Jam Session 2, Friday Night

10 Peeps
4 New to last time

I am so happy to be in this class again.  I get so fed by this group.  I am so blessed.

I updated the manual today with more information around the emotional nervous system.  Information to understand the Limbic System, different system of classification for emotions, a selection of sutras from Pantanjali's Yoga Sutras.  Essentially cliff notes on what is fascinating to me right now which is the anatomy of emotion.

I was rushed for time and got to class about 5:05.  Alana had held the space and gotten everyone set up and ready.  While I was racing, I was not stressed, and the comfort of the group allowed me to land easily.

We opened with a 2 hour yin yoga practice.  There was some discussion and good questions during it which I will try to relate as I write out the sequence.  The general encouragement was to actually watch and learn and pick up ideas from each other.  Track the energy and not feel trapped in the stagnant idea of what a yin practice looks like.

My interest in holding the space for peeps to track energy is to nurture the self intimacy.  Through self intimacy, we have choice.  And through choice, we have freedom.

Yin Butterfly, 7 minutes
Sit, 1 minutes

Shoelace, Swan or Box, 6 minutes
Rest with legs wide, 3 minutes
Repeat Other Side
Rest with legs wide, 3 minutes.  Attention eventually to breath in the nostrils.

1/2 Frog or Half hero, 5 minutes
(This resulted in all sorts of differences, which i love seeing.)
AR asked a great question around how do you feel safe offering new postures that weren't in the official "yin manual".  The answer that we discovered together was to track the feeling in it and out of it and see if it can be done in a relaxed, passive long held fashion and if it feels like energy is moving when you come out.

Some talk around getting used to seeing peoples postures look different.

Rest, legs wide, 3 minutes.  Attention to breath in the nostrils.
Repeat Other Side.
Rest, legs wide, 3 minutes.  Attention to inner and outer channels of the breath in the nostrils.

I offered some talking points around offering space for meditation throughout the class for two reasons:
1) There is never enuf time at the end
2) Then everyone is practicing meditation on the way to meditation

I also pointed out that by teaching the "mediation technique" of alternate nostril breathing all the way through, then at the end, it is not a big pile on of learning when the point is to be getting quiet.  Subtle Anatomy Sequencing 101.

Sphinx or Seal, 6 minutes
Showed the Bent knee variation
Attention to breath in nostrils and a little effort to bring it to the back of the nostrils for the water element, sacrum connection.
Rest

Childs Pose Two Ways, 3 minutes

Saddle, 5 minutes
We had some discussion here about different ways of doing it.  All experimenting with the supta virasana vs. saddle play and the anatomical realities.  Everyone liked to have their arms different ways for different reasons.

Rest on backs.

Knees to Chest.

Snail or Caterpillar, 4 minutes

Rest on backs.

Spinal Twist, 4 minutes
Rest on back, 2 minutes
Repeat Other Side
Rest

Savasana or Sitting
Alternate Nostril breathing san Hands
Expand Awareness and Rest

I rang Schiffmann's Bell from the iphone app and then gave 5 minutes room to eventually converge.  I did not ask how this was.  But I always feel that there is such a sweet space after you have been "awakened" from savasana and the transition is always too fast, so wanted to give lots of room around that.  This was also guided by W's question a few days ago about getting people out of Savasana.


Gather and Circle
Like last time, we went around the circle to check in and share.  This is the best part maybe of the whole weekend.  Everyone is in such a different place than they were last month.  There is so much trust and openness and love and connection with each other, with the process of coming together.

The main questions, musings and offerings that will guide us this weekend are:

1. How to Hold Effective Space
- space that allows both the teacher and the students to be authentic, curious, safe and free
- space that allows the magic to happen
- space where everyone can show up
- for the opposites to exist
- for our own practice to unfold
- for ourselves to soften and absorb
- for the teaching of yoga to occur

2. How do we Inspire Others?
- is it through words?
- the techniques?
- who we are?

3. How do we not get Distracted?
- by our own doubts, judgments and fears and patterns
- by the wanderings and waverings of the students

- from our own personal practice, by our teaching

I shared a little about what it means to be teaching yoga.  That the skills we are learning are invaluable.  That we are learning to CONNECT with others!  And while we are learning to connect with others, we are learning to CONNECT with ourselves, which we know intellectually is the same thing, but we don't always KNOW it.  So we get to KNOW it over and over and over again, until we are so steeped that we forget it less often.  In the meantime, we help people feel a little better while we are all here together.

HOMEWORK

I passed out the manuals.  They are small, so the assignment number 1 is to read them.

Assignment number 2:
Read all the emotions in the charts.  Mark the ones that resonate with you.  Then list out more if there were key ones missing for you.  Pick 3 to write about.
- Define them each.
- Write how you know you are feeling them.  Write the physical, mental effects.  Write about the external feedback that tips you off.  Write about the effects.
- Write about how you change them, if you do and can.