Everywhere I turn people are chatting about their eating philosophies and sharing their stories and thoughts. It got me to thinking about my reasons for going veggie and here I shall share them with the ether.

I don’t really like cooking meat. It’s slimy and takes planning to prepare and can be expensive. I would always thaw it out and forget about it and have to throw it away. I actually really like vegetables. I know, I know, that’s freakish in and of itself. But, seriously, after years of being afraid of tofu and any vegetable that wasn’t coated in cheese sauce, I now know you can prepare veggies to have great flavor and to be satisfying with just a little effort, and not more effort than it takes to cook a meal with meat. Legumes are such efficient, nutritious morsels. I really don’t like the way that “Corporate America” influences what we eat. From the overly processed, infinite shelf life, boxed flour and salt concoctions to terrible factory farming practices, why should some company’s profit influence what I nourish myself with? I’m not saying it doesn’t taste good, a lot of it tastes pretty fantastic. I’m also not saying I never eat it. Have you ever found yourself doing something only because that’s the way you’ve always done it and you never thought to consider it could be different? That’s how I think many of us are about food.

Have you ever noticed how your appetite expands after Thanksgiving dinner? When I started to give up “cheeseburgers” I realized that I didn’t really need them. Occasionally I craved them, especially if I was hungover, but I didn’t really need them. Then I went to a yoga training where the food was mostly vegan. The first few days I ate two huge plates of food per meal and by the end of the week, my appetite did something miraculous, it shrank. It did so even while I was exercising insane amounts each day. And so I started questioning my relationship with the bounty of our earth.

All that being said, I realize it does take initiative to learn how to nourish yourself well and that many people might not ever find the time or the spark to question it or change it. Many will probably go their whole lives doing a variation of what their parents did, or what their friends do, and won’t mind it, and won’t suffer terribly bad for doing so. I also realize that some people seem to need more protien and some have such an emotional attachment to meat, to them I say more power to ya. I only know that I don’t want to support corporate b.s., I don’t want to support treating animals like crap, I don’t want to create more negative karma in the world, and I want to live a long healthful life, and for me, eating more veggies than animal products seems like an easy way to start.

Happy Monday. May your food nourish your body and mind today.  In case your curious, some books that have influenced my diet include Diet for a New America, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Ayurveda: A Life of Balance, and Eat Right 4 Your Type.

Prior to my epic three weeks of travel from which I just returned, I had a few crappy days.  I stuck to my morning yoga and meditation practice, but lets just say that my practice was more like a quick cook instant meal like ramen noodles rather than a nourishing, home cooked meal with fresh veggies from farmers market. Ever have those days?

I survived and felt like I learned a few things that were quite interesting.  When my “feelings get hurt”, it’s a hard feeling for me to shake quickly.  Rest and talking help.  Sometimes crying is necessary.  Good friends and loved ones are like medicine.  Clarifying my thoughts in writing and then editing those thoughts is very therapeutic for me.  I notice that once I’m hurt, I imagine all the worst reasons why the “offending parties” acted the way they did.  Why does it become so negative, what about the positive, or middle ground, or the fact that shit just happens?  What about my life philosophy that it just keeps getting better after every bump and hurt, so why dwell so much on the hurt, why not learn from it and find the positive sooner?  Situations become way more personal than they really are.

How does this relate to yoga? Not sure it does.  But I was happy to find a more positive, sane ground after three days.  I am calling it my “Three Day Rule”.  I allow myself to feel whatever I honestly feel for three days.  And it’s always better after that. And it’s usually time to move on after that.

Then I was on to three visit three countries in three weeks. My trip started in London with a little work and a little play and just enough yoga to carry me through the days. Then I found myself on the Emerald Isle, with nothing but a backpack of clothes, a rented bicycle, and a smile on my face. I cycled on the left side of the road, which took a few days to get used to. I stared in awe at so many stone ruins that after three days I forgot to take pictures of them. I enjoyed interpreting the Irish accent, especially when it was thickened by Guinness. I almost ran over a donkey, saw tons of livestock, countryside, fog, and mist while climbing through the Irish hills. Yes, they have hills, it’s not flat like the Midwest. In fact, I was quite humbled to have to walk my bike up a hill at one point. I bonded with a few locals and with a California-Jersey boy too. The food wasn’t bad, I had lots of toasted cheese sandwiches (don’t forget to get them toasted), cream of veggie soup, fish and chips, and even a dhal one night in the little surf town of Lahinch. A great vacation. I barely did traditional yoga postures even once. But I am of the belief that cycling, sleeping, smiling, eating, and relaxing are pretty good yoga practices too.

