Love a REAL Nature Girl

I’m sorry, what was it that made Love a Nature Girl, http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/01/7-ways-to-love-a-nature-girl/   kind of all emotional and sort of pansy like compared to the whole love a nature guy, http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/01/7-ways-to-love-a-nature-guy-advice-from-a-nature-girl/,  who was raw and sexy and in touch with the planet. I arrogantly consider myself a REAL nature girl and happen to think it’s soooo much more than granola, flowers, alters, words, sweetness and music.

Being a REAL nature girl means I’m brave and courageous and willing to put my skis on when it’s snowing like hell and no one else is out there, just because I believe in the possibility of afternoon sunshine, knowing I could be rewarded with empty slopes, pristine powder and heart stopping views.

Big waves? Hell yeah I’m scared but it’s what keeps me alive. No fins, no board, just me and the ocean and let’s see what happens If nature guy happens to be there, awesome, but if not I’m still surfing my heart out and coming out of the ocean feeling more alive than I’ve ever felt, skin tingling, hair crusted in salt, breath panting, with a grin as wide as my face.

Want to be alone? REAL nature girls have no problem with this. Un-phased by hours and hours of hiking alone in the mountains, silence, danger, steep cliffs, slippery paths, marmots, sheer ecstasy in being so at one with nature, so completely self sufficient. The power of independence keeps us psyched and feeling super sexy.  We don’t need you nature guy, but we do want you J

REAL nature girls do yoga. But not yoga with the masses, in the studios, same classes, same time every week. Our yoga is nature. When our friends call to see if we’re coming to the studio on a Sunday morning, we’ve already taken our mat down to the lake at sunrise and soaked up the first rays, letting the horizon feed our soul, drawing in the freshest of morning air, reaching our fingers and toes to the trees, the sky, the sun and the stars. And when we’ve practiced our heart out, we sit, we contemplate and we bask in the joy of life in this very moment.

So yes we like granola, flowers, alters, words, sweetness and music but here’s my shout out to REAL nature girls who’s priority is not just the emotional aspects of nature but the raw, crazy, scary, active life of someone who cannot live without the absolute connection to the elements. I cannot live a day without gazing at the sky, staring at the stars, breathing the atmosphere or running my hands through the earth whether it be snow, salt or sand. It is what makes me human, what keeps me alive and makes me the best version of me. If Nature Guy wants to share it with me then bring it on. I can’t promise I’ll always be your girlfriend but I promise I’ll always be your REAL nature girl.

Please f&%*k off whilst I follow my heart

The trouble with following you heart is that most people around you think it’s a great byline but a really bad idea.  I recently decided to change from a secure, interesting, challenging, high profile job in one of the most beautiful and cleanest cities on the planet to a short term one year assignment that I can do standing on my head in pollution infested Asia. 

Dear friends and colleagues, I love you all, admire many of you and even respect a select few.  I am however going to tell you and all the career advice you’ve given me to kindly and respectfully f&%*k off.

I truly don’t have the words to tell you all why this utterly mad choice seems like exactly the right decision for me.  If you ask me for my ‘business case’ for my decision, well, I fess up, I don’t have one.  In fact instead of writing that business case I’m going to tell you 10 reasons why you can all f&%*k off and once I’ve done that I’m going to go out there and follow my heart and live courageously and in total bliss with all the consequences of this mad decision.

1. I’ve made madder decisions than this before and it’s always worked out.
2. I’m the kinda girl who’s been known to leave town or change countries when I need to dump a guy. A new job  and a new city are a breeze.
3. My parents drove around Australia with 3 kids under 6 in a bench seat Ford. I went to 6 different schools in 12 years.  This is normal in my family.
4. Home gets old sometimes.  You have to leave it to come back to it to make it feel like home.
5. My life is not your life, we want different things, you don’t understand it, get over it
6. I don’t want to be comforable.  Comfortable makes me break out in a cold sweat and feel like someone’s choking me.  I want uncomfortable.  It makes me feel alive.
7. I have a life plan, roughly, like in big brush strokes. Just trust me.
8. Unfamiliarity, new people, new culture, new language, new food, new everything ? It’s the best excuse ever to embrace humanity. Call it a forced heart opener.
9. My life is not something of the future.  It’s right here, right now and I will not wait any longer for my ‘best life’ to appear (thank you Oprah).
10. Because doing this makes me feel like the best and truest version of myself and that feeling is unbeatable.

