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.