Yoga on the Rim

I went on a spontaneous camping adventure to Arizona with my friend Jimmy, and Max came too! Jimmy is a sort of expert outdoorsman while I didn't even own a sleeping bag.

I pitched my first tent, slept in a sleeping bag and cooked dinner on a fire in the darkness of night.

We stayed one night in Sedona, AZ, the red rocks are beautiful! I have never seen so many stars in my life!  This Universe is grand and infinite, seeing all the stars, made me feel small, and then I realized my sorrows are even smaller. Though my pains may feel heavy some days, they are not as significant as the complexities and beauty this world offers.

On day two, we traveled to see The Grand Canyon.  I did not know much about this place except for it's on the list of places to visit in the world, like the Eiffel Tower or the Pyramids.  Jimmy suggested I do a yoga session at the canyon. He would take pictures. Sure, I said.

Yoga on the rim of The Grand Canyon, is the scariest thing I have ever done. Standing on the edge, I had to keep my focus on being grounded, back to basics in all my postures, I could not think about falling, or I would fall.  I've practiced these postures may times, in a room, with even flooring; it was challenging to feel the uneven earth and to look forth onto the other side which was 15 miles ahead of me, and a canyon that's about a mile deep in between. Then it came time to do a headstand, I couldn't get up. My heart was beating fast, I was nervous, because if I fell, I would roll off this cliff. I kept trying, finally I got up! I stayed for a bit, then to come down slowly and safely. I did it! I didn't fall! I didn't kill my self! I felt liberated.

I am reminded, life is to be lived on the rim, the space where you are doing with effort, when it's scary but you keep going, between too much and not enough, between knowing you can and doubting your abilities.  I'm glad to have experienced yoga on the rim, because that's what yoga is, it's on the rim.

Thank you to a dear friend who let me crash his trip to see The Grand Canyon and for being an encouraging presence. Until the next adventure!

Budapest Ness

I took a holiday to Budapest, Hungary.  I was intrigued by the history and culture and left with many new friends from all around the world.  I visited most of the tourist sites: Fisherman's Bastion, Central Market Hall, The Parliament...the list goes on.  These sites were beautiful and full of a rich history, what I did not expect was to come across so many friendly, warm people along the way.

For those who know me, in my regular life, I'm usually costuming or studying yoga, in bed by 10PM, this was not the case in Budapest.  Janelle and I stayed up until morning!  That is not my life!  People were very curious about where we were from, a black girl and an Asian girl traveling together really threw them off.  It was a good conversation starter.  People demanded I was from Asia.  It was endearing. The night life in Budapest is very casual, everyone is out to have fun and talk to those around them, I love that. We met so many cool people, talked until the morning and went on adventures with them the next day.  It reaffirms that it doesn't matter where we come from or what we do for a living but when there's a connection from human to human we can all get along and even share some laughs.

My experience in Budapest really opened my eyes to living in another country.  I love my home here in LA, I am grateful to own a home and share it with my pup Max, taking walks around the lake everyday but I realize that I could make a life almost anywhere.  Until the next adventure! Enjoy the photos. =)
If you can't view the slideshow, click here.

The Way Of Love

1 Corinthians 13:1 - 3

The Way of Love 
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

The Architecture of Peace

Yoga, what a powerful thing indeed.

I visited Michael O'Neil's On Yoga: The Architecture of Peace at the Taschen gallery in West Hollywood.

Yoga is deep y'all. As I walked up, I felt excited to visit the gallery, almost giddy, like a child. Walking around, seeing all the imagery, I felt something deeply, I started crying! Just me, walking around this gallery on a Wednesday afternoon crying. I'm sensitive.

The images of people committing themselves to something greater than themselves, committed to a spiritual life, a life beyond this flesh. This body of ours, it is also fleeting, though we do use it as a means to practice and discover.  Seeing the portrait of "One Arm", a sadhu, had me mesmerized. He has one arm! And a ring around his penis! (Totally not for sexual pleasure.) He wears a crown of rudraskha beads (he strung together the beads with one hand and a stick), no clothes, instead, covers his body in ashes (a symbol of death and rebirth). I mean, come on, that's real dedication and some of us can't even commit to going to the gym. Some of us think our bodies or their parts define who we are as people. Let's look deeper.

What really got me as I walked around, was the mural of "The Roots of Yoga," as soon as I saw the names B.K.S Iyengar (illustrated hanging upside down), Geeta and Prashant, I lost it. It was right there on the wall that I'm part of something bigger than I could ever imagine. And yes, we know we are part of a very big universe, but when it's right in front of you like that, you feel things. I'm grateful to be part of this architecture of peace, this path that is infinite and I'm figuring my way along it.

There were so many beautiful portraits, some of yogis I've heard of before, and some not. It really opened my perspective of yoga and all the different ways it manifests.

Yoga is not about being physically flexible, touching your toes or contorting your body, it's about the union of your outer self to your inner self, renunciation of the material world. It's about connecting with each other and to something greater than ourselves and we do that through practice. Through earnest, honest practice.

Why do we practice? Why do we go to class? To say we go? To look good?  To bring a sense of closeness and intergration within ourselves and the world we live in? We go to class but are we practicing yoga? We must find out.

I am grateful to Yoga, I am a beginner in my studies and I look forward to whatever I find within.

Blessings to you and your practice.

Conscience ask the question...

Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles.
Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances.
Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it.
Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?
Expediency ask the question, is it politic?
Vanity asks the question, is it popular?
But, conscience ask the question, is it right?
And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.