Since feeling is first...

My overseas trip is soon coming to a close!! I return to Christchurch on July 1st and a new six week class session begins on Monday, July 7th. Please see my class timetable on the right and contact me if you wish to join a class this term. I look forward to seeing all of you soon!


After two amazing and inspiring weeks of yoga study in California and Utah with my teacher John Friend, I am now settling into a slow, delicious holiday with family and very dear friends in Washington DC. Summer is in full glory here! The sun shines sweet and warm each day, giant magnolias burst into flower everywhere, and cool balmy nights bring out the fireflies. It is so magical to see the trees and fields aglow each evening with tiny, brilliant points of light. I have much time for practice, contemplation, and reconnecting with loved ones. I feel so blessed to be here.

In my weeks of in-depth study, John covered new and exciting territory! In San Diego, we embarked on some intensive and fascinating scriptural study of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali from both the Classical and Tantric (Anusara) perspective. We linked the threads of this comparative study into our next three day session on the Vijananabhairava Tantra. In this beautiful but little known yoga scripture, all of the major questions of life are asked (and answered!)...Why are we here? What is the nature of this world? What is the meaning of this life? How best can we rediscover our connection to the Source?

In the Tantric yogic perspective, we believe that this manifest world, the glorious diverse array of all aspects of nature we see before us IS a true reflection of the highest transcendental Spirit. Our own human body is the most exquisite and orderly manifestation of this Spirit in which we can rediscover and celebrate the power and beauty of the universe in every single moment!

In a profound follow-up to this glorious celebration of the big questions, I completed John's Therapy Yoga Teacher Training in Utah. There we took this highest intention to celebrate the intrinsic goodness and beauty of each person into the smallest, optimal details of physical alignment and movement on an ordinary, day to day basis. For many of us, day-to-day living can be cloaked by experiences of chronic physical pain, acute injury, or emotional suffering. How do we best address this?

In my yoga classes, I teach five alignment principles that are simple, orderly, progressive, and empowering. When you build a good grasp of the Universal Principles of Alignment, no movement, no injury, and no yoga pose is outside the realm of your understanding. In fact, you can approach any movement, injury, or yoga posture with curiosity and confidence!

Each morning we learned and practiced techniques for effectively using Anusara's Universal Principles of Alignment to better help those experiencing discomfort or injury almost any place in the body. Every afternoon, we had the amazing opportunity to observe John apply these same principles in targeted, creative ways with people presenting severe injury and/or limitations. Some had flown in from all parts of the USA!

When you study the details of anything, it is easy to get too focused or small minded in your perspective. John reminded us again and again of the 1st principle of Anusara Yoga. Be OPEN. Look at the big picture first. Before there is "doing"...there is "FEELING". The 1st principle is an energetic softening of all levels of our being...body, mind, spirit. In this deep softening, we open ourselves to see what is beautiful, what is good. This is part of our yoga practice...to find the beauty and the goodness in every situation. Even when we are confronted with limitation or injury.

I jotted down a favorite quote from e.e. cummings in the margin of my notebook:

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things...

Feeling IS first! And keeping that sense of expansiveness and possibility, we can then draw into the syntax of things that IS life. BUT... without getting small, without getting cloaked, and without the need to control or dominate.

Interestingly enough, what holds true for every "yoga" posture also works in every "life posture" we take off the yoga mat. If we practice the first principle, if we soften and open to the recognition that this body is the most exquisite manifestation of our universal spirit... we will find that what we practice in our body on a physical level will extend out into how we experience and live our lives on an emotional and spiritual level.

Autumn Yoga Schedule

Ah....Autumn has definitely descended upon Christchurch now! I just can't believe how fast this year is already flying by....Although I'm not a great fan of the cold, with these chilly temps come brilliantly coloured leaves, an invigorating crispness to the air, cozy slippers at the foot of the bed, juicy apples and pears, hot water bottles, cuddly woolen jumpers, warm and nourishing soups, and the need for decadent and delicious hot chocolates in the afternoon. Yum.

