If I don't post before the holiday, I wish you a Happy Memorial Day Weekend of relaxation and renewal. Also, I would like to share the blog of a very inspiring friend of mine. She is currently traveling around the word on a personal global pilgrimage. I was reading her tribute to her mom today and I broke out into tears. Just yesterday as I was coming into Savasana, I had the awareness of wanting to express and share my gratitude to the amazing people in my life, including my parents, and let them know what a gift they have been and continue to be.

"The ego cannot distinguish between a situation and its interpretation of and reaction to that situation. You might say, "What a dreadful day," without realizing that the cold, the wind, and the rain or whatever condition you react to are not dreadful. They are as they are. What is dreadful is your reaction, your inner resistance to it, and the emotion that is created by that resistance." - Eckhart Tolle

But, this past Thursday, in the midst of my Yoga practice, I decided I would reapproach the Handstand Press. In one attempt, I was able to lift all the way up to Handstand. It felt like a miracle!!! I attempted it again, and again I lifted into it. I was literally squeeling and jumping up and down with the excitement of a 5 year old, or perhaps, a 29 year old and so I called my girlfriend to share the good news with her. She always told me I would be able to do it and she was right...

We always hear Yoga teachers say, "Listen to your body." It sounds cliche, but it is true. After practicing it a few more times on Thursday, I felt my body telling me to take a rest. I also told myself I would not demonstrate the pose in any of my classes yet, until I had spent more time practicing and developing into it. I suppose my excitement was infectious, because on Friday (I didn't listen to my body and) I ended up demonstrating it in both of my classes, per the requst of the class. As I was demonstrating it, and this time not being able to lift up which I knew was going to happen since I am just beginning to develop into this pose, I knew after the third attempt that I had overdone it. The rest of the night, my left arm was tight and sore, and I worried that I had reinjured it.

Our bodies always know what is best. So, I am making a new commitment to honor my body and its guidance. I haven't practiced Handstand Press once since last Friday. My shoulder, thank goodness, felt better the next day, but I'm aware my body needs time to rest. Backing away is one of the most challenging practices in Yoga. If we overdo it, we create strain and even pain which impairs our ability to feel good in our bodies and practice regularly. This is why it is essential to rest. Even though I'm just learning Handstand Press, I don't need to practice it everyday to master it. As long as I keep practicing Yoga, this is what is important. All of the poses and the practice will eventually align me right into the place I need to be in to grow most fully. Time away from Handstand Press is giving my body a chance to rest and recuperate from this new place that not only my muscles, but my bones and every other part of myself is adjusting to and aligning with. Practicing a Handstand Press or any Yoga pose that challenges us is intense. We've been conditioned to believe we need to keep doing it, doing it, doing it..."Just do it" if we want to see results, but Yoga teaches us the exact opposite is true. Maybe what allowed me to open into a Handstand Press was that I didn't practice it at all for three months. Ah ha! We have a tendency to believe that if we're not practicing the exact pose we're working on we're not growing or opening up to it. Actually, all of the poses interconnect in Yoga. One pose leads to another and each pose is a building block to support the next pose. So, while I wasn't practicing Handstand Press, I was practicing Lolasana and really began to deepen my practice of it just a few weeks ago. Lolasana is an intense shoulder, back and core strengthener. I believe it's the practice of this pose that allowed me to grow into a Handstand Press and also another pose I've just begun to awaken to called Eka Pada Bakasana or One-Legged Crow Pose.

So keep practicing, but know, that sometimes the body needs rest to grow.

I am back from the beach and I feel relaxed and renewed. I enjoy my daily schedule, yet, it's amazing that it's still challenging for me to get back into the swing of things after spending time away for a few days. It seems there is always a catch 22 to everything in life. It's essential to take time off every now and then for our well-being. But, after time off, getting going again is always an adjustment. Nonetheless, I am grateful for the time of rest I had which was at a beautiful place called Rosemary Beach in Florida. My best friend's partner rented two vacation homes there and a group of 10 of us vacationed at the beach from Thursday through Monday to celebrate her partner's 50th birthday. I had the opportunity to practice and teach Yoga while I was away. I actually taught two classes on this beautiful lawn of green grass which looks exactly like the picture here. It was gorgeous. We could see, hear and smell the ocean and the grass was so soft and felt amazing on our bodies...

