It’s my first one. Ever.  Please don’t judge me.  I’m going too fast.  I look at the camera too much.  My head is cut off half the time.  My tank top could have been a little more modest.  BUT.  It is the start of something sweet, I hope.

Yoga on, friends.  Yoga on.  Cheers to utilizing technology to share more yoga!

It’s all over the interweb.  This article from the New York Times, How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body, has got the yogis talking to say the least.   I thought the article was a little one-sided and harsh about the dangers of injuring yourself on the yoga mat, but I understand what it feels like to injur yourself and the frustration it brings.  I’ve dealt with hip pain after cardio kickboxing, knee pain after a running stint, neck pain from life and yoga, low back pain from being a desk jockey.  In many ways I think it’s just part of the human condition.  Our bodies are amazing feats of genetic engineering, but they are fragile, they age, and will one day will completely degenerate back to the earth.  Do we really think we won’t have issues with our bodies, that they aren’t fragile?  I feel strongly that people need to be nicer to themselves in yoga, that it’s not an athletic competition, that you can gain strength and mobility without torturing yourself.

I enjoyed this quote from the article which makes a good point about how different it is to practice yoga today in the west:  ”Indian practitioners of yoga typically squatted and sat cross-legged in daily life, and yoga poses, or asanas, were an outgrowth of these postures. Now urbanites who sit in chairs all day walk into a studio a couple of times a week and strain to twist themselves into ever-more-difficult postures despite their lack of flexibility and other physical problems. Many come to yoga as a gentle alternative to vigorous sports or for rehabilitation for injuries.”

And I really appreciate a response to the article from Sadie Nardini, another yoga teacher.  I love that she included some great questions to consider and also some resources for teachers and students to become better informed.  Some good quotes from Sadie:

“Yoga injuries? OK, so a lot of yoga injuries don’t bring people to the ER, but neither do many cycling injuries, which chalk up around 580,000 emergency room visits a year, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. I’m still waiting to see a “Can Cycling Wreck Your Body” story, one that would be more appropriate for more readers.”

“People can get hurt anytime they move, and sometimes even if they don’t. For example, other proven causes of injury, stroke, nerve damage, and death (involving many more cases than yoga, by the way) are: eating, having sex, running, walking, cycling, dancing, traveling, …”

And a quote that hits home and is nice reminder for me, a fairly green yoga teacher in all honesty:  ”From what I’ve seen, so many of our yoga instructors at every level could use a refresher course in the anatomy of yoga and movement, say, from a credible–and anatomically correct–expert. Not an expert in classical pose shapes, but in actual human anatomy and the anatomy of movement. In my opinion, there are way too many teachers out there with way too little anatomy experience.

I think Sadie sums it up nicely with this  ”I’d like to pose the question: Should you shy away from yoga because it could possibly, somehow tweak your body? My educated answer to you would be: Absolutely not.”

A Top Five List of some of my Fave Yoga Thangs.

1. Shiva Rea: Daily Energy – Vinyasa Flow Yoga.  This is my favorite yoga DVD to date. It has 7 twenty minute practices that you can mix and match, or just do on their own. It includes solar (strong) and lunar (more mellow) flows, a core, backbending, and forward bending/hip opening sequence as well as moving meditations to warm up and and savasana/relaxation. I didn’t really do DVD’s until this one. It has a yoga matrix which allows you to select the sequences you want to do in what order, so you can create your own practice.
2. Jade Yoga Mat.  My favorite yoga mat hands down. My hands never slip in downward facing dog, no matter how sweaty I get, no matter how wet the mat gets. I love that the mats are made in the U.S. and with tree rubber so it’s earth friendly. Stop using that cheap mat you bought on a whim a few years ago. You will not be disappointed with this purchase. I also have their travel version, which is great too. They last a long time. They only start to disintegrate on me after long, 10 day vinyasa trainings where I roll over my toes 3-5 hours a day.
3. Manduka Mat Sling. My favorite way to carry my mat around town. It simply slides over the ends of the mat, you don’t have to try to fit it into a bag with funky material that sticks to it and messes up your perfect mat roll. It has a little key-chain, tote thingy for the bare essentials. I like how simple it is.  Not a bare essential, but useful.
4. Yoga Paws. Ok, they’re pretty dorky looking, but for anyone who likes to travel lightly and simply, they’re pretty awesome. You don’t really need them, I’ve been know to practice wherever I can, with whatever I’ve got around me (the photo at right is an example), but I miss my sun salutations when I travel, and where there is a downward facing doggie, I like to have a little support under my paws.
5. Last but not least, I’m having a hard time deciding.  Should it be my cork block, or my extra long strap, one of my favorite books, or frankly, the freaking will power it takes to do the yoga itself?  All of the above depending on how you like to roll.  I’m going to go with a teacher who rocks your world.  I have had a few, and they aren’t just my yoga teachers, the way they carry themselves is pure inspiration, it makes me want to be a better version of myself.  They inspire me with their smiles.  They show you how to live.  We all need one.  Lisa Pittelli, Shiva Rea, Camille Thom, Baron Baptiste, Kira Rider, Amber, Rochelle, so many along the way LOVE EM! So thankful for their light in my life. Find one if you haven’t yet. Just do it.

