Why I Teach...

I do love my job.  However, being a yoga teacher is sort of an odd career choice.  I spend a large portion of my day telling folks where to place their feet and hands and where to look.  I touch sweaty bodies all day.  Clients regularly confide in me about their struggles, drop their drawers to show me injuries, and openly discuss all sorts of private ailments and issues typically reserved for doctors and therapists.  I am constantly reminding people to breathe and babbling in Sanskrit, saying impossibly complicated things like "utthita hasta padangustasana," when all I really want is for everyone to pick up their leg and grab their big toe.  And that's an odd thing, when you think about it- getting paid for wanting people to do such things.  I live in sweats and spandex.  Square hips, healthy sacrums, and perfectly "flointed" feet make me swoon.  I am faced daily with the conundrum of trying to live simply & humbly as a yogi but having to constantly self-promote via Facebook, mass emails, etc. to make a good living.

On the other hand, nothing I have ever done has brought me more pride and gratitude than teaching.  My students have taught me far more over the years than I have taught them.  They have given me support and love and laughter when I needed it.  Watching their practices grow is a constant source of joy.  My students are my extended family, and I rarely, if ever, wake up and think, "I don't want to go to work today."

A couple of years ago, I began leading teacher trainings at Yoga Loft in Manhattan Beach.  Last year, I teamed up with my dear friend and amazing teacher, Shelley Williams, to form Yoga Mittra, a teaching training school offering both 200-hour and 500-hour Yoga-Alliance-registered programs.  I am frequently asked by fence-straddling potential trainees, "I just don't know.  It's a lot of time, and a lot of money.  Should I do this?"

If you are thinking about becoming a yoga teacher, all I can say is that it is one of the best decisions I have ever made.  If you have any reservations, they will be laid to rest the first time one of your students comes up to you and says, "Thank you for helping me."  As a yoga teacher, you have the capacity to turn someone's day around and make them feel a little better--if just for a moment.  Further, your students' gratitude and progress has the potential to turn your day around.  The yoga teacher-student relationship is one of the most trusting and mutually-respectful I have ever encountered.  What greater gift is there, really?

And now for the inevitable shameless plug:  

For more info regarding Yoga Mittra and our various courses, please visit www.yogamittra.com.  

I Heart NY...Even Its 'Housewives'

As you can see, it's been over a year since I've posted.  No excuse, other than a few little things like planning a wedding, having surgery, and co-leading teacher trainings have pulled me away from writing.  At times, blogging also seemed a bit self-indulgent, so I shied away from it.  I have missed writing, though, and it's funny where those little realizations come from.  Mine came while watching the first episode of this season's Real Housewives of New York.  There, I said it.  I love the show.  (Please don't judge.)  Anyway, Carole Radziwill is my new hero.  It is a mystery how such a smart cookie wound up on a show that often defies intellect, but I am enthralled.  I grew up fascinated by 5 things other than loved ones and dance:  NYC, writing, the news, the Kennedys, and music.  Carole Radziwill is an acclaimed author and ABC News journalist, a New Yorker, and she married into the Kennedy family.  She is currently dating a musician who tours with one of my favorite bands, Aerosmith.  She kills me.  I'm in awe.  So, I decided to read her book, What Remains.  It's wonderful.  Well-written, genuine, and tells a great story.  I feel fortunate to have read several stellar books this year that have reminded me how much I love to read.  What Remains reminded me that I also love to write.  So, I am giving this blogging thing another go.  Which leads me back to...the Real Housewives.

I watch the show each week to my husband's cringing and disappointment.  "Why are you watching this? It's not expansive!  You're killing brain cells!   It's so negative!", he pleads.  My stock response is, "Well, it's not just me!  Anderson Cooper watches it, too, ya know!!!"  I have to admit, though, that I have begun to question how a smart cookie like me wound up loving this absurd show.  The answer hit me one morning, the moment I opened up my Facebook page (my other go-to time-waster.)  A generous portion of my "Facebook friends" are yogis.  I am presented each day with posts offering life lessons, positive affirmations, inspirational quotes, and more x's and o's and uses of the word "beautiful" than you would ever think possible.  And most days, I soak it up and bask in it, this heavy dose of sunshine.  Most days, I am that person.  Sometimes I even borrow one of the quotes and read it to my students in the hopes of making their days brighter.  When it works, I get hugs and thank you's.  I truly believe that the world would be a better place if everyone took deeper breaths and practiced more yoga and meditation.  I love a good quote.  I believe in the law of attraction.  I love hugs.  I make vision boards.  And what could possibly be wrong with that?  Nothing.  And that's the problem.

