Be Open to Abundance

With the energy of the New Moon, and Navrathri (nine nights dedicated to Durga).  Ma Durga is considered a powerful Goddess, and the energy of mother is conceptually about giving birth to a new.  This is a time to release all lower vibration energies (Durga), be open to abundance (Lakshmi), and surrender to the concept of wisdom through worship (Saraswati). 

While many believe the planet has entered a massive shift, vibrational frequency change, it is evident to people who are empathic.  Deeper connections, the healing of old wounds, awareness and changes of old patterns of behavior, so we too can evolve.  Now is the time to be open to abundance.  If you are not a devotee of Hinduism, you can still practice gratitude, meditation, asana, and karma yoga (selfless service) as a way to purifiy yourself, as you evolve deeper to your own journey of Self-Realization. 
We all are love, everything is love, and when you can see that you set yourself free.

Day 30 - Meditation Solstice weekend & Super Full Moon

Today is the day, we made it, day 30 (yeaaaaa!).  Congratulations to all who joined us,  please continue to enjoy and keep up with your practice.  We began this on a powerful weekend and the end is on the Sumer Solstice weekend and Super Full Moon (tomorrow).  This is a perfect time for meditation.  While we have so many options of Mantra, Japa, Zazen, Tratak, Yantra, Nada, Chakra, and many more for today's tip I would like to conclude with my favorite meditation which I call an attitude of gratitude.  Please sit in your meditation inhaling each breath as an offering of gratitude for every blessing in your life, for every challenge in your life, for every person, and everything. 

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.  The mind is everything.  What we think we become.  ~ Buddah

While many of these tips have been simple enough for most people to attempt, meditation practice can be powerful and indepth.  As I mentioned before, for those looking for more guidance please find a guru or teacher who can lead you with the proper pronunciation of mantra or various other methods.  Many different amazing options including Art of Living (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar), Sivananda, Osho, Sri Dharma Mittra, Zazen Buddhist Meditation at Zendo, Ishta with Alan Finger, and perhaps if you like Riya Yoga (with myself, Ambria).  There are plenty of options to embrace the practice of yoga & meditation, be consistent, be grateful and always enjoy the journey.  Please remember to be conscious of the things we watch, read, listen to etc., they call it television programming for a reason, it is hypnosis and we often times are far better off sitting in meditation than watching much of the programming out there.  Thank you for joining in this worldwide Sangha ~ Namaste

Happy Thanksgiving Yogis

This is the time of year many families and friends across North America get together and eat till they sleep.  This is one of the busiest times at American Airports.  Many yogis engage in Pot-lucks at their yoga studios.  Some studios who embrace the practice of yoga with Ahimsa, encourage students to eat vegan/vegetarian Thanksgiving.

For many years I used to volunteer at the Missionaries of Charity in NYC, and the past few years I invited yoga students to join me for serving food on Thanksgiving at the shelter, as it was a bigger event and required more volunteers than weekly meals.

Volunteering at Missionaries of Charity, BX, NYC with some Amazing Yoga Students.

While many people view thanksgiving as a chance to consume ridiculously large amounts of foods that leave us in a food coma, or nothing more than a mass slaughtering of turkeys, or a celebration of the genocide that took place years ago, it still is a HUGE north American Holiday.  Regardless of what we eat, it is important to take the time to reflect & give thanks.  Truly, giving thanks and celebrating our loved ones should be done on a regular basis for an abundant life and not just annually.   Some folks may say I cannot think of things to be thankful for, so perhaps you should start with a list of 5 things.  Sadly our consumer driven society leaves many people in a feeling of "lack" or "dissatisfaction" when we truly have more than most people in other parts of the world.  If only we take a moment to reflect with gratitude, only then will more blessings out pour.

List for ways to make thanksgiving more than just a annual event of eating.

1.  Give thanks at every meal, acknowledging mother nature/God, the hands that made the food, and the people you share the meal with.
2. Adopt a turkey from Farm Sanctuary's Adopt a Turkey Project.
3. Volunteer at a local shelter to give food to people who otherwise would have nothing or donate canned goods.
4. Volunteer at a local hospital or animal shelter.
5. Make your yoga practice, every breath an inhalation of gratitude, every asana an offering of thanks.
6. Keep a daily meditation practice of gratitude
7. Keep a daily journal and list all the blessings in your life.
8. Be Thankful for the people in your life always, and make sure they feel your gratitude and love.
9. Add some detoxification yoga asana and foods to your life, so that you can be kind to your digestive system.
10. Smile and Say Thank at every chance you get!

Wishing you all a wonderful day filled with love, peace, joy and thanksgiving! ~ Namaste

Gratitude, Ego Free Yoga, and Scheduling

First off, gratitude....many thanks to the showering of lovely gifts from all my students over the Holiday Season. I must say, I am truly blessed to work with a variety of people all over NYC, and everyone of them is so generous of heart. Your love is the most amazing gift, that I cherish, your dedication to the practice no matter how challenging is what I admire, and your gifts are truly an honor to receive. I love you all, and I am grateful for all that you teach me as well. It's really a blessing to be part of your Mind-Body-Spirit transformation.

