New Year

New Year
I am not a big New Years Eve celebrator. I figure if you have not gone out and celebrated randomly through the year you’re in big trouble in general. I live the best I can all year, and like to avoid drunken drivers, and over priced restaurants on New Year’s Eve. I do have one tradition I like to keep at the end of the year. I like to look back and see if any of the resolutions I have written were kept up. This year I am happy to say they were.

I don’t like to make long lists of things to accomplish. I do make short lists consisting of things I can control, and wishful thinking for my future. As a general practice almost every day I think of all the things I have that I am grateful for. Sometimes I write this down and others I just think of these wonderful things I have in my life as I fall to sleep. This year I have had many things to be grateful for.

I finished a really rigorous yoga certification, maintained good grades, fell in love, made good friendships better, and made some new friends. I have had some bad days here or there but I can look back at this year and a smile comes across my face. The things I lost this year have not really affected me. Only because I look around and people are losing jobs, homes, hope, and America feels as if it’s drowning in uncertainty. I am not one of the people that feel any of that type of loss, and may never experience it either. I am lucky to have all that I have, and live in abundance that many will never understand.

Back to more positive things this year brought a lot of love into my life, and I believe it is what I am most grateful for. I am proud to say for the first time in my life a man asked me to move in with him, and without hesitation I said yes. I said yes when every other time I would have said no. I was willing to leap and do so with him. This was a first for me, and made me very aware of what I am ready for. I am ready to spend my life with someone, and build a life together, but last year I was too afraid to open myself up like this. My philosophy is simple If you are going to jump with another person then jump if not then it’s over.

As we started to move in together things got weird, and I unfortunately left him, but I don’t feel bad for loving him, and I don’t regret one second with him. It was a really good relationship and he spoiled me with so many things I needed and wanted. I do wish things had turned out differently. If this was an 80’s movie he would randomly show up at my house with flowers, and profess his undying love for me as he apologized, and we would make out in the rain. This would all happen while the most awesome song plays in the background. Of course this is not an 80’s movie, and this will probably not happen. He will always hold a place in my heart, because I said yes when I could have said no. Other than that my year was all good.

My amazing friendships have gotten stronger, and I have made new good friends as well. My social circle has become so much fun. Many great things are happening this year two friends are getting married, and I am really looking forward to the bachelorette party and the wedding. The wedding itself is a bunch of people that have been friends for years, and I think it’s going to be one of the best celebrations of the year. The bride and I have become closer friends recently. I have known her fiancé for a while. He is the BFF of my BFF. HAHAHAHA,( 12 year old girl in the house)!

I am really fortunate to have these awesome people in my life. My new most favorite friend is Teacher X. She is like a sister to me and I love the closeness we have. My friendships with two of my closest friends have become stronger in the past year, and my social life is where I have wanted it for a while.

When I moved back here from San Diego two years ago my life was not as full as it is now. I am so happy to have the support system I have, and the closeness I have with my friends. I even belong to a clique of women. Who knew these things were even possible? I only say this because I would say I am a tomboy. The majority of my friends have always been boys and now men. So having a clique of girlfriends is really cool. I hope the next year will be filled with all these lasting scenarios.

Here are my resolutions for the year.
1) Love is a priority, and I am ready to start my life with someone who is ready for the commitment and will not freak out when it’s go time. I am ready, willing and able. Universe bring it on!
2) Surround myself only with love, light, and abundance.
3) Get 6 -10 teaching jobs a week.
4) Keep my practice up
5) Travel more
6) Continue to have strong friendships and make new friends as well.
7) Enjoy myself!
That is it.
For those of you who are reading this HAVE THE BEST NEW YEARS EVE! I hope 2011 brings happiness, love, light and abundance to everyone.

On The Way
I recently received my yoga certification, and it’s so pretty. I am really excited to have that piece of paper in my hand. Looking back on this year and that process I realize it was time consuming and fun. I really met some wonderful people, and enjoyed listening to their stories. It was also interesting to discuss the philosophy with everyone in the teacher training. We had a mixed group of students all ages and all types. I did reminisce a bit when I went to the studio to pick up that glorious piece of paper. I also started to make a mental list of my next few steps.
I have decided how many classes I want to teach and places of interest to investigate for employment opportunities. I did put together my yoga website already. Now it’s time to hustle. Get my teaching voice and practice as much as possible. The past few weeks I have not physically practiced. I was in finals, had an injury, and battled with being under the weather almost every day for the past month. I can count on two hands how many classes I attend in that period of time. Now it’s time to get back on the horse.

It’s official.
It has been way too long since I have updated my blog. So here is my last favorite yoga story. A few weeks back in one of my favorite classes a fellow yogie was watching my every move. He was trying to turn what I could do in my practice into a competition with what he could do with his own. Let’s just take a moment to say I have been practicing for almost 7 years. He has a practice for the last year. My body has had the time to open and expand in ways his has not. The fact he thought we were competing was weird to me.
There is no better in yoga there is just what you can do and what you cannot do. This specific rule always applies. There are poses I have no interest in getting into like many arm balances. I personally like inversions and back bends. I practice them often. Also I tend to do many more advanced poses on my own not in classes with other people unless I am in a studio practicing with fellow teachers or long time yogis. I notice when I do more advanced poses it takes focus away from other peoples practice
As a child I was a gymnast so my back is strong and very open. I also lack any fear of falling over. When you are a kid and into gymnastics you hurt yourself and fall over a lot I learned not to be afraid of falling. I fall all the time, and get back up and do it again. When people get older there is a fear of falling over and breaking something. Since I lack this fear I can perform a drop back. This is a back bend from a standing posture. Most people don’t know I can do this unless I tell them or show them.
I was in a basic back bend in this class in question when that yogie started to demand the teacher came over and helped him in the posture so he could look like me. Teacher X did help him, but also warned that he should just do it on his own until his back was strong enough to take the form I was in. This yogie did not care for her instruction and stated if Staci can do it so can I.
I was right there and decided to show this yogie what I was made of. To make an example of him I stood up and said well If you can do what I can do stand up and drop back into a back bend. I demonstrated my drop back into a back bend. Once I was back into a back bend I asked if he would like to attempt what I just did. I also asked if I could help him to get into the pose.
The yogie said nothing and just became humbled. He kinda had it coming, but I should not have shown off. I just cannot stand when people try to make things about who is better. No one is better, everyone is just different.

The Last Apprenticeship

The Last Apprenticeship
Friday after thanksgiving was my last apprenticing class at rising lotus yoga. I wish I could say it was bittersweet, but it was not. It was just sad in general. Since August I have been there almost every Friday night, and I have gotten to know everyone in the class with Jay ( the teacher). All of his regulars are really sweet and enjoy Iyengar yoga so much. The moment they sit down on the mat they smile. Many of them have gotten to know me as well, so I think next week will be a little weird for me not to be there with Jay.
I did have two teachers I was apprenticing with Sarah, and Jay. I was on the schedule alternating with another graduate for Sarah’s class so I did not get to know Sarah’s students as well as I knew Jay’s. However I learned so much from both of them. In the last class with Jay there was a man who just had rotator cuff surgery. So he is stiff in general and many or the chest opening postures were slightly out of his range of motion. The class was mostly restorative backbends. Jay started with the most difficult then went into the easiest poses. One pose in particular was very challenging for this student.
I was about to take him out of this difficult pose and place him in an easier version when Jay came over, and just added a few blankets to the mix then the student was in the pose. I was in awe just a bit. It was an adjustment I would have never learned if I did not apprentice with Jay. My alternate pose was too easy for the student. I am sure now that I have learned this modification I will think outside the box instead of just giving a simpler pose if it is possible.
I do feel much more confident teaching after all my apprenticeship classes are over. Now I have finals, and I will be ready to look for jobs and teach after that. My goal is 6 classes a week. I think that is a reasonable goal, and I believe I will make it happen in the year to come. Make money money and go shopping!

Teenagers and yoga…….Hummm
Last week before the holiday break I headed over to a local high school to teach a varsity soccer team yoga. The players are all girls with basic hamstring problems. They run a lot and do not stretch out their legs enough, or ever. So I had to come up with a way to get them into learning the basic warrior poses and vinyasana in a fun way.
I remember being a teenager and trying and an actual yoga class. I laughed the whole way through, and thought it was weird. Having this previous experience I just assumed the girls may feel the same way I did. I had to make the practice eventful, and show these girls what was cool, and what was hard about yoga. I have to admit I needed to be a bit of a drill sergeant to get them into practice mode.
About 20% of the girls were interested at first, but the other 80% were chatty, and aloof. So I started with plank to see where their core strength was. I had them roll back and forth using their toes to start the warm up. Unfortunately only a hand full of them could, and then I knew my work was cut out for me. The majority could only do 10 and then I had to put them in child’s pose. Many of the girls started to complain right then and there. They were tired, it hurt, that burns. I told them to suck it up and that’s just the warm up. The looks of horror across the faces of these girls were priceless. I wish I had a camera. All we did was hold plank and child’s pose and they were done? What?
These girls are half my age and they never do any core work. That is crazy! I continue to teach a half series A sun salute, but none of the girls could even come close to touching the floor with their finger tips. So I had them press into their shins and then forward fold like 20 times just to warm up their hamstrings. At this point the complaining had somewhat stopped. 50% of the girls realized they were out of shape, and a lot of this could help them strengthen the muscles in their legs. Next part of the practice was external rotated poses, warrior 2, triangle pose, and side angle. However, I had to make this fun for the girls. I did have them moving and clapping a lot.
While they were in warrior 2 I had them straighten the bent front leg, and circle the hands above head to clap and count. Then bend the front leg and extend the arms out to the sides. If I did not keep them moving I would never hear the end of the burning they were probably experiencing in their things. That’s the thing about teen agers they speak their minds no matter what. Once warrior 2 was complete I placed them in triangle. About 80% of the girls became interested in what was going on at this point in the practice. The complaining stopped and the work started. The girls actually started to get why I was stretching out their hips and legs so deeply, and it started to become enjoyable.
The 20% that did not enjoy were not my concern. Teen agers are difficult to please, so if 80% enjoyed themselves that’s great. Once the externally rotated poses were finished I placed them in malasana, and we did twists from there. I did have to throw in a standing posture for balance, so I threw in something a little more difficult but neat looking. I added dancing shiva, yes that sounds a little out of the ordinary, but they were warm, and their hips were open. There were going to be no back bends in that lesson so this served the purpose. It worked out well because it became everyone’s the favorite pose of the day. All and all it was a lot of fun, and a bit challenging.

