New Years Day

Yes indeed. There will be a practice tomorrow 11:30-1:15. It will feel like just a blink in time compared to 3 hours. I am feeling much better today. I had a great massage and entrainment and am feeling like a practice tomorrow is just the perfect thing.

Hope to see you there.

Holiday Yoga Spree: Day 3

Well. I am pooped. To say the least. And last night was a night of no sleep at the Newlin house. Oh well. We did however, have a great practice this morning. The heat was raging as it has been all week, and for once I think that we all thought that it was a bit much. How about that for a difference?

It was just 4 of us today. Lydia joined Ann, Kristina, and myself. Both Anne and Kristina have been there each day and it has been very cool to watch the journey that both have made through the experience. Ann keeps having breakthrough after breakthrough. And Kristina, who is 5 months pregnant by the way (is this a pre-natal event or what? Today the preggos were 50% of the crowd...), and she is just making some serious gains in her upper back awareness and openness. Very fun to see.

We, of course had to conclude our time together with yet another picnic provided exclusively by Ann this time. What a treat and very yummy! It makes a real difference to get done with a 3 hour practice and not wait and hour to eat. I am really into immediate gratification as you may know. So, at any rate, the picnic is awesome and if the holiday spree becomes a tradition, that will hopefully continue as well.

There is some talk about having a practice on new years day. Most likely a little under 2 hours, and late morning? I'm not sure so please weigh in here if you are interested. Otherwise, I will not being see you until a week from Monday, the 12th I think. I will be posting the schedule in the column to the right in 2 week chunks so that I can see how I am feeling and not plan too far ahead. It should not vary much from Mondays at 6pm, Wednesdays 9am, Thursday practice at 9am, and Sunday practice at 9am as well.

OK, sorry about the strictly logistical post. I am wiped out and am at a pretty low level of functionality. Thanks everyone for the last few days. It was a blast. Thanks a lot to my family, Chris and Maple for supporting the event.
Love.love.love.

Here are a few photos and the sequence.

AMV
AMS
Uttanasana
Handstand
Pinca Mayurasana
Vrksasana
Uttanasana
Standing Marichyasana
Crescent
Padangustasana
Pada Hastasana
Anjaneyasana
Trikonasana 2x
Parsvakonasana 2x
Vira 1
Vira 2
Ardha Chandrasana
Ardha Chandra Chapasana
Parsvottanasana 2x
Prasarita Padottanasana
Vasistasana
Vasistasana with leg in tree
Utthita Hasta Padangustasana prep
Vasistasana prep
Utthita Hasta Padangustasana
Vasistasana- full pose
Supta virasana
Eka pada supta virasana
Gomukasana arms 2x
Pinca backbend prep
Anjaneyasana with quad stretch 3x
Setubandha
Eka pada setubandha
Urdhva Dhanurasana 5x
Down Dog
Uttanasana
Baddha Konasana
Parsva Uppavista Konasana
Bharadvajasana 2x
Pascimottanasana 2x
Savasana

Holiday Yoga Spree: Day 2

Wow. I am one tired pregnant yogi. I think this will be the last time that anything remotely like this happens for quite some time. Sadness, I know. But I can barely scrap my pregnant self up off the floor for long enough to post this. Tomorrow is our last day, and normally that would be a very climactic event, but I am not so sure... I am however, sure that the Holiday Yoga Spree is an awesome thing and something that should really turn into a Viroqua tradition. 9 hours of Yoga in 3 days is such a great opportunity to go deeper and gain new insight and to just polish yourself until you shine in the company of fellow practitioners.

We did deep hip openers (even though we did them yesterday to...) with some really great forays into lotus land. It was fun and my hips were definitely way open at the end. I think that others had a good time as well. We missed Kae and Hallie today but were joined by the illustrious Paula Grenier, who I have not seen really in too long and who I love seeing.

One thing that is really so great is the post spree picnic which I have to say, Anne really rose to the occasion of today! Kathy and Anne did not know about the Sunday plan so they brought picnic yums today and even thought I had to leave pretty quickly for pre-natal appointment the call of Anne's lil' carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting was a little too loud for me to resist, a number of times....

I am having a blast hearing people's resolution poses and really celebrating that with them. I mean really, I love this! And to see how in general, people are so much closer to them than they think.

Tomorrow, standing poses and backbends. Maybe a really long Savasana. Really long. Also, I will bring the camera again tomorrow. Today the camera was with Chris and Maple ice skating!

Anyhow, here is the sequence from today. Enjoy!


AMV
AMS
Uttanasana
Standing Marichyasana
Standing Baby Cradle
Crescent Pose
Garudasana
Padangustasana
Pada Hastasana

Straight leg lunge (R,L) to uttanasana
Bent Leg lunges with leg to floor to AMS
Uttanasana
Parsvakonasana
Bent leg lunge, twisted
AMS
Pigeon prep
AMS
Pigeon prep (sternum over foot) to AMS
Gomukasana (wide feet)
Gomukasana (classic pose)
Janu Sirsasana 2x
Ardha matsyendrasana
Parsva uppavista konasana
Baddha Konasana
Supta padangustasana 2, prep
Supta padangustasana 2
Baby cradle
Reclined baby cradle
Triang mukaikapada pascimottanasana
Parsva sukhasana
Agnistambasana 2x
Bharadvajasana 2 2x
Padmasana (with strap if necessary- and over onto belly)
No hands lotus
FAB- lotus
Sirsasana with padmasana
Sarvangasana
Eka pada sarvangasana
Padmasana in sarvangasana
Setubandha with block
Supta baddha konasana
Savasana

Most of this is from a sequence for the fabulous Christina Sell. Also we threw in some hanuman work somewhere in there for Kathy. All for one!

Holiday Yoga Spree: Day 1

We had an intimate little turn out for our first day. Impressive none the less given last nights crazy ice storm. Kathy O'Rourke, Anne O'Connor, Kae, Kristina, Hallie and myself. The heat was raging the entire time which was helpful. I think that we have really hit the nail on the head in terms of when the furnace is going or not. 9am to noon, good time for heat. So we had a backbend emphasis and took our time with a number of poses which I thought was great. ( When I mentioned that tomorrow we will be working on hips, someone asked if we hadn't been doing hips today, and I thought that was really interesting because I have such a skewed perspective right now. It is hard to tell what is pregnancy induced and what is just what I am enjoying in practice. And one thing that I am definitely enjoying right now is to open the hips a lot for backbends.) I also usually way over plan for any allotted practice time and often wind up feeling rushed and like it would have been nice to take a little bit more time with certain poses. Last night as I was putting the seqeunce together I was astonished to find that I had about 15 less poses that I normally would plan on for a 3 hour practice. And yet, it really was the right ammount. We were able to take our time and check out certain poses for a longer time and I still felt like I had a great practice. Who knows. I am indeed a crazy pregnant lady some things are hard to tell.

I asked folks to think about any poses that they are looking toward doing for the new year. Project poses so to speak. Mine, which are all post baby, naturally, are any of the leg behind the head postures and also I would very much like to be working on Viparitta Chakrasana by the end of the year. I had spent about 4 months working on that pose before conception so it would be nice to pick up on that again sometime in the next year. (And please do not worry folks, I am actually pretty conservative even if it may at times not seem so. I never go into pain or even into "off" sensation. Never. In fact, I have mapped out a game plan for the rest of my pregnancy that is actually a bit more conservative than I am actually feeling. It involves about 3 weeks of very mellow restoratives at the end....) So, please do share your resolution poses with me and I will be glad to help support the endeavor. For the studio, I really want to work on lotus- we already have a great start= so that we can begin to work on pose variations in lotus. What fun!

So here is the sequence from tofay and also a few pics of people's eprk work. Enjoy!

AMV

AMS

Uttanasana

Trikonasana 2x

Parsvakonasana 2x

Parsvottanasana

Vira 1

Ardha Chandarasana, Vira 3, Vrksasana

Prasaritta Padottanasana

Prasaritta to Sirsasana 2

Pigeon prep

Pigeon with back leg in ardha bhekasana

Hanumanasana 2-3x

Dolphin

Sirsasana

Handstand

Pinca Mayurasana

Pigeon prep

Dhanurasana

Parsva Dhanurasana

Ustrasana 3x

Setubandha

Eka Pada Setubandha

Chatush Pandasana

Urdhva Dhanurasana 3-4x

Eprk prep

Eprk 1 w/ partners

Uttansana

Parsva uttanasana

AMS

AMV

Janu sirsasana

Baddha Konasana

Bharadvajasana 3x

Wide pascimottanasana 2x

Savasana

Merry Christmas

I just finished a fantastic mug of cocoa and am now enjoying post snow play, pre dinner relaxation.  We all had a great day and it was very sweet to spend the day in the fullness of Maple's wonder.  This was the first year where Santa really played a role for her and was a real idea and it was both very confusing (mostly for me) and also very sweet.  I have never really felt very connected to Santa in my adult life and was very conflicted about what role I wanted him to play with my kiddies.  And now, I still don't know, but I have decided in the non-knowing to just surrender.  I don't know what to do.  So Santa comes in the night and fills stockings.

