LivYoga Blog

Motorcycle Part 2: Why do I do such things ?
I learned the difference between confidence and self assurance. I have found that many people do not know the difference so I will briefly share what I have read…

Confidence is the ability to take care of yourself. I knew I had that, after all I made it though a divorce and a fire. Only when I built my own grille and a neighbor woman brought out some wine and did a toast to me…”You go girl!”, did I permit myself to possibly think I could give myself such a well, arrogant compliment.

Turns out for me this was a much easier lesson than to be self assured. Strangely enough once I heard the definition of self assuredness did I sigh a bit of relief.

Self assurance is the ability to allow others to take of you and know you will be ok. Now this I had not known before so I took this as a challenge while in Greece. I let my tour guide tell me what to do and when to do it, I let people see I was lost and I let them help me. I was not even embarrassed when the bus driver honked and stopped traffic to point out I was walking away from my destination.

It was nice to rest my mind a while.
I was finally able to breathe a bit and let the world take care of me for a change. And I would be ok…

I went to the Island of Aegina prior to my tour to be adventurous. I rent a quad. I tried a 2 wheeled scooter and got lesson from a nice Greek guy….but he failed me. “Sorry no can rent to you” he said. “From the very people that drive all over the roadway!” I think he was mad because I would not drive against oncoming traffic like he told me to. Oh well, I Got 4 wheels instead and was off….

I loved the drive, felt free, felt in the beauty and the newness of it all, like a freedom I craved when I was last in the Isle of Capri, only then I was married. I think it was long my intent to travel to exotic place alone. “So far from the little trip to NY’s Mohonk on my birthday.” Funny I am writing with that pen they gave me now.

I toured miles of beaches, small towns and country sides for a few hours. Got lost and loved it. Stopping in a one shop town I pointed to the hill where the ancient ruins lie and through various pointing and smiles with the locals was finally able to give me directions. I think those locals actually thought I was crazy.

So I got lost again. This time I broke down in more ways than one and it was on that trip I found another angel.

Yup the quad broke down. I wondered what would happen if, well, that happened. There I was on the side a mountain on a Greek island all by myself. No one in the world knew where was.

I WAS in disbelief & words of my mother rang over at over in my head “I told you so!” Now the rest me chimed in “I am in danger!”
“No one in the world knows where I am right now.” That kind of felt interesting to me. I don’t think that had ever been the case before. I then realized I would be capable of getting down off the mountain one way or another. When you think of it, “I am on a confided island.” I have been lost before. And then I start to …..laugh.

My thoughts still run wild though….”Danger?!…NO, your fine. They think YOUR crazy!”
“I’m getting sunburned?!…”NO you’re in the shade!”
“I will go hungry!… “NO someone fed me fruit!” (stay tuned…)

I begin to wave at passersby and those friendly Greeks blow me kisses as they blow by. I decide to jump out and flag someone down , not one of those hot greek men, but 2 girls who of course know nothing about bikes. So I try again, and again I do not pick a local hottie but a friendly looking older gentlemen.

He’s a little “worn” and speaks no English but understands my bike is broken. He immediatiately feeds me a fruit. I know they are ok because he is eating them too. He tells me their name with a big tootless grin….”ummmmmm..so sweet and suclant.” This fruit was AMAZING (when in Greece you must try these figs). Ok but back to the bike… I try the ignition again..and again he feeds me a fruit. I smile, say thank you and he feeds me a fruit. “ok, ok.. please help with bike.” He opens my hand and gives me a handful of fruit.

We try to call the bike shop but it is mid day siesta time. He eloquently rests his head on his hands in a gesture to show me sleeping. I step off to the side while he conferences with another gentlemen and they point to a bus stop around the corner. Funny how these things happen like that. I didn’t actually see the bus stop up ahead but there it was! I thanked the old man for the fruit and the help in pushing my bike to the side of the road and I asked him to write down the name of the street where I would be leaving the bike. He gives me his autograph. I think it’s cute that he has no idea when I am asking. Before he goes I ask to take his picture and as I did I called him my “good Samaritan”. Then he proceeded to turn the camera around and take my picture….”Hey how often am I stuck in the mountains of Greece…this would be a good memory” I thought. Then he took off. Later I realized he took off with my camera.

