Happy Belated Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays. I had an awesome experience last week when I was teaching the Thankfulness and Giving Gratitude Yoga Class at lululemon Northpark this past Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving.

I taught the Yoga class in a corridor of the mall. As I was teaching, an older gentleman named John, who was volunteering with The Salvation Army, approached me. He had been standing off in the distance, listening to the music and watching from afar. He asked if the music I was playing was on a cd. I answered him that it wasn't...that it was a playlist I had made. He said he loved all of the music I was playing. About 10 minutes later he came back. And, so while the class was in Pigeon Pose, I spoke to him again. (can you imagine the whole class stayed in pigeon the whole time?! About 2 or 3 minutes) John said he wished he could be taking the class with us. He said he had had a stressful day and that just listening to the music and our breathing was healing. He became slightly teary-eyed as he told me this, and I let him know I would make him a cd of the music. So, yesterday, I went back to Northpark and gave him the cd. It was awesome to get to give the gift of music because I know how powerful music is to me.

Oh my gosh...as I'm writing this they are talking about this exact thing on the news playing in the background...just how powerful and emotional music is. I think they were talking about soldiers listening to music.

Anyhow, it was awesome to realize how healing energy can be, even if it's just being near a group of people who are aligning with a positive connection to breath/prana, listening to positive music, breathing positive thoughts and intentions together.

I will be back to write more soon...but just wanted to give a quick update. There is so much to be grateful for, I am especially grateful for Shiva Rea coming to Austin in January. What an awesome way to begin the New Year! The picture above is of my nephew, Luke, enjoying his first stuffing ever. He will be 2 on New Year's Eve. I am blessed and knowing I'm blessed is the greatest blessing there is.

Here is a powerful quote from Parmahansa Yogananda.

"This earth is full of imperfection; but in the Land Beautiful no clouds come and we can materialize the golden dreams of our earth sojourn. Only the ark of silence can take us to that Land. There all hearts meet in unity and wisdom; our love is not limited by human attachment, for our souls greet the Spirit in one another. If only you would take the ark of silence, you would reach that Land where you all want to go." - Paramahansa YoganandaRead more

(Picture of beloved Yogini and my teacher, Shiva Rea)

OH MY GOSH...IT'S TRUE...I HEARD THIS THE OTHER DAY...BUT IT'S REAL!!! SHIVA REA WILL BE IN AUSTIN, TX JANUARY 9-10 AT YOGA YOGA. I just verified this after I wrote this post. Wooooooooooo hooooooooooo! Dreams do come true and prayers are answered. Jai guru, saraswati mata.

Last night I went to a Kirtan and ecstatic dance at Park Cities Yoga in Dallas. It was awesome. It was led by Monica Blossom Hochberg who guides ecstatic dance in Dallas...she is an incredibly inspiring and beautiful person. I hope you have the opportunity to cross paths with her one day. And the Kirtan was sung by Rudra Das. I have never heard him sing before but it was amazing. He is incredibly inspiring and connected and what a blessing to be in his presence. He said so many things which were so powerful, such as, 'you are the guru. Yes, that's a bit much for some people at first...but, you are the guru.' He also said that the second chakra is the opening to the Divine Mother and seeing the Divine Mother in all beings and knowing the Divine Mother within us. Through this awakening we realize the Divine is within each and everyone of us and the Divine Mother is in all women and men. Even when we experience someone being unkind to us, we can know it is the Divine Mother enlightening us to greater, compassion, forgiveness, understanding and love for ourself and everyone. Any harshness we experience is a lesson in love to be learned. With this understanding, we can let go of being afraid to open our hearts, even in situations or with people we are afraid to let ourselves love. With this realization we can know, like Rev. Lee Wolak says who leads the Agape Center for Spiritual Living in Frisco, TX, that we think we are going to get hurt if we open our hearts, but in reality, they just keep opening and opening to greater love and compassion for everyone and everything. The great mystic poet Hafiz says, love is constant compassion and forgiveness.

One of the chants we sang as we moved to awaken the 2nd chakra, was Sarasvati Ma. A dear friend of mine, Kate LaCroix who owns Global Soul Adventures, just gave me this beautiful song by Daphne Tse, a fellow Yogini and student of Shiva Rea. The song is called Saraswati Mata. I highly recommend downloading it on itunes...it is one of the most beautiful songs I have heard. I met Daphne a couple of years ago at a Yoga training with Shiva and she sang one of her songs for us. When I was listening to this song this week, it reminded me of what Shiva says which is, what is the song Yoga wishes to sing through you? She doesn't mean literally singing, she means expressing the joy in the heart, the unbounded consciousness, bliss and love within us allowing that to flow to everyone we meet and know.

Let's see, what else. Well, I completed the 30 hour Thai Yoga Bodywork training over the last two weekends. It was intense and overflowing with information, but it was incredibly enriching and good, as well. I'm so glad I was able to take it with Chock. He is one of the greatest healers I have met since I have been on this path of healing. He knows so much and his presence is so loving and positive, I am grateful to know him.

