Athens, Georgia

I have had a lovely few days of down time here in Athens, Georgia. I decided to come here straight from St. Louis mostly to save money since the round trip tickets for one weekend was more than half of what it cost to put 5 legs on one ticket. However, once I thought about it, I realized by doing a month-long trip instead of individual round trips, I would be able to have some time off before each teaching engagement. So I took a few days to rest, catch up on some writing and  indulge my new found obsession with Grey's Anatomy. Seriously, I had no idea about how good that show is until I stayed a Brigette's house in St. Louis and watch a few episodes. Highly addictive. 

So, I found out today that the 200-hour and the 500-hour program curriculums I submitted to Yoga Alliance were approved. So that is exciting news. Look for some program listings in 2012 and 2013. I am very excited about the programs and about moving forward into this next phase of creative expression and sharing. We are a registered school that teaches Hatha  Yoga. On the application I defined School of Yoga Hatha Yoga as a "precise approach to asana with a heart-centered approach to spirituality that incorporates pranayama, mantra, meditation and contemplation." So there you have it. 

Graduates  would be certified by School of Yoga to teach Hatha Yoga, which is a fairly wide-open designation to work within. I am sure as time goes by there will be all kinds of details to sort out regarding how to manage the whole thing but for now, we are maintaining our stance that we do not want to create a method that needs to be trademarked, managed or defined. We want our graduates to be well-trained and empowered to offer classes, workshops, trainings of their own-informed by their studies with us but not limited to the curriculum we design. 

I have lots on my mind these days and it's a bit tough to really know where, how and if to dive into it. I have been feeling a bit exasperated by certain streams of conversation around and about yoga these days and I am not so sure that ranting about any or all of it would be al, that useful.  And I have this sneaking and suspicious feeling that my views are not necessarily going to be loved by all. Ah well, that seems to be my dharma these days.

One current thread that several people have asked me to chime in on has been the recent New York Times article on yoga being injurious. I actually find it shocking that it got so much press. But then I remember that we are talking about a mass media piece, not a piece that goes out to an audience that is educated about yoga. So in the name of education, I do have a few comments.

The first piece of education I have is for the new yoga teachers who feel  worried about what people are thinking as a result of an article. Typically, as a result of their worry, these folks are rushing in to defend, explain and justify and reassure people- not just about yoga and how safe it is, but about their own involvement with yoga and their own credibility- lest people doubt them personally because New York Times induced general doubt about yoga. 

Let's be clear- we do what we do as teachers because we believe in yoga's efficacy and it's  transformational power. New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NBC, CBS, Oprah, Sting or any other mainstream endorsement won't make it more powerful nor will their  criticism make it less so. Yoga, as a path, has stood the test of time and that is what we are representing, in my opinion- the tradition. Yoga is riding a bit of a popularity high right now and it's is easy to get a bit addicted to that. It's all the rage and everyone loves it and therefore loves us as teachers. Chances are, this popularity high will fade, maybe in part, because of injuries like NY Times described and because there  are consequences to taking an esoteric, specialized set of skills into mainstream applications. That is not about yoga, that is about the modern culture of mainstream yoga. 

I am about to say a few things that may sound cavalier and that is not how I mean them. I am not cavalier about injury and I take safety seriously. I am into it. Big time. And having said that,  before we talk much more about injury though yoga we have to remember that inactivity is probably the greatest source of chronic pain we have as a culture. Lay around all day for years and you better believe that your body is going to break down and  be in pain. Also, not one physical activity we do is risk free. Runners have joint pain, tennis players have elbow problems, cyclists get back pain, gymnasts have bone fractures, swimmers have shoulder issues, and so on. 

And the more extreme we get in the pursuit the riskier the activity. For instance, many fitness runners have no problems with their knees until they decide to train for a marathon. And the same goes for yoga. The further we travel down the syllabus into the advanced postures, the riskier the postures can become. So if you are going to go for advanced poses, make peace with the fact they have risk. Major risks. They are not inherently safe and just because we can do some things, does not always mean that we should. And while alignment is essential for mitigating the dangers inherent in the risky forms- and risky depends on who is doing what pose since for some touching the floor is a danger zone and for others nothing started to get challenging until much later-- we have to remember that  alignment has several aspects to it.

