Elsie's Yoga Class

An Advanced Yoga Class for your consumption! Tons of sun salutes, strong hip openers, handstand, plus arm balances, be ready to rock and roll!

Those of you with the app, check out the extra features: class sequence and also the mini tutorial for Vishvamatrasana

I wrote a more in depth blog post over at in the Shownotes for Ep. 84 at Elsie's Yoga Kula, regarding listening and how it has and continues to affect my life and relationships.

If you want to win Shannon Gannon's new Album Sharanam please go ahead and leave a comment over at the blog, OR at the Elsie's Yoga Kula FB Page :)

Sign up for Newsletter Magic and be in the know of what's going to be going down for EYK very soon!

Look forward to hearing from you!

25 minute meditation.

These past few months I nearly got overwhelmed by anxiety.

This hasn't happened to me in a LONG time.

I lost control of my rational thought process and simply dove into a feeling that was suffocating and terrifying. I can't say that I was in any way comfortable. The only thing that pulled me out of it was my toddler Hunter. She forced me to get out of myself and engage her. The moment that I disconnected from her off I went into a very uncomfortable sense of overwhelm.

I refused this.

Take Control of Your Anxiety and Fear

Instead of allowing myself to be pulled by this avalanche of anxiety and fear I chose to meet it, with softness and full consciousness. I looked at it straight in the eye. I used a technique that I heard in a podcast, and I sooooo wish that I remembered what episode and what this guy's name was because I would share it, believe me, but at this moment, finding the episode would take me YEARS, so that will wait. I may update this post to add the info

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Anyway, the technique was to feel where the emotion was in my body, fully. You are to notice which was its winding, clock wise or counter clock wise, and slowly unwind the feeling the other way until it dissolves. At first just moving into that hard ball of tension in the middle of my diaphragm was enough...but as I practiced this technique I began to see that I could literally unravel the anxiety!

Unraveling- It's all about creating space, space to feel, to choose, to remember, and to find your ground. Most importantly, finding space helps you remember that you are part of something so much bigger. Anxiety is about disconnection and isolation. It's an emotion that rises when you absolutely become limited and small. As you unravel the feeling, you begin to get more spacious, there is literally more room in your body, your breath, your mind, your heart, and you can step back a bit and see things as if you are watching from a bird's eye view.

You are ok. You truly are. You are more than ok in fact :D

A couple of days ago I received and email from one of you requesting a more breathing centered practice. Although this simple audio meditation is not specifically about the breath, there is no way to escape the breath. Space is breath.

Every time choose to center myself and incorporate this very accessible and easy meditation practice, you get the opportunity to re-attune yourself to align with something more than anxiety and fear.

I want that!

Listen, practice and do this and tell me what happens! I'd love to hear if this works for you

Have you subscribed to my newsletter?

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Kitaro "South Wind" (mp3) from "Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai Sampler, Vol. 1-4" (Domo Records) Buy at iTunes Music Store Buy at Amazon MP3 More On This Album

An iPhone 4 Yoga Class For Your Enjoyment!

And here I thought that I was going to get some time to be able to publish more episodes to you guys...in JULY.

Not so much, but alas! Here’s a yoga class to start the month off right! This one is close to my heart. It’s focus is all about the way we are swayed and often times misguided by what we see and hear all around us, especially the media. It is a call to take responsibility for our choice making and the way we go about making choices. The inspiration for this class came straight from all the hoopla around the iPhone 4 and its antenna issues.

If you happen to follow me on Twitter or are part of the Facebook Elsie’s Yoga Kula Community, you would know that I have an iPhone 4! Yipeeee! So I speak from my own experience with the device, and I’m totally loving it!

Given that I’m sure you have heard at least something about the whole antenna thing, so I sorta offer my 2 cents about it and wrap it around a yoga class.

What’s interesting about this theme is that it mirrored the hoopla around an article on my beloved teacher John Friend in the NY Times. If you haven’t already, please read the article, John’s response to the article PLUS Elephant Journal’s exclusive interview with John. Interesting how perspectives and opinions shift and change if you simply choose to step deeper into them :) And move from your heart.

This week’s online yoga class

This yoga podcast class is a level 2 class, and if you have a yoga block in the house, please feel free to take it out and play with it during our backbends towards the end of class. I cut a bit of the class in the middle because I did a demo that doesn’t really work if you weren't there so why put you guys through it :) If you do hear references to it, or to another demo that I had a student do, just dismiss them. Pretend that you went to the bathroom during that part of the class!