My final “country” was the great State of Michigan where humidity, family, friends, and Lake Huron welcomed me with open arms. I was able to visit Yoga Shelter in Royal Oak, where I took a heated vinyasa yoga class. It felt like a class I had taught before and I could see that who I am and where I come from is definitely reflected by my yoga classes and practice. I was pretty sore though and had to remind myself to take it easy after being off the mat for a while.  Why do I think it must hurt to count?

Now I am back in SLO-town, where the weather is like a comfort blanket, the food is breathing life into my travel weary feet, and I am slowly getting back on the yoga mat and bicycle this week. I noticed how getting back on the yoga mat after some time off always feels so much better than exercising ever feels after a hiatus. It’s not really as painful as one would think, it feels more like a breath of fresh air after being indoors too long. A yogi friend said that the transformation that yoga brings to the energy body, our cells, muscles, and whole being is so much more than a workout brings, and it stays with us longer. The changes are more permanent. Muscle memory perhaps? Must be.

This week I am teaching about mula banda, the lifting of the pelvic floor held during yoga practice. It is known as the energetic lock which allows a yogi to perform the most challenging tasks with little or no effort. Mula bandha is said to cut through brahma granthi, the energetic knot of our resistance to change. On the physical level, practicing mula bandha creates attentiveness in the supportive musculature of the pelvis. This increases the stability of the pelvis, and, since the pelvis is the seat of the spine, its stability creates a safe environment for spinal movement. Thus, mula bandha strengthens—and teaches the importance of—the solid foundation that should underlie any movement.  I am practicing a lot of basic standing poses and hip openers trying to engage my ever elusive mula banda to bring me back to reality safe and sound. I encourage you to try to keep it sucked in this week during yoga practice and see how much easier it makes your practice. Cheers to another day on the mat or bike or at the desk.

After a week in London I am off to Dublin to begin my vacation exploring Ireland by bike.  My travel yoga practice in London consisted of a few sun salutes and meditation a couple mornings, a whole lot of walking, and a pint by night.  The pubs here are great, it’s sometimes confusing to get around the city as the street names change all over the place, you can’t find street signs, and the roads are nowhere near grid-like.  I was thankful for my shmancy smart phone often.  I loved the parks and old buildings, my hotel was cute and quaint and I felt like I was staying in a large home instead of a hotel.  My favorite British words that  this week are Cockfosters, Chiswick pronounced “Chizick”, and Leicester pronounced “Lester”. I totally embarrassed myself this week at our event mispronouncing British words. It was pretty funny. Yes, I am Americano.

I am super excited about being on vacation.  Rest, relaxation, and fun are my yoga practices during this next adventure.  I hope the mat keeps you good company while I explore the Emerald Isle.

Previously, I wrote about why I gave up cocktails, sleep, and laziness for 30 days for my Yoga Teacher Certification.  Now, I share what these 30 days were really like for me, and my conclusions.  In addition to giving up the juice, I spent these days…

• Waking up every day near 6:15am when I’d rather cuddle all morning.
• Practicing yoga every day for at least 20 minutes.
• Meditating every day for at least 20 minutes.

My overarching goal: renewed dedication to my health, wellness, and sanity for just 30 simple days. I actually enjoyed waking up early to practice yoga and meditate once I got used to it, the early morning summer sunrise was on my side.  It is absolutely imperative to get to bed by 10pm if one wants to wake up at the butt crack of dawn. That is the secret key that those morning exercisers and parents everywhere have known all along.  Once I realized that I am waking up to do something I love, it wasn’t so hard to drag myself out of bed.  We wake up every day for work and doing other things that are required of us, why shouldn’t I wake up to do something that’s just for me? There is never going to be an easier moment than right now.

