Anusara Workshop w/ Christina Sell

Last month Christina Sell, owner and instructor at the San Marcos School of Yoga, came back to Corpus Christi to grace us with her wonderful knowledge and spirited style once again. The Yoga Studio of Corpus Christi hosted a 3 day, 4 session workshop with Christina guiding us through Anusara yogic practices and theories.

Anusara Yoga is a school of yoga started by John Friend back in the mid-nineties. This school of Yoga's "popularity is due in large part to its uplifting philosophy, epitomized by a 'celebration of the heart,' that looks for the good in all people and all things."(1)

I have long heard of John Friend; his name appears in every Yoga magazine, half the Yoga books reference tables, and all the studios I've ever visited. His fame and respect is well deserved throughout the community. So when I first heard about Christina, a teacher of Anusara Yoga, coming to pass on the styles, practices and philosophies, I knew I had to experience it for myself. After all, as any practitioner of Yoga knows, we're all perpetual students, the study and practice never end.

Out of the 4 sessions I was able to attend 2: Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. I knew my plate was going to be full that weekend, just making those two sessions was quite a squeeze, but we do what we must, right?

Friday's session worked heavily on learning to rotate our thighs properly and opening our pelvic base to allow the maximum amount of room for full release into our poses. "Inner Spiral" was the catch phrase of the night. After a brief lecture on the ensuing practice, Anusara philosophies, and our signature opening chant to honor ourselves and each other (Christina calls it the Sanskrit 'Amazing Grace''), we opened with a series of Surya Namaskars for a good warm-up. Then straight into Forward Lunges -Anjaneyasana .

I know that it's not popular to start with such a physically demanding pose, but we all quickly found out that there was most assuredly a method to her madness. To begin with, Christina has a great philosophy that all people move to their own rythms and patterns. As far as you go is as far as you go... and for you, that is perfect. Not to forget that what is perfection one day is not always the same the next day. Furthermore, we took the pose step-by-step, making a special point to understand the ins and outs before proceeding too deeply.

Through 3 hours of practice and teachings, we progressed from Forward Lunges to One-legged King Pigeon Pose - Eka Pada Rajakapotasana. Both these poses I have worked on for years, picking up techniques and suggestions from various instructors and students along the way. All the while listening to how my body responds to the pose. Some suggestions were more helpful that 0thers, but what I took away from Friday's class topped it all. Christina Sell has a way of breaking down the ideals and processes of each pose to the near finite, then explaining the whole of it to a degree of satifaction that leaves little to question.

I had to miss Saturday's morning session due to my own Yoga teaching schedule and made a point of attending the afternoon session. When I got there I wasn't sure just how far I was physically going to be able to participate. I had already lead 2 Yoga sessions and attended my kenjutsu class. I was 5:30 hours into back to back classes. I didn't know how much more my body had to offer. But physical participation or not, I wanted to at least pick up the teachings, styles, and philosophies of Anusara Yoga.

We opened in the same manner as the day before. After the Sun Salution series we went to the floor and started with Wide-Angeled Seated Forward Bend - Upavistha Konasana. We worked through a series of opening hip moves while remembering to spiral out our thighs that utilized Baddha Konasana, Adanda Balasana, and eventually working our way to Head-to-Knee Forward Bend - Janu Sirsasana. At one point Christina walked over while I was trying to guide my right rib cage to my left knee. After asking permission, she adjusted my midsection spacing (same theory we were using to open our pelvic floors for more room to move) and down my body naturally went until my right ribs really were touching my left knee.

Getting into the pose is one thing, coming out of it is quite another. So I braced myself to see what my body was going to do next. Up I came with no twitches, aches or screams. A true release of my body into the pose. Even after being physically active most of the day, I felt great.

Christina Sell's workshops help remind me why I got into teaching Yoga in the first place.

Illustrating shoulder position during poses.

Eka Pada Rajakapotasana

Using straps for thigh spiral and opening into the pose.

Explaining the use of straps and assistance to aid in the poses.

Ahimsa For All

So here’s one for the books:

A couple weeks ago two ladies and I were in yoga class. I was teaching, they were following.

Our nod to a bit of Jnana Yoga was a talk about connecting with ourselves. About remembering to think about our Self once in a while, to be selfish in a good way and not sacrifice our betterment and health for the world all the time. Moms seem to be keenly accustomed to this kind of lifestyle. And understandably so; children need guidance every step of the way and sometimes they just don't get that Mom needs a little moment to herself once in a while.

So we take a moment once a week to go to a Yoga class and connect with ourselves again.

