Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Resolutions

I've never really been big on making New Years resolutions. However, I am in favor of living life to the fullest no matter what time of year it is, so here are some things that inspire me. First a quote from Christian D. Larson:

promise yourself.
to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
to talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
to make all your friends feel that there is something wonderful in them.
to look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
to think only of the best, to work only for the best, & to expect only the best.
to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
to forget the mistakes of the past & press on to the greater achievements of the future.
to wear a cheerful countenance at all times & give every living creature you meet a smile.
to give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as your are true to the best in you! 

Second, check out this article called 30 Things to Stop Doing. Here are some of my favorites from the list:
#4. Stop putting your own needs on the back burner.
It's true - you can't help other people if you are a mess yourself!
#10 Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness.
If your happiness is dependent upon others, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. (BTW, the book they suggest Stumbling on Happiness is definitely worth reading!)
25. Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn't.
This is a big one for me - I've always been good at putting on a happy face and now I'm learning how to feel safe while expressing my feelings. It's a work in progress...

Third is another article - this one summarizes the Top 5 Regrets of the Dying 
#1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. 
Living in Bali for a month was definitely unexpected, and amazing in every possible way! While I missed everyone at home, I felt like I was right where I was supposed to be. I'm not sure what lies ahead for me, but I know it will involve more traveling.
#3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
Ah man, it's on this list too??? Okay universe, I hear ya!

Finally, if you are looking for a great book, check out The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin. It's a narrative about her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. I swear it's not a self-help type book; it really is good!

Okay I lied...one more thing...but this one is a video, yay! Take a break from reading all my ramblings and spend 8 minutes watching this video letting go. I know 8 minutes may sound like a long time, but don't let "not having time" be an excuse...remember we're practicing making our needs a priority :)

Here are some photos from New Years:

Holiday buzz

This week was jam packed with holiday fun! We had seven parties over the course of three days and it was wonderful to catch up with friends and family!

One of my favorite parts was getting to spends time with my niece (who will be four in March). She is full of energy and has a great imagination - so cute. We had a non-stop dance party going which mostly consisted of twirling and jumping. Every time I would stop she would say "no, jump!" Ha ha, easy for her to say, she wasn't in high heels. My feet and legs were hurting in the end but it was well worth it.

Oh and now I have an excuse to go back to Bali...my niece told me that she liked my dress and then said "can you get me one?" I tried to explain that I got it in Bali so I couldn't just go buy it at the store, but I don't think she understood. She seemed pretty set on the idea of having a matching dress.

For her Christmas present, I'm going to take her up skiing for the first time. I'm so excited! If this rain would just hurry up and turn to snow...

I don't have any pictures from the weekend but here is one with Marc at a surprise party for my co-worker's 40th birthday!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Tis the season

Every year the Sheraton Hotel in Seattle has an amazing gingerbread village display. This year the theme is train-stations from around the world and it's definitely worth checking out! Here are some of the masterpieces:



my favorite is the Abominable snowman here:
followed by this guy in the background here, ha ha:



Thursday, December 15, 2011

Catching up

I know, I know, I've been a bad blogger the past couple weeks! So here's a recap of what has been going on recently.

My parents came over to Seattle (from Spokane) for Thanksgiving weekend which was nice. My mom and I went to a Thanksgiving morning yoga class and it was packed:132 people lined up mat-to-mat. Incredible energy! Other than that, we went to a UW basketball game and to the Apple Cup (football game) - both of which the Huskies won! Oh and we saw the Muppet movie which was hilarious - loved it.

In December, I've had lots of holiday parties between work, friends, family and Marc's school group. All fun stuff, but sadly it's interfered with being able to go skiing. I haven't been up a single day yet this season...which is probably why I haven't blogged at all because I haven't felt like I've done anything interesting worth talking about. This is my first year (ever that I can remember) without having a season's pass. I've officially turned into a weekend warrior, boo! I swore up and down that would never happen, but I think I finally came to grips with it. The only redeeming thing about not having a pass is that now I'll be able to go to more mountains - when I have a pass, I always feel like I'm wasting money to go somewhere else when I could be skiing for free. I have friends that ski at different mountains, so now I can go wherever because it will cost money either way. Plus, I have friends in Tahoe, Salt Lake & Colorado that I want to visit!

