Outreach Yoga Challenge - Day 19 Tantric Zombie

Friday morning and Kundalini, what a way to start your weekend. Each time I go to this class, I enjoy the repetative movements with cleansing breaths more and more each time. A feeling of immense europhia flooded my cells today, almost knocked me off balance, a feeling of space arousing at the bottom of my spine and then heat, more heat. Just as more heat was coming, from sitting in easy pose churning and spiraling the stomach and spine in an almost erotic circular motion, hot and sweaty from dancing around your mat for the last three songs (in fact most of my dancing was done on my neighbours mat with her, great way to make friends), more heat and then Joe Cocker....not personally.... but over the speakers in a steamy studio, with 50 euphoric yoginis 'You can leave your hat on' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfgwrdYUQ2A I just love how Gloria, the owner of Semperviva and instructor of this class keeps throwing out these classic quirky non yoga type tunes but TOTALLY on the money for how you FEEL and its always what your body wants! I spent the whole time smiling. It was sensual, it was deep, it was tantric, it was HOT, it was FUN! If the cocao bean had been involved too I would have been finished. Climaxed and off for a sleep.

Don't be afraid of trying new things, seek out a Kundalini class, or if you're reading this and you live here in Vancouver, come with me and dance on my mat and get euphoric. If you are travelling or you are new in a city, everything is brand new, exciting and fresh and even going to the store for your 'coconut milk' is an adventure, the leaves falling as you ride through the streets feel magical, the people you meet seem exciting. However, when you have become familiar with a place, or a location, or even a person, why do we have to lose that feeling of adventure? Can we still make things a mystery, still get goosepimples watching the season change, watching the Vancouver skyline twinkle at dusk, and the first snows on Grouse Mountain and Snowdon. Everyday is different, everyday we can be grateful for the simple pleasures in life, see your routine with new eyes and smile.

This is from Outreach: What yoga philosophy and all the great Buddhist teachings tells us is that solidity is a creation of the ordinary mind and that there never was anything permanent to begin with that we could hold on to. Life would be much easier and substantially less painful if we lived with the knowledge of impermanence as the only constant.

Sauca is often thought of in terms of orderliness and structure. It can be found in the ways in which we organize our lives so as to have things run as smoothly as possible. As with many aspects of yoga, there is an interesting balance to be found here. How do we create enough structure so that our lives (and posture!) are safe, stable and grounded but not so much structure that we become stifled by our need for organization and/or predictability? We can think about this in terms of whether our need for order is serving us in our lives or not. For example, does our preference for creating routine allow us to achieve our goals effectively, or does it become so strong that we don't allow for any variance and spontaneity in our lives? The recognition of impermanence can be both difficult and helpful, all at the same time. Our routine might work very well for weeks or even years, but at some point, it's likely that we will need to alter it to flow with the changing rhythms of life. In the acceptance of impermanence, we find a willingness to create order or form but also a willingness to let it go when the time comes.

I checked out Organic Lives last night http://organiclives.org/restaurant with Mark and tucked into a Pad Thai made from coconut meat and kelp, followed by a pumpkin pie, all vegan and stacked with flavor and goodness bliss. If you are interested in checking them out, I would highly recommend them. They have an open display kitchen so you can watch your dishes being prepared to ensure they use fresh produce and enjoy the art of preparation, remember we start disgesting foods with preparation, our mouths fill with saliva and enzymes that we need to breakdown the food in our stomachs easier. This is done with the smells and the visuals of cooking which is why in general takeaway food isn't as good for you, its great to be able to watch the chef's at work. You can also take a workshop here, and they have a deli and small supply of foodstuffs like Himilayan rock salts, spouted nuts, and natural make up and cleaners. Yeah, check it out! Prolly wasn't a good idea to wear my full on 70's sheepskin coat to a raw vegan joint, but everything in a balance right?? (gulp) Give me a bbreak I haven't eaten meat for 28 years. (gulp)

I taught two private Yoga classes today which was great to keep up my Yoga teaching practice. Marcus and Del came over for a megathon 90 minutes class focusing on some lower back stretching and strengthening. Always warm up the back before doing any poses involving using our spine, which is almost all asanas! We incorporated some cat/cow, some seated curves and heart forward breaths, some seated ballerina twists, and some downward dogs. Their request to stretch the back, was using each other in some partner yoga, they both sat legs apart pressing feet to each other and holding opposite arms with a grip, whilst one leant to the right pulling their own hand over their head towards their foot, and their partner pulls gently on the other arm twisting their upper body almost through. Then rotating the arms. Its a great stretch for lower back and side, aswell as the hamstrings, and really helps you feel responsible for your partner and its fun! After a long savasana and some lunch at Naam, I taught my next class with Tamsin my landlady, it feels so good to share my practice with others, I can feel their energy and mine bouncing back and forth, and I love to be able to help and align. Thanks for your support students, you all did great! Triple thanks to Del, who made the amazing raw NY cheesecake (recipe posted in Day 17) and is currently torturing me in my fridge begging me to eat the whole thing, its simply divine, check out more of Del's cooking here http://www.thedelicious.net/. Plus I got to take Tamsin's cute dog Jake for a walk to the waterfront and play with my camera, whilst Jake pee'ed on every bush leaf around, is that organic? Its great to have access to a dog, and get to go for walks, me and Jake need some beach time to help me get back into running. Its time! Woof!

I'm a really hands on tactile person, and Im happy to make the body feel good in Yoga with adding some pressure to tailbones in childpose, massaging feet with my own, shaking out the hips in savasana, its all a great way to be connected with your students and add to that good feeling they've already created for themselves. I LOVE YOGA!!! I'm just touchyfeely, give me a hug will YOU!!! YES YOU!!! Tamsin is a good student, good posture and questions me, which makes me think on the spot which is great and just what I need to get better at knowing what Im teaching. There maybe an opportunity to teach on donation basis at her school...watch this space... YAY! Just have to learn to speak French, double YAY!

Halloween weekend has arrived and I'll be representing this charity Outreach as a Zombie Yogini, as that is what brought my attention to this challenge to begin with, check out the great clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgL_ovYNZ_Y Please help me raise some money for their great causes, and to be able to continue helping people through yoga and nutrition. If you have anything specific you'd like to know or for me to include in a blog, please leave a comment or you can send me a private email. Enjoy your halloween weekend, Canada encourages slutty witches everywhere!

http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=14769