I tried the bike one more time…the engine started right up. Now I’m back on my way down the hill, sans camera, a bundle of fruit and a thief’s autograph.

Now when I arrived back at home “cycle” base I had to explain to the big rude Greek dude that he drove all the way up the mountain to get me and the bike really had been broken. Well there is no way an American woman will convince a Greek man of this. Initially this man came disguised as a &*&*%$@$@+!&%^&%@ and came around to be the kindest and biggest teddy bear around. This person who I thought would swindled me over the break down turned out not only to not charge me for what he should have, but he also drove me across the island looking for my camera in the event that the samaritian-thief placed the camera on the back of my bike (well I was in disbelief).

At the end of the ride he told me to “slow down” (from the man who was just speeding around the hairpin curves!). We got back without my camera and he said in plain english …”no big deal…it’s just a camera”. “True.” I said smiling. I must say that I took it in stride and enjoyed the rest of my trip to that island and throughout Greece. That night on the way back I had an hour and half to get my butt back to the hotel for the departure meeting to the islands. I had already started my journey though. I took it easy on myself since I knew I had just been through a lot. I got right on an express ferry.

I noticed a sign that had caught my eye in the ferry on the way in. Ironically I even took a picture of it bc it struck me as funny. Here in Greece with all those crazy letters this sign read in big red letters: “WATCH YOUR HEAD”. Now I believe I knew why it appeared that this little sign was blaring at me in neon lights. I remember thinking “what does that mean?” on the way over. It looked pretty important to me. I smiled to myself when I realized that the Samaritan-thief distracted me by messing with my hair when he took the picture. I thought it was odd at the time and wondered why he did that and then drove off quickly with a brief wave goodbye. “Watch your head Lynda!”

“Just a camera.” I walked to a bus stop and got an express bus back to the hotel. I walked in the lobby just as the meeting had started. All was well.

PS~I bet you clicked a Greek picture to find this blog…it always works out

By Debby Kaminsky                                                                 June 19, 2007

When I was still working in NYC, I took two Bikram Yoga classes as the center was convenient to my office and I was curious.  I was given a wash cloth to use against my skin, especially during the balancing asanas of the 26 asana sequence in the more than 100 degree heat.  Bikram wasn’t for me, although the heat didn’t affect me.  It was primarily not for me because I felt that important asanas having many benefits such as inversions and serious backbends were missing from the practice.  Further, for me, after having practiced ashtanga yoga, I knew that I could heat my body from the inside out and get just as sweaty, ridding myself of unwanted toxins rather than having my body heat up and become ready to mold like molten metal.  After my many years on my yogic journey, while maintaining my position on bikram, I believe that any yoga is better than no yoga.

This leads me to the question of is Bikram or Hot Yoga, yoga?  Yoga simply defined by many including Dr. Shankardev Saraswati, a foremost swami in my eyes on prana and its effects on the body, distills yoga down to awakening consciousness.  When one awakes consciousness, they awake themselves, have more life force (prana), feel more, have a better sense of self, have the ability to make more choices, live their lives more fully, etc.  When I go back and think about Bikram in these terms, for me, it didn’t fit the bill.  People feel good and get the immediate gratification that they are working hard because they complete the so called perfect asana and leave the studio completely drenched but does this define yoga? 

 Further, there is always the begging question as to how safe it is for your body to be in a room that is heated higher than your body temperature?  If one isn’t careful things like dehydration, heat exhaustion and dangerous heat stroke can occur.  Many people get dizzy after their first hot yoga experience and it is often suggested to slowly work towards acclimatization so that your body can ultimately adjust to the heat.

