Why Refining your Alignment Matters in Yoga

I still feel kind of like a newbie in the world of yoga, only 10 years in, but the amount of yoga and my total devotion to this path has allowed me to witness so much in that short time.  When I first started I had no clue about alignment at all, in fact my first Yoga Teacher Training had very little in terms of alignment in the postures but blessed me in other ways.  Since I was hooked after the very first yoga class I took and I was totally inspired and fired up to go to the next level, and then something interesting happened.  YOGI BEWARE!   I got hurt, a lot! 

I remember this class I had done early into my yoga life at a gym and the sound I heard and the intense pain I felt when my hamstring attachment tore!  I could hardly walk out of the class and every time I bent over to put my shoes on I was in agony, for about a year and a half!!!  After that first incident several others followed, like a shoulder injury, neck issues (from headstand), wrist strains, tweaking my back so I couldn't walk, and of course a couple more hamstring pulls. 

All of these things mostly happened because I was practicing in my bedroom using books as guides or videos without a teacher to guide me or look out for me.  In most of these cases it was indeed my own fault for not listening to my body and pushing too far too fast but in some cases it was the instruction or lack of in the books I was using or the teacher! 

To me this feels like ages ago now but I am happy to report I have not experienced any major injuries from my yoga practice since I discovered Anusara's brillant Universal Principals of Alignment.  The bottom line, ALIGNMENT MATTERS in a yoga asasna practice!  To line up takes a lot of work, discipline and consistency.  The good news, our bodies, minds and hearts are letting us know how our yoga is going. 

If your in pain when you do a backbend every time (like I was) and you believe that you'll eventually get it, I can confidently tell you that it's NOT going to happen.  Pain is a sure fire sign that something within the body is in a misalignment and since you have over 200 bones and 600 muscles good, clear technical instructions are necessary to move into life affirming alignment.  

Even with the most amazing instructions, coming from the most experienced and skilled teachers sometimes we just aren't getting it!  Creatures of habit I suppose.  I can't tell you how many times in my teaching journey I have heard a student out right refuse to try doing a pose a different way because "that is what my teacher taught me" or "I've been doing it like this for 30 years", well things have changed from the way yoga was taught 30 years, 500 years or 3,000 years ago.  Some of the older ideas have simply been replaced with solid bio mechanical principals. 

Here's a good example.  In many of my first yoga books I had in 2002 it looked like people had their hands turned in for crow pose.  So of course I did it like that too and holy crap did it ever hurt my wrist after about 20 seconds or 5 attempts.  In my head I just wasn't strong enough to do these crazy arm balances.  About 1 year ago I was at a class in our city with my girlfriend and the woman beside I was clearly showing signs of wrist pain from doing crow.  My jaw dropped as I watched the teacher tell her to turn her hands in!!!  IN????  REALLY IN????  OUCH!!!!  It took everything I had to not say something to help her but it wasn't my place to do that. 

There are basics to setting foundations that are so clearly and consistently taught in Anusara that you start to really understand how even the tiniest little refinement in your alignment allows you to go deeper and deeper into your poses and more importantly into your heart so you can work on the old itty-bitty-shitty-committee (thank you Todd Norian) and start to line up in your practice in ways that free you not hurt you! 

This is a lifelong practice because the amount of refinement you can do in any yoga pose is infinite.  Some of these refinements are injurious and some will take us to places in our body-mind-heart that we had no idea we could tap.  So if you are experiences pain in your practice and you LOVE yoga than search out a teacher that knows alignment and more importantly listen to the teacher in your own heart that is always there, guiding you and your body and you'll start to experience ecstasy in your yoga practice, each and every time you step on your mat.

So blessed to be on this journey and huge thanks to my teachers along that way who have taught me how to align my body-mind-heart in such a beautiful and skillful way.

Pranams to John Friend, Todd Norian, Ann Greene, and so many other wonderful yoga teachers

Fall in Love with Change

I love this time of year!  Today I turned the heat on in our home on account of the icicles forming from my dripping nose. I'm not a huge fan of the cold but I do love this time of the year. In Canada, the beautiful display of brilliantly coloured fall leaves signifies the end of the summer and a time of change, where the dark begins to overpower the light, the warm weather is replaced by crisp Autumn air.  What's going on with Mother Nature is going on inside of me and you!

