Jeanie Manchester

Come play as Hanumanat The Hanuman Festival Sat June 18 3:30-5:30

Jeanie — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:16:18 +0000

Hanuman, the great mythic figure in Hindu mythology is nothing but YOU! Thats right, the half human,half monkey is your very own reflection! Hanuman sits in the midline of our experiences between our heart and our mind,our actions and our thoughts our inhale and our exhale. Hanuman’s story is your own story of trial and triumph, of challenges and victory. He is your own consciousness awake and aware of the possibilities of living a more potent life. Hanuman is gifted the ability to shapeshift at will, to become the person who can be received in any given situation not out of compromise but as empowered choice.

Of the many teachings that come out of Hanuman Lore, one of the most potent lessons is one of stepping into our own gifts, knowing who we are and rememebering this as we traverse our lives and relationships. Hanuman will show us that even great beings forget their gifts and will need relationship and diversity to guide him back to his own path, his own gifts and empowerment. Hanuman will show us in the end that what we hold dear to our hearts makes all the difference and that endeavoring relationship is the key to our yoga practice.

Please join me as we explore Hanuman’s gifts, as a means to open you to your own talents and empowerment.

Get ready to open your heart,hamstrings and hips at the Hanuman festival in Boulder, Colo sat June 18 3:30-5:30 PM

See you on the mat! saprema,Jeanie

“We are Creatures of Nectar!”

Jeanie — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:17:42 +0000

Last weekend I spent in lecture with David Crow. David Crow is one of the world’s foremost experts and leading speakers in the field of botanical medicine and grassroots healthcare. He is a master herbalist, aromatherapist and acupuncturist with over 30 years experience and is an expert in the Ayurvedic and Chinese medical systems. David is a renowned author, a poet, and is the founding director of Floracopeia Aromatic Treasures and MedicineCrow.com.

Our weekend was titled, “Feast of Nectar” the human connectivity to sweetness. As a yoga practioner of over 20 years now I found this discussion fascinating in lieu of our yoga practice, What does it mean that we are creatures of nectar, connoisseurs of sweetness? Our weekend began by tasting our saliva, literally cultivating a mouth full of liquid sweetness, holding it, swishing it around and swallowing. I was aware that at first it was challenging to find the salivia. David proceeded to tell us that we all suffer from “dry mouth” sytndrome.Dry mouth syndrome is caused by sympathetic nervous system overload and over active ego structures, he called “busy Ahamkara’s” ( Busy I maker’s or ego’s) This makes so much sense when I look at the overall stress in a yoga room coming from the upper body and overactive chest breathing which indicates we are living in fight or flight sympathetic nervous system response versus parasympathetic, calm, relaxed and senstive responses to our lives.

Nectar comes from the Greek word that means overcoming death. Nectar was said to be the food and drink of the Gods and Goddess. Another name for nectar in Sanskrit is” amrit “, The liquid juice of immortality, said to be connected to the moons light (soma) and to the dosha Kapha. Kapha dosha from the Ayurveda system of healing is the slow moving, reflective and receptive attributes we see for example, in a pregnant woman or a calm state after meditation. Kapha dosha thrives on sweetness and in alignment ( non refined sugar) kapha dosha puts us in a state of accessing the seam; the place between our mortal and immortal selves. The place between inhale and exhale. The state we seek in meditation, yoga or a vigorous hike in the woods. It is where our individuality merges into the vastness of the Universal. Kapha dosha is also related to Ojas, the radiant yellow fluid created from sexual juices held in the marrow of our bones and in our cerebral spinal fluids.

This afternoon at our Tigress Cubs Expanding Class, we all tasted local, raw honey and for a few moments enjoyed the rasa, the flavor of a product that comes from a few miles away. Students commented on how they could taste the flowers and one student said I feel centered and calm. Yes, connecting to the sweetness in our local raw honey has everything to do with our yoga practice. The first principle of Anusara Yoga is to receive your breath,the gift of life, the gift of your life force ( Shakti Prana) that rides your breath. The first thing we do when we taste something so refined and locally produced is pause and offer gratitude to the bee’s who work so diligently . In offering gratitude we take a moment to receive the Prana, the life force that is in the flowers, the bee’s and the production of their honey. Its a moment to offer gratitude to our interconnectivity. Its very much like pausing to receive your breath and the life force you have been offered. The bee’s are the conduit, the connectivity to our experiencing the nectar we call honey, the sweetness in life, to the kapha dosha and to eternal time. Our connectivity to the bee’s is essential to our survival here on this planet. The sweetness of receiving the gift of our lives is recognizing we are never alone . We are always with our past, our ancestors,their actions and the very cells that live in each of us.We are always with our future selves as our actions now inform our future, our children and so on. What we do to the earth, we do indeed do to our selves. What happens to the honey bee, will indoubatably effect the human race and its food supply .

