Love cures because wholeness emerges. Om.

Gayatri Mantra

There are twenty-four letters in Gayatri Mantra which are related to twenty-four glands located in the body.  Upon chanting the Gayatri, each words vibration and meaning stimulate, activate and awaken the powers of righteous wisdom.  

-Claire

"The Invitation"

"The Invitation", by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dreams
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your
fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.

If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand on the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after a night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the center of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

I don't usually read to my classes, but I was subbing a class where the teacher ALWAYS reads something to open class and then again at the end to bring it full circle. So in order to provide some consistency with their usual teacher I decided to read something to them. This is what I chose to read and the theme of being true to ones self is really resonating with me lately...Om Shanti Om. love.

Sounds of class

Elastic snapping of clothes popping into proper place.
Echoing om.
Pregnant silence before the first salutation.
Thundering of feet jumping back.
Hips popping free into trikonasana.
Groans of relief as hands release from parsvakonasana.
Rumbling flow of breath and asana.
Grasping hold of the mat releasing as the feet turn to another virabhadrasana.
Grunting the feet above the head into handstand.
Nervous giggles at an impossible pose.
Excited squeak as the impossible has become possible.
Soft sighs of exhaustion lead the way to shavasana.
Snoring.
One last echo of om.

see below...

Foodie Yoga: A Paradox?

The words of Ziggy Marley’s “Love Is My Religion” floated over 30 people lying on yoga mats in a steamy, dim loft above Madison Avenue on Friday. All had signed up for a strange new hybrid of physical activity: first an hour of vigorous, sweaty yoga, then a multicourse dinner of pasta, red wine and chocolate. As soon as the lights went up, dinner was served on the floor: an (almost) seamless transition designed to allow the yogis to taste, smell and digest in a heightened state of awareness.

“It’s a little weird to sit on a sweaty yoga mat and eat soup,” said one woman, not pausing as she spooned up a smooth, cinnamon-spiked butternut squash purée from a bamboo bowl. “But people are used to doing some weird things in yoga class.”

Joy Pierson, the chef at the nearby Candle Café, a vegan restaurant that supplied the meal, sat cross-legged at the front of the room, encouraging everyone to breathe in slowly. “Ssssmell the squassshhhh waaaafting through the air,” she intoned.

Friday’s event at Exhale Spa was the first of a series of “Yoga for Foodies” sessions, devised by a young, adventurous yoga teacher, David Romanelli, and coming soon to restaurants in Chicago, Cleveland and Dallas.

Calling his mission “yoga for the Everyman,” Mr. Romanelli, 36, plays Grateful Dead songs during class, wears sweat pants rather than spandex, and has already experimented with offering chocolate truffles after chaturanga instruction. “It’s a way of getting people in the door,” he said in an interview. “The world is a better place if people do yoga. And if they come because chocolate or wine is involved, I’m fine with it.”

Full Article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/dining/27yoga.html?hp

Now this seems a bit paradoxical to me, eating chocolate and drinking wine between vinyasas.  Your thoughts?  Maybe only if the workshop includes a bit of doggie yoga at the end ;)

-Claire

Kitchari

first attempt at making Kitchari tonight!
mung beans have been soaking since 1pm...

here is the recipe that i got off of the yoga journal website-

Prep time: 30 minutes
Servings: 3

1 cup basmati rice
1/2 cup mung beans (whole, soaked overnight)
6 cups boiling water
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 pinch asafoetida (a spice also called hing—available at Indian groceries)
1 cup chopped vegetables, such as zucchini, carrots, cauliflower, or anything you choose (optional)
1 teaspoon ground cumin, coriander, or any other spices you choose (optional

1. Combine the rice with the mung beans and wash twice.
2. Place rice and beans into boiling water, adding the turmeric and asafoetida.
3. Cook over medium heat until the water is mostly absorbed.
4. Add one more cup of lukewarm water, vegetables, and optional spices if you're using them. The final dish should be a stew with a very moist and soft consistency.

SOURCE
Ayurveda for Women: A Guide to Vitality and Health
(Healing Art Press, 2000), by Dr. Robert E. Svoboda

Yamas

Ahimsa - non-violence
Satya - truthfulness
Asteya - non-stealing or non-covetousness
Brahmacarya - moderation in sex
Aparigraha - non-acquisitiveness or non-receiving of gifts
Ksama - forgiveness
Dhrti - steady intellect
Daya - compassion
Arjava - straightforwardness
Mitahara - moderation in diet
Sauca - cleanliness

from Yoga a Gem for Women
by Geeta Iyengar

Mike Brennan

I just found this photo of Mike working at the Adirondack Park Agency Visitor Interpretative Center. xo kathy

Enlighten Up! - a yoga film

http://enlightenupthefilm.com/

ABOUT-

Filmmaker Kate Churchill is determined to prove that yoga can transform anyone. Nick Rosen is skeptical but agrees to be her guinea pig. Kate immerses Nick in yoga, and follows him around the world as he examines the good, the bad and the ugly of yoga. The two encounter celebrity yogis, true believers, kooks and world-renowned gurus. Tensions run high as Nick’s transformational progress lags and Kate’s plan crumbles. What unfolds and what they discover is not what they expected.