So whilst I tell you all to f&%*k off, I also offer up tremendous gratitude to you all.  Every doubt or question you have had about this path I will take has offered me clarity about this choice for which I am truly grateful.

And for those of you wondering if following your heart is really as good as the multitude of Facebook quotes and hippy websites say it is, well, the answer is yes.  Be brave, tell the rest of the world to f&%*k off and go out there and find out for yourself.

FROM GAZA WITH LOVE: A yoga film for humanitarians

WARNING:  This is a yoga film that is not about self-promotion. You’ll note the yogi looks like a normal person, has a weird accent and isn’t very flexible. We hope that inspires all of you to try out this film.

One of my dearest friends Nicola, who just happens to be a talented film-maker, and I just made our first yoga film especially for humanitarians. I realize this sounds impossibly cheesy given the plethora of yoga films out there on the market. It might sound even cheesier when I say this one really came from the heart – but  really it did and we had some incredible fun doing it. This film is a quick yoga fix made especially for our humanitarian friends and colleagues working in crazy war torn, earthquake-ridden places just ‘cause we want them to feel amazing.

The idea started about five years ago when I was working in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories, (note my politically correct humanitarian terminology there). Three things happened during that time; 1) Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons asked for yoga DVDs and we couldn’t find any in Arabic, 2) Israel implemented Operation Cast Lead in Gaza after Hamas fired one rocket too many into Israel, and 3) I meditated my way into sanity and out of the pit of despair that was that horrific war.

From this place I knew that I wanted to find a way in which I could share the incredible way yoga makes me feel with other people, especially people who have to live and work in the most difficult circumstances and places on this planet, whilst giving up a good part of their lives to serve others.

It’s been both a short and a long road from that moment five years ago to the launch of our first film this week. I had to decide to put on hold the idea of teaching yoga to victims of conflict, acknowledging that for now this is not my niche.  I feel like it took years of talking about making this film and in the end it only took us a few days work in our spare time. Along the way I did my 200 YTT so that I would actually know how to teach yoga and somehow today I find myself teaching yoga at the hippest studio in Geneva and working my day job in the humanitarian sector. It’s a cool combination. There were moments when I thought I could never make this film happen but most days I can’t believe how quickly I made this dream a reality. My PR pal Carolyn who kicked me up the ass about a month ago and my friend Katrin who was the one who led me down the yoga path during our time in Palestine, both deserve a huge thanks for sticking with me on this one.

And of course big up to Nicola who made this film with me after spending most of her days watching raw footage of children with pieces of their bodies blown off by mines, trying to find a way to tell their story with dignity and get our unique humanitarian message out there. I think for her filming yoga was a walk in the park and she has been an incredible creative light in this project. She first let me practice teaching yoga on her over the summer as I trained to become a teacher. She then introduced me to the joys of Yoga Glo and practicing covert yoga in the edit suite at work at lunch times. And then she got my ass into her back garden, onto a yoga mat and in front of her camera so she could film it. One of the best moments was watching her do the yoga sequence with me as she was filming.

We both agree that whilst we love being humanitarians in our day jobs, it has been a seriously fun and inspiring experience to make this film together, to focus on our colleagues and friends out there in the crappiest places on the planet and know that we can give something to them that might just make their lives a little easier. We know we want to do more. For now we’ll focus on supporting our humanitarian buddies and one day I hope that we can bring yoga to all the people who’s day to day lives are one big war.

http://emergencyoga.wordpress.com

https://vimeo.com/66721877

What I really want

Two of my dearest friends and I had the good fortune and pleasure to spend a weekend in the mountains together recently.  I have known them both for years but it was the first time they had met.  It was one of those too rare 48 hours where you find yourselves feeling utterly connected to nature, to the earth, to each other and where the conversation and wine flow and souls are bared.  One friend is just a few months back from a year's tour du monde with his family, a gap year for the three of them, his wife and daughter included.  Finally we had the time together to talk deeply of how they as a family found there way to this year together and of the treasured moments they found within it.