Fall is a time of change and transitions, this is often a difficult time for many people too.  When things change we feel uncomfortable, maybe even scared.  As many great thinkers have declared the only thing we can really bank on is that everything will change.  It's our attitude toward change that we have some control over.

One of the biggest changes in my life has been in my relationships with people.  I have cut ties to old friends, made new friends and I'm constantly working on the most important relationship of all, the one I have with myself!

Being open to the flow of life and change is part of Anusara's first principle, called Open to Grace.  Grace is the revelatory power of the universe that shows us our true nature, consciousness and bliss.  This can be a challenge for me and many other people.  Our ability to be open and remain open when things are hard is not something we're born with, it's something we practice over and over again.

Changes in my life are still happening all the time and accepting that it's part of life and more importantly it will inevitably help me grow and expand is something I've picked up from Anusara Yoga.  Just last week I was able to witness and assist the Anusara Immersion in London with Todd Norian and Ann Greene.  These 5 days we full of beautiful and precious moments of grace, love, light, and transformation.

I went through the same process in 2007, when I did my immersion with these skillful and loving teachers.  I changed as a person and I haven't looked back since.  In fact I was so empowered during the immersion I was able to cultivate enough strength to end a long term relationship with someone I was supposed to marry.  Phew!

Fall is a perfect time to end or begin something.  How can you align yourself with nature today to better allow grace into your life? 

Spring time Contemplation

My nose is still running and the kettle's on as I warm up from my walk.  All signs pointed me in the direction of outdoors today.  Syncing myself up with nature so I can live more harmoniously requires I actually leave my warm home.  After a mind-blowing weekend in Detroit with my beloved yoga teacher, John Friend and my amazing yoga friends, my body is sore, I mean I feel every muscle and I love it!  My hip is bruised not from yoga but from trying to run to the bathroom and not miss even a moment, alas I fell down the stairs.  Any physical pain ignored, pride in check, ran back in to wild applause for the Starne sisters doing Mandalasna with John. Interesting, I have never seen this pose down, I've been dying to try to learn it, then I miss it.  No coincidence but divine plan for sure.  Great news, my friend Erin can show me so I am going to try it out on Thursday.  Another "impossible pose" becomes possible! 

I'm not psychic like read your palm, talk to the dead kind, but I am super tuned into nature.  I use Doreen Virtue PH.D's magical unicorn oracle cards to give me diving guidance.  I'm a big fan of her goddess deck too.  Anyway I pick two cards today one from each deck.  I do realize how airy fairy it sounds to draw wisdom from a "unicorn deck" but hey I'm totally open so why the heck not, is what I say.  I  pick the Light card, it reads "see the light within yourself and everyone else."  Easy to do after spending 8 hours doing amazing yoga.  The next card, get out be some water.  Good thing the Thames River runs just behind my house.

The air has the Spring smell to it, crisp and earthy.  The ground is spongy, wet, and soft.  There are actually green shoots everywhere, waiting to bust out but holding back as if the sense another snow fall, no thanks nature.  This time of year is a time of revelation, there's my rake!  The river is amazing, fast flowing, overflowing the bank, drowning tree roots and making a heck of a swimming pool for the mallards and Canadian geese.  Spring even sounds different from the deep quiet of winter, welcome back noisy robins.  The symphony of birds has returned to break the silence, thank goodness, since it gets pretty eire during Canadian winters. 

Spring is a time of change, transition and new life. It's also a hell of a lot of work to clean things up again.  What have you been eating the last 4 months, where did you think it went?  Just to clean up my yard is a lot of work.  People ignorantly let their dogs poop on our yard without picking it up, there is garbage EVERYWHERE!  Boo!  You can only temporarily hide, the thaw reveals all! 

I'm excited about this Spring because I know it's bringing BIG changes to my world.  Scary and exciting go hand and hand.  I hope you get a chance to get your butt outside today, even a 10 minute walk will do.  Smile at the robins, be careful by the raging river and see the light within yourself and acknowledge it in others as the walk by.  Everyone's in a much better mood, maybe their horny but it's the time of year! 

