We had another lovely day.  I taught an afternoon class that went sort of like this:

sitting in virasana, kapalabhati, alternative nostril kapalabhati, alternate nostril breathing with retentions, apply jalandhara bandha and draw the pubic bone and tailbone toward each other (mulabandha)

down dog, knees chest chin — did that a couple times, didn’t need much warm-up since we already had two yoga classes that day and swimming, etc.

forearms down — downward puppy — and into forearm side plank, both sides, second time with tree legs

at the wall:  find your diamond belly (sternum, pubic bone, bottom side ribs on each side) and rub it, try to keep that area contained as you prepare, find the relationship between pubic bone and tailbone as in retentions

Then, with a partner, sit in vajrasana and lift your arms as if you were doing forearm stand.   Let your partner tell you if your front ribs pop out and your diamond belly goes forward.  If so, that means that there is some tightness in your triceps and side ribs and so you need to bring your arms forward in pinca mayurasana.  Use a blanket like this:

Roll up the end of the blanket once. Place the rolled up part away the way and place your elbows on it with your hands on the mat.  When you go up, you will find that you can lengthen and straighten out your spine.  No ribs popping out.  No banana body.  A nice engaged diamond and integrated tailbone situation.

People’s quads were tight from climbing stairs and beach activities, so we did anjaneyasana at the wall, AKA ninja death pose.  I don’t feel like describing that so if you really want to know, let me know and I’ll show a picture.

Then we came back to the mats.  Hands on blocks and practiced jumping through with straight legs.  Then cross legs and swing back through.  Repeat 5 times, or until you get the “swing” (no pun intended) of it!

Lie down.  Supta eka pada hasta padangustasana with little hand towels because there are no belts here.

Back to D Dog, step forward and Hanumanasana.  We were all amazed at Bradley who only took 5 yoga classes before this retreat but he can do hanumanasana.

Lying on backs, windshield wipers.

As requested, supta virasana with lots of nice propage.

Supine twist.  Savasana.

Then we sat up and saw this:

Costa Rican sunset.

We gathered at 7am.  I was the teacher.  It is the first anyone has seen me in public at that hour for eons.  The sun rose at about 5:45.  It is a clear day and there was a rainbow out the opposite window as the one last evening.

Beginning in swastikasana.  The feet are flexed and the shins are crossed so the legs are sort of in a box shape.  Everyone is sitting on a blanket or a block.  

Extend your arms out to the side and flex your wrists to open space between your shoulder blades and chest at the same time you connect the shoulder blades.  Place your flexed palms on the very tops of your thighs and press your femurs down.  Lift your ribs up.  Slip your hands on to your ribs and lift them up with your hands, more lift in the back than the front.

Then interlace your fingers and lift your arms over head.  Inhale and bend the elbows.  Bring your palms — still facing up — behind your head. Reach your elbows away from each other.  Exhale, arms up, Repeat 3x. 

The next time you bend your arms place your palms on the back of your head.  Inhale, lift the chest and face up.  Exhale, drop your chin and elbows, creating a stretch in the back of the neck and upper back.  Repeat 3 x.

The next time you inhale reach your arms up to the ceiling again.  Exhale, and bend the right, letting your right hand come to the floor, left arm overhead.  Then, bend your left arm, placing your left hand behind your head.  Inhale, and spin the chest up to the ceiling, exhale and drop the elbow, curling the chin down to the right diagonal.  Repeat 3x.

Final exhale, fold over your right leg on a diagonal.  One hand on either side of your right knee.  Let your head go.  Let your shoulders and elbows be heavy and soft.

Walk around to the center and fold over.  Roll up. Change the crossing of the legs and do the other side.

After the second side, stay folded over your legs.  Reach around behind you and interlace your fingers.  Lift your arms up — not from the hands but from the shoulders.  Sit up on in an inhale, with your arms as high up behind you as possible.  As you exhale, bend your elbows and place your two-handed fist on your right waist from behind.  Inhale, sit tall, exhale, twist to the left.  Maybe you can join your elbows together behind your back.

Inhale, center, extending the arms behind you, exhale, two-handed fist to the left waist and twist right.

Inhale, center, extending the arms behind you.  Exhale, release the arms and swing them around in front and hug yourself.  Shrug your shoulders and try to get your fingers inside your shoulder blades.  Drop your head and breathe here.

Lift your head and in the self-hug, circle your torso three times in each direction.  Let your head and neck go.

Back to center, keep your elbows crossed but lift your forearms, coming into garudasana arms. Inhale, lift the elbows and look up.  Exhale, drop the elbows into your body and round forward.  Repeat 3x.

Inhale garuda arms to shoulder height.  Keeping your shoulders even, lean your forearms to the right, then the left. Then keeping the elbows and wrists crossed, reach your fingers forward as if you could straighten your arms toward the floor.  

Uncross your arms, turn your palms up and place them on your thighs.  Close your eyes.  Sit quietly.

Repeat the second section of this stretch sequence.

Pranayama practice:

Being by palpating your ribs. Feel the bottom right rib and trace it all the way around to your back as far as you can.  Then the intercostal between that rib and the next one.  Do this with all your ribs and the muscles in between all the way to your armpits, and your collarbone.  Then walk your fingers down your sternum to the bottom left ribs and repeat this exercise on the left.  Come back down the sternum and place your fingertips on your sternum.  Close your eyes and breathe.  Notice if your sternum moves when you breathe.

