Flow with the breath, be mindful, no judgement

What a weekend. My home team; the New Orleans Saints; are going to the Super Bowl!!! :)
History in the making!



I stayed up past my bedtime then was up at 4:30 am. Headed out the door by 5:00am for Mysore practice at the Studio.
It was a pretty busy room this morning.

I set an intention for this practice: Flow with the breath, be mindful, no judgement.
I repeated this often to myself. It helped keep my practice lighter.

I didn't eat dinner late and I could tell a bit of a difference in my body. I re-read David Swensons book recently and reviewed some of his tips on Jump Backs and Forward.

With instruction from my teacher I am still only practicing up to Marichyasana D.



I can't fully bind yet. So, she really wants me to get that prior to moving into the next postures.
So I am keeping with it...and not judging. Apparently my shoulders are just too tight.
But..no judgement. Just keep working through it :)
Backbending today was good. I was tempted to try dropbacks; because I dreamed about them last night. How lame am I to dream about my yoga practice! lol
I love it...can't help it.

So the rest of the week is home practice. Lets see if I can keep up with my intention for the entire week: Flow with the breath, be mindful, no judgement

National Yoga Day

Today was a great turn out.
Started at 9:30 and went until 4:30.
Intro to Yoga - I took this class; it was lovely.
Yin/Yang Class-More Yang than Yin. But nice.
Intro to Mindful Meditation- Really relaxing meditation
Intro to Vinyasa Yoga- I taught this class. Since it was expanding from the other classs we really built up heat and played around with some fun invesios.
A discussion on Mindful Eating
Ended with 15 meditation.

A really great day!

Mysore, National Yoga Day and Haiti

The weekend was nice. Relaxed, cleaned the house, got another anatomy book to study for teacher training, finished one of my papers for teacher training. :)

This morning I was up at 4:45 and rolled out of bed and was out the door by 5:15. Headed to Mysore practice.
I was the 2nd student there this AM. I like it when it is nice and quiet. :)
I had to bring back my old orange Jade harmony mat; the travel mat from Jade is good, but not enough cushion for Ashtanga. Tops of my feet were getting bruised when I try to jump through because there is no cushsion.
So I pulled out my trusty older Jade Harmony mat- the thicker one that has been around for 3 years. It is flaking and such, but it did just fine.
I told myself if I keep up with Mysore practice once a week until my 31st Birthday on March 2nd then maybe (if I can afford it) I will finally buy that Manduka Pro mat. They sell them at the studio and I do not want to buy the mat unless I know I will get use out of it.
My harmony mat is fine for daily hatha- but if I intend to keep with a vinyasa/ashtanga practice I need a thicker heavy duty mat. My teacher is going to keep me accountable as well :)

I am in a much more upbeat mood when I go to Mysore classes; I have no clue why.

So practice was sweat inducing and pretty difficult. When Marsha assisted me in urdhva dhanurasana it was intense. I came out after 3 of them and told her I could remember when I could crank out 5 of these and not be THIS tired. But after 3 I was exhausted.
Seriously I am a believer in the "if you don't use it you lose it"

I mean I suppose if you do Ashtanga daily you are getting in all those crazy hard poses and build up endurance.
My endurance is just gone! But I am building it back up.
Don't get me wrong! I love doing yin at night, I love the Jivamukti DVD too. I also balanced such a raja based practice with nice long meditations the last 2 practices and it is a really good combo for me.
After practicing Ashtanga the last day of training a few weeks ago at Asheville Yoga Center; it sort of re-lit my fire and passion for it.
And reminded me that I have an amazing teacher close by that I should not pass up the opprotunity to practice with.

So that was practice today. Now lets see what I do when I get on my mat tomorrow at home :)
I am subbing a class tomorrow night atLotus at 6:30 I think it is a hatha heart focused class. I am going to teach vinyasa and work in a lot of chest openers.

