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!!!

love | practice

At least two things must come together for there to be a union...to be in a state of yoga.

3 Ingredients

1. Where there in no effort there is no benefit- Tapas

2. Spend much time getting to know yourself- Svadhyaya

3. Once something has been ripened it must pass on....let go-Isvara Pranidhanani

Taking Radiance to a Whole New Level

After the most frustrating week yet in Providence I headed home to teach. I have been in Philadelphia less than 24 hours and the lessons I have been taught or gently reminded of....

I love yoga. I love teaching.

I love my sister.

I love being able to surrender to a quiet shala and receive so much from so little.

I just got back from a coffee date with a student/friend/inspiration who reminded me of the real meaning of flexibility, the impact of being a good teacher, and how sorrow can bestow the deepest awareness of joy.

Things I am really excited about

EVERY final Sunday of the month at the deLIGHTful Shri starting April 29th

SHABDA SUNDAYS - Sound as Light

Jill Manning is a student of Sanskrit as the Path of Luminous Shabda. She will lead these classes the last Sunday of each month, inviting students to learn the Sanskrit alphabet, yoga sutra call and response and meditation. We invite all levels to join in and experience this rich, warm practice.
Shabada Sundays will begin Sunday, April 25 and are scheduled for 90 minutes, at a discount, $10.




Teaching this at Motion Center


May 2 - Introduction to Sanskrit: The Language of the Heart, the Language of Integration with Jill Manning
This workshop is designed to introduce students of Yoga to Sanskrit as the language of Yoga and the language of light (Luminous Shabda). In this first meeting, (hopefully there can be more) we will focus on the vowel sounds--specifically how and where they resonate on the palate. We will also begin to uncover how understanding the diacritical marks can significantly improve pronunciation for chanting. We will practice learning selected mantra's, asana names, and call and response chanting from the Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali.

Kernel Panic

I haven't been blogging lately because I am finding that my frustration level surrounding yoga/yoga teaching here in the hope state has been steadily increasing. Because of this frustration I will not go into detail and I realize the frustration that I place out there in the world comes from inside myself and therefore I must treat me first.

I couldn't be more excited to be heading to Philadelphia tomorrow for a full week of teaching a sold out early morning retreat week. I am also aiming to get some practice time in with Noah Williams and let the inflammation of irritation subside.

I miss India. I miss having a community. I miss juicy yoga talk with friends and colleagues who struggle to know more and who aren't satisfied with yoga platitudes.

White Electric

I am in the middle of my newly established office hours. If I want to teach more I have realized that I need to be more organized with the business of yoga. How else will yoga spaces know what I have to offer and have me come and teach? I just finished my big email blast this is what I had to say:

Dear Friends,

Although I skipped nearly half of the winter season I just can’t contain
my excitement about the energy of spring all around! The combination of
the season and a continued feeling of focus and recharged energy from
India has me for the first time in my yogic life actually experiencing the
practice of pratipaksabhavanam. Simply put it is the practice of
cultivating a change in attitude or perspective. The last time I was in
Rishikesh I heard a beautiful lady Swami say, “yoga is an attitude.” I
have been sitting with that ever since.

What have you been sitting with that NOW may be the best time to begin to
pick up the practice of that concept?

I am very excited to announce that I will be teaching in Philadelphia this
spring. Think of it as a spring cleaning for your practice.

Here is the Juice:
Early Morning Retreat with Jill Manning
Every Seed Has the Tree; Every Tree Has the Seed
Wake Up Yoga Fairmount
Monday, April 12th - Friday, April 16th
6am-8am
Contribution: $108 ($90 if by 3/26/2010)
WUY teachers/current and past TTs receive a 15% discount
Pre-registration is required. No partial enrollments or refunds.
Participation is capped at 22...call the studio at 215.235.1228 to secure
your spot as soon as you are ready to commit!

