Here are some pictures from our last day of the retreat.  Don’t be jealous — it was such a great success that we will definitely have an OM yoga at Blue Spirit retreat again in winter 2011.

After a stretch class with Edward from 7-7:30 and another totally delicious breakfast, Dave gave a dharma talk from 9-10:30.

Enraptured yogis/dharma students.

MIndfully meditating Edward.

Then right into yoga from 10:30-12ish. Palms were up today, in the position of both giving and receiving.

I taught a warm-up vinyasa that included side bending on both sides, and twists -- both open and closed. Do you know the difference and what they prepare you for?

There's always something to work on in Downward Dog, isn't there?

Baby cobra and lion had a baby.

The reminder of a light touch.

More coming but now I have to go to Lululemon and teach a free class 10-11.  Come on down!

My class played a joke on me yesterday.

They set up their mats at all angles! Messing with my head - whoa...

With the mats nicely organized, we had our class.

Distributing weight and effort, like a tea bag in hot water.

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

Every year at our party some or one of the awesome OM yoga teachers does a Pose of the Month dance which gives us a fun review of all the poses we’ve worked on during the months that year.  But this year we did something a little bit different.   I combined some of the elements of our practice:  the fact that everybody at any level can work on any pose, because you can always work on one element at a time or make the seed actions of a larger position, such as internal rotation instead of a full bind.  And…the other element that I love is a Pop Quiz in yoga class.  So I asked everyone to get up and walk around and look at each other while we did that.  That already was fun.  Then I began to call out the poses — only in Sanskrit (that’s the pop quiz part, but it is important to know the Sanskrit names, right?) and this is what happened!

Eka Pada Prasarita Padotanasana

Jeremy helps Jonathan do Nadi Shodanam Pranayama.

Titibhasana -- not so easy in party clothes and tight jeans.

Dhanurasana with Patty in the middle.

Ardha Uttanasana aka Uttanasana 2 aka The Pose Formerly Known As Flat Back

Do you think it is important for yoga teachers (and yoga students) to know the Sanskrit names of yoga asanas?  Yes?  No?  Why?  Why not?

Margi invited me and Christie and Sarah for dinner last week.  Sarah didn’t feel well and had to go to Durham early the next morning to do the OM yoga tt there (which she liked doing, by the way – a great group of tt peeps this year!) and so we missed her.  But it was very fun and delicious.  She made a farmer’s market chicken because big chickens are too sad after seeing Food Inc., and she made a yummy salad and an amazing vegetable tart.  It was hard to control ourselves and not devour it all immediately.  Then we had cookies and homemade grapefuit sorbet.  YUMMMMMM!

This vegetable tart recipe can be found at dashandbella.blogspot.com

Then, we retired to the living room.  What did we talk about?  Everything and nothing.  Did we talk about yoga?  No, but Margi did yoga.  Restorative supta virasana supported by a bolster and Fin’s stuffed animals.

Who says a stuffed cat can't be used as a restorative yoga prop?

Check out my second blog on the Huffington Post.  The words of my precious teacher, Gelek Rimpoche, once again helped us figure things out.  If you have a chance to read the blog post, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.  Thanks!

  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cyndi-lee/yoga-drip-drip-the-bucket_b_407500.html

If you want to ring out the old and ring in the new in the deepest and widest way, come to the annual OM yoga New Year’s Eve class!  It is already over half full and will definitely sell out, as it does every year.   Make a reservation by calling OM yoga 212-254-9642 or go to the website, www.omyoga.com.

This year it will be taught by Joe and Edward.  They will gather everyone together for pranayama and meditation, then split up into separate studios for asana practice — this might turn into a 2,3, or 4 room affair depending on how many people come.  The more the merrier, but we don’t want to feel too squished on our mats so we do it like this.  Then after that, everyone gathers back together in the Earth studio for meditation.  This is great time to bring your non-yoga family and friends, too.  It is so great to be with your sangha on New Year’s Eve and you have plenty of time afterwards for…..whatever is your pleasure on this big night!

One of my students and a graduate of The Road to OM, Kendra, is also a 10th grade teacher.  She teaches yoga to her kids in Queens and so I invited her to bring them to OM yoga for a field trip and a yoga class in a real yoga studio.  They were so great!  When I walked into the studio, they started chanting, Cyndi Cyndi Cyndi.  They were super excited and their passion for yoga was amazing!

We talked about what it takes to hold a balance. They came up with breathing and focus. Yes! We called these our Tools for Concentration.

Kendra did a great job teaching these guys and she helped me by assisting and doing skillful adjustments.

Of course, they love doing arm balances. Some of the boys can even go from crow pose right up into handstand. I demonstrated crow into chadarunga and they loved that!

They were willing to try everything.

They dropped right into pranayama and meditation. No problem. No resistance. Amazing.

Even though I had a really bad cold all last week and had a hard time getting out of bed this morning, it was a real pleasure and inspiration to work with these kids.  I was so impressed with their good hearts and open faces.  So much sweet nature right out there.  I was surprised by that, actually.  I can’t wait to see them again and have invited Kendra to bring her kids to OM yoga again.  Thanks, kids!

Dave and I are back at Kripalu for our annual November Yoga Body Buddha Mind weekend.  Wouldn’t you think that we would get sick of teaching this material?  Well, we don’t!  It is different every time because the group is different every time and we are different every time.  There are so many open hearted, curious, smart people with us this weekend and a large percentage of them are experienced yogis and experienced meditators.  Ten years ago it would have been the opposite percentage.  Pretty cool to see how much yoga and meditation has infiltrated our culture.

Getting twisted help unknot our energy body. Not to mention the detox bennies.

With a big group you just have to get up on the little platform thing so everybody can see you but I am always afraid I will fall off! Maybe some yoga teachers are more stationary than me, but my sequencing is spatially oriented and there is not enough room on this box. Whatever. It works okay for baddhakonasana.

When you lift your arms does your neck vanish? Does your chest sink? Is it super effortful? Then open them out into a V for vinyasa!

This is Jill, one of the many smart and groovy YBBM yogis and yoginis this weekend.

This is Kripalu's new yoga room which is gorgeous. Lots and lots of props, too! Thanks, Kripalu.

This is the view from our room up on the top of the hill. Barren winter beauty.