In  Anusara John talks about the 3 As- attitude, alignment and action which were the 3 A's of Anusara and also referred metaphorically to the three domains of  the being as well as the three domains of practice: heart and will,  mind, knowledge and understanding, and body which includes ones actual capacity to perform the posture and the required actions of alignment. We may want to do the alignment (attitude) and we may know the "right" way to do the pose (alignment) and lack the strength and ability to execute it (action). Or we can do it physically, we have the will and desire, but we haven't actually learned how to turn the key in the lock of the pose. And so on. The variations are endless and while alignment is the answer in a sense, knowing how to apply alignment is not easy, takes a long time, requires a lot of study, practice, trial and error.

And so to really learn how to do a lot of the yoga safely requires a kind of learning environment conducive to the challenge an investment of time and money is required. And it's going to be boring to many. I mean seriously, I've  watch a lot of boring demos to learn a lot of what I know. So, it's not that compassionate sounding, I know, but to expect to learn, to be safe, to never be injured and to also expect an entertaining  workout that gives you your personal space to express yourself, is kind of unrealistic in my opinion. 

I mean, really,  As much as I love a good, crowded and sweaty flow class with the music going and all that, not for one minute do I think that particular  environment provides the optimal situation to really understand the postures, the alignment, the nuances. (not grinding an axe about flow, not at all. After all, alignment-oriented, demo-based classes do not always provide the same conditioning effect or the same kind of mythic, ritualistic means for  self-expression. Not better than or worse than just examining different learning environments.) To  have a keen understanding requires keen study and to expect and "doing" environment to provide a "knowing" relationship to the art and science of asana practice. 

All right I could say more,  but my two cents is spent for now.

St Louis

I am attempting to wind down a bit after teaching tonight here at Southtown Yoga.  It was a great night with a full house and many awesome yogis in attendance. The Friday night class is always such an odd thing for because it is a bit of a "getting to know you" kind of class. The students are new to me and my teaching style and I am new to them and what their abilities and knowledge. So, even though I am always really excited to be in town teaching a new group and I am always thrilled to have the opportunity to serve in this particular way, I never feel at my best on Friday night.

Over the years, I have talked to several of my friends who also travel and teach and they have told me they generally feel the same way. And over time I have gotten more accustomed to the circumstance and less affected by the fact I find it a bit awkward. Anyway, tonight I mentioned it to the group while we were in the middle of the class-- kind of without thinking about it-- and one of the students asked me why I felt that way.  So I gave the whole rap and then it was the end of class before I knew it and any feeling of "getting to know you" weirdness had long disappeared. The group was warm, welcoming, attentive, well- trained and a pleasure to teach.

The title of my class tonight was Friday Night Lights and I worked with hip opening and we did some major  leg stretching and we ended with pranayama and meditation. One of my favorite topics in teaching is this consideration of Light. I never tire of talking about how we might access our own inner light and establish ourselves, through practice, in the truth that is already, ever-present within us. It's kind of an ironic and paradoxical situation we are dealing with in yoga. On the one hand, the teachings tell us that the light of our heart is always shining brightly, it cannot be affected by circumstance, it can never be diminished or extinguished and so forth. And yet, paradoxically, we need to practice in order to recognize that, in order to stabilize our relationship to what has been true all along.

Lee talked a lot about his over the years. He said that enlightenment was essentially an accident. All practice did was make us accident prone. He said enlightenment was a gift of grace and we couldn't actually earn it through practices although we could and should practice to increase our resonance with its Influence.

And on a more personal note, if we bring these teachings down to earth and even to a  psychological level, we can consider that no matter what has happened to us or no matter what we have done to others, no matter what harm has been done to us, and no matter what harm we have caused others, nothing separates us from the Light of the Heart and from the spark of divinity that resides within us. And yet, truly, in now  way should we take that teaching to mean that anything goes and that our actions have no consequences. That would be ignorance. Someone recently used the example of money- you can take a dollar bill, crumple it up, stomp on it and even send it through the washer, and still that dollar bill maintains its value. So, too, as we examine our own history and the ways we may have been crumpled, stomped on and put through the rinse cycle more than a few times and still we remain valuable.

