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.

Where the money we raise is going... breaking it down

I thought it might be helpful for you all to see where the money we raise is going, how it is broken down and what the actual financial needs are of the projects we are working towards completing.

Yogini for Uganda is part of the 2009 Off the Mat, Into the World® Seva Challenge. The parent organization of OTM® is The Engage Network (501c3) - all funds raised through the Seva challenge participants are sent to The Engage Network, who will then allocate funds toward the affiliated partners of OTM®.

80% of this year's Seva funds will go towards supporting the following organizations and OTM® financial goals for each of them:

$150k - to Shanti Uganda to build an eco-birthing center with a sustainable garden and to support safe birthing education for women with HIV / AIDS.

$125k - to Building Tomorrow to build a primary school, housing for the seven teachers of the school and their families and to create a sustainable farm on the school's property.

$10k - to YouthAIDS to support their efforts in stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS worldwide.

$10k - to The New Hope School to support the orphans and to update their current facility.

The remaining 20% of the funds raised during the OTM® Seva Challenge will go towards OTM's local initiatives, one of which is supporting and creating their nationwide yoga for at-risk youth programs.

Please consider donating to my Seva challenge - every penny raised goes towards completing these worthy projects.

Rock & Roll can save the planet

Save the date for what promises to be a stellar night of music...

Friday, July 31st @ the Abbey Bar, Appalacian Brewing Co., in Harrisburg PA ...
5 local bands are teaming up to rock out and raise money for Uganda.

The line is like my dream team... (I owe you guys)

Up Pops the Devil
Nate Myers and the Aces
Smoke the Groove
The Greatest Funeral Ever

SAVE THE DATE and be there.

Ticket cost will go towards the Seva challenge; working to raise $20,000 by December 15th to aid cultures and communities where basic human needs are at risk.

Heart like ghee & hugging the mid line...

It is taking me some time to process everything that I learned from Todd Norian's workshop last weekend and I was eager to apply it my regular practice to see what had changed. That is one of the benefits of going to a workshop - bringing all that new insight and experience back to your regular life.

Anusara, what Todd Norian teaches and practices, and Ashtanga have different alignment cues so incorporating my new knowledge means sifting it through my poses and practice to see what I come up with. Playing the edge of the pose - and from that playing the edge of myself and my perceptions and my limitations. It also is a way for me to see how the different branches and approaches to yoga can work together - you don't get it this way, so try it that way...

There are certain key phrases that I heard all weekend - puff your kidneys, melt your heart, draw back your shoulder blades, shins out, thighs in, hollow your groin, radiate your heart, tuck your tail bone, hug the mid line, soften your skin and create a core like a diamond. Um WOW ... for the first few hours I had no idea what this guy was talking about. I felt like my body was moving all over the place and I was craving a vinyasa to put me right... but alas no vinyasa in Anusara so I just had to feel what this guy was telling me. I had to shift my resistance to surrender and open myself up to a new way of looking at and approaching asanas.

And them WHAM... I got it. I finally got what hugging the mid line meant and when you play with the different ways of each teacher you encounter that they are all leading you to the same place in the end. Last night during my ashtanga practice I heard Todd's voice in my head and I listened to it. I combined his phrases with the cues and alignment tips from my own teacher here and things began to click... literally, my neuromuscular connections are starting to click and recognize one another and I was able to go deeper, and approach poses that I was resistant to before. My muscles were engaged, my energy was reaching outward and I was hugging the mid line.

The trick is to stay there all the time, throughout life and its challenges. To stay strong in your core and flexible to what is going on outside of you, moving through life with strength and purpose while you radiate serious love outward. That is when the real work begins.. yoga asanas are the fun part.

Spring Lilly

Just over a month ago I wrote about a special class my Rasa kula participated in ~ it was to honor our then pregnant yogini, Lara, her dedication to the dynamic practice of Prana flow during 8 months of her pregnancy, and her soon to be little bunny. It was also my very first fundraiser and on so many levels the most special one.

I want to thank everyone who participated in the class that evening - it was powerful and beautiful. And of course I bow in gratitude to the amazing Shani Stevenson who made this class so special for Lara, for myself, for the class and for those in need in Uganda. Dear Kula your openness, hard work and dedication to Shani, community, to Lara and to yoga raised $110 for the Seva challenge that night. Namaste!

In light of all of this ~ I would like to welcome into the world the sweetest little girl, Lillianna ~ our Spring flower, little lotus of potential and beauty that she is. Lillianna was born on Monday March 23rd... I think it is no coincidence that she was born on the eve of a Rasa class. Namaste Padme.

Joy farmer

This past weekend was a whirlwind of activity. I am still sifting through all that I learned and experienced, much of it was subtle and must be cultivated in order to grow into something even more beautiful. I spent the weekend at Yogaphoria ,a gorgeous and love filled studio in New Hope, Pennsylvania. This was my second visit, and was just as delightful and just as much of a joyful challenge.