First term yoga classes have all ended now and a short three week class series begins April 28th and run until May 16th. Please get in touch if you'd like to come along!

The cost of the three week series (one class a week for three weeks) is $41 and, once enrolled, you can attend any other class during those three weeks for only $10 casual rate. What a great way to get a taste of Anusara Yoga!

My next full term of yoga classes will begin in early July. From mid-May until then, I am taking a short six week trip back to the USA to study with my yoga teacher and Anusara Yoga founder, John Friend. Check out the website at www.anusara.com!

I'll be attending two intensives with John in San Diego and then heading to Utah to complete additional study in yoga therapy. I'll post news and updates here from the road so keep checking back for more info on my trip and my schedule.

Anusara is a thriving and supportive community of yoga practitioners worldwide. I am honoured to be representing New Zealand and all of YOU at these gatherings and feel great excitement knowing that I'll return with new knowledge, skills, and inspiration to share!!

Hope to see you soon!

Taking the One Seat

This past Sunday was the quintessential Christchurch Day...

I woke up to a sky filled with blue sky and sunshine and enthusiastically planned out every detail of the day. The beach, a bbq, a gathering of friends. By noon, clouds had closed in tightly and I stepped out the door in my jandals and togs to be greeted with a downpour of RAIN.

Yuck! My first impulse was negativity. A desire arose to winge and complain to my partner, my friends, anyone who would listen. And, as I felt my day and my heart start to sour, I made a different decision. I turned to my practice. I made a conscious decision to let go of my negativity. I stopped focusing on how what was happening was what I didn't want. I let go of the expectations I had piled on my day and opened instead to what the moment was offering me.

SO, I didn't get my day in the sun and a swim in the sea. Instead, I spent the afternoon savouring a long forgotten book, planning out my classes for the week, chatting to friends back in the States. I sat on my mat, closed my eyes, and watched my breath soften as I listened to the rain outside. Although these moments were not what I planned, they still made up a day that was rich and full in a different way.

Yoga is a practice of maintaining our internal steadiness, or equanimity, in our changing world. Like the New Zealand weather, none of the circumstances in our life are ever truly certain or fixed! When we can practice being present to each moment in the midst of change, when we can release our expectations and surrender to what is being offered, the moment and its possibilities EXPAND.

Next time you find yourself out for a walk, see what happens when you consciously slow your pace. Make each step, each breath mindful and aware. Let go of thinking ahead to the rest of your day, drop dwelling on the argument with your spouse, forget about the silly thing you said at work. Open your eyes to each moment and see what offers itself to you....The smell of honeysuckle, the sound of a bird, the coolness of shade, the bright blue colour of a neighbor's fence....When we take in the full sensory experience of each moment, we are gifted with sudden richness. Life takes on a deeper, richer texture and the beauty of the world unfolds before us.

We CAN perceive the changing nature of our world without need for panic or distress. We can ground ourselves in a steadiness that resides within and, resting there, choose to open our eyes without fear to what moves around us. To take what Buddhist meditation teacher Jack Kornfield calls, the "One Seat".

In this state of Yoga, we directly participate with Life. Moment to moment. No matter what arises, we can practice maintaining our "One Seat", the center within our heart, as we move through our lives.


Try working with this practice on your yoga mat! Here is a short sequence we did in Tuesday night's class:

Begin in Tree Pose on the right side. Maintain a steady ujjayi breath, hands together in front of the heart.

Step back with the left leg into Parsvottanasana, finger tips on the floor. Grounding from the focal point in the pelvis through the legs, exhale and soften your spine towards the earth.

On an exhalation, twist open into Reverse Trikonasana. Maintaining your connection to your center, reaffirm the intention in your legs as you soften the belly and open the heart more to the right.

Exhaling, unwind back to Parsvottanasana

Inhaling, root down into the earth and life the spine and the arms up into Virabhadrasana (Warrior) I. Feel steady and strong as you find your balance and breath.