My dad's favorite and oft-quoted Bible verse comes from the book of Romans. In Paul's letter to the Romans, he gives  a similar message and telling the Romans that nothing can separate us from the Love of God in Jesus Christ. Again and again, various traditions are pointing to these central truths that who we most truly are, where we most truly reside is not affected by circumstance, cannot be destroyed, is not ours to give away nor is it anyone's to take.

So, like I said, I never tire of this topic.

New Year's Eve

Well, here I am on New Year's Eve, finished with my dinner of curried veggies and basmati rice and settling down with a cup of tea to relax a bit and unwind. My plans for the evening are pretty simple- drink this tea, write this entry, maybe watch a little TV and then hunker down with my book and get to bed early.  I know it doesn't sound like a thrilling evening but it sounds completely decadent to me!

We have had two great days of strong asana classes here in Tucson. We started the first day with me teaching a class on the Four Pillars of Advanced Back Bends. This is a notion I learned about through George Purvis who is an awesome Senior Iyengar teacher, currently teaching in Dallas, TX. IN a workshop with him a few years ago, he said that Mr. Iyengar said one time that there are four pillars for advanced back bends: urdhva danurasana, kapotasana, dwi pada viparita dandasana (with the head down) and mandalasana.  So we worked with this as a structure for the opening class.

Given that theses are the pillars, one could consider that they are like the gateway, or that they live on the threshold of more advanced postures. Now, truth be told, its easier for a lot of people to get into a semblance of eka pada rajakapotasana than kapotasana, but for many of us in that category, you will also see that we  are not able to sit firmly against the floor in eka pada rajakapotasana and therefore our backs are not bending evenly which over time might compromise the quadratus lumborum and so on. So its not that other poses can not be achieved without these four pillars in place, its just that these four poses, when executed well, indicate that one is prepared well to go beyond them.  That's my understanding at any rate.

So, we talked about these poses as the poses that live on the threshold of the advanced postures and how this intensive comes at the time of year when we are the threshold of a new cycle and so we contemplated the theme of threshold on Day One.  Darren and I talked about having recently walked through a very intense threshold and that it held some very surprising lessons and outcomes that could not have been predicted from the other side of the gateway. And even more than that, I could see that the insight could not only not have been predicted but actually could not have even been known on the other side.

I think, truth be told, that is what the threshold is all about. I mean, in some way, transformation has this unknowable aspect to it. It may be an overused metaphor but the one that always comes to my mind has to do with how the caterpillar becomes a butterfly. There is a stage in the transformational process where the caterpillar is not a caterpillar anymore and it is certainly not a butterfly yet. It is in the in-between-stage of things, in a, shall we say, threshold, kind of time. It is in that time that doubt, worry, insecurities and fears arise. When we no longer have a grasp on the things we have always known to be true- about ourselves, each other, the world, etc. that we are the most vulnerable to fears' many voices. What if it is always like this? Maybe I never should have walked through the gateway of this change. Maybe there is nothing on the other side. Who am I if I am not what I was. Who will I be? What if I don't like it? etc. etc. etc.

So the gestation process takes its own  time. It can't be rushed. We  must, like the caterpillar persevere for, like the caterpillar, we must be undone in some way. The new must be formed from the dissolving or disillusionment of what used to be and there is no way to make the process happen one second faster than it takes.

And the metaphor gets even better because the coolest part is that, after the period of gestation, after the the caterpillar is formed inside the chrysalis it is finally ready to spread its wings and fly, right? No. Turns out that  in order to become strong enough to fly free as a butterfly, the newly formed creature  must actually break out of the chrysalis all on its own. If we were to try to break into the chrysallis and help the butterfly  out, it would be crippled for life and unable to fly.  It is in the breaking out of the shell that the strength is formed to actually be what it is meant to be.

I think the threshold place is like that in inner work also. Whenever I have walked through a certain kind of change or empowering shift, it was the walking through, the leap of faith, and the process itself that was the teacher and the agent of the shift or change. If, for instance, the process was never scary, how would we learn the depth of our courage? If we were never at risk of being betrayed, how  would we understand trust?  We can not, for instance, ever learn patience quickly. Patience only has meaning when something takes a long time to manifest.

