The Anusara Drama - I'm Over It

Like many in the Anusara kula - I have felt a whole spectrum of emotions the last few weeks. At times I have been indifferent, defensive, angry, sad, just plain anxious, and more. It's been a little exhausting for everyone I'm sure. The drama has been flying. Even when you aren't directly involved in the story it's hard not to get defensive when people start accusing you of being in a cult. All this considered - I have been silent on the whole issue here at Hearts Expanding. I've been absorbing all the information I could and assessing what action, if any, was the right action for me.

In case you've managed to miss the whole John Friend controversy - you can go see 

a Timeline of Events at Bay Shakti to get caught up.

Some people's reaction to the news.

People that I know and love, teachers I respect - almost everyone is kind of scattering to the wind. Some declared their loyalty while others declared their resignation. At first it was like I wasn't 100% sure what to do with myself with all my teachers no longer under the same umbrella.

Since I never went all the way through with getting my Anusara-Inspired certification (I started but changed my mind some time last year) I have been looking at this entire debacle primarily from the eyes of a student. After a lot of inward contemplation I came to recognize that I have been following certain teachers more than Anusara itself. I never followed John Friend individually. He is not and never was my teacher.

As I recognize that my practice is so much more than that - I no longer list Anusara yoga as my primary yoga; but I will still practice it as long as some of my favorite teachers are involved in the method. I will continue to try new systems and be open to yoga as a whole. Some of my teachers are choosing to stay with Anusara, and some have chosen to leave. I fully respect and support both decisions. I will study both inside and outside of the Anusara community. As long as their teachings resonate with me - I will study with them wherever they are.

TL;DR
Here at Hearts Expanding, I'm not attached to John Friend or Anusara Yoga.
I just love Yoga and the teachers that made me.

Anusara Invocation

Sianna Sherman explains Open to Grace

I saw this short video a couple days ago on Yoganonymous and felt I had to share it. Sianna Sherman is easily my favorite yoga teacher ever. Here she shares a little information on the first universal principle of alignment in Anusara Yoga: Open to Grace. Most people don't know what the hell floaty kind of thing "open to grace" means and I think this video sums it up pretty well.

I do have to say that the background color of this video makes me think of Sesame Street for some reason.

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John Friend Collection from Manduka

A few different videos have been making the rounds lately announcing that Anusara and Manduka have partnered up to create a new collection of yoga mats and accessories. This is my favorite of the videos.

I may just have to buy the John Friend Collection eKO SuperLite® Travel Mat because I love purple and I don't own a single travel mat. My primary mat is like 7 pounds (heavy for toting around), whereas the superlite is only 2.5 pounds and easily folds up for packing.

Readers via Email - Click Here for the Video.

Christina Sell Recap

Yesterday was a holiday, so no post. Not a holiday I acknowledge, but I take federal holidays off nonetheless. Hope you all had a great weekend and did at least some yoga. I spent the weekend at a series of Christina Sell workshops and that is always fun. I love workshops - they're so much more interesting than daily classes. It was my first experience with Christina apart from her blog, and I'm glad I went. I even made Adam go with me to the mixed levels classes.

We covered all sorts of things: from flow to precision to sequencing. Definitely an educational weekend and I got to meet all sorts of interesting new yogis. I even got some recommendations for classes around the area most worth going to. Much thanks to Christina and the entire Boise Kula for an uplifting weekend.

Christina Sell Workshop This Weekend

All Weekend I'll be attending a Christina Sell Workshop here in Boise. The schedule:

Friday Oct 7 (mixed level): 6:00PM - 8:30PM
The Flow of Grace: All Levels flow-based class. This all levels class will incorporate creative vinyasa sequences, breath-based action and informative demonstrations to assist students in connecting to the Flow of Grace in the form of their breath.

Saturday Oct 8 (mixed level): 9:00AM - 11:30AM
Build a Firm Foundation of Faith: All Levels Standing Poses and Introductory Arm balances. This all-levels class is designed to cover the foundational aspects of standing poses and arm balances to help students gain access to deeper levels of awareness in familiar postures and greater proficiency in more challenging postures. Expect strong work, detailed alignment and come with a sense of adventure.
Saturday Oct 8 (mixed level): 1:30PM - 3:30PM
Stabilizing and Expanding The Inner Light: Hip Opening, Forward Bends, and Twisting for All Levels. This All levels class will work with hip opening principles to help students stabilize their knees while opening their hips. Come explore the inner and outer work of the dynamic pulsation between stability and freedom. Expect virasana, padmasana, alignment lessons, pranayama and meditation.