Practice yesterday morning was fantastic for me and I was happy that people had expressed enough interest in coming that I worked it into our schedule.  In fact, it was such a good practice for me that I really did not even mind that the majority of the people who said they were going to be there were not.  With all of the snow, and all of the last minute elf work to be done, it is pretty understandable.  

 But I had an awesome practice and I was psyched.  I did a sequence that Christina gave me a long time ago that I have to change a bit for the big pregnant belly, but it still just feels so good to me.  Close to the end you do Bharadvajasana 2 3x and it is just so deep for me.  It is by far my favorite pose this pregnancy.  It is a crazy delight!   I was trying to think if there was a pose that I really loved when I was pregnant with Maple, and I really did a more limited amount of postures, but I think that it must have been Sarvangasana.  Which is so interesting to me because as I do a much wider array of postures than I did then, I never practice shoulder stand as it really does not feel good to me at all.  That and I am already so much bigger than I was at this point with Maple that moving in and out of Shoulderstand is pretty uncomfortable.

It is all pretty interesting to me.   Anyhow, it looks like the holiday yoga spree is going to be fun.  It would be a great idea for people to try to get to the studio about 10 minutes early so that we can begin on time.  I think that on Sunday it is safe to plan on working toward backbends.  So come prepared.  Bring water.  And on Sunday we are going to have a little post practice studio picnic, so please bring something to pass.

Lots of love.  Merry Christmas!

The adventures of Yoga and Parenting....

For those who may read this blog who could care less about the whole "mom" thing, just do not even read this morning. It is too predictable and sad.

Everyone else, misery loves company, and even mama's who practice yoga have a very tough time being good mama's.

I was so jazzed up after last nights class. We worked toward eka pada raja kapotasana 1 and everyone, everyone, went deeper than ever before! It was awesome and full of seasonal cheer. 3 folks were on their new mats and wow! are they ever huge. It was a total blast for me and I think that others had fun too. In fact I had so much fun that we are going to doa group practice tomorrow morning (christmas eve) from 8-10am. Yippie!

So I got home around 8, Maple was asleep and Chris was ready to hang. So we watched a movie until around 11:30 and i made a lot of headway on a gift that I am knitting (which I have since realized that I need to take all of the way back to where I started last night..... Knitters, I know, this is utterly tragic!) We went to bed after a brief wake up from Maple at around midnight and then slept wonderfully until around 2 am at which time Maple woke up. Woke Up! And we have more or less pleaded, begged, scolded, and been awake since then. Maybe a brief and fitfull snooze between 5 and 7am. Wow!

So needless to say, I feel completely hungover this morning and rest does not look like it will play a big part of this elf's day. And I have to go back about 30 rows. hmmhhh. the only potential good thing that has come out of this is that Chris has now experienced what a "typical" Wednesday night is like and is now on board with me and my drastic measure campaign. That and I really need to put a call in to Dr. B and see if there is a remedy that will help her. And try eurythmy again.

Anyhow. More snow is in the forecast. Practice tomorrow at 8am. It will be the perfect elfin delight.

Pray for an easy naptime....

freezing.....

Only 3 of us made it out to practice this morning. But seeing as it was well below zero this morning, no one can really be blamed. I was going to take a picture of the studio from outside and try to capture how cold it is, but I was way too scared to take my mittens off.

Several people called this morning to see if the heat was going to be on in the Landmark Center, which is kind of funny to think that the furnace would not be running when it is this cold outside. But, the furnace has broken before, so who really knows. Anyhow, the heat was running the entire time that we were there and that was good. So much draft comes off the windows that the heat really does need to run all of the time. Interestingly enough, it looks like the Grace Church did not meet today, bu the sidewalk was shoveled.....

We did a nice deep hip opening sequence, much like what we did on Wednesday. Only because we had so much more time we were able to work some hip opening upside down and then end with a few backbends. It had a whole Solstice theme to it: turn deeply inside (hip-openers) but also remember the light and its return (backbends). Lydia was on her new mat and that was fun to see. It is huge! I think that everyone has theirs now so it will be fun to see them in the studio.

I came home after picking up a few essentials at the co-op and then (for those of you that know about the current parenting challenges happening at the Newlin household) was able to put Maple down for a nap with relatively little thrashing. And she slept for over 2 hours! And of course now she is an absolutely well rested delight! She is organizing some mousey bike races right now....

Chris said to me this morning before I left (and after he lovingly got out the snow blower in the frigid cold and cleared off the driveway and then fed the goats and chickens) that on days when I go in to practice that my whole demeaner and attitude are completely different. I believe the quote is: "you are just a better person. We need to find a way for you to practice everyday." Ha! Wouldn't that be nice? This is not exactly new information for Chris. The first 2 1/2 years that we were together I generally practiced 6 days a week and we both understood how important that was for my psychological wellbeing. Over time, you can forget I guess. I haven't though. I could do a much better job finding windows of time for sitting at home, but since I have been pregnant, sleep in those moments seems much more appealing. Hmmhhhh. At any rate, it is lovely to get feedback that lets you know that the practice is really working.

I think that tomorrow night we will be doing some backbends. Working toward eprk 1. It is a drop in and I hope to see folks there. Maybe it will be a little warmer out? Oh yes, and after the practice next Sunday- the 1st of 3 yoga spree days- I think that we will have a little post-practice picnic.

Loads of Love. Happy Solstice.

Updates and small rants

Happily, I have added a schedule column to the blog. Easy to update and change, which is perfect for the holidays and also the post-holiday, pre-baby time. I have what is happening through new years (with one possible exception- I may add a practice time next Friday).

Everything is by drop in now as the session has ended and the week for make-up classes has come to a close. Class packages and passes are non- refundable and non-transferable. I think that looking back at the policies on the web site may help clarify any confusion here. Passes purchased last Spring or Summer are really not valid anymore.

The Sunday Practice is on for tomorrow, and that is a suggested donation of $10, but really anything is much appreciated. I am not sure what we will do tomorrow. I am kind of in a hip opening groove, but we will have to see. Any number of things could happen between now and then.

One of my pet peeves, as many of you know, is when someone who has never been to class tells me how hard my classes are or that they have heard that I teach "Hard core"yoga. This has been spurred on a bit by the upcoming holiday yoga spree, which to me is driven by a desire for healthy community connection and fun. The whole thing is very interesting to me. If you were to travel around and check out some of the Anusara studios around the country, I think that the majority of folks would come back under the impression that I am on par with how the method is being taught there, or maybe even that I am holding back a little. The truth is that I really believe in progress, it is how I have both been trained to practice and trained to teach. To me, if you are not seeing improvement and growth in the context of your practice, on the mat or off, than some change or modification in the approach needs to be considered. Christina, who after all is one of my very first yoga teachers, said it perfectly yesterday on her blog. And for the off chance that you do not compulsively check her blog, like myself, maybe this will be all of the prompt that you need to get into the habit.

"....asked about how one goes about introducing harder poses into ongoing public classes. I said that what I do is to get an idea of where I wanted to take the group over the course of six months. Then I tell my students my vision. Then I proceed, over the course of the six months to teach all the building blocks and tools to get there. (i.e.- I drag them along with me toward said vision!) Now the great thing about this approach is that people really improve a lot. The challenging thing about it as a teacher is, because people are improving so rapidly, people who skip out for two to six months come back to the same class and realize their level 1 class, somewhere a long the way, became a level 2 class while they were not there.


At some point in the last ten+ years, I made my peace with this phenomena and I decided to stop apologizing that, in terms of asana and yogic practice, I am into progress. I am into facilitating change as a teacher. I am, in no way, interested in learning and teaching creative ways to stay the same. There are a lot of teachers who do not see asana practice in this way. They are not into challenge. They are not into asking a lot of their students. I have had numerous discussion with teachers all over the country from different methods and they have their reasons for teaching how they do. All that is fine also. But me, I want to look at group of students and see that over the course of their studentship with me, there are measurable results happening on the mat.