I dedicated myself to doing the yoga poses that I have an aversion to, that are the most painful and difficult for me, each and every day, with a bunch of blocks and props to help me survive them. They are king arthur’s pose, monkey pose, forearm balance, double pigeon, and frog. I usually do a little sun salutations to warm up, then fit those in somehow, and wowsers, they hurt so good.  My body is feeling much more open to these postures now, but we are far from best friends at this point.

I did a lot of fire based yoga practices and I noticed that it often made me grumpy. A fire practice is a more energetic sequence of postures that ignite, sustain, and transform your energy. In other words, hurt-so-good kind of sweaty yoga with lots of yogi push-ups, strong standing poses, and core work.  The fire absolutely demands your breathe and integrity in your body.  They say that if you play with fire you’re gonna get burned, and burned I got.  I was fatigued and overtired often after playing with the fire.  Practicing yoga and participating in any challenging physical practice requires that we manage our energy with honesty and grace.  It’s not about kicking your own ass or playing the panda bear and not challenging yourself at all, it’s about finding a middle ground.

Lack of sleep makes me crazy, no matter how healthy I am being otherwise! During my 30 days I attended a friends bachelorette party, a comical, wonderful little cultural ritual. I think I might use the excuse of being a yoga teacher in training more often. People totally accept it and want to talk about yoga when you say “Sorry, no drinks for me, I’m in a personal sadhana.” I played the roll of designated driver during a celebratory evening of dinner, watching the roller derby, and night life. I was exhausted by the time I got to bed at 2:30am and driving people all over the Bay Area of CA. After being awoken by a forgotten alarm, and having to drive 4 hours home, I was more tired than I had been in a long time. I had a sleep deprivation hangover. I went to bed by 9pm Sunday night and slept like a baby until the morning.

I didn’t mind being the only one not partaking in the cocktails throughout my 30 days, and in particular during the bachelorette party. It was a great group of women and I enjoyed conversing with them throughout the night. They weren’t overindulging too terribly, and I didn’t feel left out because I wasn’t. I was approached by a few intoxicated men towards the end of the night. I was sort of taken aback by how silly-drunk and obnoxious they were. “Did he just do the frat boy waist grab?” I wondered.  It reminded me of college and how crazy the drinking and party scene was there. Hormones and freedom combined to equal chaos. Usually I have no problem telling people who are crossing my lines to leave me alone.  This time I wasn’t so blunt or forthright.  I just walked away instead. Interesting I thought.

Omitting alcohol from my daily life was just the right sadhana to give myself a little break. I had a few moments of feeling left out or a bit awkward in a social settings where alcohol was being consumed en masse. Sometimes you just feel a little off though, whether or not you are drinking cocktails. During those awkward moments I noticed that I wanted to have a drink with everyone a little more than usual and I realized how easy it is for alcohol to become a sort of safety net in social settings. It allows us to loosen up and feel like we belong. Instead of partaking, I just said oh well, I’m having an off day, and went home. By the next morning though, I let it go. A good nights rest is wonderful medicine sometimes.

At moments I got sick of talking about why I’m not drinking this month and I couldn’t tell if I bring it up or if others do and it seemed to be a little of both. It’s amazing how much we have to say about drinking alcohol, or lack there of. It’s such a culturally accepted habit, and it’s so much a part of our social structures. So many people have a history with it, an opinion of it, good or bad or both.  I never really think about it being a big deal or conscious choice and just have a drink because that’s what we often do.

I admit I’ve had moments of being extremist on myself, thinking, “I feel so great, I’m going to keep this up forever. I’ll never drink again! Yoga every day! Yes!” And then I come back to reality and remember that I actually like beer, and I like drinking it with my family and friends sometimes.  Have I really forgotten Alcoholics Notorious, bike wine tasting, and Oberon? We must be careful with the juice and it’s a good idea to take a break when needed, and maybe a permanent break if you find your bad moments start to outweigh the good, and you’re overindulging more than you mean to.  This sadhana has reminded me that taking a break isn’t so hard to do, and taking care of myself feels pretty damn good, but ultimately it’s all about finding a good, honest, balance. Oh, and I’m totally in love with yoga!

