Lady Yoga November 2011/Yoga for Healthy Hands and Wrists

Steve Jobs Connect the Dots/Steve Jobs Day

Darlings,

Steve Jobs 'Connect the Dots' speech he delivered at Stanford University in '05 was the first time I used quotes in my yoga class.

I noticed how nicely the words of a 'non yogi' fit into class and from then on, I did, Historyoga, taking an historical moment, finding an intention for a whole class to focus on and supporting that intention by using quotes from 'non yogi's' to show how yoga is everywhere and in everyone.

I've been doing it now for over a year and although some people don't 'get it' when I describe it, I think of Jobs and how people didn't necessarily 'get him' when he first came on the technical scene.

I love creating new ways to look at things. I'm no steve jobs, but I'm Lady Yoga and I'm always thinking outside the mat.

In honor of one of my favorite role models, along with Loren Michaels, Carol Burnett, Tracey Ullman, Winston Churchill, Goethe, Henry Ford, Mother Teresa, Albert Camus, Antoine De Saint-Exupéry, Picasso, Denise Austin and, well, Oprah. Here's to those who blaze paths and inspire yoga in everything.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” SJ

Trust yourself to think big, make a difference and have an impact in everything you do every day for the betterment of a healthier whole. You can’t do this alone. SJ

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."-SJ

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” SJ

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” SJ

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins. Benjamin Franklin

There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. Nelson Mandela

Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you. Oprah Winfrey

Passion is the genesis of genius. Tony Robbins

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them. Napoleon Bonaparte

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion. Edgar Allan Poe

With out passion you dont have energy, with out energy you have nothing. Donald Trump

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

Harriet Tubman

Our passions are the true phoenixes; when the old one is burnt out, a new one rises from its ashes. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” Carl W. Buechner

A successful life is one that is lived through understanding and pursuing one's own path, not chasing after the dreams of others.
- Chin-Ning Chu

Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what he loves. 
– Blaine Pascal

Nobody can be successful unless he loves his work. 
David Sarnoff

When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn. 
— John Wesley

One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested. 
— E. M. Forster

Who then is free? The wise who can command his passions, who fears not want, nor death, nor chains, firmly resisting his appetites and despising the honors of the world, who relies wholly on himself… 
-Horace

Chase your passion, not your pension. 
— Denis Waitley

Anyone can dabble, but once you've made that commitment, your blood has that particular thing in it, and it's very hard for people to stop you. 
- Bill Cosby

There is no greatness without a passion to be great, whether it's the aspiration of an athlete or an artist, a scientist, a parent, or a businessperson. 
— Anthony Robbins

The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire. 
— Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch

Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark. 
- Henri Frederic Amiel

Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring. 
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

One of the things that may get in the way of people being lifelong learners is that they’re not in touch with their passion. If you’re passionate about what it is you do, then you’re going to be looking for everything you can to get better at it. 
- Jack Canfield

Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for. 
— Ray Bradbury

I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game of life everything he's got. 
- Walter Cronkite

Passion is the element in which we live; without it, we hardly vegetate. 
– Lord Bryron

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion and desire. 
- Aristotle

Our passions are the winds that propel our vessel. Our reason is the pilot that steers her. Without winds the vessel would not move and without a pilot she would be lost. 
– Proverbs

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. 
- Albert Einstein

I didn't want to repeat my parents' life. I saw in their lives a routine and a lack of dreaming, a lack of the possibilities, a lack of passion. And I didn't want to live without passion. 
- Hugh Hefner

And in me wake hope, fear, boundless desire. 
– George Macdonald

What I got from Steve Jobs - that your past failures are tomorrows success. You CAN have it all by connecting the dots from your past passions and believing in them. People still might not get my historyoga or Lady Yoga but they still come to my classes and it still works.

'It' will always work if you believe in it.

What's next?

Lady

Breaking Barriers

Darlings,

Back on October 14th, 1947, U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.

For years, many aviators believed that man was not meant to fly faster than the speed of sound. Yeager flew the X-1 nicknamed the Glamorous Glennis So Cal flying faster than the speed of sound.

Today, let's break some of your own barriers today.

Reach past what you think you can do and go beyond, physically, emotionally, maybe it's something small, maybe something much greater but go. Go for it.

Let us always meet each other with a smile and for the smile is the beginning of love. – Mother Teresa

...and it lightens your mood.

