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.