Bountiful blessings to you all,
P.S. if anyone can help me expand my blog audience please let me know how to do that!

Yoga is a Group Effot!

Speaking from personal experience and from someone that tried to learn most yoga poses from a book or video, I will tell you firstly, it isn't that fun doing yoga in your living alone all the time and two you don't even know if you doing the pose correctly.  For example I had a really great book called 40 Days to Personal Revolution, by Baron Baptist and in one of his sequences he was doing Bakasana (crow pose).  I took a look at the picture, thought I could do it, gave it a try, landed on my face, skinned my chin, nose and thought I knocked my two front teeth out.  Not good!  In fact, I was so scared of that pose I didn't try it again for a very long time.

What's going on inside the poses is very important and not really obvious.  Example #2, one of my first or second yoga classes, it was at a gym and I don't think the teacher was a "yoga teacher" I think she took a weekend course on how to choreograph a yoga class.  I had no idea what I was doing, I was totally digging the blasting U2 song, bouncing and pulling my way down into a seated forward bend, when I heard a SNAP!  I heard a snap people, not good!  Then I couldn't walk, every time I bent over for a year and a half my hamstring attachment hurt.

Then I found a yoga that invites you to join, if you want to.  Creates a deliberate atmosphere where you meet other yogis, like minded beings and you become part of a fun and supportive community.  I didn't get it at first.  After a few years of pr acting with Todd Norian and Ann Greene, I had a chance to study with John Friend in Florida.  I knew nobody, was sort of scared of John, and was nervous about what was going to happen.  I was greeted with a bunch of radiant smiles at the door, got my name tag and was very proud to represent Canada, and set up my mat.  Everyone seemed to know everyone, except me.  I wasn't even there for 5 minutes before total strangers were coming up to me and introducing themselves to me.  I was blown away at this idea of community.

My past idea of community included being forced to go to church for many years, going on road trips with other snowboarders or rock climbers, or raves!  All of these were a bit dry for my hungry mind.  Sure I meet really great people along the way but now I like to spend my time with those people in the community living what they believe in, teaching others how to grow, expand, let go, make money, eat food, and drink wine together.  And I value more than anything else the engaging conversation about the world.  My friend D-Rail, informed me the other night over another amazing meal by KB (ktotheb.com), that the entire world population of 7 billion peeps could fit into the state of Rhode Island with 6 meters of space per person.  That conversation lead to a discussion on collective consciousness.

 I've decided I want to hang out with the beings that care, love deeply, care for our planet and all the animals that we share this earth with.  I want to learn how to do harder poses by teachers that not only know how to do them themselves because they have practiced them, but they can teach me how to get there too!  In my classes I get really excited when everyone can do the best that they can in crow pose or a challenging posture, and they are smiling while they are doing it.  We don't leave anyone behind either!  But we can only grow and expand as the people in our community are growing and expanding. 

When we come together to practice yoga there exists an opportunity that goes so far beyond a simple hello at the front desk.  Deep inside the hearts of everyone we long to be part of something bigger, a community that welcomes us and supports us just as we are.  I have found this community with Anusara yoga, as well as 200,000 other students.  Yep that's how many Anusara students there are in this world and that isn't by mishap, it was completely intentional.  John Friend is helping the world connect on the level of the heart and looks to me like he is doing a pretty kick ass job of it too.  It's hard not to laugh, expand and meet new friends when you attend one of his workshops or trainings.

My good friend Erin once said to me "wouldn't it be awesome if EVERYONE in London did yoga!"  My response was hell ya, that would be amazing and London would be a much different place than it is now.  I hope to see your smiling face at yoga soon.  If your at all turned off by the talking and laughing at first, give it a chance it might grow on you and you might meet some new friends too.

Me with Gert, we first met in the Anusara Immersion, now she teaches at my studio, Me and my hubby and BF Erin doing drop-backs, may seen scary but it's fun and safe with friends and know-how!  Next pic, is Florida right before going in to meet John Friend!  Some of the totally amazing gang from me Yoga Teacher Training with Todd Norian and Ann Greene in Lenox.

Why Alignment Matters in Yoga?

