Learning from the Kiddies

I thought I'd share a few tidbits about the things I've learned from my students, and some of their funny comments....so here goes. My 5-8 year-old students love practicing inversions! Handstands! Headstands! You name it, they want to learn it. They can barely wait for me to explain the poses to them before they fly their legs up in the air or on the wall. It is amazing to see such fearlessness in them. I envy their amazing ability to trust the ground beneath them, and to trust their own bodies in order to kick up into handstands. Little do they know, they are teaching me a great deal. One day, after chanting a few Oms, I asked the little ones what they thought the word meant. One extremely bright yogi said Harmony. His extremely bright answer allowed me to better explain the meaning of the word in a way that they could grasp. I basically told them that Om is the sound of the whole entire world, and chanting Om brings everyone in the whole entire world in harmony with each other, and connects everyone together. During another class, I taught a girl with some developmental disabilities. It was a private class so I was lucky enough to be able to practice some partner poses with her. She especially loved Seesaw, whereby we sat back to back and took turns forward folding while the other person leaned back to allow the other person to deepen into their forward fold. Later on, she noticed a picture of the Chakras on the wall. She was so curious about all of the different Chakras and their meanings and she begged me to explain to her what they meant. I hadn't planned on teaching her the Chakras, but it seemed to be a perfect opportunity to share one of my favorite things with her! I explained to her the different Chakras, or main energy centers along the center of the body, and their meanings, and the colors associated with them. We began with the 1st Chakra and worked our way up to the 7th Chakra, stopping after I explained every Chakra to practice a song, pose, or breathing technique associated with the Chakra. I was so, so glad to have been able to share this with her! She even told me at the end that she thinks her 1st Chakra is blocked and that she wants to get more rooted! It was so precious! Today, during one one of my classes, I taught Tree pose, and one of my students always closes his eyes while practicing the pose. While the other kids were practically flailing about, he stood there, literally as strong as a tree, with his eyes closed. It was amazing to watch. The same boy, at the beginning of every class, always looks so peaceful with his eyes closed when we practice our breathing. Most of the other students ALWAYS peak, but he keeps his eyes squeezed tight. He inspires me to be more sattvic, or peaceful. I can go on for hours about all of the things I have learned from my little yogis, but there is more to come!

"Imperfect" Meditation

I may be on the verge of over-sharing here, but I'll admit I am realllllllllllly struggling with my meditation practice. I've tried so many things....mantras, visualizations, breath-centering, everything!!!!! But somehow I cannot seem to make enough time in my day for even 5 minutes of meditation, and trust me, I have way more than 5 minutes I can spare. I actually realized that my desire to really have a perfect, ongoing, and beautiful meditation practice, was keeping me from actually having one! Most of you who know me know that I do NOT like to do things halfway...it is either all or nothing! That's just how I have always been. But, here comes the greatest part. I've realized that having this "perfect" meditation is not possible for me now, maybe not ever, but that doesn't mean that attempting to meditate in my own creative ways is not enough. Tonight as I was coming back from midtown, the train was having technical difficulties! Just my luck! The trip normally takes me 20 minutes, but tonight it took around an hour. As I was on the train, listening to some tribal music on my Ipod, I decided to close my eyes and attempt to meditate. The funny thing is that it came so naturally. Yes, I was standing up, squished by a bunch of pissed off New Yorkers, and next to a screaming child whose father was ignoring him...it was not the serene, quiet, and peaceful meditation space which I had been trying to cultivate for months in my apartment, but still, it was something. Not only did the train ride seem to go a lot quicker, but I was able to feel at peace in such a tense environment. I know this meditation story is not comparable to the stories about monks meditating for months at a time in the caves of the Himalayas, but for me it was perfect. It was my IMPERFECT meditation, and finally I am able to make peace with that.


Love, love, and more love to all of you!!!!!!!

Santosha (Contentment)

In The Yoga Sutras, Pantanjali discusses the Yamas and the Niyamas, which are part of the "eight- limb path of yoga". The second limb in this eight- limb path involves the Niyamas. One of these Niyamas is Santosha. Santosha, simply put, is contentment. He urges us to become content in our lives. Santosha is about taking all of the striving out of our lives and being content with what is. In a yoga practice, this may mean coming into a forward fold, like Pashimottanasana, without striving to hold onto the tips of our toes or our ankles. Practicing santosha in this pose would be to gently crawl your hands forwards towards your toes, and instead of reaching, grabbing, and striving to touch your toes, try just letting your hands land wherever they land and BREATHE. Sometimes, when we take all of the striving out of our yoga poses, we learn to concentrate on our breath more, instead of focusing on "getting there", whatever "there" means to you.

In life, we can practice santosha by being happy with what has been given to us in our lives. Maybe we want a better job, better relationship, better body, better grades, etc, etc...the list goes on and on. Practicing santosha in your lives is about "working with what ya got"!!!!!!!! Once we begin to see what we have in our lives, we will realize that is is a hell of a lot more than most people have in their lives. If you really want to get deep into the practice of santosha, try writing a list of everything you are grateful for in your lives. I can promise you that you will surprise yourselves with how long the list is! We have SO much more than we even realize!

I really think that cultivating santosha both on and off our yoga mats will lead us further in the direction of inner peace, and who can argue with that???

Chocolate Cottage Cheese

1 Cup whipped cottage cheese
1 chocolate pudding
truvia/sugar


This mixture is soooo yummmy! I added some Fiber One, Frosted Flakes, and some Cinnamon Sugar Almonds that I just picked up from Trader Joe's!

This was the perfect post-yoga snack for me today!

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Today I was reallly in the mood for something sweet potato-ey...so I decided to make mashed sweet potatoes!!!

Ingredients-

1 large yam or sweet potato
pumpkin pie spice
cinnamon
sugar/truvia
nutmeg
4 dried figs
skim milk (or almond milk/soy milk)

After cooking up my sweet potato and then mashing it, I added truvia and the above spices to the mix. I didn't list exact measurements because those spices really are to suite your tastes... I went a little crazy because I love cinnamon and nutmeg....Then I chopped up some figs realllly small, added some milk and I was done!!

Enjoy!!!!

I'm sure this would be reallllly good mixed with dried dates, nuts, etc.....

Summer Solstice

In honor of the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, Times Square is holding an event called "Mind Over Madness Yoga". I went last year by myself and it was AMAAAAZING! This time I'm dragging my mom along! Last year was an unbelievable experience, practicing yoga with hundreds of other New Yorkers in the middle of Times Square. It was awesome. This year is going to be even better, having my mom there with me. Doing yoga is something I usually love to do by myself, it's my "me-time", but there is something really special about sharing yoga with others, especially with close friends and family. So I am definitely looking forward to tonight's class (and to the other challenge of being able to listen to my breath and find peace in the middle of Times Square...)!


{Peace, Love, and Giggles}

African Yoga Mat Bags

I just came across these awesome yoga bags made by African women from a cooperative in Rwanda! My yoga mat bag is also made by African women from Rwanda but I am not sure if it is from this company because I have had mine for years. So, for all you yogis out there, check these out! They're seriously cool and who doesn't love fair trade goods? Especially when it goes to Africa!!!!

http://shop.indegoafrica.org/collections/yoga-bags