WATER - Week FIVE: Session 1: History of Yoga Part 1
This week we touch upon the history of yoga, discuss important ethics for yoga students, and overview Patanjali’s 8 limbs.

Discussion
A brief history of yoga bullet point style.

• Vedic period

  • Harappan civilization destroyed by invading Aryans

  • Took the sacred scriptures (Vedas) of Brahmanism - a complex religious tradition based on sacrifice and ritual

  • Vedas used exclusively by priestly cast containing a mixture of incantations and instructions in poetry and prose 

  • First 3 books: Rig Veda, Sama Veda, and Yajur Veda - used by Brahmins

  • 4th book: Atharva Veda - spells and incantations for everyday life of a householder

  • Original mention of yoga involves only the definition - as “yoking” or “discipline”

  • Later mention involved controlling the breath

  • First mention of the physical practice came 800 years later

• Pre-classic Yoga

  • The Upanishads suggests that the only way a student could learn the secrets of yoga was to sit at the foot of his teacher 

  • Yoga referred to a discipline or path to achieve liberation from suffering aka Enlightenment

  • Two main paths

    • Karma yoga: path of action or ritual

    • Jnana yoga: path of knowledge or intense study

  • The self or ego is to be sacrificed in order to attain liberation

  • Three basic truths

    • Your true essence/Self/Soul is the same as the essence of the Universe

    • Everyone is subject to birth, suffering, death and rebirth (metaphorically)

    • Do good work, get good rewards (like being reborn into a higher or lower cast)

    • Renounce and make internal sacrifice to reverse negative karma

  • Yoga is defined as binding the breath and the mind, via the mantra/sound/chant Om

    • Om, a vibrational power of sound, signified the inner meaning of a yogi’s actions 

    • Speech enabled the yogi to express that meaning 

  • In the Maitrayaniya Upanishad yoga is a six-fold path: 

    • Breath control

    • Sense withdraw

    • Meditation

    • Concentration

    • Contemplation

    • Absorption

  • The Bhagavad Gita

    • Three main approaches:

      • Karma yoga: path of service

      • Jnana yoga: path of wisdom 

      • Bhakti yoga: path of devotion

    • Main teachings:

      • Outcome makes little difference, rather focus is on performing one’s duty

      • Bhudi yoga: the melding of karma and jnana - a yogi is not to be attached to outcomes but engaged in the action and then offer the fruits of his action up in service, in service to God

  • At this point, everything resided within a concept of Universal Consciousness - manifested in everything 

  • Samkhya teachings surfaced - a radical, heretical, mystical school believed that the visible world was not a manifestation of Universal Consciousness and caused suffering - dualistic

  • Dualistic view of suffering did not survive, but its larger world view of two separate forms of reality did. These two forms are:

    • Purusha: pure, transcendent, male; all-knowing, without beginning and end, immoble, pure consciousness, the seer, passively illuminates

    • Prakriti: matter, nature, female; in constant motion, creative, active, distinct, unconscious, all that is seen, dynamically creates, created everything by manifesting in the 3 gunas:

      • Sattva: mind and cognitive senses they keep us connected to the external world; goodness and pure essence,  illuminating and immaculate 

        • downside: can become too attached to the joyful feelings

      • Rajas: gross motor and physical experience, the senses of yearning; dynamic, passionate; greed, restlessness, desire, possessiveness, clinging

      • Tamas: darkness and inertia, potential; heavy, slow and thick

  • Samkyhams believed the only way out of suffering was to renounce the world completely.

