It feels like the first time

As I flipped the calendar in my kitchen (http://www.phillypaws.org/) from June to July I had a mini panic attack. There it was staring at me, "Jill leaves for India!" In some ways I am very ready. I feel like I am teaching on fumes, like there is nothing left to say. My body hurts, it feels tight and tense, so practice is slow and sluggish. I need a boost, I need to relinquish the teacher role entirely and dive back into studentship. I can't seem to catch my breath when I ponder the other side. Leaving this life. Saying goodbye to my comfortable home and the love of my friends and family. My husband and I have been together for nearly 6 years and in that time we have not been away from each other for this long. Here it comes, the panic. Now I remind myself, "whole body relax, whole body relax."

July News and Updates

I am teaching my regularly scheduled classes up to and including July 19th

I am teaching a special regularly priced class on the 4th of July at Wake Up Yoga (Fairmount) 9am

Sanskrit Play Friday July 12th 7:30pm Wake Up Yoga Free!

Costa Rica! http://www.wakeupyoga.com/CostaRicaRetreat.htm

Only a few spaces remain in the '08-'09 Teacher Training Program, if you are interested check out the link http://www.wakeupyoga.com/training.html


I'll be studying in India July19th-September 6th, and traveling through the 20th of September. I will be keeping a daily blog of my practice notes, connections, and observations.

The List Continues...

Flashlight with fresh batteries (for blackouts)

Extra batteries (batteries in India are well, Indian)

Book of Suduko (for endless hours of flying 1/2 way around the world)

Black and White speckled notebook (I find these to be the perfect journal/note taking book, the books from my previous two trips are filled with some good yoga teacher stuff)

Books to read fro pleasure and books to study

A good picture of my husband and dog

Mike comes home from Chicago today. Thank Ganesha

Shine On

I can't remember the last time that I slept in bed all alone. No husband, no dog. It reminded me of when I first left New York (nearly eight years ago) and moved into a studio apartment on the corner of 4th and South St, right above the Phila-deli.

It was quiet last night and kind of a welcome solitude, I had an exhausting day.

I got my computer back and I think it is all fixed up and ready for its trip to India. As I look at the days on the calendar, reality is setting in for the long and exciting trip.

Feels like the first time.

I am heading on a new adventure today. When Mike is away I like to stay busy in the daytime. I am going to a yoga class ( three hour yoga class) given by a local yoga teacher Kati Brennan at Blue Banyan Yoga in Mt. Airy.

Maybe I'll blog about it. I am working on launching a new web site. I hope to have it up with all my future information by September or so. For now my very basic, but lovingly built one will have to do....www.jillmanning.com

My Scooby

Tuesday afternoon my mother-in-law took our dog, Angie on vacation to her house. When Mike and I travel she goes to Mike's mom house sometimes for the weekend, and sometimes for significantly longer stretches of time. Over the past five years they have really bonded and often when Angie returns to our house she is a bit depressed.

I've really been missing her over just these few days. Our house feels empty. She is coming home just as Mike is heading to Chicago to visit his friend. It seems like there is so much coming and going around here.

Practice this week has been slow due to the pain in my left wrist. I am heading back to the mat this afternoon after some rest and, we'll see. I am trying to get some things going for the fall and hopefully I'll have some details soon. I am trying to come up with a new name for this blog. Something fresh for the third Mysore adventure.

First Trip---Curry Up!

Second Trip---Side Saddle Sari

Third Trip ?????

I welcome suggestions.

Postponing Preparations

I think that I should really being doing something to "get ready" for this trip. I sit here in my (husbands) home office in Philadelphia and can't think of one thing to "do." Although this is the third trip that I have made like this in less than two years I am more nervous and scared than ever.

It is the aloneness of it all. Me and Me, and of coarse about a hundred of Ashtangi's from around the globe.

Maybe I'll start the checklist here:

Things I have done:

Plane ticket booked

Visa secured (I bought a ten year, best advice I got)

Subs for all of my yoga classes at home

Ride from airport in Mysore

Housing secured in Mysore


Things I have yet to do:

Update my vaccinations

Malaria medication (yes, I take it...HEYAM DUKHAM ANAGATAM)

Get my laptop back from my brother in law, who is updating for me

Figure out what to bring for 9 weeks that will fit in a carry item

Mentally prepare for life without my husband and sweet dog

Put the YMCA membership on hold (I like to swim)

Put some work in place for my return

Anything else?

Much Needed Update

Posting everyday, or a least every so often has proven to be harder than I thought. Since I am having a tough time updating my web site I am taking this opportunity to do so in a blog form.

1. Sanskrit Club is meeting this Friday at Wake Up Yoga 7:15. If you have taken a level one in this subject anywhere you can attend. It's free! And Fun!

2. Teacher Training Applications are due today. There are ONLY 18 spots available and if you are still interested, and there is still space give a call to Wake Up and find out if this is the year to change your relationship with yoga and even change your life.

3. I am leaving for India on July 19th and will be back September 20. Come share practice and check back for upcoming events/happenings in the fall.

4. Costa Rica '09.....need I say more. Check the link: http://www.wakeupyoga.com/CostaRicaRetreat.htm


Poem that I have been contemplating

This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

As the practice of Yoga wiggles its way in

How do these speak to your relationship to Yoga practice


In the Station of the Metro--Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough

The Great Figure--William Carlos Williams

Among the rain
and lights
I saw a figure 5
in gold
on a red
fire truck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.

