Equinox Yoga

With September 22 2012 fast approaching marking the fall equinox many changes are happening.  Kids are going back to school after summer vacation, warmer clothes are being pulled out of the closets, and harvest time is approaching.  Equinox is a time when night and day are equal.  This is also around the time for the beloved Ganesh Festival.  With autumn harvest in abundance, it is a time for giving thanks.  Many people suggest to begin rituals for manifesting new harvest in their lives.

Recently, after the close of the NYC Zoga Yoga Teacher Training Course, I was invited to explore yoga class at Equinox gym.  This is one of the leading chains of gyms in North America.  I took a Kripalu Yoga class and Yoga 360.  For me, I tend to prefer yoga classes that facilitate a mind-body-spirit experience, meaning classes that weave spiritual concepts through the flow, allowing me to burn through tapas, and clear my mind.  Teachers who have usually done this for me have been found in Ashrams in India, and others like (to name a few) Sri Dharma Mittra, Tao Porchon Lynch, David Swensen, and a few others.

There is always the stigma of "gym yoga".  However, I believe the class is how receptive you are to the practice, so I always like to venture with an open mind.  While like everyone, I may have my preference, each experience will teach me valuable lessons and increase my gratitude.

The Kripalu Yoga teacher brought us through a slow flow, with pigeon pose being the goal.  He gave brilliant adjustments to my friend who is brand new to yoga, and created an awesome energy in the packed sunday morning class.  Since I did not even seem to have a bead of sweat form on my body, I stayed for the next class called Yoga 360.  Basically if you have a round mat, it would be similar to circular or mandala type movements through a vinyasa flow.  Since we did not have round mats, we would use two mats and form them in a shape of a lower case "T".  The catch was, when we were in downward dog, we would jump our feet to the perpendicular mat and continue through the flow.  The teacher eventually brought us to a wide legged plank, which had my abs singing praises of "gym yoga" the next day.  Thank you to both teachers for an awesome experience.

Finally, with the theme of Equinox I want to share the beautiful video by Equinox Yoga Teachers & Yoga's Dynamic Duo: Dice Lida-Klein and Briohny Smyth.  This beautiful couple makes inversions and advanced asana look effortless, and their sweet personalities make it so easy to enjoy taking their classes.  In this video, the beautiful husband and wife team are exploring ACRO Yoga, which is more physics and trust than anything else.  It is so poetic to watch people flow through an Acro Yoga flow.  Thank you Dice & Bri for inspiring people as we approach the fall equinox.

If you have not seen the video yet please click the link below:
The Balancing Act with Dice and Briohny 

Yoga and Art Part 2: Selling Sex or Simply just Sexy Yogis?

Recently an incredibly gifted Yogini, Briohny Kate Smyth who is part of the Dynamic Duo of the West with her amazing fiancé Dice, made an awesome yoga video with Equinox. The video is of her doing her brilliant Yoga Asana practice. It is shot in her room, sweet music echoes with panoramic views of her surroundings while she dives into one of the most inspiring Yoga Asana flows I have witnessed, and she happens to be in her panties while she is practicing. She looks amazing. Possibly one of the most inspiring Yoga Videos I have watched. I am grateful to have taken her classes, so I can honestly say, this lady is an AMAZING Goddess!

She flows through handstands into koundinyasana, lotus, and crow with such ease and grace. She is absolutely beautiful inside and out, and has a strength and power to her asana practice that many aspire for. She is a caring Yoga Instructor who demonstrates with expertise and humility, she teaches with compassion and care, and she practices with strength and power.....She is awesome.

After this amazing video was posted, there was a small uproar in the Yoga community. While most people, myself included, were awe struck by the video, some people sadly, had negative comments and saw it as sexualization of the Yoga Practice. Just because she was in her panties? The traditional Yoga Practice is actually done in a loin cloth, so in that case, Bri is overdressed. When will we be able to see the beauty of the female form as art? When will we lose our prudish views on the human body?

I myself often times practice in my panties or even less. Though never having the courage to set up a camera, when I watched Bri's video I was more mesmerized by her brilliant asana practice and saw it as truly inspirational. The same uproar happened when another Brilliant yogini from the West Coast, Kathryn Budig posed for Yoga ToeSox advertisements in the nude. The pictures in my view are incredibly artistic depictions of a beautiful woman doing challenging Yoga Asana. Kathryn's yoga practice is amazing! While some may argue, is it necessary to dress like that for yoga pictures/videos, or in Kathryn's case not dress, I say, if it bothers you so much, just don't look. Is it sex selling yoga? NO, these women just happen to be sexy and they practice Yoga.

