Please visit my website!

Hello Friends,

I am no longer using this blog site regularly. Please visit my website www.yogakula.co.nz  for the latest on Anusara Yoga classes, workshops & events in New Zealand!

With thanks!
Katie

Summer Yoga Classes

Happy New Year Friends & Yogis!!

My Summer timetable for Anusara Yoga classes in Christchurch is now posted. Love to see you on the mat in 2010 as we practice presence, playfulness, and possibility!

Please check out my latest article below and share your thoughts!
And be sure to visit my website: www.yogakula.co.nz

Look forward to seeing you soon!

Warm wishes & love,
Katie

Moving from Momentum to Moment

One aspect of New Zealand culture that I really treasure is the importance we place on taking time out of our work, our routines, and our usual obligations every year. In this country, it's not just about the days right before and after the offical holidays. Most often our break is a full three to six weeks of pure enjoyment of family, friends, and leisure! In the holiday gatherings, we reconnect and reaffirm our closest relationships. In travels near or far, we get out into the beauty of the natural landscapes. In this time "away", we give ourselves permission to rest and replenish- body, mind, and spirit. No matter where we've been or what we've done, we arrive back where we left off feeling re-nourished, rejuvenated, and re-inspired.

This is the great gift of perspective!

I recently heard certified Anusara teacher Noah Maze (who is coming to teach in NZ this year!) say, "Time creates our experience but our experience also creates time. So, in order to change Time, we can change our experience."

Read that sentence again and think about it... I have!
I am a Capricorn by chance, american by birth, and a goal oriented, perfectionist by virtue of my upbringing and my culture. Because of this, my tendency is to live more in the world of that first sentence - Time creates my experience. And, often my day to day experience becomes - There is never enough Time!! Sound familiar?

Rather than inhabiting each moment, we get caught in momentum.
When this happens, life moves fast and we often feel out of control and dis empowered. The very nature of this life is movement, flux, pulsation. We feel this in the most basic and vital principle of existence- the flow of breath. What I have learned through my yoga practice is while I can't change time marching on, what I CAN change is how I experience that movement, moment to moment.

As we shift from focus on momentum to focus on moment, Time slows down and our experience expands exponentially.

Holidays are good for this! We give ourselves permission to fully immerse in the moment - a good book, the catching of a fish, an overdue conversation with an old friend, a long decadent brunch, the sound of the sea, the grass under foot...We practice another way of BEING.

When we are fully present in our experience, we cease to identify with the movement of life and instead tap into a steadiness of presence that sees, hears, tastes, smells, feels, simply IS in each moment as it arises. Time changes because our experience of time, moment to moment, shifts. The challenge becomes maintaining this practice of moment to moment awareness (and delight!) when we return back to work, school, and the world of obligations. How can we keep making our "ordinary" life feels fresh again?

Yoga gives us an opportunity to practice presence.

On the mat, we use the full engagement of our body in union with our breath to yoke the awareness of the our mind to our immediate, visceral experience. As it arises. Whether we are holding steady in Warrior, kicking up to our first handstand, or sinking deeply into meditation or relaxation, the practice is the same.

It involves the willingness to open ourselves fully. To drop our barriers, our boundaries, our judgements, our expectations, our backward or forward projections and open to the sensations, thoughts, and feelings that are being offered right NOW. In doing so, we return our attention again and again to what is steady, perceiving and absorbing our experience in the world. When we come to know this place of presence amidst beauty, bliss, boredom OR hardship, we have access to move amidst the flow of our lives with a renewed, weighty sense of BE-ingness.

Like all things, it gets easier with practice and with support of kula - community!

Pre Holiday Yoga Classes: Nov 30-Dec 22

With the anticipation, preparations, and general busyness of life at home & at work, it is more important than ever to carve out time in our life schedules for practices that help us remain nourished, inspired, expanded, and joyful...

Give yourself the gift of TIME this pre-holiday season.
Join me for yoga over these next few weeks!

