What to say?

WOW!

What a week. Barely home from India and after a packed week teaching in Providence I found myself in my white Mazda heading to Philadelphia for a full schedule of teaching. Last Sunday I taught at Yogawood, a very amazing yoga space in Collingswood, NJ and all this week I was at Wake Up Yoga. My stay has been extended because my great friends and colleagues agreed to share some of their teaching with me.

One of the things I miss most when I am away from Mysore is the chance for communal learning. Here in Philly there is a community and an atmosphere of support, challenge, and the ability to ask the deeper questions....the thirst is there.

After practice tomorrow morning I will be packing up the car and Adam and we will be heading North. I am excited to finally start the "unpacking" from India.

Shop Talk

I love coming back home-home and teaching. I am in the middle of an early morning intensive at Wake Up Yoga. Since I have been living in Providence I have come back to share these intense bursts of information and practice. I have always limited the number of participants so that I can over 5 days meet students where they are and really see what is going on in their practice and hopefully give each student the attention they need so that they can move forward/have an experience/make a connection.

I love seeing the same faces every morning and I love on Friday when the very intense and hard week comes to its natural conclusion with the feeling of completion.

Coming home to Philly also gives me plenty of time for what I love most...shop talk. I really get so much from talking about the journey as student and teacher. Sharing stories of study and triumphs in teaching, what has been going on with personal practice and where we would like to go with practice.

This is what I miss most in Providence. What I hear from my colleagues and feel with myself is a movement toward a bullshit free, stripped down kind of place. Someone asked me this week will my harmonium being making an appearance and the answer was, no. Shanti mantra's need the power of the mind and the movement of the breath only.

Asana practice can be bare.

Chanting practice can be bare.

Yoga needs very little accompaniment....all that is needed in a good teacher...and you are off!

How was my first week back from Mysore? All and all I would say it was a pretty nice entry point. I did find myself mesmerized by the quiet and the cleanliness of everything. Practice was great and working with the students at Motion Center was really a gift. I did find it funny that 12 and a half weeks practicing in Mysore was nothing compared to my soreness from adjusting students 5 days in their Mysore practice.

I am in Philadelphia this week teaching and practicing and soaking in the Philly love.

I still don't have the "what I figured out in Mysore" post. I am still processing the experience and trying to put the pieces together.

Upcoming Events

The Mysore week is in full swing at Motion Center. It is such a great group and a joy to be with these eager students each morning. Ashtanga yoga creates connection between student and teacher,teacher and teacher, teacher and lineage, lineage and source, round and round again.

Now that I am back into my "real" life I am trying to fit in/balance the art of shameless self promotion of my upcoming events. Jayashree says, "the student AND the teacher make the teaching." If any of these offerings spark and interest please come.

If you live in or 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



Sanskrit, Sutra, and Sound Study Group
Space is filling up and VERY limited, if there is an overflow a Thursday group may be added send me an email!

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

What is sticking

The week long morning Mysore intensive started yesterday. It was a joy to come back to teaching. I was reminded how powerful yoga practice can be when it is rooted in tradition. It was amazing to see many of the students that I taught from the ground up had continued practicing despite my absence and the long, cold and dark winter.

At the beginning of my 5th day home from the heartland I am noticing what wormed its way into my body, mind and heart. When I overheard Magnolia and another student talking about third month flying I started to look forward to that physical experience. While my last month in Mysore my spirits were high and my overall mood was light and happy my physical practice felt very stable and solid (in a good way.) My first practice back was Friday and someone who was is the room with me noted at the end she said, "Jill, you are flying!" I felt it. All those seeds planted needed to bloom on the north side of 4am.

I can't go a practice without an extended chanting session. If abhyāsa means repeat it is important to look/listen to what you are repeating. Yesterday I referenced Sharath's take that the yogic lifestyle is a tapas and that not practicing is like suffocation.

Do I miss Mysore? Sure, I always do, but I am more excited to be home teaching and extending my self to others through the powerful fire of yoga.

Lacking Visual Notations

I am missing having my camera. Toward the end of its 5th year with 4 trips to the subcontinent and a stint on a Mexican beach and time taking in the Costa Rican beauty my camera died. It had a good life. My pictures with Lakshmish and Sharath were taken by friends (and I hope will arrive to me someday in the future.)

I never thought the camera was a part of my life but over my first days back I have been wishing for it. I wanted to take a picture of my snowy arrival in Boston and then the huge plate of mixed greens I ate at Julians with Evan and Mike. I wanted to capture Marnie's face when I gave her the toy ricksha's I brought back for her sons. Then there was the guacamole from the little Mexican restaurant and the amazing group practice that I went to on Friday morning....my fat! dogs, and me all cleaned up with high heels, make up and all for the cocktail culture event last night which was followed up by more guacamole at our little neighborhood
Guatemalan restaurant.

Many people asked me how I liked Providence while I was away. I am not going to lie...much of the time was pretty rough and lonely. However more of the time has been and continues to be filled with amazing friends, great energy, and natural beauty. I wish we were staying. I am pretty sure that Ashtanga Yoga West End would thrive!

It is 3.30am and I am so excited to practice and teach the Mysore morning group this week at Motion Center. Last year when I came home from Mysore I was determined to find and fit into a community. I went to so many places and spaces in search of I don't know what. I ended of feeling defeated and exhausted trying to be something I am not. This year my first practice back was at the Motion Center with the lovely teacher who has been keeping the Ashtanga fire burning. It was a small, perfect Mysore practice with beautiful and dedicated students and I felt grounded, happy and home.

snow home

As the plane descended into Logan International airport snow was falling from the sky. Just as every trip to Mysore has its own flavor and theme the travel there and back is just as unpredictable. My flight out of Paris was nearly canceled (insert freak out here.) Instead we were just delayed 5 and a half hours (insert sweet relief here.)

I am home.

My fingers as they type are freezing.

I hope to digest this experience as be able to share some of my experience, but as of right now my mind and heart are like my luggage, broken open with all the contents spilling out unsure of what to unpack first.

The Mysore week is nearly full and this is one last reminder that there will be space for drop-ins at 7.30am. Please call/register with Motion Center.




I am super shakti soaked and ready to connect my heart land of Mysore with my (current) homeland of Providence, RI.