The trip this weekend was for a workshop with Todd Norian, often called one of Anusara yogas most open hearted teachers - he also happens to be a fantastic musician. I had never experienced Anusara yoga and so went in with no expectations and a wee little bit of anxiety - for some reason I was fighting myself on this trip and it took a little bit to shed that anxiety and just get in to what this beautiful yogi was teaching us all.

Anusara is a modern form of yoga developed in 1997 by John Friend and it focuses on poses that open your heart, strengthen your core and tap you into the deeper meaning of life, it is Tantric in nature. Anusara opens their practice with the most beautiful invocation - I cannot get it out of my head and have been singing it for days. The studio's high ceilings echoed our voices, lifting them up - each time it gave me chills.

Om Namah Shivaya Gurave, ॐ नमः शिवय गुरवे

Saccidananda Murtaye, सचिदनन्द मुतयै

Nishprapanchaya Shantaya, निसपपचय शनतय

Niralambaya Tejase, निरलमबय तेजसे

Om, ॐ

By Sunday the workshop was coming full circle. Todd made us laugh and sweat - every day I was sore and exhausted. He lead us into some challenging poses, he changed the way I was used to aligning myself, he explained the body and how it moves in interesting ways. He had us working together and assisting one another to get into handstand, intense back bending and some how he got my foot behind my head and then had me do an arm balance. He had us laughing and he reminded us that this yogic path is a choice and one that must be cultivated and explored. He reminded us that the poses are for fun, the real work is what is going on inside. He called us joy farmers (which I love). And the diversity of the group and willingness to try was inspiring to anyone.

In the end though what I came away with was not so much about the physical practice of yoga - but once again I was uplifted, inspired and catapulted deeper by the spiritual lessons. And I was reminded why I am doing the Off the Mat challenge - that the seed of the divine is within us all and must be allowed to shine, must be cultivated. That we are all born free, so freedom is not what we seek but rather diversity so we learn. And all of it reminded me why I believe so strongly that everyone, everywhere deserves to find the infinite within themselves, to find their freedom and explore it. That no one should be allowed to take that from another and that if you can help inspire and encourage children to be free, to laugh, to love life - that is really good work.

Here is what Todd sent to us today...

May you continue to plant seeds of joy by affirming your connection to the Universal.

May you cultivate the soil of your body every day with breath, asana, and awareness.

May you tap into your unlimited potential by embracing contrast.

And may you protect your joy by being soft on the outside, like ghee,

but strong and unwavering on the inside, like diamond.

Gratitude and fun...

Thank you, thank you ~ To everyone who came out yesterday and supported the 2009 Seva challenge by donating and skating. The event was a huge success, we raised a little over $700, with a few donations still coming in from people who could not attend.

This event was a blast! It was wonderful to see people out with their families and roller skating is something that everyone should do. It took me a while to get out there on my skates, since it had been about 20 years, but once I did I did not want to stop. And for some reason when you fall it just doesn't hurt that bad.

A huge thank you to Rob & Tara who made this event happen by renting the rink. A giant shout out of gratitude to DJs Jason Forest and DAMN GIRL! (Jocelyn Wray) for spinning while we all cruised around. Thanks to the staff at Olympic Skating center for doing the limbo, rolling the dice and being so friendly and fun. Big hugs of thanks to my family who all showed up - and thank you to all my friends, friends of friends and strangers that participated as well. Every dollar of donation counted and we received some very generous contributions. And to my Rasa kula ~ xoxo ~ I saw some yoga moves out there, nice!

It was so fun I am definitely doing this event again ~ so if you missed it this time I suggest you get your moves ready for round two! Next time I want to see three times as many people out there - we really ought to fill the place.

Much love everyone - we are getting closer and closer to the goal... only about $19,000 to go!!

It's time to ...

Gather your friends, family and people you hardly know and get ready to bust out your best moves... or just have fun while saving lives and brightening futures.

SUNDAY, MARCH 29th , 4:30 - 6:30@ Olympic Skating Center in Enola PA.

(that is this weekend)

DJs Jason Forest and Jocelyn Wray will be spinning our favorite roller skating tunes ~ it is looking to be a very fun time!

Shout out to Kutztown U...

A huge thank you to the students at Kutztown University involved in the Act 101 program, the SSSP (Student Support Services Program) and SALSA (Student Alliance for Learning, Success & Acheivement), and to ACt 101 Assistant Director (and fellow yogini), Heather Walke Meadows...

Heather is a dear friend and when I spoke to her about the 2009 Seva challenge she was all about helping in any way she could. So...

This past Tuesday, March 17th, the students involved in these groups participated in and attended a talent show with the proceeds from ticket sales going to the efforts of Yogini for Uganda.

Thank you to everyone who attended, and whose talents contributed to the show. Your efforts and generosity are helping to brighter futures and make education accessible for children in Uganda!!

Schools building schools... that is what I'm talking about ~ higher education in action. Yeah!