ABDC is THIS Saturday!

The Austin Belly Dance Convention is this Saturday... who is coming? There are workshops in the mornings and mini workhops on Saturday afternoon. If you want some free entertainment, there is the open stage for you to enjoy performances by local and out of town dancers. It's casual and open to the public from 2-5pm on Saturday.

http://www.abdc.eventbrite.com/

Oh, and if you were planning on signing up for my workshop, there are 5 more spots left. Get in before it's sold out!

I will be there the entire weekend, starting Friday. Come by and say "hi"!

Lily

Let's crank it up a notch

In today's yoga class that I taught, I gave my students a little challenge. We focused on strength conditioning and stretching. John was sweating... which hasn't happened yet. There was lots of repetition, then holding the posture for several breaths. I enjoyed the class myself.

YYTT Hatha Yoga Graduation

Yay! Today was our Hatha Yoga Level 1 Graduation. It's been an inspirational 8 months of training. I am so glad I did it!

Back from NZ

It's good to be back in Austin again... New Zealand just started their winter, so the weather was gloomy most of the days and raining! You just can't beat the sunshine we get in Austin.

Yesterday was my first class back with Sanieh. It was an asymmetrical hip opening focus using Vrkasana. I was a bit sad leaving New Zealand (I love that place!) that the hip opening class left me even more emotional. It was a great practice nevertheless. We ended with a little bit of 'meditation' using eyes focusing upward, downward, left, and right. Great exercise for the eyes!

This morning, my coworker sent me this article on the super-grannie-yogini for inspiration!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1172810/The-yoga-supergran-bend-backwards-age-83.html

Good class - no preparation

Having not prepped on paper or in my mind at all of what I was going to teach today in my class, the class turned out to be great! Ignore the title of this post, it wasn't just good, the class was great. My students thanked me for the class and said they enjoyed it without me soliciting feedback.

After so many of the classes I have attended and noting to myself what I like to do in my classes, I think that these mental notes have sinked in and that my teaching has come out naturally. I was speaking to a teacher friend who shared that he/she would like to be an awesome teacher. For some reason, I do not have that same drive when it comes to yoga. I don't know why, I just want to be myself... I may not be the best teacher, but I'm going to give what I can.

After teaching my class today, I continued to practice my headstand (Sirsasana) and then compensate with Sarvangasana and cobra. I was able to sustain Sirsasana a little longer today.

Cheers,
Lily

I want my Om

Yesterday I went to a yoga class that had a substitute. Overall it was
a good class, but we didn't get to say Om. Instead the instructor
chanted an opening chant and Om. At the end the instructor chanted the
peace Om that Sadani taught us in teacher training.

I had suggested Wayo's class to my friend Yasmin. She texted me to let
me know how much she enjoyed it. That was really nice to hear!

Explaning yoga

These past few months in teacher training, I haven't really had to explain to my friends what it is exactly I am learning. We had this discussion at teacher training today about yoga being more than just the asana practice, even though that is what you get when you go to most yoga classes. Most people come to yoga class for the fitness aspect... and that is not necessarily bad. In the end, it doesn't really matter how they start their journey with yoga, but just that they start it.

I was talking to a friend about yoga and how there is much more to it than just the poses. When she asked interestingly about a particular yoga instructor, my heart sank because really she was just interested about a person, not about yoga. Perhaps that is how she'll start her journey.

At teacher training, we also talked about managing the gunas: tamas, rajas, and sattva. We fluctuate between the extremes tamas (lethargic/inactivity) and rajas (firey/hyperactivity). The goal is to guage where the class is generally and move towards center or sattva (equilibrium/discretion).

namaste.