How about you?  Any favorites?  Next top 5 suggestion?

After traveling, working too hard, or playing too much, I find it useful to take a little time to reset.  I do this by eating “better” and sticking to my yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises like glue.  Last week was one of those weeks.  I came back from travels thinking, “It’s spring, it’s spring, time to cleanse the house, body and soul!”.   Just when I thought spring was right around the corner, winter comes back to say hello and remind me that it is still his time.  No dears, it is not time to cleanse the body, it’s too cold to lose that winter layer yet.  So spring cleaning my apartment will have to do.

Some of my favorite winter routines:  I like to sip hot water all day, drain my sinuses using a neti pot, eat lots of warm, hearty stews, and get 9 hours of sleep per night.  If I do these things on a regular basis, winter just might be survivable.

Yoga inspiration this week?  I have been practicing the Chakra Vinyasa sequence from Shiva Rea’s Daily Energy DVD.  It goes like this.  See if you can give it a try!

After a few rounds of Surya Namaskar A or B starting in Down Dog…

Earth Wave – Connecting with the earth energy, staying low to the ground

• Inhale right leg to the sky
• Exhale step it through between the hands
• Inhale drop the back knee
• Exhale half split
• Inhale low lunge variation with hands on floor
• Rhythmic vinyasa between the two previous postures for 2 more breath cycles
• Connecting vinyasa: inhale anahatasana, exhale low cobra, inhale prostration hands in prayer over head, exhale prostration, inhale up dog, exhale down dog
• Other side.

Water Wave – Connecting with more fluidity between and within postures

• Inhale right leg to the sky
• Exhale step it through between the hands
• Inhale drop the back knee
• Exhale half split
• Inhale low lunge variation with arms over head
• Rhythmic vinyasa between the two previous postures for 2 more breath cycles
• Connecting vinyasa: inhale anahatasana, exhale fluid low cobra, inhale prostration, exhale prostration, inhale up dog, exhale down dog
• Other side/leg.
• Before Connecting Vinyasa on other side…
• Inhale into plank or push-up position, knees up or down
• Exhale side plank, right side, whatever variation you can have with integrity
• Inhale plank
• Exhale left side plank
• Inhale one more each side
• Continue with connecting vinyasa detailed above

Fire Wave – Turn up the fire baby!

• Inhale right leg to the sky
• Exhale into plank with knee to nose, coiling in through belly
• Rhythmic vinyasa between two previous postures 4 more breath cycles
• On 5th exhale, step it through between the hands, knee lifted, standing crescent lunge. Take 5 breaths here.
• Inhale into warrior 3, or a variation with hands on blocks. 5 breaths here.
• After 5th breath, slowly lower back into crescent lunge, with grace, without elephant legs
• Exhale back knee drops, half split
• Connecting vinyasa fire style:  Inhale/exhale for 3 prostration push-ups honoring your body and energy level, inhale locust with arms interlaced behind back, 3-5 breaths, prostration with hands over head in prayer one breath cycle, inhale up dog, exhale down dog.
• Other side
• Before connecting vinyasa after left side, two rounds of side plank, each leg/side.  If comfortable and you made it this far and you know what the hell I’m talking about, make it funky wild thang

I am doing an “ayurvedic cleanse” right now. It’s kind of like chaturanga. No, I’m not fasting, or drinking only lemonade, but I am eating lots of freaking apples and various other, earthy foods. It’s cleaning out my body and cleaning out my mind a little for fall. Lets hope this helps me avoid the flu!

