Breath and Opening

I'm spending a few days pulling in as opposed to reflecting out. I'm in Miami practicing with my teacher....5 whole days to be a student. :)

Practicing here is not like practicing anywhere else. The space where my teacher has morning Mysore class holds 5 students at a maximum. The space is small, intimate, and there is nowhere to hide. You could imagine that the adjustments and attention from an experienced teacher in that small group could spoil a person!

The best part for me personally about that space is the constant sound of David breathing. Even when he is on the "far" side of the room, I can still hear the sound of full, even breathing. As my attention sinks deeper inward, it starts to feel almost as if the room itself is breathing...inhale, expand, exhale, contract.

The Ashtanga Vinyasa practice really is a "breathing practice". With each trip I make here, I find the breath leading me into a steadier, lighter practice.

On this trip in particular, I started the 5 days of practice with some stress in my mind that had dug itself deeply into my body. In practice the day before I drove down, I had the feeling that I just wasn't getting any breath into those tight areas where I had deposited the stress for dealing with later.

In the first practice here, I felt like I was fighting my own body: trying to send breath into tight areas, realizing that I would have to let those tissues open if I was going to get some breath in there, noting that I felt some resistance to opening up...
...like all that I didn't want to think about right then would open up with the tissues...because of course it would...

Slowly after 4 days of practice with David, things are opening up and sliding back into place. One more day of practice to try to deepen the breath just a little bit more
....next, working to carry that back with me into my solo practice and teaching practice

On teaching...

There's an interesting conversation going around the cybershala on teaching yoga and more specifically on teaching Ashtanga...You can read some thoughts from Nobel, Patrick and Claudia which has gotten me thinking...

I never intended to teach yoga.

I started taking yoga classes in whatever style was cheapest when I was 17...it was 1994. I took generic "hatha" classes, I took vinyasa classes, and I dropped in on some classes that today I'm not even sure what it was exactly. In 2001, I took my first Ashtanga class, a full led primary. After an hour into the class, I was sure I was going to keel over dead at any moment and was definitely sure I wasn't going to make it through the whole class.

I made it through the class and went back.

In late 2002 I moved to Miami and in the spring of 2003, I went to my first Mysore style Ashtanga class. I had found my "yoga home". I was a bit intimidated at the beginning of my first Mysore class while I sorted out how the whole thing worked, but I left that first class delighted with the feeling of being able to steer my own practice under the guidance of a teacher. I had done a home Ashtanga practice for most of a year at that point and found the best of both worlds in the Mysore room.

You know that feeling when you first meet a new boyfriend or girlfriend and you think they're so amazing that you want them to meet every one of your friends, so that each one of your friends will now also know how completely amazing this new person is?

...well, that's how I felt about Mysore style Ashtanga yoga...I was absolutely infatuated!

I spent 4 years in Miami soaking up as much yoga as possible. Every year on my birthday, I took the day off of work and went to the early morning Mysore class. It was a present to myself; there was no where else that I would rather have been.

When, after 4 years, we moved from Miami to a much smaller town, I was a bit heartbroken to leave my teachers. I had searched google and could find no evidence of any Mysore style classes in my new town. One of my teachers said just before I left, "If you don't find what you're looking for in a yoga class there, then you teach it."

I didn't find any Mysore classes in the new town. There was a led class at a local studio that I attended, but it just wasn't the same...and often it left me frustrated. I knew that so much more depth was possible from a yoga practice. I tried convincing the studio owner to try teaching Mysore classes. She wasn't interested. She was of the opinion that any kind of hands-on adjustment was going to cause injury and that I was going to "yoga hell" for even suggesting that they could be helpful. Most frustrating though, was not the lack of adjustments or assists, it was the loss of that feeling of steering my own practice, but with the support and encouragement of someone who had navigated those same waters before me.

...so I did a teacher training...200 hours over the course of about a year and a half.

...and I started a class

For the first year, I taught a class once a week at a community center for free. I had 2, sometimes 3, students. I was honest about how new I was to teaching. I'm fairly certain I learned more than the students did in that year, but they found something in those practices that kept them coming back. For that, I am grateful beyond words.

