Goodbye Snow...Hello Mosquitos

I know that I have taken a pretty long break from blogging and many people have inquired, "you are going to blog from Mysore..right?" I will be blogging and sharing photos from this trip. I am so excited, more excited than ever before. I am so looking forward to being a student and being with myself. Mike and I are about to head to Boston to have lunch together and then I am off. I am hopeful for the new year and am sending LOVE to everyone.

What is Shabda Sunday?

This is the process of using the breath, the body, and language...things we hang out with all the time...but through the practice of yoga (the big picture yoga) we harness the energy and the experience. We move these aspects, breath, body, and voice as we wish to move toward what we must.

What yoga student doesn't want to merge with that?

See you this evening at Shri Yoga in Pawtucket at 5pm.

How do you define practice?

Ashtanga yoga students take practice very seriously as a daily ritual. I have defined and redefined what practice means to me so many times over the years. I was just re mined of this very inspiring passage by the amazing Martha Graham. The first part is beloved by those who practice yoga because she is directly talking about prana. It is the juiciest part, but after that she takes a strong turn toward action and defines practice as:

"Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired."

Martha Graham

Not only was Martha a yogi...she sounds like an Ashtangi.

I love practice

Some Catch Up Photos

Rock Steady

This blog about practice came from my friend, Michael Peter Carter. I met Michael on my second trip to Mysore. We were the only TWO students in Sanskrit class. He and his wife Holly were a great support to me the next year when I was on my first solo trip to India. I look forward to meeting them again in Mysore but this post touches so completely on what practice is about...steadiness.

I had to share it.

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras:
I:2 yogah chittavritti nirodhah => union + consciousness + movement + cessation
II:46 sthira sukham asanam => Steady + Joy + Pose

Bhagavad Gita
II:58 They who can withdraw their senses from the sense objects, as a tortoise withdraws its limbs into its shell, that persons intellect is considered steady.

I find that Drishti helps me to keep my mind focused on my practice. By fixing my gaze softly on a single place, there is less stimulation for my mind. I am not distracted by what other students are doing or wearing and I am not distracted by the thoughts and judgments that naturally follow.
I find that by keeping my breath steady, with equal qualities on inhales and exhales, my nerves remain calm even when a posture is extremely challenging. The soft sound, like the ocean, gives my ears a kind of ‘white noise’ to listen to. It also gives me feedback to let me know if I am straining too hard or being lazy.
I find that by following the correct vinyasa my mind can be still. My practice unfolds one breath at a time. There is no guesswork, no dialogue about what to do next, or what to do for the next series of postures. Instead, I only need to be present with one breath/movement at a time. As each one completes, another one begins.
I find that by doing practice everyday there is no remembering, wondering, or considering. Practice is the same today, as yesterday, as tomorrow. Over weeks, months, and years, a few new poses may be introduced, but they are done at correct intervals, when my mind can remain steady with the added challenges.
I find that by having faith and determination in this practice all fears and worries are swept away. I can step on my mat and get straight to the work of cultivating a steady mind.
I find, by practicing in the correct method, my mind, to be steady.

Here is the link to Michael's webpage
http://onthepathoflife.com/

Fall Newsletter

Shaktipat..feeling the energy fall

Sweet friends,

What an intense and busy year this has been! Moving from my cozy
community in Philadelphia to the unknown Providence, RI has had it share
of 'the agony and ecstasy' moments. I am so excited to continue building
this budding community that has started to form here in Rhode Island and I
am bolstered reading, Guruji: A Portrait of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois comforted
by the accounts of over 600 years of practice thoughts from his students
around the globe.

My fall schedule is bursting with content...way too much for this blast!
There will be practice 5 mornings a week at Motion Center in Providence,
and a full schedule of workshops in Providence, Pawtucket, Philadelphia,
DC, and in New Hampshire. Please check my website for the most current
information.

http://www.ashtangayogaprovidence.com

I'll be heading to my heart-land home Mysore, India at the end of the year
and will return in April...stay tuned for Spring Events!!

love|practice

Jill

It's here now. Are you?

Just yesterday someone said to me, "I didn't think you could practice Ashtanga Yoga Mysore Style in Providence?"...."really a year!"

Please spread the word.

This is where my friend Amanda has taken her practice in Austin. It is a great little piece of inspiration.

Ashtanga Austin from ASHTANGA AUSTIN on Vimeo.

