Teacher of the Month Questions

{me in urdhva daunurasana}

The Blossoming Lotus Yoga Studio (BLYS) where I've been teaching yoga is going to make me their "Teacher of the Month"! So today, I answered the following questions and I thought it would be fun to share my answers here on the blog too:

1) What is your favorite yoga pose?

I love the heart opening effects of backbending, especially in urdhva daunurasana, wheel pose. I used to get pain in my low back from deep backbending, but then I learned how to curl more from my upper back and root my tailbone down to lengthen my low back and this changed back bends for me dramatically! Now, I experience a pain-free, energizing and happy backbend that enlivens me from the inside out!

2) What is the primary style of yoga that you practice and teach?

I have been studying Anusara yoga for the past three years and did a teacher training in Anusara Yoga with Todd Norian and Ann Greene and am a registered Hatha yoga teacher! I love combining a flow of invigorating poses with an uplifting theme and a layering of alignment principles that have the ability to totally transform you. I include all of these elements in both my own practice and in the classes that I teach for an upbeat, inspiring and dynamic yoga.

3) What's the biggest challenge in your practice?

Sometimes, the biggest challenge I have in my practice is making it a priority. I always have a zillion reasons why I don’t have “time to practice”. I have to be very conscious of making time for it. It helps when I remind myself that making time for yoga actually makes everything else in my life easier. It helps me to be more productive, more creative, healthier and happier.

4) Why do you like teaching at BLYS?

I think community is really important. I have experienced first hand the powerful effects of being in a supportive community of people who embrace you for exactly who you are. I’d like to think that when we come together in a yoga class at BLYS, we are beginning to tap into that kind of experience. You just never know how your showing up might help someone else. I like teaching at BLYS because I like contributing to the creation of this kind of community right here in our town.

Teacher of the Month Questions

Notes from a busy week

Wow! How did it get to be Thursday already!? 

One reasons I've been so quiet here on the blog these last few weeks (besides being gone for the spontaneous road trip and the ongoing work on my graduate thesis) is that I've been hard at work on a new Word Press website that I am creating with the help of Tara Gentile's Website Kickstart e-course! The above screen shot is the site in it's current state and I have some more tweaking to do until it's ready, but once it's done, I'll have a website/blog all-in-one! I have lots of exciting ideas and plans for the new space and will let you know when it's ready!

On the painting front, here are the other two paintings that I finished this week:

This one's called "Love Roots Us". There was something about the deep plums and rich pink layers that reminded me of being rooted in the expansiveness of love...I'm not sure why. One of the reasons I love creating these mandala pieces is that I never really know how they are going to come out and the final visceral feeling that they invoke in me is always a surprise. 

I am curious to know if the effect they have on you is similar to my experience or if you receive different kinds of feelings from the work...Also, I've wondered if my naming and explaining their effect on me as I create them changes the way a viewer engages with them....I'd love to know your thoughts!

This one is called "Elephant Power", inspired by the Elephant God, Ganesha. While I was in Colorado, I  purchased a little Ganesha statue that I have started bringing to my classes when I teach. Ganesha is the remover of obstacles from our path and the go to guy when starting out on a new project. I have been working on this here Art Asana project for almost a year now, but it still feels so new, so I think I'll keep Ganesha around! 

Happy Thursday! 

Notes from a busy week

(Guest Post) Six Ways Yoga and Art Connect

Last week, Courtney, from the wonderful blog Yoga G33K asked if I'd be interested in having her write a guest post about her experience with a Yoga and Art Workshop she was a part of! I was so excited about the possibility and to hear about her experience. Today, I am excited to share it with you! Welcome Courtney, Thanks so much for sharing your story with us!

Hi! My name is Courtney and I’m visiting from www.YogaG33k.com where I write about yoga and all kinds of geeky stuff! I recently modeled yoga poses for an “Art and Yoga” workshop and wanted to write about the experience here at Art Asana! Eliza’s blog is always bringing art and yoga together in the most organic way and this workshop spoke to that so strongly. The students grabbed their charcoal and sketched madly as Blythe and I held yoga poses for minutes at a time. Throughout the workshop, several parallels between art and yoga arose and I wanted to share them with you.

Art and Yoga both invite….

1. Intention. Whether you’re on the mat or at the easel you always begin with an intention. We set an intention at the beginning of the workshop and no matter what it was it could’ve been translated into the yoga practice or the sketching process.
2. Breath & Body Awareness. Yoga may incorporate the use of breath and body awareness in a more literal sense, but this is a powerful way for your yoga practice to enhance your creativity and art. Being aware of the space within you and around you is very powerful on the mat and when being creative.
3. Relaxation. Both yoga and art allow for a space of non-judgment and peace. Letting go of your own expectations as well as the expectations of others is common ground for art and yoga. During the workshop it was easy to see the students opening up and letting their walls come down with each moment that passed and I’m sure you find the same experience at home on the mat or when you’re being creative.
4. A Practice. In yoga and in your creative space, there is a sense of coming back again and again to “practice”. Rolling the mat out and setting out your art supplies brings a sense of building on where you’ve been. A little bit at a time each day and you build your skills and confidence.
5. Movement and Fluidity. The brush across the canvas, catching a fleeting moment with your camera, and flowing through a vinyasa practice all invite you to be in the moment and flow. Being too rigid in either practice is considered something to avoid!
6. Energy Awareness. Being aware of the energy around you is something that makes art and yoga pop! A piece of art that captures the essence/energy of a moment is the piece that you connect with and yoga postures each hold their own energy that the student connects with as well. Being able to read this energy as an artist or a yoga teacher is immensely helpful.