Sunday Oct 9 (Intermediate/Level 2): 9:00AM - 11:30AM
The Path of Practice is a Path of Love: Intermediate Level Group Practice led by Christina Sell. This Intermediate practice will be guided by Christina while she practices with the group This format is a tradition in Anusara Yoga and gives students a chance to build on all the work of the weekend in an empowering, challenging and innovative practice. Expect good music, sun salutations, standing posture, arm balances, back bends and forward bends. Come ready to work and to play.
Sunday Oct 9, Sequencing: 1:30PM - 3:30PM
The Structure of Spirit: Sequencing Strategies of Class and Practice. Learn effective, simple strategies for sequencing yoga classes and personal practice to help you and your students advance in progressive and empowering ways. This class is aimed at teachers but is appropriate for anyone wanting a "behinds the scenes" look at sequencing and class design.

So if you're in the area - sign up HERE for one or more of these classes.

Photo Source: Christina's Blog - which I linked to at the top.

♥ Anusara Yoga Class with Marie Lumholtz ♥

Each week I've been posting a new video for the 30 day challenge. Since this is the last week of the challenge - this is the last video. I've stepped up the length of class again - it's like 1.5 hours long. It's a full Anusara class with Marie Lumholtz... yay! Because it's Youtube, it may take a while to buffer through the whole thing. So I suggest you let it buffer while you do something else and come back to it later... unless of course you actually have great internet... then disregard this whole chit chat about the buffering.

Finish the 30 days off strong and you will sail right into a daily practice that lasts a lifetime.

These videos are all being added to the original 30 Day Yoga Challenge page, so if you've marked that post then you'll easily have access to all videos.

If you are just hearing about the challenge: You can begin at anytime, so start today!

Readers via Email - Click Here for the Video.

Noah Maze Collection - (Videos)

My apologies to the readers that don't watch the videos... but here's a whole set of videos I stumbled across sometime last week. They're all Noah Maze a couple years ago at an Intensive. In the videos he does various little yoga tricks and fancy moves (some of which I cannot imagine how to do). I've only gotten to attend one weekend of classes with him, but he is a great teacher and practitioner. From what I can tell - Noah Maze is a god. Just look at that magnificent bastard.

If that doesn't inspire you to Join the 30 Day Challenge to build a home practice, I don't know what will.

Readers via Email - Click Here to see the four videos.

Bay Shakti Noah Maze Interviews - (Video)

Here's a couple videos I found this week via Bay Shakti that I really wanted to share with you. It's a 2 part interview with Noah Maze at this year's Wanderlust. The videos are about 10 minutes each and completely worth the time it takes to watch them. Everything Noah says resonates with me and my views on practice.

Readers via Email - Click Here for the Videos

John Friend on Sex & Tantra - (Video)

I came across this short little video on the Devil Wears Prana yoga blog and I had to share it here. It's John Friend, founder of Anusara Yoga, talking a bit about Tantra and what it may or may not have to do with Sex. Check it out!

Email Readers - Click Here for the Video.

Cobra Pose with Desiree Rumbaugh (Video)

Cobra pose is a classic. Most yogis do this pose a lot, but even for the most seasoned practitioner cobra is a lot of work. Some people don't get this simple fact. Either they've never done it... or they've likely done it wrong. I like to do one-on-one work with people on cobra because most people are skipping a few steps and going through all the steps is a whole different experience.

Here's a video from Bay Shakti of a Desiree Rumbaugh workshop cobra demo. Check it out!
You can also visit that link to see more pics and another video of said workshop in Rome.

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The Sun is Always Shining

"...one of the simplest yet most beautiful teachings of tantra, of yoga and of my own teacher John Friend is that the sun is always shining, even when it's night, even when there's a storm, even when you can't see it. The light is always present: even when we are having a bad day, when we wake up tired, when we are in a bad mood, when we feel lost, scared, angry. The sun is always shining. The light is always radiant."

- BLOG.MARIACRISTINAYOGI.COM (Certified Anusara Teacher)
excerpt from her recent blog post 'different universes'

The 5 Most Common Alignment Mistakes in Meditation - (Video)

I meditate all the time. I've been taught meditation by many teachers and I've taught meditation to lots of people. I've always been able to explain to people how to sit - but not real great at explaining why, so I'm glad that I found this video a couple days ago. In this video Amy Ippoliti (amazing Anusara teacher extraordinaire) explains the 5 most common alignment mistakes in meditation, why they hurt, and how to fix them. If you experience discomfort during meditation then this video may help you out because it's the best explanation of this topic I've ever heard.

 

Readers via email - Click Here for the Video

Do You Teach Hot Yoga?

In moving, my husband and I keep meeting people that are so excited to hear that I teach yoga. What is the first question they all ask? Do you teach HOT YOGA!? Um... no.

