White Lotus Memories

I've got White Lotus on the mind. I cheerfully reminisce with people who've done their training there, I have a student ask me about my time there, I run across photos of the beautiful landscape and I'm drawn again to my yoga teacher training.... and I want to go back. I want to go to deepening your practice, the therapeutic yoga training program, thai massage training, and I want to go back for weekend retreats. Here are some photos from my time there:

my friend Cara in scorpion

gurus <3

lovely sitting area overlooking a cliff

cool water to swim in

kirtan night

ganesha rock

our yurt! yurt #7

my friend Mike in the cuzzi overlooking the moutainside

doin it for God

One night at yoga camp we had bugged our fearless leader, Ganga White, enough so that he finally agreed to teach us about the history of Tantra.

After dinner he walked through the dining room and exclaimed loudly, "Anyone who wants to talk about doing it for God be in the asana room in two minutes."

No matter who you are practicing for- sending love to a friend- or devoting practice to a higher power- your yoga practice is about you. Have you ever kicked up into a handstand knowing that your arms were feeling weak? Did you ever take that extra bind because you wanted your teacher to be impressed? Or maybe a cute girl happened to be on that mat next to you and you wanted her to see how badass your trikonasana was so you grabbed your big toe and overstreched your muscles.

Well, yoga is for you. I recently wrote a short little post about it and sent it to Elephant Journal who, today, published it! It's my first professional yoga writing! It's super short and easy to read. Check it out: Make Your Yoga Yours

leave a comment and please share it!

foolin around

Listen up!

I've gotta say, this is an exciting post :) Well, to me it is.

I love music. I love yoga. Yoga + Music (to me) = mind blowing.

I said that I would post the music I play in yoga classes each month...but I decided to skip right to August since it's been my favorite playlist so far. It's fun and still relaxing/peaceful. Hope you think so too. One of my students told me that when she can't get to the studio she practices at home to the playlist!

Enjoy!

1) Shalom/Salaam- Matisyahu from Youth
2) Shiva Puja and Chant- Krishna Das from Heart As Wide as the World (couldn't find a perfect version, but this live one is close).
3) Be the Change- MC Yogi  (not great, but kinda fun to see a live version) from Elephant Power
here's another link to that song: Be the change (this is much better)
4) You've Got the Love- Florence + The Machine (Featuring The xx) from You've Got the Love Single
5) Om Purnam II- Deva Premal from Dakshina
6) Bangles- Niraj Chag from Putumayo Presents Yoga
7) I Will Be Light- Matisyahu from Light
8) Bolo Ram- Wah! from Putumayo Presents Yoga
9) Ave Maria- Chris Cornell from Great Expectations Soundtrack
10) Ruled by Secrecy- Muse from Absolution
11) Cerulean- Ben Leinbach & Geoffrey Gordon from Putumayo Presents Yoga

I love every one of these songs. Some of them, like Cerulean I use over and over. That particular song is just so nice when it's loud and you're blissed out in savasana.

My 90minute yoga playlist for August also had:
- Haiti by the Arcade Fire
- December by Norah Jones
- Emperor of the Air by Kingsley Durant (ben's dad!)
- Carries on by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
and more... I may reuse these songs for September so i'm not linking to them..also, it takes too much time and I need to go check my mocha brownies :)

Leave me a comment and let me know what you like to listen to while practicing- or any other time of the day! Maybe I can use a suggestion in my next playlist. Happy Listening!

start your journey

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice,
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save. 

~ Mary Oliver ~

traveling through Michigan- detroit airport