Thursday, July 25, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Taught my first 90 minute class this morning!!!! It went really well and I feel quite satisfied (non-attached of course;) ), but leading up to it was quite the ordeal. Yesterday it poured the whole afternoon, complete with flooded trails and lightening and thunder overhead simultaneously. I was practicing in our main yoga studio, realizing my computer and heat from my body were the warmest things in there, so I curled up on my yoga mat for a good 30 minutes, until the lightening passed. We've been warned of it striking around here. Then I went into town to get some food and go over my flow with a friend. We practiced on her porch in the pouring rain, while we blared our playlists...I've discovered an amazing hip-hop/sanskrit band called srikalogy that I highly recommend!
I incorporated some dance and monkey moves into my flow, which my peers said reflected my personality well. Not sure if that's a compliment, but hey, I'll take it. I made up a guided visualization comparing breath to ocean and read some Rumi. I also played Tupac and Talib Kweli, and rocked that sweet lil treetops studio. A scorpion and tarantula had to be shooed out of the studio! Amba said I was hired. What a morning!
Now I'm off to the ocean for a dip before our next class this afternoon. The rest of this week is smooth sailing I think! And I'm officially a yoga teacher!! Woo-hoo & Namaste!
Hard to believe I'll be back in the bay a week from today! Friends, I want to see you and we don't even have to do yoga...but if you are into it, I am fresh and ready to teach ya this awesome Nosara flow!!!!! Hope you all are well and enjoying summer nights. It gets dark at 5:30 here, so enjoy enjoy.
LOVE,
Risa
I incorporated some dance and monkey moves into my flow, which my peers said reflected my personality well. Not sure if that's a compliment, but hey, I'll take it. I made up a guided visualization comparing breath to ocean and read some Rumi. I also played Tupac and Talib Kweli, and rocked that sweet lil treetops studio. A scorpion and tarantula had to be shooed out of the studio! Amba said I was hired. What a morning!
Now I'm off to the ocean for a dip before our next class this afternoon. The rest of this week is smooth sailing I think! And I'm officially a yoga teacher!! Woo-hoo & Namaste!
Hard to believe I'll be back in the bay a week from today! Friends, I want to see you and we don't even have to do yoga...but if you are into it, I am fresh and ready to teach ya this awesome Nosara flow!!!!! Hope you all are well and enjoying summer nights. It gets dark at 5:30 here, so enjoy enjoy.
LOVE,
Risa
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
In the thick of it here on week 3. Some moments I think I am never doing yoga again and others, I have lost my thoughts and am totally immersed in my bodily sensations. They encourage us just to notice pain and think about it curiously "isn't that interesting?" I am discovering muscles that I never knew I had. I recently learned that you can tell if its a pulled muscle by hotness and a nerve by coldness by personal experience. Fun, fun.
Have begun to rely on the little routines to get thru the hard parts, like bliss balls (dates, cacao, coconut, crushed almonds, and salt) during our break at 12:30, showering 3 times daily, bug repellent and sunscreen apps, afternoon rain and the mud that accompanies it, walking in flip flops everywhere and getting mud streaks up the back of my legs, and the many conversations over pepa's and casados with the friends I've made here.
Otherwise, I am either chanting, doing asana, crying or laughing, or trying to get some food in to keep me going. 6 or 7 hours of sleep strangely proves to be enough to get me thru, though admittedly during the evening session, my eyes start to shut. Last night, I swear Don hypnotized us all, which I gathered when I consciously tried to open my eyes and I couldn't. During practice this morning, someone started to laugh as we were groaning and slapping our legs and it became contagious like wildfire across the room until we were all belly laughing for a good 5 minutes. I spoke with our instructor later, and she admitted that she'd had the thought of, "what if I can't reign this in?" We talked about how its counter intuitive, but to talk softer than the noise or om softly has more of a calming affect than trying to get louder than the room. I have to remember that and plan to test it sometime in a bar, if anyone is game.
After our morning session, I went to the juice bar that we have all grown to love, and tried to remember how to interpret the I-Ching (Mom, AJ, can you remind me?!) using coins for a friend. Astrological charts, I-Ching, thats the normal conversation here, and I don't even roll my eyes anymore. But don't worry, still keeping it real.
After a short break, this afternoon we were put in groups of three and were asked to collectively design a 30 minute class using pigeon, bow, and bridge, as well as kalibhati (sharp exhaling breath), pranayama nostril breathing, and so hum meditation, piecing it together with transitions. The other two in my group were really strong personalities (an alpha woman from san francisco who used to work in the fitness industry and a woman from denmark who struggles with English but is very opinionated). I found myself in the middle, as usual, and felt so exhausted by the process. We then had to demonstrate in unison and silently to on-lookers. We pulled it off somehow. I think the no talking thing helped.
