I have had a love-hate relationship with astanga yoga since I started practicing four years ago. But aren’t all relationships this way?
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In them, don’t we see the best and worst of one another? Don’t we see the best and worst of our selves? Are their not highs and lows? Peaks and valleys? Times of smooth sailing and times of turbulence?
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You know what I’m finally seeing? That all of this is part of the practice. All of it. Not just the practice of astanga, but the practice of life.
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The times I’ve walked away. The times I’ve returned. Everything in between. In all of it there has been growth, lessons, expansion.
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I’m certain the universe, despite my efforts, has conspired so that I cannot give up on this practice.
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There is just something about it. The quiet. The depth. The incredible peace that comes after an hour and some odd minutes of binding... of sweating... of breath with sound.
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All I know is that I am grateful that I am still here, and I am honored to hold space for others to build their relationship with this practice as well. To learn from it. To see their reactions, their resistances, their repetitive thoughts. And also their strengths, their spaciousness, and their grace.
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As of this week I am teaching Mysore Style Astanga Yoga twice a week at @urbanyogaphx — Monday and Wednesday, from 6-8am.
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Mysore Style is a self-led practice. I work with you individually, and you learn at your own pace.
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As you become familiar with the practice, it quickly becomes deeply meditative and introspective. There are no distractions — no music, no teacher calling out poses — just you, your breath, and your mat.
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Like any relationship, a Mysore practice isn’t always easy. It requires discipline and consistency. But it is not a punishment. Far from it. .
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This practice is a celebration. A personal ceremony you have with yourself, while held up by the like-minded souls experiencing their own journey along side you.
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And... It’s fun! And I am going to do the best I can to bring these elements to life each week.
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I so hope you will join me. Blessings. 🙏🏽💓
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#mysore
#astanga
#practice
#devotion
#blessing
#awaken
#yoga
#love
#jai
#ॐ
I remember when I picked up a drum for the first time. Though I had no prior experience, it felt so natural. Like something I had done my whole life.
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I remember feeling like the drum was an extension of my own voice, able to express the things that words simply cannot.
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The more I learn about the history of drumming, the more I am convinced that this instrument is as human as the beat of our own heart. Like our natural impulse to dance and to sing, I believe drumming is encoded in our DNA. As a result, learning to play this powerful instrument feels like a beautiful and long awaited homecoming. .
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While the practice of drumming can be powerfully transformative for everyone, I believe that learning to play can be especially impactful for women. In the modern west, the drum has come to be seen as a masculine instrument. It's big, bold sound seemingly in contrast to everything women are often taught not to be. .
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What's more is that this masculine classification is a modern phenomenon. In truth, if we look back far enough, we find a rich and robust history of women drummers, and in particular, frame drummers. .
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The frame drum itself is a symbol and celebration of the feminine principle of the universe — representing the womb, the cycle of life, and cycle of women's bodies. Further, the women who played these instruments were regarded as priestesses, using the drum as their sacred tool during ritual and ceremony. .
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Since I began playing this incredible instrument, I feel this history has been awakening from a place deep within me. And I want nothing more than to help awaken this powerful legacy within you too.
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I hope you will join me for my very first drumming workshop:
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Drumming For Women: Remembering a Sacred Legacy
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When: Saturday, 5/25 2-4pm
Where: @spacephx
Investment: $30 in Advance, $40 day of
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More info and to register click the link in my bio.
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Drums: I have seven (now five) drums available to use on a first come first serve basis. These drums will also be for sale at the end of the workshop. You are welcome to bring your own drum.
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#drum
#framedrum
#handdrum
#remo
#whenthedrummerswerewomen
Time is a funny thing.
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I’ve noticed that as certain times of the year cycle back around, I’ll unconsciously “remember” important moments that occurred around the same time. Like they’ve left an imprint on my being that I only recognize in hindsight.
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May 14 is one of those days. When I was in graduate school, my best friend passed away. May 14 was her birthday. .
Over the years, special things seem to occur on this day. Even when I don’t remember that this day is special.
