How to Choke a Yogi?...Harmony by Karate Style

How to choke a yogi? Actually it's more like how to teach a Yogi to choke, and escape from a choke hold. Growing up my older brother enjoyed practicing wrestling moves on me, and I admit I loved being "airplane spun in the air" and various other activities that big brothers put their baby sisters through. Physical challenges have always excited me, last year I was happy to do the Fire walk with the Tony Robbins UPW event. This year, I challenge myself with the ongoing physical challenges in my weekly Karate class. I find myself slightly nervous when I enter the class. The instructors and classmates at Harmony by Karate are awesome!!! They are so helpful in the process of educating people in martial arts. Kudos to Sensei Oscar who guided us in a beautiful breath work movement based class in December, it really was awesome. Kudos to Sensei Adam who introduced Choke holds this week. WOW, was I nervous! I am not a fan of choking, kicking, hitting etc, and I am challenging my limits by diving into this awesome weekly class, so I am still working through the nerves! I cam sing in front of crowds of thousands, no nerves, teach group and private yoga classes to just about anyone, and no nerves, but ask me to spar with another person, and a different energy starts to spark inside me. It really is not in my nature, and I love the challenge! If I had the choice of styles of battle, I would prefer a battle of wits over anything physical, but unfortunately wits cannot get you out of every situation.

Once again, we partnered up and practiced "choking" and escaping. Sensei Adam demonstrated many methods and had us go through the movements. Towards the end of class I was partnered with my friend, Sensei Joseph. Sensei Joseph is no joke, he is an accomplished Black Belt, and while he is my friend, he is not afraid to challenge me. He could see my intimidation, and talked me through, pushed me to use my body and escape. While I tend to giggle in excitement/mini celebrate when I do the given task, especially because I consider myself still very new to the world of martial arts, I quickly learned it is more than just going through the motions. The amazing thing about Karate is "focus". A situation can arise within a second, and if you lose focus, you can lose a lot. Sensei Joseph literally flipped me over, and I did not even see it coming!!!?? It reminded me of days when my big brother would flip me over! I have to admit, it felt awesome, but it taught me the importance of "focus" in Karate and martial arts. In Yoga our focus in inward, observing our spirit, mind and body, inevitably becoming detached to the world, which is beautiful. In Karate, we have to have focus inward and outward because we are dealing with another persons spirit, mind and body, which is also beautiful. Karate teaches you to maintain focus in order to be ready for any circumstance. In true Sensei Adam style, we ended the class with grueling drills, that apparently someone does to him??? Maybe that is why he enjoys putting us through the gauntlet? Thank you so much to the family at Harmony by Karate for enlightening me, challenging me, and teaching me to deepen my focus.

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!

Dr. Oz Neti Pot Demonstration

Neti Pot Bliss

Recently I had a brief encounter with the flu, two days of high fever, bed rest, and congestion. Since I tend to have a healthy diet, I won, and beat the flu quicker than most. While I beat the fever, I was left with some congestion. This being the season of the flu and colds, it is important to keep up with your vitamin C, Vitamin D, Green juices, and Neti Pot. Neti Pot???....What's a Neti Pot? some of you may be asking. The Neti Pot helps cleanse the nasal passage, improves breathing, and gets rid of pollen and other germ like things that tend to clog our breathing passage. With a gentle salt warm water solution, and a tilt of the head, and pouring your genie lamp of love into one nostril, the natural irrigation starts to allow the salt water solution through the other nostril, and within seconds you are as good as new! If you remember drinking really fast through a straw as a child, having a huge laughter attack, and witnessing the beverage come up through your nose, then you will remember a similar feeling that a Neti Pot brings. Neti Pots are an ancient, natural solution to better breathing! Neti Pots have been used for thousands of years, and can be traced back to the Ayurveda traditions of healing, as done by the Yogis of old, with references in the hindu vedas. It is a wonderful tool for those suffering from allergies and also people recovering from colds. For those who are not interested in a Neti Pot, you can purchase other Saline inhalers that provide the same sort of nasal cleanse. For those of you interested in trying the Neti Pot, feel free to check out the video of Dr. Oz teaching Celebrity Soap Star, Alison Sweeny how to use a Neti Pot. Neti Pots can be purchased online or at your local Whole Foolds or Health Food Store. Happy breathing!!!!

