Mysore & second series Maui style

This past weekend was an Ashtanga second series workshop taught by Nancy Gilgoff. Nancy is my teacher's teacher and she learned the Ashtanga practice from Pattabhi Jois in the early 1970's.

The entire weekend was a refreshing and challenging reminder of why I do yoga. Nancy has a humor and a laid back ease that dissolved any anxiety I had about being in the presence of such an elder yogini and learning the second series asanas. And up until this point I had sort of avoided going to mysore class - and well, this workshop made me go, so I got past that hurdle in the company of many others new to mysore.

Mysore is a style of yoga class (originating in Mysore, India) where the teacher is present but the practice is not lead. You simply go in, do your practice, and the teacher is there to assist you and guide you. It really is one of the best ways to learn the yoga practice. I had held some anxiety about this style of class - mostly worried I would not remember the order of the asanas. The first morning mysore class during the workshop was a refreshing and peaceful. No sound but the steady breathing of the people practicing and the morning light in the studio washed a serene calm over everyone. My body and mind remembered the sequence of poses with almost no problem and I am hooked on mysore... it makes the practice your very own.

And so thank you to Nancy and to Bobbi... for passing on the flame of yoga to many, many students.

What a little Rasa can do...

This past week I was off the mat. I joked that I was doing the yoga of screen printing. A break always seems nice but only for a day or two. After that it is down hill. I went an entire week without any of my practice. Just work, more work and screen printing. My body did not really appreciate this as I stood for long hours and really did not care for myself in the best way... the busy of life took over.

The accidental hiatus was almost worth it after going to the Prana Flow class tonight... I literally feel juiced, wrung out in the best possible way and reconnected to what brings me to the mat. There is a delightful freedom that can be found in all that movement and presence.

Tonight I was reminded how amazing our class is, how special a place it can be and how life altering the practice of can be. I know it sounds dramatic but it is true. The practice of yoga will transform your life in some way. It can crack you open. Or, as it was so beautifully said tonight, yoga takes the gray flat world we have grown accustomed to and adds depth and color.

Thank you Harrisburg!

With contributions from the night coming in at over $3,015 and monetary donations and shirt sales still rolling in I would have say that Uganda Rocks! was a huge success. I am still riding the high from the event and am happily blown away by the support that came out on Friday night. Our town is pretty fantabulous, and once again music brings people together creating social and world change.

I am fairly certain a good time was had by all - the pictures from the event are all of megwatt smiles, dancing and laughing. Even after the whirlwind of the last minute preparations have subsided I am still finding it just a little surreal.

Current times can seem uncertain but in this moment I do know this, I am thankful and surrounded by generous people and joyous people. That there is hope, and one night in history went down as a really, really good one. And those are the ones that count, the ones we are living for.

Thank you everyone you came out and supported the event and raised the money in all the ways that you did. Thank you to the talented and generous musicians who gave it their all. To the gang at ABC for rockin it. Big ups to my crew for helping me make it happen - both at the brewery & in the basement (aka the "bat cave"). And special thanks to Megan Caruso whose fabulous design is now scattered across the country (I just sent a bag to a friend in Santa Monica).

Together we are all doing some good work.

Uganda Rocks Benefit Show

This Friday ... July 31st at the Appalacian Brewing Co. in Harrisburg PA.
The line up is an army of spiritual gangsters gathering together and playing for the greater good.

First band begins at 9:00 pm... and it goes on for hours.

Your ticket price { $10 } goes towards helping communities in Uganda where basic human needs are not being met.

Come out, make your Friday night count...

... and printing...

I've been printing...

Making Sirshasana my mantra for artistic adventures

Sirshasana is a headstand. And I struggle with this pose. Upside down, engaging long forgotten muscles and breathing - this is a tad harder than it seems. It bothers me that I do not glide effortlessly into headstand and stay up there gently breathing. For now I approach with a little fear, confusion, and some resistance. And that approach can get in the way in general - on the mat and off.

It must be said that in order to finally "get" headstand you have to fall a few times - ok perhaps more than a few. Sometimes falling hurts and personally I find it scary - all in all this headstand is frustrating path but one that has an end so I forge on. (I mean, I will eventually get it, right?) Same deal with life, sometimes you have to try and not fully succeed before you "get it".

This past Wednesday in class my Ashtanga teacher Bobbi taught me the right way to fall out of a headstand.This method prevents the dreaded finger crack (which I did, and it still hurts months later) and lands you in a back bend. I now feel (almost) free to flail and fall until I get it, confident that safety is on the other end of letting go.

Fast forward some hours and through a few obstacles with the screen printing project and you would land in today. Right now, almost. Here is a brief overview of how my internal dialog went today "My order of shirts and tanks and totes arrived. Yay! yikes! I have no idea what I am doing. How am I going to screen print these. I have never done it. Internet. Oh.... Deep breath. Hmm. Poster screens are not working. More Hmm." ... feeling doubtful and daunted without even giving it a go. Letting confusion frustrate the flow. And then the yoga crept in... where the approach on the mat translates to life "off" the mat. Approach with no expectation, an open mind and be a-ok with what happens. It's cool... breathe.

So I took a deep breath and decided to just go for it, try bust out a few sample shirts. First time screen printing take one. And ta-da... it worked. I have three printed shirts drying in my basement. They are very simple but all went well. No tears or gnashing of teeth. Two color is next... and headstand.