• Classical Yoga

  • Patanjali: 

    • Codified the concepts of an ancient oral tradition in the Yoga Sutra: 

      • a treatise on daily living

      • not a self-help guide, existed to assist the teacher

    • Dualistic 

    • Suffering caused by a conflict between the three gunas

    • Opposed renunciation, only hard work (karma yoga) and deep meditation (jnana yoga) could relieve human suffering and lead to liberation

    • Strict adherence to his eight limb path could bring the gunas back into balance

    • Dualistic - did not survive, but the eight limbs continued

    • Samskaras: karmic scars that result from good or bad karma, memories imprinted on the subconscious that propel the mind to act and cause constant chatter and fluctuations in the mind, two kinds:

      • One keeps the conscious mind actively seeking experience - whether that experience is pleasurable or painful

      • One stops the mind from seeking and attaching itself to external objects resulting in the cessation of fluctuations, bringing liberation

Part of your course work for this week is to:

• Create a history of yoga timeline.

• Read The History of Yoga article by Linda Sparrow

Self-reflection + journal

• What were your takeaways from reading about the history of yoga?

WATER - Week FIVE : Session 2: History of Yoga Part 2
Discussion continued

• Post-classical Yoga: non-dualist

  • Duality: suffering occurs when you believe that all you do, all your relationships, actions, feelings, thoughts make up your true self

  • Non-duality: suffering occurred when you failed to understand that you are part of something much larger than yourself

  • The path to liberation lies in experiencing with the heart, not just believing with the mind, that the Self is not separate, but an integral part of Universal Consciousness

  • Tantra yoga: focus - devotion

    • Believed human suffering comes from the illusion of opposites

    • Sees all opposites contained within Universal Consciousness

    • Liberation from suffering comes from uniting opposites within in the body

    • A strong, pure physical body is needed

    • Celebrated the physical body and considered the body a sacred temple

    • Believed the whole world was a manifestation of the Divine, not an illusion, all experiences brought you closer to your divinity

    • Left path: employed that which was traditionally forbidden

    • Right path: considered left practices dangerous and preferred symbolic unification of masculine/feminine energies

    • Both respected women more than predecessors and contemporaries

    • Prior to tantric practices strict adherence to the eight limbs was required

    • Chanted mantras

    • Body pure and strong, mind clear and alert

    • Used mandalas, and visualization

  • Hatha yoga: 

    • Believed human suffering comes from creating polarities, like Tantrikas

    • “Ha” sun “tha” moon - union of opposites; force or determined effort

    • Believed it takes strength, discipline and effort to unify opposites in the body/mind

    • Obstacles: greed, hate, delusion, ego, attachment

    • Strove to transform the physical body into the subtle divine body and attain enlightenment, such a body was: free from disease, void of defects, eternally youthful and possessive of magical powers; before this you had to learn body physiology, chakras, and perform intense purification before beginning asana and pranayama; instruction was received from a guru

    • Goraksha: Natha sect, Siddhas Siddhanta Paddhati

    • Svatmarama Yogin: Hatha Yoga Pradipika

    • Gheranda Samhita

    • Shiva Samhita: emphasized a common (male) householder can practice yoga 

  • The Yoga Upanishads: focus - the proper way to achieve liberation, non-dualist, outlined yoga practices and the obstacles to achieving samadhi (liberation, bliss)

• Yoga Comes West

  • Asiatic Society of Bengal: studied all things Indian

  • Transcendentalists: contemplative paths

  • Theosophical Society: secrets of the ancient Vedas

  • Swami Vivekananda: New York Vedanta Society

  • Until 1924, Americans received a steady stream of Indian swamis - then the government imposed a quota on Indian immegration; Americans went to India 

  • Ramana Maharshi

  • Krishnamacharya

  • Richard Hittleman and Lilias Folan: WWII generation: stretching and moving via tv

  • Post-war: spiritual awakening and transcendental experiences

    • Autobiography of a Yogi

    • Paramahansa Yogananda

    • Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: Transcendental Meditation

    • Richard Albert aka Ram Dass - Neem Karoli Baba, Be Here Now

  • Krishnamacharya

    • Indra Devi

    • BKS Iyengar

    • Pattabhi Jois

  • Bikram, Kripalu (Amrit Desai), Yogi Bhajan (Kundalini Yoga)

  • Today’s teachers and Teacher’s Teachers: Eric Shifftman, John Friend (Ausuara), Shiva Rea, Jivamukti, Nevine Michaan, etc. 