Nourish your body, feed your heart, stay connected to a community of inspiration and support!

To support your practice and with thanks for all YOU have given me on and off the yoga mat,

I am pleased to offer you

FLEXIBLE HOLIDAY SCHEDULE!
SPECIAL HOLIDAY RATES!

Please go to www.yogakula.co.nz for more details and see the Pre-Holiday Timetable here!

In the spirit of gratitude,

Katie

NEW Spring Classes Start Sept 28th!!

SPRING YOGA SESSION

September 28th-November 26th
(No classes Labour Weekend Monday)


Spaces are limited. Please contact me via email or phone to reserve your place in class.

Be the Artist of Your EVERY DAY

Spring is a season that awakens our spirits! The sunshine hours lengthen, the natural world blossoms and our bodies, minds, and hearts stir again. Can you feel it?

It is a tantalizing time of year! There is the sense of being at the very edge of something. Something so exciting, so beautiful that every moment literally vibrates with anticipation, with urgency. What is this feeling?

We feel compelled...

Perhaps we will long to paint a masterpiece, write a novel or poem, build a path for our garden, take up sculpture, learn an instrument, or in some other unique expression ...craft a way to language our life. What is at the heart of all of these deep dreams and longings? I believe it's the desire, power, and ability to CREATE.

I have never been an "artist" in the strict definition of the word. And for a long time, the very notion of being a "Creator" seemed foreign and unobtainable to me. Perhaps you have felt the same way?

One of the simple and profound truths that the practice of yoga has taught me is, that at our very essence and within our ordinary mundane world, we ARE all artists. In every moment and with every breath, we have the opportunity to craft our own experience of this life from what is being offered.

Our creative act is CHOICE.

We cannot always choose what will happen in our lives. Sometimes we miss the bus, sometimes our hearts get broken. One day we get promoted, the next year we must look for work. We cannot control the circumstances of our life but what we can do is choose how we will experience them, moment to moment.

Every yoga pose, every yoga class offers us "circumstances". There is a fixed form of the pose, a certain sequence to the class, particular freedoms and limitations of our body on that day, and (always) the fluctuating state of our mind and heart. Over all of these things, we may feel that we have little direct control.

On our yoga mat, we practice engaging our experience as it arises, moment to moment. Take a breath, soften our skin. Open up to exactly what the moment is offering right now. From that place, we get to choose...

How can I best align with the flow of nature? How can I use this vehicle of the body and this gift of the breath to make more beauty in my own world and in my community? With what quality of heart will I choose to face both my joys and challenges? I can aggressively blast past my edge, fearfully shy away from exploring it, OR I can approach my scary places with curiosity, tenderness and steadfastness. I'm the one that gets to choose! What an awesome freedom...

As we practice navigating our choices skillfully, each of us learns how to best become the ARTIST of our every day. We never know how much sharing our experiences, our expressions, our ARTISTRY will inspire and uplift those around us...

"When one flower blooms, Spring awakens everywhere"

John O'Donohue

I don't know exactly what a prayer is...
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver

The Potential of the Seed

Banish the Winter blues & shine thru the heaviness of the season!

Enrol NOW for my next session of classes starting July 20th.

Guaranteed to be nourishing, inspirational, playful, and (yes always) FUN!

Sign up for two or more classes and take 10% off your total enrolment

Below I've posed an article from my most recent newsletter.
If you'd like to receive info about my classes, workshops & events,
please email me and I'll add you to my list!

Winter is the resting cycle for most of life. The nights are long anddominates. All of the natural world has drawn more inwards - from outward expression to dark, inner core. Perhaps you are feeling this deep calling to pull in, hole up, and stay warm and nourished this time of year? I know that I am!

We tend to have the notion that light is GOOD and dark is BAD. But when we look at the world around us, we see that BOTH aspects are part of life. BOTH the light and the dark have an appropriate and necessary time and place.

Sooner than we think, we'll delight in the promise of Spring and after that, the exhuberance of Summer! In these experiences, we often forget that what we are actually celebrating is the tenacious and potent power of the SEED.