On the yoga front, I'm really excited about setting up a regular teaching schedule. In January, I'm going to teach yoga every-other Wednesday for Yogis at UW. It will be fun to build a relationship with the students and watch them progress over time, since that's something I miss when I teach one-off classes. Speaking of which, I taught a holiday themed yoga class at Urban Yoga Spa this past Sunday afternoon focused on giving and gratitude. I volunteered to teach for free and asked everyone to bring food items to donate to the food bank! We had a small group - 14 of us - which wasn't surprising because of all the holiday parties happening over the weekend. It was perfect though because having a small class provided an opportunity to give individual attention which is always a bonus. I incorporated the idea of gratitude into some of the more difficult poses we did- a reminder that it's easy to feel grateful when things are going our way and when we are feeling good...but how can we continue to cultivate gratitude when life is challenging? 

I used all holiday music and a few people asked what some of the songs were, so here is the full playlist.
Winter Song - Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson (love this one)
The Heartache Can Wait - Brandi Carlile
Silver Bells - Alice Smith
All My Bells Are Ringing - Lenka
Carol of the Bells - The Bird & The Bee
Jingle Bells - Diana Krall
Sleigh Ride - KT Tunstall
Frosty the Snowman - Fiona Apple
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Jack Johnson (best version ever)
Peace is Here (acoustic version) - Jars of Clay
Very Merry Christmas - Dave Barnes
Mistletoe - Justin Bieber (I know...insert joke here)
Let it Snow - A Fine Frenzy
Winter Wonderland - Kate Havnevik
White Christmas - Katy Perry (yep, more teen pop stars...)
The Christmas Song - Catherine Feeny
Mistletoe - Colbie Caillat
I'll be Home for Christmas - Holly Conlan
Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas - Hem
There is a Star That Shines Tonight - Sheryl Crow
Silent Night - Priscilla Ahn (my favorite if you're only going to check out one)



Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Some like it hot

I taught my first hot yoga class on Sunday! Urban Yoga Spa (where I attend classes) graciously allowed me to use their studio to host a free private class for my friends and family.

I had twenty students which was a nice size, and they had all different experience levels which made it really fun. Two of my coworkers came - one for his first yoga class ever (awesome!), and the other who just got back from maternity leave (rock on hot mama!). Plus a former coworker who I used to do yoga with at lunch (yay reunion!). A couple people had done Bikram yoga before but this was their first time doing Vinyasa (which is a completely different style). Most everyone else does yoga on a regular basis, including three of my favorite yoga instructors (love you guys!). One friend who is moving to Vail this week (so cool! but I will miss her), and another friend in town from San Francisco which made the day extra special! And of course all my Bali yogis were with me in spirit! 

It was my first time using a headset microphone so it was funny to hear my voice over the speakers. I felt like Madonna or Britney when I saw myself in the mirror before class - all that was missing were my backup dancers, ha ha! The only glitch was that the display screen for the sound system wasn't showing my music playlist, so I had to do a little bit of last minute scrambling to get it working. Once that was squared away, everything was smooth sailing. Well, unless you ask the two people who overlooked the line in the invitation stating it would be a hot yoga class - surprise! They survived though and everyone left class smiling.

This morning the studio manager said she heard really good things about the class and she invited me to teach again, woo hoo! I don't know the exact date yet but I'm thinking of doing a class focused on giving and gratitude. Perfect for the holidays...I might even throw in some Christmas music...

Speaking of holidays, here are some cute gingerbread yogis :)





Thursday, November 17, 2011

Class #1



I taught my first official yoga class this week - woo hoo! It was for Yogis at University of Washington which is an awesome non-profit that provides free yoga classes to college students! I didn't even know what yoga was when I was at the UW so these students are already miles ahead of where I was at their age. I'm super excited to volunteer my time teaching classes for them because I know yoga will help with their studies, relationships, decisions, health, happiness and more!