This revelation that we are all made of sweetness could be translated as, we are made of love and its love that we return to when we let these bodies go. What interests me most is that we recognize this now, while we are alive on this earth in these bodies. What I learned from David this weekend was that real raw honey, elixers and the smell and use of essential oils puts us in a state of receptivity so we can experience our most jubliant selves and make the connection to the Universe through our experience in the body. Like a Yoga practice when we begin to focus on our breath and we let our rational mind take a back seat and our bodies heat up, we step through a portal, we enter a seam between worlds. The mundane becomes the extra ordinary. We begin to see how interconnected and auspicious life truly is. We begin to embody the truth that we all are indeed creatures of nectar.

St Brigid Tending The Inner-A Mid Winter’s Ritual of Rememberance

Jeanie — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 04:31:28 +0000

Feb 1 marks the birth of St. Brigid, The Celtic Saint of Light. She is said to be born with flames moving through her . She sits in the heart of the forest tending the inner fire,igniting our life force. She comes in the middle of Winter when our New Years’ resolutions may feel like a distant spark in a long forgotten yearning to connect to the highest potential that lives inside of us.

Im always grateful to live into St Brigid and to call upon her in my yoga practice for she is a deep twist that wrings out stagnation and offers us renewed feelings of committment and directs our energies back towards our highest purpose!

The past two weeks, both of my children have been home from school sick and the frigid days have brought us inside literally tending a fire in our basement. The internal days have brought me back to home cooked meals,and long talks around the fire . The time inside has offered me reflection and strength . I am shifting my teaching schedule so I can offer more honestly from a place of authenticity and truth.

This past New Moon coming at the time of St Brigid ‘s birth also inspired me to look closely at relationships and integrity. Tending and directing our inner fire is a delicate balance in relationship to others. We must learn to listen and align with our truths and trust in an energy bigger than us. An energy found in the Universe. St Brigid offers us the rememberance of Grace that moves as light and vibration as our hearts beat and bloods flow. She is our inner life force that has never left us even when we feel low and less than perfect. Trust in how she guides and redirects your path at this time of the year. A birthing of sorts is being asked of each of us.

During this month of February, in the heart of Winter I encourage you to take a brisk walk in the frigid air, eat warming and nutrtious greens and soups. Take time to come to Yoga class and move your energy and engage in community . Rememeber to tend to your breath and to a contemplative practice such as meditation to listen to your inner longings.

As a result of tending to St Brigid, to that inner longing in me I am in the middle of some changes. Over the next month I am redirecting my energies to my home studio in order to continue to offer to community the true expression that is wanting to be birthed in me.

With Great affection I write to you all on this snowy cold Winter’s day.

“Meditation For The Love Of It”A Blog about Sally Kempton’s Meditation book

Jeanie — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 23:54:42 +0000

Have you ever wondered why it’s difficult to quiet your mind? Perhaps it’s because the pulse within, the Shakti, the wisdom energies inside us are so alive, pulsing with light (Tejas) and love. As a recent Immersion student said, “I never liked meditation before because I was always forcing myself to sit still hoping my mind would stop so I could enter into bliss!” My own experience of meditation was initially similar to this in that I was chasing a method of quieting my thoughts that I could never actually attain. Waves of thoughts and emotions are a part of the great pulse of life force within us. What a sweet relief it was for me to realize that my life force was actually rocking and pulsing me. The more my outer-body softened and surrendered, the more my inner-body undulated like a wave in the ocean, the more I felt connected to the Universe and all its wonder. Over the past 17 years of study with John Friend and more recently with Sally Kempton, I have come to understand that this Tantric wisdom contains the most elegant language and insight about the subtle energies within our bodies as mirrors of the energy in the Universe! I get tingles all over just writing this!