Last week,  I was asked by a friend to attend a “hot yoga” class. It had been seven years since my Bikram experience.  I felt that as a yoga instructor I should check this out because some of my students had mentioned this particular style to me.   This class was bikramesque in that the asanas were repeated twice and a few bikram asanas were included.  However, this class really was Bikram meets Baron Baptiste.  It was vinyasa-style including a cataranga push up between all asanas, full backbends and shoulder stand.  The teacher was responsible and told me that if I got dizzy to please rest which, I had every intention of doing. In planning for this class, I hydrated prior to it and drank in between some of the asanas.  This apparently was not enough.  The combination of the more than 100 degree heat and the vigorous vinyasa completely overtook me when I was in bridge.  I became so dizzy, the room started spinning.  I rested and skipped urdhva dhanurasana (full backbend/wheel).  I rejoined the class during shoulder stand but came right down because of dizziness.  Getting up and moving towards paschimottanasana (forward bend) created what I call the “whooooo factor” where I just swayed trying to get myself grounded and still.    I left the class, knowing what I knew before walking in, that hot yoga wasn’t for me.  And if it wasn’t for me, how many people could it be good for?

Pondering Bikram versus this hot yoga class gave me a new respect though for Bikram who had intelligent flow in sequencing his asanas for the extreme heat.  Bikram asanas do not do heavy backbending where your heart is above your head—even ustrasana (camel) isn’t so dramatic.  Bikram does not do inversions where the blood rushing to your head coupled with the extreme heat, might not be good for people. For me, I had my own hypothesis as my dizziness continued in spurts over the rest of the day and into the next day.  It was comical because depending on how I moved my head, I would get dizzy or not, hence positional vertigo.  When I was teaching my public class, I taught it from a seated position but then decided to get up and do a few simple adjustments on some students.  All was fine until my head moved the wrong way and the wave of dizziness struck me and then the “whooooo factor.”

A trip to the ENT clearly revealed that I had BPPV which is short for positional vertigo and that fortunately doing some specific exercises for a few days would rid me of this dizziness. How did this happen then?  In simple terms, your inner ear has a bed that one can think of as gel and on this bed are crystal-like elements that when in place keep you balanced.  But if one gets out of whack, then wham bam dizziness and imbalance sets in. The exercises worked to bring the crystals back to their original place. My hunch was that although I hydrated in this hot yoga class, it wasn’t enough.  The combination of the external heat, the internal heat coming from the ujjayi breath and vigorous vinyasa and my internal core temperature heating up because of the room temperature was just too much.  I became dehydrated and the “gel bed” in my ear started to dry up, allowing the crystal(s) to shift and cause my dizziness, nausea and my “whooooo factor.”  My ENT felt this was a pretty solid hypothesis, although there haven’t been any scientific studies on this very factor. It took 72 hours for me to be back to normal and while I will not be judgmental of anyone who chooses to take a “hot yoga” class, I will go back to what I said in the beginning of this blog.  Yoga is awakening consciousness.  Yoga is increased sense of self.  Yoga is a yoking of the mind, body and spirit.  Yoga is truly the state of unified consciousness.  Is “hot yoga” really yoga or a way for people to have instant gratification that they have “worked out” because of the sweat factor and asana achievement factor?  “Practice and all will come” is a wonderful and truthful quote about yoga and life by Pattabhi Jois.  He is right.  Real yoga is humbling.  It is a journey.  It is magical.  It offers many gifts.  Please make sure you are on the journey to receive them….   