Major events

Major events.
Three things have changed this week; I started my yoga practice again, and I taught a segment in a class I apprentice in, and this part of my apprenticeship also came to an end. Tuesday morning I woke up at 6:30 started my day with coffee and facebook then went straight to Rising Lotus yoga for my last class with Sarah. I walked into the studio with a bit of time before the class began. I signed in, and Sarah made sure I knew I was going to teach three poses in the class.
Sarah taught her normal warm up for the level one class, and then decided to teach warrior one. Warrior one is a more difficult pose, and most people that do practice yoga never get into the pose correctly. It stretches the hips, expands the ribs and you have to place your feet correctly or your balance will be off. Warrior two is much easier on the body. After warrior one was finished being taught Sarah winked at me and gave me the go ahead!
This was the first time I instructed outside of my teacher training class. I have to say it was a easier to teach strangers than my peers. The class was really focused on my words and instructions. I demoed the poses, and explained the way to get in and out of each pose. The only thing I did not do was walk around the room and check for misaligned poses. Next time I will. I will also get more comfortable teaching and feel free to explain things in different ways as I grow as a teacher. The best part of the class was getting to demo the poses. That was the first time in two weeks I had even attempted any yoga.
I really needed to lengthen my sides out for sure. Later that night I did attend teacher X’s class. IN my back bend I felt like my skin was ripping apart as it stretched over my hip bones. It was her normal class, and I did make it through class, but started to feel exhausted as I was leaving. Teacher X and I were supposed to grab dinner, but I was too tired to make it. Once I got home the muscles in my back were already sore. I feared I was going to be in bad shape the next day, but I was not. Everything worked itself out while I was sleeping that night. Finally I am back into my normal routine. I know I am still a little sick, but what can you do?
My week must go on. Tomorrow I have my apprentice ship with my Iyengar instructor. I only have two more classes to do with him. My training is almost over and I am happy and sad about the whole thing. I want to start teaching and look forward to it.

The Eames House

The Eames House
Part of my adventure last week was a glimpse into the famous Eames home. This house is referred to as Case Study 8. I don’t really know all that much about the modern architects Charles and Ray Eames, but I have a feeling I am about to learn a lot about them. What I do know is that they are responsible for many of the modern houses built in the 1960’s. These two did not design them all, but were pioneers in their designs and inspiration for many modernists.
Eames built this particular home for himself and his wife. The home was finished being built by 1949 and they lived there for the remainder of their lives. The house is Iconic. I had seen pictures before my visit, but had no idea what these two people did for modern art in general until last week. The house was small only 1500 square feet. However it sits on a large amount of undeveloped land, and has a work studio right next to it.
Most of the interior is in decent condition, but a lot of the original floors, counters, and cabinets need to be restored. This entire house was built in the 40’s, but there are earth quakes in LA. Not to mention that this is right off the ocean in the palisades. These two conditions will start to break down any home in the area. The beach air is probably harsher than the earthquakes because the inside has a lot of woodwork.
The outside is what I think made the house special. Visually the house is very modern and rectangular. The exterior is broken down into square shapes that fit into the bigger rectangle home. The largest part of the property is just grass and trees. Most builders would have just leveled the house with the view of the ocean. They did not. The house is perpendicular to the beach, but parallel to the meadow outside. The couple had picnics and watched the sunset in the meadow. Oh romance!
It was cool, and I look forward to seeing as many of the case study homes as possible over the next few months. If you want to check this out www.eamesfoundation.org.

He is off.

And he is off.
Yesterday was a marathon. I went from Malibu to LAX all in one day. It was totally worth it. By the mid afternoon there was nothing better to do then drink. In the middle of the Farmers market we sat and drank for two hours. Had lunch and took my visitor back to the airport. The last five days have been a whirl wind, but they were all worth it.
I knew I was not feeling 100% yesterday, but thought I was having bad allergies because of the wind. I was wrong. I woke up today feeling like someone had punched me in the face, and lit my sinuses on fire. I am grateful that I feel like this today, and not during the last five days. I will admit I may have gone overboard with the eating and drinking that started last Saturday at the Rose Bowl.
It was my first weekend completely free of Teacher Training and I let loose! My visitor came on Sunday and I kept on going like I was 20 years old. It was worth it. I needed the fun time, and to let go of all the studying, focus, and stress. Even though I am under the weather I still feel refreshed.
Also I feel like I have been fighting a cold for the past month. I have been sick a few days here and there, but I am down for the count today. I think everything has caught up to me, and it’s time to sleep and relax for a day or so. I am just kinda disappointed that I cannot go to yoga tonight. I cannot breathe well. Why do colds just block one side of your nose then 20 minutes later stuff up the other side? It’s so weird. I really don’t have the strength to drive anywhere either. I made a food run earlier and it practically took all my energy just to walk to my car.
My nose is running and that is the most exercise I will get for the day. My normal routine will just have to wait one or two more days until I am back on track. I am sure that a two week break from yoga won’t kill me, but it might when I start up my practice again. I have really been craving my harder flow classes, however; there is no way I would be able to make it through even half of that class. I tried to do crescent pose a tiny bit ago and could not hold it for 20 seconds. I get frustrated when I am not feeling well.

The Art of Eating Way Too Much

The Art of Eating Way Too Much
Yesterday, we started the day with a drive through Mulholland. The trip started in Encino and ended in West Hollywood. Off of Mulholland is a group of homes made in the 1960’s. They are mostly modern, and many have been given face lifts over the years. Some of these are nice looking homes and some look like the 80’s threw up all over them. Either way the homes were exactly what my friend wanted to see. Today we are going to look at famous homes in the Los Angeles area.
Our drive on Mulholland yesterday was very special. We had rain and winds the last few days in LA and there was no smog covering the S.F. Valley. It was so clear you could see the entire valley side of the city. The city side was a little hazy, but not as smoggy as usual. After our hour long tour of Mulholland we headed down to the Sunset Strip, and went west until we hit the Sunset Plaza. I turned around and headed to E’s house for lunch.
Lunch was early yesterday, because we had dinner reservations at 7:30 pm. My visitor has never had the best Mexican food because of where he lives, so for lunch I have chosen a few Mexican places to eat. We picked up E, and walked to El Compadre. This is one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. It’s across the street from the guitar center on Sunset. You cannot get more LA then this!
We all started with margaritas, and ate lunch. The boys proceeded to drink and talk, and eat. I did my fair share of eating, but I was driving so I only had my one cocktail. I wanted to drink more scratch that I really really wanted to drink more but I did not get to. The boys got along famously and would have been able to drink and talk the afternoon away. However, E had previous plans and we had more of the city to see. After three hours at lunch we headed west into west LA.
I drove around UCLA and Bel Air. Then back to the house to get ready for dinner. Dinner was good. Lawry’s was on the hit list while my friend is in town. Last night we consumed an enormous amount of food, and it was so good. I know many yogis do not eat meat, but I am not that kind of yogi. I am the type that takes two weeks of and eats way too much food. I digress.
Lawry’s is iconic in Los Angeles. The do serve fish, but you go there for the prime rib and Yorkshire pudding. I have to say I had 3 pieces of Yorkshire pudding and a California cut of meat. By the time we left the establishment I had to unbutton my jeans, because I was so uncomfortable from eating a heavy lunch, and then a heavy dinner. My visitor was in heaven, and enjoyed some of the meat I could not finish, and talked about the prime rib as if he wanted to take it home and make it his wife.
They age the meat, and cover it in their special seasoning then slow roast it. There is no better place to have a prime rib dinner in the city. Considering all they make is this one type of meat they better rock the recipe. Today is the beginning of the end of the food coma I have been in for the last three days. I don’t even know if I can look at food today. On another note I am beginning to feel guilty about not going to yoga once this week yet.

Slacking continued.

