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Sunday, June 7, 2009

Larissa Carlson Workshops

I did two workshops with Larissa Carlson at Full Circle Yoga, a great studio in Winter Park. Larissa has heavyweight credentials from Kripalu & she really delivered. A two day workshop on Pranayama, yogic breathing, was informative & a great experience. She presented 5 different techniques & connected them with asanas & meditation. Day three Larissa did a chakra yoga workshop, in which she included a series of seated & standing postures for the 7 major chakras, meditation, & the basics of the science of the chakras. The chakras are a big part of my personal practice, so I was glad to attend. I told Larissa how important her work is & encouraged her to continue. The world is crawling with celebrity yoga teachers who roll into conferences like rock stars & mainly teach yogaerobics, with no treatment of the other 7 "Limbs" of yoga. Larissa started the first class with an in-depth discussion of the 8 Limbs of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, a very unusual move. By the way, Patanjali told us that the purpose of yoga is to prepare the body & mind for seated meditation, something that is totally lost in the world of make-it-burn-yoga that substitutes sweat for insight. The 8 Limbs are a recipe for holistic, healthy living & personal growth. Oh, yes, we did sweat in Larissa's workshops, but the empasis was on insight & growth. Hooray, Larissa! A big thank you to Lewis & Susan for hosting her!

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