Part of your coursework this week is to:

• Read Krishnamacharya’s Legacy article by Fernando Pages Ruiz

Self-reflection + journal

• Consider your teachers and what they have taught you, start by writing down 3-5 take-aways of what you have learned, then continue. Also take into consideration any books you have read, and do not limit your teachers to yoga teachers. My children are my most exacting and demanding teachers!

WATER October
History of Yoga, Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Sutras

Friday 11:30-1pm
Date: 10.11.24
WEEK 5

Prep
What caught your attention when reading The History of Yoga by Linda Sparrow? (Post in Geneva)

Topics
Shanti Mantra, Group Boundaries, Housekeeping: Geneva tricks, 7 Ways to Engage, Make the Charitable assumption, Triggers, History of Yoga, Bhagavad Gita, The Yoga Sutras

Call Flow
11-11:5am (15 min) Opening: Welcome, This week, Grounding, Housekeeping, Shanti Mantra, Group Boundaries
11:151m-12pm (45 min) Talk: Make the charitable assumption, triggers
12-12:45pm (45 min) Forum: History of Yoga, Bhagavad Gita, The Yoga Sutras What caught your attention when reading The History of Yoga by Linda Sparrow?
12:45-1pm (15 min) Questions and Closing: Saturday, next week with Dr. Stephanie Matulle

Welcome
All right, so welcome. We are in week five - the History of Yoga.

• We’ll talk about your coursework this week and some housekeeping. 

• I’ll talk about this concept of making the charitable assumption which I read about in Unreasonable Hospitality inspired by the show The Bear.

• We'll also talk about the history of yoga - we might do a breakout room so you guys can talk one-on-one but we might not. 

• If we have time, we'll touch on The Bhagavad Gita because your next required reading Paths to God is on the Bhagavad Gita and maybe the yoga sutras - though I don’t want to overwhelm you!

• And we’ll talk about tomorrow and next week. 

Opening/Grounding
Alright, let’s take a moment to settle. What I'd like for you to do is take a moment to feel your feet on the ground, feel your seat on the ground or the chair. 

If there is anything you would like to get to make this time more cozy, please feel free. 

I’d like for you to take up some ground. Gently close your eyes, situate your head over your heart, your heart over your pelvis and just begin to tune your attention to the oceanic sound, the tidal rhythm of your breath. Bring your attention to anything just in the room that you're in and let's take three deep breaths together. 

Coursework this week and Housekeeping
Your coursework was:

• create a history of yoga timeline

• Read The History of Yoga article by Linda Sparrow (and Krishnacharya’s Legacy by Fernando Ruiz - so pg. 70-97

• Begin Paths to God - which you’ll read throughout (remember part of your requirements is to turn in a 1 page book report on each of the required reading books). 

• Let me explain all the books noted this week. First, I apologize about the formatting errors - ugh, there are many? I'm not sure why because I edited it all, but anyway - mistakes were made. So we have the Bhagavad Gita and the Heart of Yoga - great books, important stuff. Then we have all the other books - each book is on the Yoga Sutras and I think it's good practice to read more than one translation to get a more thorough understanding. So we have The Secret of the Yoga Sutras and The Practice of the Yoga Sutras, contrasting that with The Yogi’s Roadmap and The Secret Power of Yoga a Woman’s Guide (is a slightly softer less intellectual read). 

• You have your journal prompts

• You have your geneva prompt: what you like to know more about? No one answered this so I’m wondering about that?

Platform
All right, so the platform. Is everyone good with this - are you having any issues? Simply send me a message ..

7 ways to engage!

- Manual + Reading section for articles and a sequencing section for more in depth understanding into the main foundational asanas.

