Oh I think she is right. I think of the times when I meditate by myself in my apartment, how free from suffering I feel! How lovely I am and so at peace. And then when I drive to teach a class I feel challenged by other drivers; when I wake up in a bad mood; when I feel tired, lackluster and don't want to practice... In those times I notice how little patience I have for myself and for my humanity... 

Yoga is union- union of the mind, the body and the spirit. It comes from the verb root "yuj" which means "to yoke." It is a union of opposites. Lately though, I've been thinking how it is also the union between us as individuals with the part of us that is universal. With us as limited beings, with a limited body, with all of our flaws, with the part of us that is vast, spacious, and free.

This week in my classes I've been teaching about honoring both aspect of us- the individual and the universal. How in yoga the back of the body is considered the universal and the front of your body is considered the ego, the individual. And we need them both; and we honor them both. And we need to pay attention to how we are aligning both.

This week I've also been focusing on a crazy-ass level 2 pose called "Visvamitrasana" which is the name of a great sage and it literally means "friend of the universe."

May we be friendly to our flaws, our imperfections, our humanity.

May we honor our light and our darkness.

And may we realize that ultimately the individual and the universal are actually one.

So today instead of writing a sequence I'm gonna work backwards...

I know my peak pose is Visvamitra which means that somehow I want to do the following poses. 

So working backwards in descending order from Visvamitrasana:

Visvamitra prep (threading the arm underneath the leg and spinning the back heel down and lifting the top arm up.)

Deep lunge with forearms on the ground

Eka Pada Rajakapotasana #1, add twist

Parvrrta Parsvakonasana

Warrior #1

Parvrrta Janu Sirsasana

Janu Sirsasana

Malasana

Handstands

Suryas

Down Dog

That was fun!

I've been challenging the students more and have noticed that they have been appreciating it. They like to have poses to works towards. All these students that I am fortunate to meet in my classes are really so great and inspiring to me...

Anusara Poster Projetct Pose: Visvamitrasana!