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