Slacking continued.
It was an amazing fall day yesterday. The air was crisp, the sky was blue with fluffy clouds, and the wind was blowing. The last few days a have been so hot I was hoping it would finally cool down. Well it did and I took my out of town visitor on an adventure. We started with coffee and headed out to Malibu.
We got onto the freeway and took Kanan Dune road over to Malibu. The roads were deserted which is so rare anywhere in Los Angeles. It was my own little city yesterday; well it was until later when we ventured into Venice. We drove up the coast to my old summer stomping ground Zuma life guard station number 11. Got out, and wandered on the empty beach. The locals were out walking their dogs, and others running up and down the beach.
This particular beach is really crowded during the summer, and you are lucky to find a parking space. We had no problem. After taking some pictures and driving around Malibu we continued down the coast into Santa Monica, through Venice to our lunch destination Tito’s Tacos. I took it upon myself to order one of everything on the menu. I figured we would just get a taste of everything, but I did make sure to order three tacos with cheese, those were a must have.
Since I have not eaten that in a while it was like eating lead. The remainder of the day I was a little sick to my stomach. Not because the food was bad, but because it was so heavy. Tito’s Tacos is a fixture in this city, and it is a destination you must go to at least once a year. I have skipped this tradition and suffered for it. After lunch we continued into our driving tour of Culver City. Made a quick stop to see my little brother, and off to the Getty.
Well for those of you who don’t know, because I did not the Getty is closed on Monday. I was denied entry at the gate. It was so annoying. It would have been the perfect end to the perfect day. I will take my visitor another time. However there will be more adventures in slacking to come!

The Art of Being a Slacker

The Art of Being a Slacker
I will not be going to a yoga class until Thursday of this week, and that will make a full 9 days of not going to a single yoga class. Yes! I am a total slacker. It feels good. Well not so good. I find that my body starts to act weird when I do not go to yoga class. I start to get aches and pains through my body.
I have no idea if this is common or not, but some of my joints start to hurt, and my muscled become sore. When I start back up I do get deeper into my practice, so it’s worth the wait. Any ways, the last few weeks have been filled with homework, and friendly fun. On Sunday I was at the UCLA game.
My friend and I did the game proper. We went around 1pm and tailgated until 4pm, went into the stadium and were lucky enough to sit in the press box. It was so amazing. One of the best games, and best days I have had in a long time. I drank in the Alumni tent for 3 hours, stuffed my face, and drank some more. All of this instead of yoga… ummm yes please can I have another? Tailgating before a football game is so much fun.
Everyone is making food, making fun of other teams, and offering everyone food. Strangers and friends alike are all treated the same. Its like Disneyland for adults. Now I love me some tailgate! Game day’s are so fun. I love being with my friends, and just enjoying myself. I did not go to any games last year, so this game made up for it. I am glad I was not hung over, because the next day I was in charge of a Mitzvah day.
On Sunday I woke up and headed to the (Operation Gratitude), Armory for some sorting and packing for our solders overseas. Every year all the temples in the city take part in Mitzvah day. We all give back and work for a charity. Well not everyone, but most people take one day out of the year to do some charity work. I organize this day with the Temple I belong to. About 15 of us showed up on time and spent 3 hours giving to people who defend our way of life. I am grateful that I have the freedom I have in this country.
After giving back I had to eat, so once again I stuffed my face at Brent’s deli in Northridge. It was the best. Then later that night a family dinner with more drinking commenced. This was the best weekend, and the remainder of the week I have a visitor in town, so this will be the best week ever. I cannot wait for more fun.

Just 3 more

The last few days…
I only have 3 more apprenticing classes to go, and its bitter sweet. I really enjoy the teachers I work with, and its nice to be able to really see everyone in the room, and be able to help everyone get into postures without thinking about what comes next. One teacher I apprentice with is an Iyengar teacher, and the other teaches level 1 yoga. The level one teacher also teaches anatomy, so I get the structure from Iyengar and the anatomy from the level one class. I am sure it will influence my instruction.
Working with these teachers has already taught me to be very aware of other people’s bodies. Apprenticing for a total of 24 weeks is a lot of work, but it is really fun most of the time. In two weeks I get to teach three poses in the level one class. I was supposed to do that this week, but I was under the weather. It was unfortunate, but I will be really excited about it next time I am in the studio with that class.
Today was one of the last classes that I will apprentice in. There are many familiar faces. I find it easier to adjust people I see on a regular basis, because I know their stories, their bodies, and most of their injuries. When students repeat classes you know when to push them, or when not to push them. You know limitations of the bones, and muscles. Each person moves a certain way, walks heavier on one foot, and leans onto one leg. As a yoga teacher you pick up on these traits and know how to help fix posture, or weight distribution in the feet.
Everything starts in the feet, and then the hamstrings. It is weird what I notice in a yoga room now that I have so much knowledge about the human body. When a student is in downward facing dog I can even tell if a hamstring is tight, if someone has had knee surgery, or just plain tired from the day. The best part is knowing for that hour the students are in the studio to strengthen their bodies to make themselves feel better, or just because they like yoga.
My teaching style in general will be influenced by this yoga studio. My only concern is if I will be able to be an effective basic yoga teacher. I am much more comfortable teaching harder flow classes. Beginning yoga is information heavy while flow is movement heavy, and movement makes me happy. We will see where the rabbit hole leads.
I do believe I will be starting a job soon, but I don’t want to spill the beans before it happens. I should know soon…….

An asshole and a yogi.

An asshole and a yogi.
This story came up recently and I thought it would be really funny to share. When I was six or seven I was a sweet child. I had friends on my street that I would play with all the time. Chantal was a friend I played with a lot. However; at times she would tell me that she was better than me because she just was, and she would tell me how I was allowed to behave at her house. There were rules about what dolls I was allowed to touch, and how I was allowed to play with her dolls. If I did not play by her rules then she would say well you aren’t allowed to be my friend any more.
One day I decided I had enough of her rules, and told her she couldn’t be my friend any more if those were her terms for our friendship. Her father Terry over heard me and called me into his bathroom. He told me I was not allowed to talk like that to his daughter. However, he said nothing to her about her comments to me. So I told him he was a fucking asshole. A word I learned while I was in the car with my mom.
My parents always drove passed him and would say there goes the fucking asshole. This happened many times, so as a child I was conditioned to associate Terry with that term. Back at Terry’s house he took me by the hand and brought me home. He told my mom what I called him, and told her I should be punished. Terry punished by hitting his daughter, so I was afraid my mom was going to hit me. My mom closed the door and waited a second until he left, and then started to laugh, and told me I was right he is a ……
As a child I was relieved. However, I did learn that Terry thought his daughter was allowed to talk to me any way she wanted, but I was not allowed to communicate my feelings to her. Instead of addressing this to Chantal I took it upon myself to get back at her and her dad. The next time I went over to her house I snuck out of her room and into her parent’s room. I took down my pants, and sat on Chantal’s parent’s bed and went to the bathroom. Just number 1, I knew number 2 would be really horrible.
My revenge worked. Chantal was punished with a spanking, and got grounded. Terry had to purchase a new comforter, or clean up the mess all by himself. I think she was grounded for a long time because I don’t remember seeing her for a while after that. To this day the six year old inside me thinks they both deserved it. Today that six year old still lives inside of me just waiting to get out to cause trouble. My yoganess has kept her at bay, but you never know when I might let her out.

Workshop #2

Workshop #2
Since I learned my lesson the day before on Sunday I did not attend my regular yoga class. I just went to the tantra &chakra workshop, where I had a two hour practice. The day before I believe I did about four hours of yoga, and boy did I make up for it at dinner that night! Sunday I was sore but I made a decision to power through the class, and do what I could.
The workshop started the same way it did the day before. We had a lecture, and then we practiced. I have to say the metaphysical practice of yoga is really interesting, because of the ancient ideas about the power of energy and sound. There are seven chakras in the human body, and they are stacked on top of each other from the bottom of the torso to the top of the head. This is a very basic description. There is much more depth to it, but that would be a very long blog.
The chakras are areas in the body that human beings hold energy in. When people hold this energy and not let it flow freely throughout body they can become sick, angry, fatigued, depressed, and sometimes disconnected. Each chakra also has a mantra or chant that goes along with it. Now as breath and chanting are engaged the chakra you are working on becomes awakened. Yes, this sounds weird, but it is how this type of practice works. In yoga class you can always hear that one person that makes noise while they are breathing. It’s like they are fogging up a window with the moisture from their breath.
Well it’s kinda like that, but when we breathed in we sent the breath to specific places in our bodies, and sent our exhales to different places in our bodies. So Saturday’s class was closely related to Sunday’s class. Except we used the breath work we originally learned on Saturday to awaken different chakras in our bodies. It was cool. I think I did like the Saturday class better, but Sunday’s class the lecture was more interesting. Just because of the ideas about energy that were discussed.
Sound and energy awaken different things in our minds, and bodies on a subconscious level. If you are depresses and see someone smiling, you will feel a bit lighter, and possibly even start to smile as well. If you are depressed you can also create more around you to keep yourself depressed. The chakras represent these ideas. Most of the time people have no idea what they are creating around themselves.
The sounds we hear or create, (music, and chanting) in our bodies can loosen up the energy that is closed off , and allow life-force to be fluid in our bodies. This may be a bit to metaphysical for many people, but I will get more into my understandings of western and eastern metaphysics later. I am after all a philosophy major, so it is just a bit natural for me to gravitate towards the philosophical side of my yoga practice.

i'm a genius

I’m a genius.
I signed up for a two day workshop at Rising Lotus yoga this weekend. Yesterday we covered the five prana vayus. Today the class is about tantra & chakras. I got up yesterday feeling rather rundown. My sleep the previous night was on and off, and I wanted to work out since the work shop was going to be about breath. I unfortunately made the assumption the prana workshop would be a restorative class focused on the breath.
I was achy in my morning yoga class at equinox and my body only allowed me to go so far in poses I practice on a regular basis. So that’s what I could do, so that’s what I did. Pushing myself any farther would have been too hard on my whole system. After the class I ran home, ate a bowl of cereal and was off to my workshop.
When I arrived early I played a bit of solitaire on my phone. Said hi to everyone at the studio I knew, and was waiting for the class to start. In the studio the class was waiting for a white board, and the teacher announced we would have a two hour asana practice (A whole moving practice). I was very concerned for my wellness at that moment. I was already sore from the first class, and was not sure I could make it through this two hour class. Truly I was crying in my head.
I let it go, and the first hour of the class was a lecture about the different type of breath we were going to be practicing. We worked on each different breath starting with apana, then samana, prana, udana and vyana. Each vayu focuses breath and exhale into different parts of the body. You don’t literally breathe through your head, and exhale through your feet. The point is to fill the breath into different parts of the body to get better circulation.
Once the lecture stopped, and we started our practiced it became really obvious what type of breath was better for different poses. Lately in twisted postures I have noticed I am not breathing well. In the twisted postures I practiced in that class I used breath filling the lungs and upper body. I did not bother with any belly breath at all. I got deeper into my twist and it felt better to be in the posture. As the practice went on I became really fatigued. I kept my energy as high as I could, but I did have to modify back bends, and inversions. I just had no strength left from the class in the morning, and the physical aspect of the class was starting to get to me.
The instructor came over to me and asked what was up. I apologized, and told her I had already practiced earlier that day. After that she let me slack a bit, and savasana was a welcome end to a difficult physical practice. I did gain a lot of needed knowledge in this workshop, and left feeling really amazing. There was a very deep calmness in my body that has not been there since my last trip to Hawaii. Where I was sipping pina coladas and hanging with the bar tenders.