I had no idea what to expect when I showed up for class. I thought there would maybe be 10 people there...or less because it was pouring rain. I was shocked when people kept coming and coming - pretty soon we were moving mats to make more space and add more rows. I ended up with nearly 40 students - fantastic! I was thrilled that so many people came - plus they were very welcoming and eager to learn.

They earned points with me right away when they asked if I was also a student at UW...and then were surprised when I laughed and said "yeah, but it was 10 years ago." The class itself went really well - this was my first time teaching an entire hour (our "final exam" during training was only 17 minutes). I decided not to plan out an exact sequence ahead of time...I wasn't sure if that was a good idea or just plain crazy, but it ended up working out! I felt like if I had a memorized sequence, I would be focused on "getting it right" rather than just teaching. I think I was able to feel the room better this way, and speak from my heart rather than from a script. I was worried I would either run out of time and feel rushed to finish, or I run out of things to do and leave them laying in Savasana for 20 minutes. Miraculously the timing went smoothly and I ended right on schedule!

I had quite a few people come up after class and say how much they enjoyed it so that made me very happy. They also liked my music - phew! because I seriously spent forever debating over the playlist, ha ha. I left on a complete high - it was crazy how much energy it gave me! I offered to teach twice a month for them so hopefully they will take me up on it :)

This Sunday I'm hosting a free class for friends & family at Urban Yoga Spa (where I attend classes). They generously allowed me to use their studio - love them! So far around 20 people have RSVPd so I'm excited! I also started teaching in my office once a week for two of my coworkers. A couple other people found out and started asking questions about it, so hopefully they will join us!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Integration

I've been back in the states for three weeks now so I'm integrating back into regular life. It's been easy in some ways and challenging in others, which is no surprise. What I find interesting is that some of the things that I thought might pose a problem have gone smoothly, while I have been triggered by other things that never occurred to me.

For instance, I thought I was crazy for booking the Las Vegas conference but it ended up being great! I didn't experience any jet lag - I think having the adrenaline from speaking at the conference actually helped give me energy so I easily adjusted to the time change.

Once I was back in Seattle, one of the first things I did was go grocery shopping. While that seems innocuous enough, it turned out to be really overwhelming. I was in the produce section trying to decide what to get and all of a sudden I started feeling really emotional and I didn't know why. I stood there looking at all of the choices and I just totally froze. I realized afterwards that I hadn't made any decisions for myself in six weeks - in Philly, Bali & Vegas I had a schedule laid out for me that in addition to all my activities, it included when, where and what I ate. It was fantastic to have all those details taken care of, don't get me wrong, I just hadn't realized how accustomed I had become to following what was decided for me rather than making decisions for myself.

My first day back in the office turned out to be an emotional day. I was really happy to see all my coworkers - I am very lucky to work with wonderful friends! However, even though I work with forty people, our office is divided into sections so there aren't a lot of people around me. This is the opposite of Bali where I was constantly with other people - we ate together, had classes together, worked on projects together, lived together, etc. There was rarely a time when I was alone - even on the days of silence, we weren't speaking but we were with each other. Anyway, my first few days back at the office brought up a lot of emotions for me because I was feeling really isolated and lonely. It helps to leave my desk periodically and walk around to chat with people, so now I incorporate that into my day and it provides a better sense of community.

The second thing I noticed about being back at work was that it was hard for me to be inside all day. In Bali we were always outside - even when we were inside, it felt like we were outside because the buildings had open walls. We were in the middle of the jungle so we were surrounded by lush green trees and vibrantly colored flowers, we were constantly breathing in fresh clean air, and I was barefoot the whole time (flip-flops were the closest I ever came to shoes). It is a huge difference to now be inside all day, with circulated air, wearing jeans & shoes. Also, the tallest building at Anahata was two stories so I felt very connected to the earth the whole time I was in Bali. My office is on the 29th floor and my condo is on the 33rd floor, so in Seattle I spend most of my life up in the air. I never thought about it before because it was what I was used to, but after being grounded for a month it felt very strange to be back in skyscrapers. I can help both of those issues by remembering to take breaks outside. Even if it's just for a few minutes, it makes a big difference in my day.