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One year on May 14th, I taught my first yoga class after graduating from teacher training. Another year on May 14th, I embarked upon one of the most beautiful adventures I’ve ever had — a road trip with no destination, filled with experiences that would expand my mind and heart forever.
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Every year, big or small, something magical seems to transpire on May 14th. And this year, it was especially beautiful.
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When my friend died, I moved across the country and started my first yoga teacher training program. This is where I was first introduced to @trevorhallmusic and his music.
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I came home one night and listened to every song I could find.
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I remember laying outside, looking at the stars, and the song that I am playing above came on — The Lime Tree. Something about it moved me and I felt my friend’s presence so strongly. I wept and wept and wept and wept. Listening to this song on repeat. .
Through watery eyes, I looked to the stars as if asking them “What am I supposed to do with all of this inside me?” And in that moment I heard her voice, “Just keep your eyes on the stars.” And then, a shooting star streaked across the sky. 💫
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I’ve wanted to learn this song since I started playing guitar. But every time I tried to learn, for whatever reason I couldn’t. .
Then a few days ago, I finally picked up my guitar, and the song just poured out of me. Effortlessly. It was only after learned it that I realized that her birthday was just a few days away.
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So yesterday, on May 14th, I played this song, in the courtyard of my second YTT program, in her memory, in her honor. .
Time. It’s a funny, beautiful, amazing thing. .
#thelimetree
#singingheals
#timeheals
#guitar
#devotion
#yoga
#love
#jai
“Bodhichitta is a Sanskrit word that means “noble or awakened heart.”... It is said that in difficult times, it is only bodhichitta that heals. When inspiration has become hidden, when we feel ready to give up, this is the time when healing can be found in the tenderness of pain itself. Bodhichitta is also equated, in part, with compassion — our ability to feel the pain that we share with others. Without realizing it we continually shield ourselves from this pain because it scares us... This tenderness for life, bodhichitta, awakens when we no longer shield ourselves from the vulnerability of our condition, from the basic fragility of existence. It awakens through kinship with the suffering of others. [To awaken bodhichitta is to] become so open that we can take the pain of the world in, let it touch our hearts, and turn it into compassion.”
-Pema Chödrön, from Comfortable with Uncertainty
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#compassion
#love
#meditation
#awakenedheart
#sky
#ॐ
Next time I do something that means everything to me, someone please tell me to take a picture. 🙏🏽
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This weekend I taught my first chanting workshop that was open to the public. My intention going into it was to allow myself to just be present for the experience. To be fully there, so that I could receive and take everything in.
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Sometimes when I show up to do things I really care about, I’m so attached to everything going perfectly that I don’t give myself the space to take in the beauty of what’s happening.
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This time it was different. From the moment people started arriving, I could feel that I was really with everyone. Really connected.
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I opened with an invitation to share our names and what inspired us to come. I had actually earlier decided specifically not to start this way, reasoning that there was so much to do that we wouldn’t have time.
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But there in the moment, I knew that this space needed to be opened. We were all there to use our voices after all. Singing, speaking, crying, yelling — they are all just different expressions of the same truth. Beginning the afternoon with an exercise in speaking openly and freely, seemed the right place to start.
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What I wasn’t expecting in this exercise however, was that as we went around the circle and shared our intentions for being there, every single person also looked me right in the eyes and shared that I had somehow and someway made an impact on their lives, and have helped them on their journey. That I was part of the reason that they wanted to come that day.
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Right from the start, I was hit with an overwhelming amount of love and validation — something that in the past I might have brushed off or somehow discredited. But that day, I allowed it all in. .
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This moment, allowed me to forget perfection, to forget the agenda, and just be present for the experience and do exactly what I was asking everyone else to do — be open with my true and authentic expression. .
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(A little bit more to go in the comments.....)
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#singingthesoul
#embodyingthespirit
#chanting
#mantra
#workshop
#devotion
#bhakti
#allow
#receive
#grateful
#jai
#ॐ
