Halloween, the masks we wear and the light within

Continue talking about 3 A's. First we emphasized Attitude, then Alignment, now Action, specifically inner spiral and outer spiral (tailbone action).

Continuing our Halloween month practice of playfully engaging in scary poses, we shift the focus from scary inversions to more scary backbend dropbacks with partners to assist us.

Halloween is a great time to talk about masks. In non-dual tantra yoga philosophy everything in the universe shares one consciousness, but we all wear masks, our identity assemblage point, that defines us and conceals our divine nature. The supremem consciousness enjoys playing hide and seek or peek a boo by taking away the mask sometimes and experiencing the revelation that we are connected to everything else (ie...something miraculous or amazing happens in our lives).

Transformation occurs at the boundry between the inner light of our being and the outer mask we wear every day (our identity assemblage point). As the light of our inner being shines out in our practice we ccultivate a purer, brighter expression of our own unique identity.

Seated Centering...inner spiral and tailbone action.

Shining light of inner being out and draping the outer mask of the body over that light.

Stand in Tadasana - demonstrate inner/outer spiral with block between thighs...engage in next several poses

Utkatasana Surya Namaskar - High Lunge - Cobra (focus on tailbone action)
Utkatasana Surya Namaskar - Warrior II/Rev Warrior - shalambasana
Utkatasana Surya Namaskar - Trikonasana/Padottanasana/Trikonasana/padottanasana - dhanurasana
Utkatasana - Malasana - Bakasana
Utkatasana - Vrksasana - Padottanasana - Natarajasana

Vasisthasina/Wild Thing
Pincha Mayurasana at the wall with block between hands, play with tailbone action to stabilize the pose and see if you can balance without the wall.
Thigh Stretch at the wall
ustrasana facing toward the wall
Urdhva Dhanurasana dropback with partners

Ustrasana
Supta Padangusthasana
Windshield Wipers
Happy Baby
Savasana

Concerns: I didn't get to do all of the poses I intended because I wanted to really focus on the three A's and safe alignment in the standing poses. So we missed out on some backbend variations and a few hip openers I wanted to do toward the end like Hanumanasana and Pigeon. I'm going to integrate those into our class next week talking about Samskaras. We'll do pranayama and more hip openers next week.

One student had some questions after class about hand placement in Bakasana, because they experienced some wrist pain. showed how to claw floor to engage wrists and protect them and also that wrists are shoulder width apart.

Another student had some concerns about tailbone pain in standing poses and on one side in Wideshield Wipers. Had the student engage tailbone action. In windshield wiper used block to create barrier for knees moving toward the floor so she could feel an intensity in the place that was uncomfortable without it going into a painful space. I'm not sure that I was familiar with the nature of the pain, but she said she believed it was from sitting too much in meditation. I haven't seen or experienced that kind of pain before so I'll need to ask my teachers more about it. I told the student that as long as the muscles around the tailbone were engaged during the pose it should protect and relieve pain in the area, but that if they continued to experience discomfort or pain even when muscles and taiblone action was happening then they should back off and respect the boundry their body was setting.

I student had a little lower back discomfort after the dropback. I came over to work with her after having everyone take ustrasana, and she said that the forward bend relieved it and she didn't need any more help.

Success! I beleive this was an intense class from seeing the students, but I didn't get a lot of feedback after class. I felt a shift in some of the students. Since many quietly left the room I'm not entirely sure what the overall experience was. A few of the newer students left looking very happy.

There were about 20 students and half of them were regulars and I remembered almost all of their names :) Continuing to work on names with nametags and I hand out the invocaton sheets at the beginning of every class. Chanting is good and the students seem to enjoy that part of the class. The 6 or so students that come regularly are showing good form and alignment and are definitely beginning to grasp the principles. I get good questinos and feeback from them about alignment that seems to help the class at large when my teaching may not be enough to properly communicate an action.

Still praying before every class that my teaching will help the students awaken to the divinity in themselves and others in a way that will best serve their highest and best intentions. I'm really enjoying teaching and look forward to it every week.