It is IN THE DARK that we plant the seeds of our intentions! Whether it's under the deep, dark cover of soil or in the deep cave of the heart, the darkness IS the time that from these origin seeds we begin the manifestation of our dreams.

While it's important to move with the cycles of life and honour winter's call for quietness and introspection, it's also easy to succumb to the forces of heaviness, stagnation, and lethargy. Even while we are in the DARK, we recognize a longing inside for brighter days, inspiration, and upliftment! Now that we have passed the solstice, each day will get a little bit longer and if you really watch carefully you'll see Nature stirs just under the surfaces...

What do you long to create in your life right now?
Every artistic impulse begins with a SEED - a deep feeling, a longing of the heart.

When we move from this place of our deepest intentions, the process of life becomes fun, exciting, and inspiring!
In yoga, we practice being a co-creator in the art of life. From these inner seeds of longing, we craft our own intentions - what will we choose to create, manifest, and offer today?

On the yoga mat, we take different forms and dance our deep intentions into every part of the body using the vehicle of LIFE, the breath! Our practice becomes a spiritual art. We make ART with our bodies in a way that glorifies life, celebrates our heart, and honours the one spirit that unites us all.

Workshop Wednesday! June 17th

Once a month, I'll be offering a two hour "workshop style" class where dedicated yogis can deeply explore and experience the elegant alignment principles of Anusara Inspired Yoga as applied to a particular class of postures or element of practice.

Join me for the first Workshop Wednesday!!

June 17th 5:45-7:45pm
Going Down & Deep! Hip Openers, Forward Bends, Twists
Cashmere Masonic Centre
$20

Some yoga experience helpful but open to all looking to unlock more freedom in their low back, pelvis, and hips!

Please register your interest in advance to reserve your space.

The softness that invites deeper strength

Last week I went indoor rock climbing for the very first time. For over a year now, I had given the same excuses to the same friends and last Wednesday my reasons, excuses, apologies just ran out. Putting trepidation and fear aside, I decided...WHY NOT. And what an awesome, empowering, challenging, and absolutely fun experience it was!!

Those of us who practice and teach yoga know that our practice is so much bigger than the asana that happens on that sticky rubber rectangle.

The best and deepest form of practice is the kind that seamlessly transitions from the mat out into the ordinary and extraordinary moments of our lives. What you practice on your yoga mat IS your attitude towards life. And the attitude and principles we cultivate and embody become the strongest tools we have for navigating day-to-day life with courage, confidence, and faith.

So should I have been surprised when what I called upon in climbing was the very same set of principles I teach in class...Not really!

First climb.
I walked up to the wall, put my foot on the first hold and reached my hand to grab the next. Fear, doubt, panic, terror. How strong are these ropes? Can my harnass break? How solid is a carabiner anyway? I'm not going to able to do this!!

First Principle.
I took a breath and softened my skin. Allowing my hands to touch (really touch the wall...like the way I would hold and hug a friend I haven't seen in awhile) I exhaled slowly and let go of my self-limiting ideas and in the letting go, I just opened to the possibility that I AM capable and I AM supported.

First Principle brought me back to my own expansive nature but that alone was not going to get me up that wall! I had to go back to the intention, the clarity in my hands. There is no floor beneath your feet. You have to HOLD ON.

Muscle Energy
As I actively used my fingers and toes, I could powerfully draw muscle energy from that engagement all the way into my arms and my legs. There was no doubting. I could feel my strength and every part of my body from that hugging in was alive, vibrant, and supported.

Hmmm....But here, as strong and as intense as my focus, my intention, and the muscles of my body became, that wasn't quite enough either. I could hang there and hold for sure but when I looked up, I could see the next hold at least a full arms length away. From my solid, stable perch I reached my arm straight up but no, it wasn't enough to make connection .