And this has nothing to do with pushing, a lack of contentment or anything like that. I am not confused about attainment and its limitations and the temporal nature of such things. Not at all. But I love our method because when you practice it, you align with something whose very nature is expanding. You align with Grace and there is no way to stand still when you align with its currents. It is just not the way that it works. Move yourself in accordance to the principles over a long period and they change you."

So, does that sound "hard core" to you? Let me know. To me that just sounds like the beautiful nature of life applied to how we learn and practice and endeavor in yoga. Thank goodness that when people who have not been to class in a long time come and can see such an amazing difference in the folks who come every week! To those who make it every week, it really is incredible. Remind your self of where you have come from, even where you were 6 or 3 months ago. It is getting better all of the time.

Anusara Syllabus Poster

Tanutara: Making of the Anusara Syllabus Poster from Ross Evans on Vimeo.

Sunday Practice

We are on for a practice tomorrow morning.  9- 11:30ish.  Thereabouts.  

I am in Milwaukee with Maple getting ready to go see the Nutcracker with Gramma and Aunt Whitty.  Pretty exciting.  I am fighting off another infection.  What a season.  I seem to have about 7-10 healthy days between illnesses.  This seems to be sinus again.  Thank goodness for the neti pot!

I have been super busy all week getting a flyer together for the Holiday Yoga Spree and working through some transitions with Maple.  The adventure continues...

Hope to see folks tomorrow.  I will be sure to give a meater update sometime tomorrow afternoon.

no heat

Well we had a lovely practice despite the fact that the heat did not go on until after 11. hmmmhhhh.. Just when I think that I have it figured out. It is pretty hard to get it going when it is only 60 degrees. And I have the advantage of an internal heater. We all put layers on to do shoulderstand. Questionable. However, during shoulderstand, and some fun variations that we worked on including dropping over into setubandha, the heat kicked on and we started to warm up enough to do some really nice backbends. 31 poses in all, with quite a few repeats. It felt great and inversions felt better to me than they have in many months.

After savasana, the ladies brough in some yummy food and we had a little post practice birthday picnic. Nothing better really. Good company, good yoga, and good food. It is really a recipe for success.

Maple, Chris and I picked up our tree this afternoon out at Snowy Ridge and we are making pizza and getting ready to decorate. All in all a great day. later tonight if all goes well, Chris and I may reformat the blog so that the schedule will always be updated as the next few months are going to be dynamic to say the least.

Lots of love and good cheer. Have a cuppa cocoa.

Weeeeee

9 am practice! manana! weeee! Yippee! See you there!
Quite a few people have asked if we are going to do the requisite amount of salutations. We are not. I am not sure yet, but I am thinking 31 poses with many repeats. I am looking forward to it. It has been a week away from my mat so I am really looking forward to this starting a different tendency for next week. That and I hope to actually secure some child care for next week so that I can make it into the studio.

So the snow is flying in Viroqua which is so beautiful, and among many other things it means some potentially cold times in the studio. Alas. This is a reality that every winter drives me crazy and I always hope that this will be the final year. The really great news however, is that the Grace Church meets upstairs on Sunday mornings and the heat is raging for the Sunday AM practice. Hallelujah! Sundays are going to be on the schedule for the forseeable future (except for right after the new year when I will be in Florida. Yes, I know, poor me). They may most likely be the first thing to return after the arrival of babe. OK, lots of love.

Thursday Practice Time

Hello there!

We will practice at 9:15 as opposed to 9 tomorrow morning. The practice will still last 2 hours, so if you are coming plan accordingly. Of course, it is technically open practice so you can come and go whenever and do your own thing. But if you are planning on following a led practice, I will go for the full 2 hours. I am thinking the standing pose sequence and then some hanumanasana work. Sounds fun, yes? Maybe throw in some inversions.

I am also going to get the winter schedule up on the blog over the weekend. Thanks for your patience. Also, flyers for around town (or your own hands) are in the works.

OK. News brief over. I hope to have something more interesting to share soon.

For those of you wondering, I am still undecided on the dog....

Sunday AM practice

I am planning to have some more community practice times scheduled in the next few months. These will hopefully fall on a somewhat regular schedule, but could also be random at times. I will do my best to let folks know in class, but really, the best bet will be to check here from time to time and get the exact info. No, this is not simply a ploy for you to be actually reading this blog (which, I admit, has been a little lacking in substance as of late), but it also helps me having to deal with the phone and leaving messages and calling everyone back. One blog. One place to check. Much easier.

So there. Tomorrow morning, 9am to sometime between 11 and noon. Depending on how quickly we work through what I want to do. I am not exactly quickly moving these days. Alas. It should be great. Good company and a morning well spent in the body. Hope to see you there.

Love.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good Day!   I am much recovered from the dread stomach bug that had the better of me Sunday and Monday and am enjoying a lovely day with family and friends.  I woke up early and went over to my friend Tracy's house to practice and talk about parenting and of course, yoga.  It was a great way to start the gratitude flowing with Trace.  We have shared a lot of similar experiences in the past 4 years.   Zeal for yoga and many, many hours together on the mat, three pregnancies (almost),  the joy and at times overwhelm in the face of mothering.  It goes on and on.  I love her.  Not to mention that Ava is one of the cutest and happy babies ever.  So I love seeing her and for some reason I can never manage to leave Tracy's house without consuming some kind of baked good.  Today was a gingerbread cookie.  I am not complaining.  

We are headed into Milwaukee in a little bit for Dinner with my Aunt Sally and Uncle Slava and some of their adult brood.    Good company and good eats.  Slava (or Uncle Frosty)  is a fantastic cook so it is always a treat to head down there.    Tomorrow we will go down to Chicago for the day to visit with Chris' brothers family, including the new young Gilly.  

We will be home on Saturday and I am scheduling a community practice for Sunday morning 9-noon.  We have to do our big gratitude practice because we missed last Monday night due to another illness by me....  So, hope to see folks there for some great post feast yoga.

More later.

Saturday Snow Yoga

I just got back for a great, languid practice followed by lunch at the Driftless. Yum on all fronts. I actually found this old sequence that I have only done 1 or 2 times before. It was great. A lot of repeating poses multiple times which can be wonderful for deepening the energetic around certain actions and also allowing space to just really feel the pose. Loved it. It was very sensational for me, but I am beginning to loose a little bit of my perspective around what something should feel like for someone who is not pregnant. I would come out of a pose and just be like "whoa" or really move energy vocally in other ways and my practice buddy would look at me kind of funny. So I am not sure if she had as intense I time as I did, but like I said, for me, it was great.

We have class just on Monday night this week. It is actually a make up class from one we missed in October, which I am glad for because I am glad to meet this week. And then, Thanksgiving. We seem to be on a roll toward the end of this session, and I will post the projected schedule for December as well as for the New Year (until baby) in the next few days.

The Holiday Yoga Spree schedule is as follows:

Sunday December 28th 9am-noon
Monday December 29th 9-noon
Tuesday December 30th 9-noon

Kids 10-15 holiday yoga class will be Monday afternoon 3-4pm

Hope this sounds good for folks and I look forward to seeing you all on your mats throughout the Holidays.

cold, again

Not too much to write about. Except, that I have another stinkin' cold! Which is, I guess at this point life proceeding ahead as usual. Oh Well. After a fantastic class this morning I headed over to the coffee depot with Jess and Hallie made beautiful lattes for us. (Kelly, you would be proud). Big, bright, milky hearts. I, however, proceeded to blow quite a bit of coffee out of my nose, which is really not pretty or recommended but actually led to about an hour of the most clear sinus' that I have had in awhile.

Side note on Caffienne and Pregnancy and Caffienne and Me in general: In my normal day to day reality, a cup of green tea or black tea is PLENTY to sufficiently fire me up. I really have not been a big coffee drinker since about 2004 when I realized that the huge existential crisis and ensuing incessant therapy may have all been caused by the VAT of coffee that I was consuming each morning. (Not to say that I did not at the time need all of the said therapy, and still benefit from it, and would in fact love to find a therapist now that is as powerful for me as my therapist at that time was, but I digress.) So I have not been a coffee drinker for awhile, and I certainly did not drink caffienne of any sort when I was pregnant with Maple. But mind you, I was also napping frequently and on average probably sleeping 13 or 14 hours in a 24 hour period. Rough, I know. I did take a brief foray into the joys of coffee when Maple was about 8 months old and I remembered for the first time since her birth what it felt like to be rested, as artificial as that was... It didn't last long however, because as anyone who knows would testify to, I am way to vata to behave like that and not have it seriously fry me and dry me out.