If you got all the way to here, then you must really be my friend or something. I apologize for the excessively long post, but sometimes a girl just has a lot to say.

I have completed 180 training contact hours for the Prana Flow Teacher Training Certification and I am working on completing the rest of the certification requirements which include a few different home study projects. Over the last 3 weeks I have been developing and practicing a Living Yoga Sadhana as part of my “Om Work”.

Sadhana is the sanskrit name that often gets translated as practice. The only problem with “practice” is that it can often become something we “do” and soon become a separate part of stream of daily life. To embody the flow in yoga is to enter the continuous stream of living yoga. – www.shivarea.com

Shiva often translates sadhana as the groove into one’s self. That groove can be like a subtle track, at first we learn a technique and the process is just beginning and is not established. Gradually, through daily process, the track has flow and transformational momentum and then develops into a natural channel that becomes a pathway within. I have found that sometimes I live in “technique land” for quite a while before I find my groove. But eventually the groove gets sweeter with patience. To live yoga, it is important to cultivate pathways that irrigate all aspects of one’s life and changes according to one’s nature. The purpose of developing my own sadhana is to develop practices that I fall in love with enough to sustain me when I’m not feeling the love flowing within me.

My Sadhana has been dedicated to renewed health and wellness. I have been slowly but surely falling in love with the practice of yoga for the last 5 years and during this time I have also become more aware of my health as an all-encompassing whole. I have tried to manage my health in a myriad of ways, and I have found that Ayurveda appeals to me more than any other “diet” or way of taking care of myself. Part of my Sadhana is to eat more Ayurvedically and also not drinking alcohol for 30 days to give my body a rest and gentle cleanse.

Check out one of my favorite Aurveda books, Ayurveda: A Life of Balance, a basic, but good cookbook, Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners, and my favorite Ayurveda recipe ever!

What kind of practices do you have that sustain you? Riding bikes? Singing karaoke? Is it time to add another practice or layer to the mix? I ride bikes, eat veggies, practice yoga and wouldn’t have thought I needed another layer but have really enjoyed this process. Maybe you could too.

As a desk-dwelling, laptop-loving, cycling extraordinaire I have found my hips to be about as tight as the next person. So many of our forward moving and seated activities can wreak havoc on the body and tighten the hip flexors in particular. Even if you don’t know exactly where these muscles are, I bet you know if yours are tight. Otherwise you might be sitting in the splits right now reading this wonderful blog.

Imagine keeping your elbow bent all day, every day, you eventually lose any flexibility you might have once had. “With the best intentions, yoga students sometimes create a muscle imbalance between the hamstrings and the hip flexors that contributes to an anterior (forward) pelvic tilt. Most yoga practitioners work long and hard to improve their hamstring flexibility but spend much less time stretching their hip flexors.” says Yoga Journal. This can lead to back pain. Tight hips. Feeling jealous of your neighbor with flexy hips in yoga class. No one wants that.

Here are a couple articles from Yoga Journal I liked on the subject, Get Hip and Get Hip to Your Flexors.

I will be teaching a Get Hip about Your Flexors vinyasa style class tomorrow. It’s a great little sequence. Just do it.

Get Hip About Your Flexors Roxy-Style

The first five days of my recent teacher training focused on Fluid Power Vinyasa Yoga. Fluid Power is considered wave motion within yoga. “Wave motion is the underlying movement of all creation – an understanding shared by Quantum Physics and the ancient wisdom of yoga which discovered thousands of years ago the pulsating quantum wave known as spanda or spanda shakti. Fluid Power practices explore the wave movement that is the reality of our fluid, quantum body for your circulation, longevity, creative renewal and amphibious longings.” Our bodies are 70% water right? As is the earth.

This was by far my favorite yoga training to date. I just love the yoga sequences we focused on, they are challenging, creative, and fun. Check out the Fluid Power DVD by Shiva Rea if you’re interested. Below are some of my thoughts, rants, and brain dumps from the immersion. Continue reading at your own risk.

