karma?

I have a student who gets really frustrated and stressed by the world around her. She's yells at it. She yells at the family dog. She yells at the housekeeper.
The thing is, when she yells at whomever, she is really yelling at herself. It is her own body and mind that reverberates with negative noise.
I told her that if you throw a ball against a wall like that, it's going to come back to hit you in the nose. It will produce stress.
The flip side of this dilemma is very beautiful and easy. You only have to practice being gentle. Then you will find yourself sweeter to yourself.
Its why giving someone a present can make you feel so good.
Give love and you will feel love!

(happy valentine's day)

yogi words

my friend amy, a most fabulous illustrator just sent an email asking for yogi word suggestions. I wrote a bunch down, and then I thought they looked so pretty I wanted to put them here too, for the lovely you.

present
space
open
stretch
strengthen
lift
root
asana
surrender
sit
the names of the poses...
heart
body
mind
relaxation
om

Try not sweating at the gym

Its just an idea.

I don't think that sweating is a bad thing. I do it often!
Not sweating is really not about good or bad. It is about not pushing yourself, and instead being in cool calmness.
The yogic way doesn't make your heart race. The heart stays steady as the yogi moves through or holds difficult postures

Here is an example from the ocean. We bicycle to the beach in the morning and see waves licking the shore. We rest in the sun and the waves still lick the shore. We go swimming and the waves lick the shore (and us!). We throw the frisbee and beside us, the waves lick the shore. We eat lunch and watch the waves lick the shore. We swim again and the waves lick the shore (and us!). We finally go home and the waves ignore our leaving, still licking the shore. All night with no people or volleyballs and only the moon as light, the waves lick the shore.
The waves can be our breath, our sweat, our energy.

And we! We can be as beautiful as the waves, coming, going, splashing, licking, soothing.

obama's hands

Did you know that obama is a lefty??
I'm not sure why that makes me happy, but it does.
Stay tuned for more on Obama's yogic-ness, to go along with his left handedness...

the yoga of forgetting your cell phone

I found an advertisement in People magazine that went a little something like this:

(imagine a pretty lady running on the beach with a blackberry in one pumping fist)

"I take my family everywhere I run, I hear from them once a mile. Luckily [praises of the cell phone company's service] which is important, if I get a crisis call about a missing binkie..."

The ad upset me, and still upsets me!
I think we are in serious need of a Forget Your Cell Phone at Home Day

This could be a very exciting day. There could be confusion about plans to work out and worries about meeting who we are supposed to meet. Separation anxiety from our friends and family and the realization that we are actually solo.

This is where yoga comes in. Deep yogic breathing to assuage worries and steady confidence that the day will be as it will be. Maybe the forgetter would even feel the warmth of knowing what is important and what is not so important.

Being a little scatter-brained, I've tried forgetting the cell phone more than once.
You can run around, and no one can catch you.
Really, just like being a puppy off-leash.

The yoga of food

Last night I ate pizza at delicious Amorina. Delicious and classic with red checkered tablecloths, flowery wall paper, warm chandeliers & people.

The girl sitting next to my friend and I was eating her very own pizza. She was by herself and enjoying her food a lot. She also had a journal on the table that she was writing in.

The journal, the pizza, the contented woman would have been enough, but then after dinner she ordered a cappuccino. It was lovely and foamy. I was really impressed.

Then she ordered dessert. Maybe it was ricotta cheesecake? I'm not sure. It didn't matter what the dessert was, only the fact that she ordered it. Though I do remember little caramel swirls on top.

I wanted to be her friend. Actually I wanted to be her, sitting alone with something to write on and enjoying, luxuriating over an incredibly complete meal.

That would have to be the yoga of food, exactly!

the best yoga teaching advice that anyone ever gave me

"eva, you just gotta love 'em."

-Jonathan Gordon, The Yoga Center of Brooklyn

the inside and the outside

I talked to Erin at her little party last night.
Erin is a painter with very lovely hands. When she spoke, she painted the air around us with her fingertips. It was like watching a work in progress, very fascinating!
This is what she said, paraphrased, as I remember (it was late...)

You know, sometimes its good to remember with all the stuff that goes on here, [imagine long thin fingertips swirling around the temple/forehead area] that real life happens out here. [imagine now, same fingertips swirling the air around and in front of her, my neighbor, and myself]

We talked about how, while being in a serious muddle, we see our friends, or snow, or a cat tucked into the recycling box and it (whatever your it may be) really doesn't seem so bad.

My quandary here is that yoga philosophy says that "reality" does happen in our heads. The world is an illusion. An illusion that is put there to teach us something, but still an illusion. And everything out there is colored by what is in here.
Maybe its a give and take? Our thinking paints the illusion brighter or darker, and that illusion does the same to our paint?

good stuff to ponder...but outside pondering or in??! Oy!

This is Erin's painting up above. Click on it to see more!

a present for you!

I am so excited about these presents!
They are lovely and sweet and of course, a surprise!!
If you would like one, email me your address and I will mail you one as soon as they are ready.
While my supplies last.
my email: eva@livingroomyoga.com

just do it

I bring this up because I have been meaning to, for the last 6 months (or more!?) dye my ugly brown shoes black to make them cute (er) and wearable.
I just did it.
It took me 8 minutes, and even inspired the dying of other (not so attractive) shoes as well.
Now I feel accomplished, calm, and curious at whatever took so long.

In a yoga class, the teacher says what to do, and the students do it. The simplicity of following clear directions makes them feel so good. It clears their minds, organizes their bones, and energizes a sense of possibility.

If you would like to experience this phenomena in real time, do this:

1. Stand up and lift your two arms up toward the sky, palms facing in.
2. Pretend you are holding a clear tube that surrounds you completely.
3. Imagine that this tube goes straight up into the universe and burrows down into the earth. You are right in the middle of all this.
4. Close your eyes and breathe 5 deep breaths, in, and out.

Lovely, yes?