Also, there will be a couple of Holiday Yoga classes I am offering. One is next Wednesday at lululemon Northpark from 6-7 pm and is FREE. The other one is Saturday, December 12th from 3-5 pm at exhale spa, with refreshments following, and is $30. Both will be wonderful and I'm really looking forward to sharing this special and sacred time with you, connecting to a deeper appreciation for the Divine gifts in our life, the loving presence of family and friends and the ever-expanding spiritual community growing and evolving in Dallas and beyond. I have just sent out more information in a True Yoga announcement. If you do not receive True Yoga News and would like to, please submit your email here.

Oh, and a True Yoga retreat is pranfesting for March 2010 to Brazil led by world traveler and Global Soul Adventure owner, Kate LaCroix, and myself. Please stay tuned for more details and join us if you can. It will be the trip of a lifetime, a true spiritual journey for your body, mind and soul.

I wanted to leave you with this. It's on a bookmark that I was given when I purchased a book by Bhagavan Das called It's Here Now, Are You? this past August at Thunderbolt Spiritual Books in Santa Monica, CA, when I was out in L.A. for the SRF Convocation.

When asked,
Are you a God or a man?
The Buddha replied,
'I am awake.'

"Do not care for doctrine.
Do not care for dogma or sects,
churches or temples.

They count for little compared
with the essence of existence in
each man, which is spirituality, and
the more this is developed in a man
the more powerful is he for good.

Earn that first, acquire that, and
criticise no one, for all doctrine
and creeds have some good in them.

Show by your lives that religion
does not mean words, or
names, or sects, but that it means
spiritual realization.

Only those can understand who
have felt. Only those who have
attained to spirituality can
communicate it to others, can be great
teachers of mankind. They alone
are the powers of light."

Sri Ramakrishna

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I hope everyone had a good weekend. I am attending a Thai Yoga Certification training here in Dallas with the gifted Thai Massage Therapist and healer, Chock Petchprom, and his wife Rocie.

The training was all day Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. We will finish the 30 hour certification next weekend with class all day Saturday and Sunday then, as well. I am learning so much, in particular, about the powerful meidicinal benefits of Thai Yoga massage and how it is possible to facilitate healing in the body, mind and heart through the releasing of blockages in the energetic meridians of the body. In Yoga, the meridians are called the nadis, and there are supposively 72,000 which run throughout the body. Thai Massage focuses on the 10 major ones.

Speaking of the nadis, I attended a really fascinating workshop with Edward Clark, who is the founder and choreographer of the well-known Tripsichore Yoga Theater Group in London. When I first attended the workshop, I enjoyed it but was uncertain how beneficial I would find his teachings and insights to be in my Yoga practice. I really resisted much of what he was talking about at first. Especially the idea that Yoga is not about going for the stretch. He said nowhere in the Yogic texts does it say the intention of the Asana, or pose, is to go for the stretch. The intention of the Asana is to awaken the flow of Prana/Life Force/Consciousness through the Sushumna Nadi, the central energetic channel through which all Consciousness/energy flows in our body and being. You can think of the Sushumna Nadi as the spinal cord, although it is an energetic pathway not something physical. But, it does flow through the channel of the spine, from the tailbone, all the way up along the spine, around the back of the head, over the top of the head, through the forehead, ending at the point between the eyebrows, known as the 3rd eye or 6th chakra/energy center.

It's been amazing to bring this new awareness into my Yoga practice. In the past, although I knew Yoga is a consciousness awakening practice through the poses and breath...my focus was often more egoic and on some level about attainment...trying to get 'somewhere.' After studying with Edward, my focus has been transformed, once again. Although, it was not comfortable letting go of my old approach, at first. If Yoga is not about trying to achieve something or get somewhere, (a better body, a calmer mind, etc., etc.) on some level, what's it about? For those of you who are able to practice with me here in Dallas...I'm so glad I get to share what he taught us in a practical, physical way, through the Asanas.

If you don't get to practice with me yet, essentially, what Edward was saying, is the whole intention of the Asanas is to maintain the integrity of the spine, or Sushumna Nadi, in any and all poses. The way we maintain the integrity of the spinal column is through the activation of the bandhas, or energy locks in the body-Mula Bandha, Uddiyana Bandha and Jalandhara Bandha. It's amazing what starts to happen in your poses, practice and self when you begin to activate the bandhas. Beryl Bender Birch, a well-known Yoga teacher in New York, says if we are not engaging the bandhas in a pose, we are just doing gymnastics. Perhaps this is a bit of an exaggeration, but Yoga is about becoming increasingly conscious and connected to our breath/Prana. Through the activation of the bandhas in a pose, we are more aware of our body, mind and breath, and our connection to all things. What I'm realizing is greater opening in my backbends, especially the region of the back behind the shoulders. By the New Year, I hope to be making Yoga podcasts available on the True Yoga Blog and website so you can see and practice what I'm talking about. So, there is a physical benefit to engaging the bandhas and activating the flow of energy up the spine, and yet, the intention of this activation is still much greater than just physical. The ultimate Yogic intention is to awaken the flow of Consciousness from the lower centers of awareness (the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd chakras) into the higher states of awareness (the 4th, 5th, 6th and crown chakra.) Through the activation of this flow of energy, we awaken to the energetic reality we are living, breathing and pranafesting with each moment, each breath we breathe. We are channels through which Light/energy flows. It is not flowing from us...it is flowing through us. The body and mind are an instrument to harmonize and direct the flow of this energy in the most powerful and positive way possible.