Welcome to EYK episode #6!

Just in case you are a new listener, the Elsie’s Yoga Kula Episodes are all about community. There are times when I want share with you guys more than the few minute intro that my Yoga Class Episodes allow me ;) This is where I share some of the feedback that I’ve gotten from you guys, plus answer some questions I get, or anything else that I desire to put out

Today’s episode has some inspiring feedback from you guys, PLUS and interview with my twitter buddy Scott from Boston who shares all about his experience going to yoga for the first time ever! Some pretty cool insights from his perspective.

This episode is brought to you by Elsie’s Yoga Class Podcast App for the iPhone and iPod touch, you can find it in the iTunes App Store for $3.99. The extra features for this episode of EYK is a snippet of one of my therapy workshops talking about What is Optimal Blueprint! So check it out you guys :)

What's in the Podcast?

• Where have I been?
• Problems with the podcast feed and my desire to keep in touch with you guys!
• Sign up from my newsletter!
• Feedback from YOU!
• Wanderlust festival
• Love PrAna, they've got a lifestyle village
• Janet from Arizona
• Elsie's Yoga Kula FB Fanpage
• Send me your feedback!
• PRANCING LEOPARD ORGANICS ROCKS! listen to the podcast to get your coupon code :)
• The fancy pants jumpsuit review
• The Scott Interview
• @scottyj
• scottjosephson.com
• podantics.com

A powerful Level 2 yoga class that builds lots of internal strength and stamina

I know that if I asked you who or what you hold valuable and dear you could tell me without much thought. I'm sure that you've thought about how much your family, your homes, your friends, your culture, etc. means to you. I'm sure that now that I've brought your attention to this, you have a clear idea in your head and feel pretty strong about where you place your value.

The thing is, that we think about this too much. I mean that we keep that which we value in our thinking mind. We intellectuallize much more than we internalize it, within our hearts. There is a level of detachment that comes with it. Yes, we love our family. Yes, we love our friends. Yes, we value our home. Here's the question: Do your actions, from day to day, from moment to moment honor and abide by that higher intention? If we could graph our daily activity, and our daily thoughts, what truly takes up the majority of our days? What would it show?

I know that for me, my graph would show huge interaction with my cellphone and my ipod. It would also show me constantly checking my email, FB, Twitter, and stats. (Note the word checking, there is no actual engagement involved.) And these are my physical behaviours! I am also guilty of being with my daughter and having my mind full of everything BUT my daughter. I think more about podcasts, blog posts and creating content on a daily basis than I think about my breath, my body and growing my relationship with those that I have said I hold valuable. There are countless opportunities to deepen relationships. There is enough time. I know that I tend to leak my energy in places, thoughts and actions that in no way deserve it. Unconsciously, through my thoughts and actions I am serving and cultivating less than optimal relationships.

The level of commitment and discipline required to sustain an optimal level of engagement and relationship in our lives is great. It requires that we choose, and choose again, always refining and clarifying moment to moment. We must sustain the focus throughout our days, slowly building a strong internal practice, that lets us be at once soft and steady.

As I became aware of this for myself, I had to share this. I know that I am not alone. My desire is to place what I value in my heart, not in my head. My desire is to engage and hold the sacred where it's meant to be.

How about you? Do you observe your behaviors and thoughts serving and cultivating less than optimal relationships? In what ways to do abide by the Highest?

Start By Breathing

FYI! There's a video towards the end of the post to supplement this episode :)

And speaking of the video...Thank you my dear and lovely sponsors Prancing Leopard Organics! The clothesthat I'm wearing in the video are from them and I ADORE them :D Listen to the intro to this episode to get your coupon code for 15% off your purchase!

This is not a yoga class! This is another episode of Elsie's Yoga Kula, the community facet of my live yoga classes. Here I get a chance to address feedback and add content that isn't a yoga class, but is yogic in context.

In this episode we address some feedback from you guys, including inspiring yoga books, plus we have an awesome interview with the amazing Donna De Lory!

This is a level 2-3 class :)

I had never viewed memory as something alive and tangible. In fact, I don’t believe I’ve ever thought about memories as ‘gifts.’ As I thought about this concept I realized that when I remember something from my childhood or come across a scent I hadn’t smelled in a long time, or find an article of clothing I haven't worn in a long time, it is like receiving a gift. Those memories are gifts I get to open every time I encounter them. They always serve to remind me of what I give value to in my life.