I've been to a few yoga classes where I have heard the teacher suggest that we "do whatever feels good for our bodies," and I have to scratch my  head on that one.  What feels good is mostly savasana, mild to zero engagement, napping, eating chocolate, sleeping in, you get my point here!  What my body needs to do and what it wants to do are 2 separate things.  This leads me to what John Friend calls the two main reasons for doing yoga.  The first is to have a recognition of our divine nature and secondly to experience the highest forms of delight.  Is that going to happen to me if I roll around on the floor, while rounding my spine?  I think not and this is why alignment matters!

 Yoga is a science that teaches you how to align your body/mind with a higher intention.  The physical body has a very specific anatomical blueprint, John calls this the optimal blueprint, that is the most idea position for the body.  Who cares?  Well if you have any kind of injury yoga can really mess you up if your alignment is not precise and refined but yoga done with really good alignment is called "therapy" and that equals healing and happiness when things don't hurt anymore. 

Here's the kicker, this alignment is actually really tough to get and then maintain.  It is so much easier to collapse and let go then to hold asana with steadfast awareness and killer alignment.  Let your body be your guide!  If you are getting hurt from your yoga practice that should be sending a red flag high into the cosmic clouds and then it's time to consider perhaps a different style of yoga.

I've been practicing yoga for only 8 short but very intense years and I used to get hurt all the time on account of my disengaged muscles, collapsing armpits, internally rotating upper arm bones, hyper extended knees, and my finger pads continually lifting off the ground while fully weight bearing.  Since then I have been blessed to have found and fallen in love with Anusara yoga.  Since that day, those old habits, yes I found it very difficult to break my old collapsing ways, are long gone and what I get from this precise alignment is a practice that continues to expand, without injury and a tremendous amount of joy! 

I learned how to engage, expand and align every bone and muscle in my body through my amazing teachers!  My deepest gratitude to these very skilled, compassionate, loving and super supportive Anusara teachers!  John Friend, Todd Norian, Ann Greene, Sianna Sherman, Desiree Rumbaugh, Shraddha,  Noah Maze & Amy Ippoliti, all my love!

These teachers have taught me not only how to align my physical body but how to align my heart with a deep remembrance of what a gift life, embodiment and consciousness truly are!

The Inner Warmth of Yoga

Every time I practice yoga I get a warm glow inside my heart. Anusara Yoga is a life-affirming heart centered yoga that allows students to awaken their hearts. I have had this experience over and over again. Sometimes it happens when I am on my mat, sometimes it happens when I am driving my car, sometimes it happens when I am in coversation with a friend. It is like getting bit by a yoga bug, it is hard to forget once you experience the warmth of self-knowing.

I want to be very clear on this, you don't need to heat the room to 100 degrees to feel the warmth of yoga instead the heat is created within as the mind blazes new trails through your consciousness. The resistance of old ways of thinking of yourself create friction, heat, tapas.

Yoga, unites me with mySelf! I am reminded to go in first, that all I need is there, now, waiting for me to remember. When I try to go out, I get lost, frustrated, my expectations let me down. In one conscious breath I can go down into my heart and be embraced with love. I can't wait till I can practice again.

Shovelasana - Syallabus 5

Talk about an extreme pose, SHOVELASANA! Wow did it ever snow a lot here in the last 24 hours, which means shoveling for many of us. Every year thousands of people seriously hurt their backs from shoveling. Many of the injuries are related to loaded flexion of the spine (rounding in your lumbar back) add some rotation in there and that spells danger for your discs.

The discs in your spine act like tiny shock absorbers and are like a jelly filled doughnut (what a great word -DOUGHNUT). When you round forward it causes the jelly (meniscus) to squeeze out the back or sides, if you do this over and over and over again, you can tear, herniate or rupture these discs. The most common site of bulging or herniated discs are L5 - S1. The bulging disc is only part of the problem, it impinges on the nerves that run through your spine and can cause debilitating pain, and numbness.

Prevention is far easier than treatment folks. If your back has been impaired Anusara Yoga offers several bio mechanical alignments that can relieve the pain, the swelling and even heal the rupture. It takes constant work, every day though, you can't let it slide!

