12.7.14

anjaneyasana

today we went christmas tree hunting! 

10.23.14

krounchasana

I haven't been posting the yoga content as I was about a year ago.  It's not for lack of yoga that's for sure.  I would actually say that my practice now is stronger than ever.  I'm teaching 4 scheduled classes a week at a Boulder studio, which was a big goal of mine, and I have an audition later this month at a studio near my home in Lafayette.  I'm enrolled in a 500 hour ytt program and I've been loving it.  It's sort of the opposite of my 200 hour training in Costa Rica.  Rather than an intensive it's spread out over the span of the year.  We meet twice a month and then supplement required hours with electives of our choice.  We have a lot of homework, alot of reading and projects that keep me pretty busy.  With that on top of my personal practice, class creation, and teaching it's pretty much all yoga all the time around here.  

I have a feeling that soon my blog may better reflect that.  But for now I'm still loving hiking and being outside in Colorado during the best season.

p.s. yes this is the exact location of zephyr's portrait from a few days ago.  i went back with the idea for this photo but of course the light was all different.  oh well.

8.1.14

arapahoe ridge.  indian peaks wilderness area

this was the best hike of the summer.  we got an early start and the trail to ourselves; woke up wandering through the most amazing display of wildflowers i've ever seen, came across an elk mama, made our way up towards timberline in swirling mists.  we were both silent for at least an hour - it really felt like hiking into another world.  i'm posting the most pictures so far - there are so many good ones!

What is Wilderness?

The Wilderness Act defines Wilderness as....

7.15.14

bear day

hiking with my dad is never so much hiking as it is tracking; which is why it's hardly surprising that we didn't turn back when signs of bear activity appeared everywhere.  we bushwacked our way down the canyon until, of course, we came across a bear.  

then we turned back. 

7.5.14

samatvamasana

We didn't really do much on the 4th so to celebrate America's (belated) birthday we headed to the mountains, hiking to Fern Lake and Lake Odessa.  It was a really beautiful morning.  I'm posting more than just one photo! 

"Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains.  You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow.  They smelled of moss in your hand.  Polished and muscular and torsional.  On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming.  Maps and mazes.  Of a thing which could not be put back.  Not be made right again.  In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery."

~ Cormac McCarthy

6.28.14

natarajasana in the mountains

5.6.14

self-care

Resorative yoga is something everyone can enjoy.  Here the students are relaxing in "legs up the wall".  Try it!  

- Unroll your yoga matt against the wall (or use cushions as the students did here). 
- Get your bum as close to the wall as possible and extend your legs.  
- Place a bolster under your sacrum, allowing for a slight elevation.  It should feel as if your sacrum is lifted and supported - not as if you are sliding off the bolster.  
- You may want a blanket or bolster under your neck.  
- Extend your arms to the side, or if you are on a cushion, into cactus arms.
- Close your eyes, breathing deeply and focusing only on your breath for 10 minutes.  
- Very, very, slowly come out of it by bending your knees, rolling onto your side and pressing yourself up to seated.

4.30.14

 

morning ritual

today's schedule:

5:30 - yoga and meditation

6:30  - breakfast

7:30 - kayak to isla chora, snorkel, eat pineapples, kayak back

10:00 - thai yoga massage class

12:00 - lunch

1:00 - thai yoga massage class

4:00 - free for the rest of the day

4.10.14

standing mermaid

This pose combines the strength and balance of Natarajasana (or dancers pose) with the invigorating back-bending of mermaid.  Needless to say - it's challenging.  Don't even try it unless you're warmed up, and/or super bendy.  This is one of those poses that really demonstrates how important it is to breathe and focus while remaining both strong and fluid.  You will probably fall if you rush it.  There's a metaphor in there somewhere....

* Shift your weight into your standing leg (let's say your left).

* Bend your right knee and take hold of your inner ankle with your right hand (palm facing out).

* Keeping your hips square, lift and press your foot up as you shift slightly forward and start bringing a bend into your back, as if you are going into dancer.

* Instead of pressing back with your foot, and reaching with your arm; keep lifting your foot up and work your toe, foot or ankle into the crook of your right elbow.

* Keep lifting, back-bending and balancing as you reach straight up with your left hand.

* Breathe.

* Slowly bend your left elbow and reach back to clasp your right hand.

* Breath deeply, opening your chest, arching your back, squaring your hips, and lifting your right leg.

* To come out slowly release your clasp, then gently release your right foot.  Take a few deep breaths standing in mountain pose, then do the other side.

