What is with all the make up ladies?

Berlin -Potsdamer platz at night -supermodels watching your children, originally uploaded by veggy.

Ok. I went to a yoga studios one year anniversary where they served booze, meat, and i saw more plastic surgery, peroxide, and make up then i would at a drag show. What would Patanjali say? 8 Limbs of Yoga out the door and in with what we have translated into our superficial money making machine. Who's lineage are we respecting now? Who is Patanjali anyways? Is he that new hair stylist?

Is Yoga lost in the west? Been twisted and churned out into heated rooms, glass mirrors, and good smelling soaps? I hope not, but it took me almost a decade to pull myself out of the vortex of western yoga (which i am still in i guess, and don't claim to know it all).
I don't want to judge, because i have been there so i can understand when we don't see things as they are.
For example, I used to dye my hair, until my body rejected it when my glands in my neck swelled up to the size of golf balls and didn't reduce in size for weeks and my scalp was so itchy that sores developed. That is because ultimately peroxide is bad for you. It is a toxin, and we let it sink into our skull and run through our blood stream, so it can stain our hair, and change the colour, so we can look like someone different, someone that isn't truly ourselves. I was scared to accept myself if i am not different in some way. I know this. I spent my teens exploring this concept with piercings as well. It took me a long time to have contentment with my natural image, but i realized my body was telling me that this was bad and that it was a blessing that i couldn't die my hair jet black (red, blue, blond) anymore, and my tongue piercing swelled up one day and i let it go. Funnily people ask me to this day if i my hair is its natural colour, and i have to laugh, and say yes, and thank god for that lesson. Would i have learned it if my body hadn't showed me? I am not sure, but i hope so. Lessons come to us all the time, and we have to listen when our body says something.

We try so hard to look like what media wants us to look like and it made me sad at this party. So many possibly gorgeous women all hiding behind masks of costume like make up and afraid to make eye contact or smile back. We have become a product of a immense successful multi billion dollar marketing machine, and have failed in the areas of basic love and acceptance, and grace of who we really are?
I have faith that we will pull ourselves back into what is real, and where are roots and reality lie and know that we are beautiful just the way we are. We are all so unique, why would we ever want to mess with that?

The fundamentals of yoga and eight limbs tell us to practice yoga we need to accept these basic rules before we can proceed, yet in the west we through them out the window, or most of us don't even know they exist.
Can we practice non violence on ourselves in society (ahimsa)? Contentment of our real selves (Santosha)? Truth and honesty of who we are trying to be (Satya)? and still have studios and call ourselves yogis? Non stealing? Non possessiveness?

It is a challenge. I personally would love to see you without your Cover Girl, Lancome, Mac etc mask on though, because i think there is something beautiful underneath it.

Satya

Venice, originally uploaded by veggy.

"Sat" is sanksrit means "reality" or "what is." Satya is the moral guidepost of truth, honesty, and the power of the word.
I have found i am being challenged constantly by the power of people's words. The truth which equals loves, and the compassion i am trying to have for people who don't speak the truth.
I cannot help but forgive people that feel the need to create this misery in their lives and attempt to do the same in mine. But what is the truth?
I am guided by the law of nature. Every untruthful action will have an equal reaction. And in that sense i feel compassion for my friends who are wrongly guided because they are already paying the ultimate price. I have paid those prices as well so i cannot judge anyone. We all learn, and we are all on our own path.
May you all experience your own path of Satya.

the lotus within yourself.

the lotus within yourself., originally uploaded by chris spira.

Well it's Friday and i finally got to one of William Blundefields classes at Flow Yoga in Vancouver. How have i missed your classes! Will infuses so much positive, grounded energy mixed in with a little boogie dance time for your asana.
Even though it's a hot class and your sweating your brains out, his break are filled with sentiments that i have re quoted for some time now like:

Breathe in LET
Breathe out GO

Do your Best Forget the Rest!

Yes, some people don't get his spirited yoga psychological classes based on letting go, but that's ok, not everyone is ready for it. Letting go of what society thinks, and what is constantly marketed to us, letting go of what we think or what we think other people think of us, and basically learning to love ourselves.

He asks us to set an intention in the class, and one thing i am working toward is Acceptance, and that is a message he reiterates in the class constantly. I do think his classes have helped me accept myself, and have led me to accept others that i would usually put walls up against.

I love more deeply, i smile more, and if i need a reminder (which i definitely did today, because i am not perfect and i fall back into old patterns), i return to my mat, and look for Will.

One nice touch at the end is that he usually sings. Today for the first time (since i have been going) he asked others to join in and i almost always get goosebumps.. and today my whole body was filled with joy, and gratitude.

Today someone cried and i can understand it, i feel like crying because being in the moment fills my heart. Will gave the girl a long hug, which slowly turned into a huge group sweaty yoga hug! So nice!

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss

Thank you.

Wheel of Grace and Energy

Wheel of Grace and Energy, originally uploaded by yogi_johann.

I decided to take Mara's Power yoga class at Flow Yoga today. I had taken her class a couple years ago and loved it, even though the level 2 class at the time was a little beyond my level of experience.
I have been doing Bridge pose for over 6 months now and started venturing into wheel pose but could only get to the crown of my head. I thought i had to push through my arms to get into the wheel and thought i would never have the strength to push my body weight upwards but Mara today told us to push up through the legs and came and helped me. I realized it was almost all in my legs and i experienced one of the biggest heart openers i had probably ever experienced. It filled me with such joy.. i felt like crying.. and i didn't get a chance to thank Mara for it.
I realize now a good teacher is one that knows when you need a push or help in your practice.. and Mara is one of those teachers. Check out her classes or any of the others at YYOGA centres.