Then I remembered...I had to go back to softness!
Climbing like yoga compels not just a holding, grasping, reaching at the periphery but movement that comes from the core. From a deep connected place on the inside. And its a profound and willing invitation to actively soften, actively deepen that gets you there.

Inner Spiral
Keeping the support of my muscles hugging to the bone, I took my thighs back and apart and invited the feeling of deepness into my front groins and spaciousness into my pelvis and my low back. Keeping my finger tips firm on the holds, I drew my armbones back and seated the intention of my arms in the solidity of my shoulders.

Drawing the power of my own strength and intention from my legs and arms deep into the core of my belly, I softened my knees, sunk down deep into my legs, and with no belief that there was anyplace to go but UP...from that knowing place I pushed down through my foot and then from my belly I stretched up to sky. Outer Spiral - the root to rise.

And for one beautiful, ever lasting shining moment, there was my body, my breath, my heart fully expanded. No boundaries. Organic Energy.

My hand was on the hold!
My foot, one more step up.
I looked towards the ceiling.
There was more to go.
I took a breath and softened my skin.
The cycle, the dance began again.

NEW Yoga Classes Begin Soon!

Happy Autumn! What a magnificent time of year...

After a wonderful visit with my family, friends, and yoga teacher back in the States, I am excited to return to Christchurch and dive back into my life, my classes, and the glory of the autumn season.

Check out my timetable for NEW class venues and times this session! Look forward to a session of yoga that goes deep, is grounded in the support and delight of community, and is (as always) seriously playful!

Spaces are limited.
Please contact me if you are interested in joining a class.
Enrol in two or more classes this session and you'll receive 10% off your total costs.

See you in class!!


Returning to (AND Moving From) Source!

Autumn reminds me that beauty and grace are possible in TRANSITIONS.

All of nature, all of life is in constant cycle. Life IS flux, flow, a never ending dance or pulsation. As we move with this flow, we meet changes, challenges, and new possibilities on every level - body, mind, & spirit. While we may not have control over the external cycles of nature, it is during these transition times that we can PRACTICE how to move skillfully and gracefully with all of the changes in our life from a place of inner steadiness.

As nature outside begins to turn more inwards, we also have the opportunity to bring our awareness within and explore the deep inner beliefs that are shaping our lives. We can make the choice to let go of the beliefs that no longer serve us and cultivate with creativity and clarity those beliefs that will give us the vision and strength to participate fully in this life. No matter what arises!

In yoga, we practice EMBODYING our inner beliefs and intentions. By doing this, the vision of life that moves and inspires us is no longer just a "nice idea". It becomes our lived experience every day and the place from which we move out vibrantly in this world - in relationship to others and to all of life.

How amazing is that!

Let Your Light SHINE!

Last week, a group of passionate and playful yogis from New Zealand and Australia met here in Christchurch for New Zealand's FIRST EVER Anusara Yoga Immersion I. While assisting certified Anusara teacher BJ Galvan, I had the priviledge, pleasure, and sheer delight of watching such beauty, lightness, and joy unfold again and again ~ body, mind, & spirit ~ on and off the yoga mats!



In the practice of Anusara Yoga, you are asked not just to "perform postures" but to use your "posture" as a vehicle or tool to EMBODY your deepest intentions. To remember and express the deepest longings of your heart.

BJ's first Anusara Yoga workshop in Christchurch was called "Let the Light In!". After organizing and being part of this recent gathering, I would say that the theme of this Immersion was "Let Your Light SHINE".

Summer Yoga Session Starts Jan 19th!

Happy New Year!

As we come into the fullness of summer, the season of abundance and celebration, please join me for a new session of yoga classes in Christchurch!

Summer Yoga Session
January 19th- March 31st
No classes on Feb 6th or Feb 16th-24th (Immersion being held at this time!)
Spaces are limited! Please contact me by email or phone to reserve your space in class.

Can't wait for January 19th????
Join me for an early Mixed Level Class on Jan 16th!

Jan 16th, 9:00-10:30am
Mixed Level Yoga
Cashmere Masonic Centre
All levels welcome, $13
Please email or call me to reserve your space!