It occurred to me that morning that, if an alien looked at my Facebook page, he'd surely report back to his ummm...tribe?... that Earthlings drive unicorns and poop rainbows.  The reality is that sometimes life is difficult and messy and painfully imperfect.  Here in shiny, sparkly LA, with it's perfect weather and perfect bodies, I sometimes long for the grit of New York.  I miss the cold winters and sticky summers.  I miss the honking horns and bustling crowds.  I miss seeing women in their 50's with naturally gray hair.  I miss the cranky hot dog stand guy who unabashedly yells obscenities at a rude customer without the slightest fear of appearing (gasp!) "negative".  You see, I love New York because, even with all of this ugliness, it is still one of the most luminous, energetic, abundant, and beautiful places to be.  It is balanced.  It is real.  It is the city that never sleeps and therefore a place where I feel incredibly awake.  Even many of my favorite yoga teachers~Vinnie Marino, Seane Corn, Jesse Schein~ are all from (you guessed it!) the tri-state area.

I harbor no delusions that Real Housewives of New York offers even remotely as much actual reality as the City in which it plays out.  It's so silly, and none of them is even really a housewife--they all work!  However, if my days are full of love and light and positivity, is it so wrong to tune in to a little appalling, train wreck, mean-girl drama every now and again?  I think it's ok.  It makes me feel balanced.  It reminds me that ugly and crazy and shocking are out there, lurking.  And it gives me a peekaboo glimpse of the shops, restaurants, and sights that I miss.  So, this summer, Anderson Cooper and I will continue to bust out the popcorn and watch the bad behavior unfold (sorry, sweetie).  And I will allow myself to have bad days.  And I will not touch up my roots.  And if someone darts out in front of my car, I'm going to honk.  In other words, I am determined to keep things...real.

It's OK if your shoes aren't doing it...

A couple of months ago, a friend of mine posted the following You Tube video on Facebook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tdylQeg5B9I  Entitled The Tragedy of First Position, an adorable toddler ballerina becomes so consumed by trying to get her feet in first position that she misses the entire rest of the dance.  Funny how something as simple as a You Tube video can spark an epiphany.  "Aha!", I thought.  This is what's wrong with my yoga practice!  Let me explain...

I suck at handstands.  Actually, that's not entirely true.  I have a lovely handstand~ my shoulder platform is strong and stable, my core muscles are engaged, my joints are stacked, I press up confidently through the balls of my feet (the perfect 'floint' as Tracey Rich and Ganga White dub it) and gently massage the pads of my fingers into my sturdy Manduka mat.  I am beautifully balanced.  Until, that is, I move away from the wall.  And this has been my challenge for literally years.  Without the wall, my handstand never really gets off the ground.  It just doesn't make any sense to me.  Afterall, I have instructed countless students into successful handstands.  I have a strong, graceful practice of my own.  I do a mean headstand.  I can sit still and peacefully in a lengthy meditation.  I can do pincha and eka pada koundinyasana and flying pigeon and even mayurasana for goodness' sake, but I can't stick a darn handstand in the center of the room?  Seriously?  (A brief pause to apologize to my non-yogi readers who have absolutely no idea what they just read.  It suffices to say these are challenging poses). 

I know what you're thinking...'it's just fear holding you back'.  Well, OK, yeah, I don't like falling or making a spectacle of myself.  That said, I have lived alone in NYC.  I went to a midnight showing of Silence of the Lambs and walked home to an empty dorm room.  I moved across the country at age 25 with no place to live, no plan, and no job.  I have had 4 root canals and zip-lined, and now, despite terrible national success statistics, I am actually getting married and believe wholeheartedly that it is forever.  So, yes, I am cautious.  But fearful?  Not so much. 