My thoughts after this Fluid Power Wave…Don’t combine “work” with a yoga training or vacation. I made the mistake of trying this and my heart just wasn’t in it. Be honest, let work and your normal life know what to expect, and tie up your loose ends so you can enjoy the freedom. I loved morning yoga practice so much! Leading up to this training I practiced at least 10 minutes a day for a month, but something about doing it first thing in the morning felt even better than practicing a little every day. Since returning from yoga camp I have been trying to keep it alive. I’ve been hitting the hay by 10ish and getting up at 6ish to give myself time to meditate and practice before work. I really love it so far and have full intention of making this a more permanent part of my routine. The hardest part is going to bed by 10pm, but I swear if you do, it’s totally worth it, you wake up feeling good and get to enjoy time to yourself before giving your energy to the world. I have been telling my friends that I’m sleeping like a grandma now so they fully understand why I can’t be social after 9pm. Ok, so maybe on the weekends I give myself a little more freedom to sleep in.

My “pre-training-training” really helped me prepare appropriately for this experience. For 30 days I practiced yoga every day for 10 minutes and tried to practice for an hour every other day. The seven days leading up to the training I tried to take a class from another teacher or at a studio every day. Oh and kick my ass they did. I felt pretty tired at moments, but overall so much better than I had ever felt at a yoga training. It’s pretty amazing what healthfulness we are capable of if we just shut up and do it already.

We got the daily schedule for the 10 days, and it didn’t look too bad.

7-9am Opening Session
9-10:45am Shiva Public Class, aka “the real estate battle”
12:15-4pm Theory & Practice
4-6pm Teaching Lab
7:30-9:15pm Quantum Movie Night/Special Events

Most days had this rough schedule, we had one evening completely off. The evening activities and theory discussed varied each day. We usually practiced yoga during the 7am session, which I loved. As we got started at 7am that first day someone’s cell phone started ringing. It was totally loud and disruptive like only cell phone’s can be. Shiva said, “We all know our cell phone baby. It’s ok if it’s yours. Go ahead and get it. No really it’s ok, go ahead.” She compared hearing the ring on your cell phone to hearing your baby cry in a grocery store. We all know when it’s our baby.

Shiva then went on to explain how this training was not about pretenses, everyone has a moment where they need to take care of business, just try not to let that get into the way of our reason for being at the training. Don’t let it be an excuse to be lazy. What?!?!? An educational and shared study space where the rules are slightly flexible? Lightness when life happens? You mean I don’t have to be deprived of sleep, reality, sanity, food to participate in this? Where did I get the idea that something doesn’t count if it doesn’t cause pain? She really created and offered a space for a healthy challenge and learning. I always think the words, but to live them is another thing. She called it energy management. I’m not saying I don’t like a challenge or that my yoga practice or classes need to be wimpy. I just don’t want to be walking around causing myself more pain in the long term, through injuries, unconsciousness, lack of integrity and wholeness.

Some Shiva-isms I loved…”Pinch me if I ever get that corny…Movement isn’t just fun, it’s consciousness.”

Dedications, feelings, thoughts about the ten days at the beginning. I dedicated my training to my old self, Detroit, my family, my grandmas, my past and future students.

I really enjoyed practice teaching. She reminded us to keep in tune with our own sacred call, rhythm, breathe. Next, just say where the body part needs to go in space. “Inhale arms to the sky.” Finally, adding assists if appropriate. She mentioned that we can only measure brain activity when keeping still, wouldn’t it be amazing to see it while we do yoga? Hmmmm something to ponder. Another thing to ponder…Children being canaries in the coal mine, obesity, discontent, suicide?

During practice teaching you teach a small sequence of postures you may or may not know to a fellow trainee. I love that it brings me face to face with what I don’t know so quickly. Instead of making small mistakes while teaching a live class, you make them all right away when on the spot like this, and get the feedback immediately. Love it.

