Fresh Start

Hi Wordpress, where have you been my entire blogging life??

I decided to make a move over to wordpress from my Blogger Account! Many reasons; but the main reasons is the additional features Wordpress allows such as "pages" so I can provide future students with my schedule! Another reason is a fresh start. Next month I will be graduating from my training. I know this will not be the end of my yogic path and learning opportunities. I am considering signing up for my 500hour with Stephanie and there are many many workshops in the future!

But, I wanted a fresh start with a nice neat new blog!

I am excited; because the future is wide open and many things are starting to change around me. I hope to start teaching more classes around Newnan after my training is complete. I head up to Asheville this weekend for the 8th weekend/month of training. It is our last weekend of actual asana and practice.

This weekend will include:

• Sutra Discussions


• Gentle Yoga class


• Master Flow Yoga class


• Student Teachings


• Meditation and Silence from Saturday evening until Sunday morning at 8:30 am


• More Meditation


• Pheonix Rising Yoga

In May we go back to take our final exam (totally paranoid about that) and for graduation.

Also remember to check out Asheville Yoga Blog! I will be submitting posts from time to time. I recenlty published a brief piece on Spring Cleaning your Yoga Mat!

Yoga, yoga yoga...

Had a pretty awesome mysore practice this morning. Nothing crazy Asana wise; although I am improving on my transitions and dropbacks (I need to work on both a little more on my own time outside of the practice)
Starting to see the same people every mysore morning and that is refreshing. A fellow student was talking about her pups this morning. One boxer and one french bulldog; thus we immediatly bonded over furry babies. I love my furrbaby. I need to post some new photos of her. She is stinkier and cuter than ever...

I felt amazing after practice; my wrist was a little wonky in the beginning but really grounding evenly through the palm helped stabalize it a bit.
After a super sweaty practice I cleaned up and headed to work. On my way out I ran into an old fellow monday night mysore student (from over a year ago when we would practice mysore in the little room with 7 of us shoved in there--it was our own little monday night meet up...and it was awesome) It was good to see her. Then I ran into another dear friend; one that I traveled with to Islamorada a few years ago in hopes of practicing with Guruji but he fell ill.
It was great to see her. The community around a studio is pretty amazing. I think I've been practicing with M and the studio since 2007. Such a great yoga family.

This weekend:
Saturday - Teach at 11 and 12, Dogwood festival with Denver & JP
Sunday- Mysore practice at 10, Assisting class at 12

I need to put the final touches on my final paper, gathern my homework for teacher training next weekend! Only 2 more weekends (April & May) and I graduate! :)

Intense back bends...

Happy Monday!

Mysore this morning was intense. It started just fine; although I was a bit distracted with having to blow my nose a few times during practice...gotta love allergy season!

I was given some good tips for my chattarunga (a work in progress!) When doing it right it feels so right but it is so hard!

Back bending was intense today...seriously intense. I was short on time so after my last backbend my teacher told me to do shoulder stand and the savasana. After class and my whole drive to work I was super shaky and emotional. First time that has happened. Weird.

Not much else! This coming up weekend is the Dogwood Festival. Denver & I love going every year to look at the amazing artists and photography. So we will probably do that one day this weekend.

Ashtanga Inspiration

Thanks to ArkieYogini for sharing her experience of the Old Shala Workshop at Miami Life Center.

This video is great! It has given me a few tips to work on; as I still am stumbling with my jump backs and jump throughs.

Yoga Blog roll

I would have never found this blog list without the help of Joy of Yoga! This awesome extensive blog roll list is great (not because I am on it...) but there are a ton of great blogs and sites listed.

I was surprised to see I made the list, that is really nice!
So in yoga news; I am putting the finishing touches on my final paper for teacher training. My subject is Yoga and Buddhism. I am also building my sequence to teach, learning my sun salute (which is funny because I was assigned Ashtanga Surya Namaskar A- one I do know pretty well. Although I was kind of liking the Traditional Sun Salute- reminds me of Dharma Mittra's classes.



Today I made it to morning mysore practice at Balance...it was a rough practice today and I know it was because of lack of sleep and I was just due for an off practice. It was time. So I am glad that is out of the way! :)
I was a ball of mush once I got to backbending; but I made it through. Thank goodness!

