Friday Morning Musings

Scenes from group practice yesterday:

Catherine and Brigitte saying Hello!
Tearson, rockin it.
Melt, Brienne, melt. More than you can imagine!
Ah, the after glow.
Pammy in the house with J-Man. Ordered restored to the fabric of Anusara Yoga Austin.
Tearson, dropping over from headstand.
Catherine and Brigitte sorting out the shoulders.
Catherine standing up UNASSISTED.



Love.
More love.

So I had a great time at the group practice yesterday. I personally enjoyed the gathering of folks in attendance which represented a good cross-section of several generations of Anusara Yoga practitioners- from people who have been teaching and practicing Anusara Yoga in Austin for over a decade and folks newer to the method and a bunch of people in between. It is always fun for me when the community gathers for practice.

You know, community is such a central aspect of what we are doing in Anusara Yoga. The three defining aspects of our method are our non-dual Tantric Philosophy and Heart Based themes, The Universal Principles of Alignment, and that we practice the principles within a like-minded community.

I have been in a personal inquiry since I moved to Austin, Texas about how all of that actually looks in its optimal form here. We have a very unique kind of yoga scene in Austin and it is taking me some time to get a handle on that and feel into what our place here is without comparing it to how Anusara Yoga Community looks in other cities or how it has been for me where I have lived before.

For instance, I started teaching Anusara Yoga in a small town in Arizona. At the time I started teaching there was only one yoga studio and I taught yoga there from the day it opened. A year or so after that, I opened Prescott Yoga and so then there were two studios. And sure, there was yoga at the health clubs and the community college and so forth but in general, there were more limited options than what we have in Austin. We were the Anusara Yoga studio and the other studio offered a variety of yoga styles. Also the town did not have a big night life/entertainment scene nor was there an endless list of fun things to do or at any given moment of the day. Because of that and for a lot of other reasons, the yoga community was very tight-knit, very centrally located and very integrated into our daily life. So we did A LOT of yoga and a lot of our social life revolved around each other.

Without realizing it, that was kind of a standard in my mind that I was measuring things against but really, it is like comparing apples to oranges. Something has really shifted for me recently and I actually feel a lot more relaxed about the whole thing than I ever have. Lately, my feeling is that the Anusara Yoga Community here is all just fine how it is and it requires nothing of me other than my very occasional presence.

From what I can tell- and this is only an impression and is not documented by hard, cold facts- we have a small and devout group of people who practice Anusara Yoga as their primary practice. And what we have a lot of is people who practice other methods and styles as their primary practice and then augment what they are doing with Anusara Yoga technology and who are lovely, fun, dynamic members of the community. I have some ideas about why that is the case but none of that really matters, it is more of an observation of what seems to be happening and not a criticism of the situation in any way.

And truth be told, we do not have a central location that is "The Home of Anusara Yoga in Austin, TX.” What we do have is a handful of studios who are welcoming us, our teachers, our teachings and our community and offering us opportunities to grow and contribute in some very fantastic ways. (And because there is always something fun to do in Austin, Texas, yoga potlucks may never be the fun thing here that they were in Prescott, Arizona! Think about it- in the early days of Anusara Yoga that town had no-or maybe like one or two- good restaurants and so when we gathered together for a potluck, it really was the best meal in town. Not the case here. But I digress.)

So anyway, all that has been on my mind lately and the truth is there is no one way to have a community. There is no one way that the ideal of “practicing the principles in a community” has to express itself among a group of people. Not at all. So when I say I have relaxed a bit about it, what I mean is I have stopped wanting the community to be what I want it to be and have started recognizing the beauty of what it actually is. (Ah, another lesson in expectations as opposed to seeing clearly “What Is.”)

Also, there are tons of pros and cons to consider no matter what. Have a very tight-knit community with a “home base studio” and you have some very great things going on. But also, you have all the down sides as well-- there are only so many teaching slots one studio can provide so you have more competition. There are only so many personalities that can work together well, so you get in-fighting and gossip. You run the risk of your kula becoming a clique that is so tight, others do not feel welcome. The diversity of who we can be as a method often gets compromised in such cases and the unique flavor of the studio can interfere with the range of flavors we are as a method.

