Good Morning and Happiest Mother's Day to you my friends,

Upon having a particularly unpleasant conversation with one of my sorta - grown children (Tony is 21, and Daniel is 25), I realized that motherhood is a lot like yoga. I mean, honestly, I never gave it much thought until that dreadful evening when Tony told me I was a failure as a parent (good going kiddo, a true moment of brilliance!) And poof, just like that, there it was, my yoga practice - staring me squarely in the face.

 There was AHIMSA, practice of non-harming. Surely any of you with tween- and teen-aged children can relate to my first impulse of "how dare you!" and murderous thoughts that follow...

There was a lot of PRANAYAMA - breath control - to calm myself down...

And, of course, there was ASANA - posture practice - although the posture that I assumed had less to do with Downward Dog or Warrior 2, and more with digging my heels in and holding my head high.

Heavy - weighters came the day after: SVADHYAYA, or practice of self-inquiry, invited me to examine some deeply held believes about the way I parent, about being a single parent in general, and a few existential fears to boot.

And then there was APARIGRAHA, a practice of letting go... It gently yet firmly encouraged me to take emotional garbage to the curb and travel lightly. That was hard!

Strangely, from the midst of all the hurt and mental turmoil, emerged a sense of deepest gratitude.  I felt blessed beyond words - for yoga path that shined the brightest light in my darkest emotional corners; for my kids, who continue to challenge my practice and call me on my BS (Believe System - what did you think I meant?); and to all of you  - my readers, students, teachers and friends - who have supported me through thick and thin, and encouraged me to go on every time I was ready to give up (and those times were oh-so-many). You make my day every day - THANK YOU!

 

Go to your mat and push off from the shore:

Through almost a decade of teaching - whoa, time flies - I witnessed many of my students and friends loose sight of their practice. Psst! Did you know that even yoga teachers happen to fall off the mat - we just don't like to talk about it... In fact, comment I hear the most is "As soon as I am stressed, I forget about all these tools I have, and let yoga and meditation go out the window." Sounds familiar?

That's why I love the phrase "Go to your mat and push off from the shore" - every time I read or write it, I can just hear Downward Dog calling my name. I borrowed these words from Rolf Gates, yoga teacher and a best-selling author of "Meditations From The Mat." To me, they serve as a reminder to trust the practice; to know that it will support me through tough conversations with my kids, the times when my health is not at its finest, and through general downs of daily existence. The only trick is to practice - especially when the times are good, so that yoga (I don't mean just the physical practice, but rather a totality of yoga philosophy) can sustain and nurture me when the times are rough.

As we get busy with summer projects, things to do and places to be, it is oh-so-easy to let our practice slip away. For many years I too put my practice in storage for summer months, until, quite recently, I realized that seeds of good winter health ((and seeds of deep mid-winter exhaustion) are sown during the summer. Yes, I know I just wrote the "W" word! Let's be honest now - our summers are short, sometimes sweet, and sometimes not so much, and, by far and large, are unpredictable. Sometimes you want to be outside. Sometimes you want to be inside. You want to travel and camp on the weekends, and you can't commit to the whole 10 - week session. Don't worry, I hear you, and I got you covered!

Satori's summer motto - YOUR PRACTICE, YOUR WAY:

Can you imagine getting all the yoga you want for only 15$ a week? Well, now you can! Get just one-week worth of audio recordings, or mix and match 4 different segments for a complete set. These audio recordings come complete (in true Satori style) with alignment notes for you to practice at home, on the deck, the lawn, or on the mountaintop. Here is what Lana had to say about OM ALONE:

"I love that the sessions are separate and range from 15min to 22min.  This allows me to get in a full hour workout, or squeeze in a practice when short on time, and still be able to feed my body's craving of a stretch, before work or bed.  Before I had "Yoga at Home" I struggled with unhealthy patterns of "falling off the mat".  I wanted something that kept me going between weekly classes. Now I have no excuses, and frequently enjoy falling off of the bed and onto the mat! This program has helped me to stay in tune with my body, and acknowledge its needs, and, of course, get the always desired "yoga butt".  I love the Om alone program!!!!"

Get your OM ALONE here!

Like "OM ALONE", but love the group class energy? Heck, with so much yoga laughter, it's hard not to love your yoga family. Enter mid-week intensives: each covers specific subject - hips, core, shoulders, chakras - and builds gradually over 3 or 4 day stretch.  I divided these summer intensives in THERAPEUTIC+ (suitable for everyone), and HATHA+ (suitable for most folk familiar with yoga practice). For extra-added bonus, similarly themed intensives are scheduled close together, so you can take advantage of progressively deepening your practice over a 2-week period. Oh, and did I mention that all summer intensives are on seriously awesome sale till the end of month?

And, finally, for extra personal touch, some limited space is available for private classes. If that's what you are after, please book yourself in early - my private practice is rather busy these days (hooray for that!)

That's about it for May edition of e-news. I usually don't send out regular e-bits during the summer - to give my creative muscle a bit of a break - BUT I will keep you posted on all Satori summer events and anything else wonderful that I might find in my travels (hiking season is here - yahoo!). Connect with Satori on Facebook for musings from the trails. I will do my best to keep Tuesday blog posts as regular as I can, (you can check the latest one on breathing here, it has a pretty cool video of full-body breathing) unless, of course, I am somewhere in the backcountry. As usual, see you on the mat and the trails!

Tons of love,
Julia