So skill in the threshold is the thing-- We can cultivate faith in the face of fear, confidence in the face of doubt, etc. And one great way to get this teaching integrated physically is to practice hard poses. Every hard pose is a threshold training- uniquely designed to knock us out of alignment and to take us to an edge where something old is revealed and something new gets a chance to rise up within us.  And the real fun starts when, in a threshold moment off that mat, we remember the Teaching.

One of the things Lee said one time was that we can know how our sadhana is going by observing where we turn when we are in crisis. Do we run to old patterns or do we turn to the Beloved? Do we take refuge in fear and patterned behaviors or do we see refuge in the the company of seekers?  Do we look to society to validate our inner life or do we take refuge in the truth of our hearts and the wisdom of the teachings that we study and practice? And its not some kind of all-or-nothing game because he also said that we are not responsible for our first thought, only our second thought and our resulting behaviors! Part of this game is simply knowing our tendencies when we are in the threshold. That kind of clarity and skillful observation  can move inner mountains.

So my point is that I do not think that hard poses necessarily make us more able to live in our hearts off the mat. It's no guarantee at all. Nor do I do think hard poses make us better people or that being stiff or tight makes us less spiritual or any such nonsense like that. I do, however,  think that hard poses  hold in them very  potent lessons and  since those lessons come to us in and through the body, the lessons get integrated in such a particularly powerful way that it might just give us a slight advantage in remembering the truth of the teaching when we get knocked off our center or when we are on the threshold of growth and change off that mat.

So like that.

The Eve of Tough as Nails Soft as Ghee workshop with Christina Sell, Noa...

Last year me and Darren and Noah sat around the fire at Darren's house talking about the weekend intensive that we would be teaching:

One funny part of the story is that the whole reason we even had a fire last year was that Darren and Bronwin had a gas leak at their house that day and so the gas was totally cut off the first two days of our visit. It was really cold in Tucson - okay maybe not if you are from Boston or Wisconsin somewhere but keep in mind I am from Austin,Texas, Darren is from Tucson, Arizona and Noah lives in Los Angeles, California. So we built a fire and spent the evening cozied up in the living room talking about what we hope to achieve over the weekend.

It was kind of cool that there was some hardship for us to deal with that night because we were preparing a weekend of some intentional hardship for the students. Its not like a masochistic thing or anything like that-- its just that each of us believe in and resonate with a certain kind of intense environment when it comes to our preference for practice. So we sat there, envisioning a weekend that had what we call an "old school" kind of rigor. Darren and Noah and I are great friends and we love to laugh and have a good time together but what we all actually share is a definite passion for intensity when it comes to asana practice and spiritual work.

That shared passion for practice goes back to our early days when we met through Anusara Yoga during what we refer to as "The Inner Harmony" days. Those were the days when we thought 50 people in a room with John Friend was crowded. Back then no one knew what Anusara Yoga was, there were very few committees, no real emphasis on certification standards, hardly anyone travelled to teach and small hubs of serious practitioners were planting seeds of good alignment though heart-based practice and fiery devotion in their local communities. It was a golden age and still lives in my heart as a touchstone for what transformational opportunities exist when people come together to practice yoga with intensity, sincerity and focus.

Anyway, its hard to believe it is one year later and that we are preparing for another intensive. I set a lot of intentions and goals for myself last year and many of them came to fruition. Some came to fruition in straightforward ways- like my book was released in June. Other intentions manifested in unpredicted ways like the birth of School of Yoga, which I had not planned on. I suppose whenever we deal in intentions there is a bit of a wild card aspect to the game. As many of you know, I call that the fine print. At any rate, its been a very full year internally and externally. I am in the full-spectrum of feeling right now as the calendar year is ending and a new one is beginning. I am looking back with some grief, looking ahead with anticipation. I am feeling loss, relief, excitement and joy. My primary intention for the year is to be vulnerable to the many shades of experience life is offering me. I believe its in that vulnerable approach to the fullness of life that I am at my best as a student and a teacher.

