Inappropriate Yoga

Amber and me

Nadka (aka worlds greatest hugger),me,and Julie

Julie and me!

Rebecca(dosha lover) and me

My debut

Prayers and postures

My last adhitam group!

Me and my boo

Everyday we have prayers...and then a dance party!

Week 3

I have had some incredible experiences thus far, haven't taken time to write about them all because i have been busy experiencing them. Last Saturday, when it snowed 18 inches, we walked up to Hill House and had an arm balancing workshop where I did side crow for the first time,Along with Padang Galavasana ( flying crow). So, I rule.
I had a melt down in afternoon sadhana day before yesterday, which I will have to go about more in detail later.
Yesterday was our second practice teach, which went great according to the peeps in my group, also something to share more about later.
I slept all night last nights and we had those rockin ass ginger scones for breakfast.
Time for class again.
Peace

More snow and inspiration!

Into the third week. 18 inches of snow last night and no power! Tally ho!

SNOW!!!

Fall in New England....And a buddha statue

Posture clinic - woo hoo

Card my sweet friends Aub and Mer sent!

They rule! thanks guys! and thanks to all the wonderful people in my life who listened to all my bullshit during the time it took me to get here. I'm so grateful to be here and couldn't have done it without all your love and support and patience and encouragement. Love and namaste!

Save the Yama for your mama...

So, another really great thing we learned about last week were the Yama's (character building restraints) and the miyamas (character building observances). The Yama's are the first limb of the 8 limbs of yoga, and include things like, ahimsa-loving kindness, and aparigraha- non-attachment, satya -truth, bramyacharya -energy management, and asteya- non stealing. The miyamas are part of the second limb of yoga and include things like saucha- purity, santosha-contentment, tapas-self discipline, swadyhyaya- self study and Ishvar-pranidahna - surrender to the universe. Anyway we each had to pick one that resonated with us. I figured I should choose Bramacharya because I have been in some fear during my adjustment and have been tempted to revert back to some old patterns, but I told myself I should tackle something smaller (because let's face it I really just wanted to give myself an excuse to indulge in old behavior). So I decided to choose asteya (non stealing)- and by the way we had to stand up in front of the whole group and say what our Yama or miyama was and apparently I am the only thief up in this piece because I stood alone. Any way I chose that because I reasoned that a better way to counteract my temptations would be with a step forward instead of a negation,and I felt that I was stealing from myself by not participating fully - our group is 63 people and I am a little intimidated about speaking in front of everyone, if you can believe it. Anyway so I chose asteya, indulged in my bad habit a little, and it occurred to me that it was not only a matter of brammacharya,energy management, since I have a real tendency to get strung out on human beings, but also asteya, since I was robbing myself of this experience by giving any energy at all to that. But of course I really kicked my own ass about it all and so changed to Ishvar-Pranidhana the next day, and I just gave it all to god girl. So namaste, and I am trying not to think about the fact I can't watch the world series. My dosha is not happy about that, but hopefully I'll be enlightened soon (they said I should be like week 3ish) so no worries, but I would not be opposed to someone tevo'ing it for me.
Sweet dreams and much peace!

More pics

Labyrinth, field of flowers, dining hall

The Dude

Aura photography

My first week...

It was impossible to write everyday, because everyday has been so jam packed. What an incredible ride! We have today off, so I got up late (7 am), and went for a walk down through the field of flowers and the labyrinth and made my way down to the lake and back up again for breakfast. We are in close quarters around here, so spend all of our waking moments together, so i needed some solitude today. It's been really interesting to notice where my energy goes, and to try and find a balance between giving all or nothing.
The labyrinth was an interesting experience,I wept deeply, as I did yesterday morning all through sadhana. It's grief I feel deeply and a path I have to keep walking, but the big picture is still there. I have defined myself by my burdens, tragedies, my "thing", the crazy..but I'm not my drama even though it is a part of me...as Yeats said, "life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived" so maybe Rilke was right if I continue to be present with the questions I might accidentally live my way into the answers.
On Tuesday night we were all given mala beads, in a somewhat ceremonious fashion. The Great Hall was set up with great care and our cushions were all in a circle with candles in front of them, after chanting and prayers we were each given our beads along with our mantra which is Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya, which translates as Thy Will Be Done. We then went around our beads and recited our mantra - this is called japa. We then moved into a meditation in motion (prana moving you) which I felt awkward about at first and a desire to make it pretty, but I got over it once I closed my eyes, I moved into a headstand, and when i came out of it i realized my physical body appreciates more of a challenge, but my minds tendency is to slack. I had been feeling pretty frustrated with all of the chitter chatter coming from my inner critic,and was able to express that with the co listening exercise we did in pairs right after the meditation in motion. I was then able to take what i learned into Sadhana the next morning, which was self directed by the way, and really challenge myself to stay the cousre when I noticed my minds tendency to steer clear of my edge.

More pictures

Life without coffee

Is not so bad... I do three bags of white tea (oh in my white tee ooh) before sadhana in the morning, and so far no one has died. Also am big on the ginger tea after meals since our lecture on Ayervedic medicine. (ginger aids in digestion, no surprise) It's clear that many of us are ingesting more fiber than usual. Namaste

Prana love and tea

So much to tell! Yesterday Bethiny felt her prana ball after our first class ( i know right, the first day ?) I felt kinda ripped off, like hey I want one. Well it happened today, during sadhana, which we did outside today. We gave thanks to all nine directions: north, south, east, west,the sky the earth, ourselves and all other sentient beings, and then we shook our whole bodies out ( yes all 65 of us on the front lawn) And when we brought our hands to Anjali mudra (prayer) and there it was. Yay prana!
Also, every morning we have silent breakfast, and they say it's to promote mindfulness in eating, but I think the real reason is they don't have coffee and everybody's too pissed about it to talk.
We do however have tons of different teas which is just delightful! Will take pictures and post tomorrow. It is something to behold.
Namaste

My daily life

A few pics: activity board- where we're supposed to be and when each day and what's for meals, one of the sitting rooms near the entrance, and one of many inspirational posters found in the stairwells oh and the magnificent view.
Namaste