Most striking to me was how they decided and planned this gap year.  Decided on the back of a conversation about what they and their friends all really thought about various life issues, and planned by asking each other what do you really want?

What do you really want?  Boy did this question stick with me.  When was the last time I had asked myself that question and answered honestly?  I'm pretty good at asking but as soon as I go to reply the answer actually becomes 'this is what I think is possible' or 'this is what I think I should do for my career' or 'this is what my friends and family want'.  It's hard not to let our conditioning and society's pressures answer the question for us. What in my heart of hearts do I really want?  What does my soul long for?  What will satisfy the deep yearning inside of me?

I think the only way to answer this question is to do it spontaneously.  So here's what I really want in no particular order.

I want to sleep in for a month with no reason to get up, no place to be and nothing to do
I want to wake up every morning and gasp at the incredible and beautiful views that surround me
I want to ease my way into the day with long cups of Earl Grey, good books and quietness
I want to experiment with my yoga practice for hours at a time, falling, giggling, conquering
I want to feel space inside every part of my body and all around me
I want to fall deeply in love in a way that feels warm and secure and crazy and passionate all at once
I want to teach all kinds of yoga to all kinds of people and bask in the pleasure of practicing together
I want to watch the entire collection of StarWars movies back to back on a cold rainy day, snuggled on the most comfortable sofa in the world - and then the next day I want to do the same with all the Godfather films
I want to blog my heart out, putting it all out there in the hope that someone feels just the same
I want to cook beautiful fresh food and feed my body with so much prana it starts to glow
I want to listen every day to deep silence where all I can hear is the beat of own my heart and my long slow breathing
I want to ski so madly I can barely breath
I want to feel deeply deeply connected to everything and everyone around me
I want to feel breathless every day because I am so overwhelmed by what nature has to offer
I want to hike to such high remote places that I become terrified and exhilarated by the power of the mountains and mother nature
I want to love myself completely every single day

For so long I have not defined what I really want.  When I look at this list above it hardly seems impossible, in fact it almost seems as if the list is full of simple things.

They say good things come in threes.  We were three that weekend in the mountains, one with his tour du monde to stimulate the thinking, me to think it - what do I really want, and the third I'm still to mention.  As luck or the universe would have it, the third friend in that weekend medley is one who believes in possibility.  A belief that in fact means we do not know from second to second what is possible.  There are possibilities out there every day that we have not even thought of.  And so I write my list of what I really want with the conviction that anything and everything is possible and the belief that just because I do not know all the possibilities does not mean they could not happen.

And so as we all slide or slink into 2013, I make this my year of pleasure, prana and most importantly possibility.  And I choose to believe that all the things I really want will come true.  And I dare you, to write your own list of what you really want and to believe that it is all possible.  I mean seriously, how hard can it be to spend a day watching StarWars????

JUDGEMENT DAY

Have you ever heard someone say ‘no judgement’, or ‘I’m not being judemental’, or ‘judgement free’ in a conversation where in fact what you are all actually doing is talking about how you feel about someone based on their actions?  Be honest in your answer now.  This is just a blog you are reading on a computer, you can say what you like and I won’t judge you – or will I?

Judgement is a word that has been on my mind a lot over the last few months, particularly because I undertook the first part of my training to become a yoga teacher.  The creation of a safe space for people to talk about their hopes, fear and dreams is crucial to the process of teaching people to be teachers and I found it fascinating as to how much we talked about judgement, of ourselves as wannabe teachers, of our bodies, of other people’s bodies and of our yoga abilities.  At some level it bothered me that one thing people kept saying was ‘I’m no judger’.  It made me wonder if that was really true of any of us.  Can we really walk through this life not having opinions of what we think of other people, and not making judgements.

