Elsie’s Yoga Link Love for the Week Ending 3/7/2010

The Wisdom of the Community

A thrilling week for me in terms of social media connection and the Anusara Kula. In Los Angeles, the shakti filled Advanced Intensive took place, and from what I have read and gleaned from the online kula, John infused it by invoking from each participants a level of commitment to the whole experience that came from a deep sacred space within each individual heart which infused both the space and the kula as a whole. My first love link gives you a bit more insight into this, written by powerful and wise teacher Christina Sell:

♥ Sunday Morning

“John wrote a letter that was sent out to the participants outlining the protocol for the three days: He wanted everyone to treat the practice space as a temple, or mandir and observe silence while we were in the practice hall. There were some other instructions about not chatting, not leaving the room unnecessarily and he asked people if they could not perform an asana to simply stand in tadasana or sit quietly doing japa.”

You guys have got to read the whole article as she even gives us the sequences that John Friend taught through the weekend!!!!!!!!!! LOVE

♥ Not At The Advanced Intensive in LA? 3 Ways to Align With the Kula From Far Away– This is me sharing my feelings and process of being unable to travel around easily to practice with John and the kula. Oh being a householder yogi, what a journey! Check out a bit of the lovely conversation in the comments 😀

Just discovered Bay Shakti! A blog dedicated to Anusara ™Yoga in the San Francisco area! It’s a great source of inspiration. It has awesome interviews with Anusara ™ teachers both in video and in transcription (MY FAVORITE!!!! I absolutely ♥ that they do this) Plus awesome insights by the writers.

These next 2 posts are of a series and they all have to do with John Friend himself 😀 Not to be missed!

Interview with John Friend: Founder of Anusara Yoga

♥ Part 1

♥♥ Part 2

♥♥♥ Part 3

These next 2 posts are really fun. Do you guys know that I have a gazillion yoga asana pictures over in Flickr? They are all the pics that I use in the posts. Did you know that you can use them in your blogs if you want? All you need to do it just give me attribution (a link back to me!) In the following posts they did just that. Love them!

♥ The Ultimate Downward Facing Dog

♥ 10 Yoga Postures Performed By Cats

Did you all know that I have another podcast? Yep. It has been a while since our last posting. It’s called Mudra Moments and it’s aimed specifically at yoga teachers, yoga teacher trainees and yoga teacher wanna bees 😉 My friend Hillary and I basically have candid conversations pertaining to the life of a yoga instructor and the realities behind being a yoga teacher. In our latest episode we have our first ‘guest’ call in! She is a Mudra Moments listener and relatively new yoga teacher. We chat all about what it means to change careers, identities or perhaps titles in your life and work. Check it out. It’s really great conversation 😀

♥ Re-Inventing Yourself and Your Life: Actor to Yoga Teacher, Yoga Teacher To…Who Are You?

Hope you guys enjoy these!

As always these links are taken from the posts to the Elsie’s Yoga Kula Facebook Fan Page. Come join the fun 😀

Thanks to @toffernelson for the Twitpic

Elsie’s Yoga Link Love for the Week Ending 2/28/2010

I’ve been throughly enjoying the new Elsie’s Yoga Kula FB Page! You guys are awesome 🙂

I decided to share with all of you some of the awesome links that have been posted to the page as way to grow the community and to stay inspired!

From now on I hope to do this little post weekly, so that we can all refer to these empowering bits of wisdom as we go through the week, and also come back to these posts as a way to remember. I know that there is plenty of inspiration for class themes to keep me going for a while!

Lovely Yogic Words of Wisdom

♥ Anusara Yoga: Weaving the Shamrock Within (by Cat McCarthy) my favorite quote from the article:

Therefore, what is considered to be fortuitous is actually an ability to spot the breaks in the woven fabric of a quilted clover field. Perhaps there’s luck involved. But I see it as an empowering skill to see changes in patterns and shifts in perspective, so that the full spectrum of life can become favorable. This is the alchemizing foundation of the tantric philosophy of Anusara Yoga.

♥ Being Judicious, Not Judgemental– This one was shared by one of our mighty kula members Sara Lee Cely 😀 The Web site is pretty cool. Quite inspiring.

