Today's check-in is from Ashtanga's advanced a section.

#Vishvamitrasana was so challenging to me that I didn't think I was ready to be working on it. it seemed so hard. I was left with a whole new world to research, explore, and discover.
Thank god for teachers like David and Rolf who encourage autonomy and agency... They reminded me that there is no room for shame or guilt in this kind of endeavor, while giving me the tools to practice lovingly and intelligently.
They trusted that I'd get my shit together.... And they didn't mind that it took a few years.
I am so grateful for the privilege of getting to be a student. Oh, I love Rolf, and oh I love Goa.

I fell and face planted everyday for a long, long time.
The left side of my body is distinctly unlike the right. The times I've broken ribs, the times I've broken my jaw, the rod that was in my leg after my car accident. The plates in my face and skull after the assault.
Every little bit of my history adds up to this body as it is, and I'm so grateful to have it... It is such a wonderful instrument for contemplation. By returning to practice time and again, a practitioner begins to notice where the imbalances are and can go into them to gently encourage balance. And, by going into the weaker parts lovingly, also a kind of acceptance of what is can take place. In the act of dispassionate curiosity built on love and wonder, the bodymind organism begins to thrive. The imbalances aren't the enemy. Neither is the mind, nor the body. They just are what they are-- and by concentrating and looking inside,a quiet spectacle of infinite bliss reveals her dance.

I'm hearing these horror stories about manatees in red hats descending on my city, demanding fish and fried mayonnaise balls. You know what that hat days, eh? @carterstevens
Somehow they've learned English enough to harangue the queers and POC with micro & macro aggressions.
My past:
Most of my early 20s was spent in straight dive bars after work at the DC Improv. I got in a lot of fights -- Drunk guys felt like they could get away with not-so-subtle digs...and I had no problem using my words and my arms to defend myself. It didn't take much to set me off.
I also generally had a surly tits-drunk crew of straight-bros that got excited to talk shit back. They're great men. Typically, things diffused before it got too real. Turns out, most of these bigots were chicken shit.
Things were different then-- both the cultural acceptance of belittling gay folk, and the shortness of my fuse. Sure, I'm not at bars till last call much anymore, but I think it's more than that.
We can't go back. I'm not saying fight these folks with fists, tho, I wonder if maybe I wasn't doing my yoga, which of the bamas would be dead. jokes.
Seriously: Don't be a door mat. Call a bigot a bigot. Don't let the physical manifestation of privilege and patriarchy intimidate you. And, if you are afraid, feel your feelings and if you can speak up: do it. "Tell 'em boy bye. Middle fingers up."

How I feel not being with my sisters & misters during today's March. #blackdogsmatter

#Reposting @hotspotdupont -- We have a lot of gratitude for @michaeljoelhall for sharing an amazing class with us at Yoga in the Park yesterday! See you all again on Sunday at 5pm. Until then join us in the hot room at #hotspotdupont for some 26&2. #yogaeveryday #outdooryoga #hotyoga

"you look ready for the day!" I said. "I am," she replied. "one more plaque to go, for the front. Its of me and my trans son. Same struggle, different struggle. Same same." #pride

Living that life as Uncle Skippy with the Agne family and friends.

Saw @bethditto touring the unbelievably good album "Fake Sugar" -- which I think is her best work yet. Had to peel put of my romper. @yoantoine killed the game.

Saw @bethditto touring the unbelievably good album "Fake Sugar" -- which I think is her best work yet. Had to peel…

SAMASTHITHI

There are so many ways to observe samasthithi. Today, I took yoga straps and strapped them to a tree. Keeping the back flat and the stomach engaged, I worked my pulling muscles with out losing the feeling of a constellated center line. @davidgarriguesyoga would like those terms, i think. They sound like him.
My coach would call these rows. I might call it samasthithi research. Regardless, these moments of turning inward and reflecting soberly on the here and now are valuable. It is certainly not the method... but it also very much is.

At Aarti's wedding, I felt so honored to be able to share this life with, as Puja put in her speech, a family whose values align with mine. 💖💖💖

At Aarti's wedding, I felt so honored to be able to share this life with, as Puja put in her speech, a family whos…

My friends have superpowers. Tara can will emotion through the power of her voice. Evocative. @tara_lizbeth blows me away... Consider joining the Mt Pleasant Christnas Chorus to have a space to use yours!! Spent yesterday at a fabulous Jazz and Funk flavored concert in the charming hamlet of Mt Pleasant. Thanls to Frankojazz for putting it together.

