Costa Rica: January 2010

At the end of my teacher training with Pamela Bliss, I had planned a trip to Costa Rica to attend a Kundalini yoga retreat with Teacher and Body-Mind Coach Jamie Durner. Here, I delved a bit deeper into the Kundalini world of mindlfulness and discovered more fully how to bring a deeper awareness of the body-mind-soul connection. Something I need to remind myself of daily.
Jamie held class every morning and every evening. It was a wonderful experience. Even my very conservative, yet open-minded husband looked forward to class.  One morning on my way to the octoganal yoga studio, I saw another yoga class being held in the garden. I was immediately intrigued. The next day, I decided to honor my need for discovery and attended the garden class.
Our teacher was a beautiful young woman named Sarah from New Jersey. At first, it seemed like any other Hatha class. Then, she began to speak of "centerline" and "inner and outer rotation". I wondered why I never got the memo on this. Perhaps I hadn't read my text books thoroughly enough, I concluded.
In Downward Facing Dog, she came to readjust my hand position. Instead of pressing my index and thumb (J) into the mat, she had me spread my hands farther apart and tent-up my fingers. This worked surprisingly well. "Wow! How do you know this?" I asked her. "This isn't Hatha, is it?"
"Kind of. It is a more loving and effective form of Hatha called Anusara." She explained to me some of the principles of this practice to me, like pulling your power into your centerline and rotating muscles inward and outward to achieve optimal positioning.
For the rest of the retreat, I completed my Kundlini classes and continued to think about the Anusara experience. When I returned home to Brookfield, I was determined to take another Anusara class. There must be a studio in my area, right? I researched Anusara classes and found one registered teacher in all of Wisconsin--and she was in Madison. "Huh, why aren't there  more teachers?", I wondered. The best and closest studio I found online was in Barrington Hills, IL. A lovely two hour drive at best in traffic.
So, I went to the Anusara site and discovered why.
Of all the yoga teacher programs available, Anusara has the highest level of standards for their teachers. And it takes a long time to even to be considered to get into the program. Years.
Still, I was thinking about it all the time. When I found out that I would be in Europe for the summer, I began researching workshops and classes I might take there. What do you know, John Friend (the founder of Anusara) is hosting the "Melt Your Heart, Blow Your Mind Tour" this summer. And it would be in Europe. Paris, in fact, when I would be in Brussels. Only a short train ride away!