January Schedule!

Acupuncture:
Pacific College Clinic
Mondays and Wednesdays 1-4pm

Grand Meridian Clinic
Thursdays 1:30-4:30pm

Yoga:
New classes beginning in January at Five Points Academy!

The gratitude challenge

Meditation month was great. I meditated A LOT! Don't get me wrong....there was a lot of #meditationexpress in there but it happened every day! Sometimes more than once a day. It was pretty sweet. This month is gratitude month! So each day there is a small challenge of gratitude. It can be as easy as finding something to be grateful for in life and stating it or an act of simple kindness that shows gratitude for friends, family, community, environment. Examples can be: skipping a meal to be grateful for the abundance in our lives, volunteering time to a cause, donating clothes, or giving something up. Been doing it for more than a week already and I really feel that it's changed my attitude about things. Not just because I'm focusing in what is positive in life but also because it has me actively looking for the good every day despite what stresses I might have.

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@emilydoesnotloveu
@greatdestroyerofcupcakes

Satya....unchanged truth!

When my meditation teacher talks about Satya he always talks about looking into the water and thinking you're seeing a beautiful jewel at the bottom, but really its a smashed coca cola can. Things get distorted and muddy, then we make up a story or reality of what we see. This is what happens when we miscommunicate with our friends and loved ones. Uncover the truth before you decide to start a fight with your friend! Namaste!

Meditation is the new handstand

Carol and I are challenging each other to 31 days of meditation in October! We invite everyone to join us at any time in October. Meditate with us!
Instagram! @emilydoesnotloveu @greatdestroyerofcupcakes #meditationisthenewhandstand #meditationchallenge @octoberyogachallenge @justletitgo @findasteadycomfortableseat
Meditate however you like, however long or however you know how to!
We will be posting our experiences with the challenge! As well as tips on meditation. Share with us whatever comes up for you! Post a pic (of anything) every day after your meditation and check in with us! 

Ardha Chandrasana

Alignment

One of my favorite things about yoga has become alignment....besides the breath, focus, meditative quality and samadhi, I mean. After coming to a close with my time with Yoga 216 studying alignment and anatomy along with my learning path of acupuncture and Chinese medicine everything is alignment! Its so important to keep our energy meridians open and flowing, and our bones and joints in healthy places! I have seen patients with severe pain and injury just from repeated poor posture or bad habits in movement. Its avoidable. To say alignment in yoga is unimportant is just CRAY. I also think I can work on Tadasana forever, and very few yogini's are able to do chattarunga correctly. Not a judgement but just an observation in which I come to the conclusion that...alignment is important. Its hard to imagine where your body is in space if you don't practice thinking about it. When you're in a twisted triangle pose, do you know where your butt is in relationship to your head? Its hard to figure that out!

I practice tadasana when I wait for the subway. Why shouldn't we practice a lot? To each is own in a yoga class and what you're looking for in a class might change day to day or whatever. I just read this link : http://bodhitreepose.com/2014/02/13/alignment-maligned-the-baby-and-the-bathwater/

Mermaids and cows

 

There's still time for you to join the challenge! Follow us on instagram!  @emilydoesnotloveu @greatdestroyerofcupcakes @jaiyogaarts #openyourheart #bekindtoyourjoints #theyogablockisyourfriend #septemberyogachallenge

September Yoga Challenge? YES!

I've been dabbling in some Instagram yoga challenges and they were insane. One was full of insane backbends! And the most recent was all about getting your feet behind your head -both of them. It was a challenge alright. A challenge to attempt the poses without going past my body's range of motion, understanding where my edge is, and not to feel like I was supposed to be able to do these poses with ease, looking perfect in them. It was a daily thought process to remember that my body is my body and being bendy is not yoga. With that said, at one point I got a little annoyed with the challenge because the entire last week was impossible, so I had to dig deep and let go that I couldn't "accomplish" the poses but also that I didn't need to. Overall I cannot deny that I love following those bendy ashtanga yogi's on IG and see how they get all bendy-gumby-pretzeled out! BUT I don't have to be that and I don't have to be annoyed that I"m not that :)

In conclusion, my friend and I are starting our own yoga challenge. All easy, every day poses and different options and variations for people to take. I am also having fun taking non-perfect, awkward yoga selfies!

