everyday yoga.

the amazing beautiful photo that adam took of me in eka pada rajakapotasana (king pigeon pose) at waimea canyon in kauai.

even though i am shy about being photographed, i just love this beautiful photo taken by my talented boyfriend adam and wanted to honor it here.

also i wanted to share something i posted to a discussion board for one of the yoga studios where i teach. the amazing hannah posted on her experience of learning more about the importance of abyhasa or "constant practice" with her teacher dharma mittra and asked us the best way to teach this principle to our students. my response follows:

"i have been thinking a lot about the important of practice lately and how that fits into my asana practice and my daily life. i feel like i’m always embarrassed to admit this, but i don’t have a regular daily asana practice. i admire every person i meet who practices everyday and although i love and benefit from every time i get to practice asana during the week , there isn’t always time for it every day in the way my life is currently structured. but i do have a daily writing practice that is so grounding for me that i have found it to be non-negotiable to my overall happiness. also, i have a sleeping practice of getting 7-9 hours every night and a cooking practice of making sure that i eat well and locally as much as possible and a compassion practice of connecting with my friends and family and a creation practice of making art and blogging and a prosperity practice of making sure i am earning money and being financially responsible. i feel like all of these things are so important to my overall sense of balance and well-being, as is my asana practice.

so i guess i am trying to say that i am finding that my yoga is finding this balance and oneness with all the many parts of the life and trying to live as much as i can from a place of appreciation and connection. i was reading this part in autobiography of a yogi last night that really struck me:

“the greater master therefore did not encourage the old ideal of a yogi as a wondering ascetic with a begging bowl. he stressed, rather, the advantages to a yogi of earning his own living, of not being dependent on a hard-pressed society for support, and of practising yoga in the privacy of his home. to this counsel lahiri mahasaya added the heartening force of his own example. he was a modern, “streamlined” model of a yogi. his way of life, as planned by babaji, was intended to be a guide for aspiring yogis in all parts of the world.”

i think that we can be these really great models to our students of how to be balanced in all parts of our life and available to hold space for their own search from balance. we can teach them that yoga is finding the union in good times and in difficult times and in important-seeming tasks and menial-seeming tasks and that the energy we put forth in what we do is more important than the action. and that practicing love–especially with ourselves–is always always the best option and way to connect with that oneness. i think that the practice naturally reveals all of these things, but it helps to have a few good teachers along the way, as i have had."