EVERYONE IS MY TEACHER

The waxing and full moon offered up many opportunities this week -- just looking at it could have been enough; but, I took it a bit further and used it (and the associated holiday, Guru Purnima - when we honor and celebrate our teachers) as theme for classes. I also loved reading how friends wrote about the 'holiday' -- in this case more of an old world definition is applied (holy day).

A short re-cap of the week is in order:

Tuesday's class in Carlsbad turned into a private for one lucky lady. Good stuff, tho, since the more I question, the more I find out about people; and the more I observe, the more I see. Not bad stuff, just stuff that might benefit from a bit of enhancing. In a private class situation, it's easier to do this as you just focus on one person and this gives you opportunities (and excuses) to really dive deep. Once, a student said to me "you notice everything!". Why? She was the only one in the room, the one I was paying attention to and 'seeing' everything about - the good and the rest.

The afternoon Therapeutic/Gentle class in Temecula was small, as well. I was bolstered by the inquiry of one student into doing some private work with her. She is recovering from a very serious car accident, feels yoga is helping her, and cleared it with her physician. Good stuff. This will be my first private client work in California.

Wednesday, well I wrote about my new/old friend. If you have an opportunity, check out her blog (listed to the right, Lesley DuTemple). I am loving her ability to communicate through her writing. I also must admit it's nice to reflect on things other than yoga for a few minutes during my morning computer time.

Thursday -- I received a note from my Certification evaluator (is that what they're called?). Homework is signed off on, next step - create a class plan, get her approval, video! This news, plus the fact that 5 showed for my Carlsbad class, was great support to my theme of honoring and celebration (using Guru Purnima as the basis). I carried the same theme to the Temecula class, switched up the apex based on the student's in the room.

What's happening with my teaching, now that the homework is completed? Well, I have 'connected the dots'. I do go back to the theme, emphasize the heart quality and UPA, tell people 'why'. I can feel and hear myself doing it. It's kind of scary and 'out of the box' for me. I just finished reading "The Gifts of Imperfection". Teaching this way is somewhat like the contents of the second-to-last chapter, called "Letting Go Of Being Cool and Always in 'Control'". That's how I've always been - 'in control' - at least as long as I can remember. Teaching from my heart, adding in motivating adjectives, raising my voice to convey excitement, all these things go right up to my imprinted pattern of 'in control' and scream in its face (there's a story to demo this, too much to write, maybe another time). Scary stuff; GOOD STUFF!

And, Friday -- well the carpet people were to have arrived, change of plans - they are coming today. That throws my yoga plan off; but, will love new carpet without wine stains (from previous owners).

Hope you have a great Saturday. I'll be dodging carpet layers most of the day -- won't be hard to look for the good in that, however.

THE SMALL WORLD WE LIVE IN

I am reminded repeatedly that it truly is a small world. Talking to people, questioning, discussing, I discover a connection -- somewhere, somehow -- with many of them.

One example has been at the forefront of my awareness lately: Perhaps you've seen my Facebook posts about our work with Cate Stillman, Certified Anusara® Yoga instructor and Certified Ayurveda Specialist, who lives and practices both her Certified occupations out of Driggs, Idaho. I met Cate several (many?) years ago, when I began attending classes at Yoga Tejas (now, her studio, but - at that time - owned by Sundari). I loved her classes, and each time we would arrive at our home in Driggs, I'd check the shedule for opportunities to practice with either Cate or Sundari. Over the years, we've connected at trainings and workshops - including two at the studio I owned in Salt Lake City, in addition to our continued relationship through her studio. I also have recently been using her Ayurvedic advice, with success I ought to add.

When I posted my comments on Facebook, I put the @ symbol before Cate's name, which causes comments to go to her page and to be broadcast to her friends and fans (I think that's how it works, anyway). Reading her page and comments was a long-lost friend who (whom?) I had met in Salt Lake City 15+ years ago, and who I had lost touch with after our initial meetings. She and her husband have built their dream home in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; so, we really lost touch when that happened. When we did occasionally cross paths, we discovered our mutual Michigan connections (mine was through my Dad's last Air Force assignment there and the home of my late brother and his family).

This 'long-lost' friend "facebook'd" me when she saw my name on Cate's page and asked me to be her 'friend'. It took me a few minutes to realize just who she was. Once I figured it out, I quickly responded 'yes' to the friend request and a very nice dialogue has begun.

Besides Michigan, what else do we have in common?

1. We both share the first name, Leslie (Lesley, in her case)
2. We both practice Anusara Yoga
3. We have mutual friends through Anusara Yoga, including Cate and Jamie Allison
4. We have mutual friends from our Salt Lake City days
5. We both enjoy writing. Lesley is an author of children's books, has recently formed her own publishing company, and writes a great blog (see link at right)

So, one example of what a small world we live in and how Facebook and blogging bring us closer together.

Hope you have a great Wednesday!

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

Not sure if I forgot or just kept getting distracted after Thursday's post -- guess it was a bit of both.