I did learn some useful, broad perspective sorts of things in the teacher training that I took...but really, what I've learned so far about teaching, has come from 3 places:

1-my own personal, daily practice...daily time on the mat

2-my teaching practice...teaching Mysore and learning from each class

3-from my teachers...guidance and ecouragement that comes from their years of experience

I've been teaching Mysore style Ashtanga yoga for about 4 1/2 years now and practicing for about 10. In the lifetime of an Ashtanga practice, that is barely any time at all.

On a more aware sort of day, I realize that teaching yoga is much like meditation. It's not something you do. It's something that might happen when the conditions are right. My job is to help students learn to set up the right conditions and then get out of the way, so the practice itself can do the teaching. Some days I do a better job than others. My teaching practice, like my personal time on the mat, is exactly that, a practice.

Interview with David Keil: Part 3

Part 3 of my interview with David Keil on Mysore style practice!

Interview with David Keil: Part 2

Part 2 of my interview with David Keil on Mysore style practice!

Interview with David Keil: Part 1

A bonus this week!

While my teacher (David Keil) was here this week, I spent a little time interviewing him on why we do this Mysore style practice anyway. There are lots of rumors flying around out there about what Mysore practice is and what it is for. I had a lot of fun interviewing David and digging in to some of those topics.

Enjoy!...and we would love to hear your feedback on the interview. :)

Parts 1 of our interview is below. Parts 2 & 3 will be posted separately.

Day 3 & 4

Ahhhh...2 more amazing practices. My focus this week in practice has been on relaxing, smoothing the breath out from the first sun salutation and riding it out to the end. There is usually a bit of unraveling right about laghuvajrasana and again at tittibhasana, but all in all it's better, steadier.

What I've become more and more aware of as I spend time with this sequence is how much of a conscious decision relaxation has to be. I have to make a firm decision not to fight the awkward, uncomfortable or just plain deep places.

These weeks with my teacher go so fast!...but what a way to spend a week! I've spent 4 mornings doing this practice, which I love, with help from my teacher and have been practicing next to some of my favorite people. I couldn't imagine being happier. :)

Day 2

Ahhh...second day of practice with my teacher and all the sticky places are opening up and things are settling into place. The intensity and depth of intermediate tends to catch me by surprise in these weeks where I have David's help to nudge things into less explored territory. One of the surprises of this week so far is that the usual feeling of being sort of knocked over by a wave of energy right about kapotasana is not happening. Breath control continues to improve and there's now more a feeling of riding the wave than being knocked under water by it.

SI joint issues were much improved today and I was actually able to get the leg behind the head without pain...and enjoyed one of my favorite adjustments in eka pada shirshasana!

Highlight: I got a "good" in nakrasana!...woo hoo!! Compliments from my teacher are gold...that one will keep me going for months. :)

Day 1

so nice to have my teacher here for the week...

This morning's practice was an interesting mix of surprises. My left SI joint is still sore!...leg-behind-head is modified. David's adjustment for eka pada shirshasana is one of my favorites...such a nice deep stretch in the hips, but had to give it up today. :(

Karandavasana and mayurasana were not bad...at least as my interpretations of them go. Mayurasana was especially a surprise...who knew that, while it felt like nothing was changing as I slogged through it everyday, it was shifting around a bit. I felt much less like I was about to crash onto my face today as David assisted me by supporting my legs! Maybe there's hope for that pose after all.

The nicest part of the practice though was the part that is the hardest to put into words. The feeling of being able to surrender, knowing someone is there to help in the sticky places, knowing that for 5 days I don't have to do this all on my own is worth so much. At the sound of my teacher's breath I immediately relax into the practice in a way that I just don't on my own. I'm so happy to just practice for the week.

You Know You're an Ashtangi When...

You know you're an Ashtangi when...

...the high point of my day is when my teacher jabs his thumbs into my belly during a "bandha check" and says "yes, perfect."

....really?!...for one whole inhale and exhale there was just the right amount of tension in my lower belly.