Wanting to bring more yoga into your life this new year?
Here are TWO ways I can help!!

1) Sign up for two yoga classes this session and receive a 10% discount off your total enrolment fees!
2) Enrol in one regular yoga class and attend any other classes casually for the cheaper rate of $15 per class! Space permitting.

I look forward to seeing you in class soon!
Please feel free to contact me for more information about upcoming classes and/or workshops.

Anusara Weekend Workshop with BJ Galvan

Scenes from our recent Anusara Weekend Workshop,
Let the Light In!, here in Christchurch...

What a fantastic weekend of playful teaching by Certified Anusara teacher BJ Galvan :) We were blessed to have her share her passion, enthusiasm, and open hearted authenticity with us for two full days!

Here's what one participant shared afterwards,
"I loved everything about the workshops. I loved that you introduced yourself individually to everyone in the class before the workshop started – it felt very inclusive and welcoming. I loved that a variety of body types and abilities were used to demonstrate postures – you made me feel that everyone has endless potential and anything is possible. I loved that asanas that might seem impossible were approached in small steps and before you knew what was happening you were in the posture. Your energy and enthusiasm radiates from you and is very uplifting to be around. You are extremely generous with your time and knowledge, and your passion for yoga and life is infectious. I can’t wait until you return…"

BJ will be back in Christchurch in Feb 2009 to offer (for the first time ever in NZ) an Anusara Immersion I. See more details listed right!

5 Week Yoga Session Starts Nov 10th - City South Venues

Despite a return to wet wintery weather this weekend, Monday's brilliant sunshine was well worth waiting for. What a glorious finish for our long Labour Weekend! It certainly hinted of good things to come...

Late Spring is a time of new growth, continued nurturance, and ripening towards fruition. It is a wonderful time of year to feed and nurture the seeds of your deepest intentions, to get outdoors and reconnect with the earth, and to nourish and celebrate those relationships and activities in our life that support us and bring us deepest joy. Summer is a season of fullness, what is called in Sanskrit PURNA. Purna is the kind of fullness that is so abundant that it continues to unfold and reveal its beauty and bounty without lacking for anything or ever being depleted.

Fingers crossed for my veggie garden!!

Join me for a new session of yoga classes beginning November 10th. EMBODY this season of abundance and celebration as we move towards Summer!!

Spaces are limited. Please contact me via email or phone to reserve your space in class.

Anusara Inspired Yoga NOW in the CENTRAL CITY!

I am excited to announce that I will now offer two NEW yoga classes in the Central City!
If you've been wanting a central location or have been thinking about picking up an extra class this Spring, here's your chance!!


9 Week Spring Yoga Session
October 16th - December 18th (no class Nov. 20th)
Canterbury College of Natural Medicine (Salisbury St entrance, near Hagley Park/Park Terrace)

6:00-7:00pm Beginning Yoga
7:00-8:30pm Intermediate Yoga (prereq - prior enrolment in a Mixed Level Yoga class)

1 hr course $108
1.5 hr course $123

Spaces are limited. Advance and early registration suggested.
Casuals $15/$18, space permitting.
Payment due on or before the first day of class.


Join me this Spring for yoga in the city! Please phone to register for class and reserve your space.

NEW Spring Classes Start Sept. 1st

Our still too few but refreshingly lovely days have hinted at good things coming our way. Sunshine, warm breezes, fragrant flowers, AND best of all the longer daylight hours of Spring! They WILL be here soon.

As you prepare your spirit, mind, and body to transition out of this heavier winter season, you'll find that a regular practice of yoga is a wonderful way to lighten the load and help you open to a fresh perspective on life and new growth on all levels.

The 9 week Spring Yoga session starts Sept. 1st!
Spaces are limited, please contact me to reserve your place.
THIS TERM - Enroll in two weekly classes and get 10% off total cost!