So there you have it! I hope that combining your creative outlet with yoga will enhance both practices in every way! Namaste.

(Guest Post) Six Ways Yoga and Art Connect

Glimpses from the Studio!

{want to know more about my art'n'asana project? click here to find out more!}

I've got a few new Root Chakra inspired paintings in the works. 

This is step one of the process. 

Usually, I make a whole batch of quick, loose images on watercolor paper that I will later work and turn into paintings on wooden panels!

Yoga pose of the day:
  utthita hasta padangusthasana (extended hand to big toe pose)
Insight:
"I am enough."

Glimpses from the Studio!

Big Heart, Full.

Hello! I have been missing for a while. My dad made the suggestion to me that I let my blog readers know when I'm not going to be in for a bit...I am not sure why this never occured to me before, but its a good idea. So next time I'm going to be away from blog land, I will say so. Sound good? Ok. good. well do you want to know where I've been? I will tell you. 

I was finishing up the last part of the yoga teacher training in western MA with the amazing Todd Norian and Ann Greene of deep peace yoga. and I am smitten! I am in love with the practice of Anusara, with the thrill and delight of teaching and the support of a powerfully bright, open-hearted community. And I feel so full to the brim with light from the experience. I feel my heart has grown bigger and wider and fuller. I feel expanded. I am less of who I was and more of who I am meant to be:

Big Heart,

full.

Courageous

and 

Confident.

As a community we exchanged letters and following letter was written to me:

"Dear Eliza, your kula loves you. We admire your extreme creativity thats given you such a unique perception of the world. You have a very artistic and interesting creative fire. And we all see it spark frequently in all aspects of your being. You inspire us with your youthful but quiet wisdom that is so lovely and refreshing. Thanks for being such a bright, shining face among us. With love, your kula"

I feel so grateful to have part of this group, so grateful to all the individuals who helped remind me of who I really am by opening their own hearts. I want to keep living in a world where this much love and support is offered to every individual within it. 

At the end of our week together, Todd said to us, "Now is the time to open your hearts. don't wait any longer, life is too short."

Big Heart, Full.

OTG and MC Yogi

MC Yogi - Give Love (Giving4Living Mix) from MC Yogi on Vimeo.

I saw this video by MC Yogi on Lori Portka's blog, Happiness through Art (which is such a bright, cheery place itself! Her artwork is so colorful and fun!) and have suddenly become completely obsessed with MC Yogi.

How come I had not heard any of his music before?

I have been listening to this music video by MC Yogi every morning for the last couple of days. It uplifts me and reminds me to give love to myself and those around me. So, thought I would share it with you here today!

It's the perfect synergy between music and yoga!

I had decided that opening to grace and living fully from my heart would be this week's personal theme (and really my personal intention for the year 2010) and so it seemed so appropriate that I fell upon this song.

The song says,"open up your heart and let it shine the brightest" and when we do that, our love and lives can become limitless!

OTG and MC Yogi

Trees, Spring and Yoga homework

{photo taken by my-oh-so talented little brother Pat}

I've been thinking about trees today. And spring. and how I want the trees to be thinking about spring too...

I love winter, I really do. But here in my new home on the Cape, we haven't gotten a whole lot of snow (at least by my rather high standards about what's a lot of snow) and it

has really put me in the mood for some spring. So images of spring are floating around in my head.

I should do some art work with those images.

But I have been busy this week, finishing up all my yoga homework that is due for the next part of my teacher training. As part of the homework, I wrote the following about trees and spring and the celebration of life:

Each spring, we begin to recognize that trees have this vitality, this sweet inner essence that is lively pulsating through them. In a few more weeks, we’ll begin to notice little green buds starting to quietly emerge on the branches. Trees have deep roots, that go down into the earth and these roots, pull energy up into the core of the tree. The bark hugs onto the tree in concentric circles and this protects the sap the runs through the tree. From it’s trunk, from the very marrow of the tree, it grows and extends out and upwards with its branches each year. We start noticing this each spring, when the trees around us start to shine out with little green buds that eventually burst forth in full celebration of leaves. This pulsation that is happening with the tree, of drawing in through the roots and bark and then shining out through the branches and buds is happening inside of each of us too. We too can draw in and plug into our own sweet vitality and then shine that out in a great celebration of our lives. Yoga helps us to become aware of this pulsation, this spanda. It teaches us that our true nature is this sweet and pure essence and that we can celebrate that by drawing into it and shining it out.

I'm going to go celebrate the idea of spring by eating a warm weather fruit (a pomelo) and going to a hot yoga class.

Happy Shining!

Trees, Spring and Yoga homework