...now for all those other inhales and exhales... :)

David Keil Returns to Gainesville

I've been really blessed to have found amazing teachers along the Ashtanga yoga path. They have all provided insights and invaluable encouragement along the way. Now that the time I spend with them is limited due to distance, I especially look forward to the few weeks/weekends I spend with them each year.

The next circled dates on my calendar are at the end of August (Aug. 30-Sept. 3). David Keil, my primary Mysore teacher is coming to town. For 5 days, I get to turn my studio and my students over to David...and I get to be a student myself. The night before a week of Mysore classes with David is like Christmas Eve for me. I'm so excited for the next morning to arrive that the alarm can't come early enough!

Stay Tuned for a Guest Blog Post by David on what Mysore style Ashtanga practice is all about!

The mental countdown of weeks has already begun...and I'm storing up a mental list of questions about practice and teaching. I'll be blogging during the week and sharing it here. :)

If you're in the area (or not) and want to join in the fun (August 30-Sept. 3), the details are on the workshop page of the website....only 4 spaces left!

If you can't make it to Gainesville, catch David in Tampa at the beautiful Treehouse Yoga, Sept.27-Oct.1

Day 4: yoga vacation with David Keil

I'm already feeling sad that tomorrow is my last practice with my teacher for 6 more months. The week always goes by so fast.

After doing years of mostly home practice, I've found that there are things about practicing on my own that I love, but I'm so grateful this week to be practicing with a group. It's energizing in a way that practicing alone isn't. I especially like the sound of other students breathing. It helps keep me focused and is a constant reminder to me to breath. The one CD recording that is not for sale (that I know of), but that I would love to own is just a recording of 2 hours of a Mysore class breathing. That's a call to all the established teachers out there...someone make a breath CD!

Tomorrow's goal: try to soak up the energy of practicing with a great group of students and a fantastic teacher...and then carry that into home practice next week!

Day 3: yoga vacation with David Keil

day 3 of my 5 days of practice with David...

practice thoughts:
I'm starting to get a sense of where in practice my work will be for the next 6 months of home practice. Practicing with David makes me very aware of the areas in my practice where I tend toward lazy. It also reminds me of one of the best lessons that I learn from practice (over and over again): if you don't try it, it doesn't get any easier.

Strength components of poses come very slowly to me; it is so motivating to have someone cheering me on as progress in these areas slowly appears in my practice.

Day 2: Yoga vacation with David Keil

ahhh...another stellar morning yoga practice with my teacher. Today begins the new homework I'll be working on for the next 6 months of home practice...or as looks more likely the next 6 years. The new pose and other transition work feel absolutely impossible! One of the things that I love about David is his attitude of total confidence that what feels impossible to me is totally possible (with time and practice of course!)
...and one of the things that I love about the Ashtanga yoga practice is that there is no end to confronting the impossible and learning that it really can be done!

Day 1: Yoga vacation with David Keil

...so when I first started learning Ashtanga yoga, I lived in Miami and had the luxury of a local yoga studio with Mysore style classes and multiple excellent teachers...

...fast forward a few years and I have left the big city for a smallish college town that suits me far better, but have sadly left my yoga teachers behind.

For the past 4 years I have done home practice and spent a week practicing with my teacher twice a year. This week is my week of practice with David Keil (my teacher) and this time I'm in Savannah, GA. David gives me lots of "homework" during each practice week...enough that I'm just about ready for more in 6 months when I travel to practice with him again. I have no doubt this week will be no different. It's helpful in those long stretches of home practice to know that I will see a teacher in 6 months and that he will be expecting that I have practiced! It's motivation to keep the intensity of practice up when nobody's watching! :)

Practice thoughts for today:
You know how, when your car starts making some kind of funny noise and you finally take it into the shop, that inevitably it stops making any noises and runs great?! Well, for me, practicing with David is a bit like that. It seems like every time I'm starting a practice week with David, I'm coming into it having tweaked something. I've tweaked shoulders while biking, ankles and knees while running, etc. By the end of the first practice with David's adjustments, the tweaks are gone. Everything is running great.

A big thanks to the the great group at Savannah Yoga Center! They have a beautiful studio and a great group of students to practice with.