AIDS Quilt on display in Grace Cathedral

Currently there's an exhibit of 28 panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in the nave of the cathedral in honor of the 20th anniversary of The NAMES Project and World AIDS Day. It's arresting.
Grace Cathedral Information
go to NAMES Project Foundation

Grace Cathedral Yoga in the London Financial Times Weekend?

Florence forwarded me this article from the London Financial Times Weekend edition. It's a travel story, on San Francisco, that starts with mention of our class!
No Flowers in your Hair

Questions about Counter-Poses, and Inversions during Cycle

After the Yoga Tree Teacher Training, I've been thinking a lot about one question asked in particular:

"Is it necessary to practice fish after shoulderstand?"

I have my own thoughts on the question of Counter-Poses, and on the wide variety of answers one finds to that question in the various styles and traditions of yoga, particularly in light of the energetic benefits of polarity reversal on which my teacher, Andrey Lappa, often focuses, but I'm interested in how others think about this question.

One way of thinking about the question of the necessity of Counter Poses -- and further, of avoiding Inversions during cycle -- is to make a differentiation between normative and descriptive truth. It is certainly true that when the biceps engage the elbow flexes, or that when the shoulder blades are abducted there is more space for breath in the back of the heart, but whether one SHOULD do either of these things in any particular pose is another thing entirely. Questions about what happens as a result of a particular action are descriptive, while questions about what one ought to do are prescriptive, or normative. It has generally been my experience that descriptive accounts of yoga are possible, but that normative accounts are more highly personal, in much the way that science can be objective, and ethics can't. More simply, questions about what is true are different from questions about what is right.

So, I'd love to have some feedback on the questions of:

1. Counter-Poses
2. Inversions during cycle

First Double-Square, from Advanced Class 11/17/07

Ia:
Side Angle
Vir II
Rev. Vir II
Tiger
Circles
Knee twist
Parsva dhanurasana
Swastikasana II
Outward pigeon shoulder
Lotus elbow
Swastikasana I
Snaking cobra
Cobra twist

Ib:
Runner BB
Runner T
Half Moon
Standing Split
Runner BB
Vajrasana circles
Core w/arm circles
Virasana circles
Bhadrasana circles
Snaking side bend
Bhadrasana twist
Bhadrasana arch
Standing side bend I-II
Standing side cobra
Standing snaking

Ic:
Vir III
P.A.Chandrasana
Sacrum twist wide knee squat
Reverse table pelvic circles
Bridge core circles
Eka pada bridge
Side bridge
EP Up Bow I

Id:
Parsvottonasana
Parv. Trikon.
Runner BB
EP Sarv/ Bridge Vinyasa
Sarv. Mandalasana




namaste,
jamie
Kundalini Vinyasa Yoga classes
Yoga Tree / Yoga Flow Castro, Gold's Gym Castro, Grace Cathedral, and James Howell Studio
san francisco
california

Sequence for Yoga Tree Teacher Training

Adjustments:
 as alignment instruction
 for support
 to deepen stretch

Adho Mukha Svanasana:

Important pose in yoga because it prepares the body for:
--Backbends
--Forward Bends
--Inversions
--Arm Balances
--Standing Poses
--Basically, everything but Twists!

Some adjustments in Down Dog:
--Aligning the middle fingers so that they are parallel
--Aligning the outer feet so that they are parallel
--Pressure to head of sacrum in the angle of the legs
--Using a strap to simultaneously ground sacrum and femur heads while
standing on the heels
--Adjusting outward spiral of the shoulders, releasing trapezius muscles,
neutral spine
--in Three-Legged Dog I, adjusting sacrum and knee to open side body
--in Three-Legged Dog II, squaring the hips
--in Dolphin (bent knees fine), adjusting the shoulders to deepen stretch

Child’s Pose:
--pressing sacrum gently

Prasarita Padottonasana III:
--adjusting wrists and sacrum simultaneously

Salamba Sarvangasana I (with or without blankets):
--pulling on their feet while holding the elbows narrow with your feet

Salamba Sirsasana II (with or without blanket to pad skull):
--spotting with hand to back of heart, just to get knees on elbows

Adho Mukha Vrksasana:
--at right angle to the wall, Half Handstand, adjusting sacrum to heels
--assisting with the alignment, one leg vertical, ankle over hip
--assisting into Handstand at wall, hands to front and back of core
--crown to wall, assisting into balance, one hand to front of thigh heads, one to
back of calves
--if time permits, assisting into Hanuman (Half Scorpion) Handstand, from Half
Handstand; and other Backbend approaches in Inversions


Namaste,
jamie@jamielindsay.com

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and if you found it useful, please forward it to everyone you know :)Kundalini Vinyasa Flow Yoga Classes with Jamie Lindsay in San Francisco
James Howell Studio in the Castro
Yoga Flow, the Yoga Tree in the Castro
Grace Cathedral, Nob Hill