Desirée Rumbaugh, a humble yet wildly wonderful Anusara® yoga instructor, is coming back to Vancouver September 10-12.

She is internationally celebrated as one of the most skilled and authentic instructors; a woman who can not only enter some of the most advanced postures herself, but who can safely guide others to do the same.

The last time she was in town was very special for me, partially because Des helped me to expand my own practice, and also because I was honoured to assist her for one of the sessions.

If you’re in BC, I highly recommend attending her workshop. Really I can’t say enough good things about her teaching.

For more info on the workshop, check out the YogaPod website: Desirée Rumbaugh Vancouver Workshop

I could use a little more awareness in my lower hand here - see how it's collapsing slightly to the outside? So much going on in the pose, even I need to remember to align my hands.

Good alignment is good therapy, and optimal alignment is what brings the freedom in yoga therapy.

This can be anything from knowing how to place your hands and feet to aligning with your intention and coming into the natural pulsation of the breath.

One thing that comes up a lot for people is pressure or pain in the wrists. However, when you use the alignment principles of Anusara® yoga and apply them to your own body, that pressure and pain can disappear.

When you’re in a weight bearing pose on your hands (downward dog, handstand, push-ups, plank, gardening, etc.) your foundation has a lot to do with what you feel in your wrists. This means the way you place your hands and fingers translates to what you feel.

The following video that explains three of the most important points to know about how to align your hands.

Though this video speaks mostly to the added challenge of having your hands on uneven ground, this alignment goes for any surface and position where your whole hand is on the ground. When you practice outside or on carpet, the stakes are higher and it becomes even more important to align mindfully. Watch to find out why… Read more…

Isn’t it amazing how the universe presents you with the most interesting challenges, often right when you’ve got something really big going on?

Here’s what happened to me:

Two days before I was scheduled to begin writing my exam for Anusara® yoga certification my energy level plummeted and my throat started hurting. The day before I was supposed to start my entire body ached, and the right side of my throat and ear were in a lot of pain.

“Interesting,” I thought. “Intriguing, even. What exactly are you trying to tell me here, Universe?”

Through my yoga practice I’ve noticed that any time something difficult or uncomfortable comes up, it’s time to really pay attention, because that unwanted or unasked for thing could be an enormous gift. Read more…

This post, by the lovely and talented Cat McCarthy, is timely and inspiring. Enjoy!

——————————–

The winter doldrums have morphed into sunny, seasonal temps.  The plants and flowers are beginning to blossom, and so are we.  In the wise words of Anusara Yoga Grande Dame Betsey Downing, “Bloom where you are.”

I love this simple reminder to be fully self-expressive where you are planted, rather than where you want to be, think you ought to be, or where your bloomin’ neighbor is growing.

The precept of the Anusara Shiva/Shakta philosophy is that we are already full and perfect. It all dwells within.  Nothing outside of ourselves will complete us, as we are already whole.  And yet we often forget as self-contained seeds of potential that we need nourishment to prosper.

The wonderful thing about springtime is that it outwardly reminds us that it’s time to peak within.   Read more…

“Only from the Heart can you touch the sky.” ~ Rumi

I had the most amazing yoga practice tonight. Still blissed and body buzzed from it hours later.

I’ve been super fortunate to attend class with Cat McCarthy while in New Orleans. Having consistent access to an Anusara yoga teacher here has been such a blessing, and Cat is really wonderful.

Tonight she brought us a practice heavily influenced by sequences and poses SHE played with during classes with Ross Rayburn in New York. Her theme was about finding the balance between giving and receiving.

After a standing sequence which my breath and body gratefully opened to, she led us through this funky half lotus sequence  that went from standing to forward bend, jump back to down dog, forward to plank and the floor, hands and knees and then bound vashistasna – ALL IN ARDHA PADMASANA! Super fun.

We proceeded to not only do Natarajasana and Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana, but then followed those up with Kapinjalasana.

For those of you who have no idea what I just said, fear not. It was a bunch of pretzel-like yoga moves and many involved deep back bends. Read more…

In every being there exists the ability to love. It’s just that some people have had more experience and practice than others in accessing this high feeling of love.