And spread out all over a town with no home base there are pros and cons as well. It can be harder to perceive the unity that is present. The potency and majesty of the method doesn’t always come through when the Anusara Yoga class is just one class on a schedule of many other styles or many other classes of one style. But there are pros as well to being more diversified. Many people have many more opportunities to teach. Our teachings get exposed and offered to a very large community of people who might not otherwise learn about us. We participate in a yoga community and not an Anusara Yoga Community and so we get to learn, grow and benefit more readily form the wisdom of other traditions and perspectives. We have to get very skilled as teachers to present our method clearly, intelligently and cogently in an ecumenical situation as opposed to a situation where everyone speaks “Anusara Yoga”.

Anyway- it was a super fun time yesterday and I enjoyed stepping into sub for Mandy while she takes care of herself and allows her body to heal.

Thursday Morning

Last week I posted this picture here and I also posted it on Facebook, wondering how to get closer to the classic form for this pose with the arms straight. And then I got a message from Desiree Rumbaugh who was in Israel and she said the only way she can ever get her arms straight is to take her arm bones back more than seems humanly possible. (my words, but she did say, there is a fair amount of grunting groaning and grimacing involved many times!) So, on Tuesday I wrote a sequence to head into the pose again and when Gioconda and I practiced I was in a pose a lot like the pose above and then I buckled down, sucked my arm bones back as hard as I could and kicked my feet as hard as I could into my hands and lo and behold, I got my arms straight by the third try.
So that was a very exciting thing on Tuesday afternoon. After that I came home, made dinner and then The Other Desirae came over. (Sometimes we call her "Little D" as opposed to "Big D" but that is another story.) So we sat outside and ate roasted veggies and had a lovely talk about life, yoga, business, and such.

She and her mom and Omar and his wife are all in the Kombucha making business now. Their product Kosmic Kombucha is really fantastic. It has great flavor, awesome effervescence and a very low sugar content. Seriously it is very good AND it is available for sale even as we speak! Call Desirae at 512-917-2234 or stop by Breath and Body Yoga for yours.

Yesterday was Focus on Form day in the morning. We worked on back bends and twists which went well. We spent a lot of time on the belly down back bends and getting all the different parts f the pose to come together in unity. (I started telling a story about how, as a community, we need all parts to work together, etc. and it is much easier said than done once you add in the business element of teaching yoga and so on.)

I met a friend for lunch and then met up with Gioconda again for a practice. We did lots of hipwork and twists (to work out some of the residual soreness from Tuesdays back bends!) and that resulted in a nice foray into padmasana, simhasana, and parsva kukkutasana, which is big pose for me. Lotus does not come naturally for me, twists are not my strong suit and with a long torso getting my leg high up on my arm is a major undertaking. Anyway, after several attempts I did it on both sides and Gia, bless her I-phone once again, captured it on film.

So after a short break, I taught the 6:00 Level 2-4 class which was a really fun time. Last week, Miranda requested some help into how to get her leg behind her head and so we worked on that last night in class and celebrated Jeremiah's 26th Birthday! Yippee.

Here's our sequence:

AMV

AMS

uttanasana

surya namkasar variation lunges and with no long holds- 5 minutes

malasana -2X

pasasana -2X

maricyasana 1- 2X

maricyasana 3- 2X

Virabhadrasana 1

parivritta parsvakonasana- 2X

deep lunge with forearms down

lunge with shoulder under front knee

parighasana variation

visvamitrasana prep with back knee down

visvamitrasana- 2 X

omega pose

eka pada raja kapotasana prep- moving back and back until the front leg looks like omega pose

laying on back with one knee down to floor by arm pit

supine babay cradle

eka pada sirsasana- 2X

setu bandhasana

windshield wipers

setu bandhasana

savasana

Once again, we had a really great turn out for class, with lots of folks working really hard. (And I was happy to see I didn't totally freak everyone out last week with my empowerment rant! Or if I did freak them out, they did at least come back for the most part.) I will be out of the Wednesday classes for the next 3 Wednesdays but Hannah will be holding down the fort for me so please support her, please support the class, please support the other students and please stay connected to your practice on Wednesdays. I will be back teaching Wednesdays on May 26.

I am planning a practice for May 15 before I head out of town to the Certified Teacher's Gathering. I am just deciding on a place. I am very tempted to have it down in San Marcos with swim in the river afterwards just like old times. The space is revamped, it would be a nice way way to initiate the space and so stay tuned for details.