Join the challenge!!!!

Yoga teacher training in Bushwick!

You don't have to want to become a teacher to do a teacher training in Yoga. I did mine just wanted to get more out of yoga. However, it does get addictive. I didn't intend to teach at all...and soon after completing the training...people were asking me to teach them! With that said...its the type of experience that will take you anywhere and everywhere. Jai has a really great teacher training coming up in Sept! I may not have done my 200 hr there but I may as well have -been studying with Ella for the last 3 years and have learned so much from her!

jaiyogaarts.com

Find the Earth beneath your feet....she holds you up so you can surrender!

http://www.earthwellnesscafe.com/  397 Graham Ave, Williamsburg

 

Talking about leap of faith...

It requires trust and surrender. I used to resist surrender. It sounds so weak and I'm someone who wants to work hard and push forward, accomplish. Surrender is the opposite of that! Well, that's what I thought. I can't control what's out of my hands. The universe is bigger than me. Small things...don't...matter. There is something greater out there. And no matter what...the earth is under my feet. Now...that's surrender.

My leap of faith is that I am going to try and actually BE a yoga teacher. I never thought of myself as one...but a few years ago I began hearing my friends refer to me as a "yoga teacher". At first I rejected it...that's not me! And then I got used to hearing it but not being it. I decided I am going to start doing it like its me. So I am now going to be teaching group classes 4x a week that are open to the public. I have resisted for so long giving up my time to do this...and why not? It always feels good to teach a class...its work that I can enjoy. So here I am...diving in. #leapoffaith

Donation based classes! Williamsburg

I am teaching donation based classes Monday night!
7:15pm all level Vinyasa classes

Earth Cafe in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
L Train to Graham Ave. Corner of Graham and Jackson.

Jai Yoga!

Happy Summer!

What did you do on the longest day of the year? Well I decided to fill it up with too many activities.
Start:
4:15 wake up, 4:30 train to Times Sq
5am put my mat down in Times Sq
5:30 am, practice yoga in Times Sq

The sun isn't up yet but the neon signs light up the sky, Times Square

The sun is just starting to peek awake! Solstice in Times Sq!

Set an intention. Let everything else go.

7am work
12pm treat someone's knee
1pm teach Yoga

Buddhist Center block party, 15th Street

2:30 pm Buddhist Center's block party
4pm treat someone else's knee
5:30pm nap -omg I needed it!
6:30pm head to South St Seaport
7pm meet long lost friend for food trucks dinner
8pm The Perks of Being a Wall Flower playing at the seaport
10:30pm home
11pm sleep.

Thank you, satsang

Today was one of those days...that when I was teaching my class I felt like I was  in my own skin and as I was teaching I was thinking...this is a dope class. Usually I'm thinking I hope they like this...I hope I'm not making this too boring/easy or too hard. But today I felt like I sat in my skin and gave them a class in which I felt good about. I wish I could do this every time! Not only that, but after class every student in class, legit, told me they had a great class! I think most of the time people say that to be nice but each person lingered when they said it and I felt like...geez they actually really liked it. Maybe it is the theme of satsang this month at Jai that is bringing people together and making me feel a little more held up in my class, by the people in it.  On average I usually teach anywhere from 3-5 classes a week which would make me more of a part-time yoga teacher and full time yogi. I definitely think full-time teachers have a different way about teaching that is way more skilled and confident. Maybe that'll come one day for me. In other news, satsang today was so much about separating out the microcosm of meditating within yourself to find balance and then taking that balance in the macrocosmic way to feel aligned with what's around us. Energetically and off the mat...what do we do with all this yoga? Hopefully we are happier and nicer people!

We want satsang!

