"If you are in love with your life, your body, with the tree outside your door; you act to protect your beloved. If we are to survive, we must reclaim our planet from those corporations and people who are destroying it.  But even before this, we must reclaim our own bodies and our hearts from that same grasp."-Derrick Jensen

Hi everyone-

I have put a very simple video in the asana corner this month about breathing.  I often tell my students to breath into their bellies.  Sometimes i get the question, "how can i breath into my belly when my lungs are in my chest?"  i wanted to share another story about the amazing cadaver lab i did last month.   

It was about day four with our lovely cadaver, Gisele.  We had finally excavated to the viscera.  It was as if, instead of our painstaking peeling of layers, we had unzipped her jumpsuit to see the jewels of her organs. There sat many of her internal organs in a diaphanous sheath called the peritoneum.   Our teacher, Gil, www.gilhedley.com came around with a tube and blew air into her trachea so we could see her lungs expand.  That was beautiful but what was even more amazing was to see the breath move EVERYTHING in the body. The lungs moved the diaphragm, the diaphragm moved the delicate sack of organs and i am sure if Gil had stronger lungs we would have seen the peritoneum massage the organs of the pelvic floor!  With each breath the entire interior of the body is filled with movement.  With every breath our insides move like the pulsing of a jellyfish.   

 Keep in mind, February 2012, i will be teaching a FIVE day training to train others to teach women about the pelvic floor.  The five day training will be held at Yoga View in Chicago.

Please join me at Namaste Grand Lake on Lake Shore Avenue,  Thursday evening class at 6pm.   

Be well, Leslie         

Pelvic Floor(unless noted)Workshops 2011     

June 4/5 - Yoga and Movement, Walnut Creek, CA  SUNDAY IS A HIP WORKSHOP,  GUYS ARE INVITED!! 

June 18 - Akasha Yoga, Crystal Lake, IL 

June 25/26 - Yoga Center of Minneapolis, MN  

July 9/10 - Lulu Bandhas, Ojai, CA

July 16 - Turtle Island Yoga,  San Anselmo, CA

July 24 - Ner Shalom, Sebastopol, CA

July 30 - Sunshine Yoga, Orland Park, IL 

August 21 - Rasamaya, Dover NH 

August 28 - Rasamaya, Newburyport, MA 

September 2-5 - Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research,     Asilomar,  CA