The weekend in LA

First thing - how does anne do this??? this is much harder than writing 'Yum' in facebook :) I knew her blog was the best blog I had read but just the process of having something to say for a paragraph is amazing, and she always has something wonderful to say...oh well here goes

I forgot to say Manouso taught cat/cow on saturday, you heard me, cat/cow, he started by saying here is a pose i bet you never thought you would see me teach, true, it was the hardest cat/cow i have ever experienced ok it was the only hard cat/cow i had ever experienced but wow

sunday was another spectacular class, here are some of my notes

He played Gurujis invocation, i got waves of chills just listening to this beautiful chant in the space, he had asked guruji on a train trip if he would do the invocation and he said yes so he placed his phone down and recorded. We then chanted the invocation.

Pranayama – supine, relax the body, find the chin placement to allow the brain to recede from the skull after the body is relaxed

Sitting – thick rib below the bra line, Guruji gave the analogy of a bird opening its wings to take flight (manouso held his hands together than expanded his fingers out like the wings of a bird) , commence the in-breath with this opening wings of the thick rib to make room, that part of the back does not push in, its barely noticeable on the back if at all

Q&A

Therapeutics program he is beginning – 3yrs and on graduation he wants these people to be therapists, when he asked guruji while planning the program asking how to determine the graduates, guruji said they should have to come to pune and adjust him we all laughed, manouso said they will probably have to adjust him, this takes internal sensitivity it's not for everyone ...i hope some teachers from our region attend!!!

Vertigo – trikonasana with back to pillar, jaw/head way back, top arm wraps behind pillar try to knock pillar down, other side 3x someone asked about nirlamba/halasana at wall he said that would also be good after this, neck to inner ear interaction, at first they may feel its making it worse keep with this (he mentioned seasickness, this would be great for me after a cruise when i still have that rocking at sea feeling)

we then practiced asanas as a direct result of the q&a

Chair sirsasana - 3 people – 2 chairs mat on each chair, chair seats facing each other, roll 2 blankets slightly sit roll at edge of chair seats on mats, head down near wall, shoulders near wall, 2 partners stop chairs from coming apart and help them bring legs up, they stay holding the chairs the whole time

Setu bandha - this was for a question on someone with back surgery whose back fused and has a protusion in the sacrum and finds setu bandha miserable,

chair, nothing on chair seat, no mat, 2 blankets folded into long rectangles (sarvangasana size fold in half) not on mat, sit through chair like dwi pada not legs over like chair sarvangasana, lean back shoulders on blankets (I moved the chair but you can also move shoulder blankets) move to where buttocks hangs off on the head side of chair, thighs on chair seat lower leg/feet straight out in air, hands on back elbows will be in air, press femurs straight down, stretch through inner heels, I really liked this

again: this time move chair to where chair seat is under calves/heels (if you can get both have under calves) this takes the elbows to floor, press calves straight down move side waist up, grip buttocks first then grip back more, these are both to gain strength in the back, this was held for a shorter time if you try it you will understand that!

that was a very quick busy wonderful trip

Manouso Sept 2014 Workshop in LA

Beautiful day in California! Picked up Erick headed to Primo in Santa Monica then lunch at my favorite patio Malibu Beach Inn. I then went with Erick to the 3rd street promenade zoo so he could get some errands done dropped him off and ahhhh yoga.

The workshop is packed, Marta said the studio holds 90 and this weekend was pushing that number, there is a great energy it's the studio birthday celebration and all the teachers are here taking the workshop, gloria goldberg plus the teachers i have been fortunate to take from here on previous trips scott hobbs, garth mcclean, marla apt, lisa walford... all students in his class. A moment of silence, invocation and chant to the guru...beautiful

i will upload the sequence and my notes to the database. The workshop has been really incredible. Fri night we spent time moving the femur away from the skin toward the hamstring plus worked on some teachings from Birjoo Mehta from the san diego convention dropping the hamstrings down, releasing them down in trikonasana and parsvakonasana. Sat AM he spent some time using the chest to move the shoulders and Sat PM he spent some time in asana working on moving the chin to release the brain away from the brow followed by a deep savasana.