Prana

Prana
The main purpose of my transition from yoga student to yoga teacher was to deepen my understanding of meditation and prana. I knew that prana was life force through breath, and meditation was like letting it all go or something. To be truthful I had no idea if I was meditating or just pretending to meditate, or trying to meditate. The whole breath, life force, meditation thing just did not sit well with me. I wanted to know more about the idea of how these things were supposed to work within my body.
At some point in the middle of the first half of teacher training I worked on my meditation and breath. Energy that started to awaken in my body would keep me awake for days. I had to see my acupuncturist just to calm my nervous system down. In a really weird way I woke myself up, and I was seriously energized. Even though I was not sleeping I was focused, and my mind was clear. However, I really needed to sleep instead of deepening my spiritual awakening. So I spent ten to twenty minutes each day for one week breathing into what my idea of calm would be.
By the third day I was getting three to four hours of sleep a night, and after a few more days I was sleeping eight hours a night. Sleep really means a whole lot to me. Between my breathing, and a few acupuncture visits the energy vibrated through me. I got to sleep and it was good sleep, well deserved sleep! It was the first time I was given a glimpse of what it feels like to open myself up through breath. It was a really concentrated intense feeling running around inside of me. I am glad I let it go, and did not try to hold onto any of it.
I did continue to maintain my breath of calmness practice, but at times I do notice that my mind chatters a lot, but other times I can sit within myself and be calm. Before I took any training I was not sure if my mind chatter was a part of my meditation or not. In my training many other people found it hard to quiet the mind during meditation practice. We all began to realize it was part of the practice to either let the mind chatter go, and/or be able to sit in silence. My idea of meditation is letting what comes up leave just as sudden as it began.
There are days where my mind is still and nothing comes up. Then there are days when it’s the exact opposite. It is a process that you just have to breathe through. As my mediation practice continues my life is calmer day after day. It is a welcome experience.

A step down the hallway

A step down the hallway.
Teacher Training was really intense. Well it was for me because of the amount of focus I gave to it. I feel like I have so much free time today. I just finished my four hours of homework, and now I can just relax a bit. Maybe do some poses, maybe watch tv, and register with yoga alliance. I did make a commitment to practice on my own or at the studio. So last night I did a little on my own. I was not feeling very energetic, but I made a commitment to build my home practice.
That being said I practiced a small sequence last night. Adho Mukha Svanasana ( down ward facing dog), Prasarita Padottanasana (wide leg forward bend), Janu Sirsasana (head to knee forward bend), Ananda Balasana ( happy baby), and then I just laid in Savasana ( corps pose). I think I spent a whole twenty minutes in my practice yesterday. Tonight I am going to a studio to be in a class setting. It should be energizing especially after the day of cracking the books, and taking steps down the hallway.
I did start to register with the yoga alliance today, and found a website slandering the establishment. Or as Americans would say the “man”. http://www.yogacards.com/yoga-alliance.html. Honestly, this sight was a little retarded to me, but that is just my opinion. The yoga alliance regulates the industry standard for schools, and teachers. They are an organization, so to keep them in business they have to find a way to make money. That is why registration is only active for two years, and to renew there is a fee. Now I understand many teachers that teach yoga don’t have a 200 hour certificate. This is a relatively new certification process. Many old school yogis find it to be a cooperate overtaking of a spiritual community.
Fine, if that is how you want to look at the whole thing. Yoga is being accepted by more and more people as a form of exercise. Others are realizing the medical benefits of this practice as well. When a doctor starts to recommend yoga to a cancer patient, or an insomniac believe me there will have to be some type of uniformed teaching. Sorry super spiritual yogi things change! If you are such a yogi you would meditate on the fact you do, or do not like a circumstance, and let it all go. I’m just stating my opinion again, but in this case I think it is relevant. One of my favorite teachers is not certified, but she has the equivalent knowledge, and experience to teach yoga. Honestly its yoga not brain surgery.
I think having some sort of regulation will come in handy in the next few years. In Los Angeles a Vinyasana flow class is not the same Vinyasana flow in Vancouver. They are taught totally differently. So which style is better, or more correct? All the alliance is trying to do is create an industry standard. This standard includes ancient texts, anatomy, philosophy, history, and traditional poses. I guess I am drinking the Kool aid.

on the hallway

In the hallway…I hate the hallway.
A preacher said something about change. Paraphrasing his words, Now the door behind you closed and down the hall way is the next door to open. But that hallway can be such a pain. I love this because transitions are such a pain in the rear. Now that the teacher training has ended its time to take the next step into that hallway and get some jobs teaching. I wonder what type of teacher I will become. I am definitely really into Vinyasa Flow, so those are the classes I will teach.
On the last day of teacher training, before I bombed my test, we did a round robin teaching sequence. We each taught a segment of the class, and had to decide on the spot what pose to teach depending on the last teachers pose. There were 13 of us, and I was number 11. I had no idea what I would end up teaching at all. I will say this, I was so impressed with everyone and their ability to just get up and teach. I ended up teaching Janu Sirsasana (head to knee forward fold). I like this pose because it is a forward fold with an addition of a slight twist.
In my teaching I was mindful of my instruction. I pretended every student in the room was a new student. Based on that assumption I demonstrated the pose, and verbalized the pose. I did give everyone a strap that needed it, but forgot to explain how to use the strap. Looking back to our round robin I am realizing the things I need to explain better. This part of teaching will be a work in progress until I get a comfortable. This is all a work in progress, and I need to be willing to see my faults, so I can improve.
I am totally comfortable teaching, and going out for job interviews. I know my training really prepared me for what’s next. Here is why. I apprenticed with two different teachers, did 200 hours of in class training, too many hours of homework, and kept up my practice. I practice four times a week in a studio, and small sequences at my house on the days I do not attend a class. This is part of the process for the program I picked. It takes dedication and love to do this for a living. I believe I will be a good instructor. Then again I don’t live my life half assed. I’m in it to win it, or not at all.
The next portion if my blog will be about the next step. What happens on interviews, my home sequencing, workshops, and private clients. The sky really is the limit. Who knows maybe my other teacher trainees will share their stories with me and I can share with you. I will say this, if you are thinking about deepening your practice, or becoming certified Rising Lotus in Sherman Oaks is a really special place to take this journey. I would hands down give this program five stars.
Now I am excited to open that door.

not so much......

So I have been teaching again, and sometimes giving clear instruction is really difficult. I have to force myself to be bossy. For those who know me, being bossy is knida natural. Besides the teaching I am studying for my final test in yoga teacher training this weekend. The time I am spending on this certification is really digging into the time I need to study for school, and have a life. I feel ready to move forward, and try to teach my first class.
Speaking of class, I have still not attended a yoga class. Tonight I will either be attending one or practicing on my own. My body is all weirded out from not doing any yoga. I am achy in places I don’t ach, and cracking in places I don’t usually crack. I hope to whip myself back into shape. As for my meditation practice that’s out the window as well. I woke up this morning at 5am with my mind racing about everything and nothing all at once. Luckily I fell back to sleep and my alarm clock woke me later. Then like a symphony my mind went off louder than the alarm. Awesome!
I have decided to wake up and try to do a series of sun salutes. That is my goal for this week. I can sometimes force myself into a home practice, but I really like practicing at the yoga studio. I am not sure how I feel about this new resistance to practice with my teachers. I get energized when I am around other people in a yoga class. After all I am still a student. There is something new I will always learn, and my body changes every year as well. So something that felt great last year can be uncomfortable this year. Who knows I may just really start to like my own sequencing.

And away we go….