This pregnancy is a different story. I see a latte and I think "bring it on". The 7 or 8 hours of interupted sleep that I now get doesn't even begin to make a dent in the deficit that I have going. So I need all the artificial help that I can get. (You can also refer back to yesterdays entry on my general lack of sensitivity and catch up). Even though, if you are really paying attention, there is a very strong argument here for the increased depletion that I am creating through my behavior and how if I would just take the appropriate meassures I could most likely create some restoration for myself now. This is indeed valid and actually true. But I don't really want to hear it. I want to drink the latte for now and complain a little bit. Even though I would like to go with out the continual cold.... Paradoxical, isn't it?

We did aprroximately 11 poses today working deeply on our way toward lotus. Intense inner thigh work. Quaking inner thigh work. The theme was unfolding the lotus flower of self-honor in each of our own hearts. I have actually been working with the ideas a lot lately in class and in my own contemplation that self-love and self-honor are actually the means by which we stabalize our sensitivity. We can protect ourselves from being thrown off by how much we pick up on by actually putting on a coat of light, of self-honor and self-love. In this way, we remain very receptive and fluid and in the world, and never waiver out of the Love within our own hearts. This is a big one. It can continue on and on. Even if you have a latte you are still lovable. Whoa.

For anyone that is interested in the sequence, I think that it went something like this. Remember: hug in to tone the inner thigh, and then from there thighs back and wide. Then tailbone action.

-Dog pose
-Parsvakonasana (arm to the inside)
-Uttanansana (manual shins in)
-lunge, back knee down (recreate scissor action in the legs)
-Dog pose
-pigeon prep 2x
-Dog pose
-janu sirsasana
-uppavista konasana
-parsva uppavista
-baby cradle (deep inner spiral 1st)
-agnistambasana
-bharadvajasana 2
-padmasana
VIOLA!
-Uttanasana
-Savasana

Led practice tomarrow 9-11. What fun! I will post the Holiday Yoga Spree Schedule tomorrow.
Sleep well!

I love my chickens

Maybe not necessarily yoga related (but then again this blog is feeling much more like a parenting/pregnancy blog right now than my yoga blog. But then isn't that the nature of Divine pulsation anyway?). But my chicks! they are finally coming into their own. They are just getting more organized around their lives. They are ready to go back in their coop every afternoon at 3:30 after happily spending the day with the goats. Maybe it is just the cold weather, but it is so nice to not be chasing the, around the yard for 20 minutes every night waving a stick at them- which I have to say, even though Chris thought that was a riot, it was becoming increasingly more precarious as the ground hardened and so did my growing belly....

Last Thursday I had another great practice with Jessica, and on Sunday Kae and I met for a fantastic evening practice. Both times we focused primarily on the standing pose sequence and it really felt great. Especially on Sunday. I have this funky phenomenon that happens when I am pregnant where I just cannot feel my body as well as I can during the rest of my life. So I can actually have a great practice and sometimes almost not even be able to tell (Sadly, it is sometimes often the case with what I eat as well. That piece of pumpkin pie-with whip- registers not so different from a perfectly sattvic plate of warm veggies. Ah well.) However, not so on Sunday. I felt fantastic. There is something about the whole quality of readiness and capability that is so resonant for me right now in practicing the standing poses. And that is kind of my mindset these days. I am getting ready.

And I am actively asking for help. From my community, but mostly from God. Shameless begging should about sum it up. I am praying with my whole heart for more patience as a mama. For the strength to be the parent that I believe every child deserves, not only to Maple but to this new babe coming. And I am praying to feel the support and the love enough that I can stand tall in what is best for my family even on days when I am on my own without a partner. This all feels so huge. But honestly it is giving me a ton of creative energy. Not creative energy as in I finished painting the room that I started a year ago... But creative energy as in how is this new and evolving life going to work in a way that is best going to serve me, my family, and my community. It is like an enormous riddle that I am pretty into figuring out.

On Monday we did a lot of standing balancing poses and worked with Shri as a theme. I have been really into trying to define these terms for myself and also encouraging my students to do the same. Make it personal and thereby more meaningful. To me, shri is that auscpicious beauty that is always all around us and within us, but that depending on our own immediate perspective, is sometimes concealed. To remind ourselves of shri, is to remind ourselves that life is good and that our essential nature is beautiful and good and right. We experience shri the most easily when we are really in the flow. So it is so important during those times to really drink in the experience. Contemplate it. Embody it. So that that experience becomes a part of you and is there for you to reveal any time.

Anyhow, we did a ton of Virabadrasana 3 and Urdhva Prasaritta Eka Padasana. Also some pretty successful work in partners toward bird of paradise. We had just a little bit of time toward the end for a few arm balances, not enough really. Everyone is really starting to unite in agreement that 90 minutes is still just very short. So we should all be psyched for the Holiday Yoga Spree. 3 days. 3 hours. Between Christmas and New Years. I am headed to the calendar now to figure out the dates and times. Like I said, a riddle. I am also going to schedule 2 hour long classes for kids ages 10-15 during that same week. I hope to have that information tomarrow. And I am looking ahead to see what kind of schedule we will have until the arrival of the next Newlin. fun stuff.

foggy night

There is not much to say this evening. Chris is on the road, Gramma left today after a short visit, and Maple is weaving a yarn about something that happened to her tights. Very interesting.

Speaking of yarn, I am a little obsessed with a number of the knitting projects that I have going. Yes, there is more than one, which until very recently was very unlike me. My mom actually got a little gushy about it and said something along the lines of "Oh Meg! You're a real knitter now!" Anyway, I am a little preoccupied. For anyone who is interested, I am working on a beautiful shawl that is a grapevine lace pattern, beautiful, soft and gray. I am making Maple a cozy pair of mittens. And I am trying to finish a pair of socks that I started for Chris I think when I was pregnant with Maple. But, on the horizon..... I am looking forward to a really sweet jumper that I want to make for Maple, along with a wrap skirt. They look pretty simple and very fun. And my friend Erika has a very sweet pattern for a pair of baby pants that her little freshie Zelda has been sporting and with I am eyeing for my little guy. At this rate it looks like it will be a very yarn filled winter. (For those of you that do not know, My mother owns a fantastic yarn store in Delafield, Wisconsin called the Knitch. Which, as Erika says, if you like knitting is like being a kid and having your parent own a candy store. Pretty much.)

I did a private yesterday with my friends son which was such a delight. He is a very aware fella, and has been doing Tae Kwon Do for awhile so just really loves movement and being in his body. At any rate, it was so fun that I am thinking about offering 2 classes for kids 10-16 or so during the Christmas break. Probably in that week between Christmas and New Years. Also, I would like to do our own little holiday intensive at Align with Nature. 3 or 4 days in a row getting together for a 3 hour practice. 10 bucks a pop or $20 for all 3 (or $30 for all 4 as the case may be...) I really love something like this around the holidays. It helps keep everything grounded and in perspective.

I had a great practice yesterday afternoon. I pulled out the old practice sheets from Desiree and went through all of the standing poses and then just finished up with some hip openers, supta virasana, sirsasana and setu bandha. Oddly enough, headstand and shoulderstand, which felt so fantastic during my first pregnancy are not so great this time around. It is a tough one for my personality because I kind of just want to break em down and figure out what is going on. That is kind of the opposite from what pre natal intuition guides someone toward. So I am letting it lie for now and checking back in every so often.

In this mornings class I taught that same series of standing poses and worked with the theme of developing a deeper strength. This works really well with an intense sequence of standing poses, especially when you get the timer involved. Everyone is getting so strong and all looked exceptionally glowy on their way out. Nothing like a little hard work to clear the mind.

Ok. Looks like our kitcheree is ready. We are getting into quite a habit of the Monday night Kitcheree. I am pretty lucky to have a little girl that just eats it up. Throw in some fresh local veggies and we're all set.

Winter weekend yoga

Well it went from being 75* at the beginning of the week to being 25* at the end. It looks like the colder temps are here to stay for, oh, the next 5 or 6 months. Oh well. I can't really say that it comes as a surprise, a shock maybe but not a surprise. This is Wisconsin after all.

Last Thursday I had the great pleasure of doing a nice long practice with my friend Jessica. No one has come to the open practice slot thus far so it is generally me in there doing my own thing. Jess and I did a practice that I have from Desiree which was great fun and also got to work a little bit on what is going on with her back. Practicing with friends is really up there with my most favorite things to to.

