I arrived in Atlanta last night and discovered I was staying in a really lovely part of town - beautiful houses / mansions along the street - and almost all with the seemingly requisite white pillars in front :-)
I made it in time to participate in the last day of Rajiv Chanchani’s (husband of Swati from Denver) weekend workshop. It was a really good morning asana class – his focus was on the feet and hands with his lesson being that by focusing on both, you can’t help but improve what’s in between. The analogy was a piece of string – pull at both ends and the middle straightens. He also really encouraged us to play and experiment with the poses and props – e.g. in elbow balance, use the 3 props, then remove 1, what do you notice etc. etc. It was a helpful reminder that our practice needs to be living and not stagnant in ‘how we always do a pose’.
The afternoon session was on philosophy – through stories of Ram, he spoke of the characteristics of true gurus. One that stuck with me, is how Kings had gurus because power needs to be balanced with intelligence. Rajiv's core message: Yoga is a phenomenal way of understanding man and the universe – asana is just a part. It is a science. I am still trying to figure out what it really means to me, how important is it really? I'm not sure.
The workshop was held at Still Water Yoga - a lovely airy studio in the heart of Atlanta run by Kathleen Pringle. I'm regretting not taking pictures of the studios I've been to as they all been quite unique and special - lovely energy at them all.
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