Many yoga students have been taught to roll up and down or bend into a forward bend while loading the spines flexion mostly at L5-S1, or even hang while doing that. Sure every once in a while no big deal, in fact a wide variety of movements are good for your spine BUT, if you are a serious yoga student and you do this kind of movement everyday, this can be weakening the discs in the spine and you never know what action will potentially rupture the weakened disc.

If your yoga practice is causing you more pain, and not just in your back or your're getting injured you likely have no muscular engagement that helps hold the spine in it's natural, safe alignment. Pain is the bodies way of telling you that something is misaligned somewhere.

Emergency rooms, walk-in clinics and doctors offices will be filled today with people that injured their backs shoveling (although now you know perhaps that action was the 'straw that broke the camels' back' Sorry, I had to say it!)

So practice SHOVELASANA, first check your attitude, open up to a bigger energy like the one dumping all the beautiful unique snowflakes down from the sky, enjoy this SNOWDAY, do a little bit a time, don't lift more than you can handle, small scoops, hire someone to do it for you, if you are doing it yourself than alignment is the key to reducing the chance that you may end up flat on your back, missing work and having fun for the rest of the week.

Bend your knees deep, create a curve in your lower back by taking your thigh bones, in, back, and apart, once you have a curve, lengthen your tailbone down, draw your belly in (a strong core also supports a strong back), keep your spine long and listen to your body

Also I recommend coming in having a warm tea and do a backbend practice. Your legs govern your lower back so if you are having pain in your lumber spine that make sure you are engaging your legs, lift and spread your toes, hug your shins to the midline and then take you thigh bones, in, back, and apart.

I would never myself do backbends with pulling my knees into my chest in between. If the backbends are causing you pain (discomfort is normal)then there is a good chance you are not optimally lines up and need some clear instructions on how to do that. I can help you with sore backs!

I LOVE the snow,it means snowboarding for me and I can't wait to hit the slopes with my pain-free back :) that was created through proper, specific alignment in yoga!

The Holy-Days are here

I am about to get ready to venture down to the mall to do some holiday shopping. I am not even there yet and I know the parking lots will be full of cars, the roads are icy because we had our first real snowfall yesterday, and people can be... well.... stressed lets say around this time of the year.

So, here is my yoga practice while at the mall. I will stand in Mountain pose with my feet aligned (center of the heels out to the base of my second toes) which I will do through my winter boots. I will microbend my knees and take the top of my thighs back so my femur bones sit well deep in there homes, I will lengthen my tailbone and from there I will be physically grounded and emotionally. Then comes the hard part, lengthen up through my spine to the very top of my head and beyond to the sun, stars and moon but this is the toughest, I will keep my heart open!

In the hustle and bustle I will keep my eyes open so I don't miss all the beautiful lights and decorations. We can get so myopic when we are deep in the crowds. Then I will acknowledge that these folks are just trying to do what I am doing which is get a gift for someone I love or care for to remind them that we love them this holiday season.

If I don't get you a present this year, forgive me! Know that you are loved and love doesn't need to be in box, with wrapping paper and a bow. I will challenge you to do the same the next time you are caught in a long line up of holiday shoppers since that might your toughest yoga practice to date!

om and warm holiday blessings,
m

It feels so good to expand my boundries!!!

I am having a bit of a hard time typing since I am still buzzing from the yoga practice we did this morning. A few months ago I was randomly inspired to go deeper into my yoga poses and really breakthrough the places in my body that I feel are stuck or tight. I found the tightest place in my body is right behind my heart, that part of my spine has been the most stubborn to move, but not anymore. I realized how much hard work it takes to get into that place and I am more than willing to do it after feeling my heart fully open and expand.

There is nothing easy about the path of yoga! Yoga is not a casual effort you make every now and again. If you truly want expansion then you must apply the right-effort and not passively sit by the side-lines of life waiting for something to happen. Year after year the deeper I go into yoga, the more I learn about myself, my fears, my limitations, my boundries and by knowing that I can safely, slowly expand from there.