I suppose that's the Soft as Ghee part of the intensive to me- the vulnerability. Lee talked about that a lot. He said, we had to be vulnerable in order to feel His Influence in our lives, because it was through that kind of sensitivity that we would be able to access the subtle aspects of what he was offering. All kinds of things cover up that vulnerability like addictions of all kinds, rigid adherence to dogma, self-righteousness, judgement of self and others and even self-hatred. Of course, there is the Tough as Nails part also to cultivate. To me that has to do with discipline and decisive action when a course is set. In terms of sadhana, we have to be tough in the face of the doubts and inner demons that seek to sabotage our hearts longing and desires. As always, its both aspects, the same way its both aspects when we work in asana.

I am definitely looking forward to this year's intensive. We have over 50 people gathering from across the country to ring in the new year with 6 hours of asana each day with me, Darren and Noah. We have new friends joining us as well as long time students who are coming. So being with everyone is going to be great. I mean, really- anyone who thought an intensive called Tough as Nails-Soft as Ghee would be a good way to spend a three day weekend over New Year's is my kind of person . Also, its always just good clean fun to teach with Darren and Noah, who are like brothers to me. There's really just nothing like it. Its a highlight for all of us for sure.

More soon.

Christmas Eve

I had a really great Christmas Eve today.

I got up, met Gioconda for a yoga class at Pure.  I was laughing to myself that even though I, myself, do not want to create a trademarked yoga system, I am thoroughly enjoying the benefits of the Bikram system these days and finding a lot of insight from my involvement with the well-trained teachers at Pure. More on that later.

After class we left and went to BFree where Gia was teaching at 10:00. So I got a chance to take two classes today and to spend some time with Gia which was fun. Also fun was to see a bunch of folks at class and to enjoy just being in class and sharing in the love of the practice on a holiday weekend. The folks at BFree are so open-hearted, accepting and fun. Shelby and her teachers have created a great culture there and I always love taking classes at BFree. It was such fun for me to roll out a mat and be with everyone. I really needed it.

After class I came home, ate lunch, took a shower and finally finished unpacking from my time away in November earlier this month. I had come home and went right into teacher training and have been dealing with business and family time and its taken me this long to actually finish unpacking completely. And Wednesday I leave again. Whew.

I have been processing a lot of personal feelings and emotions these days and reflecting a lot on the year which held more than a few surprises for me. It's probably symbolic that it's taken me so long to unpack from that last trip because in a lot of ways, I suppose I have also been unpacking the last few months of decisions. Not only have I had a chance to look at my own personal feelings while I have been home, I have spent a lot of time processing with other people this week and clarifying relationships, boundaries and what moving forward in my various relationships looks like.

Lee talked a lot about relationships and I think that his teaching in the domain of relationships  was one of the hallmarks of his Work.  He said, more than once, "Its all about relationship. That is it. How do you think are you going to be intimate with God if not through the intimacies you create and cultivate in your human relationships?  God does not exist outside the domain of your interpersonal relationships." He said other things, too, that probably contradicted that but well, thats the nature of a living teaching- its paradoxical and so all sides can not always be seen at the same time. (Or like Manorama says, "In yoga, we have to keep our eyes on the opposite." Whatever we are focused on as "truth" in one moment has another side that also has its own truth. But, that's a bit of a side trip for what's on my mind tonight.)

Forward momentum and forward movement are what is on my mind tonight and the ways that the path is both charted and uncharted territory. Certainly, people have walked the path before and can steer us clear of certain pitfalls if we let them (charted) and yet some mistakes are necessary for our learning and growth and it is absolutely guaranteed we are going to make mistakes on the Path (uncharted). One of my mentors recently told me that not only is it certain we will fall down repeatedly but that  some days, "all we will be able to do is simply forge ahead in the name of what we hold sacred."

It's actually a very interesting process, this "forging ahead." As I reflect back on the year and look forward into a new one, the expression seems very apt. So much of what I am doing is an organic figuring it out as I go along and simply trying to surf the wave of my choices, my vision and what is my dharmic task. In a later conversation with my mentor on the same subject, she and I got to talking about how, as I am forging ahead and stepping up to new challenges and opportunities, my fears, doubts, and insecurities are also arising. It's as though they are gargoyles that are  guarding the entryway to the next phase of growth and development and trying to keep me from entering, etc. We talked a lot about how that is normal and predictable and yet she gave me a really cool nugget to chew on relative to that process.