On an inhalation, step courageously forward into Virabhadrasana (Warrior) III. Plant your faith in the steadiness of your right leg as you shift your weight.

Trusting in that same support, lift the spine up and bring the leg down, moving right back into Tree Pose.

Coming thru Tadasana, return to your breath. Shift your weight to the left leg and repeat the whole sequence on the left side.

OVER the moon!

My yoga study has instilled in me the passionate belief that yoga postures are not meant to be "performed" OR experienced in two dimensions only!

When we look in yoga books, we often see precise, angular yogis in precise, angular postures. While reading through the accompanying postural instructions, we follow many lines (sometimes pages!) of pointed, targeted, and perfect biomechanical movements. When we practice, we start to squeeze our body into the 2-D visual image we once saw of the pose. Sometimes the experience can be clear, direct and positive. At other times, we feel a rigidity, a hardening, a distance.

Books were my first yoga teachers and I am indebted to the world of inner knowledge to which they introduced me. I knew however that this two dimensional experience just wasn't the real deal. From books alone, my yoga practice felt well...maybe just a little......FLAT. However, when I finally summoned the courage to enter my first real yoga classroom, the tutor suggested that we move through our standing postures as if our body was wedged between two planes of glass! Ouch. This really didn't resonate....

From the beginning of my yoga journey, I was looking for more. Was there room for playfulness, creativity, even joyful exhuberance within the support of good physical alignment?

Many yoga classes and studios later, a favorite teacher showed me how to break the asana mold! In a popular and playful Friday night yoga class, Anusara teacher Moses Brown invited us to expand the MOON. In the midst of our practice, as we moved from Triangle Pose to Half Moon, his voice rang out across the room, "Infusing your standing leg with deep intention, bend your back knee. Reach back with your top arm for your top foot. As you grab hold of your foot, scoop your tailbone forward. From the center of your strength, root down more fully into your standing leg and curl your heart open to the sky!" Ardha Chandra Chapasana.

A revelation!


From the peace and poise of a graceful Half Moon, I curled and arched. Using my breath, I lengthened and opened my spine as if bending sweetly around the support of a FULL bright moon.






What I love so much about the Anusara approach to yoga postures is that well, it IS curvy! Through my practice, I can celebrate living fully in a three dimensional universe! And interestingly, I find this creative freedom by working with good alignment. In each pose, we use universal principles of alignment (an elegant system of loops and spirals) to generate, experience, and manifest our own inner and outer experience with every single breath.


Enter the pose with soulful intention.
Draw into and expand out of the boundaries of the body from the support of our foundation.
Lengthen and curve, ground down and arch up!
Dance and play deeply!
Honour the source of all blessings with the art and poetry of your body and soul!






I taught this pose in my Continuing Yoga classes this week. If you want to learn or delve more deeply into the playful pose Ardha Chandra Chapasana (AKA "FULL MOON" pose!), check out the Yoga Journal article here!

Power of Intention

Every New Year, I find myself in the strange position of both looking back AND looking forward.

Another beautiful year of life on this earth gone by! All of those many moments that seemed so full and rich on their own now come rushing together...A fulfilling year of teaching and practicing yoga. A year in which I have built my own business, moved house (twice), watched my nephew grow from baby into a boisterous boy, learned how to bake a really yummy cake, bought and used (as in actually relied on) a proper diary, mastered the ten minute set up and break down of our new tent, basked in the glorious reflection of Mt. Cook swimming in Lake Pukaki, discovered new supportive and nurturing friends, connected and re-connected with my Anusara and NZ kula, AND turned thirty.

Like many of us, I look back over my year with a mixture of wistfulness, satistfaction, AND relief and then turn to dream (and yes, even sometimes fret!) about the year that is to come. Every year at this time, I take a few weeks off from teaching. Not only to rest, regroup, and focus on my own practice but also to really think about what I want to offer this year in my yoga classes. What is it exactly that I want to share, nurture, and build in my students and in our yoga community?

