Monday, May 7, 2007

Today's Yoga Class

In Tricia's class this morning she read us this quote:
'What you are searching for is also searching for you.
Be still and let it find you'

Saturday, May 5, 2007

What's Blooming in Marion

This morning my garden had the rising sun shinning on these spring flowers.
Blooms in Marion are a little behind the flowers growing inland because Marion is a seaside town with miles of ocean front. This tiny town sits in the "gateway to Cape Cod"; a beautiful spot near the towns of Rochester, Mattapoisett, and historical New Bedford. A great place to practice yoga.

Friday, May 4, 2007

What i'm reading & hearing

I am currently a 'yoga teacher in training'. Any free moment i have is spent reading books and listening to cds on this expansive topic. Here are a few i've spent time with this past week. Please note that i am a student of yoga and my opinions here are only that, my opinions.

"Eat, Pray, Love", by Elizabeth Gilbert (book)
This book is a New York Times Bestseller and anyone who reads it will know why. This book will speak volumes to you on the topics of: depression, emotional upheaval and understanding, healing, yoga, spirituality, the energy of creation and much, much more. When i finish it i will tell you more... already it has brought greater clarity for me on my own struggles and why yoga is such a healing and essential path towards truly living.

"Yoga for Emotional Flow" by Stephen Cope (2 cds)
I'm a black and white person. I really like the fact that 2 + 2 = 4. Copes' cds helps bridge our understanding of the human condition with the psychology of Freud and Young with the practice of yoga. His books are great too, but if your brain is a bit fried (like mine) these cds make it easy to "get".

"The Language of Yoga" by Nicolai Bachman (book w/ 2 cds)
So you want to speak Sanskrit? Me too. I'm thinking this will really help, but you better have some time and be committed. I've no doubt the pronunciation on these cds is 100% accurate, yet i'm also sure that if i use some of these pronunciations with my yoga friends they will look at me funny. I'm beginning to think that speaking 'American Sanskrit' might be more useful when i teach yoga in America.

p.s the first 8 tracks on the first cd are purely chanting. I love chanting. I'd love to teach a chanting yoga class (if anyone would come), but i found the delivery of these chants to lack... emotion. Maybe that's just my western take, but i found the following cd of chanting to really have the "pleasure of sacred sound" (to quotes the cd jacket :)

"Yoga Chants" by Richard Freeman (2 cds)
A great package for the chanting lover who wants the whole story. Disc #1 teaches the correct pronunciation and translation, along with understanding the importance and benefits. Disc #2 contains all the same chants as disc #2 but sung out completely without the talking. Freeman knows his stuff.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

quotes

'We all have someone that digs at us
So when sickness turns my ego up
I know you'll act as a clever medicine
If I turn into another
Dig me up from under what is covering
The better part of me'
-Incubus

'She never mentions the word addiction
In certain company"
-Black Crowes