Then on Friday night I am teaching the lovely group of ladies in Atlanta. Then Saturday is National Yoga Day. I am teaching Intro. to Vinyasa at Lotus for donations only going to the Humane Society!!! Plus these help towards my teacher training hours. So two great causes!!

I am also in the works of maybe doing a donation only class at Balance Yoga Atlanta one Saturday for donations to go to Haiti disaster fund. That might be happening next weekend? I'll let you know if that works out or not.

So lots of yoga stuff.
Today I am working from home. So time to get back to it! Hope you had a great weekend.

Lose it....

This morning I rolled out of bed at 4:45 AM. Well I woke up at 4:15 sooo thirsty so I got up and drank a ton of water. Then I was really UP at 4:45 getting dressed and ready to head to Atlanta.
Walked Chai, grabbed my tea and headed to Mysore Practice at Balance Yoga Atlanta.
The drive up was about 50 min. which is enough time to drink tea and wake up.
I was the first one at the studio so Marsha and I have a moment to catch up and talk about my lack of Primary series practice lately :)
So we decided I would work up to Marichasana C. Since I can't fully bind in that yet.

My actual practice was a bit on the sluggish side. I should have expected it though. I tried to stay positive because even being there was an accomplishment. Some progression in poses some steps backwards in others. But it happens.
When you don’t use it you lose it. And in my personal home practice I noticed I am not “using it” as much as I used to in Ashtanga.

So at the end of practice ever student gets a yummy gift of a cool peppermint towel. A wash cloth they soak in water with peppermint oil and place in their fridge. It is nice when you are sweaty and going into Savasana.

One good thing is I was able to make it to 20 breaths in sirsasana (headstand) and come down with straight legs. :)
Practice, practice, practice.

So I am at the office working away.
TGIF!

Snowy mountain tops and lots and lots of yoga!

This past weekend was the 4th weekend of our 9 month teacher training at Asheville Yoga Center.

It was SO much fun and both physically and mentally draining. In the good way. From discussion on Nutrition, Ashtanga Yoga, Anglea Farmer, Restoartive and so on.

But the training was awesome. My favorite weekend yet. From beginning to end it challenged me. And we eneded with a full primary series class. Wow. Stephanies approach to that practice is so light hearted. I mean it is a sweaty demanding practice regardless of who teaches it. But she made us giggle and laugh several times through and that made is a little more exciting.

My jump backs and everything was no way in tip top shape. I can tell I've not been practicing the Primary Series as much as I had hoped. But things are shifting and I am not going to fight it. I am trying to really embrace this training. It will be over before I know it and I want to gain whatever is avaialable.

However, it made me wish I lived in Asheville. I literally daydreamed about how it could actually work out. But we have 6 acres here and the whole trip reminded me to make the most of what I have in my life. Denver and I are talking about some ideas for our land. After this weekend I am really really considering doing a Hoop house this spring? With all the veggies we could think of!!Denver has a really good green thumb. (Not me!)

So this weekend was everything I truly needed to get grounded and back on track. The weather was so cold and it snowed very lightly but the remains from the previous weeks snow storm was very visable.

I truly love Asheville. It is a place of many happy things thus far. Looking forward to the next few months!

So a few pictures from the weekend:

Stephanie showing the Ashtanga Float forward

Student assits in the floating forward

Beuatiful Camel pose

Bow Adjustments

Trusting the Flow....

Now more than ever I am turning inward; truly listening to that inner voice (not the voices in my head silly!) But my true voice, true self?? It was brought about through my teacher training over the last few months.

Slowly opening up more. Listening more. Trying to be receptive.

But now more than ever I think I need that part of myself. I think that part of me is needed to keep the peace in myself to keep the balance in my life. Some days I want the Ashtanga Practice. Some days the Flow is nice. But, I am just at a place in my practice where things are shifting and I am doing my best to trust.

I am hopeful for 2010 and looking forward to finishing my training by May. It has been transformative thus far and I am curious where it is taking me.