You may also be thinking 'just go practice with so-and-so' or 'practice it on the beach' or 'just cartwheel out of it if you fumble' or 'visualize yourself doing it'.  Yep.  Tried all of that.  Short of hiring a hypnotist (and trust me, I have considered it), I feel as though I have tried everything.  And just my luck...handstand has become an incredibly popular pose in recent years in LA yoga classes.  I have become so angry and frustrated with myself over this pose that I have actually become sort of an anti-handstander.  Maybe it's like surfing:  it looks super cool when other people do it, but I just don't want to stand up on that thing with waves crashing over me.  My obsession with not being able to conquer this pose had actually begun to chip away at my confidence so badly that I was no longer enjoying practicing yoga at all.  I forgot about all that I could do and lamented constantly about what I cannot yet do.  The very discipline that always made me feel better suddenly made me nothing but sad and irritated.  I had lost the rest of the dance.  Until I saw that beautiful You Tube video...

I hope that little girl is still dancing.  And I still hope that one day I will magically float up into the perfect, wall-less handstand.  I am an optimistic girl.  After viewing that video, though, I thought, maybe it's ok that I need the wall.  Afterall, it's stable and helpful and supportive--who doesn't need more of that in life?  Maybe it's ok if everything is not all Virgo-perfect all the time.  Maybe not being able to get this pose is my lesson.  Maybe it's ok that my epitaph someday reads, "Lived a helluva great life.  Spent time with friends and family and animals.  But never did stick that handstand."  And maybe, in those immortal words of that random You Tube dance teacher, "It's OK if your shoes aren't doing it."  Words to live by indeed.

A Weekend of Giving

Today is the Spring Equinox, and traditionally yogis across the globe ring in the new season with a ritual known as "Yoga Mala", the performing of 108 sun salutations.  The Mala's repetitive movement leaves practitioners in an almost trance-like state, clearing the mind for meditation on intentions for the coming months.  It is a Spring Cleaning of sorts~perhaps more of a Spring Clearing for the body and mind.

This past weekend, I was blessed with the opportunity to participate in not one, but two, phenomenal charity events.  On Saturday, I team-taught a flow class benefiting Operation Shanti with several other amazing South Bay yoga teachers.  My friend, Garth Hewitt, organized the event after a trip to India inspired him to help the non-profit organization build an orphanage for children in Mysore, the birthplace of modern Yoga.  Over the course of an afternoon, the event raised over $8,000 via class fees, raffle tickets, and auction items.

On Sunday, my fiance and I sat at two computers, simultaneously bidding on Ebay auction items for another friend's charitable foundation.  My dear friend Rachel Tiep-Daniels, an artist formerly at Dreamworks and currently working for Blue Sky studios, volunteered at an orphanage in Ghana a few years ago.  Returning home, she felt compelled to help this community of beautiful children she had grown so close to over just a few short weeks.  In partnership with a fellow artist, she formed the Picture Book Project Foundation.  Their most recent fundraising project was "Art Blocks for Ghana", an Ebay auction featuring original drawings and paintings from (I'm guesstimating) over a hundred talented artists from all of the major animation studios~Dreamworks, Pixar, Disney, Blue Sky, etc.  The auction ended on Sunday, culminating in tens of thousands of dollars raised for the education of these children in Ghana and, no doubt, many (including us!  yippee!) very happy donors who are the proud owners of some fabulous new artwork!

This weekend reminded me, yet again, of the immense power that one inspired person can have, if they simply follow through on their intentions and ask those around them for assistance.  I think that if we are to change this world for the better, it really has to begin there~with hardworking, caring, inspired individuals and generous friends around them willing to lend support.  Perhaps as we begin this Spring season, we should be asking ourselves, "What inspires me?"  "How can I contribute?"  "And who can I ask for help?"  One of my favorite quotes is Margaret Mead's "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."  Happy Spring, friends!

For further info on these two awesome non-profit organizations, please visit http://www.operationshanti.org/ and http://www.picturebookproject.com/ .  Photo credit:  Rachel Tiep-Daniels. All rights reserved.