Anusara® Yoga Podcast – By Keric Morinaga and Phoebe Schiff

www.YogaChitChat.com

Click on the link below for a special podcast only for licensed Anusara teachers:
https://soundcloud.com/yogachitchat/what-are-the-three-as-of-anusara

The Elevator Pitch

By Keric Morinaga
Certified Anusara® Yoga Teacher

At one of the yoga studios where I teach, there is a small meditation group that meets once per week around the same time that I teach one of my classes. The meditation group rents the space from the yoga studio, but none of them practice yoga at the studio. Recently, one of the participants asked me what class I teach. I explained that I teach the intermediate/advanced class. The follow-up question was “What kind of yoga? What is it like?” I had my “elevator pitch” ready. I can explain what Anusara means to me in less than one minute, the time it takes to go up a few floors on an elevator. It goes something like this:

“I teach Anusara yoga. The practice has three key elements: (1) a non-dual philosophy in which everything is spirit, (2) alignment principles that apply to everyone and every pose, and (3) an emphasis on community. In my classes, we look for the good first and recognize spirit in everyone and everything. We have a simple yet elegant system of alignment principles that are intended to keep students safe and expand their practices. And we interact with each other and help each other through spotting and partner poses. We have fun and celebrate life and each other on all levels, body, mind, and spirit.”

The man who asked me the question, looked at me and said, “Well, that’s very different from the kind of yoga that I practice.” He then told me that he was a long-time practitioner of a different well-known style of yoga. I am not going to say which style of yoga he practices, but I will say that the yoga style comes from (1) a dualistic philosophy where not everything is spirit, (2) a faster practice that does not emphasize detailed alignment, and (3) tends to be a more solitary practice, in which students would rarely, if ever, interact or work with each other. We both politely smiled at each other and agreed that there is something for almost everyone in the world of yoga. Neither of our yoga styles are better than the other. They are just different. But for me, I love the practice of Anusara yoga because of the “Three As.” The Attitude is very positive because everything is spirit/divine. The Alignment tunes me up and keeps me safe, as well as tunes me in and striving to be at my best (physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually). And the Action keeps me engaged, participating fully in the world, with others, and the Anusara community.

What’s your elevator pitch? And how does it incorporate “The Three As of Anusara Yoga?” I invite you to listen to the special Anusara episode of Yoga Chit Chat for a casual conversation on the Three As.

The Three As – The Core of Every Process

By Phoebe Schiff
RYT200 and Anusara-Inspired™ Applicant

The three As of Anusara yoga are Attitude, Alignment, and Action. They are the three foundational elements of every yoga pose, every yoga class, and from my perspective, every process in life.

Every process in the human experience has a beginning, middle and end. The process of you coming into a yoga pose is similar to the process of a new star forming in a galaxy in that in each process, there is a beginning, middle and end.

Attitude is at the beginning of each process. It is the intention behind the unmanifest, the spiritual momentum that drives the collision of forces that must come together to move into alignment, and then from that alignment, to action.

On the yoga mat, your attitude is what brings you to the mat. It is the thought of, “I want to do yoga,” cutting through all of the other noise in your mind. It’s the beginning of your practice – pure potential and intention guiding you to align your life to be able to start your practice.

Similarly, the process of a new star forming begins when a cosmic disturbance, like a comet or shockwave, cuts through billions of particles of dust and gas and starts to cause the particles to align in new ways.

Once the driving force of attitude is in motion, it guides you to alignment. On the yoga mat, your attitude is what guides you to arrive there – alignment is the first pose that you intentionally arrange your body into upon arriving.

In space, after a cosmic disturbance like a comet or shockwave, particles start to align into clusters, acquiring more mass and gravitational pull – and causing more particles to arrive to the cluster. It is a star’s “first pose.”

After alignment, comes the finale – action. On the yoga mat, it is the first inhale you take once you’ve found stillness in an aligned pose. It is the process actualizing into manifestation – breathing life into something that has never existed before.

Once this cluster of particles in space attains enough density and heat, its outward pressure reacts to gravitational force – and from that alignment of particles and energy, for the first time, a star takes its first “inhale,” and glows, newly manifested.

Distill any process in life, big or small, into its simplest form and you’ll find attitude, alignment, and action at the core. Find out more about the three As of Anusara by listening to our special episode of Yoga Chit Chat now.