It was a busy week - teaching, unpacking (again), cleaning, spending time with Grand-Dudes. I'll just spend a few lines on both the teaching and the Grand-Dudes.

On teaching -- I find that I am attracting an experienced set of students. That is good; I take it to mean that my teaching is going deep into what some people are looking for. What is that, besides feeling good about themselves at the end of the class? I think it is feeling good, plus knowing why you are feeling good. An observation on this group of students: Many have done yoga for years, some teach, and they have developed habits. Here and there, I see ways of doing things that have become their 'habit', yet not quite an 'optimal' habit. As a new-to-them instructor, I have been pointing out those 'less-than-optimal' habits. Oops! I am sure I have my own set of habits, i.e. hyperextending knees, when I forget (or ignore) shin loop; not taking legs quite wide enough for some of the standing poses; like that. So, I understand. That is one of the major reasons to come into a class - to have an instructor look at our pose, embellish it, offer us kudos on a job well done - feel good about our efforts and the outcome.

And, about the Grand-Dudes. Gratitude - the practice of Gratitude. I know their parents share this goal - to give their children the gift of a Gratitude practice. We (Howard and I) took them to the Birch Aquarium on Saturday. After moving quickly thru the Aquarium (4 and 2 year old attention spans are SHORT, we are finding), we climbed in the car to go get some lunch. First thing out of the 2-year-old's mouth -- 'I had so much fun at the quarium' (not a typo - that's how he says 'aquarium' at this point in his life). Howard and I asked the two boys (and ourselves) to share our favorite parts of this excursion -- a fun practice; one that we plan to keep going -- what we are grateful for and enjoy most about our experiences together.

We made it to the lunch location, one boy voraciously hungry - the other, quickly divebombing into a case of something (flu?). We found ourselves with one who wanted to go home, the other who wanted his 'dilla' (his word for quesadilla), NOW. We quickly satisfied the 'dilla' need and headed for home, to Mother and to their beds; one for a nap, the other to recover. Things are better today. Ahhh, the balancing act.

This week? Going to set a goal to go to class as many times as possible. Inspired Gathering at Wanderlust is on the horizon -- need to kick my ____ (backside)!

Hope your Monday is a good one!

GETTING ORGANIZED

The 'good' of moving. Yesterday, I did not have a formal schedule, so spent the day doing odds & ends - laundry, housework, some reading, some unpacking.

We may be closing in on the last of the boxes -- the books. We have more books than any 'normal' two people should be allowed to own. Granted, there was a valid reason for the acquisition of each book. However, many have never been read - just set on the shelf to wait. Now, months or years after purchase, some we've forgotten 'why' we bought them or, their stated contents are no longer of interest to us. We are 'culling' the collection as the boxes are opened.

In our house there are categories of books, the majority of which my husband, Howard, has bought over the years. My collection leans to yoga (what else?), and - while proportionately much smaller - it still fills two cabinets, along with training notebooks, journals, articles, lesson plans, cd's and dvd's. I pulled all from the cabinets yesterday, sorted them by category - philosophy, asana, poetry, training publications. I also gathered up several manila folders filled with 'who knows what'.

The 'who knows what' turned out to be articles I've collected, plus lesson plan printouts. I sorted one from the other, then began to sort the articles by topic. This morning, I have 2 binders; one, filled with articles about specific poses, the other with articles related to 'what to do for specific body parts, conditions, philosophy'. The articles, upon review, will be helpful -- they aren't all written by Anusara® instructors, but many by respected yoga educators with strong backgrounds in body mechanics. I set a goal to read 1-2 articles each day (I can tell by the check I've made in the upper corner that some have been read; re-reading never hurts.). Next task, sort the lesson plans.

Organizing like this makes me feel good, like I've accomplished something, like I've taken control of the clutter. I now know what is in those two cabinets and will remember as I use the books where to go to find needed information. Cool!

I am scheduled to teach this morning in Carlsbad, am setting an intention for people to show. Then, my regular afternoon class in Temecula. Inbetween, finalize the 'deal' on our new carpet - we had the house measured yesterday; ordered the carpet; now wait for it's arrival from Georgia. Excited - this last interior improvement (for now) will help me settle in, to feel truly at home.

Hope you have a good Thursday!

YESTERDAY (TUESDAY)

A good day; tho, no one came to the class in Carlsbad. Hard to admit -- that no one comes to your class; there's an element of 'shame' in it, like the repeating mantra 'I'm not good enough'. But, the new book I'm reading "The Gifts of Imperfection", advises that owning our shame is one of the first steps to worthiness. That, the less we talk about shame, the more control it has over our lives. I don't plan to let that happen.

