Painting wth the Brush of Self Awareness, Sunday June 13th, 2010

Theme: Continuing handstands from previous week since we didn't have as much time to look at everything we wanted. Setting a firm foundation. How we set our foundation reflects our intentions. Work with opening the heart then engaging Muscular Energy. Shared some themes from yesterday's class about setting intentions with the New Moon for Summer.

Christopher Tompkins told the story about the Rabbi who had a student who wanted to know what his future would be and the Rabbi said write down your thoughts for 30 minutes and that is your future. Invite the students to observe their thoughts over the course of the practice and see if they are in line with their highest and best intentions, because their thoughts are the foundation upon which their future is built.

Empasize: Muscle Energy. We will hug into ourselves and build our foundation from the strength we already have. That means thinking about 1 or more things about ourselves, our gifts and talents in this embodiment that we can be thankful for. These things could be great people, careers, physical power, or academic knowledge. Whatever it is we have in abundance is the strength we use to build our strong foundation in our practice. The knowledge of that strength and holding those qualities in our hearts helps us more fully express ourselves in our poses and in life.

Class Sequence:
1. Adho Mukha Svanasana
2. Uttanasana - Downdog - High Lunge
3. Uttanasna-Downdog - Standing Splits
4. Uttanasana-Downdog- Warrior III
5. Iguana
6. Dandasana Tricep Dips
7. Vrksasana
8. Utkatasana w/ Twist on both sides
9. Malasana
10. Parsva Bakasana
11. Handstand demo
12. Handstand with a partner
13. Handstand alone at the wall
14. Parsvakonasana
15. Virabhadrasana II
16. Ecstatic Warrior
17. Padottansana with Shoulder Stretch
18. Agnistambhasana with twist
19. Wide legged FB
20. Windshield Wipers
21. Happy Baby
22. Sivasana

Quotes about setting intentions (from Douglas and Mark’s Sivasutra workshop last week): “Siva paints with the brush of self awareness on the canvas of his own consciousness, and is delighted at his creation.” Asked students to imagine if they were going to paint a picture of their upcoming summer what it would look like.

Closed practice with a long AUM to celebrate the upcoming Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year.

Closing: We practice yoga to paint with the brush of self awareness on the canvas of our consciousness and to delight in our creations.

Concerns: Didn't have too many takers for the handstand partner pose. Feel that perhaps the class needed a little more community building and encouragement. Decided to go with a little friendlier heart opening partner assist with cobra next week that would feel more accessible to all people in the class. Also, I worked with a student that was having trouble with handstand because of knee trouble and didn't feel comfortable kicking up, but I felt like I may have been neglecting the rest of the class a little. I was left feeling that perhaps there was a principle I should have taught more for the people who were uneasy about handstand, say maybe having them just practice kicking up on their own, so they would have something more to build with. Instead I told those who didn't want to do handstand or invert to continue working on Bakasana.