few and far between

Wow. Rough week at the Newlin house. We have entered a new phase and I cannot say that it is awesome. Eider has started having a harder time falling asleep (read: more crying) and this in turn sets Maple off and she gets loud and crabby which makes it harder for Eider to fall asleep or stay asleep and then Maple becomes more upset and it just goes on and on. And I was solo for a few days. Awesome. I finally sent Maple off for a few hours today so that she could have some much needed fun and Eider could have some much needed sleep. And now papa is home. ahhhhh....

Anyway. Is this a yoga blog or what?

I am going to be updating the website in the next few weeks so check it out. On there you will find the pdf for Christina Sell's workshop to be held in Viroqua in June. Can't wait. Really.

Last Sunday I did an amazing forward fold heavy practice with Kathy Doerfer. It was great. I love practicing with Kathy. She is such a dedicated practitioner and is very skilled at tuning in to herself. It was fun. I am really not in condition. I am making valiant attempts at regaining some strength but it is pretty challenging when I only make it onto my mat 2x a week. Alas. I was imploding after 2 1/2 minutes in Sirsasana. Wow. Onward we go. I am learning a lot.

This Friday is good friday and we are still having class. Because class is good. That is all there is to it. Less talk, more asana. Sunday is Easter, and there will not be a practice. Easter egg hunt for 3 year old trumps Mom's yoga gig. Go figure. I will however, be making it in to the studio for a practice at some point over the weekend I just have to confer with Chris about when that will be. Same deal, 2 hours, led format. I will post with details for that tomorrow.

Until then, goodnight. Everything in life changes. Enjoy it all. Even the muck.

into it

First class happened on Friday. Yippie! I was so excited to begin teaching again that I was practically vibrating. Small turn out due to spring break but I have high hopes for this class. First off, it is all levels, great for anybody of sound body and a lot of curiosity (read the previous blog entry). This is my intention for this class: CONDITIONING. We are looking to cultivate strength and flexibility in poses on the first syllabus and to do so in a way that is full of self honor. Friday morning is a time to get psyched to do something great for your body and nourishing foe your heart.

Sunday is for working on some poses (because you are so conditioned from Friday!), Tomorrow we are doing a bunch of work to get into a very delicious hanumanasana.

On a personal note: I thought that practicing before class on Friday would work out great for all parties involved. Wrong. It went just swimmingly for me, but not so for the big and little men. Oh well. Can't push it. Thursday will have to be one of my times for my practice instead. Really, I am looking at being able to get on my mat 2 or 3 times a week max. So I have to be a laser. Get down to business and utilize every minute (read: the opposite of what I was doing when I was pregnant),

But right now I have a sweet little baby sleeping on my chest and it doesn't really get much better than this.

Wow.

It really is like coming up for air.

I made it in to the studio yesterday morning following a great entrainment by David (who just welcomed a new baby at his house too!). This was all following Chris' return home after his usual 3 days on the road. It was my first week since Eider was born that I was completely on my own for the full time and it was made a bit more interesting when we woke up on Wednesday morning and Maple began throwing up. She is generally a very healthy girl and this totally caught me off guard. She definitely had it bad. She was, however, such a good girl throughout, really well behaved and mature about being ill, sharing Mom, and being on our own. Love her. Eider was exceptionally cooperative as well. And all in all, even though the 3 days were amazingly intense and rugged, they were also somewhat ecstatic in the sense that all we had room to do was handle the moment and prepare however feebly we could for the next. It was beautiful in a way and definitely a real practice in staying supremely present in the moment. As a result I am feeling so much love and appreciation for my children and also a lot of connection to myself. Who would have guessed? It touched on an aspect of what I love most about practice, which is that when it gets intense you can either go with it and be transformed by it, or you can be dragged kicking and screaming and still be transformed but maybe miss some of the wisdom within the experience.

So my practice was great. I am really starting to see little glimmers of myself coming back and that is both thrilling and terrifying as I know that there is a part of me that is permanently altered. Thank God in a way.