- Reading - notes and application pages after each one of the articles + books

-The online platform- videos to go with the manual topics + more content to enhance your understanding - this content is delivered by "drip" meaning I don't give it to you all at once - this is to keep you focused and on-track and hopefully will help with managing the feelings of doubt that may arise because there is A LOT of information and much of it may be new information.

- Geneva; use reply, pin, use the search button  

- Pre-submitted questions/emails - for some bigger questions that require a bit more thought and consideration before offering an answer or that may lead to deeper inquiry. Please - subject line: YTT presubmitted Q so I can differentiate them from other emails I receive. You can also email or direct message me on Geneva about anything, really anything. Use email with PSQ subject though Qs we will talk about in our Friday calls.

-1:1 schedule here: https://calendly.com/katbettger/book?month=2024-10

- Partner/Pod 

Tracker
Everything that I have put together I've done with intention but it's really up to you to find the best way for you to complete the coursework, etc. I'm not going to micromanage you - or hold you accountable - that what the tracker is for and the coursework - it's all laid out for you. If you’re having trouble accessing stuff or if you're confused, reach out. My geneva notifications are on so message me. You're an adult, you get to decide how to work this into your life - you know best. I do want you to do all the things but I also recognize that you're human and if you were doing every little detail all the time I might actually worry about you - a little bit.

I get really excited about trackers and then I like completely stop altogether and I will admit this week I've taken some things off my schedule - hurricane, global conflicts - it's always heavy I really feel that I really feel the weight of that that coupled with the new moon coupled with the fact that I'm in my um lowest part of my cycle all - so know that there's going to be ups and downs throughout this experience. Our culture values productivity and peak experiences above just about everything else. We have to contend with the mundane if we want the magic.

This whole program it's designed to give you some breaks. It doesn't always go the way we want it to and that's just the truth of life. 

Complexity is deeply nourishing 
… and it requires your attention and focus. You are not always going to want to do something. 

Go through Intro pages in the manual
Expectations/Agreements/sign and bring with you on saturday

The Shanti Mantra on pg. 7 of your manual
I'd like for you to just listen to these words. This is something I want to come back to again and again and again. These words I hold in my heart as I enter a classroom or before I get on a call. This is one of several small rituals I have because I don't know what's going to happen immediately before class. Something to remind yourself of what you're here to do in the time frame that you have to do it so the mantra. 

Shanti Mantra

May we be protected together

May we be nourished together

May we work together with great vigor

May our study be enlightening

May no obstacle arise between us

Om peace, peace, peace

Lead us from the unreal to the real

Lead us from the darkness to the light

Lead us from death to immortality

Om peace, peace, peace

The first track on the Sacred Preparation EARTH playlist is this mantra.

Group Boundaries
1. The container of this experience is meant to be a “safe space.” Each of us has something to learn from another person about yoga.

2. We are all here because we are willing to learn and want to go deeper into our understanding of yoga practice beyond and including the physical.

3. Each individual is considered to be a person of consequence, meaning each person here makes this group what it is and each absence is felt. The expectation is that you are willing and encouraged to participate and that change will take place.

4. Listening is just as important as sharing. We seek to listen not just with our ears, but with our hearts and our bodies as well. We will let each other finish our sentences and have a moment of silence before the next person speaks.

5. Better to respond with empathy than with advice - we don’t give advice unless it’s asked for.

6. We are considerate in how much time we take to speak. Each person deserves time to share. We speak from an open mind and heart when we can.

7. Everyone’s experience is unique. No one’s experience is more or less important than the next person’s.

8. Each of our stories is important and valuable and is ours alone to tell. We speak for ourselves and not for others, both in the group and outside the group. We hold everything that is shared in respectful confidentiality, remembering someone else’s story is theirs to tell. Without this, our group cannot truly be “safe.”

Ok that’s housekeeping.  Does anybody have any questions related to housekeeping, the program, or where we are or what you're supposed to be doing?

Make the charitable assumption 
It's an idea that comes from the book Unreasonable Hospitality and it was mentioned in the show The Bear. 

It’s about a chef and it's nuts and it's super fun.