I don't have anything against hot yoga - I've done it... it's fine. I was supposed to teach it once, but that didn't happen. It's still such a weird question to me. Is that the most popular yoga in Boise? Is it just the only style they have heard of? I don't know, but whenever we mention that my favorite style is Anusara we get blank glazed stares. There are Anusara-Inspired teachers in the area - I'm a little weirded out to keep meeting people that have never heard of it.

I'm so used to my little world where its All Anusara - All the Time... it's like I've forgotten that it's not as widespread and well known as I feel like it is. Hrmph. Guess I'll just have to get out there and tell them about it.

The Urge to Express

I read a lot of blogs on various topics. I especially try to read as much about Anusara Yoga and what's going on with the kula as much as possible. Just yesterday I read this great post by Anusara teacher Christina Sell talking about "the urge to express".

She puts this topic into words much more eloquently than I probably would, so I suggest you read it. When she talks about communicating the intensity of her inner experience - I just nod in understanding. It's a little long if you're not all that into mostly text-based blogging, but I highly recommend it.

Here's a little excerpt from Christina's Post:

"It's kind of like having a pebble in your shoe, I think. The urge to express is a kind of discontent a lot of times, for me. It's certainly not always easy. For me it's more like an irritant, a disturbance of sorts, an inner unsettling that doesn't go away until the words get down on paper, until the speech is made, until the letter gets written, the class is taught, the asana is performed, the meal is made, or the cake is baked. I guess sure, at the non-dual level the expressive aspect is "blissful" (ananda) but for me in the relative domain, in the refracted, more contracted form called me, it's more often a feeling of frustration that exists on a scale of mild to severe."

Photo Source: http://christinasell.blogspot.com/

Noah Maze Workshop Challenge

I spent all weekend in Boise, ID attending a 3-day workshop with Noah Maze. He's a super amazing Anusara yoga instructor if you didn't know that. You can find his classes on Yogaglo (at the top of the page) if you wanna check it out.

We worked hard and I learned that 3 minutes is kind of a long time for me to be in Downward Dog. I practice long holds on my asanas, but Noah literally made me whimper once (in utkatasana). Just once... I'm tough. I was truly challenged in every session and I actually DID finally do a drop back in the middle of the room by myself. It wasn't 100% successful, but I did finally punch fear in the face and make it happen... and even though it wasn't perfect, the world didn't end. Yay!

I learned some new poses and just generally had a great time. I just hope Noah didn't mind my incessant note-taking. It was awesome and I am happy. I'll shut up and leave it at that. You may recall that when I went to a workshop in Portland a couple months ago - that I did not have a good experience with the locals. They were really awful. The Boise Kula, however, was soooo welcoming and nice. They were really lovely people and I didn't meet a single asshole. Much thanks and gratitude to the Boise Kula and to Noah Maze for this grand weekend of reflection and hard work.

Elena Brower Wanderlust 2010 (Video)

OMG more video! I know... it's like a theme... and I keep meaning to stop putting up video after video, but they just keep coming out and being so splendid.

I felt so overly compelled to share this video of Elena Brower speaking about the Freedom of Discipleship at Wanderlust 2010... that I knew if I didn't share this (preferably right away) that I would just explode. To me, this talk resonates on such a personal level it's like Elena's heart is speaking directly to mine. As she speaks on becoming soft - she is soft and it just comes out so heartfelt and honest. I love it and if you don't watch this video then you are crazy.



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John Friend Interview via Bay Shakti Part 2 (Video)

As promised, here is Part 2 of the Bay Shakti interview with John Friend as he kicks off his 2011 Dancing with the Divine Tour. This interview features an interesting discussion on Anusara's Shiva-Shakti Tantra philosophy and whether it's supposed to be dogmatic.

Spoiler: *Anusara supports thinking for yourself.*



Readers via email - Click Here for the video.

John Friend Interview via Bay Shakti (Video)

Anusara and John Friend have been everywhere I look this week, so I might as well finish off the week with more great videos. These two Bay Shakti videos are a little long for those with a short attention span, so I'll post Part 1 today... and tomorrow Part 2.



Readers via email - Click Here for the video.

John Friend Wanderlust 2010 (Video)

I know there've been a lot of videos on here lately. I'm not sure if you guys love or hate that. Maybe you're indifferent... but it makes me feel like i'm being a lazy ass. So I apologize for that alone. However, this video just got released and I think saying it's "worth watching" is a massive understatement.

At Wanderlust Festival 2010 John Friend gave a talk... which I didn't manage to attend. Now that it's available I think I was really missing out, but I'm thrilled they've made these available to the public. Listen as he speaks about living a full and wild life... I love it. ♥



Readers via email - Click Here for the video.