So, that's the update for today. I have an appointment and then some work to do all morning and then I am subbing the Group Practice for Mandy-ji this afternoon and The Love Yoga Coop. We have requests for headstand and variations, twists and back bends, a specific request for standing up from urdhva danurasana and so it should be a pretty fun time. Come ready to work and to play.

All right then- onward with the day.

Tuesday Morning

Kelly and I took a lovely trip down to San Marcos yesterday. We organized the props in the studio and then we went boating.

The San Marcos School of Yoga is going to open in May with a lovely group of teachers offering a variety of classes- from Trigger Point Yoga to Restorative Yoga to Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and I think a happy-hour flow class is on deck as well. The space will be open as a cooperative so if anyone is looking for a place to rent for classes, send me an email (christinasell108@gmail.com) or call me (512-665-3743) and I can talk to you about it. I am not doing any teaching there right now since I am not in town enough to keep a class alive without a team of substitute teachers in tow but it is an awesome space and a great group of folks to get involved with. More on that as it evolves so stay tuned.

The boating was fun. We spent close to two hours on the water and it was perfect day to be out. It was warm sunny and the water was fast but manageable. I am bit sore across my chest and shoulders but it was totally worth it. We had a great time.

I made it back ion time to get to Peggy's class which was an interesting foray into some restoratives and pranayama. I got some great insight into vamadevasana and how it is going to help me with some other poses. She only taught a few poses, we did a lot of long holds and I felt fantastic afterwards. Anne and I were talking about how a class like that really shows how potent the advanced postures are. When 10 postures in two hours can shift your state of consciousness that dramatically and open your body that profoundly you just gotta be wowed. Anyway, I left feeling centered, soft and yet alert. Love it.

We did:

dandasana

half baddha konasana/virasana

rope 1

rope 2

supine twist which reminded me of parivritta ardha chandra chapasana but on the floor

eka pada raja kapotasana with back leg in ardha bhekhasana

vamadevasana

ardha baddha padma pascimottasana

sirsasana- eka pada, parsvaikapada and padmasana

sarvangasana

savasana

pranayama

So this Thursday I am subbing the Group Practice for Mandy-ji at The Love Yoga Coop. So show up at 4:00-6:00 with $10 and come play. I have asked for pose requests so if there is something you want to work on, drop me a line and I will see if we can incorporate it into the session.

Also- I am teaching Teacher Training all weekend at Breath and Body Yoga again so I will be teaching the public classes there on: Friday from 4:30-6:00, Saturday from 10:00-11:30 and Sunday from 10:00-11:30.

Then I am out of town from May 3- May 13 and again from May 16-May 24. I am toying with the idea of a group practice on Saturday, May 14 since my Dallas gig is cancelled. Anyone interested?

Monday Morning

Okay well, it was a good weekend of Teacher Training. We covered a lot of very basic aspects of teaching Anusara Yoga which will provide us with a foundation on which we can keep building. We have a very high caliber of teacher and student in the group- most of them are experienced and well trained in other traditions so we are not spending a lot of time sorting out basic issues. We covered some basics of anatomy, overview of methodology and central teaching elements, developing heart based themes, basics of sequencing and instructing with the breath.

Several themes kept coming up which are very familiar to me in terms of common questions with teacher trainees. One theme that we addressed is that age-old issue of"keeping the customer happy" and "teaching people in a balanced, holistic and appropriate way." There is always this balancing act when teaching yoga between "What are my students ready for?", "What are my students open to?" "What are my students looking for?" "What are my students expecting when they come to class?" and"What do my students actually need?", "What is it I want to teach?" "What do I think is appropriate, safe, beneficial?" and so on. (For instance a student may like to flow continually through class without stopping to learn appropriate form. But does that mean that is good for them or good for the long term health of their body and practice? Or, a student may hate sweating and may hate flow-based practice and prefer a more start and stop approach or a class that has less hard work. However, that student might need the strength, determination and focus that learning to stay in a flow can yield. And so on.)