Gathering

Ashtanga Yoga Sangha


It has been a year practicing and teaching in the great state of Rhode Island and what an amazing experience. This event is for all those who practice and for anyone who have an itch to practice and are curious about the tradition.

Saturday September 25th, 2:30-5pm FREE!

This is a chance for those who practice and those who wish to start a practice to come and celebrate. At 2:30pm Jill will lead a half primary series. Afterwards, there will be time for chanting and chatting with a Q and A session. Jill is hoping to stretch her chai and cookie making muscles as well!

This event is held at Motion Center, 111 Chestnut Street, Providence, RI.

*that photo was my first trip to Mysore November 2006.

Back to school

Wow! That is one full fall schedule. Catch the practice wave, expand prana, and snuggle to the self.

http://www.ashtangayogaprovidence.com

Sound Practice

Sound Practice: An Early Morning Intensive w/Jill Manning
Space is Limited


Wake Up Yoga Fairmount

Monday, October 4th - Friday, October 8th

6am - 8am

Contribution: $108.

Wake Up Yoga teachers/TT grads receive a 15% discount

There are over 25 definitions for the word sound. They range from the intensely scientific to a softer qualitative expression. This week we will explore the many meaning of sound in conjunction with our ever-expanding experience of practice.

Practice means repeat, repetition builds strength...what are you repeating?

Along with a week that is chocked full of breath, and bandha. There will be an opportunity to go deep with commitment and consistency in the asana exploration. Perhaps the most exciting element of the week will be the practice of Shruti parampara. Shruti parampara is the practice where one hears and then memorizes in their heart for further retention and dissemination. This is they style in which we will have daily study of the yoga sutras from Pada 1.1 all the way up to and including Patanjali's own definition of sound practice.

Calling all Rhodie Yogi's

photo by Michael Mergen

No experience, no transformation

Be transformed

SHABDA SUNDAY

Sunday, August 29th
5-6:30pm
Shri Yoga Studio, Pawtucket, RI


"The way of yoga is not a simple, linear path. Rather it is a complex method involving radical change in the way we experience the world and conceive the process of knowing ourselves."

Barbara Stoler Miller

Blog Flashback

What a difference one year makes


August 19 2009

This is not a vacation. I am not coming home Philly. I will not be resuming the Saturday and Tuesday yoga time slots anytime soon. I am not preparing for Teacher Training. This is some weird stuff.

I am trying to find my way. Reestablish a real relationship with myself and the practice of yoga. Providence has a quiet way about it, and its authentic silence, its off the grid-ness, is allowing me, and I can hear Micheal Carroll in my head even as I write this, to drop the cape. Even more so I am asking myself to drop the costume.

You know what I am talking about!

I have been reading from my notebooks before I start practice. Trying to find those gems that make their way into yoga classes that I teach. Trying to inspire myself. This morning I read something that I wrote boldly in the margin. It said, "You've got devotion, now what?"
Now What?

I woke up this morning with a clear vision, and an urgency, an energy to begin the exploration of just that question. I hope that this begins a daily blog of this very interesting journey. Finding myself in Providence, and exploring the action of devotion. I have said this in yoga class and I am repeating here, where bhakti (devotion) meets shakti (energy) that intersection...that's abhyasa...that's practice, and as always..that's the juice.

Transmission

Manorama wants each student to announce what is the ONE thing that they take away after spending time with her. She knows that her workshops are an ocean of information and inspiration. She wants the thought process to begin and the distillation of massive informative to be chanted in your own voice.

After spending the week in Philadelphia teaching and practicing I spent the weekend with my main influence, teacher, mentor for nearly the last five years. What I took away was the transmission.

the act of passing on wisdom or enlightenment from a spiritual master to a disciple

Back to Home Practice

‎"Yoga practice transforms the mind and body; it purifies, strengthens, and heals. A troubled mind has a reduced capacity for understanding and a diseased body will always cause distraction and trouble to the mind. Through asana practice, the body is healed and the mind is progressively purified and refined, and becomes more capable of grasping subtle truth." -Guy Donaheye, "Guruji"

Tired...happy, but tired

Lynda Benglis

This is what happens when you work in a Museum...inspiration is everywhere.

Shabda Sunday

WHO: Shabda Sunday is for anyone who has a yoga practice or is thinking about starting a yoga practice. SS is for all beings everywhere. No babysitter? No problem Jayashree would never keep kids out of the experience. If it is OK with you it is OK with me.

