December Re-cap

As always, beloved local teacher Meg was incredibly thoughtful in planning a sequence for us. Rather than focusing on the forehead itself, a rather literal interpretation of our third-eye theme this month, Meg structured the class around twists as a way to move energy up the shushumna to stimulate insight. The flow got us ready to workshop Marichyasana III.

image: http://iyengar-yoga.freepage.de/abhyasa8/adhyatmik_sastra.htm

 And since DOUBT is an emotion that obstructs intuition/perception, we started off the asana practice with several minutes of practice with eyes closed. For me, it was the first time that I've ever had two times in a row that I landed lightly jumping up in the sun salutation series! As you other practitioners know, it's the littlest things that can really wow you in your practice sometimes! It's not as if I just managed to "float" up or to "jump through" but it was an awesome realization of my capacity nonetheless.

"let your third eye lead the way!"

No, that wasn't something meg said because she's not cheesy like me. but since i put it in quotes, i will let you imagine that that was our mantra for the evening.

Since our meditation and chakra expert Katelyn wasn't able to be there, Jake jumped in and led us through a beautiful chant incorporating the downward spiraling of energy with a silent "OM" and the upward spiraling of energy with a vocalized "shanti". We sent this peace offering (shanti=peace) to Katelyn and her kitty who is not well. Thanks to Jake for jumping in with this offering on his very first collective visit!

Whole has recently re-arranged things so we ate in the cozy couch room. I have to say, this monthly ritual, even with the variations in who attends, is really starting to feel like family time!

As a fairly unrelated side note, I found this awesome website when I was looking for pictures of Marichyasana III in which a woman talks about accommodations for larger yogis. I really liked this post this image came from "tips on making friends with your belly". there is an awesome rap video she links to too called "let your belly hang out"!

http://yogawithnadine.com/2012/09/19/modifications-for-yoga-twists-and-tips-on-making-friends-with-your-belly/

Last collective gathering of the year, coming up!

We are meeting once again on the second Monday of the month! That's in just two days, December 10th. In this busy season, come take some time for yourself and your practice. And eat some HEALTHY food. We have consistently had warm, nutritious, WHOLE foods show up at our potlucks :) The most delicious kind of food.

We are exploring themes related to the third-eye chakra...you know, simple things like enlightenment!


I'm really excited to see what Meg has in store for us. This will be our first collective to experiment with combining the practice portion with the workshop portion of the evening. But this is right up Meg's alley, as every class I've been to with her is like an anatomical treasure hunt, discovering muscles you didn't even know you had, and then walking away with knowledge about how to ENGAGE them!

Katelyn will continue in the tradition of leading us through some chakra-based meditations and philosophical discussion over dinner. I am so looking forward to it, come get in on the best yogasanghapotluck in town!

November Reflections....

We had a great meeting in November on a blustery night.

John Rogers led a practice with a very creative twist on the theme of communication that got us thinking and discussing a lot about how the receiver's INTERPRETATION of a message is such a big part of communication. He called out one adjective at a time and then we interpreted those adjectives with our bodies moving through our chosen version of Sun Salutation. "Sloppy" was a big hit ;)

Lindsey provided materials from some of her favorite anatomy/asana books and we spent time dissecting several poses. In particular, I got a lot out of working on this beauty here:

image from: http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/2303

Katelyn charmed as usual with her philosophical and poetic selections related to the fifth chakra, communication, and the color blue.

this guy seems to be smashing some kind of wildcat. i'm not sure what the yogic significance of this is, but i'm sure there's a good explanation!
image from: http://energyfanatics.com/2009/07/20/the-seven-chakras-throat-chakra/

other highlights:

• John Rogers brought some adorable miniature card-type thingies with inspirational messages. mine just made my night.
• We started a new tradition of an ongoing group journal/sign-in book!
• The food was particularly amazing---it just so happened that two complimentary curries were in attendance and that Sarah brough quinoa which was a great base for both of them. Culinary serendipity.