And away we go….
Now that I have taken a week off from yoga, I will return back tonight and try a new class. One I have never taken before. I do think this will be the best idea. I had a dream about guided meditation last night and feel that it’s time to start my meditation practice as well. At times it’s good to walk away from a routine and get back to it in a week or so. Unfortunately it has been a little longer than that but who’s counting?
I mot that’s for sure! This week I am teaching my friend a class on Tuesday. We are meeting at the gym and using the yoga room to flow it out. I have been teaching a lot of private instruction, but nothing with a more advanced student in a studio. She happens to be a teacher and is going to critique me at the end. I am working my way up to an interview. You have to teach a 10-15 min class to a manager at a gym to be hired, so I figure the more time I get to practice the better.
Being realistic the yoga teacher market in Los Angeles is really saturated. I am going to focus on teaching in my neighborhood and get jobs where ever I can. Either way I am doing this as a part time job while I am in school. If this turns into more then so be it. You never know where anything can lead you. Life is strange that way.
Lately I have been noticing many of the things that are bringing about change in my life started years ago. At this time everything is just coming together right before my eyes in a very surprising way. I have good friendships, and many of these started two years ago when I walked away from some people that had become stale in my life, and vice versa. Eight years ago I met a man who is now a big part of my life, and partly responsible for bringing about a huge transition. All these things are happening very effortlessly. All the things that are now happening just feel as if they were supposed to happen. Not like last year.
Last year around this time a relationship I was in started to fall apart in a very painful way. I was not devastated when it ended, but shocked at how it ended and why. I was also really angry at myself for allowing the relationship to continue when I started to have huge doubts about the relationship itself. Now I understand that is was not the right relationship for me. The universe protected, and gave me what I have now. What I have now is a lot easier, and it feels right in a much different way. Lately life just opened up and I am excited for the change I am experiencing. I believe that my practice and meditation has brought me here, and will continue to place me on the right path If I just allow it.

almost

Almost done!
My fellow teacher trainers and I are almost done with our certification process. Just one more week left. These past few weeks we have been teaching each other in class. The first week we were all nervous, but now we have crossed that line and everyone’s confidence is building.
Yesterday we put together a sequence in class for an easy dose it class, and we all taught a pose. Right there on the spot. Most of us would not have been able to do that in the first week of teacher training. I was really impressed with everyone’s ability to have their voice and “just do it”. I was impressed that I could do it. Maybe I was not the best, maybe my instructions weren’t perfect, but I could get up and do it.
The best part was there were no jittery nerves to calm down. I just went with it. The class was a lot of fun and I am taking all the criticism I can get to become a better teacher. I like our safe environment, because of the feedback we are receiving. Not just from the teachers, but each other as well. It is really giving us the ability to go on interviews, and we will be able to teach in a clear manner if we just work on our teaching.
It is easier for me to teach people who have no idea how to do a pose, because I am really focused on giving specific instruction. Working in the studio with my fellow teacher trainers is harder, because they know the poses, and know what I am trying to say, but beginners don’t. My instructions are more through when I am working with new students. I take nothing for granted. I really need to work on that in my teaching.
I am excited to get a few jobs and teach in general. I want to work. There is nothing better than doing something you love, and getting to share it with another person. I am going to fill the yoga studios with love and energy to make it all happen.
This is a really exciting time, and I have worked hard to get to this point. All my fellow teacher trainers have as well. In general I am really proud to have been a part of this group of people. This last leg of training was more relaxed, and more fun than the first part. I am going to miss this a bit.
What I won’t miss is the lack of a social life. I have become such a hermit because of all this weekend work. Today I went for a bike ride, and it was so nice to have that time off. I went to a party this week, and will feel free to go to more without having to look at my watch to make sure I get enough sleep for the long week ahead. Times like these I look forward to not having so much responsibility.

You cannot make me!

You cannot make me!
Last week was the week that was. I could not even talk myself into a yoga class to save my life. The only type of exercise I could get myself to do was on the cardio machine. Weird! Well at times you have to just roll with it. This week is the second to last week of teacher training. I have to say I am relieved that it is almost over. It is a lot of work when you are a full time student, and studying is a full time profession.
I think my general exhaustion has to do with the amount of time I have spent going, and going, and going, and studying. Last weekend was the first two days off I have taken in three weeks. I did not teach a private yoga class, I did not take a yoga class, and did not do anything related to yoga. This includes my meditation time. In exchange I have been Grumpy Mc Grumpster. I don’t know if these two things go hand in hand, but it is an observation just the same.
This general feeling of yuck has also spilled into my social life. I have gone practically nowhere. The last week and a half I have gone to an engagement party and that was the extent of my excitement. I do have a party this week, and possibly a second party on Sunday. At times I would just rather be a hermit and not leave my homework.
I have to call the looser police on myself this time. I have to get up and go even though it got up and went. In my twenty’s this energy that I am lacking would never have been a problem. Tomorrow I will start my regiment of yoga 4 times a week, and I will add the cardio machine 2-3 times a week. During the summer I spent a lot of time on a bicycle in the crisp ocean air, and I believe I am craving that type of heart racing action.
On an unrelated topic I learned something this week. Years ago I would say math was not my strongest subject. Being back in school you have to take a math class to get your degree, so I have no choice but to take math. Last semester I repeated algebra. When I say repeated let me explain that I did not remember any algebra from the fifteen year break I have taken from school. So I re-taught myself how to do the problems. Long story short I did well in the class.
This semester I am in statistics. It is math mixed with logic, and I am doing well. We just had an in class test and I aced it. I was the only one who even knew how to do the problems. Let’s just say the teacher was impressed that I knew what I was doing and made an example out of me. I learned that math is a lot easier when you are older mostly, because you have the patience to do the work slowly, and ask for help appropriately. I am actually enjoying math so I am going to take more classes on line. We will see where this leads.

Too tired.

Calling it a day!
Tuesday night I went to my normal yoga class. I knew I was a bit tired, but that can be normal after almost three weeks of school and yoga teacher training on the weekend. I underestimated my fatigue and could not keep up with the class. My practice was sluggish and lame. Since then I have not been in the mood to exercise. I’m not even interested in practicing on my own either.
I attribute this feeling of blah to the weather shift in the city. It was raining on Tuesday and today the high was 80 degrees and sunny. It’s more abnormal to have rain then it is to have sunny blue skys in Los Angeles, but our weather is all over the place the last few weeks. It has left my body with a complete lack of energy. Tonight I was trying to motivate myself to go to a class, but I just could not do it.
The idea of leaving my house, driving to the gym, and then taking a class made me long for food. It was all I wanted. Granted this may have also been because I did not eat lunch, and by 4pm I was beyond hungry. Either way I am still glad I did not go to the gym. I hate to say it but sometimes I just give into that inner voice. The one that says stay home, eat, watch TV, and go to sleep. I think it was the best decision I made today. I am off to eat, sleep and watch TV. Not in that order. I have an episode of fringe I can’t wait to watch.

SRB Yoga: Found myself here.

SRB Yoga: Found myself here.: "Found myself here...... Yesterday I was apprenticing for a teacher at Rising lotus in Sherman Oaks. I usually apprentice for Sarah but she ..."

Found myself here.

Found myself here......
Yesterday I was apprenticing for a teacher at Rising lotus in Sherman Oaks. I usually apprentice for Sarah but she had a sub. I was excited to be with a different teacher to observe and apprentice in her level one class. Every teacher is different and you can learn from anyone if you are paying attention.
At about 9 am she still had not arrived to the class, and I started to wonder if I should just start the warm up. I was about to get up and ask if I should start when the person in the office came to me and asked me to start the class in twists.
This is no problem in my head. Until I started to wonder what this teacher actually wanted, because I had never met her and never taken her class. I was used to Sarah’s instruction and would know how to begin her class easily. She has a specific teaching style that I have observed many times. In her class we never started in twists.
I did not panic, but at the same time I did not know when the teacher would be able to get there. She was in a car accident, and in LA these things could take a while. I just pulled it together and started in an easy seat and did some breath work, then an easy twist. I followed by having everyone lay on their backs for another twist. If she still was not there I was going to work downward facing dog.
She arrived there just as I was teaching the second side of the twist and took charge. It was kinda a relief. I did not want to teach for 30 minutes and then have another teacher come in. Especially because I had no idea what she was going to teach. Her style was extremely different from Sarah’s so if I had taught for 30 minutes it would have been very different from the vinyasa flow the sub taught. All in all it was a really cool experience.
There was no safety net A.K.A a teacher there to tell me what to do. It was just me and I did alright under the circumstances. I was also a little more hands on in the class yesterday with adjustments only because I felt the sub needed an extra hand. Her day started off with a literal bang. It was a really cool experience and I was so happy when I left the studio. The feeling followed me all day long. It feels really good to know that what I am doing right now makes me feel good.

irony!

Irony!
So last Thursday something fell on my back windshield just right and it shattered. Now the window did not fall into my car but I could not drive my car either. At first I was really trying to figure out how this whole thing went down. After twenty minutes I just said well at least I was not in the car when this whole thing happened. (That would have scared me to death). My mom and I went to a yoga class and then I called my insurance company. Unfortunately it was going to take two business days to get the window. I was then out of a car until today Monday, or tomorrow.
That was fine I sent an email to my fellow teacher trainers asking for a ride and two offered to help out. My weekend was fun and full of new learning experiences. There was nothing to complain about and my life was really unaffected by the car being out of commission. The only hard day was today.
Today was a bit tricky because I needed to attend class, but had no car. My father luckily works nearby. I took him to work, came home and got ready, went to class, picked him up and he dropped me off at home, because he is going out of town so he needed his car. This would seem like a great plan right? It was except of one tiny mishap that has nothing to do with the car schedule.
Today of all days is the lovely beginning of actual fall. I am very happy about this even though there is a heavy sprinkle. Either way there is precipitation of sorts today in Los Angeles where there is usually none. It is awesome as far as I am concerned. However; I needed my parking pass from my car. I got the pass out of the car and as I closed the car door the glass from the rear windshield fell into the back seat of my car. So now not only do I need to leave, but tons of moisture was falling onto my leather seats.
The shattered glass that has with stood heat and cold fell in to my car because e I opened and closed the driver side door. A friend of my parents is staying with us and she covered the hole with a trash bag so my car would be free from moisture. I laughed all the way to school. What else was there to do?