Transitions mean change. Change has an inheritant taste of death to it, and death is scary.
I have historicaly been guiled by the idea of the encroach of Winter. It means the death of my favorite, Summer. Bribed by Halloween and all things pumpkin, I still don't much like putting away my tank tops and finding long sleeves.
This fall, I'm trying to change my tune. We like the idea of transforming into something better/stronger/wiser-- and transformation IS change. In my life, I don't want to be averse to change, Autumn or otherwise. It's an ignorance, to think things aren't always changing. Yoga practice is designed to free up that baggage.
In the Equinox, I practiced by the pool at @vidafitnessdc on U Street where I teach two new classes. I see in the eyes of practitioners a certain kind of hesitation and dare I say distrust at this new class, in me a new teacher, to them. I get it... I teach a practice that asks of them a real attention and effort. It is precisely so potent because of that. It's also sometimes scary to get a real, sober look at the churning of the mind.
It pings me strongly, as I feel a current kind of way about the transition of seasons and see inside of them an analog to me. I want these folks who turn up to trust me, to give potent and authentic practice a real go. But I know it requires time and attention. As I told my friend @mbwould-- "You can't hatefuck someone into trusting you." What to do? I'm gonna give fall a real chance. On my end, its the same as for them. These aspirants and I have a similar working schema:
1) Show up.
2) Pay attention.
3) Be willing to feel.
4) Be willing to try.
5) Be willing to not know.
7) BE WILLING TO LAUGH.
8) Be willing to try again.
Yesterday, I tried to welcome change. I went into the old street car station in Dupont and did a gong bath with @takefivemeditation -- letting the waves wash over me. Old ideas, can't force them away, but I can soften my grip. I can show up and look where I fight change. Maybe I can see things as they are, maybe I can lead by example. Change happens. But it doesn't have to happen violently.

Oh boy.

Ashtanga yoga's primary series, as counted by Sharath Jois, can be completed in an unhurried manner at about the same rate as a full reading of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras in Sanskrit.
Today at @dcashtanga we practiced as Monorama (available on Spotify!) chanted to us. There are so many different layers to practice, I remain fascinated by what pierces through allowing me to be of this world and also internalized.
Humorously? Early on I heard "vrittayah pancatayah klishta aklishta" --1.5 Those gross and subtle thought patterns (vrittis) fall into five varieties, of which some are colored (klishta) and others are uncolored (aklishta). -- later? "shabda artha pratyaya itaretara adhyasat samkara tat pravibhaga samyama sarva bhuta ruta jnana" -- The name associated with an object, the object itself implied by that name, and the conceptual existence of the object, all three usually interpenetrate or commingle with one another. By samyama on the distinction between these three, the meaning of the sounds made by all beings becomes available.

I'm so grateful to @davidgarriguesyoga for teaching me so much about so much.

I learned to pretend to be a cat my first day of yoga. I didn't want to be called a cow. So funny how my sweet little ego bristled when confronted with something that sounded to it like a pejorative! As though our identity couldn't be anything we willed it to be? He hurt so badly.
Today, I'm pretending to be a very good contortionist with an absolutely infinite amount of options. It's all make-believe, afterall.
Inside of this, I'm also vowing to make a mudra, a gesture that conveys an idea, as @davidgarriguesyoga calls such things.
The idea being conveyed through this gesture? With right effort, you can feel the infinite amount of connections hidden within the universe and they all come back to a single point.
Can you see it? (I see a big ol' cow in there, too! 😂)

Even as she molded this flesh like clay, she knew it wasn't hers. The parts of me that stuck to her were as happenstance and inevitable as the parts of her that stuck to me. She was not god, not molding me in her image, but wanting only for me to find mine. And to love it. It's through a kind of grace I see her in me, as I see me in me. As I strive to see God in me, all the more. I feel lucky that I see me in her.
It's an alchemy, to teach a person to spin pain into love. It's an art to see God in all things. But pain has no owner. No shape, no form. There can be no ownership of the infinite.
You'd be surprised at which bone is said to be the holiest. A foot stepping down can feel like crushing bondage. Unmasked and inverted, that same foot can bring liberation. It can also be missed completely.

At #DCAshtanga, we value cultural exchange, and denounce bigotry, appropriation, and oppression of all stripes. Here 👁 am doing forest yoga, not to be confused with Forrest Yoga.
You’ll note I’m doing my Ashtanga practice in the forest (which is not Mysore style, it’s just ashtanga, since Mysore is what you call it when it’s taught like it was/is taught in a specific place). That said, 👁 do sometimes do Mysore style Ashtanga yoga in the forest, when I️ practice with my teacher... who teaches in the forest (and isn’t Ana Forrest ;)). Forest yoga isn’t necessarily Forrest yoga, and ashtanga isn’t necessarily Mysore. I’m being a bit glib... but the drill down here highlights difference between appropriation and exchange, something we take seriously at #DCAshtanga. Check out a class with @gratefulweirdo in the Forrest tradition at @kaliyogadc and of course you can stick around to learn Ashtanga, Mysore style, with me, or one of our incredible teachers, who learned from someone who studied the method in Mysore (me!).

At #DCAshtanga, we value cultural exchange, and denounce bigotry and oppression of all stripes. Here I️ am doing forest yoga, not to be confused with Forrest Yoga. Did you know we have the best landlady— @gratefulweirdo who owns and operates @kaliyog…