I have little things coming up so far…

It’s interesting how the general public interpret the idea of cleansing and detoxification and diet in general. Their are so many phobias, opinions, and assumptions that arise with such simple words. Reminds me of how many people think yoga = god which must compete with spirituality in general. So much is up to interpretation, isn’t it?
Why isn’t the prep work I’ve been doing for this cleanse more of a typical routine? I’ve been reminded that I can take care of myself with healthful food that isn’t boring or crappy if I take a little time. What am I doing instead of taking good care of myself most days? Working too hard? Keeping too busy?
I’m enjoying the creativity in cooking.
Fresh herbs make everything better.
The simplicity of my shopping trip to New Frontiers, SLO’s version of Whole Foods. Whole grains, veggies, and fruits aren’t that expensive, it must be all the hummus and cheese I’m usually buying that makes my grocery bill twice what it was this week.
Mmm quinoa. And avocados.
Not enjoying the baby headaches I’ve had at the end of the last two days though.

We’ll see how this goes.

I really like Shiva Rea’s Daily Energy DVD, I think I’ve said that before, but it’s the first yoga DVD I’ve actually done more than once. It’s broken into 20-minute segments which you can do alone or together, with a short core and forward bending option. Nice little doable morsels of joy. The segments are all vinyasa flow yoga, fun and totally accessible to beginners and seasoned yogis alike. They are elementally named so you can pick the type of practice you’re in the mood for. Fire = challenging, water = flowy combo of standing and floor poses, and earth = more grounding and traditional poses. They’re all great practices too. This week I’m practicing and teaching the fire + water practice.

Sleepy time…

I taught a completely new vinyasa yoga sequence to my classes this week after a revitalizing training immersion with Shiva last week. The classes I taught had some typical Roxy-style components, but I mostly went off the reservation and shook things up. I taught the class in a mandala, which means in a “circle”. We went from facing the front of the mat and switching legs, what Shiva calls “churn style”, to facing the side, and the back of the mat. Notice in the photo from my immersion our mats are in a circle as well as the practice taking us in a circle. It was definitely new, to me as well as my students, so the flow wasn’t quite as smooth as my typical class. The first time I taught it, without even noticing I went right into teaching Surya Namaskar A, which has been one of the backbones of my classes for the last 2 years. It’s so ingrained in my body and psyche that I just went right to it. I had to remind myself, “Hey. You’re trying to change things up here, girlie!” Have you ever done that when trying to learn something knew, just went right back to what you know because it’s there? I realized that not only do I have to practice, I have to practice a lot to really get it. I also just have to teach it a bit before I really get the class flowing and make it have that spark and connection that makes a yoga class truly awesome. I don’t think that means the classes suck either, many people said they enjoyed the classes. And what is the hurry anyway?

It was interesting where I found resistance to the unknown. I found it in myself when I just defaulted to the past, what was easy, what was familiar. It was hard for me to really hold the space at times when I noticed some of my students giving me the “yoga stink eye.” You know, when you can clearly tell someone is NOT ENJOYING your class or their practice, they refuse to take it easy, take their knees down, take the “easier” options, for whatever reason, and the look on their face, their body language, everything about them shows it. For the most part it’s just the life of doing something new and challenging and as a teacher I am mostly ok with it. Sometimes I notice myself responding or adjusting the class without meaning to. I have to be ok with people not liking me while I’m making them sweat their asses off. It’s part of the job.

Some of my student friends resisted it with the yoga stink eye, some over-thought about it and confused themselves, but overall I would say it was a good time indeed. I think next week I will spend a little more time in the postures the first time through and make it clearer what good alignment is in each posture. Thank you my yogi friends for letting me take you on a roller coaster ride.