Teaching and the Brain.

Teaching and the Brain.
I often find myself lost in my thoughts. I am a philosophy major so this idea should not surprise anyone. This week I am teaching a small segment to my teacher trainers, and Teacher X suggested I teach her while we were a little tipsy last night in my buildings parking lot. I did oblige and I noticed how my brain got overloaded with information. Teacher X also noticed my dumbfounded bewilderment with a tinge of information overload look across my face. So she said just simply tell me what to do without over thinking it.
I really have to snap out of my brain daze. I have to be able to teach a small segment to get a job. This idea only adds to my mental overload. I try to think of not over thinking. Please, that is just not going to work. I told my boyfriend this morning how I was getting into this predicament and he suggested to just not think about anything at all until I have to teach. Both Teacher X and Boyfriend are correct, so why won’t my brain compute?
Well I don’t know why or how it happened but my brain worked it all out. I taught well, and I got out of my head except for one part of my instruction. I taught a segment at the wall. Now I have been to classes like this and it seemed easy, but it was not. Teaching and looking out at people is visually normal for me, but to place everyone against a wall really spreads out a class. You cannot see everyone at the same time at the wall. I went into overload but somehow no one noticed, and I kept it together by focusing on just giving directions.
I made it through and the teachers liked what I brought to the class especially because I used the wall as a prop effectively. I gave good instructions they were clear and landed. Somehow I did notice some people making mistakes and verbally corrected them. I did not talk too much, but had a good control over the class. Before I knew it the segment was over like a flash of lightning. I was in no way perfect but I am getting better every day.

All I have today
Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Relax/ release.

Again..

Breathe in

Breathe out

Relax/release

Again

Breathe in

Breathe out

Relax/release

Again…


If you don’t get this I cannot help you! HAHHAHAHHA

happy times

Happy times.
After popping my cherry last week in my teacher training another wonderful experience made me more comfortable teaching. Teacher X let me demo a pose in class. I was really excited to do so. She asked me if I was nervous, and I wasn’t. I already know most of the class, because I am a regular. Since they all know me it was rather painless. It was fun. She added some direction and after told me its better not to use certain statements when you make verbal corrections. I am sure in time these things will become second nature, but until then I must be focused at the task at hand.
Most all of the teachers that have taught me are really supportive, but Teacher X is the most supportive. I am glad to have Teacher x in my life. Tonight I am accompanying Teacher X to a gathering in Calabasas. Unfortunately this is the only outing I have planned in the last two weeks. All I have been doing is homework, teacher training, and exercising. This week my yoga practice was really weird. On Wednesday night I practiced on my own.
The weird part is I usually like to leave the house to practice yoga. At home I generally become distracted by the littlest thing. For some reason I was focused and energized that night. I had a great time all by myself! This is dangerous for me. In general I am social. At times I have plans most nights and on the weekends. When I have a project like school I generally delegate my day to studying like it’s a job. This makes me rather introverted. If I like to stay at home for practice then I may become a hermit and not leave. I will become that weird old lady children run from when I finally leave the house. I am no where near that old but you never know. But that is off topic. I brought up my practice because of strange coincidence.
Here it is, on Thursday I went to my favorite afternoon class and we practically did the same exact sequence I had done the night before. The only difference was the abdominal work aka yogi sit-ups at the end of class. For the record sit-ups are my kryptonite. On Wednesday I did at least 50 sun salutes. (I am trying to work my way up to do 54 in one practice per week. We will see if I get there. Baby steps ). Then 12 hours later I did the same sequencing again. I was so tired by the time I got to one particular pose I just could not find the strength to hold myself up. My teacher came over to me and asked why I was on the floor. I told him I was too tired to keep myself up. I think he was a little surprised.
The floor has never felt so good. I am a firm believer that if you need to rest you should. For whatever reason I just hit a wall in class yesterday or should I say floor. Oh floor where you have been all my life? You are my sunshine in the rain, you are all that is good in the world oh floor you are there to hold me up when I need you. Anyways I still enjoyed that class and left feeling good. This weekend is filled with teacher trainers and teaching sequences to each other. Can’t wait for fun tomorrow!

Dream Bigger than Big

Dream Bigger than Big.
I have these day dreams about teaching in the new city I will be living in. Instructing vinyasana flow to people who have never experienced the version I have been taught. In my head I have like 30 people in a class room everyone is happy to be there, and I always leave feeling great as do the students! I know it will take time to build a following, and teaching at peak hours will help facilitate that. I also know for now this is what I want to do, and that’s cool. The last few years have been a weird vacuum of time trying to work out where I wanted to go after I decided fashion and I were no longer a good fit.
Yes, I broke up with my last profession. Now instead of talking about label sizes, current silhouettes, hems, and colors I talk about philosophy, meditation, and anatomy. After that’s over I go to school to talk about more philosophy. A few years ago I enrolled in two classes to brush up on Microsoft and Photoshop. After that semester was over my education took on a path of its own. I stayed in school to finish my BA. A year into school I got the idea to become a yoga teacher. This is where I am today and probably tomorrow.
It is interesting to me that I have become one of those people I always wondered about. I wonder how I got to this place in my life. I gave up a good career path. I was making wonderful money but that was not fulfilling my life lacked depth. Giving it all up to start over and do something completely different was just in the stars for me. It has not been the easiest of transitions but there is ease and contentment in my life that has never been here before.
I was happy in my last profession designing women’s knits. I was successful and my previous business only really had four bad months. Bringing this business based background into my future will allow me to be a successful teacher. I am sure I look at myself as a new product to sell. It is exciting to start a company again, but this time teaching not producing. That is like 300 less people to yell at. I only have to be accountable for myself.
I know economists may be disgusted by this because they would see this venture unable to grow, duplicated, sensationalized and sold while I was asleep. That’s ok, and here is why life is not always about making 100 million dollars. No one can take my intellectual property, not deliver on time, or make a mistake that could cost me thousands. It is just me and I only have myself accountable for the new venture I am creating. If I don’t work I don’t get paid. It is so easy.
I am going to dream bigger than big, build a new type of business and love every minute of my new life path. I will have time during the day to do whatever I want. All I have to do is hustle, then sit back and receive.

Popping my cherry!

Popping my cherry!
My teacher Clair said this best as each teacher trainee got up in front of our whole class and taught a sun salute. It’s time for you to get a chance to pop your cherry…. She was right. Our class has a great mixture of yogis of all ages and levels. Some are current teachers who just wanted a little more training. I would dare to say we were all nervous to teach each other even though we all want nothing but the best for our fellow classmates. I did get a little nervous, and my hands did shake a bit so I clenched them in a fist for a second and took a deep breath.
Obviously I want to teach, and to do so I have to get up in front of a class and give instruction. However, there was this part of me that just wanted to be told what to say. I was a fledgling learning to fly, fly, fly. I did feel really good to teach that little segment. I felt challenged in a good way, and know my comfort level will increase as I teach more and more. This week a teacher of mine wanted me to do just that.
On Saturday teacher X called me to see if I was in her class, and called the studio to have them tell me to warm up the class. Teacher X was stuck in traffic. She did tell me that she thought the idea of being put on the spot would freak me out, and she was right. However, I would have done it if I was there. I was at teacher training. If I had more notice I would have zoomed over there to warm up that class. I would have been nervous, but I believe you just have to jump in with both feet. With any thing in life that’s the way to go. If you never step out of your comfort zone you will never know what it’s like to dream bigger than big, and accomplish it.
My teachers at Rising Lotus had to do this to encompass what they have built for themselves. They teach our class giving us the tools they were not given in their training. Maybe they stood in front of a classroom once and taught a sun salute. Not in this training we get into postures, give notes, break into groups to teach one another, and learn from each other. We will also be teaching something new to our class until our 200 hours are over. Our teachers really want us to succeed after we are certified.
They learned from their experience of being a new teacher, and tried to put a program together to nurture our teaching. This training has come from the heart. It’s not a process where a student is bussed through. It is a process where we discover our practice, our teaching, and our teaching voice along with our tick. It is so much fun and so rewarding to do this in this way. Training on Saturday and Sunday are going to be so rewarding.

Time is running out

Time is running out….
My time management skills are really suckey right now. This week really got away from me. I know I will finish all that needs to be done, but regardless I am overwhelmed. I have put together a study schedule to time my week. Like a rough draft of things that need to be done. I know by Monday I will be fine. Between apprenticing, yoga teacher training, and school I will have a lot on my plate for the next month and a half. Last night it was my day to apprentice Jay Averill.
He is an Iyengar teacher so the class will do many poses, and hold them. There is no vinyasa flow in between the held postures. Jay did a restorative class because it was the last Friday of this month and a full moon. He always has a theme for his class either an emotional goal for the students or a physical goal. Last night he wanted to make everyone happy. To facilitate that he had the class practice many chest openers, but half way through the practice Jay set the students up for restorative poses.
After the last pose, the energy in the room was grounded and content. People left with a smile on their face. It was a good feeling. After I helped clean up, I ran to practice in my favorite Friday night class. I was about 20 min late, and I missed the warm up. My inner things paid the price about 10 minutes into the class. We started to do the warrior series. In warrior one my legs were burning. I had to keep straightening my front leg on both sides. I could not hold the pose. Once my body adjusted to the stretches I was ok, but OMG that killed. I am not even sore today thankfully. I think I have a lot physical of work in my teacher training today.
Today in teacher training we will start to teach our class mates namascar c series. I have been teaching this sequence in my private lessons, but I am a little nervous about standing in front of my peers. My Sanskrit is still relatively bad I do keep trying to repeat the words I do know. I do know the English translation for the majority of the poses and will probably stick to that in my verbal instructions. We will see how it goes.
I am off to class.