The ladies were all nods and smiles at the beginning and so into the Hatha practice we went. Each inhalation and lifting of our eyes, I reminded us to lift our hearts and open to the world, experiencing the Self that lay within.

We were just getting into the intensive part of the practice, everyone was in Adho Mukha Svanasana - Down dog - when I looked up to see how their alignment, breathing and postures were. I glanced over at “D” and saw that about a foot away from her right hand was a massive Waterbug, more commonly referred to as a Cockroach. With eyes wide, I quickly glanced over to the ladies to see if either of them had spied the bug as well. They were deep into their poses, making good work of their inner attentions, so no one had seen the little bugger, but me. It was upside down and still as death. I knew the owners of the establishment poisoned regularly - as everyone in South Texas does. Unfortunately the common side effect to poisoning for roaches is that they seem to choose to crawl out from their hiding places and die in the middle of the floor. This little guy had missed the morning sweeping.

As I gingerly walked off the platform and over to the roach I asked them to listen to their breath and consciously steady the in and out flow. Honestly, I was hoping they wouldn’t look up and see where I was going.

If you’ve never seen a Waterbug here in the South before, let me offer a little background on them. They’re brown, 2 inches long average, they live in trash and on your uncovered kitchen food, impossible to kill, and can live for a ridiculously lengthy amount of time without their heads. In any other context a truly amazing creature to study. But NOT in the middle of a yoga session.

I approached the roach and imagined that if I kicked it just right, I would send its dead little body sliding down the edge of the wall, under the toe kick and to the back of the room and no one would be the wiser. Just a silent little flick and we could all move on without worry.

So I flicked it with my toe, a move I have performed a thousand times over since growing up in South Texas, only this time my aim was immensely off and it landed right on “D’s” mat near her right foot. I quickly stepped over and told her to not move as I attempted once again to expertly toe flick the bugger off her mat to the side.

Not only did I miss it completely, but it wasn’t dead at all, just apparently stunned. With the cockroach now fully awake, it turned and started running up her foot. Naturally, I started swatting at the bug, and her foot, repeating “Don’t move! I got it!” All the while
”D” saying “I can’t see what it is, I don’t have my glasses on,” and donkey kicking her foot back.

I finally landed a good swat and sent the offending roach sliding across the floor to the back of the room, stopping with an audible ‘thud’ as it hit the back wall. So much for practicing Ahimsa.

After some laughs and quick anecdotes about our own experiences with roaches, I wondered if we were ever going to get our attentions back to the task at hand and make this class a fruitful practice. Thankfully, no one in that room that day was a stranger to the wiles of South Texas Cockroaches and we were all able to put the experience behind us pretty quickly. After a bit of meditation to center ourselves again with our Self, we proceeded with the session and ended with, surprisingly enough, lunch.

What a wonderful group of ‘flexible’ ladies. :)

The Chakras and You

During the Spring I came across several teachings through my readings and practice that repeatedly touched base on the Chakras. Whether it was the right time for me, or the teachings were well delivered, or the planets were in alignment, regardless of the reasons, the individual (and unexpected) messages on the Chakras really stood out for me. I started isolating much of my studies on the work of the Chakras; the theories, practices, and correlations to western science. I found the teachings to be very enlightening; from the pragmatic to the metaphysical.

In a nutshell, they just make sense. So, for the joy of it all, I decided back in May to devote the rest of the Summer sessions at the Tango Tea Room to Chakra work. There are 8 Saturday sessions throughout the Summer. At the end of May we started with the first Chakra, Muladhara. At the next session we will be working on the fourth, Anahata.

I offer a hand out with the symbol on top, a brief description to go with the lecture that begins the class, and highlights of the specifics with the traditional Sanskrit names so if anyone wants to research the information later, on their own time, they have a reference point to start from.

Like always, in every session I remind the participants that what I say, what the books and teachings say that I reference to are not here to be forced down anyone’s throat as the end-all-be-all to truth and life. I know people are quite varied in their beliefs and if anything, particularly on the spiritual end, interferes, collides, or goes against their personal beliefs, then let it go. These sessions are for enlightenment and to better ourselves, not to hurt, judge or in any other way create discomfort. Everyone seems to understand and respect the openness of the class. Without fail, at the end of these sessions someone has always come up to share with me their “aha” moment that morning. Discussions ensue and the teachings carry on out the door.

I feel that the way the Chakra teachings move through the cleansing of the body, mind, then spirit work well for all. Whether the yogi believes in God, Nature, Nothing, or Everything these teachings speak to all. My hope is that at some point in time, immediately or years later, these positive lessons of enlightening the Self find a way to help everyone.