Anyway, I'm feeling settled in now and things are back to normal...well, as normal as they will ever be. I will always have Bali with me and my life will forever be changed :)

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Bali Pictures

I've been home for a week now and I'm starting to settle back into a groove. Las Vegas was fun and both of my presentations went well at the conference! I presented one session on using social media for advertising and another on conducting firm compliance training meetings. I received positive feedback from the participants so hopefully I'll be invited to speak again next year. There were 300 compliance officers there and I ran into a few that I knew from Seattle so that was nice. Marc was able to come with me and work remotely while I was at the conference. It was great to have him there after being apart for a month. We went out to a couple of nice dinners and saw a Cirque du Soleil show called Ka that had incredible martial arts and acrobatics. So fun!

Now I'm back in Seattle and starting to figure out when/where I want to teach yoga. I'm not planning on working at a studio - right now I'm just looking for non-profits that I can volunteer my time to teach classes. There is a new group that just started this fall at the University of Washington that offers free yoga classes to students! I didn't even know about yoga back when I was in college and it would have been a great thing to have in my life so I'm excited to be able to give back in that way. I lined up my first class teaching for them next week, yay!

Here is a link to my pictures from Bali. I was only able to post a few at a time while I was gone because the internet was so slow, so now I have them all online.



Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Legian Beach

Training ended Sunday afternoon and I headed straight to Legian Beach! The weather was perfect and there were tons of surfers out in the water. I didn't have time to go myself, but enjoyed watching them.






One of my friends from college, who is currently living in Australia, happened to be traveling in Bali this week. What are the odds? It was super fun to meet up with her for dinner.






Watching my final Bali sunset from the rooftop pool - so beautiful!





My flight home was long but easy - I just slept and watched movies. It was roughly a 5 hr flight to Taipei, an hour layover, and then 11 hrs to Seattle. Both flights were on time and getting through customs was no problem. Marc picked me up at the airport, we grabbed dinner and got home around 8 p.m. I did laundry, repacked, got a few hours of sleep, and then headed back to the airport at 6 a.m. Now I'm in Las Vegas until Saturday for a work conference - Marc came with me and is working from the hotel while I'm at the conference. We arrived Wednesday at 11 a.m. and I gave my first presentation from 3:30-5:30 p.m. It went really well - there were about 200 people in the audience. Today I will attend sessions all day and my second presentation is tomorrow. Hopefully I get good participant evaluations because next fall the conference is in San Diego! Tonight Marc and I are going to see the Cirque du Soliel show Ka.



bitter sweet

It's a happy/sad feeling to leave Bali. There are a lot of things I'm going to miss...and some things I'm happy to leave behind.

I will miss...
The sunshine and warmth, but am grateful to leave the humidity. I'm looking forward to dry clothes and dry hair - everything stays slightly wet here because of the humidity...blech

I will miss the beach/ocean. I was inland most of the trip so I didn't get to swim in the ocean as much as I wanted, but I'm grateful for the days I had!

I will miss the open air yoga room looking out into the jungle...and I am happy to leave the ants and spiders that were constantly crawling all over my yoga mat.

I'm looking forward to my hairdryer, Sonicare toothbrush, cell phone, and fast Internet...wish I could bring home a chef, house keeper, driver and masseuse.

I will miss meditating in the morning, but I'm happy not to sit on the floor anymore. Even after a month, I never got used to it - my legs still went numb every day. ouch.

Waking up at 5:15 for 6 a.m. yoga...well that's a wash because it's my same schedule at home.

I'm already missing all the new friends I made...but I'm looking forward to visiting them all over the world! I can't wait to see all my friends/family at home - I missed everyone so much.

