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!

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.