda and Chris Rossbach at Bodhi for a practice together. That was fun. We worked in a similar vein to the Fourth of July Practice which as a lot of fun. We got into drop backs, the 4 eka pada rajakpaotasanas and natrajasanas. I was still sore from Sunday so I figured the best thing to do was do it all again! Good times.

So after a snack at the Food For Life Cafe, I taught the 6:00 class. (See above.) Kelly and I came home from that, ate some food, posted the podcast on the store and went to bed. It was a pretty full day, doing what I love most- practicing yoga with friends and teaching yoga to great people.

I must say on a closing note that I was filled with delight at the end of class yesterday when I looked in the prop closet and the blankets were all stacked neatly and in good alignment and I hadn't even mentioned a thing about it. I felt like some kind of proud mama or something. Silly, in a way but I swear, its really those kinds of things that tell me the yoga is happening.

It's like I mentioned in class last night. The hallmark of advanced practice, in my opinion, is not how deeply we bend or how strong we are although those things have relevance in the asana practice, obviously. The hallmark of advanced practice, to me, is in how deeply aware of ourselves and our actions we become. Advanced practice has more to do with the number of details of alignment we can manage in any given pose, the depth of our heart that we express and the care we give ourselves and the kindness and honesty we extend to others.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to work on poses. I really do. Come on, I am somewhat obsessed with it at times, truth be told. (As evidenced by all the time and pictures and commentary, etc.) But really, I think advanced practice is more about how the poses are working on us. How they are cultivating our attention and how we are placing that attention on what matters most in our lives. And at the end of the day, its not getting my feet to my head in scorpion or grabbing my knees in Bhujangasana 2 (although Brigette, I am working on it!) but it is a matter of how deeply I connected to myself and how deeply was I able to connect with someone else and share, even for a moment, the world of the heart and spirit with another human being.

like that.

Oh, another cool thing is a project a Facebook Friend of mine is doing for teenage girls called The Kali Club. It is designed to be a resource for teenage girls to have positive role models and they interviewed me recently. Here is the interview http://www.thekaliclub.com/.

Lessons on the River

Well, I woke up pretty tired and sore today. Kelly and I went back down to San Marcos yesterday to play in the water in our kayaks and two days in a row, coupled with a strong Fourth of July Practice and my body is feeling it! Its all in a good way- no tweaks, strains or anything, just good old fashioned lactic acid and stiffness. Nothing a little yoga can't or won't help here in a few minutes.

I have had a busy weekend but I have actually managed to get two mornings of play time at the river, a lot of time on my mat and I got through a long list of to-do's so I am pretty psyched. I love being in my kayak on the river. It is the one thing I do in my life that really is just for fun. I will never teach other people kayaking, there is no where to get, no evaluations to receive, no fees charged and no opinions to debate. It is pure fun. Better yet, it's even called play boating which is a fun reminder.

And yet, even as a "fun thing" its also a constant reminder of the principles I live by. The cool thing about rivers is that they are a moving medium in which to play and explore. The level of the water is always changing, the speed of the current is always changing and so every day is really different. What "worked" yesterday to get a spin in the hole is not necessarily going to work today. So one has to be responsive, not habitual to kayak well.

I think that has some yoga lessons for us to ponder. I mean, really, our body/mind/spirit complex is also a bit of a moving river. We are always changing and growing and getting stuck and then unstuck. All kinds of things affect what is going to be possible on our mats on any given day- we may have had dietary lapses, indulgent evenings, emotional upheavals, stresses and strains physically and mentally and so forth. All of these factors and more work on us and create a different scenario we have to deal with when we step on our mat to "play". What worked yesterday to open us up for a certain pose, may not be what works today. The inner waters may have shifted too much to go after something in the same way as yesterday. So there is that.

The other thing about kayaking is that the boat works best in the water when it is travelling at the same speed as the water. In fact, we are most likely to get flipped over when our boat moves slower than the speed of the water. Now this seems pretty obvious when I say it like that. But when we are in a rapid that is moving very fast and we are getting a little freaked out, the tendency, when we are new to the sport, is to try to slow down, get a grip and think rationally. And additionally, what happens then is that our whole body goes into stiff-lock-down. But actually, the opposite approach is called for. We have to paddle faster, trust the speed and stay loose in the cock pit of the boat to allow our boat to move fluidly, like part of the water itself.

Obviously there are yoga and life lessons in that also. There is a speed of life- sometimes it is fast and we want it to slow down and some time that speed is slow and we want it to speed up.(And obviously sometimes that is appropriate and we can make a case for that another day.) For the purpose of this metaphor, the point I want to make is that there is a task of learning to respond to the speed of the river as it is, not trying dictating the speed of life according of our preference, ideals or preconceived notions about how things should be.

For instance, I have a friend in the spiritual community of which I am a part and he was feeling depressed. And in his depression he kept cutting things out of his life and taking responsibilities off his plate. And he grew more and more depressed. Finally he went to our teacher who looked at him and said, "You have got to do more. You will never be happy trying to slow down your flow." And my friend followed his advice, took on more work and responsibilities and found himself feeling much better. (Also less time for "navel gazing" helped but that is another story.)

Now the other thing about this particular aspect of kayaking worth considering is that if we do get flipped, so long as we know how to roll back up and , if worse comes to worse, we know how to exit our boat when we need to, it is not some big tragedy if we get tipped over. Staying upright in the boat at all times is hardly the point of play boating. (remember: PLAY is the point of play boating.) So often it is easy to find myself getting stiff, sacred and freaked out in the river trying not to get flipped only to get flipped anyway (Partly because the fear rigidifies me and my boat and sets me up to flip over. See previous explanation and also review concept of "fear as a self-fulfilling prophecy.") So after I flip over I realize EVERY SINGLE TIME that I know how to roll back up and its no big deal. So all that rigid response is for something I am perfectly capable of handling anyway!

Now there is a life lesson. I mean seriously, life is gonna flip us over. We are going to make mistakes and we are certainly going to lose our breath at times. So why grip, why freak ourselves out and rigidify our responses to life and hold ourselves back so much in order to avoid the inevitable? (I do know why, but that is another post.) Now I am not a believer in just shoving ourselves madly into rapids either. Before we learn how to surf a rapid in kayaking we learn how to roll and we learn some paddle strokes and so forth. We definitely get ourselves trained, let's be clear. But in the end, nothing trains us for the rapid like being in the rapid and sometimes, we just get in there, get flipped upside down, tossed around and even beat up a bit and realize that we not only lived to tell the tale but we just might have learned something about how to do it better in the future.

So like that. Have a great day.

OH! AND-- Carlos Pomeda is going to be teaching a one-day meditation intensive in San Marcos on Sunday, August 1 called The Wonder of Meditation.

The schedule is as follows:

8:30-9:45 Group Asana Practice with Christina

10:00-1:00 Sesion with Carlos

1:00-2:00 Lunch- bring a vegetarian dish to share

2:00-5:00 Session with Carlos

Tuition: $100

To register go online to www.shop.christinasellyoga.com and sign up there. You can pay through paypal which makes it all very easy for me. Email christinasell108@gmail.com or call me (512-665-3743) if you have questions.

We will have the intensive at my studio space in San Marcos:

The San Marcos School of Yoga

400 Center Street

San Marcos, TX 78666