Being a student and teacher
I’ve started to teach private lessons, and writing down sequences for flow classes. At this point in teacher training we will be teaching each other sequences in class. I happen to be very excited about this, but I may be a bit nervous about teaching my fellow teacher trainees. For a very basic reason if I mess up they will know, but Joe x on the street would have no idea.

Teaching a class is like watching a dancer. You have to be a dancer to see the mistakes. We digress. This week alone I have already practiced three times, and attended two classes I was not practicing in. Tuesday morning I apprenticed with Sarah at Rising Lotus. During this time you have to balance yourself being a student and teacher. It is imperative to listen to the teacher and make appropriate adjustments. An example: When an instruction is being given about X do not adjust Y. It is too confusing for the student. At the same time I am mentally taking notes about the instruction the teacher is giving, so I can use parts of this instruction in my teaching.

Sarah is very educated. She attended an ivy league, and knows extensive amounts of anatomy. Apprenticing with her was so good for me. Partly because I am a full time student and she speaks my language. I also apprentice with Jay on Friday nights. He is an Iyengar teacher and listening to him explain postures has given me so much to work with. Iyengar classes are very instruction heavy. If you pay close attention there is so much to learn.

After my Tuesday apprenticing I ran to a class with Garth Hewitt. He teaches at Equinox where I am a member. Garth is also heading up a teacher training for Equinox starting this week. I have been his student for a few years now, and he knows I am in teacher training. I believe Garth gives me verbal corrections just so I learn how to teach, and because I know exactly what he is talking about.

Garth is one of my yoga teachers that really understands posture based on the skeletal structure of a person which is important. I have previously stated everyone’s body is different. It can be concluded that everyone’s yoga practice will be different. All of the teachers I gravitate towards believe this to be true. It is a reinforced theme in all of their teaching styles.
Garth’s class is not so easy. It is a mixture of a flow and holding postures. So in between the postures we have a vinyasa. However, we hold the poses for a while. I will admit that after his classes I am done with yoga for a good 24 hours. This is the same reason I go back. His style really speaks to me and his sequencing teaches me a lot. Even though I am practicing here I am still learning. I think he is going to really enjoy teaching teachers. His awareness of instruction has really changed in the last few weeks.

The next day aka 24 hours later I went to Michelle’s class also at Equinox. Hands down my favorite vinyasana flow class. There is always something new in Michelle’s class, and she inspires my practice. Every time I leave her class I add something to my personal practice. I hope I will get to teach classes like hers. Her sequences are easy to remember, but difficult to do. There is always a modification ( easier version) offered if needed. Last night for what ever reason I modified the whole class. I was exhausted but left full of new ideas, and transitions. My last class this week will be with not just a teacher but a good friend.

On Friday night after I apprentice Jay’s Iyengar class I go straight to Equinox for this class. She has a very relaxed way of teaching, and after five years her sequencing is really solid. I learn structure and ease from this teacher. So even when I am practicing I am still a student thinking of ways to incorporate my vision through these great mentors. Even through all this process and mind chatter I remember the sequencing, turn of the world around me, and move through my meditation as I am practicing in class. I have no idea how this happens for me I wish I could explain it but I cannot.

For the record this is just my yoga practice, it doesn’t include my schooling, or social life. You really have to make a choice to dedicate yourself to the process of becoming a teacher. You also really have to like it. If not all the yoga practices, meditations, classes, apprenticing, homework, and philosophy will be lost on you. This is also why I made the choice to take this training at Rising Lotus in a really nurturing small setting.

Mala

Global Mala
Yesterday was the first time I ever participated in a Mala and every year I will try to participate in the global mala. It was such a fun experience. The only reason I had not participated before is because I did not think I would make it through the class. A mala is 108 sun salutes. The global mala is when people around the world are participating in the same ritual. If you have done a flow class it’s the sequence where you bow down, jump back to plank, upward facing dog, downward facing dog, step up to your hands, and as you stand circle your arms up to the sky. After this is done you continue to do the same thing over and over again. There are three different types of sun salutes but this would be the most common.
The class was filled with yogis of all levels, and the room felt good. The teacher (Holly) picked out great music, and brought a drummer to keep the beat along with the music. It was so fun. In preparation for this class I did not go to yoga for a day. I wanted to be very present, and physically able to do all the sun salutes. I definitely over prepared . I believe we did a little more then half the mala. Most of the participants in the room could not complete fifty four sun salutes. That’s fine they did what they could. If I wanted I could have kept going through the salutes but felt responsible for the kid next to me.
Yes, there was a kid next to me. Not a teenager, but early twenty’s. I am not sure he had ever done a yoga class before, and if he had it was nothing like this. He kept looking to me to help him. I told him to follow me and if he got tired just to go into child’s pose. He did watch me and did go into child’s pose for a good half of the class. I am sure he was wondering how I could keep up. Using the same muscles over and over again becomes tiring. However, I just had such a huge amount of energy. I kept my intentions running through my mind and powered through it. Unfortunately I had to leave early for my Teacher Training. I ran home, ate a huge bowl of cereal, jumped in my car, and sped off to training.
On the way to my training I decided to try to do a half mala on my own in my home practice at some point this week. I was going to share this with my class but once I got into the studio my mind shifted into student mode. Everyone was up beat and cheerful in the studio. We went through philosophy, and how we are doing on adjustments in the classes we have been apprenticing. I personally felt uncomfortable making adjustments in sukhasana (corpse pose), or the last pose in a yoga class where you lay on the floor. Yes, it is an actual pose and there can be adjustments made. You have to straddle (standing) the person to do half of the adjustment. I don’t have a problem doing this to a person I know. To do this adjustment to someone I don’t know is too awkward. Since our workshop last night I have decided only to do this to people I know. This portion of our teaching flew by and before I knew it class was over. I went home made dinner and called my boyfriend. It was the perfect end to such a great day.

Teacher Training.
The very last eighty hours of Teacher Training started this weekend, and I have mixed emotions about the final leg of this journey. It is a bitter sweet process. When I started the certification process I was just as excited as I am now. This time I know my classmates, and have some apprenticing under my belt so I more or less have a better understanding of what these last hours will be all about.
The sad part is that my favorite two hour yoga classes are coming to an end. This will be the last time I see many of the faces I have come to know, and that it ends as my time in Los Angles will also be close to ending. The awesome part is the weekends will be free, and I will feel much more comfortable actually teaching a class with my hours completed. Any time a person is in the middle of a project you always set your sights on finishing the task at hand. I have done this in this instance, and instead of focusing on the end I am just going to be present in every class. This way I will make the effort to learn more from my teachers.
During the summer I was doing quite a bit of research and development to make my teaching voice stronger. I guess that is a poetic way of stating all I did all summer was yoga, bike riding, traveling and eating. The training teaches you to explore new styles of yoga and new teachers through this you will find where you are most comfortable. This comfort will lead you to your teaching style.
Knowing where my practice is makes it better to finish the last leg of training in this way. This training was split into two different segments the first one hundred twenty hours and a few months later the remaining eighty hours. At first I hated the idea of the time in between, but now I understand why we did it this way. I am also glad we did. Other studios just pound out the process without time in between. Our time in between we have been in class learning, teachers teaching us, and exploring out practice. It has helped bring all the information together in my head, and probably my fellow teacher training class feels the same.
To start up again with all this knowledge digested is great. My blog is going to document this last few hours and what it teaches me. If you have ever wondered what a teacher training is like maybe now you will understand and want to try.

year 1

Yoga year 1

My first official teacher was an Iyengar teacher and during one of my private lessons he made a statement I will never forget. I am paraphrasing but here is the idea; The first year you start taking yoga classes 3-5 times a week the practice shifts your life in unexpected ways. I did not understand that statement until two years later. My life was much different, and it was because of the awareness and meditation yoga had brought into my life.
When I started yoga I owned a manufacturing company and worked 15 hours a day. I had a few friends, but no real boyfriends or lasting relationships in general. My social life was also in the toilet. It was a really lonely time, and I would lay awake in bed wondering why I was single, and why my friendships lacked depth? I did know it stemmed from how hard I was working, and my lack of effort to cultivate any types of relationships. What I did not know was how to bring myself out of the hole I was in.
A year into my yoga practice I closed my company and ended up changing my whole life. Was it yoga? I think it was either way the things I gravitate towards now are much different from the things I brought to myself in the passed. There is clarity in my life, and I know all the choices I make are done with consideration and thought before they are made. I no longer act out of anger or impulse. Thinking things through is my new path.
Trust me it is so easy to be nasty, but how are you going to feel after you lash out? If it is something you may regret later then you should not have said or done a thing. My new rule of thumb is if there is any way I would regret saying something to someone then I don’t say it. If I choose to be nasty trust me I have gone there feeling 100% like it’s the way to go. I am no Gandi, but I am an asshole sometimes. I live by this new rule.
Rules about my future include happiness, love, success and more love. Yoga has truly taught me to go forward and be the architect of your future. Year one brings out what path in life you should be on if you are there then awesome, but if you are not things will change quickly. Many of my friends have been starting to try out yoga mostly because I love it, and I try to persuade them to try new things. I always tell them about the first year of yoga.
One friend in particular started practicing 4 times a week and we had a really long conversation about the shifts in your awareness. I did warn her about what could happen in her life, but I think she ignored me a bit. However, within 8 months she was divorcing her current husband, and had met a new man she is now serious with. These things do happen. They even happened to me a bit slower on the relationship front, but change just the same.
When It comes to me I am happy every day. I do have bad days, and can be grumpy, but at one point every day I am content. I thought success, and money would bring me that feeling, but it did not. All it brought were success and money. As friends go I have found some good ones, and they don’t lack depth. My relationships started to exist after my company closed. I feel because my focus shifted my life bounced back on track. With every passing year my awareness grows and my life opens up. Hopefully after 10 years of practice I should be able to levitate.

every day is different.