 By Debby Kaminsky

I returned from a week in Nosara, Costa Rica with my husband almost two weeks ago and am still riding high. Believe it or not, I’m still finding sand in my ears—must have been from all my tumbles under the ocean on my board!!!  We were on a surf and yoga retreat with my friend, Shiva Rea.   Pura Vida!! Nosara is a surf town on the Pacific Ocean side of the country. We took a small plane from the main airport to Nosara rather than driving nearly four hours on extremely bumpy, unpaved roads.  No surprise that we landed on a dirt runway.  Speaking of dirt, all the roads in Nosara and much of Costa Rica are dirt roads and during the dry season, they are covered with molasses to keep the dust down.  Walking around smelled really good, although I wouldn’t recommend going barefoot especially during the heat of the day!!!

 Being so close to the waves for me, once again brought up a tremendous sense of calm and joy.  The vatta dosha in me just hungers for the warmth and the ocean so I was one happy person swimming daily in nearly 80 degree water with the sun beating down on me!!!  As the week went on and my time with the ocean increased, I needed very little sleep.  Shiva wasn’t surprised at this change because being near the ocean just feeds prana, hence your life force keeps you going endlessly.  Those of you, who know my husband, will be surprised to learn that he needed little sleep too—we had so many activities going on at night that we often got to bed at 11pm and woke to the monkeys howling at 5:30am.  Yes, howling monkeys.  They are so small, yet boy do they make a lot of noise!! It was quite an experience being in the jungle, yet being next to the ocean.  We saw huge turtles, an armadillo, raccoons, monkeys, vultures, a yellow belly sap sucker bird, stingrays and some smaller creatures like a scorpion that just missed crawling up my leg—yuck!!  It is amazing to see bird of paradise growing wild and all the other beautiful colored flowers helping to make up the natural landscape.

The surfing was incredible. This was my third time surfing. We are both hooked.  It is really calming and therapeutic being on a board in the ocean and then having the adrenaline kick in when you see your wave coming and start paddling fast to catch it and then pop up, realize you are actually balancing and start turning left and right while zipping in towards the shoreline…well you get the picture as it is all pretty exciting.  Surfing is quite humbling and gives you a true respect for our ocean.  Waves are constant in our vast oceans, creating pulsations, rhythms.  Yet, each wave is very different and it is important to always be present (atha) on your board because of this.

And then the yoga…Yoga with Shiva is always great fun and a great challenge but what was really fun was reconnecting with some old friends and meeting new ones from Germany, UK, Wash. DC, Washington, Arizona, Mexico, FL, Texas and California.  I especially enjoyed playing yoga on the beach and watching the sunset with some of my new friends.  One night we did three hours of yoga trance dance and then had birthday celebrations for nine in our posse.  Many of you know how sweaty and trance-like you get with one hour or even 15 minutes of trance dance so after three hours, we were soaked in sweat, yet feeling really good!!! 

Of course, no trip to Costa Rica is complete without a canopy tour.  Just so happens that the longest and highest zip-lines opened near Nosara four months ago so one morning we set off for this adventure.   I admitted to be a little apprehensive about doing this and actually had a dream the night before about how scared I was.  In the dream, just as I was about to go off in the air, I woke up—not a good sign!!!   Back to the tour: We were taken in a pick up truck (four of us sat in the back with two of our Ticon guides) and were driven for 30 minutes up the mountain with too many switchbacks to count.  And then there was a body of water that the truck just went right through to get to the other side.  The zip-line had a cable with which we are hooked onto, with gear similar to rock climbing including helmets.  Then hasta la vista…there you go, zipping over 900 feet in the air from one tower to the next.  I loved it and from the moment I zipped off the cliff and high into the air, screaming yahoo and having the time of my life!! 

Being the foodie that I am, my blog would not be complete without a mention of the food.  I just loved my freshly caught tuna and dorado.   But what I really loved was Robin’s homemade ice cream that reminded me of gelato in Italy.  Her crepes were fantastic too. 