Yesterday, Kae and I headed down to Madison to spend the day doing yoga with another of my all time favorite people, Noah Maze. We were welcomed by a big group from Viroqua that had come down for the session the night before. It was really a fantastic representation of yogis from Viroqua: Shelia, Shelia, Valorie, Lydia, Heidi, and Kristina were all there in addition to the 2 of us. Noah was himself to a tee, he told beautiful Ganapati stories interwoven with personal anticdotes. He and his wife have just recently become parents and so he is in that whirlwind of beginnings that involves a ton of love and feeling and not a lot of sleep. He was very well recieved by Wisconsinites, who generally speaking are parents themselves.

In the morning we did a fun backbend practice, focusing a lot on creating a boundary with the shins and working the inner thighs like crazy (sound familiar?). It was a solid sequence with a few unexpected surprises which I thought were great. At the break I shared lunch with Kae and Noah and Kristina and some of the lovely Madison ladies. That was great and i was really reminded of how long I have known Noah for and how he has really seen the full trajectory of me. From my most vulnerable and raw to my most built up. He has been a solid and consistent force in my life for a long time and I value his friendship highly.

In the afternoon we started things out with a lovely meditation on all of the senses to start off a lively hip opening class. I didn't personally feel as warmed up as I like to for hip work, but that may have just been that I was a tired ol' pregnant lady. Who knows. But it was great fun and I was definitely in the flow of everyone elses practices. My friend Tracy from Hartland was also there so it was fun to connect with her for a bit and I feel inspired to take a trip to my mom's and get in a practice or 2 with her. It really must be said that since I have moved back to Wisconsin she has been my main practice partner and a huge source of inspiration for me. We have seen each other through multiple pregnancies and supported each other in the challenges of the householder. Love her.

Before heading back to V town, Kae and I stopped into Dobhan's for a bite to eat (OK, many bites...) and were happily surprised when Noah, Iris and her husband, and Barbara showed up for dinner. So that was lovely and a nice end to the evening. Well, almost an end. We did have a 2 hour drive home following.

Today I am hanging with the family. Chris is headed out for a ride in the frigid out of doors and then we are all here. Hooray!

a new day

There was such a buzz to the air this morning when I woke up. And then all day, everywhere I went, people were literally bubbling over with a new sense of hope and thrill. Several folks had a visible spring in their step. I will admit, I am pretty excited myself. And relieved.
Today was a fantastic day. After dropping Maple off for her morning at Miss Sarah's, I headed in to teach class. And I do not know if it was my post yesterday or what, but we had a bigger class this morning than we have had all session. We continued to work with the themes of cultivating faith and asking for help and worked toward hanumanasana. Everyone did very well. A few folks are working with some injuries and they just did a great job of really working the actions and doing their best. That is such an intense pose and really such a good example of every drop in the bucket counting. That is one thing that John emphasized over and over again when we were in Boston. How much every effort counts. And that it is really in the darkness that all the seeds of our efforts grow. So really, everyone did very well.
At one point I did ask one woman how it was going and she said "it just hurts". When I asked for more clarification, she essentially repeated the same sentiment. I worked her and the rest of the class through the actions again, and I am pretty sure if I had asked her again she would have given the same reply. (She did however try using blocks on her next attempt and I think that that did make a pretty big difference, at least mentally.) I really want us to get clear on this, because in my mind, if "it just hurts", I am not going to do it. No way. I really do not see the point. (This might shed some light on why it is my husband that is the competitive cyclist and I am the yogin.) However, that said, in my mind there is a very big difference between something hurting or even being painful, and something being so intense that it takes every scrap of my will (and we are really talking about the mind here) to stay with it. But at this point, I also have enough experience to know that when something is really genuinely intense like that, my sticking with it is actually going to result in the opening (transformation, burst of energy, movement of Shakti, revelation: call it what you want) that I am really after to begin with. Hmmh, sounds a little like child birth. Which, for those of us into natural birth is really an apt analogy. That is a different post however, and possibly one that will emerge in the coming months...
This weekend, the lovely ladies in Madison are hosting Noah Maze for a weekend workshop. Very exciting. Not only is Noah one of my favorite people, he also recently became a papa and I have not seen him since. It looks like quite a few folks from Viroqua are headed down for a good chunk of the weekend. He is doing a therapuetics session on Friday afternoon which I am sad to miss but am very happy that some folks from here will be attending. I will be there all day Saturday. Hope to see you there!

election day jitters

The errant blogger returns....
Chris is on the road and Maple is asleep early so I actually have time to get some things in order. (Even though, truly, it is my ongoing intention to post more frequently.) We voted this morning before Chris headed out of town and then M and I spent the majority of the day hanging out in town with friends trying not to count the hours until the polls are closed. I actually spent most of my time with a friend of mine who is from Canada who seemed a lot less anxious then everyone else. No real surprise there.
Ever since returning from the Boston teacher training I have had a ton of renewed energy for teaching. Which generally speaking for me leads to a lot of time spent reassessing what is working and what could use some adjustment. For those that know me, I really go through periodic periods of overhauling the way that I do everything. I do not actually know if this is an effective tendency or not. However, there really is a lot to be said in the old saying "you get what you ask for". Over the last 6 months the number of folks coming to class has significantly dropped, which I, of course, take way too personally. But the flip side of that is that the folks that are coming to class are a very dedicated group which is exactly what I was saying that I wanted. Really. Now maybe I just need to be a little bit more specific. Lets have big classes with lots of people who are excited to learn this amazing system of yoga called Anusara and want to really reach for the highest!
I recently got a call from a good friend of mine who is also an Anusara- inspired teacher saying that she is going to stop teaching after the Holidays. This didn't come as a complete surprise to me and is for her I think really the right decision for her. It just really got me thinking first because I am so vata that when anyone decides that they are doing anything, I automatically wonder if I should do it too. But primarly it was interesting because she is not the first person to say that to me recently. Mostly it is coming from folks whose life trajectory is just shifting enough right now that their energy is best spent someplace else. Some are having babies and are being called to the sacred task of parenting, others looking to spend their energy focusing on personal or physical healing, and others wanting to spend it on the development and nurturing of their own practice. Or even some combination of those 3.
I actually do contemplate stopping teaching pretty frequently. When it is really hard to manage the care of my daughter and I feel more needed at home. Or presently, when I think about having a new baby and my girl and a husband who is on the road 4 days a week. Believe me, it would be a lot easier in many ways if there was nothing pulling me out of the house. But not really. For me practice is like my life line and teaching is an opportunity for me to get even clearer on what I have been contemplating by attempting to share it with others. Also, other people's revelations in the practice are really my bread and butter. I love it! After a good practice or class, I feel more connected to the other parts of my life, like my roles as wife and mother and community member in a small town. And, on a very basic and fundamental level, I think that I am much easier to be around when I have taken that time for myself and my students. And we're not talking much here. 2 or 3 classes a week. I am on my mat 3 or 4 days a week right now is all. But it is enough to effect my life greatly. For the better.

Before heading out for the week with John and the community, I was in probably the lowest place personally that I have been in in the last 5 years. Low. And just 7 days of really and fully plugging into myself as a practitioner and a teacher was so uplifting that I feel like I have perspective maybe for the first time since I got pregnant. Breathe of Life. So, stopping teaching is really not for me. At least not right now. Right now what works for me and my family is for me to make it out of the house a few times a week so that I can fill myself up with the teachings that feed me. Its good stuff.

Boston Level 2 teacher training!

I think that I have finally made the transition to the home of my new blog.  So yippie!  I can actually post.  Pardon me while I ever so slowly try to catch up to the technology of the 21st century.

I am at a teacher training with John Friend in Boston for the week, and as usual, I am completely blown away.  At some point in the last few days I realized that I probably have close to 1000 hours with John accumulated over the last 7 years or so, and I swear, he has never been as clear and refined and unbelievably sophisticated in his teaching.  This is the best ever.  He is really the best teacher that I have ever had the privilege to study with, and he just keeps getting better.   Pretty inspiring.  This is the first training that I have done quite so pregnant and it really is turning out to be such a gift, it is just not all about me.  Thank God!  Also, this is the first teacher training that I have done in 4 years, and is more refined.  Certainly John is.  But me too.  I am 4 years deeper into my teaching experience and so for me everything seems so much more practical than it did when I had only been teaching for a few years.

OK, Maple is blowing up now after not seeing Mama all day.  Gotta go....

