My Yoga Sign.....
(Be forewarned...A 'not so yogic' post)
My rants, My raves, My CRAZIES for YOGA;Things I wish I could place on a sign outside of my teaching spaces.....
-Welcome. Class started five minutes ago. I'm so glad you were able to come to class. As you can see, we are all sitting quietly, quietly coming to our breathe...in silence. It's quiet. Take off your F*&$ing wooden clogs!!!
-Welcome. Class started 35 minutes ago. We have passed the "stretching" portion of class which means you are about to jump into a very intense vinyasa flow that includes a flying pigeon and handstand. You're insulted by my gentle and polite warning. Good Luck to you.
-Cell phones are not welcome in Yoga class. If you can not be without your cell phone for one hour....then you DESPERATELY need Yoga. If you actually have the balls to answer your call and carry on a conversation in my class...well, I'll just smile....whilst my other students escort you out. Literally. They do not play!
-I'm happy to discuss ways in which you can bring health into your life. However, I am not a nutritionist...I can not tell you what to eat because I do not know your body. I will give you as many guidelines as I can but please, do not get angry with me because I can't write you a detox and meal plan on the spot.
-If you google a pose online, say CROW, you will see several different poses. This is because "Bakasana" can, has and will continue to be interpreted in many different ways. Stop arguing with me about the names of poses. Focus on your alignment, focus on your breath while in the pose and leave me alone! P.S. the book I used to double check my spelling...calls it CRANE. ;)
I may be done. Shall we call this, Yoga sign #1?
NAMASTE' YO!!!
Friday, April 19, 2013
MORNING CUP OF YO!
I miss coffee. I really, really, truly do. So much that the last week and a half, I've considered a quick swerve to the right everytime I passed Starbucks....I could just go in and smell it! But I know I would totally break down and buy a dreamy, creamy iced latte. I don't even add sugar or syrups-just coffee and milk, you'd think THAT would be okay! Nope. Doc told me last fall that I can't have coffee, it's much too acidic for my stomach and I really don't want to feel the pain I felt that led us to that discovery! I'm still hoping it was a temporary ailment.....
So, how does a non-caffeine drinking person function? YOGA! I have some friends that can get up at 5am and enjoy an hours practice, meditation and breakfast before anyone else in the house gets up. Oy! I do love my sleep! And getting my eight year old out of bed is like, I'm imagining, getting a teenager to speak or smile.
So, I have much work to do...and 5am is just not my friend. 6am my husbands alarm goes off...for the FIRST time...and I hop out of bed. Sometimes I won't leave the bedside. I'll just begin to deepen the breath while I stand there and then gently move into a very slow sun salutation, stopping and enjoying every spot that feels good. Sometimes, just this couple of minutes to breathe and stretch is enough to wake me up. Then I have a whole thirty minutes to a quiet house! I may grab a book, meditate or my personal favorite, I cuddle up on my couch and watch the sunrise in my back yard. See, Yoga does rest heavily on a physical practice, but the asanas are only one of the eight limbed path of Yoga. SO, sitting in silence, meditating, even just enjoying nature are all parts of this practice.If you're not sure what to do, I've added a little script further down.
I know many people who would rather die than give up their morning cup of Joe....but consider this, would you trade that cup in, say every other day or maybe once or twice a week...for an hour to yourself? An hour of quiet? An hour to reconnect to your inner voice, maybe your inner child even? Would you trade it in for a half hours worth of making your body feel really, really good? Maybe. Give it a shot! Pick a day that is a little less hectic than the others, get yourself up a smidge earlier than normal and see where the quiet takes you! I think you'll be surprised, but if I am completely off my rocker....well, starbucks is open late :)
Namaste' and HAVE A GOOD DAY!
Simple salutation
Standing up, inhale reaching your arms out to the side and then up over your head
Exhale bending at the hips and coming to a forward fold. Let your upper body and head be heavy
Inhale, arch up half way with a flat back and long spine
Exhale back into your forward fold
Inhale sweep the arms back out and up over your head as you stand.
Exhale dropping your hands to the heart.
You can add in lunges, down dog, up dog, whatever else comes. Just enjoy and remember to balance! What you do on one side, you must do on the other.
I miss coffee. I really, really, truly do. So much that the last week and a half, I've considered a quick swerve to the right everytime I passed Starbucks....I could just go in and smell it! But I know I would totally break down and buy a dreamy, creamy iced latte. I don't even add sugar or syrups-just coffee and milk, you'd think THAT would be okay! Nope. Doc told me last fall that I can't have coffee, it's much too acidic for my stomach and I really don't want to feel the pain I felt that led us to that discovery! I'm still hoping it was a temporary ailment.....
