Natasha Rizopoulis

Thanks to Down Under, I am lucky enough to be able to study with Natasha Rizopoulis. Natasha is a true teacher's teacher: I was honored to be practicing with Jane Cargill, a wonderfully compassionate instructor and truth seeker in the Boston area, right next to me. (Jane introduced me to Love Without Conditions, which has since become one of my favorite books).

What I love about Natasha's class is its unapologetic, authentic and organic commitment to both intensity and alignment. That's my favorite kind of practice, and the kind that seeds lasting change within me. Natasha is incredibly personal and constantly in the process of interacting with and adjusting her students. That lends a sense of creation in the moment to the class, that the class is coming in and out of the interaction, and the framework of alignment is occurring as observances are made in class.

Some points of class today (and what I can remember from a few weeks ago):

-In bhujangasana (cobra), make sure that your wrist is slightly above your elbow, this will give you the leverage to pull your elbows back and open your heart.
-In all poses where you interlace your hands behind your back: don't pull your hands down, this may have the negative effect of jutting your shoulders forward. Instead, pull the hands back.

now tuck the tailbone. engage the core, lower ribs in....

-In crescent lunge, press the heel of the front foot into the ground to engage the core and tuck the tailbone.

It makes me think about how paradoxical yoga is. I used to think of it as mildly amusing: you move quickly in order to relax the mind, you accept things in order to change them, the list goes on. But it really hits hard when it comes to alignment. You straighten your back leg and your lower ribs jut out, you pull them back in, then open your shoulders, that makes you stick out your tailbone, so roll it back down.

A constant process of noticing, correcting, overcompensating, correcting, noticing....

sounds like life : /

Love.