♥ Yoga Therapy: Yoga For Movement Disorders– Yoga Therapy is my first love and this article gives a great overview of an awesome resource for folks that have a harder time being in their bodies, whether it be because of some physical condition, disease or simple lack of every day activity. I would venture to say that the book that is mentioned in this post is fantastic for yoga beginners of all shapes and sizes.

♥ Publishing a Podcast Episode of Elsie’s Yoga Kula 🙂 This of course is a post from my own yogic social media and consulting site. Check out what it took for me to get EYK #4 out

♥ “Stabilize the Periphery and Move From The Core” (and blogging)– This is one of my favorite blogs.

♥ The Teachings of Money Trees– From one of my buddies from the LA Kula that I so adore. Kris Nelson is fantastically wise and deeply talented as a teacher of life (and business). Here is a bit of it:

The darkness is the past, pain, indulgence, unsacred, sacrileges, excessive, and unconscious. In our attempt to turn towards the light, the darkness is often rejected, hidden, obscured, and denied. This leads to all sorts of issues, challenges, and future pain. Like the Money Trees teach, the darkness can never be abandoned – it’s a part of life, and one half of the paradox of light, of seeking. Resolving the darkness and resting in the darkness is one side of the ladder of spiritual growth.

♥ PREVENTION Not Treatment| Ideas of Change in America– Another addition by a virtual kula member (she’s amazing). This time sharing some much needed insight and power for change within our health industry. This is how I live my life and what I aspire for the country 🙂 Check it out!

♥ Ask The Yogacist: But What Kind of Yoga is Right For Me?– Got some loooove from the mighty @YogaDork! Sharing the love back 😀

♥ The Interior Liberation of Gratitude– Can I just tell you what a Rock Star Elena Brower is? Seriously. This is a must read post, plus she’s doing so many great things around the yogasphere 😀 I share a smidgen with you..you must read the whole thing!

For years I’ve taught Anusara yoga, always finding ways to express, explore and unearth the richness and relevance of these two aspects of our practice, but never explicitly felt comfortable saying the words, even though I felt their meaning and the prosperity in my body when I set my attention on them. Somehow, this job of representing an enormous fitness conglomerate has brought me so much closer to the space of my heart, and yours, and every student and teacher with whom I’ll have the honor of sharing what I’ve come to understand. And here in my heart I’ve found nothing but gratitude.

Hope you all enjoy these great inspiring yoga links 😀

And come join me in the fan page! Add your own links and share with the kula.

Have a lovely end of February!

Episode 13: Level 1 class, 80 min at the Center for Yoga

My great intro and outro music, ‘Movin’ by Vic Hennegan

Links:

Joshua Yuchasz ‘This I Believe’ Essay

About ‘This I Believe’

Asperger Syndrome links (so we can be more educated, i think) http://www.aspergers.com/ , http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/aswhatisit.html

Blocks: http://www.yoga.com/store/Subcategory.asp?Category_ID=246, http://www.yogaaccessories.com/YogaBlock4.asp?gclid=CLLIkOCmjYgCFQvlYAodCDAeBg

My Space Page!

THE SEQUENCE:

Downward facing dog

Straight legged lunge

uttanasana into ardha uttanasana

Parvatasana arms/arms interlaced above the head

1/2 Sun Salutations

Vinyasa working on lunges and plank

Tadasana (inner body bright)

Sun Salutation working on plank shoulder alignment

Tadasana (shoulder alignment discussion)

Sun Salutation working on shoulder principles

Downward facing dog working on shoulder principles

Crescent Pose

Child’s pose

Demo: (shoulder alignment work from all fours into downward facing dog)

Uttanasana with arms interlaced behind the back

Deep lunge (forearms to the floor)

Pigeon Prep

Ardha Bhekasana

Dhanurasana

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

Demo: (at the wall, learning how to plug into the heart)

Demo: (using the blocks, and moving into Urdhva Dhanurasana in stages)

PLEASE CLICK ON THE PICS TO SEE THEM MORE FULLY 🙂

Urdhva Dhanurasana with blocks x 2

Downward facing dog

Uttanasana

Twist

Savasana