Sanskrit Play Date! May16th 7:45pm

This Friday night at Wake Up Yoga (www.wakeupyoga.com) I am "leading" a Sanskrit play date. This is the first of three that I am leading until I head back to India (June 13 and July 11) we will practice chanting, sharpen our reading and writing skills, and I can promise have lots of fun building a community of sound and sound vibration. It's FREE, and at the Fairmount location. If you have questions please contact me at, yoga@jillmanning.com

Hari OM

I love spine, how about you?

Check out this great DVD!

Taking Rest

It has been too long! I know. The time came where I needed to unplug and fly away to Mexico. Seriously. My yoga teacher hosted a yoga rest stop in beautiful Trocones, Mexico. Mike and I went and it was perfect. Practice, the Pacific, and perfectly prepared guacamole. I'll post some pictures soon, it seems that my computer is also a little fried.

I am hoping to update my website some time this week with some exciting events (yoga in Costa Rica!) www.wakeupyoga.com, Full led primary classes on Sunday mornings
10am for the month of May, www.yogasquared.com. Sanskrit Club, D.C. workshop, etc. All before I fly back to the Mother Ship (July 19th).


Please email me for further information, or just to chat

Namo Namah

Cross Blogging

My sister, the food writer, featured me in her blog. Check it out:

http://www.phillymag.com/blogs/philly_dining/2008/04/09/the-usual/

It's confirmed, I am leaving for India on the 19th of July!!! If you are interested in practicing/studying with me here are some points of interest.


This Saturday there is a Teacher Training Information Session at Wake Up Yoga (Fairmount location) at 12pm, you can always come early at practice with me at 10am.

I am also putting together my first out of town workshop at Inspired Yoga in DC (www.inspiredyoga.com) June 21st and June 22nd.

The Point

I have been staring at the Air France website for days now. I have typed in the details over and over again, and have wished that the ticket would pop up at a greatly reduced price. No such luck. Flying to India is expensive. I have secured housing, and said it out loud, but I still can't seem to push the purchase button. I know that I have fears. I'll be all alone this time no Mike, no Amy, just me for 7weeks. Talk about going all the way with yourself. I'll be away from home for 9 weeks which seems totally nuts. I know it my heart that this feeds me, and creates a closeness between myself and the practice of yoga.

I picked up this card at Whole Food the other day, it made me think of Manorama. What did the card say, "In the long run, we only hit what we aim at." Thoreau

NBD (no big deal), NST (no small thing)

My plan was to write everyday that I was working with my teacher, but alas that was not the reality. Teacher Training is in its final, final stages and I am beginning to feel like an Indian icon, basically a lady with between 8and 12 arms. Working this weeks was very inspiring, and also very exhausting. It is no wonder that students take refuge in India to work on themselves in relation to the practice itself.

Spring is taking its time here in Philadelphia, and I am just fine with that. I also feel like I am not exactly ready to shed the winter and bust into spring, so I too am moving slowly.

Dve

I discovered inside of practice yesterday a switch. Second Series has moved from this huge head trip of a big deal to really no big deal. I hung out in asana's instead of rushing through them. It started to feel in many sections like a coming into myself.

After I landed successfully in Karandavasana for the second day in a row, I moved quietly on to my back bending section. For the first time in many, many months I have received a new pose, mayurasana. I didn't know anything about the vinyasa into and out of this pose not to mention any technique for making this incredibly challenging asana. No such luck yesterday, yes, it seems like a hit another bump in the road. Today is another practice.

Mike and I have taken up the practice of boycotting goods from China so far it hasn't been that tough. I got a new copybook yesterday, made in Vietnam.

Ekam

I have been working for the last two years in this mode...work with my teacher for a short, but intense period of time and then self practice. Long trips to India have also helped along the way, but it is a style that works for me. The excitement that fuels the practice on the first Mysore practice is wild. My plan was to go easy on myself and complete a full clean primary and build from there. Instead I completed primary and continued on to complete all of what I have been taught of second, all the way up to and including a pretty nice Karandavasana.....that's one long practice!


Who knows what day two will have in store, that wild energy it has been my experience, only last one practice.

Be Kind, Be Light, Be Love

Change is in the air. The Teacher Trainee’s have started teaching their first public classes this week it is such an interesting journey. I have many changes going on inside my own life trying to manage theses changes is proving harder than I expected. I think that I need to lighten up!

Mike and I had lunch with a friend yesterday that we haven’t seen since her wedding last July. I told her of my plans to return to India this July and she laughed and asked if there was anywhere else in the world to practice yoga. I get a hoot when I look at my passport and Indian stamps are the only that appear. For now I am really into going to the source, you know cutting out the middle man.

I hope to pick up writing daily this week, my teacher is in town and the spark from him to me is always reliable, humbling, but reliable.

Yoga, Ear Ache, and India Calling

It is really difficult to practice yoga with a massive ear ache. What is really hard is the heart ache of really wanting to practice and then the reality that sets in that practice could actually be damaging. With the help of a friend and a dreaded course of antibiotics I am finally beginning to hear the light at the end of the tunnel.

Life keeps shifting, om continues to cycle, and never is it so beautiful as in spring in Philadelphia.

India plans have been made and it seems I'll be journeying all on my own this time at least in the beginning before meeting up with the Wake Up Yoga group, I think there is still space if anyone out there is interested.

Namo Namah

Debut

I am teaching my first full led class this Sunday at Yoga Squared 10am. It is my full intention to keep it "Shala Style." See you there!

Spring

I love reading yoga blogs. Over the years I have found maybe two or three blogs that I have become obsessive about reading. The last time I was in Mysore I read this blog everyday and every time I saw the author in the Shala I felt a little weird, to never never have heard her voice, but totally heard her "voice." When my blog friends pause from writing I feel sad. I am committing to writing more regularly about practice, teaching, and life.