The word "yoga" is a huge umbrella term for a vast array of different philosophies, methodologies, and approaches. What this means is that almost every yoga class you attend will be a bit different. Even within a particular style of hatha yoga (Anusara, Iyengar, Ashtanga, etc.), each teacher will share their own unique understanding of yoga as they have experienced it themselves.

My yoga teacher always reminds me that we must be clear about where we have come from, where we are now, and what it is that we want to share and offer. As a teacher, I must not only be able to practice yoga but I must be able to effectively communicate my understanding. I must be able to put it into words, to empower language with the truth of my experience. In yoga, this energized, empowered language is called matrika shakti.

When we infuse our words, our movement and our teaching with this power of intention, the quality of what we are offering deepens.

I teach and practice the Anusara method of Hatha Yoga (http://www.anusara.com/) founded by John Friend. Within this system of yoga, I have learned a creative and elegant system of univeral alignment principles that take my body back towards its optimal blueprint for movement (improving my posture, bringing more space into my joints, lengthening my spine, and helping to heal accumulated pain from injury and/or neglect). Using these alignment principles within this physical practice, I remember that freedom, beauty, joy, and creativity are my truest nature! With that rememberance and within the forms of hatha yoga postures, we link the physical movement of our body to a deep place of inner intention.

What we learn through the practice of yoga is a way of being, not just doing. For me, it is as much an attitude or approach to living life as it is a system of health and healing for the body. It is not enough to simply "Hold the pose and take five breaths". Each posture gives us the opportunity to delve deeply within our hearts, to examine with curiosity and compassion our places of holding and injury, to taste our unlimited potential, and to ground ourselves fully into our present moment. Each year, each day, each pose, each breath!

Happy New Year!

What a magical and inspiring summer 2007 has offered us here in New Zealand!

I hope that all of you have enjoyed a joyful and nourishing holiday season with family and friends. I look forward to seeing each of you soon and sharing the practice of yoga together in 2008. More very soon!

With gratitude & love,
Katie

Anusara Yoga Weekend with Desiree Rumbaugh

Last weekend an amazing group of 50 yoga teachers and dedicated practitioners from all over NZ gathered in Christchurch for a fantastic workshop with inspirational Anusara Yoga teacher, Desiree Rumbaugh.

(www.desireerumbaugh.com)

Besides a group of my regular and most enthusiastic students, all other participants were completely new to this style of yoga practice.

Over the three days, Desiree wove Anusara's heart-oriented, life-affirming philosophy and Universal Principles of Alignment powerfully into each yoga session.

With her dynamic, empowering, AND down-to-earth teachings, she urged each student towards a new experience of freedom, openness, strength, and trust in their bodies. Her partner, Andrew Rivin, offered gentle, clear, and insightful personal assistance throughout the workshop.

As an assistant for much of the weekend, I was inspired to see so many beautiful unfoldings taking place on AND off the yoga mat.

In the true spirit of KULA or community, we gathered on Saturday night to share a gorgeous meal prepared by Sruti, famed Ayurvedic vegetarian chef, at the serene YaYa House of Excellent Tea. It was a wonderful opportunity to share our ideas and impressions from the workshop and proved to be a great way for yoga teachers to forge new connections with each other and for all participants to meet other like minded, happy hearts!

After seeing the enthusiasm and excitement during Desiree's workshop, I'd like to invite and encourage more senior teachers to come out to the South Island. As I begin to look at the new year, I am newly inspired and dedicated to sharing the practice of Anusara Yoga here in New Zealand. Keep checking this space in 2008 for more local workshops and intensives, new classes, and int/adv. practice sessions!! Please contact me if you are interested in learning more about Anusara Yoga or arranging a workshop or class at your yoga studio.

I believe that the power and heart of Yoga lies first in our deepest intention to remember the goodness and beauty of our own true nature and then to honour this remembrance in open-hearted celebration and full participation in life!