Today I was surrounding by some of the most amazing yogis in our community, committed to practicing 128 poses in a row, it was very very difficult, we were at our boundries and we smiled when we radically expanded from the place that we started. I have said this many times, I have NEVER been the same and neither has my yoga practice since doing the 3 Anusara Syllabus series from beginning to end. I hope you will be inspired to join us next time.

Smiling from the heart and through every fabric of my being,
Mindy
Check out the making of the Anusara Poster with the amazing Darren Rhodes

Beloved Anusara

I too like so many other students and teachers passionate about Anusara and John have felt the desire to say something about the article written by the New York Times. If you have not yet had a look then be sure to check it out. I don't feel that the author was truly able to capture what Ansuara is all about. In fact it is very difficult to capture an experience or to speak from your heart clearly about it.

Our London kula traveled to Detroit to study with John when the Times were shooting pics of the class. There are so many things that tugged on my heart strings about they way it was written I needed some time to process and step back. After coming back from Paris and having the joy of getting to spend 7 days with John (the most amount of time since I first met him back in 2007) was an absolute expanding experience. John is a source of light, knowledge and love for those that choose to walk with him on this path.

I believe that the article did a crappy job of truly describing what John has created, which in my opinion is a style of yoga that touches your heart, spirit and opens the body. Before yoga I suffered like many others from addictions, like an eating disorder, shopping addiction, gambling issues and many others and only really truly began to heal my life when I was introduced to Anusara Yoga. I had tried and was also passionate about other styles of yoga (particularly hot yoga and vinyasa) when I first started in 2003. I found that the Anusara teachers (Todd Norian and Ann Greene) were so welcoming of me and supportive, I remember sitting in awe at The Toronto Yoga Show in 2004 at how many people were going up and hugging them both. I knew exactly what they were talking about after spending only a few hours as a student in the loving guidance. I gained so much clarity on yoga were I felt more confused then ever by studying all the different types with the subtle but powerful underlying philosophies.

In the article the author refers to John as 'doughy' and I think WTF, how can you talk about this man that has helped so many of us on so many levels heal and love life, how can you call him 'doughy'. John is an unwavering presence at the core of the Anusara system. He created a yoga that frankly works miracles of healing through his no nonsense biomechanical and yet deeply spiritual teachings. I have healed not only my injuries but my heart with Anusara and the amazing teachers that I have been blessed with.

I am sadly guilty and working each day to grow as a student and teacher when speaking of other types of yoga. I don't feel any shift, or do some yoga teachers even mention why I am practicing yoga, what are the deeper meanings or even say anything at all about spirit, in fact some yoga teachers are told not to talk about it in their classes. Again I have to question that. I have been to yoga classes with "certified teachers" that don't have a clue about alignment and actually set their students up for injuries some very serious. I have been adjusted out of good alignment by teachers but never an Anusara teacher. I went to a class in Windsor where the teacher was blasting Lady Gaga while showing us her vinyasa home practice, blasted by heat dishes at the front of the class, while the rest of the class lingered in what I see as dangerous alignment.

Part of the Anusara system that is so powerful is the certification process. If the teacher is certified I know I am going to have a great class, learn, expand, meet new people, and other than that I just don't have confidence in some of the yoga teachers out there. I don't question that their heart is in the right place and they truly want to serve their community but they don't have sufficient training or any at all for that matter. As a student first I have been to some horrible classes and with the rise of yoga's popularity it seems to me like that is more and more common.

I am a huge spokesperson for Anusara since yes like many others my life has evolved in a way I never ever thought possible and I send my deepest, sweetest gratitude to my teachers Todd Norian, Ann Greene, Martin Kirk, Noah, Tara, Ross, and so on.... and especially to John for all that he has done for this world. He deserves all the successes that he has and if you are open can teach you how to remember your own worthiness and live an inspired, fun, happy and healthy life too.

Peace and blessings,
Mindy

Here is the article
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25Yoga-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1

From Paris with Love Vol.3

This is such an amazing place, I am loving my time learning from John and all the other students here. I have noticed that at times I am so emotional, i just start to cry, tears that are truly originating from a deep gratitude to be able to recieve this knowledge from John. I know, just like in the past, that every time I step fully onto the path of Anusara, I am a new person, stronger, more sensitive, more attuned, more physically aligned.

