From the Ground Up

Hello from Santa Fe, dear ones! Today marks the last day of the first session of my immersion out here in beautiful Santa Fe, at Prajna Yoga. It's been a very full week, and very hot here. My daily life is somewhat monastic: early to rise, meditate, 8 hours of learning/yoga/meditation/sangha, home to transcribe notes, shower, eat, sleep. (OK, also the occasional netflix fix for comic and psychological relief). I don't have a lot of time or space to get into the nitty gritty, but I will say it is a wonderful opportunity to study yoga "From the Ground Up", the aptly named "session one" of the program. This means our group is a combination of brand new, bright-eyed yoga instructors in training, and old farts like me who have been teaching a long time but hunger for a re-boot; and everything in between. The basic idea behind this first session is to understand the practice from the ground—literally, from our feet, and then map the myofascial sheaths from toe to tip. We began with the lateral sheath (side body), then dorsal sheath (back body), then ventral sheath (front), and finally core sheath (deeply interior structures and anterior spine). Part of our exploration includes a daily Dharma talk where we are exploring Vipassana and its correlation with the practice of yoga asana, pranayama, etc. Lots of rich territory in all of it, and Tias Little is a most skilled and sophisticated teacher. I can't tell you how fortunate I feel to be here, learning from he and Surya both. Tomorrow Surya will do a full day on yoga and women's health, and the next 2 days will be Sanskrit and work with the Yoga Sutras, and then our next full session, Session Two, begins Monday: The Fluid Body. I'm soaking it all in (and then sweating it all out) and it's just so luxurious to be a student. But I also miss UVY and my husband and my home and all of you.Sending love,Leslie