Yogarosa Blog

Day 3 RIMYI Teachers Programme Pune, India Prashantji AM class What is the education in the prayer? Education begins right now, if you want to learn. Education is possible even without learning. Someone does not need to be learning to get an education. When you start to settle down for prayers, get your education with great awareness. How is the breath moving? With Yoga Software, the body and mind come together. Start with your breath in getting prepared moment by moment. Getting educated is more important than learning. If you don’t like the teacher, you won’t learn. Your awareness of the: -breath  -mind -body -embodiment -you  -yours Don’t just be aware of your breath. Your breath also has awareness. Like a “gastroscopy”. A camera goes in revealing everything in you. Everything on the monitor, “alimentic” canal, food pipe, as it goes, you see how everything is working. The breath has a “scopic” head. What interactions are taking place? How...

Day 1 RIMYI a Teachers Programme Pune, India Iyengar Yoga Teachers who mentor students from around the world were invited to this special program December 7-15. It took place at the private club PYC Hindy Gymkhana in Pune. The program will be very full, and we were asked not to schedule appointments during this event, as most days would begin in the morning and end in the evening. As we were awaiting Prashant, Abhijata asked us if we were jetlagged. We all said yes. She asked if we wanted her to teach a 5 minute class. We laughed. She said, no I’m serious, Parsva Swastikasana, Twist to the right! Open eyes. Open the outer corners of the eyes and look up, roll the right shoulder back! Uttanasana same Sirsasana head placement. Recover! Stand up. Padmasana right leg up. As many started to sit down, she said, no, standing! Now you will not be sleepy! Wake up! Eyes at the horizon level. Paschimottanasana Namaskarasana open the chest!! Sit down.  After we gr...

If you know what Supta Baddhakonasana is, and the effect, recall how you feel in class when the teacher announces it in class. In my 20+ years of teaching, it is the second Sanskrit name of a pose my students recall (first one is Savasana!) So imagine how I felt this morning, when I arrived for Prashant’s class, and the thick black cushioned mats were out instead of our regular sticky mats. That could only mean one thing. Restorative and pranayama class. YES!! It’s just what the doctor recommended. After I settled into my space with my pranayama pillows and blankets, I embarked on a Prashant expedition.  We started with rope Sirsasana or supine poses. Our choice of supine poses. (When I have a choice, I find myself asking , body, which one do you need?) Since I had extra blankets and pranayama pillows, I gave some away to share with some of the latecomers, as sometimes the props are not enough for all. It is expected for those who need less props to practice aparigrahah (non ...

Observing and participating in Prashant’s classes are two totally different things. Feeling weak after five days of a very bad cold, today I decided to watch it. The benefits were that I could write his ideas as he spoke. The bad part was that I was writing, and not really doing and feeling what he was instructing. It was also difficult to sit on the stairs and be mindful of students coming and going into the second floor space for classes. It was, however a wonderful experience to watch a room full of students from all walks of life, from all corners of the world, the young, the older, and all body shapes and constitutions. It was educative to watch many variations being modified according to people’s conditions. Everyone was really doing their own practice, but like an expert chef, being guided to have a delectable outcome.  I watched as some faces went inwards, and others were distracted by their neighbors. I watched the students that knew exactly how to set up for the req...

FOMO Fear of missing out is a real thing. Have you ever thought that you wish you had done something that you didn’t, or you went somewhere that you really didn’t want to go to, but didn’t want to miss out? I have been home sick with a very bad cold since Thursday. (5 days). 5 days at home would be inconvenient, but 5 days in India is a different story. Coming from Miami to Pune to study for a month with the best teachers in the world is a big huge treat for many of us. Missing 5 full days is a travesty. Each day, each moment, each class, is filled with learning that is spilled on us so fast, that the learning really comes later on during practice and contemplation. We are really exposed to the teachings here, not everything is absorbed or understood right away.  Part of the adventure of traveling, is that we are exposed to bugs that our bodies may not know. Having been couched and sneezed on pretty much all of last week with nowhere to hide, I caught a very bad cold that...

Monday July 9 Prashant’s Class 7-9am Adho Mukha Svanasana Baddangulyasana in Tadasana Sirsasana, Rope Sirsasana or Setu Bandha with brick  Bharadvajasana  Upavistha Konasana Marichyasana 3 Ardha Matsyendrasana Ropes 1 Sarvangasana, Viparita Karani, or Janu Sirsasana Savasana  In today’s class, Prashant was guiding us into understanding the difference between doing a pose, staying in a pose, and being in a pose. He compared it to being in a relationship. When you are dating, if you will spend a short period of time together, you will be a certain way. The more time you spend together the better you get to know someone. If you get married, and you have to spend the rest of your life together, then too, you will be a certain way. He joked about only being able to stand him for two hours in class. If we had to spend more time with him, we may not want to, because we may think there’s only so much we can take of Prashant. (I wonder if he knows ...