Being back on the East Coast with the chilly weather, the hustle and bustle of the city and just a pure crazy, busy life has me thinking often of the waves and their rhythms and how when waves get a bit more turbulent, a calm rhythm remains.  Sometimes it is hard to find that calm within the outer turbulence.  We all have these waves within us and for me, creating a little pause within all our life’s wonderful craziness is just what I need to continue to relax, enjoy our wonderful moments.  If you are not riding your own wave, feel free to start right now.  Just listen and feel as your waves are non-stop within you and then get up on your own board for the ride of life!!!     

November 12, 2006                                                              By Debby Kaminsky
 

Ayurvedic Medicine is a vast and fascinating subject, educating you on what foods to eat, when to sleep, when to wake up, when to exercise, etc.  I got to thinking about my own ayurvedic journey while in todays wonderful Ayurveda and Yoga workshop with Twee and thought it might be helpful to share.

Before starting, I believe that if you do a little to change your life for the better, you do change your life for the better– just a little.  The more you do to enhance your healthy lifestyle, the more positive results you will see.  With that said, I am also a believer in moderation and by trying to make too many changes at once, it becomes overwhelming, hard and not natural and then more often than not, the decision is made not to make any changes at all.  Therefore, my journey has been a slow and steady one and this is what I will suggest your journey be as well for those of you interested in adding a little ayurveda to your life.  The outcome will be that the things you add slowly will quickly become routine like brushing your teeth hence, not a big deal but the outcome will be noticeable.  Here is my journey in ayurvedic medicine which started over 5 years ago quite by accident.

I enjoy chai tea and started drinking Starbuck’s chai tea—that was until I discovered a dry spot on my chin that wouldn’t go away!  I consulted one of my yoga teacher mentors at the time was studying ayurvedic medicine.  Sight unseen she told me to go to the health food store and buy both aloe juice and tea tree leave pads.  The juice was something I was to drink.  I only knew of aloe as something used to sooth burns, etc.  “And buy a tongue scraper too while you are at it Debby and use it in the morning to scrape your tongue.”  I had nothing to lose so I bought these items.  The aloe juice was disgusting—I actually almost gagged the first time I drank it.  I have since found out that there are different brands and some taste much better than others.  The Tea Tree leave pads were like an astringent pad and stung my face but I persevered.  Five days later I saw my parents and my mom immediately told me that my face looked fantastic and asked what I was using on it. And we all know that when we get the “mom seal of approval” it must be good! I told her about my new regimen but she was not interested in trying these things on herself.  In the meantime, the dryness disappeared.  To this day, I still use tea tree leave pads on my face and drink aloe juice every day.  Turns out I’ve recommended it to many—it is very good for pittas because think about what aloe does, it sooths burns, etc and that’s what it does internally.  Oh, the tongue scraper was easy for me because I use it right before brushing my teeth and the results are instantaneous.  If you know someone who has bad breath, this is good thing for them to start using as it gets a tremendous amount of bad breath smelling bacteria and germs off your tongue.

Flash forward to 2003 and Kripalu in Lenox, MA and my first week long teacher training with Shiva Rea that was to include ayurveda modules.  I needed to buy a dry brush and neti/nasal pot, bring my tongue scraper and get oil for a self massage (yuck I thought at the time).  We had our lesson on how to use all these things and then it was time to try it on our own.  The Nasal pot was a complete disaster.  A solution of sea salt and water going into one nostril and flowing out the other did not work for me.  Instead it went right down my throat and made me gag.  I put my neti pot aside for the rest of the week.  The dry brush was used to brush your body before massaging your body with oil.  These additions were too much of a burden for me to continue at home. I left Kripalu sticking with my regimen of tongue scraper, aloe juice and tea tree leaves. 

But then in 2004, I embarked on my second training with Shiva and her husband and this time spoke to James about the neti pot and the hassle it was for me.  He suggested that I try the neti pot while in the shower which I actually did and it worked—no more choking—but importantly became a quick part of my shower and not a burden.  So to this day, I use a neti pot whose purpose is to really clear the sinuses (getting the gunk out) so air passages are cleared for a fuller breath.  When I remember, I use nasaya oil after my shower in my nostrils which helps to cultivate being more alert.