It made me realize that I do it all the time.  In fact it is a constant part of my mind chatter as I walk down the street, go into work and interact with people on a daily basis.  In the most positive way it comes because I am fascinated by people and their lives and what has made them who they are today, but on the down side I realize that I usually draw the conclusions without knowing the facts.  I had even made some judgements of some of my yoga peeps which seriously made me question the type of person I am and who I want to be.  Oh my God I thought - I am the world’s worst judger – and even by saying that I am judging myself – aaagghhhhh – how do I get out of this cycle????

During one of the last days of our training we held a bonfire on the beach and into the fire we threw all the things we wanted to get rid of.  In went the shame, the fear, the old jobs, the self-hatred, the sadness and the failed relationships.  I didn’t think too hard about it and I flippantly threw judgement into the fire, not realizing how profound this act would be over the coming weeks.

There are two life-changing things that have happened since that bonfire night.  The first is a realization of the judgemental and ‘violent’ language I use against myself.  Every time I go to disparage myself in the name of humour or humility I am in fact judging myself. This must stop, for me and for all of us who do it.  You know how it goes, especially you women know how it goes.  Someone gives you a compliment and instead of saying thank you, you tell them how cheap your new dress is, or how your new hair do is just to cover up the grey or how the good job you did last week was luck.  You fail to do something perfectly and in your mind you are suddenly fret with the possibilities of being a terrible parent, or losing your job, or being dumped by your partner.  All of these things are judgement on ourselves, on us not being good enough or being ‘enough’.  We would be mortified to be judging someone else in this way and in these last weeks since the bonfire I have come to believe that treating ourselves in this way is an adage for how we then treat others.  The opposite is of course, understanding, compassion and respect, three qualities which would enable us and all those around us to lead much happier and more loving lives.

The second thing that has happened is that the stories I tell myself about people I see on the street, in the park and at work have changed their tone.  I noticed this first when I saw a very overweight woman on the street.  Instead of my usual judgemental thought of ‘wow, she doesn’t respect her body because she is so fat’, I found myself thinking, ‘I wonder what happened in her life, how could I know, why am I judging, maybe she is really ill, or abused and in fact I don’t know so just shut up monkey mind’.  After that thought a wave of compassion came over for me, for the woman, for myself, for humanity.  I never know what has happened in people’s lives unless they choose to tell me, so in fact there is no use at all for the moment that I spend wondering about and judging people.  I doubt I am going to stop people watching, nor stop being intrigued by people’s lives but I can certainly stop telling myself stories about them in my head.  Now I find myself compelled to bring compassion to those thoughts as well as acknowledgement that their story is their own and not mine to tell.

So please don’t read this and judge yourself for having had judgemental thoughts about yourself or other people.  Liberate yourself, start your own bonfire, (I suggest you use the kitchen sink or a BBQ if you don’t have a beach close by), and throw judgement into the flames.  Then find some space in your heart for compassion, understanding and love, first for yourself, and then let it spill over into all the other millions of interactions and relationships you have every day of your life.  And if it takes time for this to happen, just remember not to judge yourself along the way.  We are all already enough just as we are.

Creating 2012

So it's almost the end of the first month of 2012.  Australia day has already passed in a haze of no wuckers boomer, silly Aussie humour and pavlovas so before we move into 'the rest of the year' I thought I should take these last days of January to wish everyone an incredible and wonderful 2012.  And seriously, I hope it is a year of much peace, love, joy and happiness for all.  


New Year's Eve or Old Year's Night (however you want to see it) is my absolute favourite moment in the year.  It is my one annual opportunity to wipe the slate clean of whatever didn't work out from the year before and to dream and plan all kinds of amazing things for the coming year - what an opportunity!!!! It's one that fills me with silly excitement and huge anticipation and it's the perfect excuse to drink champagne with great friends and family.  