The printing has started. What was a vision and a thought for so long is now manifested in my basement. Megan (the amazing graphic designer) and I have started to print. This past Sunday we set up shop and the process has begun. The plan is to hand screen concert posters and create the first batch of t-shirts so they will be ready for the benefit concert next week. It is all very exciting and I am finding that amongst so many other things, creativity is being born out of this fund raising challenge.

The first day we ran into some snags. Someone had told we could use house paint to print the posters, this did not work. The paint clogged the screens and while we tried feverishly to get the paint out of the screen we only succeeded in scrubbing off the image. The screens had to be re-burned. We now have the correct ink, beautiful paper and about 80 apparel items to print on.

The printing resumes on Thursday night, hopefully it will be smooth sailing...

Radio Free Harrisburg ...

Last night, at what is rumored to have been quite the party, the uber fantastico band The Greatest Funeral Ever released their new CD.

Tonight on 97.3 @ 10pm The Greatest Funeral Ever will be playing cuts from the new album ~ to make it even better they have asked me to join them and say a few words about the upcoming benefit Uganda Rocks!

tune in...

Yoga talking

This morning my Ashtanga teacher gave a short talk about the Sanskrit language and its roll in yoga. Sanskrit is believed to have been created by the sages and structured so that the five areas of your mouth and the breath is being fully used while speaking it, creating the word's cosmic vibration - its significance. Yoga talking.

She asked that during our practice we say the name of each pose prior to doing it and in doing so honor the tradition of yoga and the significance of its name. And in saying its name calling the presence of the pose to you and your focus to it. Connecting to the vibrational structure of the word and the pose and so tapping into the vibration structure of the everything.

I realized that I already do this during my practice say the name silently to myself, I was using it as a tool to learn the Primary series sequence and also because the language is very fun to say. This took it to another level for me. I started thinking that the names when spoken make a song, a poem, a prayer. Yoga has always felt to me like a prayer in motion. Connecting with something beyond yourself by getting really in touch with the self.

The whole thing makes me want to rap out the primary series while dancing around through the prayers.

The magical and amazing Megan Caruso

A big part of the Seva challenge for me is the collaboration and creativity that rises up from working with friends and artists in the community. Getting together, combining our forces, visions and talents - seeing what comes out of that union and then using it towards such a worthy cause brings such sweet tears to my eyes.

One of the most enjoyable friendships and collaborations that has grown out of this experience is working with the ever so lovely and talented Megan Caruso - Artist, Designer, and maker of things. This girl is fresh.. her work is amazing, her vision is spot on and she delivers. I could stare at the pretty logo she designed for me all day... and just wait to you see the rock poster that is in the works! Oh boy it is good.

Megan has been the creative force behind every piece of printed material for the Yogini for Uganda challenge and it is as if she reads my mind. Look for her work all over town as I now have business cards and informational cards that will be scattered about the corners of our land, posters for events and even the upcoming apparel has her talented touch, and that of a few other artists as well but more on them later.

If you are looking for a designer who delivers amazing work each and every time... look no further you have found her...

** Click on Megan's logo above to be transported to her creative work and website.

ripples in the pond

It has been a while... right?! I was a wee bit m.i.a. or so it might have seemed. Here is why...

I found myself floating in murky thick water. I was losing my focus, how to execute it and the reason why I was engaged in such a daunting fundraising goal. I lost what this meant to me and what it would mean to our community. Fear was settling in and making everything that much harder. I felt jostled around by something I really couldn't identify at the time. I felt myself affected by the turns of other people's moods and challenges and realized that the strength I was depending on was not my own...

So... I tuned out, dropped off and got out of it to get into it. And it worked... it just took a while.

Weeks later, months even, I finally identified what was going on with me and heard some helpful words, from several teachers, that reminded me of the following: that life sometimes moves you fast, jostling you around with such energy that you forget you are not engaged and then life becomes more of something that is happening to you. Sometimes the wave you are riding with such vigor is not your own and not even realizing it until you are thrown from it. And that a stone thrown into choppy waters does not produce the beautiful interconnected ripples it would if the water was still and calm. A lot of analogies there but they all helped me.

After the initial excitement of signing up for the Seva challenge and the flood of ideas and support that poured forth I rode the wave of this life changing experience for awhile. I made plans, hatched ideas, got the ball rolling... I rode that wave for so long I forgot what I was doing and why, where I was or how to do what needed to do done. Yikes! I floundered, floated and then wound up thrown out onto the beach mouth breathing and staring into space. I skipped yoga. I stayed home. I was left out to dry so to speak... and there my perspective changed and lightened. I realized what parts of this challenge were important to me. I was finally able to answer some of the whys I was throwing at myself.

I sat back and sat down and calmed the waters of my own inner pond and waited to see what would happen...

So hello world, Stella has her groove back.

A big part of this challenge is what comes up for the participants - not unlike what happens in the practice of yoga. There what comes up for you on the mat is just as important as the pose itself. What came up for me was that working two jobs, keeping up with life's little and big chores, working on the fundraising and going deeper into my yoga practice was spreading me thin - really thin. So much so that it seemed I was racing around after things and accomplishing very little. And then I realized that it is ok. It is all part of it. You find what works, what is sustainable for you and then work that. So that is what I am doing. As my father always says ... plan your work and then work your plan.

... let's see what happens now. There are many things in the works... t-shirts and totes are being hand screen printed in my basement, Uganda Rocks benefit concert is coming up at the end of July, a Brooklyn based chamber music group will be preforming sometime this summer, I am launching a change for Change project and some yoga workshops are in the works... not to mention a film series that fingers crossed will work out and a lecture series.

Stay tuned and thanks for hanging in there with me.... namaste.