Personal

So- I have slipped below the nausea curtain again…. I am feeling a bit better today but the last 2 days have really been something. It is a little dispiriting to be feeling better after such a great while and then to really not feel so well again. I think in part that I am getting used to our families new schedule and figuring out how to be on my own with Maple for a few days. Also, I am probably doing the typical thing for me really, which is to completely overextend myself and believe that I can get more done than is really realistic. Not wise when you are an 18 week pregnant lady with a 2 1/2 year old very busy girl and a husband on the road. Not wise at all. I have been practicing more which is lovely, but for which I have very very little endurance. I seem to be getting disproportionately sore for what I am doing. I cannot remember if this was the case last time or not. It is however, fantastic to be on my mat and moving and breathing in this changing body. It also feels like some very special time for just me and the new baby, the littlest Newlin. I felt that with Maple too. When I was immersed in my practice and the amazingly unique form that it takes for 9 months, it just felt like this very tender, sweet thing that we were doing together. And now she is a little girl who is very much in her body, loves yoga and loves inventing her own poses. I am actually at my mom’s right now down in Milwaukee. A friend of mine from high school is having a baby shower tonight. It should be pretty fun and a nice chance to catch up with some folks. Mostly it is very exciting that Becca is having a baby, a strong and healthy boy, after years of trying so hard to invite his little spirit in. The evening should be a bit different from the blessing ways up in Viroqua. The whole event has given me the chance to stop in at my favorite childrens store ever, Bark River Kids, which is conveniently located just around the corner from my Mom’s yarn shop, the Knitch. I love that place so much and so does Maple. In fact she has already learning how to best angle for something. ”This baby really needs me to take care of her…I need this for my baby….This jacket would fit Maple” and so on. I also have to do a little shopping myself as I am outgrowing all of my clothes. Mostly, though, I need to still find a dress for my brother-in-laws (black tie) wedding. Huh huh, no pressure. Chris is in a fabulous tux, Maple is dashing of course, and I am trying to just not looked beached. I think that it will be OK, hopefully I will find something today. On to the week in class…. Chris suggested that I need to be a little bit more personal in the blog so here was my first attempt. Classes were great. More people are wandering back in. We worked a lot on deepening the groins in both classes making some really great attempts toward hanumanasana on Wednesday morning. It would be great to see some more folks on Thursday mornings so that we can really get some good practices going. Ok, love to everyone.

A Week Deep

Well, we are a week into the fall session and it has been great to see the folks that were in class this week. Classes were pretty small, but as I run into people around town it sounds like everyone is still adjusting to the life changes that this time of year brings. Me too. At any rate, we had fun on both Monday and Wednesday working on the upper back and shoulders and venturing into Urdhva Dhanurasana.

It was just me on Thursday morning for open practice and I truly had a great time in there listening to music and enjoying my practice. It is really wonderful to have open studio time like that and I hope that folks take advantage of it. In fact, for me having open practice time is really how I transitioned from taking classes and enjoying group practices to really understanding how to practice on my own. And that is how I fell inlove with my practice. When I taught at Darren Rhodes studio in Tucson, he offered 3 open practice times a week free fot all of the teachers and $5 for anybody else. It was great fun and such a supportive environment to explore in. Sometimes mellow, sometimes wild and crazy. Anyway, among many things, I am grateful for Darren for that and I have always looked forward to offering that to my own students one day. Now we are at a place where we can because there is really a group that is ready to explore their own practices.

OK. That seems like enough of the soap box on that particulat topic. I could really go on forever (and have before) on all of the merits and joys of a personal practice, but what can I say…. I love to practice asana. A lot.

Hope everyone is well and staying relatively dry. Me and all of my expanding parts are going to bed.

Fall Session

We had our first class last night. It was good to see folks after a wee break. I am hoping to see more folks tomorrow and Thursday and then again next Monday, as some of the folks who took the summer off wander back in. Come Back! We miss you! It is getting chilly out and the time for golf and gardening are coming to a close! Time for some rockin’ yoga.

And rockin’ it will be. I am very excited about this fall and about this whole year in fact. There are just more and more opportunities to study great Anusara Yoga with fabulous teachers in out region this year. Noah Maze is coming 3 times within an 8 month period. Desiree Rumbaugh twice. Christina Sell will be back to our lovely little town next year. Also a few others like Todd Norian and I think the Kirks will be back too. And you know, as remote as we are here in Viroqua, we are very well placed for workshops in Minneapolis, Madison and Chicago. Really not a bad shake. Especially if you enjoy the occasional city weekend.

Last night was a great class, even though we all took pause when it was dark by the end of class! We worksed on some great shoulder and upperback opening, working toward Urdhva Dhanurasana. We will be working on this in particular much more this fall. Fun! The theme we played with was to praise Shakti. To praise the beauty and the goodness in ourselves and eachother and to do so actively. This is a very primary teaching in Anusara Yoga and part of why we are so into the use of themes in classes. Essentially, Shakti, or the great creative force of being, loves to be praised and glorified. In fact, she loves it so much that she expands when we do so. And it is also just such a good practice of self love and acknowledgement. Christina wrote a great entry a few weeks back on her blog on this very topic- I may bring it in to class to share.

Now, however, there is a wee toddler waiting for a story and some snuggles for bedtime.

Love.

Last Week of Summer Classes

Interestingly enough, I taught 3 times this week after teaching only once a week all summer. We had our make-up class on Tuesday, I taught up at Keewaydin on Wednesday, and then class on Thursday. It was fun and to me really felt like a party. But then again, yoga often feels like a party to me. I love seeing everybody so much, I love the asana, I love really endeavoring to believe in myself and to help nurture that in others. There you go. A party.

I am trying to remember what we did on Tuesday, but I am having a pregnant moment. I know that we worked on pinca, but we have been working on that a lot lately. And also Vasistasana. Oh yeah, my car didn’t start that day and I had to track down Chris to come home and give me a ride in. I was 20 minutes late, which would never happen if I lived in town. Right Val? But then where would my goats be?

Wednesday was farm yoga, which it has taken me 3 years to really understand how to teach out on the farm. It is not one of my usual classes. It is uplifting stretching and breathing for people who are doing physically demanding work all day long everyday. We are not trying to balance on our hands and grab our foot behind our head in this environment. But I do get to introduce people to yoga sometimes and that is really fun. There were 2 people there on Wednesday who really do not speak any english at all and it was their very first time. They did great and it was so fun to see that little spark ignite. I really try to give folks on the farm a few stretches that they can do any time that are really applicable to what they are doing with their bodies.

On Thursday we did a standing pose and arm balance sequence from Christina Sell. It was a good time and hopefully Shelia’s guests were not too freaked out by what is surely not a typical level one class. In general, I seem to attract physically fit, tenacious and willing students who like to work hard. So we do and it is great fun and sometimes we surprise ourselves. In fact the theme that we worked with was fun, and how chit ananda equals fun for the yogin. We love to know and we relish the experience of that knowing. Like I said, a party. The highlight of class was that we were introduced some variations of sirsasana. Parsva Sirsasana went very well. And it was fun to think about parsvaikapada sirsasana and how to kepp working on that.

On a personal note, I am feeling a bit better and have been on my own mat a little more. I do spend a least 10 minutes in a very supported supta virasana and I do very little in general in a relatively long period of time. But it feels good and i am very thankful for my body and all of its knowing. An amazing gift, and yet also something that I have worksed on diligently for over a decade.

I hope to see everyone that I have missed over the summer when fall classes start up in a week. It is going to be a great fall and a fantastic year. Mark your calendars now because October 2nd Shantala, an amazing kirtan group form Oregon (and also really old friends of mine from the Anusara world) are coming to Madison for an evening of beautiful music and chanting. Then November 7-9 in Madison Noah Maze will be teaching a weekend workshop not to be missed. I am thinking full weekend and joint hotel room for anyone that is interested. Nothing better than a weekend of great yoga and yummy food and dare I say a little bit of shopping…. And then looking ahead in 2009, we have Christina Sell coming back to Viroqua at the end of April and we had such fun last time that we expect and even bigger turn out of folks from all over the state and maybe then some! And then in the beginning of June, John Friend is coming back to the midwest, to Chicago, for the first time in 3 years! Not to be missed.

It is stacking up to be a great year. And somewhere in all of that I get to have a baby. Whoa…

Almost Fall

Wow, so this is the last week of summer classes and then we are on to the fall schedule. I have been totally out of commission this summer, and glad to have only been teaching once a week. In fact, I am only just now gradually crawling back onto my own mat. I do have a great reason however. I am pregnant with #2, and much like with Maple, I have been overtaken with pretty amazing nausea. And a headache. Thats new. It is a little different the second time around because there is not the opportunity for rest that there is with #1. That is pretty rough. So I have pretty much been using any time that I do have for oh so precious sleep.