Featuring: B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, Norman Allen, Sharon Gannon, David Life, Gurmukh, Dharma Mitra, Cyndi Lee, Alan Finger, Rodney Yee, Beryl Bender Birch, Shyamdas, Diamond Dallas Page and many more!

I haven't seen it, but it looks interesting!

Yoga à Paris

Practicing in my new apartment in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, pictures in more exciting places to come!  Here's a French explication of the drishtis...

La direction des regards : les drishti

La direction du regard, le drishti, en sanscrit, est nécessaire dans la pratique authentique du Ashtanga. Le flux de l’attention et le flux de la respiration sont intimement liés à la direction et aux mouvements des yeux.

Dans chaque posture et durant les mouvements qui relient les postures, le regard se pose sur un endroit spécifique. On dénombre neuf drishti.

Par ordre d’apparition il s’agit de :

• Nasagrai :racine du nez
• Angusta ma dyai : pouces - appelé également drishti divin
• Broomadhya : troisième oeil
• Nabi chakra : le nombril
• Urdhva : en haut, le ciel
• Hastagrai : la main
• Padhayograi : les orteils
• Parsva : au loin à gauche
• Parsva : au loin à droite

Tous ont pour but de tourner le regard vers l’intérieur. Grâce à la discipline imposée par les drishti, l’esprit se recentre, ramenant le pratiquant à lui -même. L’attention, ainsi dirigée vers l’intérieur développe la concentration .L’application des bandha et des drishti révèle l’instant et permet d’atténuer la pensée et les dispersions qu’elle implique.

A travers ce voyage intérieur, le pratiquant développe l’écoute. Grâce à l’observation, il reflète ses mécanismes physiologiques et psychiques, il prend de la distance et se rassérène.

Do you know this flower?

Wouldn't you like to?

No cookies today...

I ordered two new sandbags.
Chad (my husband) found out they come empty.
He bought a 50-lb. bag of sand.
Frozen solid bag of sand.
Became wet sand.
Gave it a week to thaw/dry in the bag.
Didn't work.
Wanted to use sandbags.
Tried the wet sand.
Didn't work really well.

Chad's idea: bake the sand.

Turns out that in about 30 minutes...
6 lbs. of sand per cookie sheet...
Two cookie sheets at a time...
300 degrees in the convection oven...
Cool for a few hours...
and now we have enough dry sand for one sandbag.

The sand for the second one is currently baking.

The Healing Power of Yoga

When I began yoga in 1997, it was at the onset of a serious illness. Although I'm now in recovery, I continue to find the healing power of yoga during almost every practice. Over the years, I have read piles of books on both my disease and yoga, underlining excerpts I found meaningful and relevant. Today, I share the readings while I teach and found that although I originally saved them for my personal journey, they relate to others' journeys as well.

I've included a handful of them below.
Enjoy them. Heal from them. Share them.

"That's why the process can take years and years and years because it's just giving yourself the opportunity to try different things and allowing yourself to fail and allowing yourself to just keep on plugging. That's all you can do." - From Sensing the Self

"I believe that only one person in a thousand knows the trick of really living in the present. Most of us spend 59 minutes an hour living in the past, with regret for lost joys, or shame for things badly done (both utterly useless and weakening) - or in a future which we either long for or dread. Yet the past is gone beyond prayer and every minute you spend in vain effort to anticipate the future is a moment lost. There is only one world, the world pressing against you at this minute - here and now. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle. Which is exactly what it is - a miracle and unrepeatable." - Storm Jamseon

"I am no spiritualist and I grew up without religion, but that ropy fiber that runs through the center of me that holds fast even when the self has been stripped away from it: anyone who lives through this knows that it is never as simple as complicated chemistry." From The Noonday Demon

"Time passes. There is nothing we humans can do to hinder or promote that process. It will pass. No joy or pain will last either. It too will pass. So relax, just be here. Experience this time fully. If it is painful, know that it won't always be so. If it is joyful, savor it. File it in a handy spot in your heart so that you will be able to find it again." - Gruffle Clough

Yoga Nidra

Recently I have started practicing Yoga Nidra (Nidra=Sleep). In Yoga Nidra, you bring your consciousness between wakefulness and sleep through a systematic guided relaxation. It is an aspect of pratyahara, and eventually leads to Samadhi. Every source I have looked at says something a little different, but 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra is equivalent to approximately 2 hours of ordinary sleep! There are three kinds of tension that we accumulate; Muscular, Emotional, and Mental. Yoga nidra helps to release these tensions and cultivates peace within ourselves which we can then radiate out.