Then we learned we will each be teaching a 90 minute class that we've designed to teach 5 others next week. That created a lot of tension and strangely, competition in the room. I found myself disassociating a little, in response. But, I feel prepared and am getting my playlist together. I'll send it any of you are interested...speaking of which, trying to figure out why comments can't come thru. I know you all have a lot to reply and it makes me disappointed that I can't read your responses. Can someone email me which settings I should change so that they come thru?
Anyway, we are going as a group to see baby sea turtles hatch and make their way to the ocean for the first time this evening!!! It feels symbolic and significant for sure...
Sending lots of love,
r
Have begun to rely on the little routines to get thru the hard parts, like bliss balls (dates, cacao, coconut, crushed almonds, and salt) during our break at 12:30, showering 3 times daily, bug repellent and sunscreen apps, afternoon rain and the mud that accompanies it, walking in flip flops everywhere and getting mud streaks up the back of my legs, and the many conversations over pepa's and casados with the friends I've made here.
Otherwise, I am either chanting, doing asana, crying or laughing, or trying to get some food in to keep me going. 6 or 7 hours of sleep strangely proves to be enough to get me thru, though admittedly during the evening session, my eyes start to shut. Last night, I swear Don hypnotized us all, which I gathered when I consciously tried to open my eyes and I couldn't. During practice this morning, someone started to laugh as we were groaning and slapping our legs and it became contagious like wildfire across the room until we were all belly laughing for a good 5 minutes. I spoke with our instructor later, and she admitted that she'd had the thought of, "what if I can't reign this in?" We talked about how its counter intuitive, but to talk softer than the noise or om softly has more of a calming affect than trying to get louder than the room. I have to remember that and plan to test it sometime in a bar, if anyone is game.
After our morning session, I went to the juice bar that we have all grown to love, and tried to remember how to interpret the I-Ching (Mom, AJ, can you remind me?!) using coins for a friend. Astrological charts, I-Ching, thats the normal conversation here, and I don't even roll my eyes anymore. But don't worry, still keeping it real.
After a short break, this afternoon we were put in groups of three and were asked to collectively design a 30 minute class using pigeon, bow, and bridge, as well as kalibhati (sharp exhaling breath), pranayama nostril breathing, and so hum meditation, piecing it together with transitions. The other two in my group were really strong personalities (an alpha woman from san francisco who used to work in the fitness industry and a woman from denmark who struggles with English but is very opinionated). I found myself in the middle, as usual, and felt so exhausted by the process. We then had to demonstrate in unison and silently to on-lookers. We pulled it off somehow. I think the no talking thing helped.
Then we learned we will each be teaching a 90 minute class that we've designed to teach 5 others next week. That created a lot of tension and strangely, competition in the room. I found myself disassociating a little, in response. But, I feel prepared and am getting my playlist together. I'll send it any of you are interested...speaking of which, trying to figure out why comments can't come thru. I know you all have a lot to reply and it makes me disappointed that I can't read your responses. Can someone email me which settings I should change so that they come thru?
Anyway, we are going as a group to see baby sea turtles hatch and make their way to the ocean for the first time this evening!!! It feels symbolic and significant for sure...
Sending lots of love,
r
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Hafiz resonates today...
Leave the familiar for a while.
Let your senses and bodies stretch out
Like a welcomed season
Onto the meadows and shores and hills.
Open up to the Roof.
Make a new water-mark on your excitement
And love.
Like a blooming night flower,
Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness
And giving
Upon our intimate assembly.
Change rooms in your mind for a day.
All the hemispheres in existence
Lie beside an equator
In your heart.
Greet Yourself
In your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and travel
Back home.
All the hemispheres in heaven
Are sitting around a fire
Chatting
While stitching themselves together
Into the Great Circle inside of
You.
-Hafiz
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Slept in until 7 this morning which felt so luxurious. I skipped my first class (we are allowed to miss two per week) due to an exhausting 15 hr day yesterday. We had our usual two hour flow in the morning and then taught the full warrior flow to a partner (an hour's length class) and then had more yoga in the evening. And an enormous storm that lasted the afternoon and into the night. The jungle path is sure to be muddy today. I'm drinking my morning smoothie of kale, passionfruit, pinapple, and mango and thinking about what we learned yesterday. Our new chant (which we chant many times a day) goes like this:
Om guru Om guru
Deva Deva
Aja Kay
Ananda Key Jay
which translates roughly to mean
Past, Present, Future from the dark to the light
Divine incarnations of truth
Dwell within me
What a blissful glorious discovery
Yes, Indeed!
Also reading Aleph by Paulo Coelho which is an amazing book if anyone needs a good read:)
Where the comments y'all? Should I keep this thing going?
Much love,
R.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
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