I have been trying to write a February newsletter, well all month. Something inspiring that I can share. Updates on my Mysore life, progress in practice, and all things bright and shiny making yoga practice seem sexy and exciting. The truth is yoga is hard. It takes tremendous courage and faith to be away from your family, work, and everything that is stable to be in the fire of what you love and then as a teacher the courage to offer that experience and knowledge with others through the practice of teaching.
If there are three parts to the OM cycle a beginning, a middle, and an end, here at the end of the middle I am a little blue. I have been practicing up to and including bakasana now for 6 weeks! That is two hours of flying, floating, twisting, binding, ankle grabbing leg behind heading. I am tired. There seems to be no end in sight. I have even started wearing the craziest practice colors, today lime green top and purple leggings with a turquoise headband, to draw more attention to myself.
Doubt once again looms large. What am I doing here?
As I walked right into the shala today Sharath looked me right in the eye and said...you start 4.30am. So now I am faced with 5 more weeks with a 4.30am start time. I was tired just thinking about that.
What am I doing here?
Almost predictably now as I really go down this vast rabbit hole of doubt I get emails from students. Lakshmish would call them "old friends and new friends." Their words help bring me back to my own source, the point of origin. As I head into the beginning of the end phase also known as the Shiva phase I am putting surrender into practice.
we chant the Guru Ashtakam and the refrain is sounded
MANASCHE NA LAGNAM GURO RANGHRI PADME,
TATAH KIM, TATAH KIM, TATAH KIM, TATAH KIM
if one’s mind does not devoutly rest on the feet of Guru? By whose grace along can one’s soul be liberated? Of what use, of what use, of what use indeed?
Below is a list of upcoming events designed to help connect you to source. I am calling the spring workshop series, Springing From Source. Please join me and pass the information along. I am over here 5 more weeks then OM sweet OM.
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If you want to start a Mysore practice or refine/continue your existing one or if you are a curious vinyasa teacher looking to be more detailed and design orientated with your sequencing.
Ashtanga Yoga Intensive
Monday April 4 - Friday April 8
Two start times: 6:15 and 7:30am
Motion Center, 111 Chestnut St, Providence, RI
$108
Please call 401-338-5466 to register Space is extremely limited for proper attention. I have just begin given authorization to teach Ashtanga Yoga by the KPJAYI. This is a great link to understand parampara in this lineage http://www.yogaspace.com.au/teacher_training/ashtanga.php
There are just a handful of authorized teachers in New England, I am the only one in Rhode Island...wicked exciting!
If you want a "master class" and you happen to be in South Jersey
Three-hour Yoga Revolution
Sunday April 10, 1-4 pm
yogawood, 688 Haddon Ave, Collingswood, NJ
$40
Please call 856-858-9642 to register
If you are looking for a mind blowing practice altering experience in
Philadelphia
Play Me Like an Eastern Instrument: An Early Morning Intensive
Wake Up Yoga Fairmount, Philadelphia, PA
Monday - Friday, April l1 - 15, 6am - 8am
$108, Wake Up Yoga teachers/TT grads receive a 15% discount
Limited to just 22 students, please call 215.235.1228 or email
Alane@wakeupyoga.com to register THIS WILL SELL OUT!
If you were on of those people who always wanted to come to Shabda Sunday
and never made it, if you are a yoga teacher, and if you want to go DEEP
in the Providence area! After three months of being totally immersed in
this material with amazing teachers if this doesn't change your
relationship to yoga I'll give you your money back!
Sanskrit Sound Series: Sounding with the Source
Saturday April 30, 1pm-5pm
Shri Yoga Studio, Pawtucket, RI
$45.00
Email staff@shri-studio.com to reserve your
*JUST ANNOUNCED* and not yet up on my website
Sanskrit, Sutra, and Sound Study Group
Please join me for four Tuesday evenings in May. Students will be taken deeper into the practice of Sanskrit by chanting the alphabet experiencing the proper mouth positions and breath patterns. We will practice writing skills, how vowel symbols are utilized, how two consonants join, and 'R' placement. Along with developing reading and writing skills we will look closely at asana names, select mantras, and yoga sutra's in Devanagri script and how to read the transliteration. Come and develop a chanting practice as a entry point of awareness that enhances an existing asana practice. Each student will receive a sacred sound packet and there will be weekly assignments given. Space is limited to 6 students. Your space is held once registration has been received.
Dates:
May 3, 10, 17, 24 2011
Time: 6pm-7:30pm
Cost:
$72.00
Location:
My shala (my house in Providence, RI) once your registration has been confirmed I will send all the details. To register email me directly at yoga@jillmanning.com
2 comments:
Jill-ji. I surrendered a lot more than usual today. I don't have the strength (February worn down by winter, work syndrome) to "defend myself". It was a trippy experience. Very little sleep - the vrttis haunted me, I sat with them at the wee hours like an old Indian chief wrapped in a blanket in the cold, and then off to practice at 6:30, with a vicious work schedule until 8pm ahead. But too tired to worry. Just faith, the delight of the cold, fresh air on my bike ride. And the heat of the shala and the comfort of the breathing. And then the sorrow set in, and finally hit when he said, "breathe your brain into the body" and I lost it while in Eka Pada Shirsana on my "tight" side, and sat in it and sobbed for what seemed like eternity. Then, inhaled and lifted up, ready to keep practicing. Then it happened again in bagbends and I thought, oh, this is going to keep happening all day, and it did. I've never felt so defenseless in my lie nor so fortunate to be passing through.
animo, amiga, animo! and love.
maria
Thanks Maria. Hopefully I can catch up with you when I am Philly in April.
love
J
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