Brahmacharya- p.3 Naples Pizza...

"... So Sofie and I have come to Pizzeria da Michele, and these pies we have ordered- one for each of us- are making us lose our minds. I love my pizza so much, in fact, that I have come to believe in my delirium that my pizza might actually love me, in return. I am having a relationship with this pizza, almost an affair. Meanwhile, Sofie is practically in tears over hers, she's having a metaphysical crisis about it, she's begging me, 'Why do they even bother trying to make pizza in Stockholm? Why do we even bother eating food at all in Stockholm?'"
-- Eat Pray Love, Gilbert


This little bit reminds me of Greece, I remember eating tomatoes that were magical. They gave me and everyone around the table goose-bumps!

Why Yoga, (continued)

Sorry I forgot to mention a very important point which is that nobody's always calm, relaxed etc... but we shorten the time in between these moments.
Integrity is a big part of this, (what we do when no one else is around).
And don't forget to listen to that little voice in your head, like Elizabeth Gilbert does in Eat Pray Love when she's on her bathroom floor.
t

Yea Dave's Big Three

First of all, big thanks to Theresa for posting so many great things about yoga study and the experiences at the Yoga Center. It's been really helpful in the learning process, and is also really fun to read! :) Good luck to you tomorrow at the first day of school!

I wanted to add something to the Dave Romanelli workshop mentioned earlier, which I attended Friday and Sunday. The yoga, chocolate and wine where fantastic, as were Dave's hilarious stories. The thing that stood out the most to me was a suggestion to notice three experiences every day - something funny, something beautiful, and something delicious. Not only does being mindful enrich and deepen the experience of these things, but it also makes the days memorable in a society where one day often bleeds into the next. It also seems like a great way to practice gratitude.

Something funny: Finding out that Titanic is Dave's all-time favorite movie. Belly laughs during the middle of yoga practice are awesome!
Something delicious: The extra-ripe nectarine that landed more on my shirt than in my mouth
Something beautiful: The sunset while I was riding my scooter over the High Bridge this evening

Thinking about it, I am very lucky to have a great number of experiences to choose from, even just from today. Not all days will be this easy, but if I can find something funny, something beautiful, and something delicious in every day, I really don't have much to complain about. Thanks, Dave!

Why Yoga?

So the next time that I hear my friend say, " Oh, yeah I took a yoga class once at the Y, it really wasn't my thing..."
 Without being defensive, I'll keep in mind a few of the reasons mentioned in class today, why we do yoga.
1. Be calm
2. Relax
3. Breathe
4. New Body Image
5. Awareness
6. Quiet Mind
7.Able to Stop
8. Be present
9. Restructure Priorities
10. Productive
11. Clarity
12. More Connected
13. Spirit
14. Community
15. Flexibility
16. Happier
17. Exude "Yoga"

As I was biking home I was thinking that life is like a bike ride. Sometimes the wind is at my back while going down hill. Other times it was a bit more like today. Hot sunnyday, uphill with the wind in my face. At the top of this hill was a long food-shelf line, reminding me how lucky I am still.

Reflections on Dave Romenelli

I went to the Dave Romenelli class tonight.
He is known for combining yoga with chocolate/wine/music.
What surprised me the most was that he is a storyteller and he uses these elements to tell his stories.
In my own art classroom, I'm known for telling random stories from "how to stop a toilet from over flowing" to "How to make instant-tears when pulled over by a cop."

It is validating to know that there are other people out there who can pull this off in a yoga class. It made for an interesting/challenging night of yoga with a beautiful reward of chocolate/wine/conversation to boot!

He mentioned something like: "1/2 the Effort = Double the Outcome" 
I like this and I'd like to put it in my back pocket for when I can't bare another breath in triangle.
t.

On Imagination...

"...Imagination is something that can be developed at any stage of life... Doctors once thought the brain stopped forming neural pathways when the body stopped growing. But they now realize that thinking a new thought in your mind, you can create an entirely new neural thought in your mind, you can create an entirely new neural pathway.

In other words, the imaginative brain is not necessarily a gift as much as it is practice."

Yeah Dave's Guide, page 131, Imagination

I hear this all of the time when I'm teaching art, "I can't draw, my sister is the one in the family that draws..." I wish that I could teach the confidence that is needed to become better at drawing. I'm going to see/and practice with Dave Romanelli tomorrow night, should be fun!

On the Fountain of Youth...

From David Romanelli's book, "Yeah Dave's guide..."

Douglas MacArthur said,

"You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confience and as old as your fear; as young as your hope and as old as your despair."

I've always thought that there were teenagers in my highschool class who were middle-aged, even back then. hmm.
t.

3 Things Every Day...

According to Dave Romanelli all you need to notice are three simple things
every day to change your life.

1) Witness something Beautiful

2) Taste something Delicious

3) Laugh

Easy peezy lemon sqeezy... I can do this!

On Stress...

"Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. 

Stress is an ignorant state.

It believes that everything is an emergency. 