“Meditate For The Love Of It,” Sally Kempton’s newly released book (formerly called The Heart of Meditation) cracked a code in me that has opened the portal to loving meditation.
As a student of Tantric Wisdom, I have come to realize that radical affirmation, affirming life every day is a path of seeking the highest vibration moment to moment. Each day whether on my mat, in the grocery store, teaching yoga, or interacting with my children, a friend or even a stranger, I take a moment to consciously see the gift of life. The most tangible way is to connect to my breath. Sally’s teaching has inspired me to learn the language of the inner body and to understand how to access my life force. Every thought is an impulse that comes from our connection to the Universe. We have the opportunity to witness our thoughts and emotions and see that they are all part of the pulsation with in us. Yes, we are capable of the most horrific thoughts and deeds in the world and as Krisna shows Arjuna in the Bhagadvad Gita the dark, shadow side of us is also part of the energy of the Universe that lives as possibility with in each of us. Reflection and awareness become the key to unlocking the door to liberation, freedom and delight. We begin to see we are both shadow and light. Our fullness includes energies such as anger and grief as much as joy, happiness and ecstasy. The key to seeing more of ourselves is to recognize the tone, the vibration of our thoughts and to ask the deeper questions of whether our thoughts are aligning with the person we seek to be.

“Meditation For The Love Of It” offers us the opportunity to understand the language of the ancient Tantric wisdom within each of us. Sally teaches us how to recognize the energy that flows through all sentient beings and how She offers herself to us in a particular way. It’s up to us to recognize how the Universe is speaking to us and through us. We learn to delight in our life as expressions of the energy that pervades the Universe. Just as the Sun’s light becomes the reflection of light we see when we gaze at the moon, we too, become a beacon of the Universes’ light. It’s up to us to engage this life force that is non other than who you are and what you are made of.

In reading “Meditation for The Love Of It” and working with Sally, I have come to understand the life force with in me as the great Goddess Shakti. Each day we dance with her in all her various forms. Meditation has become a practice of honoring and delighting in the flow of The Universe that pulses through me. It has become a place from which to see my misalignment as well as alignment with my thoughts and actions, a place to explore my past, my ancestors and my lifetimes ago.

Sally not only offers us a subtle body language in which we can engage the most internal aspects of ourselves but she offers us practices to explore in developing our own meditation practice. Sally’s voice is a gift from the Universe as she weaves us through the practices with her own life experiences as well as her work with others. You most certainly feel her thirty-plus years of deep internal work with meditation and teaching. She is truly a gem!

As a teacher of Anusara yoga I require “Meditation For The Love Of It “as our meditation bible. It’s a must for any serious Yoga pracitioner seeking a language and experience of the inner realms of our subtle body experience.

To Purchase “Meditation For The Love Of It” Go To:
Amazon Link: Amazon.com
Book URL: Meditation for the Love of It: Enjoying Your Own Deepest Experience
Author Website: www.sallykempton.com

Here is a great accompaniment to the book and offers guided practices that are recorded live with Sounds True http://www.soundstrue.com/shop/Kempton-Meditation-Bundle/3200.productdetails

The Five Faces of Hanuman

Jeanie — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 20:56:31 +0000

August 2010Joyful Summer Greetings,

I’m just home from a retreat with Douglas Brooks in Southern Colorado where we studied the five faces of Hanuman, particular to South Indian lore. As I reflect on the teachings, accessing the seam is one I’m deeply committed to exploring. The gap, the seam is a place of union or in Rajanaka Tantra terms, a place of remembrance. The gap is a portal, a doorway into seeing that the extraordinary is here in the everyday. The difference is in RECOGNITION. To recognize, to remember, is the key that unlocks our awareness into experiencing our ultimate freedom. For example, today I had to drive from North Boulder to the farthest East edges of town to South Boulder, and finally back to North Boulder with many stops along the way to pick up groceries and soccer amenities. On an ordinary day this would potentially unleash stress and frustration around the time spent in the car and the lack of my connectivity to nature but today I decided to test my ability to connect. Breathing deeply in the car, I simply acknowledged that I’m being breathed and laughing to myself I heard myself whisper, “Jeanie, you’re alive, you’re pulsing. This is simply amazing to be here on the earth experiencing this life.” I ask myself, is it really as simple as this? Is the extraordinary this easily attained?

The Five Faces of Hanuman

The Tantras (Indian esoteric wisdom dating back to 9-13th CE) say YES. It’s your choice to recognize life’s preciousness, its extraordinary beauty moment to moment, day by day. AGENCY as Douglas explained is the KEY. “Pots don’t just happen,” he says, “There is someone making those pots.” You are the agent, the choices are yours to engage or not. She will breathe you whether you’re aware or not. It’s up to you! Wow! It’s up to me to create my own joy?!