Second, Ego Free Yoga. I have touched upon this subject many times before, and I realize that this is my challenge as a Yoga Instructor to detach from this reality. The reason this ego based practice, bothers me, is because it is not safe for every one's body, and it is not embracing a Mind-Body-Spirit connection. In order to join the Mind-Body-Spirit, one must deepen pranayama (breathing exercises), these deep breaths allow us to go inward, this breath is meant to initiate the movement, so we flow through the poses. No pushing, no straining, just floating with peace and ease. Nonetheless, it is evident that here in the Western part of the world, we embrace the concept of challenging the body with the Asana practice. If you have taken my classes, you know, I LOVE A CHALLENGE. But, there is sometimes what I call, "the race to headstand" in yoga classes. As an instructor, we should all respect the anatomy of the body. If a student is practicing headstand on the wall, and unable to perform headstand in the center of their mat....shouldn't this tell us that they may need to improve core strength? Or maybe they need to shift their shoulders higher into their back? And maybe they need to stabilize the muscles surrounding the spine before attempting more challenging variations on Sirsasana (headstand)? Variations in Headstand can risk injury to the cervical spine, two seconds of saying "I did Headstand with my legs in Eagle" compared to a life time of neck pain is not worth it. This was a scenario that some students of mine told me they experienced at a popular studio here in NYC, and the reason for this post. If you are teaching a group class and want to inspire a challenging class, here are some tips:

• Get to know your students, if you have a new student be attentive to their needs.
• Demonstrate variations of the pose so people can learn a step by step process of getting into advanced asana.
• Make sure students body's are warmed up, and ready to go into deeper variations.
  
• Be ready to do hands on adjustments for students who need.
• When you see that a student is unable to do certain poses, please do not cue them to do a more intense variation....cue "watch-asana" or have them practice the beginner variation.
  

In the linage of Astanga yoga, students are required to master certain sequences before they progress to the next. This is done for a reason, so that the body flows naturally into the sequence. Yoga is meant to be a practice, and not a perfect, so enjoy the challenge to the body and practice but without the ego. We have a responsibility to our students to make them experience a Mind-Body-Spirit connection, embrace that connection and come back for more. We can still challenge the body, make them sweat, and have fun, but be safe and good to the body at the same time!

Finally, scheduling.....Last year I was blessed to be teaching nearly 30 classes a week and taking yoga classes with some of my favorite teachers at the same time. Some would not find such a schedule a blessing, but for me I enjoyed every minute of this labor of love. A fellow yoga Instructor/friend of mine met me early this year with the similar scenario. We both love what we do, and see how dedicated our students are. We are also both artists, so our passion is deep. While it is awesome to be able to affect change in so many people's lives, to do what you love for a living we have to make sure that we are being good to our body, mind and spirit too. I noticed how I missed my music, I missed out on being social aside from with students, and I chose to make a change. This year, I decided to cut back on some yoga classes. While it was so hard to come to that decision, I knew I needed to do it, for me. In order for me to make time to be social, to possibly travel, to do more work with Special Needs Yoga, to promote and share my books, to work on and perform music, to volunteer more, I need to free up some space in my schedule. With any job that you do, make sure you schedule time to do the things that you love. Luckily for me, I love yoga, so work is more like play for me.....but in order to maintain love for the other things I enjoy, scheduling it is important. Tony Robbins talks about scheduling your life, your success, and I agree. It is wonderful to be a free spirit, and go with the flow. However, when you write down what you want from life, your mind/body drives towards it, and when you schedule it, you have a definite date with your destiny!

Love and Gratitude

Just a note to express my love and gratitude to the students at Bamboomoves, my private session regulars, and the Yogi Bean kids who have maintained a joyful yoga practice for many months. You all bring so much joy to my life. The folks at Bamboomoves, YEAAAHHH we made a one year anniversary. It has been such a gift to be part of your yoga journey. With the 6:30 am yoga crew that were so dedicated to their morning practice, love you guys. That was such a beautiful way to begin our day. The kids who do sun salutes, warriors and yoga games with love and kindness, love you kids. The yoga-laties fans who petitioned to have the grueling, sweaty "torture" (as they call it) class twice a week, as opposed to twice a month, I love you all. Everyone who takes my level 2, level 1, Kids, and Yoga-laties class every Saturday, during this incredibly sunny-beach-friendly summer, I love you for your dedication to the practice. All of you who share your energy for our Chakra Workshops including the musicians, love you all. The vibe at Bamboomoves is more of a family atmosphere, and it is unlike any other yoga studio, I am thankful to be part of it. Thank you to the other teachers at Bamboomoves, Andrew, Carissa, Yoshio, Yael, Sherry, Monica, Michael, I love being able to take your classes. Andrew & Yoshio, it is easy to figure out that you are both Dharma Yoga disciples, as you both provide such a deep experience for every student and never fail to encourage me with deeper adjustments to the delight of all the other students in class, thank you and I love you both. Carissa, you are my "fairy" yoga teacher, I love your "flash dance" pose, I miss when you took my Saturday classes, and love you dearly. Yael, your belly dance class is super fun, and I was so thrilled to be part of it, love you Shimmy queen. Leon, hopefully one day, I will gather the courage to take kickboxing with you, I love you and appreciate your rides home every so often. Monica and Michael, when my schedule permits, I want to take your yoga classes too, I hear wonderful things, and I love you both dearly. Sherry, unfortunately we teach at the same time, otherwise I would have loved to take Tai Chi with you, it was fun to have yoga 2 and tai chi side by side once when we had the construction going on. Carolann, Joy & Jody you are the best front desk girls of any yoga studio, thank you guys for being so helpful, and for laughing and chatting with me during breaks (while they are working hard at the same time of course Michael), you girls rock, and I love you too! I am so grateful to work with all of you. Thank you all for making my yoga journey so wonderful!