Yoga for People Diagnosed with Psychaitric Illness

Last year I had the honor to teach yoga to a beautiful group of people diagnosed with Schizophrenia. The group of people would meet weekly with their ACT (Assertive Community Treatment) team therapist. At first I was hesitant because I had little experience working with people suffering with mental illnesses, and more experience working adult or kids yoga, and with children who may be diagnosed with special needs. The therapist who is also a yoga teacher in training assured me that I would be great, and the owner of Bamboomoves was kind enough to offer the space at the studio for this amazing experience to take place. This experience truly changed my life.

While the Therapist provided me with literature about the mental illnesses in question, and assured me that he would be present in case I needed a back up assistant, I really had no idea I would be in for an experience of a lifetime. We had our first meeting, and the group enjoyed some gentle yoga. We did pranayama, hip opening stretches, back stretches, and balance postures. The sincere commentary from the group made the class so fun! While many people in the group have little family support, and have a truly sad situation in life, it was so awesome to witness how the yoga practice made them feel happy, peace, joy and one person even felt "turned on", I guess the experience awakened his "Swadhistana Chakra"! People in this awesome group expressed how their body felt good after the yoga, they felt like they could breathe better, the noticed how special yoga made them feel, and they truly supported each other in the class! This experience as an instructor was more than awesome! I am so grateful to have spent weeks with these awesome people, and witness how powerful the yoga practice really is. When I would hear how excited they were each week about their weekly yoga, it truly brightened my day! I am so happy to see how many places around the US are noticing the importance of providing a Yoga practice to people who unfortunately are overlooked in society.

 In DC, they are looking into teaching yoga to juvenile delinquents to inspire a sense of calm in the youth with a new department of youth rehabilitation services program. A dear friend of mine here in NYC, is teaching Yoga to battered pregnant women. I was also contacted to offer Yoga to people in the NYC prison system, which I would be honored to do! After my experience with the group in the ACT team, I am excited to share the yoga practice with more and more people who society tends to overlook. In the west Yoga is often times a means of fitness, and sometimes ego driven by focusing on mastering the asana (yoga pose), which if that is what makes you feel bliss, as an instructor I am happy to facilitate, but experience with the ACT team reinforced the power of the mind-body-spirit connection that yoga is truly about. This awesome group inspired me to respect how amazing the yoga practice truly is. Thank you Bamboomoves for providing a space, and to the Therapist and Jacobi Medical ACT team for inviting me to be part of this amazing experience for your patients. While we took pictures of the group doing some amazing yoga poses, to respect their privacy I will not be publishing the pictures in my blog.

Angelica's Kitchen

This Sunday morning I had the desire to take the class of my fellow Bamboomoves Yoga Instructor and friend, Carissa. I have taken Carissa's class before, and it is a lotta fun. Normally, my Sundays were booked, but since we are starting into a New Year the Holidays have extended for some....which meant I can take class! YEAAAA!!! I thought I would try Zumba for the first time, but I had things to do, so decided to make it for the 12:30 yoga class. I head down to the Bronx, and class had started???? The class actually starts at 12. I roll my mat out next to the door and flow through with the rest of my students while Carissa leads us in an awesome class.

After class we decide to head to the city to get lunch. We start to list some yummy Vegan places we know, and eventually decide on Angelica's Kitchen. Angelica's Kitchen is an awesome Vegan Restaurant! We feasted on yummy corn bread, delicious soups, steams veggies, and more!!! Sharing laughs, fun we discussed the famous Vegan Pumpkin Moonpie that Carissa had bought for me last Thanksgiving, which I was unable to eat/enjoy due to a fast, and she graciously ate for me. This discussion prompted the decision to go across the street after dinner to Cafe Viva to get the Moonpie. So after diner we glanced at the desert menu, and then headed across the street instead. I knew I was going to try this delicious desert that everyone seems to be salivating while describing to me. It was not there!!!??? So Carissa tells us that Atlas Cafe which is maybe 5 blocks away outsources the moonpies, and while they never carry the pumpkin moonpie, they have other Vegan deserts. So we head down there, everyone is enjoying the cool weather, excited about desert, and I have it in my mind that I will taste this moonpie TODAY. We walk in, and TADAAAA!!! It's there!!! I bought two, one for me and the other for Michele. Veronica and Ricky bought some other sinful Vegan Deserts, and we all share the treats, and moan in heavenly gratitude!