WHAT: Shabda means sound. Sunday is the day of the Sun. Yoga asana's are like the outline of the yoga practice Shabda Sunday starts to color in the picture adding detail and meaning.

WHERE: Shri Studio located at 21 Broad Street Pawtucket, RI
http://shri-studio.com/

WHEN: The last Sunday of every month. The next meeting is August 29th from 5pm-6:30pm.

WHY: "When we chant in a group, we also breathe together in the same musical pauses, creating a unified field of breath and laying the foundation for the experience of the communion of sound." ~ Robert Gass

A Second Session Has Been Added

for the Ashtanga Yoga Intensive at Motion Center in Providence, RI.

August 16th-20th
Space is limited to 8 students
7:45am-9:30am
Register at Motion Center
http://www.motioncenter.com
111 Chestnut Street
Providence, RI 02903
401.654.6650

"repetition builds strength...what are you repeating?" ~me



"A daily practice brings about a gauge in your life. For me, it’s been a way
to know who I am in the moment. And it’s the only thing in my life that
is something I do every day; it’s the same practice. So no matter what
else I’m doing—I’m traveling, if I eat differently—every day the practice
being the same repetitive practice gives me a way to judge myself in a
nonjudgmental way, a way of seeing. “How am I doing? How am I holding
up to the stresses of daily life?” It’s also the only time for me that I
can take my mind out of my daily life and become free in a spiritual
sense to investigate myself, my true Self."

Nancy Gilgoff

Morning Practice

Morning Poem

Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange

sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches ---
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it

the thorn
that is heavier than lead ---
if it's all you can do
to keep on trudging ---

there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted ---

each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,

whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.


~ Mary Oliver ~

Home

This morning I drove to Boston for practice. It was like coming home. After I returned from India in January I was committed to finding a larger yoga community in Providence that I could be a part of. I tried going so many places. I surrendered to teachers new, and those with many years of experience, some with their own yoga spaces. It often felt like I was trying to push this square peg into a round hole. This morning felt like a home coming. The room was quiet. There were just enough students to feel like part of a tribe but not so many that is felt like a tribe of sardines. Practice was steady and sweet.

Today marks the one year anniversary of arriving in Providence. What a year! Do I feel at home here?

I thought I'd share some pictures today from Providence's West End. That's were Mike and I make our home (at least for now.) This is where we walk the dogs, hang with friends, grab a coffee, and sometimes a dinner out...Broadway Bistro is our favorite.

Year in Review

This time last year I was sitting in a very empty house in Philadelphia surrounded by some friends and many empty bottles of champagne...all sitting on the floor. This week I am dedicating my blogs to the many things I have learned over the year. I thought I kick the week off with an artist I didn't even know existed. But after 6 months of working just below her solo exhibit at the RISD Museum staring at her work and at her catalogue's sold in the store...and yes meeting (that's a stretch) her in person. Her art has strongly influenced my practice and teaching style.








"radiating, almost spiritual, beauty. Steir’s work, tied to nature and the progression of time with, as she noted, “gravity and levity” as partners, provide the viewer with respite in their calm physicality. Compounded with the eastern philosophies and painting traditions that have influenced her, one is left with an understanding of transience, the fleeting nature of beauty, and the delicate fragility of the natural world. An awareness of our unconscious “moving through space” as tied to nature provides us with a precious desire to protect it."

Dwell in Possibility

5 Day Ashtanga Yoga Intensive at Motion Center with Jill



A chance to go deeper with the daily practice of Ashtanga Yoga. Class will be held for 5 days with enrollment limited to 8 students. In the Mysore style yoga practice method, each student practices the same sequence of poses at their own pace. Over 5 days, a relationship develops between teacher, student, and the practice. This method provides time for observation, assessment and direction. The effects will encourage and inspire you!

You do not need to have an already established Ashtanga Yoga practice to
participate in the intensive. It is open to anyone who wants to cultivate
a relationship with yoga through commitment and consistency.

Space is limited and filling up fast! Contact Motion Center (just awared best yoga studio by RI Monthly) to enroll.

"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."

-Goethe

Yoga Wars

My dear friend Cyndi told me that some friends/students in Philly were sad that I wasn't actively bogging anymore. Like I said in my last post I was needing to put a reign on my ranting and start focusing on being more and more positive, like a modern day Patanjali, being positive in a positive way.