Class is up and running starting next Friday. Practice on Sundays. It should be great. I have not gotten the schedule back from the printers yet so if you happen to read this please spread the word.

It is a great time to start coming as everyone has been out for awhile and the Friday is a mixed level so everyone is welcome so long as you know what your limits are and can respect them. The theme for the year is the fun of coming together and sharing practice with one another. Can't wait! That and maybe throw a leg or 2 behind your head....

Where is Spring?

It really is hard to tell what season it is in western wisconsin in March. We will have 50* one day followed by a winter storm the next. It is very similar to the cosmic hide and seek of Shiva and Shakti except add is the explitives tbat come out of the Wisconsinites mouth at yet another snowy day. At this point we are just plain over it and ready to move on to all of the immense work of Spring. And there really is a lot of that around here. There is the general clean-up from winter which forus involves a ton of stick and branch pick-up from winter storms. But there is also all of the gathering of readying of seeds and earth for planting. Not only garden vegetables but each year a few new trees need to go into the ground as well as quite a few herbs and flowers. It is a very fun time, but very busy. There is also much to be done with all of the animals. The goats need to transition to a rotational grazing lifestyle and new chicks arrive sometime in the late spring. i think for me that will be after all of the garden is in. This year I am moving my garden to a sunny locale and expanding it by more than double. This is a big undertaking, especially as the place that I am moving it to is prone to flood so I need to build accordingly.

This is all very fun and exciting to me as all I have been doing is sitting around and scheming for so long that I am really chomping at the bit now. I still actually have to keep my feet up a bit more, and I really think that my biggest challenge might be to make myself go as slow as I need to. I like to do a lot, and lets just face it, this was not a pregnancy of doing much. I am not the pregnant lady that feels so great she is ready to take on the world. Maybe it is just my way of having at least one time in my life that is not completely Vata- visciating, where I really just do nothing.

Anyway, now I am ready to do a lot. And I am, I am doing a tin of diapers, I am nursing around the clock and I am reading many stories and doing many puzzles with Maple. And I am fantasizing about Spring and about Yoga.

I am looking for a venue for Christina's workshop this week. Very exciting. And I am having my schedule made for classes. This is great. The coming classes are up and to the right. I really cannot wait to get back into the studio, at least one more week home though, I think. I left the house for the 1st time in 2 weeks today and went with the family to get entrained. Very Sweet.

On a final note- I am so deeply appreciative of the meal wheel, I cannot even begin to put it into words. Every night we are receiving the most beautiful and delicious food from everyone. It is the most supportive and loving gift that I could imagine getting right now. Not to mention the financial strain that it lifts for us during this time and how I am aware of everyone supporting us like that. We really live in a magical place and I cannot imagine raising my family anywhere else. Now lets get some rockin' yoga going again and some warm weather and we will be all set!

Love.

on and on...

I am slowly slipping off of the planet. Think: lots of knitting, lots of reading. Its pretty nice. I do not have much of a drive to leave my house. (However, all of my compulsive scheming goes on and on.) I am laying low. 36 weeks. And they say no 2 pregnancies are the same. This is a case in point. I was so much more active with Maple at this point. I was practicing still daily, walking and swimming several times a week. Now.... nothing. Minimal yoga and that is really it. And when I say minimal, I mean minimal. I did get the cold that Maple had, but really that just gave me an excuse. Alas.

So teaching is really wearing me out, and I keep saying that I will teach just one more week of class, but then I think about just sitting around and waiting for a baby and that doesn't sound very good at all. So as of right now, I really do not know. We will have class this next week. And then I will probably just decide what to do from there.

I am going to be at the studio tomorrow from 9-11. I am not sure what this will mean. My intention is to do some asana, but it may be utterly basic so I am not ruling out talking anyone who shows up through a sequence. We shall see.

Lots of love. The outlook for next week is up on the right.

Sunday Practice

We had a very nice practice today. A great sequence, I thought, with a lot of standing poses and working toward lotus with great success. I appear to have left the sequence at the studio so if you are interested in it, let me know and I will make a point to post it this week. I felt very good, which is probably why practice went on for over 3 hours. It was good and I really feel like these days that I need to take what I can get. I do not have much more in me I think.