I used to work in the restaurant industry. It's a really good training ground for how to be kind to people, to not make assumptions to do your best in an environment where there's really high expectations that can't always be met. 

Make the charitable assumption is a reminder to assume the best of people even when or perhaps especially when they aren't behaving particularly well.  So instead of immediately expressing disappointment with an employee who has shown up late or launching into a lecture on how they've let the team down, ask first, is everything okay?

He goes on to say that the person he got this phrase from - Dany, he said ..
Dany encouraged us to extend the charitable assumption to our guests as well. When someone is being difficult it's human nature to decide they no longer deserve our best service but another approach is to think maybe that person is being dismissive because their spouse asked for a divorce or because a loved one is ill. Maybe this person needs more love more hospitality than anyone else in the room. 

So I bring that up because we have to be charitable to ourselves and we really do have to be charitable to our students. We don't know what they're bringing with them every single time they come to class. We can be there for them if they choose to share but always always make the charitable assumption with others. 

Share example: student from Wednesday night who didn’t show.

How this applies to you ..
We are each unique individuals, getting to know each other - within the context of yoga teacher training.

So, I don't expect you all to be best friends by the end of this, though there's an affinity that always occurs within a group like this: we care about each other because we care about yoga, we care about ourselves. We're good caring people.

Note (again) the expectations page in the intro pages of the manual.

• Do your work, support others in doing their work.

• There is no competition for who's the best YTT student! 

• Some basic things - reflective listening .. we will learn more about this in month 5, with the fifth chakra, begin to train yourself to respond with "what I hear you saying, or what I heard you say"

• No cross-talk: it's not talking while another is talking and it's tracking with what is happening as it happens. So if someone says something that you have a thought about - jot it down. I will give you plenty of chances to share - I don’t want to hear myself talk the whole time - I am interested in what you think, what’s landing with you, what’s not .. 

• This isn't group therapy or debate class, this is YTT and at this part of the journey you are looking at yourselves, and this will continue. The personal work is never finished. We always have room to grow, change is constant. 

• If another student or I offend or irritate or annoy you, first look at yourself, what does this awareness mean to you, what is it teaching you?, what is it asking you to look at? 

Triggers
Let's talk for a moment about triggers for a moment, Pixie Lighthorse’s definition of a trigger is:

words, actions, events, or sensations that transport one back to an original trauma.

A trigger isn't about the other person, it's about you and your unfinished business. When there is a trigger, there is an older version of ourselves that is not getting something met. 

I'm not good enough, I'm not safe, no one is listening to me. There's a fear. Selena says this is innocent and it’s human. Though we may judge or label the experience as negative, what the trigger is asking you to do is to go underneath all those layers and get truthful with yourself - asking why does this really bother me? What’s within me, or within my control. It's not to blame or project onto other people. A trigger is a mirror, and it's showing you how you feel about yourself (pause for effect). A trigger is an opportunity to get real, and getting real means it's going to get uncomfortable. But when you go there and reframe and interrupt a pattern, and continuously do it, a clarity comes through, an authenticity comes through. You come through. 

I want you. We want you! More of you!! 

So take advantage of the triggers, they are incredible learning moments.

But, please don't confuse a trigger with actual danger. It’s not the same thing. A trigger is a fear, it's a subconscious or unconscious fear. it's a fear of something that might occur because it did occur at some point in your life okay it's not the same as actual danger like you if you're in danger and bombs are coming like it's not the time to be like what do I feel about this what is this teaching me you get yourself to safety you make sure you have people around you that know and can support you and then when you feel safe. You can look at it a little bit deeper ok. Is that clear?I’m also not saying the other people can’t affect you. They most definitely can - but it's not for us to change another person, but to change ourselves - not by force but through awareness.

The feeling of I'm not good enough, I'm not safe, no one's listening to me, or there's a fear right.  and then, there's what's underneath that.