We just got back from the Eiffel Tower where there is a huge line up to take the elevator up, but a small line up for the stairs. Today was hot, the hottest it's been since we have been here and I was all for taking the stairs. Staris are a really good idea since it has been very difficult for us to find food other than the amazing fresh breads and cheeses and I am pretty sure that I will be bringing back some extra weight from Paris and it is not from souveniers either. Everyone enjoys the experience of food here, we are too but honestly I miss my juicer.

bon soir,
Mindy

John Friend in Paris

I am always amazed but never surprised at how everthing aligns. I have to begin by thanking you for sending me healing vibes yesterday. Just over 24 hours ago I was bedridden with cramps and feeling horrible. I posted that I was in need of some extra love and energy and show up for John's workshop and the first topic of discussion is how when we think of someone we can actually change their electromagnetic field. John's class was so great today! As soon as we sat to center he asked us what our intention was, what did we offer, what did we need? I needed to remember I am worthy, I am divine, I am healing with every breath and I immediately began to feel better when I aligned myself with something bigger than the painful cramps that still lingered. Now a few hours later and wine, bread, cheese and wonderful company with Marty and Robin I feel on top of the world. The Effiel tower is so amazing tonight, it is sparkling with tons of lights.
bon nuit mon amie,
Mindy

Paris Bound!

I am like a kid before Christmas, can't sleep, so excited to go on this adventure. This will be my first time in Europe, the longest flight I have been on so far and I am sharing this experience with Marty, which I know will make it even better. The main reason for his trip is to study with my beloved teacher John Friend. It starts off with a weekend workshop then 5 days of teacher training with him focusing on Shiva-Shakti Tantra. I am positive that I will return with some great stuff and can't wait to share it with you. Thank you everyone that has been supporting me on this journey toward certification. I will be blogging while in Paris so keep checking my blog for updates.

Au revoir mon ami...
Bonjour Paris :D

light,
Mindy

Friday, November 26, 2010
Continuing Education Credits
November 26–28, 2010 Friday–Sunday 2 nights
Anusara Yoga® and Sacred Music: Optimize Your World
Amy Ippoliti and Shantala

Open your body, tune your vibration, and optimize your world. Join popular Anusara Yoga teacher Amy Ippoliti and international kirtan leaders Shantala, Benjy and Heather Wertheimer, over Thanksgiving weekend and discover the powerful tools of Anusara Yoga, pranayama, meditation, and chanting. more …
This program is eligible for CE credits for athletic trainers, and yoga instructors.

I think this is the perfect bachlorette party!!!

Anusara Yoga - Open to Grace

Many thanks to Darryl and Karen Bell for their support and vision to create such a beautiful video and include me in it. Karen and I had discussed this video over a year ago and now it is done. We are creating our own destiny's in every moment. The flowers that bloom in the garden now are from seeds planted earlier. Dreams can be realities if we nurture those seeds with love and mindfulness. Thanks for checking the video out.
Om peace,
MJ

Moment of Gratitude

I can't begin to explain how I feel about being asked to assist my teachers Todd Norian & his Goddess wife Ann Greene! It is such a privilege to work along side 2 of the most amazing teachers in the world. Every single time I get to see them or study with them I expand my mind ten-fold. I was introduced to them back in 2004 at the Toronto Yoga Conference. I was totally drawn in by their little write up about the workshop they were offering and it was everything they said it would be. I had so many moments of awakening that I had not EVER experienced in yoga before that. Something I have always hung onto was they taught me to spread my toes, my pinky toe in particular and something huge lined up inside me, it was an AH-HA moment. I came back to London telling all my students to spread their pinky toes!!!! I didn't quite get it back then but I got the feeling of Anusara and now I wish so much to teach that to my students. Hope to see you at yoga very soon!

What is MJ Yoga

Some people have been asking me what's all this "MJ yoga about?" And I say ask my mom!!!! She named me Melinda Jane. My understanding is the one grandma was Linda and the other Amelia, hence Melinda. I am honoured to be named after to amazing women.
As for MJ Yoga, my dream is to travel the world and teach yoga workshops, conferences and events so I am marketing myself as a Certified Anusara Yoga Teacher through this website/blog/facebook.