Yogafly2

YOGALife 1 Training at Love Yoga Co-op - January 2010 - March 2010

Lauran Janes and I are finalizing our curriculum for our YOGALife Training (series of weekend workshops) -  1st 100 hours - at Love Yoga Co-op in Austin, Texas from January 2010 through March 2010.  For those interested in earning a 200-hour yoga certification, you will take YOGALife 1, a trainining intensive in the Summer of 2010 and then the next 100 hours of YOGALife from September to November 2010.

For those who just wish to deepen their practice of YOGA (Most of those signed up are in this category) - you have a couple of options including taking the entire 3 months training for $1500 or taking one weekend workshop at a time at $185 each weekend.

A full course curriculum will be announced shortly.  Here's a sneak peek at some YOGALife weekends:

1) Self Expression Through Sound -

Wake up your pipes and channel the Force in your heart!  Vibrations inside deepen our relationship to Source.  Create an outlet through Sound to Express your Self.

2) Anatomy of the Mind-Body-Spirit -

Anatomy from a purely physical perspective is just one aspect of who YOU are according to Yoga.   Let’s review our human form from the 3 levels of Mind-Body- Spirit and then a 4^th level – Energetic, thereby expanding the definition of Anatomy beyond Physiology and Biology. 

3) Prana - The Yogic Power of Breath -

Expand your lung capacity and your experience of life through breath and movement.  

4) The Extraordinary in the Ordinary - Yogic Scriptures Unscripted

An in-depth look at Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita as they bring light and meaning into life’s challenges. 

5) Contact Yoga - The Art of Hands-on Assists 

Learn the fundamentals of steadfast support to help each other experience the fullest effects of Yoga asanas.

6) Eat, Drink, Yoga - 

Explore the balance of Sustenance and Indulgence with YOGA in your everyday eating and drinking LIFE.

she's digesting!

That's a picture of lovely Jyoti - one of the Ananda Ashram kids whom I adore. During the Ramayana rehearsal at the Met Museum of Art, she and Rajan - another one of the adorable Ashram kids played with me and kept me entertained. I had my Jatayu bird costume on so it was doubly fun. The game was to chase them around the auditorium so they could squeal with delight.

After my lunch, I came back to the auditorium and Rajan and Jyoti wanted to continue playing chase. And I sat down, patted my belly and said, "not yet, I'm digesting." But as kids are, Rajan prodded me to get up and Jyoti said, "No, leave her alone. She's digesting!" And continued to say this several times.

I think it's a metaphor for my life. Lately, it's moving so fast that I don't have time to digest. What's going on? It's entertaining on one end, because I don't have time to think about anything, judge it as good or bad. On the other hand, it can get too fast that I don't properly digest before I react or respond. We must slow down to digest. To absorb and acclimate. Slowing down is just as important as speeding up. It's important to discern between the two in our fast paced world. Each - speed and slowing down - has its place.

So much of what I write and teach in yoga is a dialogue with myself as much as it is a dialogue with anyone outside of me. Leave all things be, Sumukhi, and digest.

Hare OM. Om to digesting.

what happens when you're squeezed

The ad agency is a constant squeeze affair. How much can you squeeze into a day? How much can you squeeze morw work out of each other. We all respond a little differently to the squeeze. Sometimes, we just giggle. At other times, we balk. But how to do all this with dignity and love? It's truly a wonderful place to practice expanding and opening the heart instead of closing in.

blogging, meditating while sitting in traffic

the light is green but none of the cars are moving. Enter the mystery of traffic in nyc. I didn't finish my oatmeal this morning and I'm regretting that a little bit. I'll have to admit that this is where meditation is key. May the force be with me.

dejavu

I had an Ayurvedic consultation today on 96th street near where I live on the upper west side. As Dr. Bapat spoke to me, I looked up at the picture of a meditating yogi, a quote from Gurumayi and at the dear doctor and had this super intense feeling of having either dreamt this scenario long ago or having gone through it all exactly before. Not in that, this is somewhat familiar sense, but as if I knew this exact moment before. It was uncanny. I held it - the feeling - a number of moments to understand it. We all know we can't quite understand these things. Of course she read me from the mind down to my gastrointestinal tract, and I had this desire for her to tell me that I needed Shirodhara and massage on a regular basis. She agreed. Oh goody - to need these wonderful treatments on a regular basis and to have them steps from my door.

forgiveness, apology and remorse

We (Shawn and I) have been given scholarships to this powerful weekend retreat at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, a few minutes away from Mudita Yoga Center in Kingston. The teacher, Pumla, is from South Africa and works to reconcile the suffering of everyone who lived with apartheid. She works with assassins and the families of the murdered victims to bring about true forgiveness. It's tough work. But I see Pumla's aura - bright lights shining sweetly around her sweet, powerful body. I am looking forward to what we will uncover throughout the weekend. Kavita, the woman who gave us the scholarships is a devotee of Ramana Maharshi. Coincidences like these are not lost on me. We are guided beyond measure.