I am going to try to start documenting what I teach on a weekly basis. If you really like what I teach, or are looking for some (home practice) inspiration, look no further. This is my first week so bear with me if you don’t like the way I wrote it up. If you have questions, feedback, suggestions, let me know. I also made a few sequence templates similar to the ones Shiva uses for sharing sequences during her trainings

A Mandala Namaskar Prep Sequence

The following two templates are saved as web pages so you should easily be able to print them and get a blank template to use to write up future sequences for practicing or teaching.
A Printable Sequence Template (w/ 2 waves, 1 page)
A Printable Sequence Templace (w/ 3 waves, 2 pages)

Once you open the following Google doc, you can go to File > Upload to upload it to your own Google docs to edit, or File > Download As so you can save it in another electronic format you can work with.
An Editable Sequence Template

During this perverse grace period, there’s no need for you to be inhibited as you unleash your tortured squalls. You don’t have to tone down the extremity of your desolate clamors. Unhappy Hour is a ritually consecrated excursion devoted to the full disclosure of your primal clash and jangle.

Here’s the catch: It’s brief. It’s concise. It’s crisp. You dive into your darkness for no more than 60 minutes, then climb back out, free and clear. It’s called Unhappy Hour, not Unhappy Day or Unhappy Week or Unhappy Year.  Do you have the cheeky temerity to drench yourself in your paroxysmal alienation from life? Unhappy Hour invites you to plunge in and surrender. It dares you to scurry and squirm all the way down to the bottom of your pain, break through the bottom of your pain, and fall down flailing in the soggy, searing abyss, yelping and cringing and wallowing.  That’s where you let your pain tell you every story it has to tell you. You let your pain teach you every lesson it has to teach you.

But then it’s over. The ritual ordeal is complete. And your pain has to take a vacation until the next Unhappy Hour, which isn’t until next week sometime, or maybe next month.

You see the way the game works? Between this Unhappy Hour and the next one, your pain has to shut up. It’s not allowed to creep and seep all over everything, staining the flow of your daily life. It doesn’t have free reign to infect you whenever it’s itching for more power.

Your pain gets its succinct blast of glory, its resplendent climax, but leaves you alone the rest of the time.

If performed regularly, Unhappy Hour serves as an exorcism that empties you of psychic toxins, while at the same time — miracle of miracles — it helps you squeeze every last drop of blessed catharsis out of those psychic toxins.

Pronoia will then be able to flourish as you luxuriate more frequently in rosy moods and broad-minded visions. You’ll develop a knack for cultivating smart joy and cagey optimism as your normal states of mind.

READ THE REST OF “UNHAPPY HOUR” HERE.

From Rob Brezsny, author of Free Will Astrology and Pronoia, the Antidote to Paranoia.  Both his astrology and book take you outside of your box and allow you to feel a little internal smile outside of the box of common culture.

Childs pose with knees wide
Downward facing dog
Rag doll
Chair to 1 legged chair with hands to floor
Other side
Take it to the floor
1/2 pigeon
1/2 pigeon with back leg pulsation
Double pigeon
One legged forward stretch
One legged forward stretch with side opener
Wide legged forward fold
Other side
If time and mojo is right, do wide legged forward fold second time with friend
Paschimotanasana forward fold
Frog?

Oh, I almost forgot to include notes from Amy Swanson’s class on Funamentals of Vinyasa Yoga.  I loved it.

• Vinyasa actually means breath, although we refer to the middle sequence in Sun Salutations the “high push up, low push up, upward facing dog, downward facing dog” as a connecting Vinyasa.  The Connecting Vinyasa is like wiping the slate clean, giving your body a fresh start for moving forward to the next postures.
• Halfway lift should be onto fingertips if in uttasana you can align your fingertips with your toes.  Otherwise your hands should be on your shins.  You should also have  a bit of a back bend in your halfway lift to help the shoulder blades get into place and set up your chaturanga correctly.
• Balls of feet.  You should be on the balls of your feet when you step back into high pushup not just on your toes.
• Quads. They should be engaged, lifted, and strong in high push up, with the inner thighs spinning inward and up.
• Shoulder Blades.  Should be moving down your back toward your buttocks as they were in halfway lift.
• Tops of Shoulders should not drop as you lower.  You should only go so low that your biceps are parallel with the ground and your elbows at right angles and pause.  You have to make a conscious effort not to let the top of the shoulders drop even if you can keep the rest of your arms in alignment.
• Your hands should be gripping the mat and pulling you forward.