In our household we have named 2012 The Year of It All Being Easy.  Gone are the days of waiting to see what will happen to us over the next 12 months and waiting to see what luck or challenges befall us.  This year I am determined to create just the year I want.  So let's not create a difficult year but instead welcome in a year where everything is effortless and easy.


For those of you who know me well, you also know that I am a somewhat positive soul (I blame/thank my mother and the Pollyanna books), and so I truly believe that what I put out into this world will indeed come back to me.  Apparently Deepak Chopra thinks the same with his 'Law of Karma' so I'm in good company.


In the past I've written lists of things I want to attract into my life and created tables of goals and objectives and spent time wishing and wishing for fabulous things.  This year I'm taking a slightly different approach and leaving some space for fabulous stuff to just kind of wing its way to me.  I think officially it's called detachment but rather than give it a label and wonder yet again if I have or haven't 'achieved' detachment, I'm going to let it all go and just create a general vibe of coolness and relaxedness around me - that way there's no pressure :-)


All coolness aside I still do want to have an incredible 2012 so here are some words which describe my hopes and dreams for the coming year:


Breathing space
Abundance
Passion
Energy
Freedom
Love
Stillness
Romance
Health


My theory is that if I say and think these words enough then I might just become them and however kooky that might seem it costs me nothing to try.  At this point I confess that I also have a secret list in my head of things I want to do this year but I refuse to write it down for now and instead just see what comes my way.  It all seems to be going well so far and the first 29 days of 2012 are indeed rather fabulous.  


So before this first month of the year ends and I feel no longer credible to wish you  a happy new year, I shall indeed send you all my best thoughts, energy and love in the hope that it brings you just the kind of 2012 you want.

Snow and stillness

This weekend I planned to get in a little skiing before the Christmas chalet ski week. There's definitely no shortage of snow, in fact there's so much snow that I find myself in Grimentz instead of Zinal due to road closures. Ok by me to enjoy this old and beautifully picturesque Swiss mountain village. So with the ski pistes closed because of avalanche risk I find myself snowed in and forced into relaxation - and I'm glad for it. But the question turning itself over in my mind is why do I need mother nature to force me into stillness? Surely I can choose to relax and be still every day of my life, so why don't I? Ultimately it's about giving myself permission to relax and do nothing without seeing it as a waste of time, worrying about a never ending list to be ticked off. This weekend the snow has brought with it more than avalanches and muted ancient village streets. The blizzards of Val d'Anniviers have given me a weekend of rest and reflection and the opportunity to permit myself some stillness and breathing space. I confess it feels pretty good.......but I still hope for a good ski day tomorrow :-)

Stuff I like

In no particular order....

Brunch on Sundays
New ideas
Road trips with best friends
Anticipation
Snowscapes
Beach runs
Dogs smiling
A giant cup of tea before anyone else is up
Being first on the slopes
Open fires
Anyone who cooks for me
Creative head space
Mountains
Guys who can fix stuff
Straight talkers
A perfectly caught wave
Bonfires
Conversation that makes me think
Being alone in an art gallery
The smell of autumn and then soon after of snow
Avocados
Time just for breathing
Sunshine
Making cookies

Down dogs, change and uncontrollable toes - the challenging life of a yogi

I think you all know that I really dig this yoga gig and that I feel I may have even found something like a purpose in life.  For those close to me I have probably already bored you to tears with various recommendations for different positions, or perhaps even have dragged you to a yoga class, or sent you long emails outlining the pros and cons of different teachers with links to various podcasts.  You know I do it with the best intentions, and  honestly, I do it because yoga makes me feel soooooo good that I want everyone else to have that feeling too.

But I have to confess that lately I really suck at yoga.  And I don't just mean the physical yoga poses, I mean the whole realm that is yoga, the meditation, the chanting, the non-violence, the spirituality that goes with it and I am finding it really really hard to feel very 'yogic'.  I keep reminding myself of what Patric (my Innercityoga god) says, '...change comes one down dog pose at a time....'  Patric also says that if we can't control our toes (which honestly I really can't most days), then how can we possibly think about being in control of our lives.  This gives me the reality check but why is it so damn hard to remember this stuff and laugh about it when I am in the thick of things.