My time at Rosemary Beach inspired me, even more, to organize my own Yoga retreat in a beautiful and peaceful place. I hope to hold my first retreat by 2008. Yoga retreats are an incredible way to spend time away from the regular routine, not only to relax and renew, but to continue to grow on the journey of health and wellness physically, mentallly, emotionally and spiritually amongst a group of like-minded friends. I would imagine that after a Yoga retreat, one would feel even healthier than befor the retreat. Often after a vacation, such as the one I just went on, I feel as though I need to cleanse out a bit from the food and drink I had. Even though I was still very health conscious on this vacation, eating well, running dailly and practicing Yoga, I still drank more than I normally do, and I can feel the excess weight of the alcohol on my body. As we grow healthier and healthier through Yoga, we become more aware of how the slightest bit of excess is affecting our body, mind and spirit. One of the fundamental teachings in Yoga is moderation, which we align deeper and deeper into as we grow on this path.

I also read my new favorite book while I was away called Do You! 12 Laws to Access the Power In You to Achieve Happiness and Success by Russell Simmons. Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons is a vegan and has practicing Yoga for 14 years. His book is based on the ancient and universal teachings of Yoga from the texts of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Bhagavad-Gita, both of which pre-date any major religion in the world and the teachings of which are present in every major faith.

I love this part of the book which I read while I was away. It is part of Law Number Three entitled Get Your Mind Right. In it, Russell writes about the power of Yoga, meditation, and breathing as essential elements to being able to achieve one's highest vision for oneself. All of these techniques allow us to be able to Be Present which according to Russell "the most powerful step in realizing your potential is simply to be present in the world." Russell then goes on to say we are capable of knowing the experience of joy or bliss in each moment. If we've experienced anything once, we can experience it indefinitely. Here is an excerpt from the book.

"I want people to understand that pure presence isn't elusive-it's something that we're all capable of, something that we actually encounter in life. Once you accept that, then you can set your sights on the ultimate goal of meditation, which is to be able to string these moments of presence together.

The goal is to be able to live your life the way Michael Jordan played basketball, or Marvin Gaye sang a song. To be able to feel the way you feel when you laught at a joke, but feel that way all of the time. To be able to feel the way you feel when you're having great sex, but all of the time. It really is possible. If you feel a certain way even if only for a second, that means you're capable of it. It's just that we're taught that we can only laugh when we hear something funny, or experience the joy of a climax when we're having sex.

Again, we're talking about car crashes, basketball, and sex, but at the end of the day all these things are rooted in a spiritual state, a state that every religion has a name for. The yogis call it "Samadhi," or "walking meditaiton," while Christians call it "Christ Consciousness," Buddhists call it "Nirvana," and Muslims call it "Taqwa." My brother Reverend Run, who's what I like to call a "Christian yogi," has his own term for it. He calls it a "State of Grace," that space where you can walk around and practice love in everything you do. The truth is, every religion has a name for that special moment when you're able to extend the experience of presence.

Of course, only very special people like Jesus or a Lord Buddha or a Muhammad are able to be totally present, all of the time. The rest of us mere mortals are just trying to be a little more present than we already are. We're just striving to be present enough to appreciate the godliness around us. Whether it's a mountaintop or a project rooftop, a sunset or a dark alley, a newborn baby or a corpse, the signs of God are posted all around us. We just have to be present enough to see them."

I am actually going on a true vacation so I will be gone for a few days and away from the computer. I realized, the other day, that I hadn't said the word 'vacation' in a long time. It seems all of the travel I've done recently in my life has been related to my work.

I will be returning early next week and hope to return to a consistent flow of blogging then. This vacation is a time of renewal for me. Letting go of all of the busyness that has ensued over the past couple of months and opening up to an even healthier and more balanced flow unfolding in my life. If you do not currently receive the monthly True Yoga Newsletter, I encourage you to sign up for it on the Newsletter section of this site. I just sent it out yesterday with lots of great information and a recommendation for an excellent book to read. Until then, may you be filled with infinite peace, joy and know the Presence of the Source of Light and Love with you in every breath you breathe...

Namaste!