We always talk about turning inward in yoga and coming into stillness, solitude and meditation. I think this can sometimes be mistaken for isolating ourselves. Although it is sometimes necessary to do that, its not our goal. The practice of yoga helps us to sit better in our own skin, align with nature and flow better with the environment around us. It teaches us how to move smoother through our relationships. The practice of yoga helps us to function better in our external world. Its a balancing act between our inward and outward worlds. Sitting in the company of truth, among friends and family is also an important part of the yoga practice. Sometimes we seek the mat to find our answers and other times we seek our friends for the answers. Our friends and people we love also help us to sit better in ourselves and walk better in our own shoes. We get to choose who we surround ourselves with and therefore our friends are a great reflection of ourselves. And being in the company of that truth is reassurance, its love and its support. Satsang is why we come to class most often to practice yoga, in a group setting, we connect with ourselves in order to connect with everyone and everything else.  It is important to put it back into perspective and always understand how our yoga works off the mat.

Meditating on the highline

Flash Meditation!

Yeah...that's a thing now.

Free Acupuncture coming up in June!

*gasp* I've become a statistic!

I fell off a Citibike! (p.s. beware of potholes on 15th street!) I am happy to write about this because the fall was not so bad. But it brought me back to last summer when I fell down the stairs and sprained my ankle! And I was thinking about Die Da in Chinese medicine and how we get these kinds of injuries...because...we're not paying attention. Our mind is somehow disconnected from our bodies. (or bikes?) Ironic because the hugest part of yoga practice nowadays is the physical part...and in the asana we're always thinking about where are limbs are in space. Where one foot is placed and then the other foot. What this knee is doing and what the pink edge side of the other foot is doing. Right are is over here...and left arm is doing this. Head is over the shoulders, over the hips...something like that, right? Where were my limbs in space..where was in in relationship to the pothole?The moral of this story is that Citibike is awkward and so am I. I can't blame my accident on the potholes or the Citibike, but I need to stop rushing, especially when I am not in a rush and I need to be honest about where my body is in relationship to other things. I honestly was not going to make it over the pothole and then over the metal slab, going in a 30degree angle as fast as I was going...just wasn't going to happen. Slow down before you do something stupid...That's the take away!

So grateful my injuries were taken care of with peroxide and band aids. It could have been worse....and the Citibike was totally unharmed!

Intuition

Vulnerability is our true self. It is our intuition. Because we rarely practice feeling it, we lose touch. I think that's why so many of us gravitate towards yoga. After a good class we all feel that connection and we all sit better in our own skin.  Our ability to trust our self and peel away that protection sometime to be open. Let ourselves not know or be uncomfortable. The practice of being in the discomfort teaches us our threshold, it teaches us how resilient we really are. It teaches us that its ok and with all of that we will find comfort in our discomfort.The practice of experiencing vulnerability in yoga again and again prepares us for uncertainty off the mat.

Being an intern at the acupuncture clinic at school for the first time has thrown me into the big unknown. I am suddenly responsible for the patients' treatments on my shift, where as for the last 3 years I was just assisting treatments. My voice now has to be the treatment, my voice has to be for the patient. Before that it was a mere suggestion. And add on to someone else's. Hearing myself make the decisions on my own has been shaky. But Yoga has taught me to listen to my gut, remember what I did to get here and allow it to be awkward for a while. If I start to feel self-conscious I am no longer thinking of the well-being of my patients, but myself, ...that thought alone has helped me to feel my feet in the ground.