I think I am doing something wrong in two things (and need to talk to my teacher about it) Chattarung- done the right way is feeling better; it is harder, but I still feel a bit of pain in my upper right arm. My headstands have been a bit "off" and I think it is tweaking my neck muscles. They are pretty sore today...so I need to be more mindful and pay attention.

Not much else to report. Besides the city of Atlanta was in a nice yellowish-green fog today. My silver car has a new paint job. Love the spring in Atlanta; and the Pollen is just a by-product. :)

Finally back on my mat

Mysore practice....after a week off!
Today I made it to the studio for practice; I haven't done a full practice in well over a week due to this cold. Today I felt ready. I had a few coughs and just a few times I had to slow down to remember how to breathe out of my nose...since I haven't been able to do that in a week as well!
The treat was that there were two teachers today; and a larger group of mysore students. So that was a nice surprise. Another suprise was that even though I haven't practiced the full series in over a week; I didn't loose too much ground. My body opened back up pretty quickly. My jump back/throughs were a bit rusty- but they are still works in progress :)
But the main asanas were not incredibly difficult. I was able to bind on both sides of Marichyasana D (with help from my teacher of course) and dropbacks were okay; a little intense today. But my teacher said she made me work a little harder with them than normal. :)
Felt great to practice; and so many familiar kind faces in the room.
Also practicing with the windows open and it 80 degrees outside is pretty darn nice! At the end of practice I felt better; able to breathe better too!

Being sick this last week was a reminder how attached I am to the physical practice of Yoga, and a reminder that there is much more to the "practice" than just asana.

Theres a new blog in town...

As many of you know I am a huge supporter of the Asheville Yoga Center. My relationship with AYC began last May when I enrolled in the 5-Day Vinyasa Teacher Training. I distinctly remember the first few days calling my dear friend and saying "I am not sure...I don't know..." about the studio, the teacher, etc...
By day 5 my world was turned upside down, I was also very touched by Stephanie as a teacher. After a lot of thinking and debtaing and discussion I managed to sign up for the 9 month teacher training that began in October of 2009. In just two months 25+ teachers will emerge from AYC.

Well, as the family continues to grow so does AYC! They just annouced their plans to build a truly green yoga studio! They are expanding their space to include a new building. If you know much about AYC; they bring amazing teachers to the Southeast; from Cora Wen, Doug Keller, Rod Stryker, Bryan Kest, Doug Swenson, David Swenson and Chandra Om...just to name a few!

Their plans are to build another space in order to have regular weekend classes; alongside the amazing workshop weekends!
Congrats AYC!


You can follow along with the AYC community on their new blog. Follow along with the construction of the new green studio and also read some inspiring articles or yummy recipes.
I really enjoyed Attaining Imperfection on and off the mat by Ann Ferguson.
AYC is creating a wonderful online community that is a true reflection of what goes on in the studio with the famous cloud wall (as pictured below)


My teacher & inspiration- Stephanie Keach

Other ways to follow AYC: Facebook and Twitter
If you are in the Southeast and want to attend some amazing workshops check out their site; also their teacher training is pretty awesome!

Ginger

Spring is here! It is sun shining and 70+ degrees outside today.
Along with spring I have what I believe is my very first chest cold. I don't remember ever really having one before. Most of my colds are always sinus related.
So this has been a difficult 2-3 days. Yesterday I officially lost my voice. Today it is still very manly sounding and comes and goes. Doesn't work well with the phone calls I make for work.

Today I made some homemade ginger tea and that seemed to help with the discomfort a bit.
I will make another pot in a moment.
Very simple:
Grate or cut fresh ginger
Use filtered water
Place into pot and bring to boil
Cook on low/medium 10 min
Cover and remove from stove to steep for an additional 10min
Mix in Honey and lemon if you desire. Honey is great for soothing your throat as well; and raw honey is best.

**It can be pretty spicy!**

Not much asana this week. My body craves it but I can't truly breathe...so with advice from a friend I've done legs up the wall and meditation. That has been my practice this week.