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.