Goodbye for now Bali - I'm sure I will be back someday!





Sunday, October 23, 2011

Finish

I can't believe I'm finished with training - this month flew by so fast! Our last couple days of days were nice - on Friday evening we had a ritual at the botanical garden in Ubud. It was beautiful there! We were lucky to have Dave Stringer there with us (a famous Kirtan singer in the yoga world) and Alanna Kaivalya (also a singer and a Jivamukti yoga instructor). Everyone was singing and dancing which was fun - but my favorite part of the night was when we stopped and sat in silence and we could hear all the creatures in the trees around us (frogs, crickets, birds, monkeys, etc.). It was dark so the stars were in the sky along with a bunch of fireflies - so cool! I could have stayed there all night - loved it! As we were leaving, I saw glowing on the ground along the path - they were glow worms! I didn't know they actually existed...I thought they were just made up in cartoons, ha ha.













Saturday we had a "graduation" to receive our certificates, a fancy dinner (we dressed up and they served us dinner on the patio rather than the regular serve-yourself in the dining room), and then a gift exchange. I met such amazing people here, it's sad to leave! I'm excited to see everyone at home though, and now I have people to visit all over the world :)

receiving my certificate:






final dinner w/ my villa-mates:
(from left to right) Sheri, Kim, me, Ross, Ellen, and Anne Marie






Oh - and I almost burnt down the yoga shala on Saturday...that would have been bad! We finished meditation and were about to start our yoga class. I took off my sarong, folded it, and placed it up on the window sill...apparently a little too close to a candle because a minute later Juniper was calling my name and pointing at the smoke. I jumped up and put the flames out which had luckily just started - good thing she noticed! So now I have holes in my sarong...but that's way better than what could have happened.




Friday, October 21, 2011

Fire Dance

I finally got to go see the Balinese dancing! I've been wanting to go for the past couple weeks and plans kept falling through with other people, so Wednesday night I decided to just go by myself. I'm glad I did - it was fantastic!



It's called Kecak Fire & Trance Dance and it told an ancient Hindu story. They didn't use any instruments - instead there were around 50 guys of all ages singing/chanting in rhythmic patterns. They were amazing! I also loved all the costumes and makeup of the dancers.



During the second part of the show, they lit a pile of coconut shells on fire. Then a guy came out in a horse costume and started kicking the fire with his bare feet. Crazy! Sparks were flying everywhere - luckily they put up a short metal wall (about a foot tall) to keep the audience from getting burned.





Tuesday, October 18, 2011

More pictures

Here are a few more pictures from Sunday


























Sunday fun day

Sunday was our last day off from training and it was my favorite so far! Five of us rented a driver for the day and went all over the island.

Our first stop was at a temple that Josh (our chanting teacher) recommended and it was amazing! It was about a 1/4 mile walk off the main road down a bunch of steps. Along the way, there were a lot of locals trying to sell the usual stuff (jewelry, paintings, masks, etc.) but the funniest thing was that they kept trying to sell us sarongs even though we were already wearing them. We knew ahead of time that we had to wear a sarong in order to enter the temple so we were all set, but that didn't stop the vendors from trying to sell us more. Each time I said "no thanks, I already have one" and they said "it's okay, you buy one more." I would have had ended up with 50 of them, lol! The temple grounds were incredible - there were huge (40 foot?) carvings into the stone on the hillside, and there was a stream running through the middle of the area. It's the best temple I've been to on the trip so far.





Next we went to a spice garden called Satria Agrowisata. Well actually they grow more than just spices- they also have fruit, herbs, coffee, tea, and cacao (chocolate plant). We got to watch them make a special kind of coffee called Luwak Coffee. The Luwak is a small animal that loves eating coffee cherries and the beans ferment in their stomachs. The locals then gather the coffee beans that have passed through the Luwak, and roast them into a coffee blend that apparently has "a rich, heavy flavor with hints of carmel or chocolate." I'll take their word for it...none for me thanks...although I enjoyed watching them roast it on the open fire. I opted for the three tea tasting: ginger, lemongrass, and rosella - yum!





