leanjali = Lea + anjali

anjali mudra may sound familiar to you. or Patanjali. or maybe you have no idea what i am talking about...and that's cool too. 

anjali mudra is prayer position with the hands, palms pressed together, at your heart center. We often use this mudra in the middle of class for asanas such as prayer twist and balancing standing split. Or during an exhale to lower the arms from overhead. And at the end of class as a sign  of blessing to one another as we recognize and salute the light or divine in each other. "Anjali" means blessing or prayer in sanskrit and "mudra" refers to a hand position we use in our practice. 

What's Patanjali? or rather, WHO is Patanjali?  Patanjali wrote the yoga sutras, or words or wisdom to live by as a yoga practitioner. There are a 108 sutras: hrih.hypermart.net/patanjali

but what is also interesting is the generation and meaning of his name. pat = fallen and anjali = palms/prayer/blessing. He fell from heaven into the open palms of a woman and is thought of as a fallen blessing to teach yoga to the world. cool, huh?

and so I chose "leanjali" as my yogi nickname.  I bless each and every one of you in your practice on and, as always, off your mat.