The journey continued in April 2005 in a Sedona, Arizona rock climbing and yoga retreat with Shiva and ayurvedic food.  My husband joined this trip but wasn’t too excited about the ayurvedic part and wanted to make sure he could have wine with dinner.  The first night we were served an ayurvedic dinner that Howie, the hubby said “this is really good.”  We were eating kitchari which is a food that is completely balanced nutritionally and great for helping to pacify all doshas. I have since made kitchari at home and to my surprise my kids liked it as well.  The base is mung beans and basmati rice.  A recipe can be found on www.ayurveda.com.  The next morning we were served Amaranth grain cooked like hot cereal with ghee (clarified butter), raisins, almonds organic sesame seeds and a little maple syrup.  This was so excellent and gave us energy to rock climb until lunch.  Since this trip, I have alternated  between amaranth grain (which you make like hot cereal) and steel oats for breakfast and of course treat myself to eggs, waffles, etc too.  But the important thing for me is I have stopped eating bagels every day for breakfast and I feel so much more alive and energetic.  This food is so much better for my vatta/pitta dosha than bagels!

Finally, we come to the culmination of my current journey.  This summer after spending two weeks in California, I felt I was ready to incorporate the daily dry brush and oil massage into my life.  So each morning before the shower, I do so and then jump in a hot shower.  I have found my skin to be less dry and much softer so this is my motivation to continue this morning ritual.There are other things ayurvedically that I do in my life like triphala, shirodara, abhyangas, gayatri mantra but this blog will turn into a novel if I continue so until next time….If anyone has any questions, feel free to e-mail me at debby@livyoga.com or speak to me before or after a class.  And if you are interested in some resources, check out these websites for starters: www.banyanbotanicals.com, www.sevanti.com, www.ayurveda.com              

Welcome to the LivYoga blog:  our new interactive way to communicate!

Maria, our LivYoga Office Manager, like most people who practice yoga wanted share yoga with her family.  She saw all kinds of benefits from the physical changes in her body to just feeling a bit calmer.  When she told her sister she should try yoga a few times her sister’s response was a stern “I hate yoga!” Maria of course asked if she had actually ever taken any classes and it turns out she had…but we’ll come back to that!

Many people, myself included, just don’t “get it” the first time around.  I personally remember being called “competitive” by my first teacher and I had actually forgotten about the experience (or blocked it from memory) until hearing Maria’s story, so I could empathize with her feelings.  I had actually stayed away from the practice for about a year after.  It wasn’t until I restarted practicing yoga at a yoga studio that I truly began to feel that there was a lot more to the practice that I did not or could not immediately see.  But somehow I had drawn back in and the rest is history…

What experience at LivYoga has taught me, is that not every practice of yoga is for everyone.  There are as many types of yoga as flavors of ice cream and sometimes you just need to sample to find your flavor.  And some days your tastes change. If yoga is something you want to do…and if you ever made the effort to attend the class, you most likely have a force calling you to try it and truthfully, there is a yoga practice and a teacher for you.

As a studio owner I was curious to find our what type of yoga Maria’s sister had hated so much to make her say she hated yoga.  If she was interested perhaps I could find her a class better suited to her goals.  Turn’s out that Maria’s sister attended a prenatal yoga class– which is terrific if you are pregnant but she not so much if you’re the happy mom already!  

So, If you are one of those people who tried yoga and said “hated it”, LivYoga would be honored if you gave it another chance.  Some people find yoga harder than they thought while others think it is easy.  Yoga is all about really working that mind-body-spiritual connection and no matter how you get there or when you get there is absolutely fine.  The key to yoga is knowing how you feel and doing your yoga anyway!  Keep in mind, most people think when they first come to the mat that everyone is looking at them.  We all have been there!  Then we eventually start to understand that yoga is about being on your own mat and for as harsh as it may sound, no one really cares what your doing…each of us have our own stuff to work out! 