Here's my latest crisis.  I want to be able to teach yoga, in fact I even signed up to do a teacher training all the way over in Canada next year which a month ago felt like a huge step forward in this life long yoga journey.  But these days I can barely get my booty on the mat - and controlling my toes whilst on it is definitely in the super tricky category.  Everyone tells me that to be a good yoga teacher you have to have a great home practice, i.e., set the example for the people I may one day teach.  I really wanna be that fantastic yogi teacher but it's like the harder I try the more yoga begins to feel like a chore - oh god I feel blasphemous just saying that.

Deepak Chopra says detach, The Secret says attract, Zen Habits tells me to simplify, Robin Sharma tells me to get up at 5am but what I really want to do is just lie down in savasana and tell them all to f*$@&k off.

I have the feeling that life isn't really that difficult, it's not really so hard to be a yogi and that being spiritual shouldn't be confusing.  Did I miss something in all of this?  Yeah I get it that yoga is definitely a life long journey, that's the bonus of it all, it's something I don't have to 'finish' and for this little Belbin 'completer finisher', that really takes the pressure off.  So why do I suddenly feel such pressure to do 'yoga' and be a good yogi?

I don't know the answer to this question and I don't know how to detach from it, attract the solution, simplify my response and getting up at 5am is definitely not going to enlighten me.  I guess what I do know is that I could go and stand on my yoga mat tonight and that this is neither hard nor confusing.  It's a purple mat.  I just have to put it on the floor in the middle of the room, stand there and see what happens.  And maybe, just maybe I'll bust out a down dog or two, hell I may even go for some toe control :-)

PS - all top tips, like minded thoughts and advice about how to navigate this yoga spiritual journey are very welcome!!!!!!

Stuff I learned from mountains

Over the last two and half years I have spent a lot of time alone in the mountains, hiking and skiing.  This is me as my best self in my best moments and these mountains have so far taught me a lot of stuff.  Here's some of it so that when you have the choice to stay in bed or  get up and get into the mountains, you might just choose the better option.

• Mountains need to be loved and respected
• There are things in this world a lot bigger than any of us
• I'll always feel way better when I finish than if I never started
• Life holds surprises around every corner (including marmottes, 4000 meter views, wild strawberries and old mountain men making whittling wood)
• Life doesn't have to be filled with words, silence is its own language
• I'm not meant to understand everything in this life
• Being close to nature is as essential as breathing for me
• Following the seasons helps me learn about life
• Staying with the tough stuff yields better results than trying to escape
• Patience
• I don't need to know everything before I start
• Confidence grows bit by bit
• It's ok to trust your instincts but sometimes you have to learn them first
• You cannot get sick or bored of being in the mountains

How I became a chanting freak

A year ago I’d never chanted in my life.  A month ago I was thinking that chanting Sanskrit and calling it yoga was only for those who had opted out of life.  Two weeks ago I was in a permanent state of panic as I boarded the plane for my first ever yoga retreat that somehow included three chanting sessions a day.  Post retreat and I have officially become a chanting freak.  I don’t know what went wrong (or right….)

I am the girl who crawled under the desk when the school music teacher asked us to sing nursery rhymes out loud.

I am the girl who’s mother told her that she needed a life time of singing lessons just to be able to open her mouth (my rendition of Joan Jett’s ‘I love Rock ‘n’ Roll’ can only have been truly awful).

I am the girl who runs at light speed in the opposite direction of every karaoke bar.

I am the girl who booked a yoga and chanting retreat knowing all of this…… what the f%@*k was I thinking?????

Day 1 and I actually feel like I have a piece of hard cheese wedged in my throat.  My chant is stuck and I am mostly miming the chant.  I ask for tips which are gladly given and realize I am not the only one who feels the hard cheese.

