Teaching Yoga: Day 7: What is Prana Really?

Day 7: What is Prana Really?

Breath on the Back of the Body
We gathered to explore breath in the back of the body.
Questions/Topics that came up on the way to the exercise:
- Aluminum Deodorant and the toxicity of our minds
- The wiring of males and females
- The Kleishas
- The Need for Love
- The Path of Self Awareness

We used this exercise of helping a partner bring awareness to the back of the body and to continue practicing touching.  In touching, we put more attention to beginning the touch from far away and allowing the touch to stop in the mind before removing the hand.

We then looked and discussed how we can direct the breath in order to achieve various alignment cues.  

3 Part Inhale Pranayama

Easy Spinal Twist
Sit
Chant A, U, M

10 minute Break.

Discussed how chanting is a “counter pose” to a pranayama that focuses on an Inhale.
Sharing of experience, some of last nights homework, and other topics.
The point that the experience of the techniques of yoga is unique to each of us and we must record the data.

The sharing  led us to several big questions that need more holding time than was appropriate in this discussion:
- What do we mean by "breath"?
- What do we mean by "prana"?
- What is the relationship between breath and prana.  


The word Kundalini is a rats nest.  As a conceptual discussion began to rise, I referred peeps to the writings of Gopi Krishna.

I am getting called out on my resistance to systems of yoga.
I do not mind, but I prefer to not fall into the trap of putting other systems down out of laziness.

Broke at 2:30
Came back together at 3:00

Sun Salutations
This next section continually gives me trouble.  But instead of moving through a bunch of different sun salutation patterns, we looked at A, B and C.  Then, with an interest of moving the group to understanding enough to create a unique sun salutation, we played with different people teaching 1/2 and easy lunge salutes.  

Homework: Create a unique sun salutation pattern and be prepared to teach it.

I thought we would then answer an earlier question about cobra and locust and begin to look at the parts.

However, we are fortunate enough to have two women with scoliosis who are willing to allow us to look and understand.  So while we began with the intention of looking at Locust, Cobra, Updog, etc. we ended up looking at how one might bring awareness into vacant/absent areas and allow the stiff and tight areas to soften.  Using mostly the work of Elise Miller along with our intuition, we looked at locust, childs, dog, right angle, and triangle.  This was such a gift.

10 minutes Freeform
Savasana
OM
Close