But even in the people who do terrible things – those who hurt, kill, and abuse their power with greed and violence – even within these people there is love.

Love is the highest frequency. It is limitless and pure. It pulses within you and everything around you. It exists as beauty, joy, and peace.

And yet there are more vibrant forms of love, such as the affection and connection you feel with your beloved, or your pet, or your child. There are stronger experiences of love that help us to discover how powerful it is.

Beauty is a high form of love, and through beauty you can strengthen your ability to BE love. Because when you appreciate beauty, you soften, open, and enter into love. Read more…

Isn’t it amazing how many times life twists and turns and can knock us off our feet?

Yet there are ways to learn how to flow with the waves of life, so that you can go gracefully along for the ride, skillfully living with the changes that come.

This is what the philosophical approach of Anusara® yoga is about; when you learn to align with the current of grace, you tap into the awakening and freedom that people have been seeking throughout the ages.

Let’s simplify the philosophy that really allows you to bring more ease and enjoyment into your life, shall we?

How Does Anusara Yoga’s Philosophy Work?

First things first. This approach invites you to be open to the bigger energy that pulses and dances as everything. This feeling of connection to something bigger reminds you that you’re not alone, that everything is interconnected, and then you can actually align with this bigger energy in a way that is life enhancing and empowering.

Read more…

The Universal Principles of Alignment™ are an elegant and supremely effective system developed by Anusara® yoga’s founder, John Friend.

They have led to amazing innovation as far as what is possible on a yoga mat, as well as how you can more completely explore the inner realms.

The principles, like the philosophy with which they are so perfectly intertwined, have their roots deep in ancient wisdom, honoring the great teachers and systems of yoga which have come before.

They pulse between spaciousness and focus, so that each moment guides you to further refine and delight!

At their core is a constant commitment to the highest intentions of awakening and liberating the practitioner so you can live more joyfully in conscious connection to your truest, highest self.

Read more…

Wow! Anusara® yoga is expanding and evolving in such exciting ways! I received this newsletter from John Friend this week, and thought I’d post it here to share. Enjoy!

From Anusara Yoga’s Founder, John Friend:

Dear Anusara Community,

Enthusiastic greetings from my 2010 Melt Your Heart, Blow Your Mind world tour. We now enter the most technologically advanced, crowded, critical and tumultuous decade in history. It is a time to create the right mindset of positive, Shri-radiant, and creative Shakti in order to dance with the global stresses and difficulties ahead in this New Decade. We need to shift our yoga practice into an innovative paradigm. At the beginning of this radically transformative time I want to announce several steps that I am implementing to take Anusara yoga to a higher level of artistic expression.

Shiva-Shakti Tantra

Since its inception in 1997, Anusara yoga has been based on a life-affirming Tantric philosophy. In order to distinguish our school of Tantra among classical Tantra and neo-Tantra schools, we are now designating our philosophy as Shiva-Shakti Tantra. Read more…

Note from Katrina: This post is from my dear friend and teacher here in New Orleans, Anusara® yoga instructor Cat McCarthy. I love the way she words things. Have fun reading!

The Saints won the Super Bowl…
Mardi Gras has come and gone…
We’ve entered the Chinese Year of the Tiger…

NOW it’s time to get off your asana!

March is the month of activity, refinement, and St. Patrick’s Day… a celebration of luck, shamrocks, and beer in various shades of green. With the slow shift towards sunny and warmer spring weather, I’ve noticed the recent reemergence of clovers along my dog walking routes. The shamrock symbolizes the luck of the Irish.

Ever since I was a kid, I have had the uncanny ability to find 4-leaf to 8-leaf clovers, which is considered serendipitous. One would think that as a member of the McCarthy clan, I have been given a double dose of good fortune in my clover hunting. But is it really luck? If you think about it, one finds a 4-leaf clover by purely seeing the shift in pattern amongst typical 3-lobed leaf plants.

Therefore, what is considered to be fortuitous is actually an ability to spot the breaks in the woven fabric of a quilted clover field. Perhaps there’s luck involved. But I see it as an empowering skill to see changes in patterns and shifts in perspective, so that the full spectrum of life can become favorable. This is the alchemizing foundation of the tantric philosophy of Anusara Yoga. Read more…