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. Mother Teresa

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously. –Henry Kissinger

Just focus on the one thing that's most important and the rest will fall away!

If you don’t know where you are going, every road will lead you nowhere. –Henry Kissinger

Accept everything about yourself. I mean, everything. You are you and that is the beginning and the end. No apologies, no regrets. –Henry Kissinger

Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. Desmond Tutu

It's also the anniversary of Henry Kissinger, Desmond Tutu and Ma Teresa receiving the Nobel Prize!

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. Mother Teresa

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. Henry Ford

The worst prison would be a closed door. – Pople John Paul II

If man does his best, what else is there. George S. Patton

Do what you can with what you have where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you’re doing, you will be successful. – Albert Schweitzer

It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. Harry S. Truman

In this life, we cannot always do great things. But we can do small things with great love. – Mother Teresa

The quality of a persons life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. – Vince Lombardi

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. – Eleanor Roosevelt

A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. –Nelson Mandela

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character. – Albert Einstein

We must become the change we want to see in the world. Gandhi

The best and most beautiful things in life cannot be seen, not touched, but are felt in the heart. – Helen Keller

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. Ben Franklin

Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. Winston Churchill

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. Thomas Jefferson

Be courteous to all but intimate with few and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. George Wahington

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend. Martin Luther King

If you can dream it, you can do it. Walt Disney

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time. – Abraham Lincoln

You have the right to remain silent. – Yoga police

It’s more important for a smile to spread over your chin that it is to get your chin closer to you shin. Stuart Rice

As long as you’re trying you’re succeeding – Judge Jimmy Edwards

Before you act, listen

Before you react, think

Before you spend, earn

Before you criticize, wait

Before you pray, forgive

Before you quit, try Ernest Hemingway

Do something different. Or at least look at what's present from a different perspective.

~Lady

Yoga The Musical Lady Yoga October 2011

Emancipate this...

Dahlings,

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued so long ago on this day, Sept. 22, 1862. The main purpose of the proclamation was the freedom of slaves and to restore peace and Union control amidst the civil war.

Looking back into history, we can see how far we've come as a collective. We have made grave mistakes and seen the errors of our ways, healed and made ammends by moving forward in strength and togetherness.

We need to know WHERE we came so stay present and know where we are going.

We might not have been slaves in this era, but at times, we find our self slaves to something that tugs us away from our highest purpose and passion.

Let's discard the ties that bind and explore the idea of freedom and liberation so we can live fully in the present, in our bodies and on the divine right path we are here to explore and share with others.

Emancipation means...

Liberation,

freedom,

liberty,

Independence,

salvation.

Celebrate it in history and celebrate it here in your life now.

The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self. - Albert Einstein.

When you lose all sense of self, the bonds of a thousand chains will vanish. Lose yourself completely. Return to the root of the root of your own soul. -Rumi

Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light. - Yogi Bhajan

Don't wait to find solid ground, dance in emptiness. - Lama Surya Das

It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing and being peace that we can make peace.- Thich Nhat Hanh

Nothing is more difficult and therefore more precious than to be able to decide. - Napoleon Bonaparte

You have freedom when you're easy in your harness. - Robert Frost

Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better. - Albert Camus

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul. - Moshe Dayan

We feel free when we escape, even if it be from the frying pan into the fire. - Eric Hoffer

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth. - George Washington

Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you chose. Anything less is s a form of slavery. - Wayne Dyer

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires. - Nelson Mandela

You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has freedom. - Malcom X

It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything. - Chuck Palahniuk

The anchor in our world today is freedom, holding us steady in times of change, a symbol of hope to all the world. - George H. W. Bush

All the great things are simple and many can be expressed in a single word - freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. - Winston Churchill.

Sincerely,

Lady Yoga

Fall

Darlings,

It's that time of year again. Autumn. It's a great time to give yourself permission to fall, in love, out of a posture, while texting and walking at the same time. Ok, not the last one.

It's the beautiful cycle of life.

A few people and I were talking about the idea of surrender and how some words just freak us out and make us respond in the opposite way. I told one of the girls, I had the same problem with the word, relax. Like, relax Lady. It makes me tense up.

Sometimes, when you go to your regularly scheduled yoga class and you find there is a sub in your teachers replacement, there might be a bit of uncomfortability. Then, after a while, you find the sequencing and postures are similar and you can soften. Then, you might find the teacher saying the same thing your other teacher says but this time, you actually 'hear' it. You understand it and can integrate it into your body in a way, you couldn't before.