If you are considering taking up yoga, we suggest you try to think of your first few classes an experiment to get to know the practice, the studio, the teachers, and the many aspects of yourself waiting to be discovered.  If you are new to yoga and LivYoga or have a friend who you think might benefit from yoga, remember we offer a wonderful  3 class for $30 introductory card(1 month expiration).   The discipline of bringing yourself to the mat or to a class truly is what is hard about yoga.  Once you get there and experience physical things like stretching, less back pain, more strength and stamina and then experience more subtle things like a true sense of calm, yoga will be something that you will like us want to live and share with everyone you know.   

-Lynda Marlin Founder July 2006

By Debby Kaminsky, LivYoga Instructor, August 2006

Namaste.  It is nearing the end of August and many of us are on our summer vacations to hopefully be rejuvenated and ready for the hustle and bustle of Fall and all the obligations, activities, carpooling, homework, adult work, etc.  I know for me that this Fall will be different than most others because I look to it through an entirely different paradigm and for that I thank the beauty of yoga.  For me as the Fall approaches, I’ll do all I can to stick to the rhythm of the wonderful waves I heard every day for two weeks in Venice Beach.  I stood endlessly each day on breaks from teacher training with Shiva Rea mesmerized by the true natural rhythm the waves created and not forgetting the very important pause between each one.

Many of you know that I spent a life changing or life enhancing two weeks with Shiva this summer and 79 of my new yogi and yogini friends from truly all around the world.  They came from Japan, Singapore, Australia, , Norway, Spain, France, Canada and many States in America of course.  The bond that formed among all of us in two weeks was incredible, the moments shared were wondrous—some hysterical like the day Shiva said to a woman who had a strand of hair on the floor: “Oh no you lost some of your hair” at which the woman replied, “Oh it is just a hair extension.” Some were emotional with people really opening their hearts in backbends and water pouring out.  Some were brutally honest like the guy who had been searching forever for something to make him feel whole.  And I could go on. 

The days were quite busy starting with 6:30am early morning meditation and moving into a sadhana (yoga practice).  We’d then have a few hours off and then back to another session.  Some days we had three meetings and others we had special events like the night we were at this breathtaking house in Malibu overlooking the ocean.  First we took a hike in the hills and then we did Kirtan outside and a fire ceremony that lasted until after 11pm with the waves and ocean at our side.  Another night we attended the Nataraja Mala which Shiva organized with Gurmukh, the truly amazing Kundalini Yoga teacher and co-founder of Golden Bridge Yoga.  They make yogi tea too.  Golden Bridge can hold hundreds of students and it is a beautiful space.  The whole purpose of this night was to raise money for Trees for the Future, an organization that plants trees around the world in places where it is desperately needed and a great positive for our environment.  Oh yes, if you haven’t seen Inconvenient Truth, it is a must see and seeing it has made me even more concerned about the state of our world.  We can not stop the terror at the moment but the environment is something that each of us can do something about.  And some of you know I was planning to surf and I did and happily got up and rode the wave numerous times!!!  Finally, one night, I took Shiva’s public class with some friends and suddenly someone started playing the harmonium and singing.  None other than Wah!  She was taking Shiva’s class and felt compelled to sing.  What a great moment. 

There were many special things about this training and one of them was really getting into the heart of all the chakras and experiencing what it means to be rooted in the earth (muladhara chakra) or really feeling fluid like water (svadhisthana chakra).  Having a true sense of self truly does allow anyone as a person to just let go and go with the flow, whatever that flow is.  When one feels completely comfortable with letting go of their body in yoga, things…amazing things start to happen.  Who cares if we all look like a bunch of amebas on a yoga studio’s floor?  What is important that one can get to the point to just let go, not take themselves too seriously.  Your body is your temple and you can learn great things from it.  The only requirement is you listen, you feel and you let go. 