The thing is, she explained, that hidden in all of that dynamic mixture of excitement, doubt and so on is also a call for honest self-scrutiny. There is also the clarity of the soul, at every new level, reminding the seeker that the stakes are higher, the obligation is greater, the opportunity is bigger and the demand is more meaningful as one progresses. In 12-step communities they used to say that the road narrows in a certain way. Yes, we expand and grow our capacity and all that and yet, there is more of a razor's edge quality and not an a wide-road anymore.

So relative to those gargoyles coexisting with the call to clarity, my advisor said, in her experience of 30+ years on the path, that at each new level, its all there. The souls' impulse for clarity will come through the entirety  of our being, sweeping along with it our neurotic tendencies of the mind such as  doubt and  fear, and our emotions like sadnesses, angers and so forth. It's all there, not just the easy, inspiring and Light-filled stuff. And while we need to make sure that we see the thoughts and emotions for what they are, we also need to make sure that we do not skip the soul-searching that this "sweeping through" is inviting us to. The soul is always begging for clarity and so its the "going through" of those things that is the work on self, not the bypassing of the discomfort. It seems to me that these pockets of discomfort hold the keys to shifting to  new levels of consciousness.  It is the very real work of experientially examining our places of discomfort and sifting through it all that they hold--the dark and the light, the joy and the pain, the agony and the ecstasy- that gives us the fuel we need for transformation and self-realization. I mean really, can we Realize the Self, without actually realizing all the stuff that lives in those nooks and crannies? Doubtful.

So- I suppose I should tie all that into the solstice and how its a going into the darkness time of year and with the birth of the Light, the days getting longer and the Sun/Son here at Christmas......but I think that's enough for now! I did have a fun time going to church tonight with Mom and Dad as I do love songs about Jesus and Christmas and think that the Christian faith is so very beautiful. On some other blog I will spin a yarn about that and stories of Krishna but for now, let's just wish ourselves a wonderful holiday. May the full spectrum of experience take each of us into deeper intimacies with ourselves and with those we love.

Wednesday Morning

Well, I am up, I have  done my morning practices- japa, pranayama, meditation, chanting and puja- and am sitting down with a cup of chai to write a few thoughts before my day gets underway.  First of all, I want to everyone to celebrate with us on January 3, 2012 at 9:00 am which is the official birthday of School of Yoga.  

If you live in Central Texas, please come and join us in San Marcos for a cup of chai, a short invocational puja (prayer ritual) and an all-levels group asana practice.  

Here is a picture of the flyer. You can also get a copy online. And if you have any questions about the event, just send me a note via email or Facebook and I can help you out. The event is free, it will be fun and I mostly just want a  community-based way to recognize the formal beginnings of this very exciting new chapter in my life which I also hope is a new chapter in your life in some way.

Speaking of the big picture of the new chapter,  here is a short clip from what my astrologer said about the date she recommended for our official birthday:


The rising sign is Capricorn which is good for building organization and the star is "Shravana," which is the abode of the Vedic rishis and spiritual enlightenment. It is the modern constellation of Aquilla, the Eagle and is embodied in the three syllables of the mantra "A-U-M." It is auspicious for spreading spiritual knowledge, especially through the media. It relies on divine guidance and the channeling of higher wisdom. It is the abode of Lord Vishnu, as the preserving force in the universe -- preserving ancient knowledge, authentic knowledge, integrity, connection to the true source of life, listening deeply, and the bodhi tree of enlightenment.

Jupiter and the Moon sit together in the 4th house in Aries, which creates a combination known as "Elephant/Lion Yoga," bringing the strength of the elephant and the skill in getting what you want of the lion. It also connotes wisdom, royalty, fearlessness, and respect from all directions.

January 3rd is the 10th day of the growing half of the Moon, during the Vedic month of Paus -- which is all about nurturing the growth of something and is symbolized by the wheel of progress. It is also called, "The Prosperous," and "The Accomplished (Siddha)." January is the "growing" half of the year and 9:00 am is right as the Sun is ascending in the sky.

