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Interconnectedness

ByElizabeth

This morning, on my last full day of vacation, on my way to leave my bags in the office of the bed and breakfast where I was staying before I walked about in Santa Fe for the day, I walked back through the breakfast room, where I had eaten an hour before.

To my happy surprise, good friends from home (a former co-worker and his wife, whom I’d just been thinking about because I knew how much they like New Mexico) were there finishing their meal.

We spent much of the day together, until I had to leave to catch the train to Albuquerque to be ready for tomorrow’s early morning flight back home.

It felt a perfect completion of a trip made to study yoga and be in community for the week.

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    Appropo of Ayyappa

    ByElizabeth

    Reading today’s article in the Washington Post, “Women Fight for Access to Sacred Places in India,” and appropo of my recent blog post on Ayyappa, reminded me of what led me to the law.  I am conscious that relative to most of the billions of women on this planet, I have had extraordinary opportunities.

    I think I have a responsibility to live to the fullest the opportunities I’ve been fortunate enough to have. And I think that part of that responsibility is to make my own contribution to eliminating injustice and to keep working with creativity and dedication and passion, while ultimately, like Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita and his right action, letting go of the result, knowing I am not in control of any particular outcome or sequence of events.

    What is your story? The opportunities explored?  The barriers that need not have been there?

    purna 1c

    Shakti Pilgrims, Tamil Nadu, India, 12/11

     

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    Web Version of E-Newsletter (Yes, I’m Still Teaching)

    ByElizabeth

    Dear Friends,

    My apologies for being so long in sending a proper newsletter.  2014 was a challenging year for me.  I started the year sick, ended the year sick, and was limited by injuries for several months out of the year.  Work was intensely challenging on just about every level, day after day, week after week, and it continues to be so.  And then there’s concern about the state of society and the planet and trying to figure out what I, honoring my capacity and limits, can do to do more good and less harm (I’ll never get this sent if I get side-tracked in that direction).

    I also had some great adventures, including a major home renovation and an extraordinary trip to Cuba, but then was working too hard in between to appreciate and integrate fully my experiences (which is a yoga lesson in itself–addressing whether we need more stimulation when we haven’t had time to address/process previous experiences whether delights or challenges to mind, body, emotions, creativity).

    Yes, I’m still teaching, even though working as much as I am these days.  You can find me leading an all levels group practice with a wonderful group of people on Tuesday nights from 6:30pm -7:45pm at William Penn House in Capitol Hill.  100% of the proceeds (pay what you can; suggested donation $12-15) support the work camp program at William Penn House.  There’s also a weekly group practice for more advanced students on Wednesday nights.  Email if you are interested in the Wednesday night practice.  More info on classes on my rose garden yoga website.

    Yes, for those of you who don’t subscribe,  I’m still blogging.  With the help of wonderful web designer, friend, neighbor, and fellow yogi, Jess C, I just updated the look of the website.  I hope to find time to blog about the many layers of meaning that went into the new design, which has the colors of Kali (goddess of sequencing); the murtis are  Dakshinamurti (Siva as teacher) and Saraswati (goddess of learning, the arts, etc.); the books are a small, but important to me as yogini, portion of my library.

    If you’re in town, join me for practice one of these weeks or perhaps we’ll run into each other another class or workshop.  Please let me know how you are.  Best way to be in regular touch are to subscribe to the blog.  When there isn’t an interval between working and living and loving, and all the rest, to share more detailed written contemplations about living yoga,I’ll share the signs and exhortations I see around town and remind myself and anyone else who wants the reminder that no matter what is going on, there’s always a moment to appreciate a little beauty–perhaps to notice a heart-shaped cloud in the sky.

    Feel free also to friend me or like “Rose Garden Yoga” on Facebook.  Instagram possibly coming soon in my copious free time.  Ha.

    Peace, love, and light,

    Elizabeth

  • Getting Out of My Own Way (and thigh loop)

    ByElizabeth

    A couple of years ago, I took a brilliant class with Desiree Rumbaugh in which she used the theme of “getting out of our own way” to lead us to a place to better integrate our shoulders.  As I was practicing with the Anusara principle of “thigh loop” this week, I was reminded of that class.  We’ve all been in the situation where our habitual mindset, physical posture, life style, or emotions get in the way of our finding more freedom and happiness.

    When our thigh bones move into the front plane of the body, the forward movement keeps us from opening our hips more fully and from getting into deeper and stronger poses that require our hips to be open (in fact, out of the way).  When we take our thigh bones back, we physically have more freedom, more range of motion and are better able to access the deepest places of power and openness that allow us to soar on the mat.  I’m working on it on the mat as a great reminder to get out of my own way off the mat.

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