After that we drove to see a Volcano - we didn't have time to hike it so we just took pictures from the road. The best way to hike the volcano is to drive there around 3 a.m. and then hire a guide to walk you up so that you get to the top for sunrise. Sounds amazing, but it didn't work with our schedule. It was still beautiful from a distance :)





Our last stop was at the hot-springs which were at the base of the volcano along the lake. Perfect end to a fantastic day!







Friday, October 14, 2011

Threes

Well they say strange things happen in threes:
Yesterday there was a 6.8 earthquake off the coast of Bali. We are inland, so we didn't get the full force here but we felt it strongly for I'm guessing 30-60 seconds (hard to have a sense of time while it was happening). It was actually pretty funny timing-wise because we were right in the middle of a chanting class when the whole building started to shake so we were joking around about our singing moving the earth (gotta love nerdy yoga humor). We were upstairs in a two story building so we went downstairs and then outside...figured we were safer out there in case anything collapsed, but luckily everything was okay. There was a small aftershock a couple hours later but I was taking a nap and didn't notice.

The second random thing happened in the afternoon. Our shala (the room where we have class) has a vaulted ceiling and a couple days ago I noticed a huge lizard up in the rafters. I didn't think much of it at the time, but yesterday it totally pooped from 30 feet up in the air right onto this girl's leg! It happened to be during one of Edward's classes and he didn't realize what was going on so he yelled at her for getting out of the pose, lol! He laughed when he figured it out though :)

This morning we had our last class with Edward - yay, I survived and now we have a new instructor, Kathy. I have to say that even though I didn't like his style, I did learn a few things from him so it was still a good week. Right after class the third thing happened...they surprised us with a beach day!!! I was super excited because I haven't been to the beach since before our training started. It was about an hour and a half drive to get there and they had fresh coconuts waiting for us when we arrived, yum! We spent the afternoon swimming, tanning, and taking pictures in the sand - so much fun!



















Wednesday, October 12, 2011

rough patch

Well I suppose the honeymoon had to come to an end eventually. This has been a rough week - I don't really like the instructor we have right now. His name is Edward and he's this crazy, eccentric, British guy. He's entertaining in a way...kind of like watching Monty Python - you can't understand half of what he says but it's funny none the less. However, I don't like that he mocks us when we do something incorrectly. I know the purpose is to trigger us in order to bring up emotions that we need to deal with, so I guess it's working...but it's not fun.

I tried to just brush it off on Monday but on Tuesday I got pretty upset. I was doing a pose and he came over and got right on my mat in my face and was ridiculing me for doing it incorrectly. I couldn't understand what the problem was though because he wasn't showing me the right way to do it, he was only telling me that it was wrong. Then he gave me a manual adjustment that wrenched my back in a way that hurt...so between the pain and embarrassment I started crying. That only made matters worse because then he yelled at me for not breathing properly, lol! To top it off, this was all being video taped because they are filming segments to put on the web site. Not a good day for me...

I woke up this morning and was pretty crabby so I was kind of lazy in our first class. Then after breakfast I felt better and put more effort into the second class. Luckily we had the afternoon off so I went to town and had a massage & body scrub - just what I needed! We only have three more classes with him so I'll survive...and keep my fingers crossed that I like Kathy better next week.

Anyway - that's all for now. Here are a few more pictures.



















Monday, October 10, 2011

weekend

When I get home, having two-day weekends will feel like a luxury compared to only getting one day off a week here! My days off have been exhausting because I want to do as much sight-seeing and activities as possible.

Yesterday a group of twelve of us went to Bali Treetop Adventures which was basically a big ropes course with zip lines - super fun! I have some nice bruises and scrapes from all the ropes & nets but it was totally worth it :)



After that we had the driver take us to a restaurant for lunch. The view was amazing but the food didn't look good so we snapped a few photos and then hit the road again. Here I am with Lauren (left) who lives in Vancouver, B.C., and Hanni (right) from Homer, Alaska.