One answer that emerged from the Lifelines group is that we should surround people who are forgetting with acts of remembering. People in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease are in danger of forgetting that they can still remember, as are those of us who work with people with Alzheimer's. - Dr. Dienstag

Something affected me about this sentence. Yes, it is about folks that have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but did you catch the last little bit of that quote:

as are those of us that work with people with Alzheimer’s.

To me that means everyone.

Then it becomes about something completely different.

How about you? Are you in danger of forgetting that you can still remember? Are you surrounding yourself with acts of remembering?

It’s when we are about to loose something that we hold dear that we choose to step in fully to do something about it. Why is that? Why must we wait until the situation is dire before choosing to fully engage in our lives, our relationships, our environment, our bodies, our hearts, etc?

Move back into the culture of your body, cultivate it and grow it.

This was the theme of this week’s episode. Inspired by a conversation from one of my favorite podcasts Speaking of Faith . It was regarding manuscripts and the “monastic library that rescues manuscripts from across the centuries and across the world. And there are worlds in this place — on palm leaf and papyrus, in microfilm and pixels — stories of ordinary life as well as the rise and fall of civilizations....In their lives as in this work, the relevance of ancient manuscripts to people of the present and the cultural cargo of the past itself are revealed in a new light.” - Krista Tippet

I don’t have a particular affinity for manuscripts themselves, in fact I haven't ever really thought about them, but after listening to this episode they were revealed to me as yet another expression of the sacred in the every day, and how there are so many many treasures that often times we overlook within our every day lives

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The treasure that I speak about in class specifically is the treasure of our bodies, and the way that we loose sight of the beauty of it’s culture until it begins to unravel.

Step into the challenge of Truth and get Healthy

Keeping on this same topic, I am launching an in depth 3 part eCourse. I’ve had requests from the online yoga community, from my Pittsburgh yoga community AND from my own desire to create this. It employs empowering simple practices that you can incorporate toward your optimal health and wellness.

Everything You Need You Already Have Learn How to Recognize, Cultivate and Sustain a Healthful Lifestyle: A Three Part Heart eMmersion

The first stage is all about turning inward and BREATHING! I’d loooove to have you join in. Space is VERY limited. I am only accepting 3-5 participants each time that I offer the program in order to make sure that I can truly serve you and your commitment. Learn all about it by clicking on the following link! It begins June 6th and goes until July 3rd.

Stage 1: Start By Breathing

Gifts for Elsie’s Yoga Class Podcast listeners!

Two awesome little presents for my online kula members!

One of them is a special coupon code from my newest show sponsor Prancing Leopard Organics. I’m THRILLED that they are giving this to you guys! The coupon code is mentioned on the podcast as I really want to honor those of you that have been my loyal students :) So awesome!

The second is a FREE DOWNLOAD from the magnificent Donna De Lory. I am so honored that I get a chance to share the track Sanctuary with you guys from her latest album of the same name :) Just click on the link below and snag away :D

Sanctuary

It’s a beautiful track. I’m sure that you will enjoy it :) If you are interested in more you are more than welcome to sign up for Donna's mailing list HERE

Please feel free to join the community over at the Elsie’s Yoga Kula FB Page :) plus, remember that I have a fancy pants iPhone/iPod Touch Podcast app that rocks! If you buy the app you won’t even have to download the Sanctuary MP3 as you can simply download it straight from the app itself, plus, get the Prancing Leopard coupon code right away. How fun is that? It’s only $3.99 and it absolutely supports my endeavors to serve you more fully :D

Yoga Lesson: How do we tune into nature and allow it to deepen our life?

Every day I am brought to back to the application of yoga lessons in my life. Yoga or life as I choose to see it now, becomes a pulsating beneficent opportunity, a gift really, for me to become a better human being. This past week I was given the task of preparing one of my current students to step into an Anusara Immersion with my beloved teachers that has already started. She missed the first weekend, or half of Part 1. My job is to catch her up *gulp*.

Out have come all of my notes and of course the Immersion Lesson plans and the like.

Succinctly explaining the Anusara Philosophy, the 3 As and the UPAs (Universal Principles of Alignment ™) is not the easiest thing when you have crazy time constraints. Arghhh!!!...goodness gracious!

