Watch What You Eat

It's a daily struggle getting my kids to eat anything but meat and simple carbs, but this blog came across my desk, and it reminded me of why it should be a priority to get five servings of fruits or vegetables into your diet each day. We're going to be doing a lot of traveling soon, which usually means a stash of granola bars. But I think we need to up the ante a bit.

Our Bodies

Over the years, so many of my students have expressed varying levels of self-loathing. They're not strong enough, flexible enough, skinny enough, dedicated enough, etc., etc. So many come to yoga to lose weight and look pretty. So many don't come, because they want the same thing, but don't think yoga can do that for them. I came across this fantastic menagerie of human bodies today and had to share.
Yoga makes you confront yourself, and - with practice - it helps you become more introspective. You have to confront the shame as well as the hubris. You also have to confront change. I've had two babies. My body looks different, feels different, and acts different. So be it. It sounds flippant, but I do the work that gets me to that place of acceptance.
Since having kids, I'd forgotten how amazing it is to drag yourself out of bed and get to an early-morning practice. The act of not hitting the snooze button again is another step toward confronting yourself and charging forward into the day. And, gosh, it sure is lovely to hear the splashing water and the opera of the birds. Monday, I reached up toward the crystalline sky to demonstrate trikonasana (triangle), and not only saw clear lavendar and blue, but white flower petals falling upon me from the trees lining the steps. MAGICAL. This morning, four Mallard drakes chased a female across the sky in a cacaphony. LIFE.
I wish there was a cure all. I wish I could say a few words of support that would allow people to love themselves unconditionally. The fact is that practice is the only way. In the words of Guruji, "Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory.” or "Practice and all is coming."

Looking for a Studio

Well, here it is.
I'm teaching Sunrise yoga on Cravath Lakefront in Whitewater, WI from 5:30-6:45 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.
I'm teaching Hot Vinyasa Yoga at Ivy's Holistic Arts from 5:30-6:40 p.m.
And, I'm teaching a TGIF 1:00-2:15 p.m. class at Cravath Lake on Fridays. I suspect the Friday class will change a bit, as I'm taking over another teacher's class. It's hard for me to imagine that will be a popular one, since most people still work in the summers. But we'll see.
My husband wants me to open a studio, since there is a ton of space downtown. He thinks I can get something cheap. We'll see. It'll be bare bones.
But then this article popped up today and got me thinking about how yoga used to be back when I started practicing 20 years ago.
The wheels are turning.

A Great Post about the Benefit of Inversions

Judith Hanson Lasater is one of the originals in American yoga. This woman knows her stuff. My students ask me often what pose they should practice if they only have five or ten minutes, and my answer would be an inversion.

Yoga Dork is also a great resource.

Sharing a lovely piece of advice that is worth going back to again and again. Though I disagree that yoga is not for everyone. The practice of asanas is different for everyone and differs greatly throughout the different branches of yoga. Yoga asana is about moving consciously and mindfully, and everyone needs that.

Dystopia

Just had to share this URL.
http://myscienceacademy.org/2013/04/14/the-33-most-beautiful-abandoned-places-in-the-world/

Just a quick update. I've been placed in a "cabin" with some other writers in the aforementioned Camp NaNoWriMo writer's workshop. One of my cabin mates has some of her work posted on this really cool tool for getting short pieces written. It's essentially the Twitter of short stories; you have a limited amount of space to write a piece, which makes you hone your skills and pick only the necessary words. L.O.V.E.

I've been doing my requisite RFP search this morning, and though I stay off the time waster known as Facebook as often as I can, I needed to see if someone had answered a message of mine regarding grant writing and fundraising. And, as FB would have it, I got sucked in ... in a good way. A friend posted this amazing article written by a 90-year-old woman named Phyllis Sues called "Loving Life at 90." Like her, what inspires me is the love of learning. Sure, yoga is an amazing tool for that, but that's all it is a tool. (Full disclosure - my preferred tool)

I'm not trying to be a super woman or a super mom; that creates unnatural expectations. But I don't want to spend the majority of my life working miserably and lamenting what I never tried to do. I just want to create and learn new things. I've been making homemade sourdough breads for the last week, last night's baguette of sourdough rye with flaxseed was amazing. Again FB sucked me into reading about someone else who loves to practice the basics of sustainable and healthy cooking. Florencia Ramirez has got a great blog called Eat Less Water that I'm going to check on a regular basis. I need this when I get the stink-eye from other moms who think I'm bragging when I talk about what's on the menu at our house.

I'm trying to finish up an intricate baby blanket that I started before my 4.5-year-old was born. And it's finally coming together. Grant writing is flying. Yoga will always be there and the teaching is languishing only because my husband's tight schedule won't allow for teaching 8-10 classes a week the way it used to. But no worries, I practice, I teach three classes a week. And, I'm about to cut the teaching down by one class, because I'm enrolling in a re-upholstery class. I still need to fit in that novel-writing more than once a week; I'm working on it.

Errr, the baby is waking up. Time to play and have a dance party. Maybe we'll even do some asanas! Everything Counts! Do what you love and what you can - plan, but don't be insufferable about it.

"Your future lies before you
Like a shining path of snow.
Be careful how you tread,
For every step will show."

Re the above quote, I ran into a cute little book published in 1950 called "Yours Till Niagara Falls: A Book of Autograph Verses." We just got a foot of snow here in Wisconsin. I'm new to this area, but the locals say so much late snow is unheard of . I love the snow, but not driving in the slush and ice.

I've finally moved onto the writing path for good, I hope. I'm doing professional grant-writing and consulting. I'm also moving forward on my novel. Yoga is another love, but it's a lifestyle. I still teach - and love every minute of it - but yoga is showing me myself, and it's time to write and do other kinds of good in the community, like bringing money to this adorable little Wisconsin town that I love so much.

If you want to write, I urge you to join Camp NaNoWriMo for the online support. It's free. So many people want to write, which makes sense. Part of our heritage - the caveperson in us - wants to relay stories and experiences. We want to sit around a campfire and relate, commiserate, teach. And, I suspect that this brave new technological world that we're moving into will make it more possible for us to get our stories out there. Not that I want the big publishers to go out of business, but too often our important stories are held in disregard.