All in all, I think it's a great day. There will be a lot of work, I have to warn you. And sometimes you may have some conflicts with jealous people. But in my opinion, this day allows for the grace of your Guru and lineage to flow through protecting you from any annoying obstacles.

 I'd celebrate the day with a Ganesha Puja and Sarasvati Puja -- as Ganesha, Sarasvati -- and definitely Lakshmi rule this chart. 


Speaking of the particulars of the new chapter,  I have been hard at work on the curriculum and applications for our registration with Yoga Alliance and its all going well. I am very exciting to be incorporating new program materials, resources and carrying over the best of what I have learned so far.

I have A LOT of questions and inquiries about School of Yoga and certification and so forth and what my vision is for that. Here are a few thoughts- some specific, some more general:

My vision continues to be that we are a school as opposed to a new style. Some of that has to do with my opposition to trademarks and other attempts to own yoga. Some of it also  has to do with what seems to me to the impossibility of actually making what is the result of my life and learning-- which is unique to me -- into a system that others, with their own life and learning --which is obviously unique to them- could teach accurately, consistently and authentically.

Obviously, I have my style of teaching and so does Darren and so will everyone else who learns from us. I am not against personal stye, in fact I am very much for it. There is an important resonance that happens in part through personal style that is at the heart of the teacher-student relationship.  I hope that, to the degree that my students find my style effective that they will emulate it in a natural and authentic way and give me respectful credit.

I am also very much for a systematic approach to education. I am  interested in offering content-based trainings so that teachers have the information they need to be knowledgeable about the asana, the tradition, the philosophy and practices. I want teachers to be informed teachers, not just charismatic teachers.  What I am philosophically opposed to is the thought/idea/fantasy that after you digest the teachings from me and my life experience that you would/could/should see it like me and be able/willing/interested in doing that in your sphere of influence.

For instance, when John teaches themes he doesn't link a feeling word straight up with a key action and an adverb at all. He just teaches as himself and generally stays with a central message as he conducts his class. Since he is an inspiring person, his classes are inspiring. However, in order to make the use of themes part of a reproducible  system with consistent standards, all that other stuff comes into play, to varying levels of efficacy, in my opinion. Same like in Iyegnar Yoga. Long time students of that tradition say things all the time like "The only person really teaching Iyengar Yoga is BKS Iyengar." Everyone else is actually teaching what they learned from the people who learned from him.

Be clear, I am systematic by nature. I have educational training in creating experiential systems and formulas to help bring esoteric concepts to life. In fact, I have a masters degree in that.  And I believe I have demonstrated my ability to get results and to train people to become what I consider very fine yoga  teachers. But even still, there is no way I can imagine being able to training someone in Christina Sell Yoga, even if I called it a fancier Sanskrit name and trademarked it. And  even if I  could train someone to teach Christina Sell Yoga,  the task of training someone to train someone else to teach Christina Sell Yoga seems fairly improbable.

I believe that the teachings filter through each one of us in both similar and unique ways due to our life experiences, temperaments, karmas and dharma. And while I want my students who teach others to utilize and benefit from my work, studies and practices in every way possible, I do not want to create a formal system for others to follow and to have to legally or ethically comply with. I want to teach the principles behind teaching others, not just create content for people to teach. I will certainly have a style about the way I do that but School of Yoga is not a "yoga style" as such. We will not be creating endorsements for other people to teach School of Yoga Programs any time soon. We will, however, in the near future offer some graduate courses and trainings on "How to Teach Effective Teacher Trainings" and in "How to Lead from the Heart and Soul" and so on.

Hopefully, these distinctions are getting clearer, not muddier.

And while graduates will not be able to offer their own trainings in the School of Yoga Style they will be able to say they are certified through our school at the 200-hour level and at the 500-hour level, registered with Yoga Alliance,  and we will list their name and affiliation on our website, etc. They will be trained with the context, knowledge, skills,  resources, and inspiration to offer their own classes, workshops and trainings and to make their own contributions as they are able.