An article in the New York Times about Anusara yoga and its founder John Friend exploded on the Internet last week. Let me be clear I did not read the whole article, it was long and frankly I believe there is nothing as silly as reading about yoga. Yoga is about doing. I also knew that there was going to be a lot of debris flying...look don't mess with people's life changing vehicle.

Ever since I starting practicing Ashtanga Yoga I have heard all the criticism. Mostly from yoga students who have never practiced Ashtanga Yoga let alone met Guruji or traveled to Mysore, India. I have stopped arguing about yoga and what method is right, what method is more spiritual, what method is true...My advice.. stop reading about yoga and start a practice.

Shraddha

If you think making it to the mat is difficult

http://www.johnromeo.net/page1/page1.html

Bady Lady Blogger

It is not that I haven't had musing of late. Some of my close friends have had to endure long monologues on frustration, loneliness, shock, and defeat. Then I remembered the advice of two wise men:

"what's your business." Mike, my husband
"mind your business." Shri Brahmanada Sarasvati

and yesterday morning when 10! students piled in a room and began practicing in silence more then half had their very first lesson with me I nearly cried.

What's my business? I teach yoga and I inspire students to go the extra step, to question what they heard and what they think they know. There are way too many announcements about upcoming events and how the Mysore program at Motion Center will be expanding to 5 mornings a week in September!

Please pass the word tomorrow is Guru Purinam and I am so blessed to be holding Shabda Sunday. Guruji was born on the full moon in July and his birthday was celebrated every year on that auspicious occasion. We will honor Guruji and all the teachers through sound and silence, mantra and meaning, studying yoga and also studying the ONE studying yoga.

Hiding Out

I have been hiding out for the last two weeks.

First I came down with an intense summer sickness which I am still battling.

Then I was teaching, practicing, and playing horse shoes (badly) in New Hampshire.

Now my friend Adam is here in the PVD and in the last 36 hours we have:

yoga-ed
been to Benefit Street
Historic Federal Hill
RISD Art Museum
Brown University
Thayer Street

Pastiche Fine Dessert
Bob and Timmy's Grilled Pizza
Kabob and Curry

Duck Pin Bowled

I will no doubt be just as busy today and then Sunday we will head down to Ashtanga Yoga Rhode Island. I haven't been there since the winter.

Maybe after I recover from this I'll get back to blogging.

10 things

Taking suggestion from Amanda's blog and continually trying to push my attitude toward positivity I am listing the 10 things that I am super shakti charged about.

1. Group practice starts this Monday at Motion Center! Come practice with me and share in the movement of breath and the fellowship of lineage in the Ashtanga Yoga tradition.

2. Armory Farmers Market starts June 3rd and continues until Oct 28.

3. Beach Monday has started and this Monday I have a date with Jordan and Anne.

4. I am returning to a 6 day a week practice. My schedule has been a bit of a challenge but some little changes will make all the difference.

5. My workshop/travel teaching schedule is shaping up.

6. Teaching at Living Yoga in Concord, NH next weekend..observations, adjustments, traditionally counted led primary....it is going to be juicy.

7. Shabda Sunday June 27th!!!

8. I recognize that this has been the hardest year of my life and I survived the first year made some great friends, and learned a lot about myself.

9. Mike killed it his first year and now we can spend some summer time together.

10. Let the summer guest parade begin!!!

(11.) and possibly the most important KCDV in the PVD.

love|practice

Three Things

Register for Mysore classes that run from June until the end of July (I am out of town teaching workshops for the month of August, but will return with a full teaching schedule in September)...practice now!


Mornings here:
http://www.motioncenter.com/downloads/forms/MysoreRegistration.pdf

Wednesday evening here:
http://www.shri-studio.com/home.html

Open Mysore practice at Motion Center 6.45am-9am for June and July...starting this coming Monday!! I'll be on my mat and buzzing you in. If you have a practice of Ashtanga Yoga in the Mysore Style come and practice...just a $5 donation goes to the space.

I am putting together workshops for the fall so stay tuned and get practicing!!!

love.love.

What is Yoga?

