Divine Feminine Yoga Telesummit

The Divine Feminine Yoga Telesummit: Transforming Ourselves, Transforming the World
The event is happening live September 4th - September 11th

Attending is FREE!
Learn More or Register Now: Click Here

In this inspirational and practical event, you will: 

• Improve your physical, mental, and emotional health by honoring your deep feminine nature 
• Invoke Goddess Kali to awaken the most intense form of bliss 
• Heal your money wounds with Goddess Lakshmi 
• Navigate the modern world with the wisdom of Goddess Durga 
• Understand how women lost our core power, and how to recover it 
• Embrace your gifts as healer, yogini, and priestess 
• Understand the secrets of the yoga sutras as a contemporary woman 
• Apply the power of yoga to heal trauma in women
• Learn why being vulnerable is the highest form of leadership
• Break through self-doubt and make a HUGE contribution to healing the world

Learn from an extraordinary lineup of top teachers, including: 
Judith Lasater
Sally Kempton
Sianna Sherman
Amy Weintraub
Nischala Joy Devi

And best of all, participation is EASY and FREE.
You can listen live on the web, call in on your phone, or Skype from wherever you are.

This news provided via the Open to Grace Newsletter

Photos from http://pinterest.com/cosmiclila/yoga/

Sianna Sherman - Ganesha Around the World

In today's video Sianna Sherman shares the story of how one of my favorite gods Ganesha attained immortality - followed by a short chant.

Remover of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings

Readers via Email - Click Here for the Video.

Sianna Sherman explains Open to Grace

I saw this short video a couple days ago on Yoganonymous and felt I had to share it. Sianna Sherman is easily my favorite yoga teacher ever. Here she shares a little information on the first universal principle of alignment in Anusara Yoga: Open to Grace. Most people don't know what the hell floaty kind of thing "open to grace" means and I think this video sums it up pretty well.

I do have to say that the background color of this video makes me think of Sesame Street for some reason.

Readers via Email - Click Here for the Video.

Make a Feast Out of It

"Show up however you are, as raw and honest and vulnerable with all the thick forest of emotions and thoughts that come into it, lay it on the table and we will make a feast out of it." - Sianna Sherman 

Photo and Quote Source: Shakti Sunfire

Take a Breath and Call me in the Morning

Today I want you to take a big breath. Really. Like consciously stop and take a big long deep breath. (Eyes closed is nice but optional.) Inhale all the blessings present in your life right now; then Exhale all the bullshit you're hanging onto for no good reason.

Doesn't that feel better? Repeat as necessary.

Photo Source: This glorious pic is from a Sianna Sherman Newsletter not too long ago.

Rocking Bhakti Weekend

This weekend I attended a five piece workshop with Sianna Sherman on her Rock the Bhakti Tour. She is known for being a great storyteller and I have to agree that I'm always kind of blown away by her stories and the skill with which she translates that into a practice. We have friends in Portland, OR (where the workshop was held) so we stayed with them. I did just shy of 6 hours of yoga a day and partied into the wee hours of the night. It was a lot of fun. I'm still recovering from it, hence the late post today.

The overall experience was great - as I generally expect from world-class yoga and friends. I can definitely say, though, that I'm not going to be moving to Portland if I can help it. The yogis there were not as nice or welcoming as the people I've met anywhere else. The whole atmosphere was snippy and disrespectful to say the least. They didn't seem to value Sianna's presence or authority very much. People were rude towards me, towards my husband... eventually I was trying to spend as little time around them as possible. Not the yoga community feel I'm used to.

The classes were definitely sweat-inducing and challenging. With all the sweating - the practice room was like a sauna. The air was humid and filled with sweat. The floors and walls were wet - people were leaking transformation everywhere. On my final day I got a photo with Sianna after class. Between the windows above and the moisture hanging thick in the air - none of them came out very well. After a few tries we decided it was just meant to have an aura to it. We hugged and she thanked me for coming... and I got the hell outta there before someone else could ruin my good day.

This is Not a Real Post

Today I am at the Sianna Sherman workshop I spoke about before. I will return on Monday; hopefully with lots of pictures and at least one fun story. No Guarantees.

Sianna Sherman on Harmony (Video)

I found this video and wanted to share it with you. While watching I kept finding myself getting distracted by Sianna's asanas and having to "rewatch" pieces over and over to actually listen to her talk. Her postures appear smooth and effortless (I think that's called graceful) while her talks always sound heartfelt and inspiring.


Sianna Harmony Tour Video from Jeremy Simon on Vimeo.

Readers via email: Click Here to watch the video.

Optimism Breeds Serendipity

Earlier this week I finally applied to teach in a space that someone (that works there) had been encouraging me to rent for a while. For over six months this had been discussed and planned while I was constantly assured it would be no problem. So I filled out the application... to end up being rejected. It was a space in a non-profit that they rent out to the community... except apparently to me. They gave me a handful of reasons for denying my request, but all of those reasons turned out to be either wrong or lies. I'm not going to speculate or dwell on which is the case. This is not the first time this particular company has rejected my teaching, but it is certainly the last. I'm not really a glutton for punishment. I promise.

Rejection sucks! But that doesn't mean we should allow someone else's lack of confidence in us to become our own. We can choose to remain stuck in an eternal pity party or we can shake the sad out of our hair and make this an opportunity to focus on being our best selves.

Upon learning that I had been DENIED - I gave myself some time to pout and some time to be angry and fantasize about throwing bricks through people's windows. But then... I reminded myself that sitting there, feeling rejected, disapproved of, and stuck... maybe even lost... wasn't going to help me. Apparently, this company is not part of my path. I looked around... vaguely looking for more of what makes me happy... more of what serves my life purpose... something to further my journey down my true path. Right away I stumbled across Sianna Sherman's Rock the Bhakti Tour workshop in Portland... two weeks from now. Since I won't be teaching, I'll be free to skip over to Portland for three days to workshop it up, play, and study Anusara Yoga. Yay! Bonus: It's doubling as a 29th Birthday Gift. Serendipitous? Kind of. A Sign? Maybe - Either way, I'm psyched!

Screw the path I thought I wanted to take... this one shines much brighter. I mean, it's just paved with awesome and opportunity.

Three Times a Day - (Video)

I wanted to share with you this Sianna Sherman interview via Bay Shakti. This is actually part 2 of a four part interview, so go to Bay Shakti for all four parts. Sianna Sherman, for those of you that don't know, is an Anusara yoga teacher. I had the fantastic luck of being able to take a couple of her classes at Wanderlust, and her classes are amazing.

I just wanted to share this particular piece of the interview because Sianna talks about working on a pose and bringing an aspect of play into it - 3 times a day - if you're really working towards this one particular pose. For instance - handstand. As I've written about before, I totally do this. I practice kind of around the clock - particularly inversions and backbends. Anytime I have a lull in my day - I do some handstands. I can probably already do handstands in the middle of the room, but after taking a couple of ugly falls doing that before - I'm slowly working my way back out there. The wall is my crutch and I'm trying to let it go. It's a process.