* Once you've done both sides, do a nice, lazy, bent legged forward fold to release the tension in your back.

Namaste bitches, xx.

3.29.14

dolores river canyon daytoday i went to my happy place; a beautiful dusty canyon near my home which i've yet to see any other person in.  it's the kind of place that makes you feel humble, and small, but thankful to be part of such a world.  a world where winds now blow through a red rock desert that used to be the bottom of a prehistoric ocean.  we found fragments of bones, hundreds of millions of years old; bits of teeth and proof of aquatic life here, in the driest of places.  we hiked through stone and sand and sage, following the river and the same trail that carried cowboys and outlaws and ranchers and indians.  indians who left record of their comings and goings on stones along the trail, mysterious markings whose meanings are clear and murky at the same time.  and now us.  adding to the layers of time in this place that keeps records.  adding to the wonder, the quiet conversation, adding to the echos, and remnants, and proof of existence that this valley holds in silence. forever.  

i'm posting more photos today, click below:

3.25.14

virbhadrasana 3

2.11.14

last yoga class day

2.10.14

prasarita padottanasana

2.6.14

"practice and all is coming."
~pattabhi jois

throwing it back to one year ago (almost) today when i took a photo of this pose, kapotasana.  click below to check the progress.  practice, practice, practice; change will follow.  namaste bitches, xx.

2.4.14

i've gotten to the point in my practice where it's automatic.  i don't even think about fitting it in to my day.  i just do it.  so this morning i found myself unrolling my mat even as my mind was a million miles away.  i looked down at it, and realized with dismay that my inner turmoil was going to make this a very difficult practice.  i sat down anyway.  i started breathing.  i felt like crying.  i just kept breathing.

i warmed up, still battling troubling thoughts, going through the motions. then i went into my first down dog and felt it.  release.  it was like a giant swoosh moving through my whole body.  a giant swoosh of peace.  it felt like physically remembering every time i've ever held this pose; so many moments all over the world and through time.  and in that moment i glimpsed another facet of my practice and another reason i do yoga.  no matter what is going on in my mind and my life, when i get on my mat, when i start breathing and focusing and stretching, i achieve timelessness.  my body changes, my experience of each pose changes, but there is something consistent in the practice and this removes it from 'today' and elevates it into now and also always.... it's momentary, but infinite.

this is comforting, and amazing.... and also true.

1.31.14

paripurna matsyendrasana

"embrace the current season of your life."
- gabrielle muir

the current season of my life is filled with stress, yoga, learning, trying to meditate.  it's absent of meat. filled with a revolving cast of houseguests.  i feel loved but filled with worry for my beloved.  i have hope.  i have anxiety.
it is a hot season, one with the perpetual feeling of being on the brink of something.  it carries the sense of walking the edge of a knife; one side ruin, one side radiance - yet at the same time exists the deep underlying knowledge that everything matters very little.
it is a season of lessons.  of choosing what is important.  of loving. of reading. the beginning of mangoes.
it is a season that has not started well but moves towards wellness.

1.13.14

13 months 13th

taught a sunrise yoga class on the beach this morning.  wish you were there.

1.9.14

utthita hasta padangustasana

1.6.14

chaturanga dandasana modified

"make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into the flames of achievement." - golda meir

1.4.13

love over fear

i feel this energy in the air, this undercurrent i'm sensing, this spark which i hope becomes a flame; of self acceptance.  it's been building and building, or should i say we've been tearing down; tearing down outdated opinions about 'the norm'.  we've been tearing down antiquated beliefs about what love looks like, about what beauty is.  there's a lot left to dismantle but lately i've been sensing some momentum in the wrecking.  

i'd like to throw my voice into the greater conversational hum. 

healthy is beautiful, whatever height or weight it comes in.  taking care of your precious body so it can carry you through this life is an act of beauty and honor.  it's a privilege.  let's agree that being happy and healthy in the body you have outshines being unhappy in one you're constantly starving or shaming or disguising.  

love is aspirational.  not conditionally, not for some people, not depending on who you love, all love.  and let's not forget self-love.

fear is a choice.  it may feel otherwise, you may feel hemmed in, trapped and constantly bombarded by all the many things there are to be afraid of.  you may feel overwhelmed by all the many chances that are scary to take because they may be unwise.  unwise to whom?  who decides this?  you.  you decide. you choose.  fear is a choice.

i'll try to remember this if you will.  namaste bitches, xx.