Crawling, Falling, and Flying
Jivala: The Mind Body Studio at the AFC Bala Cynwyd
$45 for members
$55 for non-members
Contact Vanessa Mock to register
vmock@aquahab.com
610-664-6464

In this three hour workshop we will explore the qualities that contribute
to an overall experience of “lightness” in practice. Over her many years
of teaching Jill has developed an ever evolving collection of exercises
born out of her own experience in practice. She has been able to connect
the dots of crawling, falling, and flying for herself and has a way with
expressing and teaching that connects with students. The workshop will be
a combination of traditional practice along with exercises, theory, and
time for questions and answers. You may want to bring a small notebook,
an open heart, a curious mind, and a sweat towel.

I also have limited time to offer for private yoga session at your house.
Please email to secure a time.

love|practice
practice|love

Jill

http://www.jillmanning.com
http://www.ashtangayogaprovidence.com

I can feel it in the near future I will be teaching more workshops so stay tuned in and keep practicing. I am now off to the real business of yoga....practice.

The RI yoga tour continues

Each Sunday I venture into a new yoga experience in RI. This Sunday I practiced at a very familiar location, Motion Center, where my Mysore groups sweat it out three mornings a week. It was nice to walk into the space as a student lay my mat down and wait for class to begin. The Sunday morning offering at Motion Center is an Anusara-Inspired class taught by Rebecca Donnelly. I have been to one other Anusara yoga class in New Hope, PA many years ago so I walked in without very much expectation. From what I can glean from facebook posts from my Anusara friends is heavy use of words like, "loop" "spiral" "heart" and "mid line." True to facebook Rebecca did use these phrases a lot.

What I took away with me from class this morning was the way in which she used the word, soften. It reminded me of when I took a Mysore class with Chuck Miller way before I took up the method of Ashtanga Yoga. He used the word pause to indicated a softness, a tenderness, and as always a breath.

Just as I continue to sample the yoga community in the state of Hope, I continue to be blessed with visitor's from my home state. Last week it was Cyndi, before that it was Jill Ma and this week the lovely KCDV who I last saw in India will be dropping by and at months end Amy Rebja with whom I spent a month walking to the shala in Mysore.

To all the students and all the teachers

ॐ

सह नाववतु |
सह नौ भुनक्तु |
सह वीर्यं करवावहै |
तेजस्विनावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ||

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ||


oṃ saha nāvavatu
saha nau bhunaktu
saha vīryaṃ karavāvahai
tejasvināvadhītamastu mā vidviṣāvahai
oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ


OM

Together may we be protected
Together may we be nourished
May our work together be brilliant and effective
May we not resent each other
Om Peace, Peace, Peace.

One Month

I have been back from Mysore (Samantha calls it Yoga Land) for one month and while the re-entry was slightly turbulent overall I am feeling great. This feeling I am completely aware has sprouted from the cultivation of a new attitude not on something but with everything. I am practicing gratitude, positivity, excitement and cultivating joy.

The two things that have shifted the most, my schedule, and my Sunday yoga date with myself and as in the case last Sunday with out of town guests. Teaching more has reminded me of what I love to do and frankly what I quite skilled at allowing me to reach more of Rhode Island's yoga community and feel at home there. This links directly into my Sunday yoga date. Not only has this given me the chance to practice within a new community I am starting to recognize faces and have mine recognized.

I still have so much to work on but I feel renewed this last month more than a longing for life in Yoga Land. Don't get me wrong I will be continuing my yearly journey to the heart of yoga because in some many ways it connects me directly to the heart of teachers and sets the bar to continue with the teachings.

The Yoga Date

I know that I have been a bad blogging yogini lately but since returning from India my life feels like it has expanded significantly. I am teaching 5 mornings a week plus newly expanded and expanding evening classes, working at the museum three days a week, and really opening myself to the Rhode Island yoga community by having weekly yoga dates out there in the world. Since leaving the sun of Mysore I have stepped into some seriously sunny yoga glows all over the state. My first Sunday back I went to Eyes of the World Yoga right in the heart of Providence's east side. The following Sunday I went to Ashtanga Yoga Rhode Island. This is right where I last left off with the blog. Next up was a two and a half hour prana flow immersion with one of Shiva Rea's deputies, Coral Brown at All That Matter's yoga in Wakefield RI and just this Sunday I went with my very dear friend and second time house guest Cyndi to Raffa Yoga for a 9am vinyasa class with one of the students in my Mysore program there.