I graduated from the Integral Yoga Institutes NYC ten years ago this June. I remember that day so well. I remember finding an entirely white outfit to wear to the ceremony and I remember how my classmates knew exactly who was there to support me. I was like 15 years younger than almost everyone in my class. My thoughts and feelings and experience have grown, changed, deepened, and in some way remained very steady over this period of time. I am still trying to figure out, "what is yoga" and have invited so many students to do the same. I will be reflecting over the next month on some definitions and experiences that have stayed with me.

For my 26th birthday a student who I still work with made me a t-shirt that said, "yoga is hard." This was a big turning point for me when I started to uncover that a practice of yoga is not all hearts and sunshine that yoga helps you feel how you are...really and sometimes it is tender, or in grief, so yes April yoga is still hard and nobody says why better than this author. I have been sitting with her definition of yoga for a good while now.


" is a complex method involving a radical change in the way we experience the world and conceive the process of knowing ourselves. It gives us techniques with which to analyze our own thought processes and finally to lay bare our true human identity."


Barbara Stoler Miller

Dynamo Devis

If yoga is an attitude my yoga of late has totally sucked...and I am over it! I hit my personal breaking point at a vinyasa yoga class last Thursday.

I broke down fully and now I am ready to rise and get to work.

I am starting an attitude shift by writing (and linking) to some of the local yogini's who help me not only feel less alone they help me be a better teacher and they share in my struggle for a community and my passion for practice.

Victoria Lockard
http://yoginivictoria.wordpress.com/

I met Victoria way back in the fall. She was also teaching at Motion Center and very interested having someone to practice with. We have been meeting once a week since then and sharing practice space, energy and great conversations over post practice coffee. Smart and sensitive she teaches at the BSC and at Shri.

Aja Blanc
http://www.ajablanc.com/

Aja works right upstairs from me at risd|works. I was leaving the museum a few weeks ago and someone said to me, "have you met Aja...you have to me Aja!" Aja just moved here in January while I was in India. She like me left a great yoga community and has been trying to find her place here in Providence. While she is a Kripalu trained yoga teacher she is not currently teaching (I hope that changes soon.) She wrote a blog about me trying to create a community here...I could really use her help.

Sara Davidson
http://www.fullradiance.com/

What to say about Sara? First of all she is starting to teach on Sunday mornings at Motion Center and I will be rolling my mat out at her feet this week! She is fun and fearless, soft spoken and super-shakti-fied. Getting to spend time with her is a gift and although she practices and teaches a "different" method of yoga we speak the same language. The language of yoga..ya know stretching and stuff.

I feel the power of possibility. I feel it coming....please come check out Shabda Sunday this week. I promise it can't disappoint.

Look at all these people....someday Providence?

This Sunday

Come and chant, sit, breathe, and laugh.

Shabda Sunday at Sri

"I found it to be fun, insightful, meditative and centering last time. It brought another dimension to my yoga practice, understanding of language, breathing and chanting. Used my new sanskrit vowels in Thailand :) Have a great time! I'll be there next time."

Practice First...(me)

.....all is coming (Guruji)

All those years in Philadelphia as I taught and I practiced and as I struggled I only shared that struggling portion with very few people. It seems that as students (me included) we tend to pretend that our yoga teacher was either born out of a lotus flower or maybe on its very nearby leaf.


Through this blog and this time in my life I have received some really amazing words of support from people I know and from total strangers, from students I've taught for years and some I taught for weeks or even just a day.

Over the next few weeks I will be blogging about all the juicy sexy things that happen in my Providence yoga life. I have new practice partners, events that I am excited about (Shabda Sunday THIS SUNDAY!!), and I am heading to the beach. It is the Ocean State after all. Maybe all along I have been trying to swallow the whole of the ocean. I am returning to sipping cup by cup.

Practice first.

...all is coming

and for me...learning to love the in between!

With Elation Comes Deflation

I can just see Manorama in my mind talking about Brahmananda's stick that he carried around. Why does it seem like I am always on one end of the stick? The highs and lows are finally starting to get to me...maybe this is the time start a sitting practice. After the Annie Pace experience of feeling so aligned with the tradition of yoga, experiencing the energy exchange that happens between student and teacher the stick swung and smacked me square in the solar plexus...I have been stumbling ever since.

My new yoga friend and cohort Aja wrote a blog entry about me you can read it here:

http://www.ajablanc.com/yoga/

She writes, "not only searching for her yogic community, but actively creating it."

Let me tell you this is hard work.