Fold up two blankets in 4 layers of accordion fold.  Gradate the ends so they are like a ramp. Make the fringe end be away from you.  Sit on the floor in front of the ramp end and lie down.  Reach around behind you and tuck the end of the blanket under your neck just enough to make a small pillow.  You should be like a waterfall, forehead higher than chin higher than chest higher than belly higher than hips.  Legs are in savasana.  Arms are in savasana.

Begin to notice your breathing.  Can you direct your breath into your side ribs and let your sternum stay soft?  The sternum is like a valley and the two sides of your chest are small hills.  Let the valley stay low.  Breathe into the inside of the side ribs and if you feel any hardening or tightening in the inside of the side ribs, then you’ve gone far enough so just let go and exhale.  Do this for several minutes.  

Continue doing that but now we are adding another layer of interest and direction.  As you inhale, draw the breath in alongside the inner aspect of the nostril, the septum.  As you exhale, send the breath out along the inside of the outer curvy part of the nose.  The breath becomes circular.  How does this change your experience?  Your breath?  Your mind?  Your nerves?  Do this for several minutes.

Now, inhale fully and as you exhale, count.  However long your exhale was, make your inhale half as long.  Then repeat this, ie., exhale for 8 and inhale for 4.  Do this for several minutes.  Can you still maintain awareness of the soft valley of your sternum and the tidal quality of the inside side ribs, breathing ebbing and flowing?  Do this for several minutes.

Then let it all go and rest in savasana for several minutes.  Roll onto your right side and rest here.  Slowly sit up, letting your head be the last thing to come up.  Sit quietly on your blanket with your eyes closed.  Feel what it is like to be you…or perhaps not to be you.

OM OM OM

Setting up the mats for our morning asana class.

The Blue Spirit Yoga Hall is on the top floor of the building, on a cliff overlooking the sea.  The walls are actually windows on 3.5 sides of the room.  We saw a rainbow out of one window.

And we practiced pranayama as the sun set.

Monkey body, monkey mind.

Watching the monkeys outside our window.  The howler monkeys.  Yesterday we saw a family.  The baby was so tiny that I was afraid it would fall out of the tree.  The mom climbs ahead and up, up, up.  Then she sits and waits.  The little baby slowly, bravely found her way up and when she was almost to the mom, the mom would take off again.  I finally figured out that how the mom teaches the baby to climb.  ”Follow me!”  At one point the mom was up really high, the very top of the branches, and the baby got stuck.  The baby just could only go so far and then couldn’t figure it out or was afraid.  So the mom came back down almost to the baby and sat there and waited.  That seemed to encourage the baby and she got going again.  I could’ve watched for hours.  The monkeys move and fly from branch to branch and then they stay still for long periods.  Is that like your mind?

These are two things that don’t exactly go together as far as the feeling in one’s stomach but as far as pleasure they are equally matched.  

This is Dave feeling so happy he is almost catatonic. He is at Robin's Ice Cream.

The town of Guiones is dusty and hot, hot, hot.  By me, Robin is pretty smart because an organic ice cream shop here is a no brainer.  We had Mayan Chocolate, Caramel Oatmeal Cookie, Pineapple Ginger, Coconut, and Mango.  Why not?

Our friend, Steven, had a resurrection shake -- espresso and mayan chocolate. He needed a pickup.

After the sugar rush, we had to rest.

Then we strolled down the dirt road which the main street.  We popped into Don and Amba Stapleton’s Yoga Studio and were so happy to see David’s album, Drala, being sold there.  Then we went to visit Granca and her awesome family at the Bazaar.  Chilled out a bit at The Harmony Hotel and came back to Blue Spirit with clean laundry.  That is why we went to the ice cream place.  Because it is next door to the Laundrymat.  That is the only reason we went there and ate ice cream……(maybe I’m lying…)

We went to the beach in the town.  Or the dusty strip of a few shops and restaurants that some think of as a town.  People gather there for the beautiful sunsets.

The setting sun was a huge fireball hovering over the ocean and then whoomp, it was almost gone and then gone. It gets dark early here. It also get light early here.

Then we decided to go for a beach walk.

Then we decided to take pictures of each other. This is Nudgie, me, Tara and Danny Goleman.

The dudes: Dave, Michael, Dan.

Dave and Cyndi aka Buddha Mind and Yoga Body.

Then we went to Michael's house and changed clothes to go out to dinner for Tara's birthday.

We went to a beautiful Italian restaurant called La Dolce Vita which was up a hill and felt like being in a tree house.  We had a wonderful party for Tara but I forgot to take pictures.  Sorry about that.

Nudgie in the pool!  It’s a gorgeous eternity — I mean, infinity pool.

Ahhh....

..for about an hour.  Ann Lindsay is a wonderful watercolor teacher sharing this Omega week in Costa Rica with us.  Here are some pictures of her demonstrating how to do a watercolor of the view we were all looking at.

The first thing she taught us was how to look. Make a frame with your fingers and look through and you can even squint a little bit. That is how you use your picture.

She showed how to make many colors from just yellow, red and two shades of blue. She likes to always draw a little frame around the edge of the page. I liked that, too.

Here is her painting. That was our lovely view from the balcony by the cafe. I thought that was all very interesting and I enjoyed it. But then I got nervous and left and did not paint a thing. Silly me.