Camel with Natasha

This is my second time taking a camel-oriented class with Natasha, and I don't think I'll ever forget the points: engage your legs, allow the lower spine to remain, bend only in the upper spine. Like bending over a beach ball.

I've been shadowing her Tuesday class, and I love it so much. The classes are slow, mindful, and yet intense. Incredibly intense in the way I suppose only an ex-ballet dancer could create. For example, the half-warrior with the arms reaching forward. The sequencing, although a vinyasa flow, has the work ethic of an Iyengar class, with everything working up to a pose at the end, often a backbend.

I also notice the classes having a profound change in my practice: my tadasana arms- which I will make sure to carry with my in my warriors, in my down dog- have a more significant outward rotation, accomplished by engaging the outer arms. There are so many points of alignment that she gives, I wish I could keep track of them all. I hope my body remembers, even if my mind forgets.

The last class I took, we had incredibly intense virabhadrasana & ardha chandrasana sequence that brought us to the wall. But, Natasha would smile, the wall just makes things harder, right? We stood with our back leg against the wall at a 45 degree angle, and our front foot facing forward, a low lunge. The intention was that we learned to push our back hip forward and engage our back tight. And let me tell you- the engagement and pressing back of my back thigh has made EVERY warrior 2 since considerably easier.

The next class, I commit to taking some notes right away. Next tuesday!

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.

Essential Tremor

Before I continue, it's important to mention that I have express permission to discuss the following topic, and that I would never, under any circumstances, share details of any client I work with unless I have the full go-ahead from the client. The reason I'm sharing this is in hopes that someone with some insight might read it.

So the client in question has Essential Tremor in his right hand. His name is Ryan, and he had a stroke when he was 8, and has not had conscious control of his right hand ever since. His right hand shakes uncontrollably, the fingers curl up and clench, and the more he tries to relax it, the more it shakes. All the people Ryan has worked with before have attempted to establish conscious control of the hand through directions (open, close, feel this moving, etc). I think yoga might be a powerful tool to work with the unconsciousness and bring about a general state of relaxation. Like all New Englanders, Ryan likes to ski and go on extremely competitive runs.

So, my first instinct was that he would love vinyasa. So I started with that. His body was so tight, however, that moving in and out of the vinyasa poses caused more anxiety and worry to creep across his face. We did some longer poses, Iyengar style. He liked those better. I immediately moved in "Relax and Renew" mode.

I've had about 8 sessions with Ryan so far. The first was okay, the second excellent, the third unsatisfying, the fourth magnificent, the fifth all right, and after that I stopped judging, I swear.

Here's a break down of what's worked and hasn't.

Sitting meditation: an excellent way to both start and end class. I've started incorporating some journaling and directed meditation, as well. He loves visualization (imagine white light entering you, and so forth) and I experimented with some meditation prompts to see where the mind goes. I'll talk about that later.

Supta Padangusthasana: (Reclining on the back, one leg up in the air supported by a strap).

Vrikasana (tree pose): Ryan's favorite pose. Everyone loves it when they reach a pose that offers a different viewpoint and a variety of sensations, with confidence and stability. So, they do it more. I love sneaking this one into class to see how happy it makes Ryan.

Tadasana (Mountain): Anusara variation I learned from Jennifer Harvey: bend the elbows, arms by the sides. Huge heart opener (lower ribs in!).

Balasana (Child's pose): Particularly supported. I have yet to meet someone who doesn't love child's pose.