With that said...make an appointment with me for Chinese herbs and/or acupuncture!
Pacific College Clinic

110 William Street (between John and Fulton)
Tuesday and Friday mornings

To make an appointment, call 212-982-4600

We come to the mat to be vulnerable

We do? YES! In many ways, that is why we all come to the mat, whether we think about it or not. We're trying something new, we're diving into the practice, we're letting go of our ego that normally protects us. Our egos help us in our careers, and move forward to be a part of the evolution of society. It helps us to be part of the bigger picture. We need it. BUT it sometimes...sometimes...trips us up and gets in our way. That's why we come to yoga! To be a part of something else. To connect back to the very core of our being, our source. To find what makes us all ultimately the same because thinking about how different we are, and who is better at what, how we can make money and find love can be all too exhausting. For a moment, stop holding yourself up, give yourself to the earth and surrender. That's being vulnerable. When we can find the seat in our body that let's us be our true self. To act on what is purely YOU and trust your intuition. Our lovely, handy and efficient technology has now mapped out how we get from point A to B, how to speed dial your BFF, and make all your appointments for you. But what about your instinct and intuition? We don't want to stop using the core of our being, right? Tap back into it and find that vulnerable place we keep trying to protect with our ego. Be vulnerable, leave your phone home for a day :) Or just come to yoga class...stick out your neck, open your heart.

Just some yoga pics

Lovely half bind bow pose!

Still my favorite place to practice.

Rare peacock moment

The pose I expect to work on for another 5 years!

Cleanse no more!

Kind of glad to be done with my juice cleanse! It was only 3 days long and to be honest, it was much easier than I thought. I've done juice cleanses on my own before the craze of juice companies and packaged cleanses and I have to say I like the 5 juices a day + 1 smoothie format. Doing it on my own I think I would try to drink every hour or two and I would probably have about 6-8 juices depending but no smoothie. I felt more full with the smoothie and I honestly only needed the 4 juices + smoothie. I have 3 left over so I am half cleansing now. It seems to work out for me to have most of my calories early, since I get up early and work out in the mornings. By the time I get to dinner I'm ok with skipping it sometimes or replacing it with a juice, fruit or small salad. Planning on having a yummy salad today with avocado in it. My body wants more fat though some of my love grace. shakes had almonds or coconut oil in it. Maybe meat will happen in my diet in a few days! Excited for that. But really using this opportunity to not dive into a box of cookies or something crazy. :)

Hitting reset on my body

Ananda helps me reset my spirit, trying out this juice cleanse to reset my poor diet habits! I am on day 2 of a 3 day cleanse by love grace. It includes 5 juices a day with one smoothie. I think there are enough calories to keep me going even while working out. I think I'm doing pretty good. Day 1 was definitely easier than I thought! I even skipped one of my juices. Hoping to keep with it today. I only found myself aggravated when I watched the food network and they were talking about SPAM! ACK. Now I feel like everything smells like SPAM or salty nitrate-y processed meats...kinda yummy...BUT I had my love grace. green protein smoothie and am looking forward to my next juice in 2 hours!

I love hitting the reset button

...to come back to the present moment. Ananda Ashram is my reset button!

Playing with primal

I have been introduced to this idea of crawling by one of the best personal trainer's ever (Coach Fury) When babies first begin to crawl its not just an amazing development for their bodies, muscles and joints but also the connections they're making with movement and their brain function. As adults we've strayed so far of the great purposes of crawling which are -connecting movements to our thinking and also playing!!!!! We walk around so stuck in our heads and egos. We sometimes forget to play. Crawl with me...this month...Wednesdays at noon at Jai Yoga Arts! An exploration in Lila! The dance between karma and dharma -learning how to enjoy it.

Conserve and burn. Alternate, switch it up and repeat, sit in your seat and change your mind.

One of my favorite ideas from yoga is practice and tapas. Our practice should be consistent, with patience and attended to for a long time. We keep ourselves on this consistent basis with tapas. Its effort that is not just automatic but proactive. We participate. This is when our friends ask us to go out to dinner after work instead of yoga or (insert other disciplined practice here) and we want to bail on our yoga..but we say no. Because we know what we set out to do. Its the passion that motivates us. Its the moment when we feel like maybe giving up or slacking but we decide not to. Pushing through the urge to slack is when we start to see the alchemy part, the part where we shift our perspectives and we fly, become lighter. Its what makes me understand that we can really change things for ourselves if only we participate. It also requires us to be accountable. Sometimes we can get stuck in a rut and feel like nothing changes for us, but nothing will change really if we don't put forth the tapas.

