Diamonds in the Sun

A little taste of what I got to experience this afternoon. It was AWESOME. To be honest? I felt like I was back in my 20 year old self, when kirtan and drum circles were at least a weekly ritual in my life. Back then? Goddess circles, moon circles, drum circles, you name it we had it. And  man, if there is someone more tone deaf than me I don't want to meet them! That said, in this environment? I am ALL IN. Its physically impossible for me to not lose myself in the energy and pure love in the crowd. Its just beautiful. The three opening Om's brought tears to my eyes. Its impossible to sit still, the energy of the entire room just moves you………….my eyes were closed, my heart was open, and I was just filled with gratitude and joy. Pure joy. To be in a room surrounded by people with the same intention as you, people there to celebrate, to sing, to praise? Its beautiful. Its priceless.



Its been a really busy day, but one that flowed so well that it never felt busy. I woke early and went and meditated as the sun rose. I had 25 students in my 8 am vinyasa class, which was a new record. I had made a new playlist and whole new flow for todays class, influenced my teaching Sue's class this week (but taken down about 14 notches). The theme of the class was JOY, and my playlist reflected that. " Diamonds, Its all good and Sita Ram by Girish" and even a Coldplay song "A Sky full of Stars", "Heaven" by Los Lonely Boys, "Hey Hey Hey" by Michael Franti and "Dream" by Priscilla Ahn were a few of the tracks that kept the playlist feeling upbeat and joyful. In case you've been dead or in a coma this past week its hard to not see the darkness in the world, and yoga is a light. I tried to find the playful in the asana, today. The energy in the room was really, really good. I like getting there at 7:30, I had a few students take me up on my promise and show up early with questions ~ I like this! I literally had a cup of coffee with me and we sat and talked and went through their questions…….and it felt so good. So much like a little bit of early morning community before our practice. I love that I can create that space for them as there is no class before mine ~ and since the Y is open and I have the key to the room and don't care about getting paid………..why not? Right? Cleared right out and headed to crossfit, where I only had 6 as 9 of my students were in a diet challenge (paleo ;?) meeting. The small class actually made it awesome as I had been working on some shoulder and tricep openers using two blocks and there aren't enough blocks when I have a big class. It was so great being able to work with them individually and to hear their groans of pleasure/opening as they sank into the poses. I got back to the Y in time for the prenatal class……..I had two women this week! Last week was technically the first week of the class, but due to online glitches the new fall schedule hadn't been posted, and no one showed. So, to have two people this week was great! One is due at Thanksgiving and one at Christmas. I had made a special playlist for them as well, and I think that the class went really well. One thing that I've noticed when reading through a ton of prenatal yoga literature is how much of it is geared towards women seeking a natural birth.



I had this eureka moment the other night. Reading through one of the prenatal yoga books in my little library, I actually got ANGRY! It was all about how to use yoga for your NATURAL birth (but it was simply billed a prenatal yoga book). And I kept thinking how exclusive that language was. Thinking about how many women who may be in my class who may NOT be seeking or even having the chance to have a "natural' birth. How many women may be knowing that they had no choice but to have a CS due to breech baby, or a previa, or another condition. Perhaps they were choosing a repeat CS. Perhaps they were hoping for a "natural" (more on the word natural later) birth and could end UP with a CS or other sort of assisted delivery………and you know what? THEY NEEDED TO LEARN HOW TO BREATH TOO. Their yoga was just as important and as sacred and as special. Their practice was just as necessary and just as valid and just as integral. It hit me that had I taught this class 18 years ago, when I was actively working as a (home birth) doula, actively working as a massage therapist and specializing in prenatal and labor massage………I wouldn't have had that insight. My language as a teacher would have been exclusive. My assumptions would have been many. My naivety would have shone through, as a woman who had never actually birthed children. This is in no way to say that non mothers can't be effective pre natal yoga teachers, its simply to admit my own youth and ego and blindsidnedness. It's my admission of small-mindedness. It's also my looking back with gratitude. No trial in life comes without its lesson, if you are willing to look for it. The births of my children, the mixed bag of wildly different experiences that I encountered was a huge gift. Those births enabled me to relate to every different sort of birth that a woman may be facing or may experience. Those births gave me huge empathy. Huge understanding. Those experiences opened my heart. They taught me that even a woman choosing a CS for, say, vanity reasons, SHE TOO will want to learn how to breathe. Beyond the birth even, if a woman can learn how to connect to her breath during pregnancy, she may have greater patience with a colicky newborn, with well intentioned but annoying family, or with a grabby toddler while she tries to perfect a newborns latch.



Breath is for everyone ! I can say that as a Mom, I have a different language to connect with to these beautiful pregnant Mom's. One was a FTM, one has a toddler. Even in talking about opening the chest in different poses I could talk about how after delivery when they find themselves feeding their baby, whether nursing or bottle feeding, they will find themselves hunching over, infatuated with their babies face, rounding down to look at them………to remember to open their chest, to roll back their shoulders and breathe big and roll their neck……..I remembered that they may be bottle feeding, NOT breastfeeding, and that they too have the same challenges. Inclusion. Inclusion. Language. Intention. Finding a place for everyone at the table. These are all things that are hugely important to me. I talked about connecting to your body. About how wonderful it was that they were making time for themselves, and how in doing so they were honoring their baby. How in taking care of self, they were being good Moms. In savasana, they reclined on bolsters on an incline supported by a block at the high end and put their feet into baddha konasana, placing their left hand on their heart and their right hand on their baby and simply rested. I encouraged them to make that connection between their heart and their baby, to send their baby messages of love, while simultaneously feeling their own heart beat and thanking themselves for the great good work that they had just done for themselves.



I picked up quickly and headed straight off to Julia's game……getting there 8 minutes into the game. we got killed today. It was tough. Straight home for a huge lunch, then I was off to the Kirtan. Home from that then Nate and Luke were off to the game in Baltimore, seeing Jeter off.



Tomorrow I teach at 9:30, 12:30 and 5:15. I may go for a run after the 9:30 as I'm about a half mile from the trail. We have been dealing with huge health issues with Nate's Dad, starting in a fall off of a ladder in June, and culminating in a huge surgery (hopefully saving his foot from being amputated) on Friday. Tomorrow is his birthday and we hope that Nate can spend the day with him in the hospital



So much today. So much stuff. So much good music, so much good yoga, so much cute soccer. Girish has a new CD coming out in October, so if you like his music, stay tuned. He's awfully cute. There were 6 people performing tonight, flute, keyboard, harmonium, guitar, and this guy who was this awesome mixed bag of shakers and even this wild muted trumpet horn thingey.



It was a great experience. I felt so grateful to be able to attend. My mantras or intentions are usually centered around gratitude, or calm, or focus…………….the past three days they have just been "Love". Just "LOVE". I've seen it manifesting itself. I feel more connected to Nate. I feel more connected to my kids. I feel more connected to my practice.



I started a new practice at the end of August. I feel disconnected from written communication, and I miss it. I think that its so easy to just shoot off a text or a Facebook message that the art of letter writing is slipping away…and personally? I miss it.  Every Sunday I've started writing two letters to friends. Nothing fancy, just handwritten notes saying hello and letting them know how much I treasure them. I'm grateful for my friends, and taking a quick two minutes to tell them so? It isn't hard and it makes me feel like I'm seeing them, talking to them, loving them while I write those letters.



Joy, friends! May you all shine like diamonds in the sun.