Day 2 and I find the chant moving me into a highly emotional state where if I do let a tear slip out during the chant I am likely to end up howling and sobbing in a pitiful mess on the floor – I have no idea why.  Note that everyone else seems to be crying gracefully and quietly…..no pressure right?

Day 3 and now I’m wondering why I am the only one not crying during the chant, I think I am insensitive and wonder if I am so scared by life that I am unable to show emotion.  Plus my back really hurts from sitting on the floor chanting three times a day.  I still turn up to every session, it’s starting to be an addiction.

Day 4 and my worst nightmare occurs, we are asked to chant some sounds individually (ok I admit, just sounds, not like real words or anything).  Everyone does it and I actually tell the instructor ‘no thanks I’ll pass’.  Yes just like that I opt out.  I breathe a sigh of relief, I’ve done it, I got away with not having to chant by myself with everyone listening – woooo hooooo!!!! Until I get asked a second time and with the ask I am told that nothing bad can happen because the group loves me unconditionally………..like geeeeeeze, how can I say no after that, plus if I don’t chant I’ll probably just cry which would be like way worse in front of my 20 new yoga/chanting pals.  So I do it and I am mortified for the rest of the evening although strangely I seem to have survived.

Day 5 and I actually feel a little better about chanting.  I mean seriously, how can it get any worse than the previous day?  One of the other girls, a seriously hip Parisian fashion designer, tells me I have a ‘smokey’ voice.  I dig it and feel just a little bit soulful about the chanting.  I even open my mouth when I chant at lunch time and I stop miming.

Day 6 and I may just be chanting for dear life.  I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my chest and that the hard cheese has come unstuck from my throat.  We move from sitting and chanting to dancing and chanting and even chanting whilst staring into each other’s eyes.  I have some fleeting reservations about how super uncool this all is but decide to ignore them and just keep chanting – what the hell has gotten into me?

Day 7 which is the last day of the retreat and I am truly sad that this is the last time I will chant with this wonderful group of people but full of happiness to feel the vibration of the beautiful Sanskrit words as they lift out of our mouths and float across the valley.  I realize that on that cheesy thought, I have become a chanting freak. Om Namah Shivaya rock on!

The Longest Om

Well now that I am officially on holiday for a month in Australia I thought I better get my booty to a real yoga class instead of just jiving to some Kundalini shaking after a beer or two, as I did last night.

At this stage, I must point out that my yoga commitment is to do “some kind” of yoga every day, and I remind you all that yoga does indeed have a lot of different aspects to it—including lying about a lot in savasana. Okay I should also point out that I don’t like rules, so the whole no-food-no-alcohol-before-yoga rule is just dying to be broken, in my book.

I confess that this evening was the first time I ever regretted breaking that rule. I visited a très trendy Sydney power yoga studio which, it turns out, is all about doing yoga really fast in 40 degree heat. Fifteen minutes into the class I was really wishing I hadn’t eaten that baked ricotta cheesecake just an hour before hitting the mat. So whilst I managed to keep my cheesecake in, I didn’t manage to stifle my near hysterical giggles as the class both opened and ended with the three of the longest, loudest Oms I’ve ever heard.

Dude! Seriously, like when did Om-ing become an Olympic sport?

You probably think I’m exaggerating about the Om, and far be it for me, as a newbie yogini, to judge what is and isn’t a good looking Om, but I must assert that when your insides jiggle from the sound vibrations and you want to clamp your hands over your ears because you feel like you’re inside a horror movie, the Om is probably over the top.

Of course this whole Om palaver (palaver is one of my favourite words ever, and if you don’t know what it means then you should definitely look it up) only served as an in-my-face reminder of why us Aussies are so good at sports… it’s the competitive streak! I have it; you know youhave it; and today I think maybe it was in the yoga class with that Om—just a little bit. And if it wasn’t the Om Olympics, then the only rationale answer is that these très trendy power yogis are just so bloody fit that they have huge lungs just dying to OOOOMMMMMMM. This was an actual real thought I had in class today.