On the other end of burning the tapas, there is this idea of conserving. Eastern practices always emphasize the conservation of energy, prana, qi. Finding the balance of when to burn it, and when to hold it in and go home early to avoid being sick. To jump up into a handstand in vinyasa or when to skip it entirely and take child's pose. The truth is, our modern lives just burn away all of our fire/yang energy. Yoga is a practice that is meant to help us conserve and control that energy and be a little more yin. So as always we're trying to find comfort in sitting in our own seat in life. When to pull back and when to speed ahead. 

Photo bomb on our splits!

Hanumanasana requires dedication, regular practice and tapas. Tapas is the fire we put into our work, the passion we use to drive us forward. Discipline, balance, strength and sense of self.

I will be teaching a special yoga and meditation class at 3rd (eye)sol on 1501 Broadway Bushwick Brooklyn, J train to Halsey. A great space with positive energy. $10 for the class. Om~

Peacock Pose

Doing so much lately but also focused on making more time for yoga!

Mayurasana happens for me only on a good day like this one.

Back bend madness...

When Negative Thoughts Come in...

Switching up your perspective is sometimes all it takes to make things happen your way. I think its easy to walk around NYC with a bad attitude. We get up early, get on a packed subway train that is running late, someone's elbow is in your back and an armpit a little too close to your face. And then there is a woman on the subway car who is obviously pissed off the the train is not running as fast as she wants it to. Then, you still have to start your day!

I like the yoga sutra that tells us, "when negative thoughts come in, ponder the opposite".  I like this because it requires us to be proactive and responsible for our moods. Sometimes its easy to think we have no control and it makes it easier to complain, but we do in fact have control over our emotions. We don't have to feel so negative or crappy, we can just ponder the opposite and it won't be as bad. We cannot expect results without trying. And we should be accountable for walking around with bad attitudes because we are all capable of lessening it, even if its just a little. Every little bit will always count for something!

Samadhi is our responsibility

We need to experience samadhi, so that we can interweave it into our every day lives. It's not meant for guru's, holy people or monks that live in caves. Our ability to experience and bring it back into life is important for evolution.

There's a bigger picture.

It all just sounds like noise.

MLK

Talking about limitless...can you imagine the world we would have lived in during the time of Dr. King? That what he is now so famous for saying, was once absurd to the general public? Evolution and change is at our finger tips.

Liberate!

Another way to think about New Year's resolutions is...not necessarily how we want to limit ourselves or to change something we feel guilty about -but how about...how we can do more of something and how we can stop limiting and start liberating.

When negative thoughts come in, ponder the opposite -one of my favorite sutras from the Yoga Sutras.

When we allow negative thoughts to take over we tie ourselves down. Freeing ourselves from what stops us becomes so important. Unreal fears often stop us in our tracks and in our modern lives we learn to feel fear for no reason. We stay in an unnatural fight or flight mode and we don't get to feel the unbound potential that is...limitlessness.

Shifting part 2: Be Limitless

People always associate yoga with being flexible physically but really what it teaches us is to be more flexible in our thinking. In shifting our perspectives on situations and when making decisions. When we find that kind of flexibility we can take hold of limitlessness. To see that whatever is at our feet or just ahead of us is limitless is the shift we need. Our daily lives sometimes make us think we need to hold back, we get bogged down by responsibility. We get conditioned to the idea that we have to hold back. Being more flexible mentally, spiritually and in our consciousness, we can see the openness that life has to offer. the limitless possibilities that are just sitting there waiting for us.

I think the importance of our alignment cue's, doing our poses in transition, step by step and practicing the present moment it...helps us to be more consciously aware and therefore we can accomplish poses that we might otherwise consider to be impossible. When we stop thinking about what it is or what its supposed to be, and before you know it you've taken the bind while balancing on one leg, come into a full back bend, jumped back from crow or come into your first head stand. Whatever those poses are that we think we'd never do, if we throw away though the "can't do it" part and be in the moment of each breath we will achieve and we ride the limitlessness.