This is why I ask you to study the chakras and study Eastern body Western mind as our first step. So what's underneath that.  Maybe you start to think oh I'm not worthy, I'm not good enough, I'm invisible; you’ve got yours, I’ve got mine. When a trigger occurs all of that comes to the surface. 

So what the trigger is asking you to do is to go underneath those layers and get truthful with yourself. Truth is the realm of the second chakra. Self-expression. You might think thats the 5th chakra, but its the second, you can’t speak your truth if you don’t know your truth. It can be so easy to put on a mask (I'm not talking about an actual mask,, Beth) . It can be so each to put on a mask and not be truthful with ourselves and sometimes this happens and we don't even know it's happening.  We don't even know we're not being truthful. That's how hidden our understanding can be. 

This is not to say that because I don't get as triggered as much as I did that I'm better in some way. Also, I get triggered. Just the other day. By my child and I was like it's not about him it's about me what does this trigger teaching me. So I'm learning this stuff all the time as well, okay. I bring it up again and again because it comes up again and again. There will be somebody that walks into your class that triggers you.  By no fault of their own.No fault of your own -  it just happens and we have to learn to deal with it..

Some of these triggers are very very very intense right, some are really minor and some are really really really upsetting.

It's about honoring the actual feeling and then looking under the feeling looking under the fear. This hard work and I recommend therapy right. I recommend to find a good therapist that can help you through some of this stuff. I am not that person right.

(I was this close to applying to be a therapist but then I was like no I'm a yoga teacher I'm gonna do that so and it had a lot to do with like I'm not worthy I'm not good enough I need more education blah blah blah blah blah that was several years ago.)

So when I say all this stuff. What's happening in my body right now is there's a tightness in my belly right this is uncomfortable stuff this is challenging stuff this is hard work.

This is self-care. We also want to be kind and gentle. We're going to learn a whole ton of self-care practices next week. Self-care is also about doing the hard work and the phrase doing the work is pretty overdone and overused at this point but that's what we're doing right. We're doing this work. Work only you can do. There is only so much that can be done on the yoga mat right. You can't solve all of your problems.  Though I think many us have tried solve all the problems. You're looking at the mat -  you better fix my problems right and oftentimes that reflective state that we find ourselves, in on the mat can be just the the trick to take us to a new place. 

Would anyone like to say anything about this? 

What's so interesting about the words that we learn in yoga is that every word represents something. Every word has a deeper meaning so we never really take things at face value. We're always looking for more, looking for depth, and that all starts with ourselves. 

So if another student or if I offend you or annoy you or irritate you in any way, that's okay. and I guarantee I will probably annoy you or irritate you or trigger you in some way at some point just because I'm another human being and this is an intimate gathering. We're working on ourselves, we're moving together, we're breathing together and its intimate. This isn't a typical situation, we're digging deep into ourselves and we're learning ancient practices that are mysterious, that are ever changing , so a lot can happen.

Everything changes. 
That is an essential truth and if you have trouble with change all you have to do is look outside. Look how the weather changes. Look how the days change. Look how your moods change. There's no need to be afraid of something that happens all the time. I don't think any of you are afraid of change. I am not implying that at all. 

Personal work is never finished. We always always always always have room to grow to change. We're constantly growing and changing and if you're a yoga student growth and change are inherent in this practice. You will not stay the same person that you were. I am not the same person I was 10 years ago or 20 years ago. I am not the same person I was last year.

Change is constant. 

At some point we will talk about the idea of letting go of expectations or letting go of the outcome. Letting go of the outcome does not stop you from wanting to grow and change and improve and pursue - that is human nature but what is the pursuit of? That's an important question. What am I pursuing? Often, the pursuit is driven by something sub or even unconscious and it's through our practice that we do the work of uncovering, peeling back the onion layers of self until we get to our essence, our essential nature.. 

In the Shanti mantra, I move from Darkness to light .. you're uncovering you and you have to go into the darkness to uncover the light. You have to go into the fear,  you have to go into the trigger,  you have to go into the idea to get to know it a little bit better. 

