Learning about Anusara yoga

A cool, breezy Fall afternoon.  I was glad to be indoors and warming up at the studio.

Dianne started us off on a discussion of the three main eras in yoga philosophy:  pre-classical (based on teachings called the Vedas and the Upanishads), classical (which is all about Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras) and post-classical (Vedantic and Tantric philosophy).  Geez.  What would I do without Wikipedia?  LOL.

Next was a primer on Anusara yoga, beginning with the invocation.  Created by John Friend in 1997, Anusara’s core concepts include Tantric yoga philosophy and the Universal Principles of Alignment.  It was interesting to learn how complementary it was with other schools of hatha yoga (like the attention to proper alignment, similar to Iyengar yoga) and how it contrasted at the same time (feet are at hip width distance instead of having big toes touching).

Anusara yoga is grounded in Tantric philosophy.  Don’t go thinking that it’s all about sex.  It’s not.  Instead, Tantra is about opening up our inherent goodness and that there is Divine in everything.

It was a lot of information to process, some of it for the first time.  Had to ask how to spell some words and to repeat some phrases.  Not getting too uptight about it though.  That’s not the point.  For me, yoga school is about personal growth and deepening my practice.  About spending time with like-minded and yet diverse people that are also interested in yoga.

Next Saturday and Sunday is the Yoga Anatomy Weekend Intensive with Katherine.  We’re learning from our teacher’s teacher, which made Dianne drill us even harder.  She wanted to make sure that we’re well prepared.  We practiced grounding our hands & feet,  chatarungas (shoulder blades on the back!) and emphasized inner and outer spirals of the thighs during Warrior 2.

Gonna have to stop blogging and do some yoga homework…

About downwarddogdvm

Just a small animal vet trying to live her yoga.
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