I survived...

 The YogaHub Virtual Conference is over...we made it...and now my pieces on various speakers (many of whom were pretty f-ing great) are up and live!

You can see my piece on Felicia Marie Tomasko, editor of LA Yoga and all around Ayurved-ist, here.

Or my post on Marci Shimoff, the love machine, here.

Or perhaps you're interested in the scholarly?  Gary Kraftsow might be a bit more your speed?

And if you like him, you might like my piece on his wife, Mirka Kraftsow, Italian goddess.

Or perhaps you just want to hear about being smarter about the biz of teaching, then perhaps check out the lovely Edi Pasalis.

Phew!  I've been doing a lot of outside writing lately, which has been lovely, but I can't wait to get back firmly-footed in my hometown...Shanti-town.   I have stories to tell!

But tonight I have a date with my mister, so it will just have to wait until tomorrow...

xo,
YogaLia

If You Want to Have a Home Practice...READ THIS.

This amazing article on having a home yoga practice was written by Kara-Leah Grant, the creator of The Yoga Lunchbox (and a friend of mine, I'm happy to say) and published this week in Elephant Journal. It is, without a doubt, the best thing I have read on creating a home practice. Ever.

I would dare say, even if you don't care about doing yoga at home, but you care about doing ANYTHING creative regularly and with passion (you know who you are), I suggest you check this out.

Thank you, Kara-Leah, you are a barrel of loveliness.

I'm an ELEPHANT!!

Hiya Shanti-towners!

Check me out on the amazingly awesome site, Elephant Journal, where I just got my first article published.  If you have a chance to give it a read, please do, and if you like it, leave a comment there or "like" it on their facebook link at the bottom of the page.  I want them to keep me coming back for more!

xo
YogaLia

Yoga Hub Virtual World Yoga Conference 2011

Hey, Shanti-towners...

This week I'm going to be blogging my little brains out for the YogaHub Virtual Yoga Conference.  They are a lovely organization run by lovely people who are very invested in growing the yoga community and creating a platform for speakers and educators from a wide range of disciplines.  I'm super excited to be a part of it AND to be able to take a bunch of free workshops, to boot!  Finally, my life-long dream of constant self-improvement is coming to fruition!  Mwah-ha-ha!

Anyhooo...if you're interested in attending, you can use my extra special insider's link to register: http://www.yogahub.com/ref/YogaLia/029060fd.html, which should give you a an extra special insider's discount.  As I said, it's virtual, so you don't have to "go" anywhere to participate...but if that makes you feel weird, just know that they've done a great job of creating a live conference feeling for the event. 

I will keep you updated as my posts appear on their site so you can check it out throughout the week...get the Shanti-town re-cap! 

xo,
YogaLia

Do Not Disturb

It's Friday morning and I am sipping hotel coffee in my king-size Westin San Diego bed.  Thank you, oh ye gods of hospitality.  I've been here since late Wednesday night, an impromptu trip to visit my mister while he does some work here in lovely SD.   And it IS lovely, though also a bit implacable, as some cities can be...even after a day of wandering I still found myself wondering, "WHO are you, San Diego?"   As of yet I have no answer, though we did happen across some super amazing wine and food last night at this place called Red Velvet Wine Bar, which made me feel a bit more tender about the city overall.

Today I am left to my own devices, and once I can manage to get myself away from this oh-so-comfortable bed, I'll be heading across town to take a yoga class at a nearby studio.  (From a teacher, it turns out, who is a former Laughing Lotus grad, so that should be pretty cooooool.)

Anyhow, I have a little parable to leave you with before I start my day...

Yesterday, also while alone in aforementioned hotel room, I spent several minutes composing and then deleting emails.  I was having one of those days where I felt, oh, sort of forgotten.  Not in a friends and family way, but in a work-relationships kind of way, and my impatience was getting the best of me.  Why isn't that person emailing me back?  Why haven't I gotten any word back about X job I just did or am about to do or said I would do?  Why, why, why?  And I tried composing some direct, "hey did you get my last email?" emails, and I tried composing some less direct, "hey how ARE you?" emails (in the hopes that just my name in the ol' inbox would trigger some response), and then I tried composing some less direct (and way more manipulative) work-around emails, to connections of the people I was actually trying to reach, subtly urging them to help me out. 

But I deleted all of them.

I deleted them because I could feel that I wasn't composing these emails...no, no, that little demon DESPERATION had control of my email account for the moment, and even though it was like putting down an unlit cigarette once you've already stuck it in your mouth and started digging around for the lighter...I willed myself to PUT the email DOWN.  And I did.  And I sat there with myself.  And I reminded myself that I have been down this road before in other incarnations of my life and career, and that even though writing and sending the missive itself can momentarily relieve the itch, that ultimately, whether it's later that day or a week down the road...it would only make things worse.  I reminded myself that it was okay to be patient.  I reminded myself that my time would be better served by getting on my mat and practicing, or reading that book I brought with me, then sending desperate calls for affirmation out into the cyber-universe.

