Interested in some fantasy?

It helps to be a person with many interests.  Yes, I teach yoga but also enjoy other things too.  For me, writing fantasy tales has always served as a nice release from the day to day affairs.  As you may or may not know last year I wrote a novella of sorts and created a FB page to host it.  The story continues and another short story has started from that same fantasy world.  I call this one Why We Fear Wolves. Maybe, you will like it. Click here to check it out and read the brief first part.

New Year's Resolution

Another year passes.  It seems the older I get the faster time flies.

Tempus fugit! Est veritas!

Someone asked me about my New Year's resolutions.  Well...I admit I don't make them.  It isn't because I am doubtful or lazy.  Rather, I find that to resolve on something makes me uncomfortable.  I would prefer to identify my bliss and move towards that remaining open to what this will grant my life.  I know this isn't as absolute and possibly not as convincing as some solid and crystallized plan for the future, but I prefer to remain open to where my bliss might take me and discover gifts never imagined.

May I suggest that you look to your bliss this upcoming year and follow that wherever it may lead.

Namaste to you and happy New Year.

Holiday Contentment

Can you believe this Winter Holiday Season is well upon us?  Hanukkah has come and gone! Solstice and its magical 108 has just passed.  Christmas comes in two days and before one knows it New Year's Day will be here.

Honestly, I feel rather different this year about the entire experience.  Years prior, I have felt the stress of holidays, usually a self induced infusion of expectations and other toxic emotions.  This year I must admit to another sensation, one gladly accepted.  Contentment has settled upon me for this season.

Sure there are material possessions and random things that come to mind that I think might be nice to have and honestly some of them I probably do need.  Who knows maybe I will have these kind of things eventually?  Who knows if I even really want them?

This year I realize all the magnificent things I really do have.  I am alive.  My eyes opened this morning. Besides a touch of the flu,  I seem to be pretty healthy.  I teach yoga for living.  How cool is that?  I am engaged to an amazing woman who adores me.  I live in a mind blowing beautiful place.  I have people who care about me.  Opportunities that I never thought of continue to open up on a regular basis.  The list goes on.   Yes, I am content this holiday.

Please don't think I am bragging.  I just wanted to share because maybe just maybe if you look at your life in the right light you will feel the same, that is if you don't already.

May you discover contentment in your stocking this season!


Namaste!

108 Sun Salutations

Join me for a very special honor this year at the annual Inner Dance Winter Sun Salutations.  I will be the master of ceremony for this classical yoga experience.  After a brief introduction and a few words behind the symbolism of the Winter Solstice we will flow through 108 Sun Salutations together  as a community.  Karen Greenwood and her Kirtan band will lead us with music and chanting.  It should be inspiring.  

A well deserved hour of restorative yoga will follow then afterwards, enjoy a catered lunch by the Organic Oasis.  

Suggested donation: $30-60 All proceeds go to the Inner Dance Scholarship Fund.  

10:00-11:15 Sun Salutations 11:30-12:30 Restorative Yoga 12:30 Lunch

Practicing Yoga

As a yoga teacher, I find it so important to practice as a student on my mat.  Actually, the urgency of this truth of having regular class attendance means more now than ever before.  Trust me, it's easy to equate teaching with such a personal discipline.  The reality, nothing beats going to classes.

As instructor, the experience of a class is very different.  When teaching,  I stand outside overseeing the movement on top of the ebb and flow of a vinyasa.  Even when the class takes on it's own journey, I still remain a pilot directing the controls in response to shifting energy.  I may or may not engage in numerous poses with my students, but I do so as the guide without completely surrendering to the full benefits of the asana.  This is the role of the teacher as he/she shares the intricacies of yoga and points the way to sublime profundity that rests behind the physical practice.

When I go to one of my teacher's classes, I remove the mantle of instructor and take on the humility of student once again open to the lessons of the mat.  This setting grants so much to me in way of teaching.  Deeper insights into the common poses, new ways to approach vinyasas, modifications and adjustments, the list goes on of things that come to me in the golden moments of practicing as a student.  Most importantly, I get to experience again the raw openness of being a student that combines the height of discovery with the humility of limitation.

Maybe you teach, maybe you want to teach, whatever the case,just  keep practicing.

See you on the mat!

Namaste!

Just Sitting

Recently, one of my teachers asked me rather casually if I had a sitting practice?

Oh no! Please don't ask that!

This is one of those questions that have an acid like quality.  It burns through any superficial idea of yoga because it forces the person being asked to reflect about the inward side of practice.  It is easy to engage in the physical side of yoga by going to classes and performing the external actions.  Well, maybe not easy with all the acts of will and sweat involved.  But, it is less of a challenge than the inner journey which involves the practice of sitting.

Fortunately, I could answer yes to his question.  I do practice sitting and have done so for a while. Several years ago, I discovered the importance for my mental and spiritual well being to engage in some kind of meditation.  I chose the simple art of sitting, no mantras, visualizations or special prayers and techniques, just sitting upright, breathing and being right there.  Upon rising and before embarking on the day's demands, I sit on a pillow or a yoga block in an easy pose, set my timer, close my eyes and breathe.  Then, the adventure begins.  I get to be right there and breath through any run of the mind or distraction in the room.  When I started this practice, yoga took off in my life in a way beyond my imagination and it continues to do so.

The point of this lies outside any self promotion and personal  patting on the back.  Yes, I practice a form of sitting.  My hope is that whoever reads this may delve into the world of sitting and find his/her own way.  Just try it and see what happens.  Sit and be right there wherever that is both on the inside and the outside.

Namaste

Yoga starts here

Where does my practice start?

Is it when I enter the studio? Step on to my mat?  Flow into a challenging pose?

Nope!

My practice begins with a pen and journal during my morning rhythm.  For years, I have kept the ritual of making a gratitude list of at least ten things.    This simple process of jotting down some things that I truly feel thankful to have in my life begins the opening process, furthering the unfolding that occurs while practicing yoga on my mat.  Trust me when I say this, that the gratitude list has power to do so. I am one of those people who have a temperament that see things half empty and naturally cynical towards simplistic formulas of feel good philosophy.  The gratitude list supersedes any such formula by granting me the opportunity of putting everything into its proper perspective.   I start by writing the word gratitude itself then follow with such things as:

Waking Up
Being Me
Love
My fiances name
Friends
Family
Yoga
My students

The list goes on from there and before I know it at least ten things are on my page.

Rather than convince you that it works.  Try it and see what happens.  It will revolutionize your yoga practice.

Namaste!