Webinar Series with Alanna Kaivalya

Alanna Kaivalya has announced a potential Webinar Series to help you engage in and energize your practice and your teaching. Depending on the response to this first course, She'll be scheduling more over the next week... Myths of the Asanas (explained!) and Crash Course on Yoga Sutras. All of these courses qualify for Continuing Education Credits with Yoga Alliance and are suitable for both yoga practitioners and teachers.

At only $15 it would be silly not to sign up for the first class! Don't get caught up in the idea that sequencing is only for teachers. Understanding how to sequence a class will help you create a functional and playful home practice for yourself as well.

The Art of Intelligent Sequencing

Thursday, Feb. 21 from 2 - 4 pm EST

Total Cost only $15 

This 2 hour webinar will cover Intelligent Sequencing Techniques helping you to learn how to stay true to the original intentions of the vinyasa system while creating a framework that will allow you to create engaging, creative and safe classes for your students.

With the information in this webinar, you will learn:
 * Creative ways to sequence
 * How to plan for peak poses within a class
 * What pitfalls of sequencing to avoid
 * How to safely sequence a class for all levels of practitioners
 * Ways to teach your students even the most challenging poses
 * Clever techniques to keep your classes fresh and fun!

 During the webinar, you will be able to ask questions and interact with Alanna, just as you would in a live workshop. This webinar will count for 2 hours of Continuing Education Credit with Yoga Alliance.

Click Here to Register Now!

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.

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.

Readers via Email - Click Here for the video.

Reflecting on Reflection

As the week goes by I've been going over my notes from the Noah Maze workshop and trying to gently unpack the lessons and tips I received and find them a home in my regular practice. A lot of what was covered were the themes of love, commitment, and reflection. The notes on love and commitment come very readily to me... I just 'get' those... but the reflection stuff is apparently a little harder. Amusing that I have to consciously sit and reflect on these things... to really gather and soak in the lessons on reflection. I have always been a rather internal person, but actual reflection... maybe I've shied away from that recently because it's taking some real work. I'll have to settle in a bit more and look inside for that.

Here's something from my notes that we can all afford to consider a little more deeply today:

The Universe went through an extraordinary amount of effort to make you. Be Grateful.

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.

Cupcakes and Shopping

As I mentioned, Friday was my 29th Birthday and Adam took the day off to celebrate with me. I did yoga, got an amazingly huge yoga book, ate free food and had pizza for dinner. I finished off the day with going to see Black Swan which I loved. I also sent off the check to keep my spot reserved for a Noah Maze Workshop in Boise, ID next month. Yay! Can't wait. A simple, fabulous day.

Unless you've been hiding under a rock then you know Black Swan is about a dancer... and I love dancer movies. Watching this one reminded me how much I ♥ love ♥ dancer clothes. The costume designer for that movie (Amy Westcott) - should totally come outfit my closet. I loved it so much that today I ordered myself a fabulous long sleeve shrug from Buddhaful.

I'm eating cupcakes and planning on buckling down on eating better as soon as they're gone. Seriously. I eat way too much junk like cake. I'm going to cut WAY back on that. I eat pretty well, but cake and cookies are my vice. Well, that and shopping. We all have our bad habits and I'm going to try and wrangle this food thing into submission.

Rocking Bhakti Weekend

This weekend I attended a five piece workshop with Sianna Sherman on her Rock the Bhakti Tour. She is known for being a great storyteller and I have to agree that I'm always kind of blown away by her stories and the skill with which she translates that into a practice. We have friends in Portland, OR (where the workshop was held) so we stayed with them. I did just shy of 6 hours of yoga a day and partied into the wee hours of the night. It was a lot of fun. I'm still recovering from it, hence the late post today.

The overall experience was great - as I generally expect from world-class yoga and friends. I can definitely say, though, that I'm not going to be moving to Portland if I can help it. The yogis there were not as nice or welcoming as the people I've met anywhere else. The whole atmosphere was snippy and disrespectful to say the least. They didn't seem to value Sianna's presence or authority very much. People were rude towards me, towards my husband... eventually I was trying to spend as little time around them as possible. Not the yoga community feel I'm used to.

The classes were definitely sweat-inducing and challenging. With all the sweating - the practice room was like a sauna. The air was humid and filled with sweat. The floors and walls were wet - people were leaking transformation everywhere. On my final day I got a photo with Sianna after class. Between the windows above and the moisture hanging thick in the air - none of them came out very well. After a few tries we decided it was just meant to have an aura to it. We hugged and she thanked me for coming... and I got the hell outta there before someone else could ruin my good day.