The thing is, I mean it when I say that its a new paradigm and the people involved are going to be a bit like pioneers in the project. We have had the last decade in the world of yoga be full new styles, trademarks, trends and corporately-driven yoga to the degree that a new "yoga style" is expected. I am interested in shifting the conversation around that and banding together with people who want to usher in a new wave of yoga education. This is not an "anything goes, do your own thing and its all good yoga" kind of training though. I like and believe in rigor. I would be dead without discipline, make no mistake.  This is not a softer, easier way. But it is going to be a great ride for sure.

Here we go!

Level one Teacher Training at the School of Yoga San Marcos with Christi...

We had a full 4-days of teacher training in San Marcos this weekend. I was so happy to be teaching in my own space and initiating this new cycle of my work with such an awesome group of people. The group was intimate, kind, generous, funny, smart, profound, insightful, exacting, dedicated and sincere in the best ways imaginable. I was really moved by their work and bolstered by their support, enthusiasm and receptivity. It was four long days that brought out the best in us all, I think.

There is such an interesting thing happening in my schedule right now. In October I resigned from Anusara Yoga but the majority of my teaching work is teacher trainings right now- all of which began as Anusara programs but are continuing under the School of Yoga banner, which has been very exciting. I think it would be one thing to have resigned and be sorting out what this un-planned-for-transition meant for me as an asana teacher and the whole resulting set of challenges- use a theme or not? Use the UPA language or not? how much to talk about all the things I learned from John? How much to include teaching stories from my time with him? etc. But teacher training straight off the bat really takes it up a notch beyond all that. It has required such a clarity from me right away and some serious soul searching about skills and attitudes I really think are important for teachers to have and how best to create experiential training exercises to teach those skills. I have had to get off my routine of how I train people to meet the demands of the Anusara labyrinth and dive into the freshness of the immediate circumstance with each group and respond as authentically and skillfully as possible. Its been quite an amazing process for me and I feel like I have grown by leaps and bounds every day.

And that is just in the technical domain of offering these trainings. Personally, its a whole other thing to see my students stand for their practice, their relationship to yoga and to me, in a new way. I have talked about it a bit before but as a trainer in a system that is popular and "in demand" as product in the marketplace it was really hard to know if people wanted to study with me, or wanted Anusara hours or some combination of both. I recognize that Anusara is a marketable item and therefore Teacher Trainings in the method that"count" towards certification are sellable and in demand. And I think that is totally fine and I have no problem with that. All of that makes perfect sense to me as I was once an aspiring certification candidate who was counting hours and fulfilling requirements and so on. So I get it. And having said that, it has been the most amazing, heart-warming, affirming and humbling experience to look out into a room and see that people want to train with me and not just train in the Anusara method.

In fact, it has been such a powerful experience that I am going to say it right out loud: I wasn't sure that would be the case. I honestly did not know, in my heart of hearts, that people really wanted to learn from me, Christina Sell, and not just get Anusara training and hours that "counted" toward their career goals. (And again, it's not that I blame anyone for having career goals, because I don't. I have plenty of my own. I am talking about me here, not the students in or out of the room.) Being me, Christina Sell, and looking out into a room of people who are stepping away from the safety of conventional boundaries and certification standards and going into unknown territory with me AND trusting me to teach them and guide them has been the Number One most empowering, frightening, humbling, thrilling, demanding, affirming, lovely and enlightening experience of my life to date. Honestly, words don't describe it. And I have been trying. But one thing is for sure, the profundity of the situation is not lost on me.

We spent a lot of time on the basics this weekend and I implemented teaching techniques I have never tried before and I found the results overwhelmingly positive. The power of the basics and the potency of simplicity is staggering, really. The more I train teachers the more I realize how much we need to just back the whole thing out to the majestic challenge it is to get people into and out of well-aligned postures. And that one simple-sounding task is full of such rich terrain in terms of the skills, perspectives and insights it offers. The theme for the weekend was "Foundations" and that is what we focused on. We laid A LOT of groundwork that we can work with in the Level 2 training. I kept thinking of this weekend's work like creating a scaffolding that we can hang embellishments on later. Once we have getting into and out of postures with an clarity and an economy of words mastered, its a lot easier to fill in key actions, themes, and various other creative strategies.

All right, thats it for tonight. More soon.