Hopefully in the next few weeks I will update the schedule for fall. But here it is for now:

Monday: 6-7:30pm mixed level

Wednesday: 9-10:30am level 1 continuing

Thursday: 9-11am open studio practice

So this is radically different, but I am happy to have as much to offer as this. Chris is on the road now for his new job and I am still working out childcare for some of the times, but this is what it looks like. I am really quite excited about it. My intention for this year is really strong and is basically this: to teach really solid Anusara classes (I am doubly excited about this because I am going to the level 2 teacher training in Boston with John, and I am working more closely with a mentor), and I am really clear on wanting to progress peoples practices- I am thinking really about those of you who have been in class for a year or two now and who are planning on coming to class more than once a week.

Which brings up another point. There is no Basics class on the fall schedule. This is for a variety of reasons but really, most folks that want to come to a Basics class are really fine to come to a mixed level class or even the level 1 continuing if they have some prior yoga experience. Just be prepared to work a little bit harder. Fun. The only folks who I ever see in Basics who this would not work for are the elderly or those with any major physical limitation (i.e. ” I am fine, really, oh and by the way I have a 6 inch iron rod in my back” you catch my meaning). These folks should be seeing me privately anyway. Everyone would be better served.

The other major difference on the fall schedule is the open studio days on Thursdays. I am super psyched about this, because not only do I get an opportunity to practice, but those of you interested in building a home practice have the opportunity to work by yourself or in groups in a supported environment with someone on hand to answer questions. Great! And it is a great opportunity to work on the poses that challenge you and build some group momentum. Darren Rhodes in Tucson has an open studio three times a wee, and that was really where I learned How to practice. It is really an opportunity to go into the laboratory of your practice and dive in.

So, hope to see you all soon.. Check back often. I promise to be more diligent in the ol’ blogesphere.

Summer Session: July 8th

So the summer session started up last week. We are running just the Thursday morning class for the summer. We could not quite get the numbers that we needed for the Monday afternoon class, but we have a great, very dedicated group on Thursday mornings so it should be great. In the fall the class offerings will be back up to 3 or 4 but for the summer the leaner schedule is nice. In the flow. It is very hard to get Wisconsinites to commit to spending any part of the warm weather indoors on a regular basis.

This summer we have the opportunity to be a little bit of a focus group, which is very fun for me (hopefully the class too…). We are going to be looking at the 6 attributes of the Supreme as John Friend lays them out in Anusara Yoga philosophy. This is great because it is specific to our method but also is so universal that everyone can really relate to each attribute on a personal level. Last week was Essential Goodness, which in my mind is such a good place to start as it is so aligned with the 1st principle: Open to Grace. We begin by simply remembering that the essential nature of life is one of goodness, that there is a Divine order or flow that we are all a part of. This week we will talk about Chit, Consciousness or Knowing. We will get more into it in class, and probably after in another blog post.

Another approach that we are taking is to ask more questions and take time for deeper answers. I love teaching like this because it is so fun to see what people have questions about, even if it is a curiosity about a specific pose or the relationship between certain poses. Fun. Also, I just really love when people gain a deeper understanding of the yoga. Anusara is a system, and at first it really takes a lot of mental energy to engage with that system. But after awhile, it really does become cellular and peoples understanding becomes more graceful and eloquent and less effortful.

OK. That it for now. See you soon.

Post Weekend Workshop: June 24

So, it is my post weekend workshop with Christina Sell resolution to post more on this blog. Yippie. Things are in super fast change mode around these parts, but all of that is very fun and very worth sharing about.

The weekend was amazing! We had an intimate group, 12-15 people per session, so everybody received a ton of personal attention. Christina is just such a brilliant teacher, in my opinion, really one of the best. She does such a skillful job of leading people through a lot of yoga AND also getting a lot of teaching done concurrently. Does not always happen like that. We focused a lot on the difference between pelvic loop and outer spiral and did some great work really deeply rotating the leg in the socket and taking it all the way down to the foot. This led to some great, deep hip openers, hanumanasana and some fun arm balances. She also taught so clearly on the difference between opening the shoulders separate from the upper back, really fun hard work that we will be focusing on more in class in the weeks to come. There were also so many wonderful anecdotal little pieces that she shared throughout the weekend, little quotes that would spontaneously occur to her that really served to deepen everyones understanding of the yoga, from the UPA’s to the Grand Purpose.

My friend and fellow inspired teacher Tammy,from Port Washington, Wisconsin made the trip with a few of her students and that was great. She is such a light and so it was so fun for me to have her meet Christina, who I also adore. It was amazing to realize that I have been practicing with Christina for about 9 years and there is just such a wonderful depth to our relationship. She is forever my teacher, my mentor, and my dear, dear friend. We were able to spend a bunch of great time together, even had 2 fantastic practices together, which is really my favorite way to spend time with her. She is absolutely my favorite person to practice with! What a treat to not have to fly across the country to so it! (Well, that is not entirely true, as she actually had to fly across the country…)

At any rate, she will be coming back at the end of April 2009 to do another weekend workshop with us, and hopefully sometime in November as well. It is just so awesome to have my favorite teacher teach my students! I really saw it this morning in class. Pretty much everyone that had been there this weekend was in class this morning and to see how everyone has shifted already… very cool.

Summer session starts up next week, Monday 3:30-5 and Thursday 9-10:30. Again the classes are not going to run this session with less than 10 people, so be sure to sign up. I will know for sure on Thursday how it is looking and let folks know at that point. Also, I am hoping to teach a workshop toward the end of the summer, just a 3 hour deal on how to create a home practice. Should be great.

OK. That’s it for now. Go check out Christina’s blog!

Love.

June 13th

Maybe I will get into the habit of putting up the date until we are in the new format so that we can at least have a sense of how far apart these entries actually are…

So, the workshop is in 1 week. Holy Cow! We have an official venue and that is Carol Anne Kemen’s studio, actually down the hall from my own in the Landmark Building, 500 e jefferson street, viroqua, wis 54665. So the motto must be better late than never as registration forms are finally beginning to come in and it is looking like we will have a nice size group.

Also, registration is open for the summer session, running june30th through the end of august, 8 weeks with one week off. There will be a level2 class on Monday afternoons from 3:30-5pm and a level 1 class Thursday mornings from 9-10:30am. There is a 10 person minimum per class so please, sign up soon! It would really be sad to not have a class run!

I hope to post again over the weekend about recent themes etc… For now, I am off to enjoy the sunshine.

Love.

Too Long, Again....

While I am waiting for the website to be launched I am not posting as much. I apologize for this, but I just cannot be sure where the posts will land.

At any rate, summer is here (with some torrential rains) and things are certainly picking up as far as yoga goes. Align with nature is hosting its first workshop ever the weekend after next with Christina Sell. This is so exciting as she is a dear friend, my first Anusara teacher and really and truly in my opinion, one of the best Anusara Yoga teachers out there. She is so clear, precise and devoted, in all areas. Her understanding of alignment is unparalleled and her experience as a practitioner is readily apparent and accessible in her teaching. We are so lucky to have her and I hope to see many of you there. We are still a little bit up in the air as far as the venue is concerned, but that will all be worked out in the next few days.

As far as public classes are concerned, I have been sick off and on for much of May and the beginning of this month, and that has affected classes a bit. I have not been posting sequences which I apologize for and I hope to get back in the swing of that this next week. There are only 2 weeks left of this session but due to some cancellations, the Tuesday and Wednesday classes will meet again the following week. In other words, the session will be extended one week except for the Thursday class. If you have any make ups that you need to do, you essentially have 8 classes left to do them in. So come to class! It is actually really fun to drop in to a different class and just feel the way that the energy is a little different from your regular class.

Registration for the next session begins this next week. The schedule will be a little bit different for the summer, and the session is shorter, 8 weeks as opposed to 12, and $70 as opposed to $100. I will have the new schedule up on Tuesday. I am going to be a little more strict about classes running with a minimum of 10 students. That means that if you want your class to run, make sure you and your friends sign up.

As for other news in the region, Desiree Rumbaugh will be at Yoga View in Chicago on Thursday and at Yoga Werks in Barrington Friday through Sunday. Chad, who owns Yoga Werks says that this will be her last visit for awhile as her schedule is really full all the way through 2009. I know it is a bit of a trek, but very worth it. However, if 2 consecutive weekend workshops is a little too much for you, I would really recommend staying in town and walking to class with Christina all weekend. I cannot say enough about what an opportunity it is to have a teacher of this caliber in our own town. I literally fly all over the country to attend events like this, which is so much more time consuming not to mention expensive. And just think, for $170 you can attend 10 hours of world class yoga, then go eat in your own house (or at your own co-op), go swimming, spend time with your family, and basically share the vibrancy of your experience in class with your immediate community. How cool is that!

OK, no more sales pitch for now. I can’t wait to see you all in class this week. For now, stay dry and enjoy the fullness of the season.

