Happy World Yoga Day!

Incredible weekend of yoga with this lovely couple at Yogasource in Santa fe

Dean taught saturday and I really liked his instruction in Parsvakonasana, i feel like i am locked in a miserable vise in that pose and i think i wasn't the only one struggling,  we did it again he had us let go of the back leg letting it come slightly forward then move the buttocks/groin forward and i could get a little movement then maintaining re-straighten the back leg, at least something happened instead of nothing, he also had us press the back leg foot and see how we came out of the front leg knee bend and then go down with the sit bone of the front leg and notice how we lost the back foot so he had us rock from 1 to the other a couple times then said now do both and with that extra awareness it seemed better. He also taught Towelasana with thumbs touching in that class... and a lot more.

Today Rebecca followed Geetaji's sequence merging it with some extra asanas, baddha konasana, cross feet (this is in Geetaji's int course) before the invocation and bhujangasana before urdhva mukha svanasana. She taught many gems, several from Geetaji's 60th Birthday celebration. In bhujangasana she taught to start with the hands straight forward, lift the chest allowing the hands to come where they naturally come from the lift then don't move them and go back down then in several stages bring the arms back 2" lift the chest go back down until the hands were in the classic position, this felt much better to me. The use of the hands in Ustrasana was great also with different positions on the back as we went into the pose, one was sorta bankers pose but the thumbs in the upper back instead of armpit. The Marichyasana III instruction to take the outer sit bones straight down and drill (an actual turning action) the inner sit bones into the blanket oh and on 1 of the attempts we placed a strap with a large loop on the straight leg calf then when we twisted we took the bent arm that was on the knee, straightened the arm and place the strap loop on the wrist allowing us to extend the fingers/arm and use the strap to turn...and a lot more.

Just a note, This workshop Rebecca has been reading from a book YAUGIKA MANAS by BKS Iyengar -a book on the yaugika manas (Yogic mind).
 

The Lerners

 I am in Santa Fe at a workshop with Dean and Rebecca Lerner, I really love their teaching so much  that i considered selling my wordly possesions and following them around the country but i am trying to control myself. I had taken from Dean before in Dallas but never from Rebecca and it's fun seeing them together.

 I went to 10000 waves wednesday when i arrived after i told a hotel employee i had been there but thought it was a little over the top expensive but she told me I had to ask for Sundown, a native american masseuse who has been doing this for 15 yrs, I did and oh yes, ask for Sundown.

 I have been on a Vinaigrette thing since i have been here, loving the patio and their awesome salads.

and then there is yoga...

 I am sore from head to toe, such incredible work. Rebecca said the side of the abdomen of the raised leg like in krounchasana will drop which i thought was so odd but i immediately could feel, it's so funny when something is only obvious when a teacher points it out to you well not funny sorta ridiculous but anyway i started thinking of the abdomen thinking that you were offering it something to rest on and then it was easy to remind myself to resist that, it was easy to remind myself not easy to resist it. She said in urdhva mukha paschimottanasana prep which was 1 leg bent foot on floor then classic both legs, to move to the middle back which i really liked, to think not so much from the legs. She has also been teaching baddha konasana then cross feet before swastikasana, really nice although the first time i did the cross feet it was pretty intense i noticed it came better yesterday. Oh she also drew the connection between supta padangusthasana III where the knee is bent and shin across torso and siddhasana.

 Dean is teaching Towelasana which is another do this everyday for the shoulders, he uses a blanket calling it a towel so people dont have the but i dont have a yoga belt or blanket thought. In Janu Sirsasana when we were still upright he said some are already folding forward because nobody likes being upright because it is hard, which made me smile since if you have taken from Arunji you know this is truth. He was teaching to separate the shoulder blades in from the floating ribs wrapping around and spreading and every time i would spread the floating ribs i would lose my shoulder blades they would go with the ribs and i found myself starting to get irritated with myself which is all part of the practice watching not only the actions but your reaction to that effort. He showed in a students demo how the extending the hamstring in uttanasana without the opposing lifting of the quadriceps was not stretching it takes those opposing actions to get the true extension through the legs, another demo was the pressing through the toe mound while pulling back to set the femur, in both of these demos watching what these actions did to the students legs, not just straightening but the tone the energy of the legs.. everything.

Beautiful weather, incredible teachers in a lovely location.

Towelasana - hold the towel edge arms in front, hands distance appropriate to your shoulder whatever is going on there, now swing it up to 1 side and over your head arms straight, bend knuckles toward ceiling palms down then rotate palms toward each other while trying to pull the hands apart but the triceps roll in while pulling not out, swing arms down, other side, may be different on 1 side