Nothing is that important.

Just lie down." 

Natalie Goldberg in 

Yeah Dave's Guide to Livin' in the Moment

A Different Perspective...

For years I have been a yoga student listening to instructors chastise students by saying, 

"Don't look around, this is Not a competition." The other day I was in a class with Moya Matthews as my yoga instructor. She made a profound statement to counter this.

She said, "Feel free to look around, this is Not a competition!"

This kind of rocked my world. After all of the shame of taking a peek at the person next to me was stripped away, I felt like I had less interest in doing so. Part of my problem is that I'm a "visual learner." When an instructor says things like, "take your left leg and straighten your right foot with your left hand in the air" without any visual demonstrations when I was a true beginner, it was almost impossible for me to get anything "right" without a little look.
Granted, it is still important to not feel jealousy toward the person who is sticking their foot behind their head and to meet each pose as a my new pose every time.

Aparigraha, Non-greed or non-grasping

From Living Your Yoga's chapter on Greed:

Judith Lasater writes about when her kids were little... 

"I told the baby-sitter that after dinner the children could have the apple pie that I purchased at the health food store earlier in the day...when I returned the babysitter told me that there was a huge fight about the pie. 

Not only did each child want more pie, but equally intolerable to all three was the possibility that one might get more pie than another. Needless to say, I was dismayed. By the time the next Wednesday rolled around, I had purchased not one, but three apple pies. Before leaving to teach, I told the children that after dinner that each child could have their very own pie. 

I stressed that, even if they started eating apple pie at that moment and did nothing else for twenty-four hours a day for the rest of their lives, there would still be enough apple pies left in the world for them to eat. I wanted them to realize that there is enough time, enough love, and certainly enough apple pie in life...You see sometimes we temporarily lose our way, becoming convinced that if we acquire this thing or that skill, we will finally become acceptable to ourselves and to the world. In our fear, we have forgotten that we are already whole."

I told the above story to my kids and they shook their heads "yes" as their eyes popped out of their heads imagining their own pie. Aidan (8) said, "I get it mom, there will always be enough pie."

In class today a student spoke about not "grasping" to her grandmother's life, such a hard thing to do. Others spoke about material items and always seeking out the latest in technology.

-t

On Humor...

A person with out humor is like a wagon without springs-- 

jolted by every pebble in the road. 

Henry Ward Beecher

I got this quote from "Livin' in the Moment" and I think that Dave Romanelli is on to something when he points out that everyday should have 3 things.

1) Beauty

2) Humor

3) Something Delicious

I hope that some of this will sink in as I'm living day to day. It is so easy to fall back into old pattens of anxiety and fear of the unknown.

Henna from Yoga Center Mpls- Open House

I just found out about the YCM open house.

Thank you Victoria for some beautiful henna!

Empty Rowboat

One day, a monk was walking by the banks of a lake and found an abandoned rowboat. 

He spent several months lovingly restoring it. Finally, the day came to launch it on the clear waters of the lake. As he began to row, he noticed that it was getting foggy, but he continued nonetheless. 

Suddenly, swiftly cutting through the fog can another rowboat, which rammed into his boat. All of his work- the new wood and the paint job- was damaged. The monk got angry and strained to see who had done this thoughtless thing to his beautiful boat. 

And then he saw that the other boat was empty. 

His anger collapsed in the moment.

Living Your Yoga, Judith Lasater, PH. D, P.T.  Page 37

I like the humor in this story, because I can relate to being upset with the empty "rowboats" in my life. Getting anxious for the stop light to change colors or for my dog to pee instead of just sniffing around the grass. When all of this time I could be using these breaks as a lucky chance to take some deep breaths and live in the moment!

8-8-10 Photos

Elliott peeking through driftwood fort.

Water from the Sound

Brahmacharya- p.2 Family Reunion

Practicing Brahmacharya is easier said than done especially on vacation with an extended family relation who loves to cook and drink. We traveled to Washington state islands and were pulled from one thing to the next. Should we go to this shop or to the pier? Should we go to the beach or for a hike?

A good place to find the answers to these questions was with the small kids. They have this incredible ability to live in the moment. They were more than OK to sit and dig in the sand or build a fort.

Having mindful moderation in the back of my mind on this trip, it helped me to take a few extra breaths and enjoy the food and drinks a bit more.

I'm going to try to post more pics on the art page.

Brahmacharya: Mindful Moderation

Brahma: The Hindu diety of creative force.
Charya: to be followed

When it comes to sex, foods, and over-all sensual interactions.

Do "it" with
love and mindful moderation.

The example given in class today was with a simple strawberry.
Look at it, feel it, smell it, imagine its history from when it was a wee- seed.
Slowly eat it, breathe.

Same goes for sex. It is a deeper connection with a person that you are in love with and feel a deep connection and it can make you that much closer to a deeper sense of self.

All of the above could bring us to a heightened sense of awareness and consciousness. 
Thank you Chris Gordon and all YS26 students for a lively discussion!