When I attended the SRF Convocation in L.A. this past August, the monk said that Yogananada would always say to keep your awareness focused at the Christ Consciousness center or 3rd eye/6th chakra. Cosmic energy or Light enters the body through the Medulla Oblongota at the base of the skull (where the brain stem and spinal cord join...it is the center which controls respiration in the body and the one part of the body which can not be operated on) and then is materialized into form through our conscious will, also known as the Christ Consciousness, 3rd eye or Eye of Light. If you imagine everything is energy and, therefore, everything is Light, this light is flowing into you and being pranafested, or manifested, faster than you mind can comprehend. In other words, the Light moving through you is being materialized into form faster than we can imagine. Everything is energy, therefore everything, in essence is Light. The Light moving through you is creating your Conscious reality every moment, with every breath you breathe. The best analogy I can offer would be the light that flows through a movie projector and then projects the picture onto the screen. In essence, you are the the projector. This will give us a good bit to pause and meditate on for a few days.

I will be back soon. Om~ Read more

(Picture of Neal Donald Walsch)

I'm always so happy when I find the time to write. Writing is so therapeutic...I can't imagine not taking the time to breathe and express my thoughts in another way, other than with my mouth.

So...much has been transpiring. Mostly, I'm amazed at the transformative energy of our very own breath. It becomes increasingly obvious to me, as I grow in my understanding and practice of Yoga, just how powerful the breath really is...


When I took the Rod Stryker Yoga training, this past September, called Prana: The Power and Path of Yoga, he spoke of this very awareness. He said if there is anything we are seeking to positively change in our life, the first thing to improve is the connection to our very own breath. He guided us in the 1:2 breath, instructing us to breathe into a count of 4 and exhale out to a count of 8. We practiced this breath throughout the entire practice and in all the Yoga poses. Since that training, I've incoporated this 1:2 breathing practice into my Yoga practice and it's been both energizing and stabilizing, grounding and healing. Before learning the 1:2 breath, I usually practiced 1:1 breathing. The 1:1 breath is more activating and charging, in other words it's more of a Yang/fiery breath.

It's very powerful to notice what kinds of activities or thoughts disturb the flow of your breath, whether that's your connection to something or someone. More recently, I've been noticing how my breath gets affected when I am listening to the radio in the car. If I find I start to get emotionally affected by the music in a way that disturbs the flow of my breath, I will turn off the music or listen to a spiritual talk by one of the monks from the Self-Realization Fellowship, which, by the way, happen to be some of the most powerful information you could ever imagine listening to and receiving. You can receive SRF cds by subscribing to the quarterly SRF magazine. Each issue is like $6.50 or something and there are 4 a year, one for each season.

When I took my first training with Rod in September 2008, he said most of us are emotional breathers. This is true, for most of us our breath is affected by our thoughts, feelings, emotions, related to our experiences or people in our life. Of course, almost all mainstream music these days is all emotionally charged and can easily get you caught up in your mind/emotions. It's very helpful to have the insights about the breath, because then you can make the changes you need to make to reconnect with your breath in a meditative way. Inhale to 4...exhale to 8.

One of the spiritual practices I've learned about and have been practicing is a breath/breathing practice called Tonglen. This practice comes from Buddhism, but is really inherent in any spiritual faith or practice. The idea is that you breathe into and feel your own tension, whether it's physical/mental/emotional. As you feel what's present in you, you accept whatever you are feeling in yourself...and also whatever tension you might be experiencing in anyone you are connected to...then, as you breathe out...you exhale to release the tension, not only for yourself...but everyone you are connected to. Whatever we wish for ourself...we wish for others...even those people we have resistance to or don't like. As Yogananda says...we don't have to like everyone...but we must learn to love everyone as a soul. This is also called a loving-kindness meditation...but there is something very powerful when we connect this intention this deeply to our body, mind and breath as we feel everything that we are experiencing within us and around us. Yogananda says...if you become a friend of even those people who you perceive to be your enemies...that even God will become your friend. He says we must learn to love our enemies. This is a powerful intention whether we are an individual consciousness or a collective consciousness...such as a nation.

One other thing before I sign off for today. Neal Donald Walsch, author of Conversations with God, will be speaking at the Center for Spiritual Living tonight in Dallas at 630 pm and it's FREE. Hoping to make it to this one myself. This weekend I'll be taking the first part of my 30 hour Thai Yoga Massage training with Chock Petchprom here in Dallas, as well. I'm really looking forward to learning more about this powerful and healing technique so I can share it with you in class. I will be back soon with more Yoga inspiration.

May our intelligence be guided by Divine Light and wisdom.

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