So, how does a non-caffeine drinking person function? YOGA! I have some friends that can get up at 5am and enjoy an hours practice, meditation and breakfast before anyone else in the house gets up. Oy! I do love my sleep! And getting my eight year old out of bed is like, I'm imagining, getting a teenager to speak or smile.
So, I have much work to do...and 5am is just not my friend. 6am my husbands alarm goes off...for the FIRST time...and I hop out of bed. Sometimes I won't leave the bedside. I'll just begin to deepen the breath while I stand there and then gently move into a very slow sun salutation, stopping and enjoying every spot that feels good. Sometimes, just this couple of minutes to breathe and stretch is enough to wake me up. Then I have a whole thirty minutes to a quiet house! I may grab a book, meditate or my personal favorite, I cuddle up on my couch and watch the sunrise in my back yard. See, Yoga does rest heavily on a physical practice, but the asanas are only one of the eight limbed path of Yoga. SO, sitting in silence, meditating, even just enjoying nature are all parts of this practice.If you're not sure what to do, I've added a little script further down.
I know many people who would rather die than give up their morning cup of Joe....but consider this, would you trade that cup in, say every other day or maybe once or twice a week...for an hour to yourself? An hour of quiet? An hour to reconnect to your inner voice, maybe your inner child even? Would you trade it in for a half hours worth of making your body feel really, really good? Maybe. Give it a shot! Pick a day that is a little less hectic than the others, get yourself up a smidge earlier than normal and see where the quiet takes you! I think you'll be surprised, but if I am completely off my rocker....well, starbucks is open late :)
Namaste' and HAVE A GOOD DAY!
Simple salutation
Standing up, inhale reaching your arms out to the side and then up over your head
Exhale bending at the hips and coming to a forward fold. Let your upper body and head be heavy
Inhale, arch up half way with a flat back and long spine
Exhale back into your forward fold
Inhale sweep the arms back out and up over your head as you stand.
Exhale dropping your hands to the heart.
You can add in lunges, down dog, up dog, whatever else comes. Just enjoy and remember to balance! What you do on one side, you must do on the other.
Friday, April 12, 2013
"Why can't we have a big house like Lukas?"
It was a question I wasn't prepared for...a question that took me back to middle school, a time when I didn't understand why I didn't have an Espirit book bag, Guess jeans and Franco Gibra-something shirts.
I hated this question. Fourteen months ago Shawn and I bought a three bedroom foreclosure that I am absolutely in love with. It's got multi levels-which means I have a sunken living room that I always wanted-cool and dark for movies!!! I have a library/office for all my beloved books. Shawn turned our garage into a Yoga studio for me and therefore now has an entire basement for all his tools, projects and man things...and a rather impressive back yard with beautiful woods beyond it. BUT it's not the $300k+ house that his very good friend has. The house is beautiful and immaculate and something I would have killed myself to purchase a few years ago.
Shawn and I used to work ourselves stupid to buy all the shiny, shiny new things that we wanted. We worked so much that we wished we had time to play with our shiny things. THEN shiny things become dull and boring and we still have to get up and go to work for more shiny things. This became exhausting. Then Shawn deployed to Afghanistan for eleven months.
It hit me Christmas morning. Shawn's face was smiling from the laptop near my shoulder, watching Hayden open his presents. I had three gifts to open. All from Hayden who was concerned a week earlier that I didn't have any gifts, so I gave him some money and a friend took him to Target. It took a nano-second to go from laying first eyes on the Christmas morning tree to being buried in the wrapping wreckage. Shawn's family had stayed the night with us, which meant it was time to make everyone breakfast. All I wanted to do was sit by that laptop. I didn't miss opening my designer handbags and accessories. I missed my husband.
That day I gave up wishing for shiny new things and began to work towards a life that gave us more TIME.
Now, I wasn't privy to this information until Shawn's safe return home in July the following year...but that Christmas morning, a man on Shawn's base was killed while on skype with his family. I can't even imagine.
So, my response to Hayden's "heart wrenching" question...
"Hayden we CAN have a great big house like Lukas has, but if we did, Mom and Dad would have to work a lot more to make enough money to pay for it. We bought this house because it was just the right size and just the right price to let us have lots of family time."
His response?
"Okay. Can Lukas come over tomorrow?"
You'd think I would know not to panic anymore.