Another thing that really transformed me was sound.  Yes, I mean chanting.  Many people are afraid of it because they are going to mess up the words, they don’t know what they are saying but truly all these mantras are chanted in Sanskrit because Sanskrit is known as a sacred language.  It is funny, when you don’t try to chant so hard, the chanting and the words come very easily and then all of a sudden you are in the shower or walking the dog or in the grocery line and you start humming a chant.  Chanting really helps to activate the 5^th chakra which is in the throat center so for that alone, it is a great thing.  Interestingly, I was also at Canyon Ranch in Tucson with my husband after this training and went to a lecture with a woman who had been diagnosed with Hepititis C and told she was going to die.  All treatments had failed.  She started chanting with Tibetan bowls and the rhythms she created brought her body back in balance and to this day, doctors can not believe she is living.  She now teaches sound therapy around the world.  Just think, we can do this any time we want in a yoga class in a shower, etc.  The Ahm sound gets right to the throat!!

So what does this all really mean?  Well, you’ve heard me say in classes before that ultimately you get to the point where you are not muscling through asanas but using your prana, your life-force to effortlessly move.  This will be much more apparent in my teachings to you as students to really feel the prana.  And it feels great!!  There is a reason that Shiva Rea has trademarked her style as Prana Vinyasa Flow because this flow is an intelligent flow that really does work to get prana flowing.  Once your prana is flowing like the great ocean, everything else just effortlessly flows.  Shiva says that “if you really get into your creative body and go with the prana and let it flow, your creativity will flow on and off the mat.”  She’s really right as I experienced it first hand.

Look forward to seeing you either over the next couple weeks or after Labor Day at LivYoga and in the meantime,  see what happens as you start becoming more aware of your own tala (rhythm) and your own flow.  What will happen if you shake things up a bit and feel your life force flowing and ride your own wave to continued greatness!!

Om Shantih 

Debby

Some of you know that I recently visited the Grand Canyon and was blown away by it’s …well, the only word I can come up with is MAGNIFICENT and yet that still doesn’t cover it. If you didn’t know, the Grand Canyon is considered one of the seven Natural Wonders of the world. That leads us to the latest studio trivia which is: What are the other 6? Now these are the ‘natural wonders’…different from the man-made wonders you may be thinking about…nope, the pyramids are not ‘natural’. One of my guesses was the human body and strangely enough I found that was not considered to be a Natural Wonder. Having recently explored ‘Bodies…The Exhibition ‘a phenomenal look at the phenomenon we call the human body’ in NYC, I can say that the word Magnificenct also describes each of us. (If you don’t know about the exhibit, it is an examination of the intricacies and complexities that lie beneath your skin through the use of a unique polymer preservation process applied to real human bodies. For more information…here is the link–Fyi, there are pictures of the bodies here, so don’t be surprised…hmmm, well you will be surprised.) Someone asked me how I could go and look at this and all I can say is that you cannot go there without an amazing new sense of who and how we ‘are’. Another person asked why they had to use actual bodies and I can say that I was so facilitated that I don’t know that I would have believed that we are comprised of so many, let’s say working miracles unless having seen an actual body. I guess I’m not easily impressed. Seeing actual human bodies was the fascinating reality that gave me the first hand feeling and awe of what we each really and truly possess natural beauty…(inside & out)here it was in front of my very own eyes. I saw a number of people looking down at their own bodies probably with the same thoughts going through my mind…”I have THAT!” I was not only amazed at the bodies and the process, but with the respect and appreciation everyone was showing along with a deep desire to learn. (At the end of the Exhibit there is even a place to write your respects). I left with so many more questions that I came with, but I now have a newfound trust of the process of nature…and connection and inner workings we all share while walking this earth. –Lynda Marlin, Founder LivYoga April 2006