OTHER NEWS

Don't miss the upcoming Anusara Weekend Workshop, LET THE LIGHT IN with Certified Anusara Instructor BJ Galvan, Nov 1 & 2. See timetable and details at right.
$150 before Sept. 15th!

Saturday Samskara

These days I've become a bit of homebody... It's not that I'm actively avoiding group socializing on the weekends but, with our cold and wet weather and adjusting back to my daily work routine, I've just been rather enjoying the regular date with my couch on Saturday night. An engrossing book, delicious meal, glass of red wine or steamy mug of hot chocolate and I'm all set! It's become an easy and even enjoyable pattern.

In Sanskrit, my Saturday night habit (or RUT) is called a samskara. Like a deep groove in the road, a samskara is a tendency/habit/path that we keep tracking into. It is easy, comfortable, and almost inevitable that no matter which way we steer, we will tend to fall right into it. There are only two ways to break out of a well dug samskara. First, we have to be aware of and acknowledge our tendency or habit AND second, we have to create a new pattern.

Happily approaching preparations for last Saturday's evening meal, I received a last minute invitation from a good friend offering a new possibility. Party. People I didn't know. All the way across town. She dangled enticing descriptions of the house, the people, all of the planned activities.... But you know, my first instinct was still to say no. The deeply entrenched pattern emerged.

However, some delicate, whispering voice inside my head said, why not? The voice got louder. Why not do something completely different, completely random, completely new? What my friend Diane offered was enticing and beguilingly so. It was outside my usual plans and so much so that I made a quick and intentional decision to open up to the possibility of something new.

Where did this choice take me? Homemade pizzas cooked in a homemade outdoor pizza oven, a decadent hour baking in a homemade outdoor sauna, an invigorating post-sweat swim in the winter sea (ME? I don't even swim in CHCH during the summer!?), bowl after bowl of decadent homemade ice cream, and a rocking all night jam session (drums, guitars, piano, trumpet, and various creative uses for nearby cutlery, glassware, and/or pots and pans) in the warmth of heat pump and high energy fueled living room. Fantastic.

And these people do this almost every weekend?!?! Where have I been...?

Before any asana, before any finer detail of anatomical alignment, the very first principle of Anusara Yoga is Open to Grace. Feel the breath and open to the bigger picture. This means that I make the choice to take a pause and actively release my usual and oftentimes self-limiting ideas of who I am, what I think I can do, and where I think the ceiling is on the roof of possibility.

On the yoga mat this means I open up to the belief that maybe this pose is possible for me today. That maybe I can turn to my breath and follow it for just an extra count longer this time. That maybe if I just move and breathe and celebrate the glory of my existence in this body, this place, right at this very moment that all of the trouble I left behind at home may have a new perspective when I return.

And on last Saturday, this meant that I left behind my couch, my book, my mug of hot chocolate and simply showed up open and willing to discover one of the most fantastic gatherings I have been to in a very long time.

Savour the Sweetness

Sometimes intention is a tricky thing...

As I taught all of my classes last week using intention as my theme, you could say it has been definitely on my mind. In general, I would consider myself a fairly intentional person. Perhaps even sometimes a fairly intense person. A good many of us that come to yoga are. Brimming with passion, enthusiasm, dedication, and a healthy dose of discipline, we are very practiced at investing our actions with a certain level of meaning. But what happens when the intention (or perhaps, aka assumed result) we have placed on an action, or a particular set of actions, needs or is required to change?

Chaos emerges. Or so I discovered last Monday morning...

Being this fairly intentional person (yes, also a Capricorn), I plan all of my yoga classes in advance with postural sequences relating to theme, theme relating to the bigger picture, and the bigger picture keeping me in love with this practice that I teach and try to live. However, on this Monday morning, fifteen minutes before I left for class, I realized that I had misplaced my very intentional class plans...

My big picture went out the window!

What came in was anger, annoyance, and frustration. NOT the emotions you want to experience right before you go to yoga class. ESPECIALLY not if you are the teacher :)

What my well meaning intention lacked was the softness, the sweetness that would enable it to be adaptable. To be (no pun intended) flexible. Instead, my intention was rigid, fixed, immutable.