Love.

Transition.... again?

I have not forgotten about this blog. I have just been transitioning the whole format of the blog (or rather Steve, my trusty web guy has) and I have not been sure where everything is. I apologize if your life was in any way affected by this absence. And it has been a big one. I have not posted since before I went to Denver at the beginning of the month. Which, by the way was a truly fantastic week. It was great to see folks as always and also really good to start to see how to pull the pieces together in the Midwest. There are so many great people teaching and practicing in this part of the country, it is really time for us to all get a little more networked. So we started a google group. This is a place for every studio and teacher to coordinate our schedules as well as just stay abreast of what is happening in the region. Its intention is really just an outlet for giving and receiving support and sharing a love for the study and practice of Anusara Yoga.

As for classes at home, it has felt hard for me to build any momentum yet as reintegrating back into family life was unbelievably rugged last week. Maple was really having a very hard time. She apparently did fine while I was away, but as soon as I returned…. whoa. And then I got sick for the first time all year. Funny that that coordinates with when i ran out of Chyvanprash. So I have really been out for the count. I even canceled class this morning as my sinuses where just too painful. I have also been very separate from my own asana practice during the last 2 weeks and I am very eager to feel better and to get back at it.

Christina Sell comes to teach a weekend workshop here one month from today. If you would like some more info please contact me, otherwise register as soon as you can. That means if you plan on attending give me a check. This is not so much to hold your space as i think that we have ample room at our new venue, but it is really important that I have an idea on numbers. It is so amazing that a teacher of this caliber is coming to Viroqua. Really unbelievable. And I would love to see just a spectacular turn out so that she feels excited to come back and teach again and also spread the word about how fun it is to come and do a workshop in Viroqua, Wisconsin. So register!

On the home front I am enjoying getting the garden going. It is so much cooler now than it was last year at this time that I only planted snap peas and spinach and lettuce today. Much later than last year. My neighbors are such amazing gardeners and for the last 2 years have helped me get everything going which is not only very helpful but also very educational. We have fun. And I just get so excited thinking about all the seeds turning into beautiful plants and then becoming our food. It is such a great awareness to live with.

Fun Week

I am having such a good time teaching one Yama every week. It is just so cool in my own contemplation to see how my relationship to the yama evolves through the classes. It really starts out as one thing and then by Thursday morning has blossomed into something new and bigger. Good Stuff.

In the Wednesday night class we had great fun working on Inner and Outer Spiral. We did a lot of partner strap work. Everyone worked very hard doing a shockingly small number of poses (it harkens back to the good ol’ Prescott Yoga days, no?) Anyhow, after a brief warm up, we worked on Downward Facing Dog, Uttanasana, Parvakonasana, and Setubandha. And that is pretty much it. Wow. That is something that is so cool about this method. We can really break it down and plunge deeply into the workings of each pose, and we can also move through them more quickly and just play in the experience of each. Both valid. Both great. And I think, both approaches are really necessary. To become skillful in the practice is crucial if we are looking to really refine our relationship with the energy. And moving through the poses dynamically helps to generate more energy. Something like that. This is a bigger topic and I digress…

This morning in the Level 1 class be continued with more of the same:

• Lots o’ lunges
• 3 surya namaskar
• Dog pose
• parsvakonasana 2x
• Trikonasana
• Vira 2
• Prasarita paddottanasana
• Parvottanasana (with partners at the wall)
• Anjaneyasana 2x
• Janu Sirsasana
• Bharadvajasana1
• Ardha Matseyandrasana
• Savasana

Taking Liberties

It occurs to me that I really should state that i am taking some artistic liberties when discussing the Yamas. I am presenting them in class primarily as how they make sense to me and that is really based on quite a bit of contemplation. I am trying to make sure that I state the classical view as well, but certainly most of the conversation is from my perspective which is whole-heartedly a Tantric one.

OK. That said. This week we are finishing up the yamas with aparigraha, non-grasping. Aparigraha is to be in the flow of life without clinging to all of the trappings in the form of all of our stuff or even to people that we may attach to in an unhealthy way. It is very similar in many ways to Asteya. So the way that I have been teaching this has been very much based on what is going on in my life which is all about taking a look at the way in which I am being asked to spend my energy and really streamlining all of that so that my energy can be of the absolute most service in all of my relationships (with friends, with family, with myself, with God). This has been actually a very fun process because letting go of that which does not serve so well is so freeing. Talk about stepping into the flow! So that is where I am coming from in this conversation about Apargraha. Streamline. Stop latching on to everything in a way that derails my energy. And in doing so, taste the sweetness of the moment even more deeply. Sweet.

We are also working on Inner and Outer Spiral this week. Another form of Balanced Action. I will write about this more later in the week. Big topic. Will take way more than one week to understand. Actually this is one of my most favorite things to teach so it is very fun for me.

Chris came in and recorded today, so this sequence is actually on film. Hooray!

Level 2

• Dog Pose
• Lunge
• Uttanasana
• 3 Surya Namaskar
• Parsvakonasana
• Trikonasana
• Vrksasana
• Parvottanasana
• Parivritta Trikonasana
• Parvsvakonasna to Ardha Chandrasana to Trikonasana
• Anjaneyasana 2x
• Pigeon thigh stretch
• Janu Sirsasana
• Triang Muhkaikapada Pascimottanasana
• Krauncausana
• Runner’s lunge
• Big Pigeon (foot to sternum or face)
• Hanumanasana 2x
• Dog pose
• Uttanasana
• Childs
• Savasana

Namasate!

enjoy the sunshine!

In the Flow

It has been a very interesting week around these parts. Maple has been consistently waking up at 4:30 every morning. Sometimes going back to sleep eventually, sometimes not. We are starting to dialogue about how when I go to Denver in a little over a week (yikes!) we are going to be all done nursing. That’s it. This has been a very complicated decision for me as I love nursing my girl and really do feel that extended nursing is a very beneficial undertaking, really across the board. But, as they say, every situation is unique. And in order for me to best serve my family, that particular outflow of my energy needs to stop. So at any rate, I think that the early wake ups are part of her struggle with this transition, even though I do believe she is as ready as I.

It is interesting to be considering this choice on the week when we discuss Brahmachariya in yoga. Brahmachariya is translated as celibacy but also as one who sees the divine in all things, who walks with Brahma. I think of it as making choices that support and optimize our own use of energy. I once heard Brahmachariya as it applies to the householder as those joined by a single hearted love for God. If you think about it in these terms, when we are discriminate in the way that we use our energy, including our thoughts, actions, indulgences…. we have a more powerful energy to devote to our practices, our families, etc.. I am just recently try to regain the meditation and pranayama practice that disappeared with new motherhood. This is a challenge, but also so clearly contributes to my own wellbeing and that of my family, that it is clearly the appropriate choice for me. Even if it means weaning a little earlier than I had thought that I would. Something like that.

The only class that I am putting up this week is Tuesday mornings. In between the early mornings and getting ready to film a certification video before heading off to Colorado, it has been hard to keep all of the information as clear as usual. My apologies, but this sequence should actually work for everybody. Oh, and by the way, I will be filming on Tuesday, so I would love to have a big crowd. The more the merrier! I would love to see you all there!

• 3 Surya Namaskar
• Twisting Lunge
• Vira 1 2x
• Prasarita padotannasana (hands clasped behind)
• Vasistasana 2x
• Trikonasana
• Ardhachandrasana
• Anjaneyasana
• Pigeon thigh stretch
• (Partner) shalabasana
• (Partner) Dhanurasana
• Childs pose
• Ustrasana
• Baddha Konasana
• Janu Sirsasana
• Savasana

Quick Note

This will be brief as we had a very sleepless night at the Newlin house last night. Maple has just fallen asleep and I am about to join her. I have a moment while I nibble dates and drink tea to put up yesterday mornings class. The Level 1 class is really a delight. Everyone is making so much progress every class and just really showing up ready to learn. I really could not ask for more. I am also so enjoying the longer class times in the morning classes. It makes such a difference to have those extra 15 minutes!

Thursday Level 1

• 3 Surya Namaskar
• Lunges
• Crescent Pose
• Trikonasana (back heel on the wall) 2x
• Parvakonasana (heel on wall)
• Standing Thigh Stretch
• Anjaneyasana 2x
• Pigeon Prep
• Upavista Konasana
• Parsva Upavista Konasana
• Janu Sirsasana
• Marichyasana 3
• Jatara Parivartanasana (with a block)
• Sucirandrasana
• Dwi Pada Yogadandasana (happy baby)
• Savasana

Enjoy!