This doesn't make one teacher better than the other, just different.

I told the girl who had the problem with surrender, the story about when I did the trapeze in Santa Monica. I had taken enough lessons to do tricks etc., but I still couldn't do 'the catch'. All it was was letting go of one bar and reaching out at the exact time prompted towards the arms of someone else swinging on another bar.

Timing or maybe the teacher was just wrong for me, but I finally understood what my issue was.

I couldn't 'relax', 'surrender', or another definition I'm trying on, 'turn over' to another.

If we can change our idea of things, it maybe easier for us to understand.

The woman I spoke to got - 'the catch' in her mind and was finally able to understand in her body, what that meant to surrender physically and let the peace of a posture take over.

For me, I was able to turn over my stress to something else so that I could relax physically while driving in traffic or taking on a new challenge.

With a new season ahead of us, there is always the vata (wind) of change.

To stay grounded we need to root ourselves in the the surrender/catch/turning over of this season or more appropriately, new leaf!! Get it, leaf, fall...

Centering ourselves amidst the transition of warm to cold, introduction of newer, more comforting, wholesome foods, faster, more heating postures, more contemplative and reflective mindset; these are all difficult things to do if forced.

So give it time to adjust just like the weather.

Understand that it doesn't happen overnight and sometimes you need a new, different, substitute perspective on the same things you've been doing the last season.

When I was walking down Montana the other day and started to notice the first few colorful leaves dropping off the trees (we're a little behind the east coast foliage), I looked at each individual, they looked different but the same. They all came from the same tree and had these strong center lines in the middle with little branch lines coming out of them and turning into vibrant colors of red, orange, green, maroon.

Later that day, during the Sivasana point of class, I looked at all the students lying on the floor, some breathing short and heavy, some slow and steady. I saw their strong center lines and arms and legs of strength reaching out in different vibrant colors of energy. We are all such unique impressions from the same tree or studio in this case.

How alike we all are, in our differences.

And just like that, after all the years I've been teaching, I saw in a different way.

I could literally feel, the catch, the transition, the turning over of a new leaf and perspective in my teaching.

It happens every cycle of the moon, the seasons, the tides and beginning and end of a practice.

We are constantly transitioning. If we can stay steady in that and surrender to it, we will be in bliss and flow in the stillness.

Autumnally glowing,

Lady

New York Times

On September the 18^th, 1851, The New York Times was published for the first time. With 106 Pulitzers, the most of any new organization and the most popular on-line news organization with 30 million unique visitors per month, The NYTimes is a mainstay of our country’s information gathering, conversation and crosswords. It’s the largest local metropolitan newspaper and the 3^rd largest overall behind the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. The Gray Lady is its nickname and their mantra/motto is, ‘All The News that’s fit to print’.

The paper was started by Henry Jarvis Raymond with the model of conservativism as essential to the public good and radical in everything that requires reform. He did not believe everything in society is either right or wrong but had the desire to preserve, improve and reform.

He set an intention and it has stood the test of time. When you set an intention, it gets you to your goal. It keeps you in clarity so that the distractions of your life fall away.

When you repeat that intention inside and out, you have laser beam focus that keeps you on your path.

The NY Times looks the same with it's black and white columns that get your hands dirty, but every day the news changes.

Every day you come to the mat, your body looks the same, but the information inside and out changes. Use the news you feel and use it as fuel to stay with your intention, move through your practice and your day.

Preserve your intention, improve our strength and flexibility and reform our ideas about the past and future remaining grounded in the present moment.

Conserve your space, breath and energy on the mat and in the world. Be clear and concise with your movement. Stick to the headlines and allow your story to unfold.

The energy of the mind is the essence of life. Aristotle

Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you. Oprah Winfrey

Energy and persistence conquer all things. Benjamin Franklin

All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.

Napoleon Hill

"The more you seek security, the less of it you have. But the more you seek opportunity, the more likely it is that you will achieve the security that you desire." - Brian Tracy

All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant's revolving door. Albert Camus

Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives. Albert Einstein

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting. Buddha

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear. Mohandas Gandhi

All great achievements require time. Maya Angelou

Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. William Shakespeare

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. John F. Kennedy

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies. Mother Teresa

I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific. Lily Tomlin

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong. Bertrand Russell