Happiness Right Now!

I thought of a spiritual path in the past like it was leading me somewhere very special.  Sort of like Dorothy going to Oz.  But more and more I realize what the phrase "it's a journey not a destination" really means.  Part of Dorthy's journey was meeting new friends along the way, spending time with Toto, and fighting off evil flying monkeys and a real witch. What about the actual path, granted hers was bright yellow, easy to see, mine seems a bit confusing sometimes, many forks, many options and sometimes I find it hard to know which way to go.  Who do I want to bring with me on my trip to Oz?

The path I have chosen in life, isn't the easy way, my old way was to numb myself, fill my life with drama and stress so after I numbed myself I could feel 'something.'  My new way is with a yoga practice, teachers and like minded friends.  The yoga way, much harder, but so much more fun.  Last weekend, my yellow brick road led me and my hubby to John Friends Detroit workshop.  John is one of the most skilled yoga teachers on the planet and you are bound to have a shift when you practice with him.  Something in my heart shifts every time I get an opportunity to do yoga with him or listen to his Dharma talks. 

John came into my life like a Kansas hurricane and when the dust settled, the winds died down and I dusted off the film from my heart, I could see myself clearly.  Happy in this moment,  right now, not after I get this, buy this, read this, watch this or do this, just right now!  Yoga has taught me so many things, simple but incredibly profound but one of the things it has really taught me, is this is my path and I make the choice to align with the highest, friends, teachers, food, partners, communities.  Whenever I choose from the highest I stay connected to myself and my true nature, which is that I am a good girl! 

Today I might encounter a angry witch, a tree that throws apples at me,  or someone trying to put a spell on me, but today I will also find happiness all around me simply because I am embodied bliss.  Yoga is a journey, Oz is here, now!

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!

Married life and Vimarsha

Just over a week ago I was married in Punta Cana.  The setting was beautiful, white sand beach, turquoise ocean waters, picture perfect blue sky.  It was memorable and breathtaking.  The contrast of coming back to Canada is a bit tougher but I am slowly starting to settle in again.  We had planned the wedding for over a year and technically got married at city hall in November but we did not wear our wedding bands and there was no wedding dress or speeches or anything like that.  In fact it was a frigid day in London, Ontario.

All the prep, organizing and travel and it feels like that day went by so fast, because it did.  This is part of a strange time warp that occurs when your in love or having a great time.  Once I broke my leg snowboarding and it took 45 minutes for the ski patrol to get me down, well that was the longest 45 minutes of my life.  The Sanskrit word Kala, means that time is relative and the older I get the more I understand that.

When your a kid summers seem endless, now as a adult weeks whiz by one after another.  My teacher, John Friend talked about this in a workshop I took last November in Santa Fe.  He said that " when your consciousness knows itself, it is self aware, or when it looks back on itself (vimarsha),  it sees that there was a thought that occurred in time.  As you get older, we for me anyway, I know that my consciousness is expanding, through many modalities like yoga, meditation, pranayama and because of that my life is passing a faster speed.

I love to hear stories about couples that have been married for over 50 or 60 years, first of all I think that's madness and then I feel so blessed that my partner and I have the opportunity to grow closely and individually together for a very long time.  Since time is also related to breath, I love to remind myself to breath and be present with what is.  It seems to slow things down a little.  The more yoga I do, the better I feel, the more fun I have, the fun I have, the more I live fully.  It can explain the saying "time flies when your having fun."  Cuz, you betta I am having a blast consciously watching things unfold and get better and better in my life.

om, peace.

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!

Yoga is so much more than a streching class!

Yoga's popularity has increased world world. Even in my community many new studios have opened up, there are lots of options and styles available to anyone or any age or fitness level that wants to start. Let me set your mind straight before you head out, yoga is not just a stretching class, in fact according to John Friend, founder of the globally recognized style of Hatha Yoga, called Anusara, stretching comes after 4 other steps!

On a physical level stretching your muscles are great, it's natural, just watch your dog in the morning when you say "wanna go for a walk" to see what happens. However, on a bio mechanical level just stretching or hanging can be dangerous for your body. In yoga, poses are an offering of your heart not just something where you organize your muscles and bones into a specific arrangement. What goes on in the inside of a pose is where the juicy stuff is and what separates some of the styles of yoga into purely physical or opportunities into a deeper understanding of your true nature.

Yoga will make your muscles strong so they can support your skeleton, with guidance this can lead to a feeling of safety and support in this world. When your muscles also get more flexible, you may find yourself becoming more open to new possibilities not just new poses. Yoga can bring people together in community and at the same time can honour what makes you special.

Beyond stretching yoga's reach is vast and deep, for me the grip of addiction in it's many forms strangling me for years, began to loose it's power as mine increased. Bad habits start dropping like the well formed icicles outside my kitchen window for months, solid, steadfast with some light, some heat they melt and then I can see clearly out my window again.

Contemplate deeply what yoga does for you! How it has impacted your life, your mind, your body and your heart. Get out to classes, regularly, that makes a big difference. Yoga once a week is fine but if you can get another class or 2 you this moments of clarity will expand.

Mindy Willis is an Anusara Inspired Yoga Teacher, living in London, Ontario.

Green Juice

Just over 3 weeks ago I gave my body and my cupboards a major clean-up! I started to make green juices, almost every day. I have been having 2 of these juices until noon then some yummy vegan eats. The juice is made from 1 cucumber, 5 leaves of romaine lettuce, 1 lemon, 2 green apples, 1 pear, 4 kale leaves, 1/2 bag of celery, ginger, then I add 2 ginseng and a hint of agave nectar. I have cut out almost 100% of the gluten from my diet and I can honestly say I haven't felt this good for many years, health wise.

I've been a vegetarian for over 17 years now but my diet needed a lot of help. This time the help came in the form of a book, by Kriss Carr, My Crazy Sexy Diet. I highly recommend this book, it is so informational and inspiring. For many years of my life I suffered from a horrible eating disorder that ruled my life and it all started to change when I began yoga. Yoga helped so much, I just stopped throwing up everything I ate and for the first time in my life genuinely cared about my bod!

Although, I think I ate healthier than most, I knew I could do better. My wee Starbucks addiction, an innocent Soy Chai Tea Latte and a molasses cookie 2 times a week was unhealthy and I knew it. That latte has as much sugar in it as a pop does, so don't kid yourself if you have fallen into the chai tea trap too. Other than that my busy lifestyle made it hard to prepare and I realize now that eating the best, freshest and healthiest food is expensive, a lot of work, both preparing and prepping but it 100% worth it in the end.

Make a change today whether it is cutting out those chai lattes, coffee, too much alcohol, gluten, soy, eggs, dairy or meat. I know that you will feel so much better in only a few weeks. Plus your bod will love you for it by dropping extra pounds around the belly, thighs, backs of the arms and rear end! Kriss Carr recommends doing this with a buddy for inspiration and motivation. Whatever floats your boat, just get it in the water first by cleaning out your cupboards and replacing what is in them with whole foods. Throw out anything that is white, refined or processed. Your doing yourself a favour in the end!

om peace