Though it is as simple as this, I still yearn for the ritual, the practices, that offer us insight into living in the seam between ordinary and extraordinary states of consciousness. As I look back through time I see that whether it was in the pool swimming, or dancing, or hiking Mt Sanitas or sweating it out on my mat, I have been a seeker all my life. I have always wondered about touching into what athletes call the “zone” and yogins know as the gap. Clearly tapas is a component that has helped us access the seam for thousands of years. Tapas is our burning desire to make a connection. Tapas as Patanjali described, is the burning desire to connect to Source, the universal energy that flows through each of us. Tapas, which also means heat, is a component to yoga practice that has inspired much debate amongst yoga practioners. Internal heat happens naturally when we bring ourselves to our breath as we move our bodies in Vinyasa. Our active monkey mind seemingly takes a back seat, offering the sacred internal voice a space to be heard. We seem to move towards our feminine moon energy that is more reflective, recursive and generative.

Jeanie in India this past Winter/Spring

Another practice that I am curious about is consciously approaching the unfamiliar, the places we fear most and are the least comfortable. These are places that can offer us insight. For example, last year, traveling to India I experienced the Hindu temple ritual for the first time. In the unfamiliarity of the temple life, I found myself experiencing extraordinary states of consciousness. I had prophetic dreams and shed tears letting go of limiting beliefs and habits. The boundary of the familiar, my ordinary environment had been altered dramatically which provided the potent grounds for transformation. Yogins and Shamans worldwide have known that altered states of consciousness have always been gateways to experiencing the seam. Though plant medicines and ritual are ways to alter our consciousness, the yogis believed that we could transform through tapas alone. In other words, your desire alone to connect to the Universal (who by the way is nothing but who you already are) is enough to enter the gap.

Summertime, I was reminded by a student this week, offers us the unbounded freedom we seek just by virtue that our schedules often change and become more random and less predictable. Days at the pool lounging allow us to find ourselves daydreaming into a long-forgotten child-like trance in which the seam is readily accessible. Two weeks ago a few of my women friends and my nine year old daughter Emma took off for a weekend of backpacking. We went to commune with nature and particularly to learn about the potency of wild flowers. At one point after several hours away from home and one night under the stars, I could swear the flowers were speaking to me. The freedom of play and lack of routine offered us the chance to drop into nature’s wisdom, to listen and receive its bounty.

Indian Paintbrush

As we enter August and the last few weeks of Summer I encourage you to from time to time, to literally catch your breath as it rises and falls, pause and offer gratitude for the life that you have been offered. It may seem too simple but I promise that this simple ritual is one that will offer you the magic that you seek. Don’t forget to listen, to spend some quiet time in nature everyday listening to your own heart’s desires. Our Yoga practice is also a place to let go and release tension in your body and mind that hold you back from experiencing the beauty and fullness in life. The Seam is as close to you as every inhale and exhale. All you have to do is simply give attention to that which you seek and The Universal will surely deliver.

Enjoy the last weeks of summer!

Blessings,

Jeanie

Level1 Anusara Immersion Series

Jeanie — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:39:53 +0000

Title: Level1 Anusara Immersion Series
Location: Anjaneya Yoga Shala
Link out: Click here
Description: Level 1 Immersion is a five day Intensive designed to take anyone interested in deepening their yoga practice through asana ( Physical posture), meditation, pranayama ( breathing practices) basic anatomy, and philosophy. This is a deep journey into ones own self inquiry as well as an immersive experience into community and friendship.
Start Date: 2011-01-12
Start Time: 09:00
End Date: 2011-11-16
End Time: 05:00

Yoga Rocks the Park

Jeanie — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:37:47 +0000

Check out the video from the recent Yoga Rocks the Park:

“Consciously Create Your Life”

Jeanie — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 05:00:34 +0000

Happy Spring! Spring Time is one of the finest times of the year. In Boulder we have the red poppies and regal Iris flowers blossoming. Our warm days are intermixed with refreshing and cooling rains that make for abundant gardens. I just returned home from 5 days of outdoor play in Moab,Utah with my 14 year old son, Alex and his 24 class mates as we challenged ourselves physically,mentally and socially with a day of repelling, hiking and mountain biking in Arches National Park. Its hard for me to grasp that my oldest is finishing eighth grade and will be in high school next year. I missed the annual Anusara Teachers gathering a few weeks ago as I had set my eye on going on this trip with Alex nearly a year ago. Intuitively I knew that I needed to be present, however silent and absent I was from his mind, I was going to witness this time in his life. A mothers intuition is always accurate! I will treasure these five days as I stayed present to watching and reflecting on Alex and this pivotal time in his life as I know that my time with him in our home is quickly passing.

