Workshop Handstands

One of my teachers says "Anyone can do handstands, but not everyone will."

I find this to be true, and today I want to mention some different ways to work on your handstands.

Throw in a couple of these each day and you'll be a hardcore handstander in no time.

This L variation is great when you're working on building strength in your upper body.
Hands can be directly under shoulders as you get more used to it.
Eventually you can take one leg straight up... then both if you're feeling bold.

How to Get There: Come into a slightly short-stanced downward-facing-dog pose at the wall.
Balls of your feet in the wall/floor crease and your heels on the wall. From there you walk your feet up the wall.
When you're ready to come down you can walk your feet back down the wall.

At the Wall - Take your fingertips about 4 inches from the wall.
Claw fingers down, squeeze feet together. Hands and feet reaching strongly away from each other.
Christina Sell (pictured) says if you can hold this at the wall for 2 minutes then you're strong enough to work on balancing away from the wall.

Working with a friend is magic!
Can work here on balance, OR on holding it for 1 minute.
Really works your strength and stamina.

Photos courtesy of Mark Ickes.

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.

Reading from the Inside Out

I'm on Day 2 of full and total rest. Luckily I have some reading to catch up on. I have my new Yoga Journal, and I always have Light on Yoga sitting on the table being disappointed in me. Maybe I'll get around to starting that book for like the 5th time if I run out of mags and movies.

Recently I finished a great book. I actually started it in January, so it's funny that I just finished it. It's only 138 pages long. I swear I'm literate. The book in question? Christina Sell's "Yoga from the Inside Out: Making Peace with Your Body Through Yoga". 

I'll be honest. At first when I got this book (Christmas) I flipped through it and went - oh this book is for people with problems... That's not me. Eventually though, I got off my high horse and read the damn book. You don't have to actively be "at war with the body" to get a lot of amazingly beautiful insight from this book. It's entirely possible that reading this book contributed to me resting my body right now instead of pushing through the pain (because yes I'm kind of a fitness junkie that pushes too much).

As I read it, I marked pages with notes to talk about it here. Eventually it just became a farce and I had to admit that it was the whole book. If you've ever had a problem with your body, or struggled to treat it well, or want to better understand how yoga can change your life, or want to hear how the back body represents the Universal, or wonder what it really means to have a healthy body image... READ THIS BOOK. That is all.

I'm not being paid and no one asked me to review this book. I just bought it, read it, and recommended 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/