For many people going Vegan or Vegetarian is a New Year's Resolution. Some people also have made the choice to have a more conscious dietary lifestyle, or even just to reduce the intake of meat. People sometimes worry that there are not as many options for eating out. While it may be true for some cities, in NYC you have plenty of options, and Angelica's Kitchen is one of the many wonderful choices! Also, some feel like they may not have the sweet tooth indulgances they enjoy, well let me assure you Vegan deserts are BETTER!!! On the way home, I was talking about how growing up I never really liked eating sweets, except my mom's chocolate cake or banana bread and my Aunt/Godmother's (who is from Austria) Christmas Cookies. Ricky stopped at some random Vegan Yummy place and brought out a Vegan Linzer Cookie, and it was actually yummy!

Choices are available, and food sources are rich in taste, vitamins, minerals, and goodness. If you are planning on making the switch it is important to educate yourself. We at Bamboomoves will be hosting our 21 day to wellness challenge in this new year, but there are also books available too! Happy Healthy Veggie Eating!!! Thank you Ricky, Veronica, Carissa, Michele and Latesha for sharing in a lovely healthy lunch!
Pictured: Ricky, Veronica, Carissa, Michele, Ambria, Latesha

Happy New Year Yoga Party!!!

Happy New Year!!! Wishing everyone an amazing new year with better health, wealth and happiness! Last night a small portion of the Bamboomoves family joined me for some yoga and braved the semi cleaned streets of the Bronx.

We had the honor of live music from fellow Yoga Instructor and his friend Patrick. Some of us began with a slice or two of the Vegan Pizza that one student had made for us at the most awesome Pizzeria! Then we progressed our night with meditation where we celebrated our victories and the moments/people we are grateful for in our 2010 journey, then progressed into sharing our goals, eased into light sweaty yoga, which helped us all see how the holidays storm/break/dietary indulgences have affected our yoga practice in a celebratory way, and approached balance postures with the joy of a fearless/limitless/joyful child where we picked the tree we wanted to be for the new year (I of course was a cherry tree), we sang and found balance, finally the long 10 count to savasana where our legs were the iconic NYC ball, and BLISS!!

We awoke from our dreamless sleep just in time to watch the ball drop in the lobby on the live feed online, share in some more yummy vegan pizza, Chips and salsa from Sandi, Chocolate covered fruits from Denise and Armondo, Wine/Juices from Doris and I, Yummy "babycakes" Brownies from Latesha, and Robert's "Bourbon Balls", exchanges of Laughter, Joy, Hugs, Kisses, and One Student and Patrick jammed out to the wee hours of 2011!!!! What an awesome New Years Party!!! Yoga, Meditation, Joy, Fun, Laughter, Jokes, Vegan Yummies, Live Music and much more....only at Bamboomoves!

Thank you to all who participated, YOU ROCK!!! Denise, you can totally give Godiva a run for the money with your chocolate covered fruits, and you are right "chocolate covered apples ROCK"!!! Those of you who walked by and wanted to join, and even texted me about it, but felt bad cuz you thought you were late.....you were more than welcome, and you are never late except when you just don't show up (that goes for life and my yoga classes) love you and missed you guys, I am so grateful to have you all in my lives, to share in your journey to health and wellness, to celebrate in your progress, and make you laugh!!! Love you all! You all inspired me to beat my recent bout with the flu. just so I could host this ROCKIN Party, so thank you!!!! I would say my cool phrase "see you next year" but....it is next year NOW! All the best of the best of the best in 2011!!! Set goals and go after them, have faith and let go of fear, Laugh, Love, and live life to the fullest!!!!