So given that, studentship has been on my mind. I am stepping into the seat of the student as I pour over how to convey all this knowledge in a way that will be optimally soaked in by her. I adore the way that I heard John explain studentship using the Elements. I remember how he shared that using the elements as teaching tools is wonderful because they are understood and experienced by all, so we have a common ground from which to step into the teachings and also deepen the understanding of the UPAs within the yoga postures. Since I’d been meditating on this theme, lo and behold, I taught all about it!

This episode’s online yoga class is a Level 1.5 class (in other words strong).

It’s slow, meditative and we take time to get into things. I hope you enjoy stepping into it!

By the way, let me know which elements you resonate with the most :D

In my intro I told you that I recorded 2 other classes that I was unable to use for the podcast, but I’m making them available to you, if you would like to download them. Both of them are level 2 yoga classes. One of them is a full 80 minute class with less than optimal audio, and the other one was a TOTALLY awesome class, but I ran out of batteries half way through the class! Ugh!

EXTRA Level 2 80 min Class with the theme of Dreaming and Community EXTRA Level 2 Unfinished Class with the them of “Let Your Smallness Dissolve” and the Pareto Principle

★★★I want reviews from you!★★★

If you have any yoga gear, or yoga clothing, or any yoga related accesory that you would like to review either because you LOVE it, or HATE it, or perhaps are simply indifferent. Let me know! email me at eyogaclass (at) gmail (dot) com. I would love to have you be part of the online yoga community :D

This is NOT a yoga class! Hello and welcome to episode number 4 of Elsie’s Yoga Kula the special series of Elsie’s Yoga Class: Live and Unplugged Podcast, that’s all about you and all sorts of extra exclusive information about yoga and culture. As always this podcast is brought to you by the Elsie’s Yoga Class Podcast App for the iPhone and iPod Touch available in the iTunes app store for $3.99. Why not have your yoga in your pocket!

Listen to the Podcast

I am sooooo excited about this episode! Two subjects people, two subjects that I get a ton of email and questions about. The first topic is aimed a bit more toward yoga/fitness/alternative health professionals. I am honored that a lot of you listen to the podcast and am glad that you reach out to me regarding how to grow and supplement your own practices and businesses via new media. I can help you regarding audio stuff, but my video making skills I’m afraid are not as pristine HA! I’m sure you’ve seen at least one of my videos where I cut off my head!

Cut off head videos:

• sun salutation
• headless pigeon

So given that, I had the privilege of interviewing someone that DOES have lots of expertise with a still camera and a video camera, plus even more know how as to how to create, yes, CREATE your own DVD (something I know NOTHING about). You guys will just LOVE this interview, seriously, tons of great conversation and sharing of insights! Which brings me to the next topic of the episode: Yoga and Men!!! I know that most of y’all listening right now are women. To those of you that practice consistently in a studio setting, I’m sure you’ve come to see that the majority of people that come to yoga class are women. That demographic is also true of the listeners to this podcast, BUT I do have some pretty strong and committed male listeners. I also have some wanna be committed male yogis that have stayed away because they are a bit afraid. I don’t blame them, the first time I walked into a yoga studio I also was a bit intimidated. I just happened to have had a bit more experience with dance/movement/bare feet/hard wood floors due to my life as a theater actor, but it was still a bit weird. I get it, especially for the guys, the images that you see out there of peeps in al those yoga shapes, can be a bit intimidating, so I asked my guest, who is also a yoga intructor! In fact, there was a time in his life that he taught yoga INSIDE PRISONS!

So who is this super man you ask? His name is James Wvinner, producer/director/photographer/yoga teacher/yogi extraordinaire. You ready to step into the conversation? Here we go! This was recorded at grandma’s house on a Saturday afternoon...

Listen to the Podcast!

Here are the links of all that James touched on:

• Desiree Rumbaugh DVDs
• Brian Kest
• Richard Freeman DVD
• Fit Soul Fit Body
• Desi Bartlett

Tell me that product doesn’t sound awesome? I know that I want it! So, I have a little surprise, for all of you lovely Kula members, you guys will get 10% off the product for the next month! So basically you guys have until March 23 to get 10% of the how to create your own exercise dvd! You just have to listen to the podcast to get the coupon code! I know how hard it is to gather up information and study and learn from so many different resources. I believe this is one of the most valuable products that I’ve seen come to market, plus it comes from such a genuine guy with so much talent I can’t even take it! Have you seen his photographs and his videos?

