“The true harvest of my life is intangible–a little stardust caught, a portion of the rainbow that I have clutched.” – Henry David Thoreau
It’s harvest time in wine regions across the Northern hemisphere. From Napa to Burgundy, rows and rows of grapes are paitently ripening and waiting to be turned into wine. It’s a great time of year to think about what you are harvesting from your own life. Will you harvest the little joys? Like Thoreau, will you slow down enough to tune into the seasons, the ’stardust’ and the simple moments that make life special? This fall—make a resolution to put down the smart phone and make some time to open up that bottle of wine that you have been saving, pick apples with your kids or just curl up in front of a crackling fire with someone you love. Life is short. What will you choose to harvest?
Fall is also the perfect time to start a home practice. Click HERE for a ‘Harvest Moon’ playlist that’s perfect for a home practice!
It’s easy to fall into the self defeating pattern of thinking we will be happy when something specific happens in our lives. For some of us the ‘when’ is when we find the perfect job, the perfect partner or move to the perfect place. What if we were able to open ourselves up to the joys of the present instead of waiting for the illusion of the perfect life that waits just around the corner? Perhaps we could start to find happiness in today, just as it is, instead of waiting for tommorow. So stop and smell the proverbial roses. Open up that bottle of wine you have been saving for a special occasion. Dance more. Call your best friend and laugh about something silly. Roll down your windows and turn up the volume on your favorite song. Embrace the present moment here and now. Enjoy the playlist and the quote….see you in class soon!
“We spend our lives in anticipation-in determining to be vastly happy at some point in the future when we have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other. It is our own. Past opportunites are gone. The future is yet to come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine, but if we defer the tasting of them too long we should find that both are soured by age.” -Charles Caleb Colton
Click HERE to enjoy the playlist from last night’s Candlelight Yoga class
It’s easy this time of year to get caught up in old, unhealthy patterns. The sky is grey and hibernating can sometimes seem like the best option. When we step onto our yoga mat we have the power to change all that. We can let the movement, the breath and the music help us blossom open. It may not be spring outside, but we can let in the light and start to find that first warm breeze inside of ourselves.
Check out the playlist from today’s Yoga Flow class by clicking HERE. Hope it makes you feel like spring is just around the corner. I am loving the version of ‘Ooh Child’ by Beth Orton and ‘Wheat Kings’ by the Tragically Hip. ‘Brown Sugar’ by the Rolling Stones is a great song to make you want to rock out on your yoga mat. Enjoy!
I wanted to share a quote from this evening’s class and encourage all of you to tap into your own brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous selves!
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be! Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking. We were born to manifest the glory that is within us. It is not just in some of us….it is in everyone.” – Marianne Williamson
Click HERE to enjoy the playlist from tonight’s class.
Yoga can help us find grace in the midst of challenge. As many of us know all to well, we can’t always control or change the storms that life puts in our path, but we can learn to weather those storms with grace and fortitude. Yoga can also teach us ways to make our lives less challenging, to improve our health, our mental state and our spiritual selves so that we are able to function with greater ease and grace. As Iyengar explains, our yoga practice can help us learn how to accept that which we cannot change with serenity and learn to move forward and change that which we can.
“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what can not be cured.” B. K. S. Iyengar
Enjoy tonight’s playlist!
I wanted to share this great quote from John Muir, as well as tonight’s playlist with all of you. It’s is so easy to get caught up in our daily lives and not make time for the moments that make life special. The truth is that nobody can get by on the day-to-day obligations and distractions alone. We need beauty, joy and love as much as we need water and air.
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”- John Muir
Check out the latest playlist from Candlelight Yoga…enjoy!
I wanted to share this quote from Rachel Carson about how important it is to slow down to appreciate all of the natural beauty around us. It is a great reminder to all of us to enjoy these beautiful summer nights….
One summer night, out on a flat headland, all but surrounded by the waters of the bay, the horizons were remote and distant rims on the edge of space. Millions of stars blazed in the darkness, and on the far shore a few lights burned in cottages. Otherwise there was no reminder of human life. My companion and I were alone with the stars; the misty river of the Milky Way flowing across the sky, the patterns of constellations standing out bright and clear. It occured to me that if this were a sight that could be seen only once in a century, this little headland would be thronged with spectators. But it can be seen many scores of nights in any year, and so the lights burned in the cottages and the inhabitants probally gave not a thought to the beauty overhead; and because they could see it almost any night, perhaps they never will”- Rachel Carson
Enjoy the playlist from tonight’s class…this is great chilled out music to do a home practice to or just for relaxing at home on a lazy Sunday morning. Click here for the playlist
Each one of us has something unique and beautiful to share with the world. Too often, we are afraid to really dig down deep and speak our truth. Through the practice of yoga, we can learn to let go of things that block us from finding our authentic inner voice. Expressing ourselves relates to the fifth chakra, the throat chakra. When our energy is out of balance in this chakra, we can experience neck stiffness, shoulder tension, throat ailments, thyroid disorders as well as an inability to express ourselves. Postures like fish pose, bridge, hero pose and shoulderstand can all help to open and balance this chakra. Sound can also help us release blockages in this chakra. Think of how free and happy you feel singing along to your favorite song. It doesn’t matter how off key or silly it sounds, music has the power to open us up to who we really are. (more…)
Poetry comes in many forms. There is the poetry of our body when we practice yoga and the poetry that comes from real human experience. Hip Hop is that modern poetry. An iconic image in the history of yoga is the lotus blossoming from the mud. In the same way, Hip Hop originally blossomed from real, raw, urban experiences to become the ‘rose that grew from the concrete’. Sometimes the lyrics are witty and outrageous. Sometimes sad and soulful. It’s great music to listen to with your windows rolled down and the volume up. I hope you enjoy some of my all time favorites, like the old school track, “Around the Way Girl” and Tupac’s “Keep Ya Head Up”, as well as some of my new favorites, like the positive ‘conscious hip hop’ of the Roots and Common. When you really tune in and listen to the poetry of Hip Hop, you start to realize that just like real human experiences, it can be fun, serious, soulful, controversial, beautiful and so much more.
Check out the playlist: Yoga & Music Flow- Hip Hop Poets & the Yogi
Everything evolves. The soulful blues of Muddy Water on “You Need Love” evolved into Led Zeppelin’s classic “Whole Lotta Love”. The Rolling Stones took their name from a Muddy Waters song. Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton paid tribute to the blues on numerous recordings. Listen to the lyrics of the sometimes outrageous, sometimes cocky blues singers from the 1920s, like Lonnie Johnson, and you can see where Mick Jagger or Jimi Hendrix got their attitude. When we start to look, we see that evolution is all around us. Sometimes it’s in music and sometimes it’s alot more personal. When we take the time to listen to music that reaches down deep, we start to evolve into the soulful person we were meant to be. When we tap into our own souls and ‘live the life we love’ we have the ability to jumpstart our own personal evolution.
Check out the Playlist: Yoga & Music Flow-Evolution of the Blues & Rock
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