Tuning to the Teacher Within Workshop at Smiling Dog Yoga, Day 3

This morning I again slept in.

Woke up around 8am or so, wrote out my dreams.

Steve and Lisa had picked up croissants!
Steve made me a latte and I made some eggs.

I wrote out 3 possible plans for the class.
I was not sure what we were going to do and I felt like writing out ideas would help me connect to the shiniest one.

I spent the rest of the morning at the beach on the pier.
Unscheduled time is such a sweet gift.

We gathered at 2.

1. Nervous System Discussion
I shared the relationship of the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems and how yoga works.

We tied it into Sutra 1.2, Sutra 1.33 and Sutra 1.34.
Great sharing and questions.

2. Practice
In the interest of helping people start to work together more and practice feeling and touching and talking, we worked in pairs.

Impressing the Heart Solo
Impressing the Heart with Partners, 2 different ways

Supine Extended Hand to Big Toe Pose with Partners

Here we were able to connect the nervous system discussion with a way of teaching postures by "Feeling".
"Recal the feeling of the brick behind the heart...recall the feeling of your partner's thumb in your hip..." to access the pose.
J was willing to be the demo model for Warrior 1 and Twisting Triangle.

This seemed to be the main "a ha" moment of the weekend.
That we can access the alignment of a posture through memory of feelings rather than external instructions.
This ties into the practice of remembering what it feels like to be relaxed and choosing it consciously.

Alternate Nostril Hip Rotation with Partners
Savasana