This has to be my all time favorite 30 second promos that I’ve EVER seen. When I saw this promo, I totally wanted to work with James. Seriously.

Click here to visit Make Your Own Exercise DVD.

Well, enough about that!

Yeay for Men and Yoga!!! A request for you guys

I wanna bring it back to the men. So what did you ‘guys’ think about what James had to say? I’m putting out a request for you men, those of you that listen to this podcast. Would you help out your fellow wanna be yogis that are a bit intimidated by this whole yoga thing and send an email or better yet call 310 651 6238 and leave a voice message to give some advice? perhaps share some of your favorite resources? That would be really really cool!

I don’t want to make this episode too long so I’m just gonna share a few emails with you, I’ll share more on the next one.

Feedback

This is a comment regarding EYK Episode 3 Yoga App, Muscular Energy and The Best Yoga Mats

Hi Elsie, thanks for the podcast! So good to hear from you. I wanted to add my two cents worth of advice about the mats. I have always had a lot of problems slipping and sliding on my regular sticky mat especially in downward facing dog. I got a lovely grippy Jade yoga mat which helped but did not solve the problem. About 9 months ago I got a Yogitoes skidless towel. This towel goes on top of the regular sticky mat and there is no more slipping and sliding!! It has really made a huge difference in my practice, I cannot recommend it enough for anyone who is having problems with slipping due to sweaty palms. The only drawback is that it does not work on the Jade mat, you have to put in on the regular cheap kind of mat. On the other hand it is easy to wash, I just pop it in the washing machine and let it air dry, and it has held up really well. Hope this can help someone!

And here's a lovely little email :)

Hey Elsie,

I've been doing your level 2-3 yoga podcasts almost every morning for the past two months and I'm addicted! I've been going to yoga classes on and off for years, but for the first time I feel like someone is actually teachingme. And I can't even see you! I'm an acrobat and aerial artist so I do a lots of stretching and conditioning to stay in shape, but I have to say that after two months of doing your classes I'm more flexible than I've ever been in my life. You should see my backbends now...my shoulders are so much more open now because in one of your podcast you talked about hand placement. It was the tiny adjustment I needed to make to really round out my upper back and push my my chest forward. And also, splits are easier than ever now thanks finally doing to all of those high lunges correctly. I hope one day I can make it out to Pittsburgh and take a class in person. You rock!

Thank you for everything,

JD

This is an event that I was asked to help promote from one of my ex students in LA. Please go to the FB event's page to find out all about it! If you live in LA and want something fun to do about checking out some dance?

Rune Dance Theatre, a community-based contemporary dance theatre company presents RADIO LUNA, a performance installation opening February 25, 26, and 27 at THE FOUNTAIN ROOM, 4903 Fountain Ave., Los Angeles, CA, 90029. Created by choreographer/artistic director, Diana Cummins in collaboration with video artist, Allison Stewart, RADIO LUNA draws upon myths, music and our continued fascination with the Moon, its powers and influence over our lives. The show begins at 8:00 pm. Tickets are $15 pre sale and $20 at the door. For reservation information, call 323-934-3336 or visit the PROJECT page at www.dianacummins.com and www.indiegogo.com/RadioLuna and www.allison-stewart.com 2 worthy causes are honored with this event: one is for www.unembraced.org and the other is for www.thesolisfoundation.org which helps women in Kenya start their own businesses

One of the cutest T-shirts ever ever ever from the Phyzz Yoga Blog! A little product that I just found soooo cute I can barely take it.

Thank you so much for those of you that have joined the Elsie’s Yoga Kula FB page, located at http://facebook.com/elsiesyogakula. It’s really rockin’ over there! I’m doing my best to post great content for you guys there, both personal and lots of great articles and information to supplement your practice. Whenever I do any sort of giveaways I’m gonna be doing it via the FB page, so come on and join up! There is a little section over there for Reviews, it would be so cool if you guys could review me there. It’s a really powerful tool for me as an indie business owner. It’s absolutely appreciated! I’ve also started a discussion asking you guys to share a bit about yourselves, and who you are so that you get a chance to get to know each other.

There are soooo many of you listening to the podcast. Let’s connect even more and help each other grow! Please leave me feedback on the FB page, email me at eyogaclass (at) gmail (dot)com call me at 310 651 6238 follow me on twitter at twitter.com/yogeek and if you have a moment, please review me! either in iTunes and the FB fan page! Love you guys tons! I’ve got sooo much more great content coming up!