So, yesterday - no one in Carlsbad. The good? An opportunity for a fellow teacher to ask me some questions about foot pain, knee placement and hip discomfort. JF tells us that many issues of legs, hips, back, begin with the feet. I asked her to stand in tadasana for me and observed that her tendency in the foot was to roll out (away from the foot discomfort in the ball of the big toe) - tho she was giving it her best effort to stay well grounded, her knee turned slightly in on the same leg and the hip pain is on the same side. We talked for a bit, as I watched her stand -- both from front, back and side views. The back of her knees bulged slightly, indicating hyperextension. I asked her to create more shin loop. The result? She feels like she's standing in utkatasana - chair pose (tho the legs look straight to me); and her inwardly-turned knee straightened itself out. The work, sometimes, is hard -- to control her wonderful flexibility, to make it flexibility created by strength rather than by loose ligaments. I was reminded of JF's strong admonition: when you see hyperextension, move that student out of the pose and re-align her/him before proceeding.

The Temecula class, however, was attended -- not a ton of people (like Sunday), but enough - especially since it is a Gentle/Therapeutic Class. One of the students was a nurse. A challenge, in itself, when I begin to spout the facts I know (and have read) about the physical attributes and benefits of, for example, standing with feet parallel. (How can I purport to know more than the nurse standing in front of me? Certainly confronts my belief in my knowledge - see paragraph 1.) I stood my ground on that one, even tho she'd had 30 years of dance instruction behind her that taught her to stand with toes pointing out. And, best part, she was accepting of it -- it changes her perception of her body at this point, so it is tough work; but I watched as she repeatedly brought the feet back to parallel without being prompted. Love. It.

Today? House stuff -- got to get some lingering projects taken care of, plus excited to see the man coming to measure for new carpet -- YES! Let me just say that 20-year-old carpet, while clean, leaves a lot to be desired.

Hope your Wednesday is a good one!

WHY IS IT SO HARD?

What, you ask. Why is it so hard to accept a compliment with a simple 'thank you'; no excuses, no jokes, no sidestepping, just 'thank you'.

I received a wonderful compliment today, fought back the urge to do all of the above, and simply responded 'thank you'. It was tough! And, as I told the giver of the compliment, I hope a new book I'm reading will help me get over this tendency. The book? "The Gifts of Imperfection", by Brene Brown (an author with many letters after her name). Preface and two chapters in, and I think it's a keeper.

Guest taught in Temecula yesterday (Living Yoga), had 14 in class -- what fun! A basic class, most of the students were well-versed in yoga. I tried something I hadn't for a while -- the silent demo. A suggestion of Christina Sell, I asked everyone to simply watch me. Then, the hard part - to keep my mouth shut as I moved into a modified parsvakonasana (hand on a block). Silent demos are effective, in that there is a part of the brain that receives the information more completely than if I were chattering along with the demo (perhaps distracting them?). I did demo it again, pointing out my theme and the actions I wanted to emphasize. And, upon completion and when everyone was in the pose, they all looked great!

Today, we are going about the day kind of normally -- I'm cleaning, laundering, yard-working; Howard is walking dogs, running a couple errands, and - now - in the garage puttering. We'll leave in about 3 hours for the "Grand-Dude's" house. Will be great to enjoy the 4th of July with them this year.

Hope you have a great holiday and be safe!

FINALLY, WE MEET . . .

Sometime in late 2009, I began reading Christina Sell's blog (see blog list on the right). I was voracious for blogs, for commentary on the practice of Anusara Yoga. One day, looking for more, I scrolled down the list of her favorite blogs and came upon MariaCristina's. Clicked on it. Read it. Good stuff; so I went back a few posts and landed on a November 2009 post titled "The hardest class ever" (her blog link is also to the right).

Read it, laughed, re-read it, laughed even harder, told my friends about it. Not that her other posts weren't funny or entertaining, this one struck a cord -- here was a person with a sense of humor, an ability to poke some fun at herself publicly, be human. I liked that, and have read 98% of her posts since that day (being honest here - to say 100% might be stretching it).

During that time her posts have been inspirational, educational, celebratory, a bit sad (thinking of her Grandmother, here), always human. And, I love the way she ends many of them with the phrase "may we remember to . . . (whatever the blog topic relates to)".

As a result, we struck up a dialogue; can't remember the first contact - MariaCristina reminds me that I commented on the post, "The hardest class ever". And, I continued to comment on her posts, and she would always graciously send a 'thank you'. She began to read my blog and comment, when appropriate. When I blogged about my Certification exam, she gave me one bit of advice (no answer, just advice), which I followed and which helped me immensely! We continued to e-mail and look forward to meeting each other one day. My move to So. Calif. made that possible; and when the b-day celebration for JF was held, we were both there -- just at different times.

So, when she knew she would be coming south for the 4th of July weekend, she e-mailed me. We constructed a plan to meet for a class, meal, whatever. The plan in motion, 3 of us converged in Del Mar yesterday. Marlene Bullock (a friend who has moved here from Phoenix) joined us. We finally met, face to face. And, it was good.

We have a plan to meet again: if not before, she hopes to come back south for my 'expansion' class in August (plug: August 7, 1-3 pm, Expansion Class, "Re-Muster Your Power", at Living Yoga Center in Temecula).

Good stuff -- the kind good and lasting memories are made of.

Hope you have a happy and safe 4th of July!