In my own life I have noticed that when others have critical comments to make, or see things with negative goggles, it is actually their own insecurity, envy or even limitations that they are conveying. Many respected sages and Yogis in India practice naked, and this is because they have fully embraced the YAMA, "Aparigraha", non possessiveness.

It is so easy to point a finger at someone else, but remember when we do there are 3 fingers pointing back at you. Sadly, the same men who say women use sex to sell yoga, have their shirt off half the time.

Thank you Briohny & Kathryn, my fellow Yoginis. You both inspire my practice and the practice of many other people worldwide.

If you have not seen the amazing video yet it is under my favorites on my Youtube Page, or click the link below:

http://youtu.be/loszrEZvS_k

Awesome Inversion Workshop with Dice and Bri

This weekend was full and amazing! Friday night at Bamboomoves we were blessed to have Dice and Bri (the dynamic duo) fly in from California to teach an inversion workshop. These two are awesome yogis with such a brilliant practice to watch. The studio was filled with people eager to learn the joy of flight. Dice and Bri had students warm up with a flow, and incrementally introduced various arm balances. It was awesome. The best was watching Yoshio just float up with his amazing yoga practice. I was also so proud to watch some of my students approach and do arm balances like crow, handstand, scorpion, forearm stand and other poses with such joy and ease. Dice and Bri have such an amazing way of co teaching a class. They both demonstrate poses with incredible anatomical awareness, and assist students in a lovely compassionate way. For some reason, I am uninterested in doing a handstand against the wall, but if someone stands behind to catch my legs, I will hop up. So I attempted to recruit a student to be my catcher, and I wasn't kicking high enough. I guess Dice saw how I wanted to be upside down, so he talked me through it, and I was on my hands. Thank you Dice for catching my legs. Both Dice and Bri have inspired me to be a "handstander". For a long time I had fear hang ups about re-injuring old injuries in my wrist, back etc......but that is so silly.....fear is silly. This year I want to be a handstander. I myself had overworked my body the day before, and was literally shaking and nauseous, but I still participated in the workshop as best as I could. When I went to do my crow, my arms were vibrating, and my knee left a nasty bruise on the backside of my arm. Three days later, the bruise is still there. The lesson I learned this last week, was to slow down a bit. While it is awesome to take a lot of classes, it is awesome to rest as well. Thank you Dice and Bri for being such an incredible inspiration to the students of Bamboomoves!

Intro To Flight with Dice and Briohny

Later Sunday evening I was invited to the 2 hour Intro to Flight Workshop held at Bamboomoves Englewood with Michael's (Co Owner of Bamboomoves Bx) Yoga Instructors who are based out in LA. Dice and Briohny flew in from LA, to conduct Yoga Flight Workshops, teach classes, and experience the NY yoga scene for the week! While I have had a history of hang ups when it comes to Inversions, due to past injuries (Car accident, wrist injury, etc), which had translated into fear of having a reoccurring injury, I have spent much of the summer at Sankalpah with Issac who kind of nurtures you into Inversions, class with Andrew at Bamboomoves who has the "just go up" method down packed, and classes at Dharma where you are surrounded by such amazing energy, you never look back, thus I was semi prepared. Dice and Briohny are an amazing couple who took us through almost every arm balance and inversion you could think of. It was phenomenal! The 2 hour workshop goes by very fast with so much information, and flight to experience. To have these two teachers lead us into Flight, with a warm up flow, demonstrations, and each pose ushering in a new one, was so wonderful! The grace and ease they display of floating up into handstand and various other arm balances, is very inspiring. The best part is, they have brilliant allignment cues. If you are afraid to go upside down, stand on your hands or just afraid in general, this is the yoga class you want to take, they are fantastic! If you are wanting to experience these fabulous instructors come tonight Monday August 23rd to Bamboomoves, BX where they will be teaching the 7:45pm class, or on Thursday August 26 at Bamboomoves BX where they will do another Intro to Flight Workshop that evening.

Picture 1: (l-r) Charles (Bamboomoves Forrest Hills Instructor), Briohny and Dice, Ambria, and Michael (CoOwner of Bamboomoves BX)

Picture 2: The Englewood NJ Bamboomoves family with Charles, Briohny and Dice and Ambria.