While I did eventually locate my notebook, I felt blessed for this gentle reminder that it is not just the making of an intention that matters but also the character, the “flavour” that it maintains. The Sanskrit word “rasa” describes this wonderfully. Rasa means the essential taste or flavour of a particular experience of thing. What sort of taste do I want my intention to leave in my mouth long after its made??

A sweet one!

In my yoga classes, I teach my students that we always want to find the sweetness in what we do. This applies to our asana! I’ve never valued the no pain-no gain model of yoga or life practice. If there’s no joy or sweetness in it, there’s something wrong. In fact, if there’s nothing sweet in it, why even bother?

At the same time, there is a formula or a structure to support our experience of sweetness in the fullest way. In every single pose, we use the Universal Principles of Alignment as a recipe to literally unfold the best and sweetest taste the moment offers. A formula you say? How “scientific”. Rather rigid, don't you think?

Exactly the opposite. Think for a moment about the difference between a large spoonful of raw sugar and a large spoonful or warm, cinnamon-y, homemade apple pie with ice cream. Both are obviously sweet but the experience, the rasa of each is radically different. One sweetness has been crafted by intention. And the intention is expressed in each spoonful through the language of a tried and true recipe.

On the mat, we build each pose from the inside out. Using the Universal Principles of Alignment like a recipe to creatively unfold more and more of our sweetness.

However having the recipe doesn't guarantee that you won’t drop the pie on the floor :) SO we practice with a framework, with a structure, with support but also always with softness and openness to whatever this life, this body & this mind, presents to us on this particular day.

Whatever deep intentions you set in class last week, whatever intentions you keep bringing into your life, I encourage you to make and hold them softly. Let their form frame and shape your actions but be open to the ways that life may compel us to change the form. Let go of the things that do not serve us. Remain open to all the blessings that life may present in its own mysterious ways.

“Soul drunk, body ruined, these
two sit helpless in a wrecked wagon.
Neither knows how to fix it...

But listen to me, for one moment,
quit being sad. Hear blessings
dropping their blossoms
around you. God.”

Rumi

Meaningfulness

What a joy to be back in Christchurch and teaching again! It’s been wonderful to see my familiar faces and also meet many new and enthusiastic yogis in classes. I feel recharged and reinspired after my studies abroad and will continue to share the shakti when I see you!

In every class I teach, we work with a theme. This theme inspires the physical yoga postures and sequences I choose for class, the postural languaging and instructions that I use to verbally guide our practice, and always appeals to the students to make their own personal practice on the yoga mat connect to the bigger universal picture.

Last week, my theme was intention. Meaningfulness more specifically. One of the hallmarks of the Anusara approach to yoga is that we place importance on making meaning. Setting an intention. As you’ll often hear me say in class... It’s not what we do. It’s how we do it. This simple idea is at the heart of this practice. When our actions are infused with meaningfulness, with intention, they are transformed. The smallest moments of our lives are no longer ordinary and mundane but are rather extraordinary and sacred.

Think for a moment about the last time you prepared a very special meal for (or with!) a loved one. Cooking and eating are two activities in which we regularly and often thoughtlessly engage, BUT when we bring our intention to all aspects of the event -- perusing old Cuisine mags for the perfect recipe, heading to out to the local farmers market to hand pick ingredients, playing soft sweet music while the smells and sauces simmer on the stove, carefully laying a beautiful and intimate table -- we savour both the act of cooking and the act of eating what’s been created in a deeper, richer way.

Whether we are on or off our yoga mat, our experience is defined by how we choose to participate.

Next time you take your seat on the mat, sit quietly and contemplate an intention for your practice. Why have you set aside this time for you and your yoga? What is is that you hope to gain? What is it that you hope to offer? Let whatever arises formulate itself into one or two clear sentences. Throughout the rest of your practice, weave and embody this intention into every movement and every breath!