Over the past few months I have been to the yoga classes of the leaders in this community. I have attended a class where the teacher proudly announced to "forget the Yoga Sutra's, forget the Gita!" I have never felt so alone. So I drive and drive. I have driven to the ends of the state to meet and practice the other teachers and students, and just today I drove an hour to practice with a small group in Milton, Mass....for the first time on a Sunday leaving the Hope State.

I have so much hope for a community! Please come and practice the yoga of sound with me at Shri (the seed of light) in Pawtucket. Start to dive into the Sanskrit alphabet as it relates to yoga..a state where nothing is missing...a state of wholeness and hope.

Hope
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickinson

Summer and Fall Workshops

I am in the middle of trying to organize some kind of travel teaching schedule. Here is what is happening so far if you are interested in attending contact the yoga studio for registration information!

Shabda Sunday
May 23rd
Shri Yoga
Pawtucket, RI
5-6:30
No Registration Needed!!! cOMe and practice
http://shri-studio.com/

Observations and Adjustments
June 5th and 6th
Living Yoga
Concord, NH
http://www.livingyoganh.com/


Early Morning Intensive
August 9th-13th
Wake Up Yoga
Philadelphia, PA
http://www.wakeupyoga.com

stayed tuned for fall workshops in DC, Providence, and Philadelphia. If you would like to host me at your yoga space contact me at yoga@jillmanning.com

Shabda Sunday May 23 5-6:30 @ Shri

Guy in Seven Stars Bakery on Thursday, "yah know...it is all in the cycles."

OM Cycle...come fly with me!

When you don’t have anything nice to blog...don’t blog at all.

I try to keep this principle alive and find that there is no use in complaining or judging or over thinking the yoga situation I find myself in these days. It feels like I am in this great tug of war with the agony and ecstasy of it all. The aloness of practice for nearly the last year has brought me to the brink of tears but also to the edge of so many of my own personal struggles with the physical practice. The other week after I posted some of the newer practice pictures even my teacher needed to comment (which is super rare) on how much has changed.

It is not just the physical that has been blooming. My connection to sound has sharpened. Annie Pace played my harmonium last week and some chants that I heard for the first time lodged in my heart and from heart to ear to harmonium I chant and continue to chant.

For the first Sunday since I have been back from India I couldn’t bring myself to yet another yoga class. I don’t want to be a tourist any longer I want to feel at home.

I am trying to make a home for curious yoga students and teachers with my offer of Shabda Sunday. Our next meeting is on the 23rd of May 5-6:30pm at Sri in Pawtucket. The topic will be OM Cycle and while I was playing with Victoria the other day this is a BIG experience and I look forward to diving into how OM is the process of sound and feeling how all other sounds are contained in it.

Three Things

I am super excited about

Next Shabda Sunday is May 23rd at Shri Yoga from 5-6:30pm

Topic:

OM Cycle

My friend Victoria wrote a fun little blog about hanging out with me last week

http://yoginivictoria.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/bicycles-popsicles-om-cycles/


I have found another yoga friend and I am very excited about our blossoming fellowship.

http://www.fullradiance.com/

and lastly all I can say is I live in the Ocean State let the summer begin (plus the produce man around the corner sells fresh coconuts in the summer...I know that is 4 but..still!)

Maha Shakti

Shortly after I returned from Mysore this February I began searching for a community. I googled "Ashtanga Yoga New England" and found that certified Ashtanga Yoga teacher Annie Pace was coming to an area just outside Boston for a weekend in the Spring. Although I was a little fund challenged at the time I sent in my check for many reasons. Annie is a long time student and teacher who has unlike some other certified "old school" teachers has stayed connected to Mysore and has always made the pilgrimage to Mysore each year. I thought is would be a great way to meet some other New England Ashtangi's connect to a larger community. Maybe my biggest reason is simple. Annie is a girl. My Ashtanga Yoga teachers have always been men...Guruji, Sharath, and David.

It is Monday morning after spending the weekend with Shakti live wire known as Annie Pace. What an experience. All of her words aligned perfectly with all that I have been taught and experienced, but she had so much zazz.

She was silly and very serious.
She was joyful and respectful.
She was directly connected with all of us in the now and bringing us in the now to the source to the importance of tradition.

She is the embodiment of love and practice! and I want to continue to align with that!