Next we visited a temple - we couldn't go inside the sacred area but there was a walkway that surrounded it where we could take pictures.



We ended the day back in town with shopping & dinner. Overall a great day! Next Sunday I think I might opt for a beach day...relaxing sounds nice.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Pics part 2

My roommates: Anne Marie (left), Ellen (in green), Sherri (right). Sherri's assignment was to be a dominatrix for the day...she doesn't normally wear loads of makeup and carry a whip, lol!





Juniper, the birthday girl. She is also from Spokane :)





Temple in Ubud








pics part 1

Here are some pics from this week
Chanting class with Josh - today we learned the Sanskrit alphabet.





Our Anusara teacher, Chris - he was fantastic! I'm sad to see him leave but looking forward to meeting our next instructor on Monday.





Practicing handstand with Charlie who is only 19 - so cool that he is going through this training at such a young age. Plus he is here with his older brother and sister - it's fun to see them all together!







Thursday, October 6, 2011

week 2

We have three new classes and instructors this week:
1) Yoga of Sound - which is all about learning how to pronounce Sanskrit and then using it in various chants. I really love this class because I feel like I'm back in music school when I learned to sing in German, Italian and French. So fun!
2) Yoga Anatomy - exactly what it sounds like, an anatomy class where we learn the names of different bones/muscles/etc. specifically in relation to different yoga poses.
3) Anusara - this is a style of yoga which I had not practiced before. One of the main reasons I chose this training was because I wanted to get exposed to new techniques/philosophies so this fits right into my goal.

I absolutely love the Anusara teacher - he is a lot like me so I feel right at home with him. He is not the stereotypical earthy, spiritual, calm, etc. teacher - he's loud, energetic, talkative, goofy, etc. He said something yesterday that really hit me - he said that as an instructor, you want to be the same person inside the classroom as you are in the rest of your life. While that sounds like common sense, it was a turning point for me because I've been feeling like I had to develop some sort of yoga persona and be all zen-like when teaching. Now I can stop feeling like I have to act the part and I can just relax and be myself.

Along those lines - this week we were assigned to mentors who gave everyone an "assignment" to help draw out certain qualities in them. For example, my roommate Kim is shy so his assignment was to stand at the door to the classroom and greet everyone who came in with a hug. Mine was "be outrageous." Huh? That could mean anything - I like clear/specific instructions so the first challenge was just to figure out what it meant to me.

I have no fear of speaking, singing or dancing in front of people so I tried to think of something that would make me uncomfortable. Whenever I see people in class wearing just a sports bra and shorts I always think that I could never do that - I'm way too body conscious and would hate feeling like people were looking at me. So that's what I decided to do today - I wore only a sports bra and skirt all day and I'm happy to say I survived. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be which I suppose is kind of the point. I wouldn't go far as to say I enjoyed it, but it was less than torture. I think it was a good exercise for me because it's important to feel comfortable in my own skin because students will be able to sense whether or not I am confident in myself. Here I am...no I didn't get bad tattoos, I drew symbols for peace, love and happiness in marker as a reminder to be lighthearted and fun.





Well this is getting quite long so I'll stop rambling for now...

Sunday, October 2, 2011

the river

Yesterday after lunch I went down to the river (on the resort property) and it was beautiful! It's about a 5 minute walk down and 10 minutes back up the ridiculous number of steps - well worth the trip. The water was surprisingly warm - I'm used to the freezing cold rivers in Washington so it was nice to walk straight in without cringing. I sat under a small waterfall and enjoyed the water pounding on my back. I walked down the river a bit and then was unexpectedly swept into the current, oops! The water wasn't very deep and it didn't look like it was moving that fast, but it was definitely powerful.






even the ground is inspiring - there are words and pictures made with stones set into the cement steps



In the evening we had our first true hippy night with Kirtan music by Sparrow (the name of the singer/guitar player), a drummer, and a wooden recorder player. They played a bunch of songs and we all sang/danced along. So much fun!