Assisting with 4-5 other yoginis, including, Lizzie Lasater who is gracing the latest Yoga Journal magazine (check out the latest issue with Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman-Yee on front cover) – a natural, down-to-earth yogini carrying on and following her mom’s footsteps! Such a beautiful yogini with refined poise and style. Yet modest and unassuming with grace. As warm and inviting is her mom, sometimes students might feel a bit intimidated by this powerful force of a wise teacher to ask questions …Then, there’s Lizzie, who seems to always pose that hard question you didn’t ask because you did not appear too stupid to ask that question – but actually everyone was also wondering. She asks the thought provoking questions almost on our behalf. It’s endearing to see the mother-daughter relationship unfold before your eyes. It is apparent that their’s is based on mutual respect, trust and support. It’s heart warming to see that they are both proud of each other and love to share and grow together in the same Sangha.
So rather enjoy watching the human dynamics and just being helpful in my small way, around this amazing Teachers’ Teachers’ Teacher this week during her Teacher Training titled “Therapeutic Applications of Restorative Yoga, Level 2”. A review for me but noticing that over few years, Judith too has changed some methods and developed a different ways of doing things, sharing new discoveries and change of minds. Thus, for me, each time, learning something new or re-learning because it really depends on who shows up – she caters to the audience by feeling out their needs.
When we do this type of “ultimate” destination kind of restorative, I always feel like I’ve failed in my group class. I usually walk away feeling the challenge of a group restorative class where one person cannot really help with the setup to the extent needed. Group class does not match up and does not do justice if you really wanted to offer a restorative the way she does it – plenty of props, the right kind of props (mexican throw blankets made of cotton is the BEST! after Iyengar style plain wool … but love the texture of this cotton, some soft and light, some heavy… ahhhh, HEAVEN !) full support based on keen observation on an individualized level. Total awareness of anatomy and body mechanics …. no, it’s very different from lying on a massage table, just receiving – it’s so … spacious and freeing. So I will take a kernel of that into the group class and do whatever to what I have sometimes blending in other styles in the beginning to get “there” without the additional props or the lighting or whatever. You do what you can with what you’ve got, right? It’s not always the ideal deluxe or the dream first-class but it gets the job done… a taste.
Been running into “interesting” situations and people last couple of days – was it the full moon? A pair of guys who at a pineapple bin dresses a pineapple with sunglasses and tries to draw attention of the passerby and then again later on at another isle, bringing that sunglasses and then dressing the sauerkraut package as I rummage through – isn’t is so odd that they keep reappearing in front of me during routine grocery shopping joking around with a pair of sunglasses? And these are grown men? Finally, the last straw, my cart disappears!? They had taken my cart and … says about the mixup – he’s an engineer and so he’s an idiot – please forgive him. What????? There are odd people in Silicon Valley and it’s humorous if not obnoxious. Then the woman is staring at another grocery isle behind me – so I say Excuse me if I’m blocking your view. No, she says, I’m just watching you to see which one you are going to get. ??? What kind of NUT I’m getting? It’s nutty. Feels so odd. Here. It’s not the Japanese grocery isle I guess. How I digress about how the full moon affects the behaviors of so many …
So lucky to get to assist as I learn so much from “observation” of what takes place.
Off to assist in San Francisco – so honored to be serving someone I respect among the like-minded. It’s yoga. The real one. Tonight after the restorative yoga session, a yogi went into a handstand … he was that much more energized that he just flipped into one. That’s the power of this kind of practice – it revives and recharges you so you can sparkle more radiantly on or off the mat.