Where the magic happens

This is me most days..alone with practice...well except when Charlie wants in on the experience.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

The first ever Shabda Sunday at Shri was so amazing. I haven't chanted like that since leaving the feet of Jayashree. 9 amazing and interested students came out to play and snuggle up to breath as the vehicle for sound, chanting as practice for inner transformation and so much more.

small seed...big tree

Here are some photos my husband took....the campaign of awareness begins!!

It isn't about always knowing the answer

....it's knowing where to find the answer.


Tonight is the very first Shabda Sunday at Shri Yoga. I think I have said the phrase Shabda Sunday about 108 times in the last few days. Mike eventually asked me what does Shabda mean exactly.

Shabda is the Sanskrit word for sound but embedded in its meaning (which is in the sound itself) is a quality of sound as light, sound as awareness, sound as...

Please come make some sounds me with and begin to empower yourself as a student of yoga to be OK with not always knowing the answer but beginning the journey of knowing how and where to find the answers.

Shri Yoga
21 Broad Street
Pawtucket, RI
5-6:30pm

This time last week....

....I was finished with what was possibly the most focused and powerful week of teaching. So many things converged on one point and I felt that after 10 years of teaching yoga (my anniversary is the June!) I found my voice and a quiet confidence that can only come with time, patience, fearless faith and as always practice.

....at the same time I needed some guidance about my direction in Providence. Classes got cancelled because of lack of interest and I felt defeated.

It is really a struggle to come into a new community. It is my job to stay engaged and do something! The Mysore group this morning was really amazing. I just finished my practice. Every time I take to my mat I remember to remember....that it can be easier, less of a struggle and if I keep practicing...all is coming.

the gap between near and far

Sometimes I feel like I am on the yoga episode of Sesame Street. Last night at Shri I had 7(!) awesome and interested students wanting to learn about Ashtanga Yoga. It was the first yoga class ever for three of them. While I was in Philadelphia I had a great talk with tax guru and all around amazing friend, Adam. We were talking about how a teacher can't really get you there...a teacher can inspire and give foundation and support but getting there....well...that's all you. He reminded me of this blog that our friend and teacher, David Keil wrote while he was practicing in Goa this winter. You can find all about David under my yoga love section. He is an amazing teacher and all around awesome guy.

"I know Guruji used to talk about a teacher as a signpost, pointing the way. Sharath did it very nicely as well with a metaphor about the area in Goa where we were. He was talking about how he could tell us how to get to Panjim (Panaji-big town in Goa) and how there might be a right or left turn here, or to watch out for snakes or potholes etc… But, just because he told us how to get t.here didn’t mean that we would arrive. We would still have to get on the scooter and drive ourselves there and maybe even find things that we weren’t expecting. Perhaps we could even find a different route? (last sentence mine, not Sharath’s… and whole thing paraphrased)."

Here are some pictures from my ever expanding life in Providence.

Shabda Sunday

In an effort to reach a broader yoga community I am holding a monthly gathering called Shabda Sunday at the beautiful Shri Yoga in downtown Pawtucket.

Here is the juice

This Sunday April 25th

...inviting students to begin a journey with the Sanskrit alphabet, yoga sutra call and response and meditation. We invite all levels to join in and experience this rich, warm practice.

It is going to be a practice altering experience! Not to be missed by those who have a teaching practice.

Shabada Sundays will begin Sunday, April 25 and are scheduled for 90 minutes, at a discount, $10.

Time 5-6:30pm

juicy | sexy

.....thanks Dima for the spin on perfection as "juicy,sexy."

"Jill, I had such a fun week with you! Seriously amazing and given my mental state at 6am....it was transformative! I am feeling deprived today and a little angry that RI has you all to itself... Unless I come back of course..then the stalking will begin. You are the most juicy sexy yogini eva. Miss you!!"

...thanks Liz for the kind words.

"I am always amazed with how Jillji makes yoga fun and informative. It's chocked full of asana, with very precise breath cues and funny anecdotes, such as "juicy sexy" (you had to be there. ha.)

I hope there's an opportunity to do a week long practice with Jill again soon. She really shatki-fied the space. Much love. Keep it juicy.sexy."

....from Amanda's blog


"Jill, thanks again for an amazing week!! I was actually a little sad when I opened my eyes this morning at 5am and didn't have to get up for yoga. Miss you already..."

...Thanks Doug

If you practiced with me in the Early Morning Intensive in Philly please share!!!