Courage and the three A's: Attitude, Alignment, Action

Theme: Courage is the emotion we feel when we confront the terrifying face of Shiva, the unknown, or the risky. When we skillfully engage at the edge of our ability and have courage, transformation occurs, but we have to take that action.

October is a good time to talk about the three A's because it's a time when we playfully think of scary things leading up to Halloween. For the next three weeks we're going to get out the ghosts and goblins in our bodies with hip openers and confront some fears with inversions like headstand, handstand and others.

Talk about the three A's, Attitude, Alignment, Action. We're going to talk about this more as we skillfully engage and play at our edge, doing some tricky poses.

Utkatasana Surya Namaskar - High Lunge
Utkatasana Surya Namaskar - Parsvakonasana, reach hand to floor
Utkatasana Surya Namaskar - Stack hips leg up, then Iguana
Utkatasana Surya Namaskar - Trikonasana
Utkatasana Surya Namaskar - Trikonasana, Ardha Chandrasana Think What might be possible today. Attitude is surrender sometimes.

Forearm plank, hold core
Downdog with head resting on blocks - test pressure
Partner Headstand with two partners for support, play at your edge.
demo tripod headstand for level II, headstand at wall for level I
Headstand at wall or middle of room any variation, yogi's choice

Setubanda Sarvangasana - Bridge, lift leg on each side
Salamba Sirsasana - shoulder stand, self observe neck space with fingers under neck
Halasana - plow toward wall, monitor neck space
Viparita Karani - legs up the wall with low back supported by bolster - action, revitalize, now that you've opened your heart and lined yourself up for transformation, let the action happen naturally even in a reclined pose. Viparita Karani isn't a passive pose, the three A's are still there living in it.

We cultivate courage when we play at our boundry, our attitude is open and soft, our alignment is rooted and stable, our action is graceful.

Closing: The next time you need to cultivate courage to face the terrifying visage of Shiva, remember...Attitude, Alignment, Action. Namaste.

Success!: Students requested hip openers and inversions so we're working on their requests. I felt comfortable with everyone's alignment. I gave lots of specific instruction to protect the necka and head in shoulderstand and headstand. I have personally had some pains in this pose so I was able to give a few hopefully helpful tips on these matters.

Concerns: Had a few students with some back pain after headstand and shoulderstand. Did spadog to relieve and both students said they felt fine afterwards.