the gift of serenity

Some are born into the state of yoga others have to discipline and practice to get there, sutra 19 states. I get this, in my own life, some days I’m born into a serene state, or feel contact without even trying, other days my practice saves me from going crazy… In some way it’s like some parts of me can be born into the yoga-state while other parts have gets to be disciplined by practice. It is fine, that it differ. There is no opposition. No fight. When I recognize the yoga state or the travel towards this in someone else, what I really get to is to recognize what it is for me. I just choose to call it them at that point in time.
We have been working with softness and serenity, nice and gentle movements.
This Friday I’m going to teach a workshop in mantras, I love that, I look so much forward to it. Combining sound with pranayama and asanas, its beautiful!!
Namasté and good week
Jenni Saunte

the yoga state

This week, I’m at sutra 18. Here my texts differ. Usually when they differ I either choose the one that I can relate to immediately or I focus on how the enrich each other. At this sutra I can only say; ok!? Let’s go with Desikachar, as I understand the text, he translates this sutra as a view; into what the yoga state looks like. “The usual mental disturbances are absent. However, memories of the past continue”. It’s a great promise for me that memories can live peacefully in me, I don’t have to shut the door on the past, to not get disturbed by it, and I actually can lean into my past experience in the day to day world. I’m also grateful that Bouanchaud brings in the concept of “kaivalya” to describe what the yoga state points towards. I love that kaivalya means both serenity and freedom, how true that is.
In my teaching I want to bring the focus on serenity and recognizing past experiences with poses and that we still can be new today in the pose.
I have some experience with loving and including disturbances and recognizing that, when “they” are nothing else than me, than “they” don’t disturb any longer – maybe I can work with inclusion to… I’m not in a slow place so it’s probably a really good thing for me, to use easy and slow movements.
Let’s see…
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

honesty, clarity and an open mind

I’ve had a special week, with sick kids and many things to do and some that couldn’t be done and an audition for a yoga job – That was a new experience for me! I thought I was done with the auditions when I left the theatre and dance world… But I get to receive me- as new in this experience as well, what a gift!
Yoga sutra 17 tells me; “Then the object is gradually understood in totality. At first this is at a more superficial level. In time, comprehension becomes deeper. And finally it is total. There is pure joy in reaching such a depth of understanding. For then, the individual is so much in unity with the object that he is oblivious to his surroundings.”
At first this inspires me in my meditation practice. But reading more about how Bouanchaud unfolds it, I find guidelines to seek clarity, getting rid of a clouded mind to enable me to understand the object (or for me the world – life) more truly. So I intend to make three classes about honesty, clarity and an open mind. For me, honesty is a lot about breath and awareness, clarity is about here and now, focus, balances and ajna chakra. Working with open mind or body is about lengthening and stretching movements and about courage and the mind of a newcomer, the mind of being new.
Let’s see how it turns out.
I’m grateful for inspiration!
Namasté
Jenni Saunte

This week...awareness

Last week was all about “letting go”, vairagya, we worked with it by working us into the poses and than surrendering into what is and how it felt.
The classes were good for me. I prioritized to take extra time to the ending relaxation and took my students on a “letting go- mountain journey”, it was nice. The 15th sutra told me that; “At the highest level there is an absence of any cravings, either for the fulfillment of the senses or for extraordinary experiences”. It was rewarding to se that spiritual pride is just as big an ego booster as “I’ve got the biggest car…” is.
This week sutra 16 tells me that; “When an individual has achieved complete understanding of his true self, he will no longer be disturbed by distracting influences within and around him”. What a great promise!!!
And I recognize my truth. So we will work with sthira, (awareness, awakening, stability and steadiness). By focusing on what is, I often have received the gift of connection to my inner truth and distance from outside- and inside- “stories”.
Breath, heart and spine – keeping it simple, that’s my take on this.
Namasté
Jenni Saunte