On the plus side, I think the high temperatures caused me to sweat out all the cheesecake toxins and forced me to put aside my anally retentive neurosis about other people’s hygiene as I watched my yogi neighbour sweat the entire liquid contents of his body onto the ‘communal’ yoga mat. Actually, I’m lying. I don’t think I can go back, just in case the mat I would end up using was once that of my sweaty neighbour.

And as I’m on holiday, I’d rather eat cheesecake (and probably some lamingtons and a nice custard tart) at whatever time of day I bloody like, thank you very much.

Phew, looks like I will be on that mat a lot this month if I want to retain any kind of yoga-like body. There could indeed be worst things in life.

http://recoveringyogi.com/the-longest-om-ever…-like-really-ever/

Family

We love them unquestionably, we’d walk on hot coals to make sure they are ok and seriously consider evil deeds against anyone who threatened them.  Why then do some of us (i.e., me) find it so challenging to spend any length of time with our families?  Don’t get me wrong, I have a great time when we all hang out but I’m always happy to grab an hour on my own and to eventually escape the family hold.  Logically I know that because I live thousands of kilometers away from them and only see them every few years, that by default I rely on my close friends to be that family on a day to day basis - (big up and thanks to all my lovely friends for being family).  Things that I may have discussed with my parents or my sister if we lived in the same country now get discussed and debated with girlfriends.  It’s been like that for the past 21 years since I flew the coop and went off to university, it’s probably not going to change now.  But somehow when we see each other, we all have an expectation that because we are family we have the same kinds of friendships with each other than we do with our friends who we see much more regularly.  Doesn’t make sense when you think about it does it?  On the other hand I also know that what better way to make me crazy than to hold up a plethora of mirrors reflecting my every best and worst trait and ask me to spend a couple of weeks with those mirrors.  Because if nothing else we are all indeed a genetic and sociological reflection of our families, maybe not entirely but enough to make me nervous.  And whilst it’s great to have someone say how lovely it is that you are clever like this aunt or sporty like that uncle, it’s a bit of a shock to look and recognize the negative traits which you know you have inherited as well.  

So I can’t help but ask myself what the lesson is here.  I certainly feel grateful for all the incredible qualities I did inherit.  Those blue eyes which are ever so boring at home are far more exotic where I live now.  If it wasn’t for my parent’s love of travel I’d probably still be sitting on my butt in Australia.  Being made to read all those Pollyanna books as a child and being forced to play the glad game has given me the gift of gratitude and the ability to turn almost any negative situation into a positive one.  My uncles love of geneology explains my interest in different cultures and my aunt’s work at the National Library explains my ferocious reading habit.  But of course I also have the pleasure of understanding why I am many things that I don’t want to be.  So in the spirit of Pollyanna, today I choose to be glad that I can see my faults, that I have a greater understanding of why I have developed some of them and that I have the power to change the way I behave and become a better person.  And I have my family to thank for that.

Airports

Just when I thought it was possible to be so over traveling and airports, I flew into LAX from Monterey.  Let me just start by saying that it seems like I’m having a gold star airport day.  It started with a fantastically cheery and down home American cab driver who took me in the middle of Monterey’s worst storm to its tiny little airport.  He knew at a glance whether my flight was going to go despite the weather, that it was on time and directed me straight to the check in counter.  Monterey Penninsula Airport at 5am is like a sleepy little community waking up where everyone knows each other and where they just can’t believe you are going to fly all the way to Nairobi from Monterey :-) 

The flight to LA only gets better as I watch the sun rise over a stunning cloud city.  It was like it was getting me ready for the descent over and into one of the most awesome cities on earth.  Whether you love or hate LA, you have to admit it is impressive and stunning because of its size and because of the beautiful complexity of its highways, roads and neighbourhoods.  Just when I was recovering from the spectacle of the LA landscape, we landed in an entirely new sub-city called LAX.  This place is insane with its own road system, sub sub cities and buses giving way for planes which cross within what seems like just meters of you.  Is it possible to be in love with a giant monstrosity of an airport, hmmmm airport love, I think my crush just moved from Dubai to the City of Angels.