Live dangerously. 

What does it mean exactly? It simply means that in life there are always alternatives. You are always at a crossroads. Each moment is a crossroads & YOU have to choose where you are going. What is going to be your path?

Now if you choose the comfortable, the convenient, then you will never be able to live intensely. When life is convenient, it is flat. You live horizontally -- a very thin slice of life, just like a slice of bread cut very thin. To live dangerously means to live vertically. Each moment then has a depth & a height. It touches the highest star & the deepest bottom. -Osho, Living Dangerously

Exactly ONE week away from India!

Today's arrival marks the one week point from my husband & I's departure to India. It is still so completely unreal to me & at the same time so completely natural that I am experiencing nothing but a peaceful calm. I cannot say the same for those around me. Most people's initial reaction when they hear I am going to India is, "Oh my god! Be prepared! Don't you know they don't have toilets or toilet paper there!?!" To this, I've tried to explain in my calmest, least bitchy, yogic sounding voice that I'm not going to India for the sanitation. So naturally then, the next question that pops into my own mind is, "Well, what exactly are you going to India for?" Why go to India?

When I was in high school, my Mom & I went on a service trip that helped elderly people with simple home repairs. I never felt such an intense high of happiness, sense of unity, nor infinite possibility in my life than I did at the end of that trip. We slept on gym floors, showered in group gym showers, & woke up at ungodly hours. We sacrificed our normal creature comforts & somehow immense joy was created. That joy came from seeing the happiness & the gratitude in the eyes of the elderly beings we were helping.

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the yogis already knew this equation to true, everlasting happiness: Make a sacrifice; offer up your service for the greater good of others & you WILL receive the most intense high of happiness & pure joy or samadhi (union with God).

Sri Swami Satchidananda explains this idea so beautifully in his commentary on Yoga Sutra I:15 --

"Sacrifice is the law of life... It is not only saints but everything in nature -- trees, birds, animals -- they all live for the sake of others. Why does a candle burn & melt away? To give light. Why does an incense stick burn to ash? To give fragrance. Why does a tree grow? To give fruit & flowers. Is there anything, sentient or insentient, in this world that lives for its own sake? No. When the entire nature sacrifices, why should we human beings alone lead selfish lives? We are here to give and give and give. What is due to us will come without our worrying about it."

Here's to the highest offering one can make...A simple sacrifice of your own service, no matter how simple or extreme. No effort is ever wasted. Offer the strength you gain from 200 chatarungas to holding the door open for someone else to pass through. Let someone go before you in the grocery store check-out line. You don't even have to give up toilet paper! The immense joy will still come.

Peace. Love. And the highest blessing of joy to each of you who took the time to read my ramblings.

It is amazing the way music can move us....physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually!

Last week, I was on my way to teach one of my 6:00 am classes & a song came on my ipod from a Richmond-based band that I was good friends with while I lived there. As soon as I arrived at the studio, without thinking, I had to move. Our bodies are sound (vibrating particles of energy) & consequently, we respond in such astounding, astonishing ways to the vibrations of sound. So, with all that said, here is a quick, morning asana sequence inspired by DJ Williams Projekt song, Day Breaks that popped up on my ipod at 5:20 am last week. How freakin' fitting. Thank you universe!

I heard this poem by Pablo Neruda this morning on the On Being podcast & it resonated so deeply with me that I felt it was my duty to share it with others. Perhaps it struck me so profoundly because my mind was primed & open to hear the message as a result of the conversations my fellow TTs & I were having this weekend with our beautiful, hilarious, & holy teacher Marni Task. Throughout the weekend we kept coming back to the idea of spaciousness. Finding the quiet, peaceful, equanimous spaces between thoughts, words, & actions. As yogis we are yearn to find this stillness in our minds & live from this place...which is much easier said than done. Thankfully, this journey we're on towards a higher state of consciousness, being love itself, & living compassionately is a practice that takes time & dedication. I hope this poem might speak to you in the same way it did to me.

Keeping Quiet

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth
let's not speak in any language,
let's stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines,
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victory with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.

Now I'll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), "Keeping Quiet"
Extravagaria (translated by Alastair Reid)
Jonathan Cape, London, 1972, pp.27-29
(original Estravagario, Editorial Losada, Buenos Aires, 1958)

March Yoga Events to Open Your Mind, Deepen Your Practice & Spread the LOVE.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Inspired Anatomy, Physiology & Kinesiology for the hands-on practitioner with Gina Schatz

408 W Saint Clair Ave, #307, Cleveland OH

Saturday, March 10

Assisting Workshop with Marni Task!! (*my teacher!)

4:00 pm

Inner Bliss -- 19537 Lake Rd. -- Rocky River, OH 44116

Friday, March 16, 2012

Kirtan with GIRISH at Cleveland Yoga

8:00 pm

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Practice & Lecture with Marni Task @Studio Oxygen (Canfield, OH)

9:15 am Jivamukti Class

10:45 am Bhagavad Gita Lecture & Discussion 

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Enchanted Hearts Kirtan @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

8:00 pm

**If you know of other awesome Yoga events happening in northeast Ohio that you'd like me to add to this list, please e-mail me with the event information so I can spread the word! 

March Teaching Schedule

Friday, March 2, 2012

6:00 am Power Vinyasa @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

6:00 am Power Vinyasa @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

9:30 am Power Vinyasa @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

6:30 pm All-Levels Vinyasa @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

Friday, March 9, 2012

6:00 am Power Vinyasa  @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

Saturday, March 10, 2012

10:00 am Yoga Basics @Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

11:15 am Vinyasa Flow @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

Sunday, March 11, 2012

11:30 am Level 3 (Power Yoga) @ The Lil Yoga Shop (Portage Lakes, OH)

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

6:00 am Power Vinyasa @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

9:30 am Power Vinyasa @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

6:30 pm All-Levels Vinyasa @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

Friday, March 16, 2012

6:00 am Power Vinyasa  @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

Sunday, March 18, 2012

11:30 am Level 3 (Power Yoga) @ The Lil Yoga Shop (Portage Lakes, OH)

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

6:00 am Power Vinyasa @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

9:30 am Power Vinyasa @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

6:30 pm All-Levels Vinyasa @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH

Thursday, March 22, 2012

12:00 pm Vinyasa Flow @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

Friday, March 23, 2012

6:00 am Power Vinyasa  @ Yoga Bliss (Fairlawn, OH)

"May the blessing of light be on you --

light without & light within.

May the blessed sunlight shine on you

& warm your heart

til it glows light a great peat fire." 

 -- An Old Celtic Blessing

An OMMMMazing Article About My Teacher, the moon goddess herself, Marni Task!

Marni Task, founder of Indu Lotion: Doing Things Her Own Way