Shiva Brain Dump Tidbits…
Inhale offer hands forward
Exhale hands open to sides w/ om
How does your body respond to gravity
How can you get extension within that realm
Straight arms but not rigid
From flexibility to stability
Suhaja bhujangasana = dynamic plank…it has a name!
The battle for yoga mat real estate in LA
Serve tea to any kind of stress in your body
Gather the energy to move to the other side of your mat
Table top to dandasana, i likey
Unless you got a note from your mamma, you can do this pose
Now how low can you go, but how deep can you get
Inversion time is self-practice time
Breathe is birth
I want to read more about krama yoga sequencing
Breathe and sound are identical energetically
One inhale is like the 12 hours of night time
I really enjoyed chanting
Change should always happen for a reason. It gives the cells hope. The body holds fear, we want to ease it.
Try and find the difference between compression and opening. Sinking and lifting.
Kamakaze chaturangas
Iyengar’s Brilliant Prop World

Brain dump from Chris Tompkins lectures on (tantra) yoga.
We’re ok with trees dying, waves receding, but we’re uncomfortable with our own contraction
Be careful not to blame your life situations on a feeling you have or are creating
Whenever we find ourselves in a situation thinking “this should not be happening” you should try working with whatever is there. Can’t want to feel “contracted” or “expanded”.
Feeling love for someone is your own love that is being awakened. Beautiful triggers perhaps. Maybe for one wave: day, month, year, lifetime.
I found it interesting that only half the class felt enormous expansion (joy, happiness) after an unexpected contraction (suffering, pain). Hmm. (Like feeling like you learned or grew from the unexpected loss of a loved one).
Tantra believes we should have a better relationship with the Chitta Vrittis (mind chatter) rather than the idea of having “no-mind”.
Spanda is mantra. It means pulsation, but actually refers to the point between a contraction and expansion, inhale and exhale. This is the point of awakening.
Knots come from holding on to our life situations.
The mind is like a child. Sometimes you have to ignore it.
When you get “high” don’t make the mistake of giving the object credit. Or else everyone would get high when with that person who made you high, in that situation, it’s within you.

I taught a completely new vinyasa yoga sequence to my classes this week after a revitalizing training immersion with Shiva last week. The classes I taught had some typical Roxy-style components, but I mostly went off the reservation and shook things up. I taught the class in a mandala, which means in a “circle”. We went from facing the front of the mat and switching legs, what Shiva calls “churn style”, to facing the side, and the back of the mat. Notice in the photo from my immersion our mats are in a circle as well as the practice taking us in a circle. It was definitely new, to me as well as my students, so the flow wasn’t quite as smooth as my typical class. The first time I taught it, without even noticing I went right into teaching Surya Namaskar A, which has been one of the backbones of my classes for the last 2 years. It’s so ingrained in my body and psyche that I just went right to it. I had to remind myself, “Hey. You’re trying to change things up here, girlie!” Have you ever done that when trying to learn something knew, just went right back to what you know because it’s there? I realized that not only do I have to practice, I have to practice a lot to really get it. I also just have to teach it a bit before I really get the class flowing and make it have that spark and connection that makes a yoga class truly awesome. I don’t think that means the classes suck either, many people said they enjoyed the classes. And what is the hurry anyway?

It was interesting where I found resistance to the unknown. I found it in myself when I just defaulted to the past, what was easy, what was familiar. It was hard for me to really hold the space at times when I noticed some of my students giving me the “yoga stink eye.” You know, when you can clearly tell someone is NOT ENJOYING your class or their practice, they refuse to take it easy, take their knees down, take the “easier” options, for whatever reason, and the look on their face, their body language, everything about them shows it. For the most part it’s just the life of doing something new and challenging and as a teacher I am mostly ok with it. Sometimes I notice myself responding or adjusting the class without meaning to. I have to be ok with people not liking me while I’m making them sweat their asses off. It’s part of the job.

Some of my student friends resisted it with the yoga stink eye, some over-thought about it and confused themselves, but overall I would say it was a good time indeed. I think next week I will spend a little more time in the postures the first time through and make it clearer what good alignment is in each posture. Thank you my yogi friends for letting me take you on a roller coaster ride.