The point of my story is this.. Shawn and I gave up a life of working for all the things we wanted, to embrace a life of living with a little work to enjoy the things that we have.
I wish that change for you too.
The grass may be greener, but you have no idea what's in the fertilizer they're using :)
Namaste'
It was a question I wasn't prepared for...a question that took me back to middle school, a time when I didn't understand why I didn't have an Espirit book bag, Guess jeans and Franco Gibra-something shirts.
I hated this question. Fourteen months ago Shawn and I bought a three bedroom foreclosure that I am absolutely in love with. It's got multi levels-which means I have a sunken living room that I always wanted-cool and dark for movies!!! I have a library/office for all my beloved books. Shawn turned our garage into a Yoga studio for me and therefore now has an entire basement for all his tools, projects and man things...and a rather impressive back yard with beautiful woods beyond it. BUT it's not the $300k+ house that his very good friend has. The house is beautiful and immaculate and something I would have killed myself to purchase a few years ago.
Shawn and I used to work ourselves stupid to buy all the shiny, shiny new things that we wanted. We worked so much that we wished we had time to play with our shiny things. THEN shiny things become dull and boring and we still have to get up and go to work for more shiny things. This became exhausting. Then Shawn deployed to Afghanistan for eleven months.
It hit me Christmas morning. Shawn's face was smiling from the laptop near my shoulder, watching Hayden open his presents. I had three gifts to open. All from Hayden who was concerned a week earlier that I didn't have any gifts, so I gave him some money and a friend took him to Target. It took a nano-second to go from laying first eyes on the Christmas morning tree to being buried in the wrapping wreckage. Shawn's family had stayed the night with us, which meant it was time to make everyone breakfast. All I wanted to do was sit by that laptop. I didn't miss opening my designer handbags and accessories. I missed my husband.
That day I gave up wishing for shiny new things and began to work towards a life that gave us more TIME.
Now, I wasn't privy to this information until Shawn's safe return home in July the following year...but that Christmas morning, a man on Shawn's base was killed while on skype with his family. I can't even imagine.
So, my response to Hayden's "heart wrenching" question...
"Hayden we CAN have a great big house like Lukas has, but if we did, Mom and Dad would have to work a lot more to make enough money to pay for it. We bought this house because it was just the right size and just the right price to let us have lots of family time."
His response?
"Okay. Can Lukas come over tomorrow?"
You'd think I would know not to panic anymore.
The point of my story is this.. Shawn and I gave up a life of working for all the things we wanted, to embrace a life of living with a little work to enjoy the things that we have.
I wish that change for you too.
The grass may be greener, but you have no idea what's in the fertilizer they're using :)
Namaste'
Thursday, April 11, 2013
"YOGA BITCH"
Yoga Instructors have an
image to uphold and quite honestly, that image
is usually very true to the person. However, just like everybody
else-we have our challenges! Love and Light doesn't always come easily.
So I decided to start a blog full of confessions. This means, when
somebody answers their cell phone in the
middle of my flying pigeon-YOU ARE GOING TO HEAR ABOUT IT!
Now, it's not like a YOGI to complain...it comes across as 'bitchy'. 'Bitch' is such a
funny word. It can be a horrible nasty, dirty little word or it can be a
term of endearment. Always depending
on who says it and why. I myself have never taken it to heart. If a man
said it to me, it usually meant that I was showing my independence, my
strength or in most cases, it meant I wasn't interested ;) I have
never-oops, that's not true. I have been called
a Bitch by another woman-who did not say it with love-two days ago in
fact. Atlanta traffic-really, do I need to say more? I do. She was NOT
paying attention and almost took out my family. I rolled down my
window-she saw me and SLAAMMMMMED on her breaks
in the middle of a three lane road. I sweetly said, "You need to
STOP..and THEN go." Her eloquent and intelligent response, "LOOK. BITCH." (sigh)
It's hard sometimes, to remember that I can be full of love and Light and also be human. No-I don't like it when you answer your cell phone and carry on a conversation in the middle of my class...because it's extremely rude and it completely disrupts the twenty something other people trying to get their zen on! And sometimes, I just need to express that. Sweetly. If you feel the need to threaten my family, I will explain your huge lack of sense. Not so sweetly. This is human. It's okay...if I were perfect, I'd already be dancing among the stars! The best thing about Yoga..."The journey never ends!"
So, here I am...."YOGI" because that's 'how I'm livin'',and "BITCH"...because I speak what's
on my mind....when I can....that's why you're here :)
Namaste' Yo!
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