Met erick for lunch at real food daily and an important stop at vanilla bake shop in santa monica then dashed back to the studio.

tonight i attended the 30 Year anniversary of the opening of the Iyengar Yoga Institute. Scott Hobbs, Manouso Manos and Lisa Walford spoke. There was a children's class demo then Gloria Goldberg received the Lighting The Way award, it was special to be here for that presentation. They showed film from Gurujis visits here in 1984, 1990 and 2005...they had a clip of the teachers teaching and Guruji would walk room from room correcting them...Scott Hobbs with Guruji was hilarious but a woman was teaching in another room and Guruji would stop and say 'there she goes again, she keeps talking, not talking is more than talking...then in a few minutes her voice would start from the other room and Guruji would stop and look up and say she won't stop talking' ... so funny!!!

below - the next generation, Koren Paalmna shows some of her students from the kids class ages 5-14

 below - Scott Hobbs, Gloria Goldberg and Manouso Manos - Manouso Manos presents the Lighting The Way award to Gloria Glodberg

A Manouso workshop in Denver

 I have been to many workshops taught by Manouso..austin, denver, durango, dallas, providence, la... one of the things that makes him stand out for me is his ability to bring Guruji into the room, he talks about his teacher in such a way that you can almost see him standing there. The workshop that stands out for me, in this way, was in denver.  I started realizing that there is genius in Iyengar yoga during my 2nd year of practice, the result of that action or watching a demo would leave me thinking that is just brilliant, so it is not required for a teacher to point it out for me to see it but how wonderful when they do.

 Manouso had someone demo Utthita Parsvakonasana. He said for some students there arm doesn't just go over the ear but goes behind the ear. That was wild enough since i always have a great view of my arm in this pose since it's in front of my face but I could see this person had his arm toward the back of his skull. So Manouso is describing being in Pune and Guruji showing this on a student and he says Do you know what Guruji did, he touched the person here, Manouso touched the demoer on the upper side torso between the waist and armpit chest, and Guruji said 'extend here' and the demoer's arm aligned exactly over his ear. I got chills, it just hit me as the most amazing thing, Manouso had taken an action and shined a spotlight on it and said 'here, do you see how amazing this is'...

  the next day in class he said get a chair, dwi pada viparita dandasana, we started partner work, the doer was in the chair and the partner would stand over their legs and starting at just above the knees use their hands to rotate from the back of the leg walking up the legs with their hands rotate, rotate rotate...in Manousos class when you do partner work it's 4x each: you do, partner does then find a new partner and repeat...then... again partner starts at top thigh walking toward the knee..rotate rotate, rotate...then again from the top knee to the sacrum rotate rotate rotate... then from the sacrum to the knee, then from the knee to the sacrum squeezing the hip bones in then from the sacrum to the knee...after over an hour when we got out of the chair and he said 'Again' my head turned and i looked at him 'seriously??...again, seriously...i mean i think i had the thighs rotate in concept down 30x ago'...but he looked extremely serious...so again..rotate rotate rotate... so the sequence of that class if you would like to write it down was swastikasana then dwi pada viparita dandasana in the chair...i left thinking okay that was good but chillbump-less

  I flew back to dallas and a few days later was in class, 'get a chair, dwi pada viparita dandasana'. I stepped through the chair and went back...starting just above my knees, rotate rotate rotate...chills...there was no conscious thought, i had not said to myself i would now do the action, he had placed that in my cell memory, he had given me that gift...i was halfway out of my chair with an overwhelming desire to send him an email 'i apologize for my ignorance - karen', my brain did kick in telling me to stop it and go back to the pose since a) he already knows your ignorant and b) in the acceptable reasons to walk out in the middle of a class, sending an email is probably not going to make the list

 headed to los angeles this weekend for a workshop with Manouso.