Peace and Quiet

Recently, I’ve felt an itch.  I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. I just felt *something* was off.  One morning, I decided to think about this itch. It dawned on me that I wanted, no, needed, peace and quiet. Specifically, I needed to mediate. Quietly. The thing is, I have been meditating. Ever since January 1st, I’ve been doing a Har kirya. .

Frankly, I’m not loving it. It doesn’t feel good to me. One of my yoga teacher friends also admitted that she didn’t stick with it. I’ve seen another friend post on Facebook that she was going to try it again. And again. I’ve been keeping up with it just to see if anything changed within the 40 days. Has anything changed, you may wonder…

The Happiness Project

Earlier this month, I blogged about the book I was reading, The Happiness Project.  I finally finished it last night.  I really enjoyed it.

What I got out of it is that, for many of us, happiness or the feeling of being happy, tends to be abstract. Gretchen came up with a brilliant idea of coming up with concrete actions that spell happiness. Of course, the actions will be different for each of us. It reminded me of the popular resolution to lose weight.  A more effective resolution is I will walk 3x twice a week or I will eat a home cooked meal 6 days a week. I’ve heard this referred to as S.M.A.R.T. goals.

I’m thinking of my own happiness project. Gretchen even provides a lot of help on her website, such as a happiness toolbox guide.  I have to further investigate it.  She admits that it takes time, energy and work to get the project going.

What about you? Would you be willing to take on your own Happiness project?

 

 

Tracy Anderson Is Pregnant

I was just on a very cool site called blisstree.com.  Last September, I wrote an article on becoming a yoga teacher as I near the age of cough40cough.

While on the site, I came across an article announcing that Tracy Anderson is pregnant. I know a lot of my readers are interested in keeping up to date with Tracy Anderson. I haven’t done a good job on keeping tabs on Tracy. I didn’t even realize she had gotten married earlier this year.  I do wish her a smooth and easy pregnancy.

My Recent Yoga Article

I wanted to share with you my latest yoga article that I wrote for Maplewood Patch.com. I wrote about my journey to becoming a yoga teacher.  I hope you enjoy reading it.

Yoga Back Lash

Over the weekend, the New York Times published an article titled How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body. I have been amazed at the responses that I have read after people read the article.  I have seen non-yoga fitness instructors post this on their Facebook wall. One friend posted that she was not going to do shoulder stand any more. I have yoga teacher friends who say they no longer want to teach inversions in their class.

I am interviewing for a potential yoga teaching job today. The director of the space emailed me this article. She wanted to make sure I had read it. Bloggers have been posting about it left and right.

In my class, I always remind my students to be aware of their body. If something doesn’t feel good, don’t do it.  There is a difference between challenge and pain. It does bother me that yoga has gotten such a negative buzz.  I also know that this buzz will pass although I am afraid that certain people may be too afraid to try yoga.  This article also brought to light one of my biggest fears- someone getting injured in my class.

I was injured two times I was injured in a yoga class.  One time the teacher has years and years of experience.  She owns and leads a studio, she leads Yoga Alliance teacher trainings, etc. It was not her fault I got injured.  It was due to my own misjudgment and my own body misalignment.

All I can do is teach and guide from the safest viewpoint as possible.

Happy New Year!

Last year, I was so excited about the Word Of The Year. Even though I did not keep up with my monthly recap of my Word, Slow, I did use the word as a mantra all year long. I’m not sure how effective it was. It did serve as a good reminder to me to have more patience but I still tend to want immediate results.  Nevertheless, I have been thinking about my new WOTY.  I came up with Be Present.  To me, Be Present means to be aware of the present moment.  To stop checking my Blackberry when I see the red blinking light while I’m listening to my children tell me about their day at school.  To remind myself that whatever I am worrying about or anxious about is not happening at that very moment.

A friend of mine has been posting about Gretchen Rubin’s book, The Happiness Project, on Facebook for the past couple of months. She’s been raving about it. I picked up the book on sale at Target yesterday and started reading it today. It’s a nice read so far.  I read Gretchen’s piece on New Year’s Resolutions the Huffington Post.

Today, I took part in a Prosperity Kundalini class.  It was amazing!  We did a a 5 part Kirya.  My teacher said that if we were to do one, it would be Har. She just posted on Facebook that one of the students got a job offer today.  Apparently this is a very effective meditation that only takes 3 minutes a day for 40 days. I feel as if I am betraying my bff, Ganesha, but I’m going to give this a try.

Happy 2012! May all your dreams come true this year!

What Are You Waiting For?

It never fails. Every January, people make a resolution to lose weight.  Gyms are crowded. Magazines promise ways to lose 10 pounds in a month (Fitness), fast, easy plans to drop pounds (Women’s Health) and how to beat belly fat (Redbook).

I’m right there with them all. Between subbing quite a few yoga classes, hosting my in-laws for a week, and taking care of my kids while school is out, I have been eating way too much and exercising way too less. I feel it. I notice it in my body. I don’t like it. Instead of waiting until January 1st, I decided to do something about it today. 

Happy New Moon!

Today, Christmas Eve, is also the new moon.  This month’s new moon is in Capricorn. As always, I recommend turning to astrologer Jan Spiller for the information on how to best utilize this new moon.

I wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season!

Bittersweet

If you’ve read my blog in the past, you know that my mom passed away nearly 11 years ago.

I was on vacation with my now husband’s family during that Christmas. I spoke with my mom throughout my vacation. I mostly remember speaking with her on New Years Eve.  She told me she wasn’t feeling well, although she sounded ok. She told me she was going to the doctor.  I think she told me not to worry. I remember feeling panicked but also in denial.  I was sure she was going to be ok. I sort of remember her telling me there wasn’t a need for me to come home early but maybe that’s just my mind playing tricks on me. 

An Old Friend

A week and a half ago, I attended an amazing workshop on deities at an Anusara Yoga studio called  South Mountain Yoga. I loved it.  The speaker, Manoj Chalam, was great. I approached him after the workshop (which also included asana by a terrific teacher, Julie Margolis). During the workshop, he had mentioned that he could sometimes tell which deity, or mutri, is a person’s archetype.

I believe Ganesha is my deity. I’ve blogged about Ganesha a few times, like here and here and here. I love Ganesha. I even have an Om Ganesha tattoo. Even though I felt pretty certain that Ganesha is my mutri, I still wanted confirmation. I was shocked when I heard the answer.