So, that's what I did.  I got on my mat, in the corner of empty hotel room floor, and started playing around.  And after not too long, I nearly forgot what I was so tied up about to begin with.  Until my hotel phone rang.  It was the concierge--I had earlier asked for someone to come up and replace our broken coffee maker, and the concierge woman was following up:

"There is someone with a replacement coffee maker standing outside your door," she said, "but you have your "do not disturb" sign up, and they aren't allowed even to knock if it's there."

And as I hurried over to the door, to let in the man with my new replacement coffee maker, the thing I had REQUESTED, I had to thank the universe for its quick and witty response to my tiny troubles.

GIRLFRIEND, says the quippy universe, you have to take down the sign that says DON'T COME IN, before I'm gonna come in.  You dig?!

And that sign, the one you inadvertently place on your door, while inside you wonder where your coffee-maker is...it can be any number of things.  Maybe it's desperation, maybe it's worry, maybe it's your conclusion that no one cares, that no one wants you, that you're not good enough...whatever it is, just remember that THAT is what is preventing the easy flow of solutions and offers and functioning coffee-makers into your life. 

So, Shanti-towners, if you're feeling stuck, or unseen, it might be worth taking a quick look outside to see if you've accidentally put out that DO NOT DISTURB sign.  Because the universe is polite, and it's not even going to knock, if it's up.

Stillness is Doing

"Stillness is not the absence or negation of energy, life, or movement. Stillness is dynamic. It is unconflicted movement, life in harmony with itself, skill in action. It can be experienced whenever there is total, uninhibited, unconflicted participation in the moment you are in--when you are wholeheartedly present win whatever you are doing."

- Erich Schiffmann

Looking for a Soul --I mean, Wedding Dress

 I am watching "What Not to Wear" and trying to figure out who in my life I could fenagle into nominating me for a make-over, but unfortunately I'm not a moon-boot wearing recovering alcoholic/former party girl or an adult woman who dresses like a 12 year old, so I don't know if I'd really be eligible.  (Though there are days people, there are days...I think if Stacy London were to see me on the street on one of my fuzzy-hair cowboy boots and stretch pants days...she might consider me a viable candidate for the show).

But you know what's sad, it's not even the CLOTHES that I covet, it's the change-your-life via wardrobe makeover, which is so seductive.  And here we have the secret pull of all of these competition reality shows...whether it's losing weight or changing your look or remodeling your house, the unspoken (or hell, sometimes very spoken) agreement is that the contestants will undergo some kind of soul transformation by way of improved body/clothes/living situation.  Which is just...it's the big lie that pervades everything.  Take care of this one sticky spot in your life...fill that one black hole, and VOILA!  Instant and total rebirth.

This, it turns out, is also the secret promise behind BUYING A WEDDING DRESS.

Seriously, people...if you're a married or affianced woman you may know what I'm talking about (so just gimme an AMEN), because when you step into a bridal boutique you very quickly get initiated into the mythology of finding the perfect dress.  It's like some strange tribal reenactment of the search for a mate.  Scan the field for what attracts you, bring some of your favorites into the back room for a "try on", parade them out in front of your female friends (maybe even your mother!), get the assessment from the peanut gallery and then engage in a lot of conversation about how you'll "know it when you see it", and how you have to "wait for the right one"...etc., etc., etc.  Until finally that magic moment arrives when you've found your perfect match!  And everyone cries!  And then you hand over more money than you've ever spent on any single item of clothing ever in your life.

Phew!  (I haven't done that last part yet...)

I've been feeling some frustration about the above lately (not just the dress part...the whole strange world of the wedding industrial complex), but I'm trying to wave my magic yoga wand over the whole situation and realize that part of the whole FANTASY that surrounds being a bride, getting married, making some kind of "perfect" day, is born from the same desire that makes us think a brand new wardrobe and a better haircut can change our lives.  We want transformation. We want transformative acts and events to populate our lives.  And somewhere, deep down, we all think that if we can just get this one thing (or one day) RIGHT, then maybe all the other stuff that clouds our vision will lift.

But the truth is that a new wardrobe soon turns old, hair grows out, houses age, and even a perfect wedding dress eventually gets put away somewhere to gather dust.  And if there's one overarching goal of the yoga practice, it is to wake us up to the reality that the most vital, beautiful, perfectly matched thing you can hope to acquire is your own quiet sleeping soul.  For me, this has been the greatest gift of the practice...that as much as I might WANT to want some outer vehicle for my own satisfaction, I have felt my heart open (sometimes only for a moment) and in the face of that, everything else pales in comparison.

Though $5000 to buy a new wardrobe on TLC's dime...that would be pretty good, too.