In the book I have on Yoga Nidra there is a table with the “States of Consciousness” on it…

1. Awake > Conscious mind > Sensory awareness, external knowledge
2. Yoga nidra > Superconscious mind > deep relaxation, visionary states
3. Dreaming sleep > Subconscioius mind > release of emotions
4. Deep sleep > Unconscious mind > Awakening of instincts

Om,
c

Returning

The holidays have pulled me from regular things. Practice included. So (and I don't know why) I'm afraid something won't be right when I return. Tonight, after work, I will recall this story as I settle onto my mat.

A father was rightfully proud of his daughters progress on the paino. He asked a well known composer, with whom he was acquainted, to listen to the girl play. The composer listened and when the girl finished the father asked, "Isn't she wonderful?" After a pause the composer observed, "She has amazing technique; I have never heard anyone play such a simple piece with such great difficulty."

Mike

Drishtis

Drishti - point of gaze or focus

Nasagrai - tip of the nose
Ajna Chakra - between the eyebrows
Nabi Chakra - the navel
Hastagrai - the hand
Padhayoragrai - the toes
Parsva Drishti - far to the right
Parsva Drishti - far to the left
Angusta Ma Dyai - the thumbs
Urdhva or Antara Drishti - up to the sky

Atma Drishti - keep your gaze on God / all you see is divine

Yoga in another form: Shaolin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6akulareVQ

Eka Hasta Urdhva Dhanurasana

Solid Potato Salad - The Ross Sisters - Awesome video clips here

new year resolution

for the holiday my mother gave me a journal -
on the first page she wrote...

"this is a gratitude journal for you. whenever you make an entry, write down the date and then list a few things that you are grateful for. one day, you will look back over your journal and you will see just how blessed life has been."

this is my new year's resolution.
taking a few minutes at the end of each day
looking back and seeing how wonderful it was,
and writing five things i am grateful for.

for example,
an entry for today:

i am grateful for triple A coming and starting my car after 3 days in the cold snow :)


XO, ashley

Sabian 2010

Sabian's New Year's resolution is to feed the squirrels in our back yard an apple every Sunday.

You don't find Yoga , Yoga finds you

As i was driving to work this morning, this thought popped into my head so i thought id share.


As much as you practice, as much as you study, as much as you learn from your teachers and life, try as hard as you might you never really find Yoga.
It is not out there to be found, it is not a concept to one day grasp, it is not an experience to one day have.
It is right now, in each moment, what ever is, exactly as it is.
All of the information out there, is just a hint on what Yoga may or may not be like for you.
Every one of us are unique expressions of the same whole.
Although at its source Yoga is the same we each have our own unique perception and experience of what it is to us.
So stop looking for Yoga you cant find it. It will never meet some kind of theoretical, conceptual expectation you may put on it.
Let Yoga find you, be completely open to this experience right now. That's all there is ...

Dandasana

Dandasana was the hardest pose for me when I began to practice. My hamstrings were so tight that even with my knees bent my pelvis tilted backwards. Years later I still cringe whenever it comes up in class.

Now I can do poses that I wouldn't have dared to dream of in the beginning. Somewhere along the way dandasana became easier, but my dread of it remained.

That made me start wondering ... how many other poses have changed without my noticing?

My new focus on my mat is to reexamine my practice.

Let go of how it used to feel or how I think it should be.
Focus on what is happening in the moment.
Breathe and be present.
Feel.

Wish me luck, this may be harder than dandasana used to be.

Bring your yoga mat with you wherever you go.

Have a good laugh at least once a day.

savasana poem.

savasana has arrived.
relax, let go.
follow the wandering mind
to a place of silence, peace, joy.
follow the breath
scan my body
thinking to myself,
so grateful -

a mind to study, contemplate, understand
eyes to see beauty all around
ears for listening
a voice allowing me to communicate with others
lungs to breathe deeply
heart full of love and continously beating
arms and legs providing myself with the freedom to move and explore
to be alive
to be happy
to be healthy

wiggling fingers and toes,
gently opening eyes,
hearing the silence in our minds,
feeling love in our hearts,
filled with joy by surroundings,
beautiful life.
beautiful savasana.




- ashley -

Pachimottanasana C

My New Year's Resolutions:

make all pancakes in the shape of a smiley faces

floss

work on left side hanumanasana (split)

go on an adventure once a week

stop bad mouthing institutions that i feel wronged by

learn three new jokes that i can share with anyone

stake my tomatoes

-kathy

Happy New Year! Be yourself. xoxo kathy