A long time ago I was in a workshop with Manouso Manos, a Senior Iyengar teacher and he was conducting a Q&A. Someone asked a question about one of their clients. And he interrupted her and posed a question of his own. "Why is it," he asked, "that you have clients and I only have students?" He went on to talk about what he saw as the distinctions between the two categories. The conversation has stayed with me a long time and I think about it often and the concept always arises in teacher training. In fact, that question in some form, is lurking behind the scenes of many questions that trainees ask--If I ask people to do something they do not want to do, what will happen to my business? It is not a business issue for everyone. For some it is worrying about their students not liking them, or worrying they will make their students feel bad about themselves or something like that.

Of course, its a balancing act. John has always said, we have to give people enough of what they want so that they stick around long enough for us to give them what they need. And I think that's a good perspective to keep in mind. We may "cater to the client" in the name of "waiting for a teachable moment" but that is a different thing than letting the student's preferences and comfort zone dictate the terms of our teaching. Think about it- put 30 people in a room and try to keep them all happy and satisfied and so forth and you will be a crazy person because 30 people have 30 different ideas, quirks, opinions, preferences, likes, dislikes, etc and so forth.

And as always, it depends on circumstance, personality of the teacher and student and it will always be relevant to what it is we are hoping to accomplish or offer as a teacher.

So that is another point of constant inquiry- why teach yoga? It is so important that we as teachers know why we are in front of the room so that we have a sense of our own standard of what we are up to and why. I can teach the Anusara Yoga Standard but how I express that standard is going to be in relationship to my agenda as a teacher. I may be a teacher who wants to provide a nurturing space, I may be a teacher who wants to provide opportunities for challenge as a means of self-empowerment and so on. I actually think there are a lot of great reasons to teach yoga but I think it is good to know what our unique reasons are.

There are some other things that are on my mind from the weekend but thats what I have time to write about today.

Saturday Morning

We had a our first night of Teacher Training last night at Breath and Body. We started with a public class that I taught, followed by debriefing of the class, and then an anatomy class. One thing I am really psyched about about this particular training is that we are starting every day with a public asana class. What this means is that the Teacher Trainees get a chance to practice asana (which is sometimes sadly absent in Teacher Trainings) but also they get the opportunity to see how the techniques and principles they are learning in Teacher Training translate into a real-life situation.

So often in Teacher Training I am asked,"Yes, but how would you really do it in class?" or some variation on that line of questioning. I mean, let's face it, teacher training drills are not always going to match up to the classroom experience on any given day. So for this training, built into the program is an opportunity to see and be part of real-life application. This weekend the public asana classes will all center around Open To Grace themes. We worked with passive rooting, inner body brightening and moving into kidney loop yesterday to cultivate "support and confidence" (When we know grace supports us we can act with confidence....like that.) Today I will play with a "Setting the Foundation" theme. And I think a foray into a front body/back body/personal/universal kind of thing is on deck for Sunday.

SO anyway, its a good group of very committed and enthusiastic folks and I think we will be able to go very deep into the art of teaching Anusara Yoga. I am focusing on the very basics of teaching the method- like learning the scales. See the thing is the standard that gets written down is a great standard but it is also important to remember that there are other ways to get the job done that are not written down but are also perfectly valid.

Here is an example of what I mean. So we say a warm up is "simple repetitive and in coordination with the breath and done primarily in the sagital plane." That is what is written down. the basic idea is to get the student up, moving with their breath, to emphasize movement more than action, breath and attitude more than technique, etc. But if done well, supta padangusthasana can be a great first pose. So can a nice long down dog. I personally have taught two classes in which John Friend was a student. In both classes I taught the first three poses as Child's pose (1 minute), Down Dog (1 minute) and uttanasana (1 minute) and he had no problem with that. I even asked him about it specifically once and he said, "That is a great way to start."

But that opening sequence is not what is written down as "the way we do it" or even as "a way we can do it." So its a tricky thing that happens anytime we write down a standard because it is impossible to write down EVERYTHING THAT CAN WORK so we write down the one thing that will always work. And when learning how to teach the method I think it is best to learn the one way that will always work, to get really good at that and then explore other creative applications and options once you have mastered the basic standard.

I also, however, want us all to be clear that what is written down is not the definitive "only way standard. What is written down is simply a very reliable way to be effective. To me these distinctions are just a mature way to look at it. So many things can work. We cannot write them all down. And the more we are writing down, the harder, not easier it is getting! But that is another story.

All right then- off to the races.