Last week, my partners interviewed me on our radio show, Own It Sister, where I was able to discuss the bodies inherent wisdom and my deep love and connection to this practice of Yoga. What does this have to do with Alex growing up and my intuition? Yoga, by definition means to yoke or to join. Traditionally we think of this as linking the human body to its Spirit. I also like to define this as growing our ability to connect, to create intimacy. Listening deeply to ones’ intuition to connect is at the heart of our yoga practice. I know now that by going deep into my feelings and inner knowing and then acting upon them in the world is creating the life I desire. To continue to make a connection, to dive deep into the inner recesses of our hearts feelings and our minds thoughts and to then offer this wisdom up is YOGA. We all know that this precious human life is truly a gift and that Yoga is our ability to choose greater intimacy and connectivity to those that are in the company of our heart. For me watching Alex interact with his friends this week was a choice I stepped into which meant saying No to many other things in my life. To endeavor Yoga is to discern day by day, moment to moment what you value and what is most meaningful to you in this journey towards greater intimacy in relationship to your inner most Self, to others and to the world.

Jeanie’s Home Studio Anjaneya Yoga Shala,”Come Home To The Heart of Your Practice”

Jeanie — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:45:06 +0000

The creation of Anjaneya Yoga Shala came out of a Vedic Astrology session I had with Katyayani Poole many months ago. “Jeanie, Katy said, you need to make your home your ashram!” It seemed like a sweet thought at the time but nothing I took seriously. I thought to myself why have a studio at home ? One, its too small for my student base. Where would everyone fit? Two, I love Om Time. Why create yet another place for yoga in Boulder . ( The capital of Yoga with over 22 places to find Yoga!) A year later ,I have started construction on my home studio,Anjaneya Yoga Shala. “Come Home To The Heart of Your Practice” Anjaneya is the affectionate name for Hanuman. Like all of us we are offered gifts from our parents. ( yes ,challenges as well) Anjana, Hanuman’s mother offers him the gift of shape shifting, the ability to change his shape at will depending on the circumstance. He aligns appropriately with whatever is presented. He shape shifts at will becoming large and small depending on the situation. Hanuman is half human,half monkey. He reminds us of our instinctual,shamanistic and playful parts of ourselves that are monkey like . At the same time Hanuman reminds us of the us the refinment of this human quality of being worldly and cultured. He is both in the cave of his heart and operating in the world.Hanuman is the consummate yogi/yogini,embracing the midline between here and there ,this and that ,now and then.

He is our Sushumna Nadi, the union of inhale and exhale. The experience of operating from the midline . He is neither monkey nor human. He is instinctual and worldy,He is certain and uncertain. He is You !

My vision for Anjaneya Yoga Shala is to offer a home for your mediation and yoga practice. I will offer course on bringing your practice home.Eventually we all need a practice to serve us as individuals. I envision this studio to be a place to explore your deepest self through yoga classes,workshops ,immersions,teacher trainings and retreats and also specialty classes on sequencing, ayurveda ,anatomy, meditation and chanting. I will be offering Sanskrit courses with Katyayani Poole, advanced Anusara workshops, and cleanses for both Fall and Winter. My long term hope is to create a place to further our conversation of yoga in an intimate setting .

More to come, stay tuned . Please leave your comments on what you would like to see from me and this studio that literally fell into my hands . It seems to be where The Universe is asking me to unfold. And yes,I will still be at Om Time! Im just expanding myself.

With Blessings Saprema,Jeanie

The Goddess with Douglas Brooks

Jeanie — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:06:38 +0000

Our desire is the key to our awakening! We have come into the world unfinished . We have to cook our lives and make something with what we have been given. We are not captive of merely an intuitive and instinctual process, we get to make something of ourselves.Alignment is the key. The process of creating yourself never ends .There is no attainment or final state of enlightenment we are seeking . Your birth is the enlightenment,the gift.