Shifting...

Making resolutions is all about finding a better way to be you. But sometimes we can look at it like...we don't need to better ourselves or drive towards goals but we are doing good where we are. Its about shifting perspective. We teach in yoga to look at things differently.  Consider the possibility. Yoga is meant to be holistic in that its not just about stretching our bodies to be flexible but also our minds. ..our lives. Yoga doesn't make life easier but it does make us go through life with more ease. That need to control outcomes and how things should be and what we want its all about allowing for that shift in perspective.

Reflections on 2013, intentions for 2014

In 2013 I set the intention of NO SHOPPING without necessity. So this applied to clothing and accessories (shoes, jewelry, bags). Exceptions were -traveling to Asia.
Things I bought out of "necessity":
1. A dress to wear to a wedding -happened to be on sale and fit amazingly and would totally wear it again and again. I did wear it one other time already.
2. Running sneakers -I only owned barefoot shoes and needed something to run outside in while in Thailand. They were pricey but very worth it.
3. Running socks -because I wore barefoot shoes before I never needed running socks...hmmm
4. Winter accessories  -lost my hat from last year :( and gloves on a really cold day I was walking around gloveless while food shopping in Chinatown.

When I cheated:
1. Thailand -a really beautiful warm scarf and a pair of Muay Thai shorts (totally unnecessary) -this was my Asia travel exception.
2. A really nice yoga mat bag -not needed but quite useful.

Not bad! I stuck to it pretty well. What I learned from this experience is...I really don't like shopping but I really used to think I did! The less stuff I need to buy the less anxious. Going into stores to shop gives me anxiety and having stuff means I have more stuff to worry about and be anxious. One day my bestie needed to buy a pair of shoes so I went with her and all I did was try on ridiculous shoes that I would never wear but I thought were pretty to look at. Most of them I couldn't even walk in they were so ridiculously high and uncomfortable, but I thought...a year ago I might have stupidly purchased a pair and told myself I'd wear them. I'm so glad I've shed light on my weird compulsive shopping habits and even better...paid off my credit cards! Not only has this experience made me more consciously aware about my compulsive and impulsive behaviors about shopping, but made a better decision maker in my life over all. I was able to set better routines for eating and working out and I felt I have been pretty successful all year with them. It was a great year of saving money, cutting down on excessive behaviors and slowing down my thinking process instead of reacting and being impulsive. Finding what necessity actually means.

So what's in store for 2014?
1. I'm cutting down on facebook time. It's like a weird nervous twitch I've developed to check fb on my smart phone...every 5 min. I can spend an hour reading completely unimportant things about people I don't care that much about. I often justify looking at facebook to see what my cousins overseas are doing -which is why fb is great to me! But there is way too much time just looking at random unimportant stuff. So I am allotting 1x a day for 10min to look at random stuff and I've been working on hiding certain posters and highlighting friends who I don't get to interact with regularly but still want to know what their up to from time to time. I could have been spending all that fb time at an art gallery, reading a book, having tea with a friend or taking a damn nap!
2. Going to continue my no shopping. I am allowing myself a few luxury buys -I made a list of a few things I "sort of" need in my wardrobe to update it a bit and outside of that I am sticking to a buy on necessity only rule -ie running shoes are totally burned out...buy new ones.
3. Purging my closet. I got rid of about 10 bags of clothes last year -many pairs of shoes donated to friends, dresses and purses donated to prom goers in need, salvation army and the church by my moms house. It still isn't enough. I found a ton of t-shirts that I can't seem to get rid of! So I am going to force myself to do it....I already put aside 2 of them.
4. Generally I find myself so attached to the virtual world of smart phone and computer. I feel like these LCD screens are messing up my vision! Less virtual life, more real life. :)
5. Watching what I say. I have had a handful of experiences in 2013 of witnessing, being a part of or being a victim of mean girls. I don't want to be a part of it. It's so ugly, it feels dirty and no one ever benefits from it. Down with mean girls.