Cyndi: "Never underestimate the power of the yoga date."

What I have learned from this experiment is that it is good to get out there even if it is not the style or method that you study. I take practice so seriously that once a week it is great to surrender move and groove in a new pattern both in body and breath and have some fun.

Practice yesterday left me sweaty, happy, connected, excited about my future at Raffa as a teacher, and with one of my best Kapotasana's ever!

Where should I go this Sunday?

Heart Beat and Lessons learned from Trice

A student just asked me this morning, "how was the first week back?" Last week was a bit bumpy. Which is totally expected and I did feel a sense of excitement about yoga, practice, teaching and starting to connect some major dots (and let go of major doubt) that I feel still now as I write this post. I have committed to making connections in the Rhode Island yoga community.

On Valentine's day (a moon day) I went to Eyes of the World Yoga in Providence. The thing that I took away from that class was when the teacher invited the students to lift the toes in a lunge I could hear sweaty toes being pulled from the sticky mat, I could feel curious yoga students willing to experience an instruction. I liked that!

Yesterday I took a trip to Ashtanga Yoga Rhode Island. The shala is situated on the Connecticut/Rhode Island border. It was a lovely little room and the class was pretty darn full. I noticed that many men came out to practice and that in general the population was a little older. The owner/teacher was really welcoming. As I was waiting for the bathroom an older man with a very New England accent told me that he comes from Connecticut 3 times a week to practice there, and that he was a total Ashtangi. Then he said to me, "so...you're pretty advanced, huh?" It was so cute! Then I told him, I practice...a lot.

Since this was my first led Primary class since leaving the shala in Mysore I did notice that the teacher was really trying to get everyone to slow down, wait for the count and move and breath together. I asked a friend who stopped toward the end of led Primary what does the room look like. She said that it is beautiful to watch and that it looks and feels like a heartbeat. Everyone is pulsing on the point.

Heartbeat.

I am also taking suggestion from this friend to put myself out there, always introduce myself. I am trying to shake off some of my shyness and shine! I am just warming my practice room and later I am meeting with the owner of Shri-Studio.

Do I have the post Mysore blues? A little, but I am far too excited about all the growth that this last trip has given me and the confidence to move forward with what I love.

TDB- 80

and yes that is a Trice inspired red pedicure with flip flop tan lines and my best practice friend, the space heater.

Practice Recap

I hit the ground here in Providence running. I went right back to work at risd works and taught 5 mornings this week. It is cold and I am still trying to figure out the right practice schedule. I am trying to find a cosistant meeting time each day and yes I am aiming for a 6 day a week practice schedule. This week I made it to the mat 4 times.

I didn't make New Year's Resolutions/Intentions at the start of the year. I didn't feel complelled to because I was in the land of self care, introspection, pratice, rest and recharging. Not to mention travel and culture and being placed in sometimes umcomfortable situations.

Here are some practice goals:

Practice 6 days a week

Continue chanting with Jayashree everyday (I have her call and response CD)

Once a week get out and take a class with other people!

Continue practicing with Victoria on Wednesday's

Play my edges

Understand myself, my breath, and why practice is so powerful

Keep this blog and be honest about practice and all that I am feeling

TDB-77

Sip Slowly

I had a great practice today in my sweet yoga room at home. My practice buddy Victoria joined me and with our friend the space heater we both got good and hot. The weather is very phlegm-y today.

I have been teaching students more slowly this round in Providence. I feel supported by Sharath's style of being in absolutely no rush when it comes to "giving" out poses. I have been practicing this style of yoga for 4 years now with 4 trips to Mysore in my experience and I have never injured myself and despite what some may say I feel great most of the time when I am practicing regularly. It is when I am not practicing with steadiness that the pains come. Maybe this is because I have two beloved teachers one lives in South Flordia and the other in South India and for the most part I have worked much of the material on my own. These teachers have taught me to sip the practice slowly. Sharath often says in led class, "why you hurry?" What a great question.