This is not memorizing facts.  We want this to be a felt understanding; a felt experience and the only way to do that is to actually feel.

Feel into your thoughts about it. Feeling is also the 2nd chakra. 

If something comes up in some of our reading and it causes some sort of reaction in you where is that reaction happening? Then you can go to your chakra understanding ..  If you feel it in the gut? What is that teaching you? What is that showing you?  If you feel it in the throat like there's a lump in the throat, what is that showing you? What is that teaching you? 

So does that all make sense? You picking up what I'm putting down? Smelling what I’m cooking? Brooke - was that you who said that? :-)

History of Yoga
This week is all about the history of yoga. I asked you guys to kind of write down a timeline of the main points of the history of yoga.

Dr Douglass Brooks
Selena Garefino - cultural anthropologist
Josh Shrei - The Emerald

Academic and lived experience

Create history that supports their narrative/beliefs

Mythology more chapters on what yoga is

Engagement

Taking something wild and bringing into divine service

Overlapping

New evolutions

Preconceptions?

All yogas are one

Pattanjalis yoga - compilation

Late 19th century - Popular because of orientalists english french german indian anglophiles

Small collection not the primary 

Printable 

Thousands of texts and lineages

Different systems through india

Yoga keeps changing it in not unchanged

Indigenous changing, evolving

Did not evolve from an indian dude to a white woman in lululemon

Timeline is reductionist 

Yoga is a homonym

Affluent to industry

Postural Vivekananda rajas yoga (didnt like hatha yoga)

Yoga asana = modern

Krishnamacharya invented from a mixture of exercises, calisthenics

1990s Venice beach 

Shiva Rea began adapting her ashtanga practice so that it wasn’t so harsh and aesthetic - more accessible 

Elena, Sean Corn, Sharon and David - Jivamukti 

Flexibility and mindfulness 

Bikram - trademarking

History is complex

I think with the history of yoga like it's important to really know it but it's not that important because we're here in the present moment it's really important to know where it's coming from you know what the lineage is but it's so vast it's such a giant subject there's no way to really get into it within a 200 hour program.  

What would you like to know more about what stood out to you? What caught your attention when reading The History of Yoga by Linda Sparrow? What would you like to know more about? How long did it take you to read Linda Sparrow's article?

It's a thorough, to the point history of yoga. 

It continues to evolve. I think it was written in 1998 so a lot has happened since then. 

What does yoga mean now for us? What does it mean for you?

Next week is really all about ayurveda so next week is all about taking all of this head knowledge, giving it all a break for a little bit and taking care of your physical body. We have Dr Stephanie Matulle. She's a local ayurvedic doctor here and she's a beautiful radiant person full of love and knowledge and I'm so happy to have her. She's a real radiant being. If anybody is a healthy example I think she is. You know I see her online but when I see her in person I'm like you're really like the most radiant beautiful person I've ever seen - so try not to be blinded by her beauty. She's a really good, kind, wonderful person and has a lot of knowledge to share. She's been a teacher for a really long time she's one of the only other teachers in town that I like to take classes from um just because I have spent a lot of time learning and a lot of my teachers are like internationally renowned and are deep thinkers and things like that so she definitely brings that quality with her and she's really kind as well so I'm excited to welcome her.

Saturday 
9-10 water Community Class
10:15 - 11 check in - tell me about the history of yoga (use post-its?)
11 - 1 technique
Props: two blocks each, blanket, strap
Review: child’s, cat/cow, table. Downdog to forward fold. Mountain
Show me: Downdog. Plank. Chaturanga. Updog.
Breakdown
Downdog
Plank
Chaturanga
Updog

Teach each other (?)

Share: I have an audio recording of the For Beginner’s article of some of the poses that can be challenging for beginners by Shiva Rae; I would love for you to listen to those while on your mat so that you can experience it in your own body - homework for tonight!

Closing
Thank you for your practice.