Every Day is Different.
Some days I wake up and run to the coffee machine, but others I barley need the coffee in general. Lately the weather change in Los Angeles has made many people sick with colds, allergies, headaches and just a random feeling of blaaaah. Weather can affect us in many different ways. Our emotional state, the food we eat, and way we sleep also has an effect on our bodies.
I bring this up because I want to bring some awareness to this inner conflict. My mom recently asked me why she felt amazing in some yoga classes and like a buffoon in others. The answer is basic . About two years ago I took my mom to her first yoga class, and I watched her like a hawk the whole time making sure she did not hurt herself. Her practice was much different then mine. Her hips are much more open and she could easily get into postures I have difficulty with. To this day her body is open in some areas and closed in others.
Hip openers are no problem for my mom but balancing postures are her greatest challenge. On days when she feels sluggish, has a head ach, or did not eat right her balancing poses become extremely taxing. At times she may not even be able to do them. Sometimes she has to go into child’s pose in the middle of class just to relax. On days she feels fine her balancing improves greatly. Every day is different but in yoga classes it seems to be magnified.
I could go into a medical reason, or get really abstract and explain this through metaphysics but let’s not go there. A rule of thumb: If you are tired going into a class expect nothing from yourself. Pat yourself on the back for even being present in the room. If you feel amazing expect nothing from yourself just breathe. I say this because without expectations you will not “fail” or “prevail” you will just be. Accept where you are in the moment and do what ever you can do.
I know we are American and we strive to be the best we can be, but yoga was not founded in America it was brought here as a gift from a different culture. This being said there is no rule that states if you don’t stand in Tadasana, or tree pose you are a looser. It just means today was not the day, but maybe tomorrow is. When you can accept this you know you are a yogi. For six years I have been practicing and every day my practice is different. When I am in a level three class and I get tired I take child’s pose, because that is where I am in that moment on that day.
I have been in class with a ton of energy and could barley make it through my class. Other times I have been really tired and had great inner strength in the class I was taking. When I travel it takes a few days to get back into the swing of my normal practice. In Vancouver my practice was all over the place and poses I can always do I could not even attempt. For the record that drove me crazy, and my ego went nuts. So nuts that during one shivanasana I kept my eyes open the whole time waiting for the next instruction. Even As I wrote the last sentence it annoyed me that I ruined a shivanasana the best pose in the whole world. Every day will be different just accept this. Yoga is not a spin class, or weight training, or the elliptical. Its mind, body, and soul since this always changes, your practice will too.

Intention

Intention
Many teachers will start a yoga class sitting in a cross leg position or even in mountain pose and speak about intentions. Like keep a thought of something you want to dedicate your practice to, or something you want to meditate about. This should start to focus your thoughts, but sometimes it dose not, and this can be really weird for a new comer. So what is an intention and how should we set one?
Intentions are not meant to be random thoughts your mind begins to focus on. The first second you try to keep your mind still 5,000 different ideas will flood your consciousness. For example things like: What should I eat for lunch? He is so on my nerves! I hate those shoes. I need a pedicure. What is that smell? Did he just fart? That’s disgusting! These are not intentions. Winning the lottery while appealing really is not an intention either.
Intentions are good thoughts, feelings and sometimes an image we hold onto in class. It is meant to focus your thoughts to eventually bring you into a meditative state. This sounds weird, but I can explain better with an example. For the last five years my intention has been to find love, and not just with a partner but within myself and those around me. My new intention has become love and success. In my first attempts to focus my mind on love many different thoughts got in my way.
I would say it took years to drown out my inner roommate who was constantly nagging me about this or that. When I finally did wonderful things started to change in my life for the better. At one point years ago I would just focus on the picture of a big red heart in my mind. I did not know at the time that this energy was so positive I only came to understand this lather through teacher training. This was the beginning of my moving meditation. What I projected in my mind is what I became surrounded with in my life.
Good and bad come with this type of process. Before this intention/meditation I was drawn to messed up people, but not any more. I have lost good friends, but gained different positive people who understand me on a much different level. I have met great boyfriends who have been nothing but awesome to me while I was with them. The break ups are never so great, but you have to accept and move on. My current boyfriend spoils me more then I could have ever hoped for and he makes ma feel good every day. He is an unexpected present that I would have never expected. I do feel lucky to have him.
Friends that I have lost hurt the most; I had a life long girlfriend I had to move on from. To this day even though we were awful to each other at the end of our friendship I still miss her jokes, and sarcasm. I have gained a really good friend recently and feel she is the new life long friend I needed. We have a lot of the same philosophies about life, love, learning, education, and enjoy spending time with one another. The void I once felt about loosing that older friendship has been filled with a much more appropriate one.
If your mind is full of what you cannot do, and your laundry list of nonsense you will never get in touch with what you really need. If you want success intend it, love, happiness, friends, and thing you want is out there all you have to do is ask. Be careful and don’t be unrealistic you have to be a participant in what you want to achieve. Participate, get through the bad and the shiny red bow is out there waiting for you.

just an idea.....

If you want to try…..
Many people want to try yoga but are unsure of where to go to start, so here is a recommendation. Look for deals for new students. Rising Lotus currently has a 15 day package. Yoga works has a similar package, and many other popular yoga companies do as well.
While I was in Vancouver for a month I did take full advantage of these offers. Many studios up there offer the same packages they do here. I went to many different types of yoga classes, experienced different teachers, studios, and styles. I did like one studio more then the others, and would go back for sure. I think it is really helpful to do this to find a studio that works for you.
Trying out a studio will also dictate a feeling to a new comer. You can feel welcome, unwelcome, comfortable etc. That feeling could color all experience a person has in a studio setting. It is just like joining a gym. You probably want to join a studio that attracts the same type of people you would be come friends with.
I do not belong to a studio, but when I do take studio classes I take them at Rising Lotus Yoga in Sherman Oaks. This happens to be the same place I am getting certified. When I was talking to some of my favorite yoga teachers they recommended this place for teacher training. I did audit a class with one of the owners and it spoke to me in a very welcoming way. I signed up right then and there for their teacher training course. That being said I would recommend their two week trial. I would also suggest Yoga works, mostly because it is a very well known company, and many of the teachers they have trained are some of the best teachers I have gone to.
However, I am bias because I really like yoga. Some people will not like it in general. A lot of people feel it moves too slow, or they don’t like studios, and for some other reason there is this idea that Bikram yoga is the standard practice. For the record Bikram is not the industry standard. Anyone who is my age and has taken a Hatha class has said it’s slow and boring, I can see why. If you are younger I would suggest vinyasa flow not Hatha. I would also suggest a beginning class or Iyengar classes, but these are going to focus more on alignment, and posture so they will be slower.
Purchasing a trial opens you to many different teacher types and then you can get a real idea of what classes are out there, and how each teacher teaches. I do not belong to a studio. I do belong to Equinox because for the price I felt it was a better deal. Many people will not sign up to Equinox because it is expensive like my ex-boyfriend who calls Equinox, “the rich people’s gym”. ( This statement always bothered me. First of all he belongs to a gym and this means he can afford to pay for a gym. Many people around the world cannot so isn’t he rich as well in comparison? Anyways we digress….) The teachers I take at Equinox also teach at the best studios in LA. With the economy in the shape it is in many studios are dropping prices and offering many packages to make the classes more affordable to everyone. If you are willing to learn there is something out there for everyone.

back in baby's arms

Back in Baby’s Arms
Now that I am back in L.A. my practice is back to normal. Well its kinda back to normal. After all the walking, hatha, and biking many things have changed when it comes to my body. To start I can do things I could not do previously, and cannot do things I could once do.
For example forward folds are all good. I can now grasp the balls of my feet in all of the postures. Before my trip I could not. I can also put more pressure on my knee when I am in pigeon. For the record I could not even get myself into pigeon before my trip. I may have to break up with pigeon again eventually. I keep loosing my balance because my hips are more open then they have ever been and I keep falling out of Warrior three and tree pose. It’s my hips and thighs that have changed. Who knew all this different exercise would change all this for me. I did not. The side effects are somewhat annoying.
To be specific my thigh muscles are so tight and bulky that in my massage last night they would barley relax and loosen up. They are also larger then before I left for my trip. I am having flash backs from High School where my fellow students called me man legs. Long story short, I was a dancer and maybe my thigh muscles were much much much larger then a teenage boys. Maybe just maybe they were envious. Either way they teased me too much and when I look at my thighs sometimes I cannot help but see man legs. Don’t get me wrong I am still all woman just with larger thigh muscles then teenage boys. Not like that is a difficult in general.
Back to the subject at hand it feels so good to be surrounded with my favorite teachers again. Getting deeper into my poses and even falling over in others. I have my vinyasa flow back. It’s like my favorite pair of sexy shoes. I put them on and feel as of I can rule the world.