TDB-73

1st day back at full 2nd

Yesterday was such a great yoga day in Rhode Island. I woke early and started to heat up my yoga room and the realized that it was a moon day. I did want to practice. I wanted to be around other people and I wanted to sweat! It is so cold here in Providence. I did some research at saw that there was a 9am class happening at a local vinyasa yoga studio called Eyes of The World Yoga. I have been there twice before both when I have had out of town yogis visiting me. I was excited because the class was one hour and forty five minutes. They heat the room really well so I was excited about sweating. I was also interested to see what the turn out would be like. 9am can be considered early for a Sunday morning class. It was really full. The energy in the room felt great and I was really happy I went.

I also taught an afternoon workshop at Raffa Yoga in Cranston. It was another amazing experience. All of the participants, many teachers of yoga were so welcoming and excited to begin a practice of Ashtanga Yoga.

I took special care and cleaned my yoga room today before practice while the space heater was doing its thing. My practice today started with singing the Guru-Astakam followed by chanting the entire (a lot by memory) Samadhi Padah followed by a long period of quiet sitting. When I started to practice I made the decision to return to a full second series practice at least once a week and today was the day to start.

TDB - 69 (why not keep count all year long?)

Turbulent Landings

Before I left Mysore on Wednesday a friend/yoga student suggested that I keep blogging from Rhode Island. While I tend to rattle of a blog here and there she wanted something at least semi consistent as she told me she checks my blog often. I understand that frustration. My sister is away in NYC and I know she hasn't blogged but I check anyway just in case she squeezed in a picture or two.

I have been home since Thursday night and while I was in a frenzy about the foreboding weather. My plane landed just fine.

My plane landed just fine.

I am still trying to figure out how this landing gear works. It's cold and my full time graduate student husband while excited to see me could not put his crazy schedule on hold. This really must mean that I am not the center of the universe. I started back at risd|works yesterday (only semi excited about.) I start back teaching today (I am thrilled about!)

Someone in RI sent me this message yesterday, " my friend Brad says that he loves your class at the Y, and I am really impressed by how you've got the word out about what you do to our little city."

Rhode Island's state motto is HOPE. I think this blog is going to be about yoga in the Hope state. Today is the beginning of that journey. Landing from the Garden City of Mysore, India to the sate of Hope.

If you have been reading this blog or curious about Ashtanga Yoga I am giving a three hour workshop today at Raffa Yoga (the link is directly to the right.) Please come and experience! It may be the best Valentine you have ever given yourself....EVER!

The real shoulder stand

"No matter how well-trained the tumbler's boy, he will never be able to stand on his own shoulders."


4 and a half weeks-66 Total Drop Backs

"One More"

This is a very familiar quote to anyone who has been to the Shala in Mysore. It is used in a very practical way here in Mysore. It is the sound that "one more" student can enter into the practice room. It is the acknowledgement that "one more" student has exhausted themselves and pushed further than they may have ever thought possible. "One More" has because a mantra (Narasimha defines mantra as an 'ultra sonic washing machine' for the mind.)

One more dropback
One more 3:40am shuffle to the shala
One more minute you can sit with the wild, unruly, anxiety ridden mind

One More...

If you stack enough 'one more' together it starts to create momentum, a continuous cycle that may just lead to a steadiness that is the very essence of practice.

I have one more practice at the shala, traveled one more time to India for a girl who just got their passport in 2006, one more very blessed and life changing experience. It may be a bit to early to be mushy but I am dedicating this trip to:

My mom and dad, who never let me go anywhere as a kid which I am sure has set me up perfectly to go anywhere I want.

My sister, for always being a renegade in her own way and while not always understanding my desire to be in this foreign place, ALWAYS supporting and SKYPING with me.

My yoga teacher, I described like this this trip, I was driving along minding my own business and he stopped me in the middle of the road and gently pointed me (far)into another direction.

Mostly, my husband, for making all this become a reality not just once, but one more...one more...and one more.

From Mysore with BIG LOVE

TDB-60

Minding Winter

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Wallace Stevens

I had a great practice today. Showed Sharath my Kapotasana upon request, and got the next pose.

2 more practices at the shala
TDB-57

Shakti Restored

I read a great short story called Yurt by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum and I
underlined this, "maybe all it took was some time away, some time aboard,
for one's acuity to be restored, because now, simply standing beside Ms.
Duffy, she could feel her powers beginning to return."