I am going to try to start documenting what I teach on a weekly basis. If you really like what I teach, or are looking for some (home practice) inspiration, look no further. This is my first week so bear with me if you don’t like the way I wrote it up. If you have questions, feedback, suggestions, let me know. I also made a few sequence templates similar to the ones Shiva uses for sharing sequences during her trainings

A Mandala Namaskar Prep Sequence

The following two templates are saved as web pages so you should easily be able to print them and get a blank template to use to write up future sequences for practicing or teaching.
A Printable Sequence Template (w/ 2 waves, 1 page)
A Printable Sequence Templace (w/ 3 waves, 2 pages)

Once you open the following Google doc, you can go to File > Upload to upload it to your own Google docs to edit, or File > Download As so you can save it in another electronic format you can work with.
An Editable Sequence Template

I survived my 10-day yoga teacher training immersion with Shiva Rea and have landed in my sweet little apartment in SLO in one piece. With this training’s end I have officially completed the “classroom” hours required for my 200 hour certification with Shiva’s Samudra School of Living Yoga. I can also get registered by Yoga Alliance, which is the governing board of yoga teachers here in the US. I feel so amazing after spending 10 days with Shiva. She was even more grounded, radiant, funny, and real than she has been in the past. I’m afraid to type this, but I’m not sick either! Both of my prior training/immersion experiences left me depleted and sick for at least a few days or almost a week afterwards. Not this time, babe. I am energized, inspired, renewed, excited about being able to share this great practice with those around me.

To get my certification I still need to read and report on six yoga books, have someone take photos of some key yoga poses, have someone film me teaching a class, and doing a living sadhana which is sort of like lent, where I’ll give up or dedicate myself to something for 30 days, from new moon to new moon. I’m not terribly hung up on getting a piece of paper, but I feel like I have so much to learn from Shiva, and this is one of the best ways for me to continue to learn from her. So, it’s almost official. I’ll have that shiny piece of paper to hang in my office next to the McCarthy’s calendar

On another note, I will be writing about my experience at training on here, so expect to see a blow-by-blow account of what went on and how I felt about it. I also want to document exactly what I did for my spring Ayurvedic cleanse for my yogi friends who keep asking about it. I will also start posting the sequences I teach on a weekly basis so that any of my students or yogi friends can see what I’m up to and even practice the sequence outside of the studio (what a concept, I know).

I have been in a spinning vortex of awesome female energy, yogi stoned out bliss, and sweaty goodness at a Fluid Power Vinyasa Yoga Training with one of my favorite teachers, Shiva Rea, at her home studio in Venice Beach, CA.  I arrived straight from NYC late a few nights ago, after spending a few days teaching at another MINDBODY University business intensive, which was another great experience.  I really love teaching, and I feel blessed to be able to teach technology to yogis and others. I was pooped from it though and as I walked into my hotel here in Venice Beach someone yelled my name, it was a fellow trainee from the last time I trained with Shiva.  Yay! I was fried and delirious from travel and work in NYC, but it was nice to be welcomed by a smiling yogi face.  The travel gods were on my side this trip and the hotel in Venice gave me a spontaneous upgrade so I am staying in this “vacation suite”.  It is really a one bedroom apartment with a view of the ocean, probably bigger than my apartment in SLO to be honest.  It is way too much space for me, but lets just say I don’t mind.  I have a full kitchen, a huge TV, and it’s a very peaceful, grounding place to stay. After being in a room the size of a closet in Manhattan for 4 days, it’s like a breathe of fresh air.

BUT. I have no internet. My cell phone barely works in my little oasis. So, friends, this training will be documented the old fashioned way, with paper and pen, and occasional Facebook upload of photos.  I think this is a blessing for me and I will enjoy this time to digest, do yoga, and be free of the never ending distractions that my beloved internet can provide.  I will give you the full scoop of what this yoga training business is all about upon my return to technological reality next week. 

All I know is that having the opportunity to fully immerse myself in something that I love and feel so inspired by, something that gives me energy, that makes my brain spin with new ideas and philosophies, gives me the opportunity to learn, study, sweat, smile, and bond with 100 amazing people, it’s just fucking amazing.  Having the space to feel like you can suck at something and it’s ok and not the end of the world and that it doesn’t mean you are a worthless being or yoga teacher, it’s something we don’t get often enough in life.  I hope everyone finds something that so inspires them, and takes the time to immerse themselves in it, if even for a short time.  So get on your bike, kiss your baby, lick your dog, and smile my friends.  We are riding the wave of life. Cheers.