One thing that we do need to dress is the increased tardiness that we are experiencing. I am equally to blame as I am often arriving just a moment before the class start time. But also we are really pushing the boundary on how late is too late to show up for class. In the past I have been very allowing as I really want everyone to be able to come to class. I have really taken into consideration everyone's personal circumstance and been OK with just about whatever. However, I think that now it is appropriate to tighten things back up a bit and now if you are going to be more than 15 minutes late, you have missed class. I have a plan for the time that we have together and I want to make the most of it. I promise from now on to begin by 5 after at the latest. I know that it can be hard to get everything together to make it on time, but the extra effort is important and we all benefit from it.

There was some discussion about when class will come back after our baby arrives. Because we are hosting Christina Sell in June, I really feel that it is important to start class up again by the beginning of April. Of course, everything is pretty unknown right now as I really have no clue what our new little person will be like. Sunday Practice will come back first, sometime in March I would guess. And then Friday morning is going to be the best day for us to have a class. I mentioned this last week in class, but we are looking at either early 6:30-8:00 or 8:15am or 9:30-11:15am. On either side of morning assembly for those of you who have children at Pleasant Ridge. Let me know your preference. The folks this morning were feeling the later time slot.

Here are some great pictures from the morning. Jessica, Kristina, Kae and Kerri. Good fun. See you tomorrow at 6pm.

Going going going....

This is amazing news! The furnace is actually running all the time in the Landmark this winter. For real! So be ready for hot! Which to me is such a vast improvement over freezing that I really am quite thrilled. Here's to it.

I just read Christina Sell's post and it was really fabulous. Per usual. It was definitely geared toward teachers and teacher trainees but I think that in general it is great information for all. So zip on over and read it. Then tell me what you think. In the meantime, as I have been thinking about all of the poses that I want to work on in my own practice this year and also where I want to go with classes and working toward some more advanced poses publicly, here is the idea: '"What actions are necessary to achieve that pose?" What does a student need to be able to be proficient at so that when they are at their edge they can access something familiar that will make the pose move more into possibility?' (I am telling you, read the post)

This is a great question not only because of what it is asking but also because of all of the other questions that it is answering as well. Such as giving real meaning and clarity to what we are working on from the very first class and in every subsequent class. Everything exists in relationship to everything else, and this is no less true when it comes to asana. For example, to be aware of the possibility of where you are headed when you root your thigh back and then to practice that continuously in a variety of poses. Then grow with the action so much so that when you are asked to apply that and maintain it as you apply additional actions and move into something deeper. Something that is asking you a whole lot more not just physically but psychologically as well (think leg behind the head or lotus with you pelvis off the ground!). This is Yoga! Can you hold in the space of your awareness and your whole practice all of your knowledge and experience?

This becomes even more important to ask ourselves when we start to notice little glitches showing up. Such as a tweak or a pinch that we do not address and eventually becomes a full blown issue preventing us from not only working into the advanced postures but also in all of the "basic" poses that it wasn't really bugging us in before so much.

Hmmhhh. I often say that there is a lot a stake and it really is not just an idle threat. Not at all. I want students to really get the method because when you do truly a whole world has opened up for you. And inevitably, if you skip a step or a piece is missing, there is going to come a point where you have to get off the bus. (You must work your inner thighs enough to maintain deep groins and space across your sacrum before you scoop your tailbone or externally rotate your femur head!)

This is a little bit of a rant but I feel quite passionate about it. Read Christina's post.

OK. So class tomorrow. It is supposed to be quite cold tomorrow, but warm in the studio, Hooray! I am wanting to work specifically with moving the head of the armbones back in a variety of postures (big surprise) and move toward some backbends. Warm up our hearts so to speak. Because it is January 13th and there is a lot of winter ahead of us. And we love where we live and we live here for a reason (or many)!

Hope to see you tomorrow!

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.

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....