Happy New Now: Teaching Gentle Yoga: Wailea Yoga Shala: Wailea, Hi: December 31, 2017

Yoga Sutra 1.1 Atha Yoga Anushasanam. The teachings of yoga are here and now.

Its New Year's Eve in Maui and the island is happy buzzing with many holiday parties. You can almost taste the happiness and the well wishes of "happy new year" at the beaches and the boutiques alike.

I love wishing "happy new year", yet it carries a lot of weight towards the future. Yogis ask, 'why not be happy now?". Happiness  is never 'out there' or in a different time. As the very first yoga sutra suggests Atha Yoga Anushasanam. Yoga is here and now. (PYS 1.1)

Our main alignment in this class is in the happy new now, and we also gently opened hips and shoulders and other tight spots that keep us closed minded from the now. As Thoreau said, what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Here's our sequence:

windshield wipers

 supine hamstring stretch with strap

Green Tara side stretch

Sit

Sharing love meditation

Cat and cow with balance play

Downdog

Tadasana

Dancing Shiva side stretch

Dashboard hula girl

Malasana twist

Easy lunge salutes

Lunge

Twisted lunge

Hammock

Warrior II

Standing triangle

Exhalted warrior

Tadasansa

Bridge

Easy twist

Supported savasana

 Sit

Namaste