Train Your Dragon

I spent the afternoon practicing asana with Gioconda which was fun. We made another foray into back bends- going in the direction of her very hard dream pose gherandasana 2. We got as far along the journey as padangustha danurasana (see above) with lots of fun along the way. We spent a lot of time on the belly down back bends which are certainly not the sexy, immediately gratifying group of back bends, as far as I am concerned. But as we practiced and explored BKS's words of wisdom on them, I began to see on a whole new level just how important the belly down back bends are to a lot of then advanced postures.

Once again, cobra has to come, danurasana has to come in its classic form- (which by the way has only the belly down- his instructions are ribs off the floor AND pelvic bones off the floor), full bhekasana has to come for poses like padangustha danurasana to come to their full expression and certainly for gherandasana to come. It is almost always helpful when lusting after a pose to see where it is in Light on Yoga- to see what poses are grouped before and after it because usually those poses are the gateway to the one you want to do.

All right- so after that Kelly and I had dinner and then went to the movies with mom and Dad. We had a lovely time at How to Train Your Dragon. I highly recommend the movie. It gets bleak in a few moments but Kelly kept reminding me it was a cartoon and they were probably not going to end it horribly. (They didn't- it has a very sweet ending.)

And for those of us wanting to train our own inner dragons, once again we get the message from this movie that compassion is a key component. See, the dragons who were wreaking havoc in the village were acting violently, largely because they were defending themselves, not because they were bad by nature. So, they calmed right down when given love, compassion and understanding. (Making a long story short.)

So too, with the inner dragons of our negative coping strategies. They usually got but in place as a defense against some actual or perceived threat and usually when we violently try to purge ourselves of these demons, they just get stronger, more violent, more volatile. For me the best strategy is to get underneath the outer violence of the patterned behavior and trace that dragon's history back to the point of the original threat and then give it (and me) some compassion and care, which was what was needed originally anyway. It is a much more healing approach.

Anyway- today is a big day. We have a staff meeting at Castle Hill at 2 and then from 4:30-9:00 tonight is Teacher Training at Breath and Body. And remember, 4:30-6:00 is a public class so please come! So I have a few things I want to do for myself before the day of work begins.

Enjoy!

on fire these days

All right well, a good morning it is!

I went to bed in such a good mood after yesterday. I had such a great time teaching last night. I had thought I would go into class and keep working with my Bondage Theme but I got launched into a theme about Empowerment instead. We had a super-full house last night and there were lots of people I did not know in class. So I gave a little rap about "this is a level 2-4 class which means that you need to make sure you practice at the right level for you and do not compare yourself to others, etc.'' Then I had everyone close their eyes and then I said, "You know, open your eyes again." And I launched into a whole story about John Friend.

The thing is I have been studying with him for well over ten years now and I have never once in all of that time ever heard him say anything like that. Never does he give a preamble that is about, "Take care of yourself, take a child's pose when you need to, go easy on yourself, your yoga is fine just as it and so do not compare yourself to someone else, blah, blah, blah." Never. Not once. More often than not, he starts class and saying something like, "Everyone here is going to shift. Everyone here is going to go to a new level. Now. Let go of your preconceptions about what you can and cannot do. Open to something Bigger than your doubt and let's go for it."

So like that.

I have pondered this a lot over the years and I think part of the reason is that he assumes that by the time you get to him, you have that basic rap down for yourself. If you walk through the door of one of his workshops, you have to be able to deal with that negative self-talk/downward spiral for yourself because he is not going deal with it for you. If you need that level of pep-talk, that is not the environment for you. (This is Christina Sell's opinion. This is not an Anusara-endorsed perspective. AND I am not saying it is bad to need that level of pep-talk. Not at all, I am just saying, if you need that, seek out a place where you are likely to get it, don't hang out in places that are about shifting if you want support in staying the same! And I must include here that I personally find him and his workshops to be very supportive and compassionate but not in that gentle-take- it- easy sort of way.)

So moving on through the disclaimers here, I told my class, that on Wednesday night, when they walk through the door of the yoga studio into my class, I want them to empower themselves to practice fully. I am going to assume that each one of them is a high-functioning, self-affirming, self-actualizing adult who does not need me to talk down to them as though they need my permission to take care of themselves or as though they need my permission to be great. I urged, implored, begged and invited them to empower themselves.

See, one of my least favorite new-agey yoga terms is empower. I find it particularly distasteful when someone says, "You did not empower me" or "Your class was not an empowering. I personally even get a little prickly when someone says that they teach yoga because they want "to empower others." See, to me that is missing the point of empowerment all together. (Or at least in large part.)

Personally, I want to practice, work, and live within a community where we empower ourselves. I want each one of us to know that we have to claim our own greatness. And claim it in a big way. I am not sure someone else can empower us. Because if they are empowering us, then they hold the power as though the truth of who we are can be dispensed like some commodity. And seriously, if you wait for me to empower you, then what are you gonna do on the day I forget to do it? Seriously. I am very passionate on this point. ( I have a lot on my mind as a teacher, I may forget on any given night to explicitly empower you! Or I might be saying the words that I think would mean "I empower you" but you were waiting for a different set of words. See how tricky it can get? Seriously, do not, under any circumstance, leave your empowerment in my hands.)

Also- this relates to the certification process. So many times I hear people from all across the globe speak as though "they can't do x, y, or z" according to the standard because they are not certified. It is as though they hold some kind of unconscious idea that this stuff will somehow get easier to teach once they are certified. Or that people will start listening to them once they are certified. Or that once they are certified their classes will get bigger or the phone will ring with exotic teaching opportunities, etc. It just doesn't happen that way.

At least it did not happen that way for me. The day I got certified, not one thing was different. Not one. I was still good at what I was good at. I still had the same weaknesses to work on. I had the very same people in my class as I did the previous week. My students did not come to class because I was certified and because Anusara Yoga had finally endorsed my validity as a yoga teacher. My students had already endorsed the validity of what I was doing for themselves. My students (bless them) had already found value in what we were doing together. When the certificate came, they were like, "That's cool. So... what's the plan for today?" It was, on one level, NO BIG DEAL. It had already happened, is my point. The certificate was an afterthought.

So if any of this sounds harsh, I do not mean it to. I really don't. I am just on fire about the idea of empowerment this morning. (Think of this little section as a shot of tough love this morning!)

Because the thing is, you have to be teaching at the level of a certified teacher, BEFORE you get certified. The empowerment comes first, then the piece of paper documents the attainment you already have. It does not work the other way around. The paper cannot give you permission that you have not already given yourself. Nor can the lack of paper discredit you if you do not empower it in that way. All of that is secondary.

(Having said all that, don't stop-- do finish the process, do get your piece of paper, be completely totally and utterly proud of all that the certificate represents and who knows, a few doors may open for you you had not dreamed of. But generally those doors open when we are firmly rooted in the work right in front of us, not when we are looking for it. But I digress into a good topic for another post.)

So I got on this whole kick last night and the class was very strong, very demanding and very focused yet also fun and dare I say, inspiring. We got into hip openers and back bends which, well, we needed a little more time for, truth be told. Ah well, I need a two-hour class. What can I say?

Also, I made this point in class about how exactly empowerment occurs through asana. So often we talk about yoga in terms of empowerment. And Anusara Yoga is very empowering, I think because it is a yoga that takes you to your edge and keeps you there and demands so much of you that you grow very strong in the process of practicing it. Anusara Yoga is empowering because those of us who practice it as ask so much of ourselves and those of us who teach it ask so much of our students.

For instance, it is one thing to tell someone in a gentle voice, "You are stronger than you know. You are so powerful. Now gently, relax into your strong nature while you drape yourself over this bolster and I burn the incense and we listen to the angels sing." It is quite another thing to say, "Hold this pose for one full minute and do not come down even when you arms are on fire."

It is one thing to be told by your teacher "you are strong." It is another thing to be able to do something today you could not last month because day after day you went through the fire and built your capacity and strength. Strength like this is no longer an idea. It is a tangible, real and felt experience. And that direct experience is something that depends on no outer authority to validate. And that is what I am into.

Truth be told, I do not want to empower anyone. I want people around me to empower themselves. I want people around me to claim their own Light. And the thing is, the more of us who are shining brightly, the easier it becomes for others to shine. Seriously, there is no Light Scarcity Situation. Me shining brightly in no way hampers or hinders your Light. Nor does you, shining brightly, interfere with my Light.

Remember: We do not need to live in anyone's shadow. We live in each other's Light.