~ Gravity : Power : Yoga ~

So, if you know me, you know I’m an IT guy who doesn’t like to do things the manual way (slow tedious way)…  I’ve often wondered why it’s so incredibly hard to find a yoga class while I’m traveling.   Google the yoga studios, look at the schedules, try to compare times and locations… There has to be a better way… Right?

Today I found the iPhone app for MindBodyOnline.. Queue the ahaa music and shining lights!  Not only does it know about all the yoga classes, it uses the GPS to determine where you and gives you all the classes, names, and descriptions all in one shiny, glorious place!!!!

What are you waiting for, get it now!  O, and for those without iPhones… I guess you will just have to ask a friend for help

So I started this journey in January of 2009, after a long rant conversation about why I wanted a different style of yoga here in Tampa.  My good friend and teacher told me to shut up and do it… or maybe she quoted Ghandi and told me to “be the change I want to see in the world”.  Either way, I ended up in teacher training and had the best of intentions of getting out and setting this town on fire.  Well, one appendix later and a new born child and I some how never found the time to be that change.

This is all to say that the time as come, I have my first class to teach on Thursday at 5pm subbing for Tiffany.   So if you don’t have anything better to do, come on out and help me make my first teaching class a memorable one.   While It is a flow class, if you know me you also know I’ll find some way to get everybody upside down!  Yoga Bats unite!

~ Namaste
SB

I’m not sure why we need one of these a year… How bout the 31st of every month is yoga day

Either way, make sure you take advantage of this fabulous day and get your yoga on!  The official site is YogaDayUSA but you can also find great deals at some of the online yoga classes like YogaVibes or their tweet here with the coupon code.

I guess what I’m saying is this: No matter how you do it, get it done

~Namaste
SB

This weekend one of my all time favorite teachers is in town doing a 3 day workshop of what promises to be an amazing weekend.   My yoga today however, will be a perfect mix of meditation, rest, and watching the little one while my beautiful wife immerses herself in a fantastic yoga workshop weekend.

After all, the gift of yoga is for me the yoga itself.  Finding a way to both share yoga with another, and take part in the mental and physical health of someone I love… Is there anything better?

Join me today, or this week, in enabling somebody… In sharing the gift of yoga with another.

~Namaste and happy freezing cold day to everybody!   Stay warm!

As some of you may have noticed my two teachers listed over there on the right hand side, well, they FINALLY made it out to teach a workshop for our group of yogi’s here in FL.  I say finally because while I can go to them, I cannot take my fellow FL yogis with me.  It was a fantastic weekend and really made me remember a lot of things about why I practice, why I loved their special style so very much when we were living in SM, and why I wanted to become a teacher.

For those of you who have not had the opportunity to practice with Brick & Krista Cahill, I have to say, there is no better class for a power yoga junkie!!!  Their special blend of kick ass power with a focus on “flying” gives me just the right amount of physical exertion that allows me and my ADD mind to finally find that calm place (evident by my snoring in svasana!)

It was the lack of this specific style of yoga that convinced me that I needed to be in teacher training, and that I needed to bring this style to the people of Tampa FL.  I realize this morning that I have forgotten that path.  The fact that I dubbed myself “Daddy Soft” this weekend is further proof that I need to get back on the plan to bring this unique blend of power and grace to a new community.

So to B&K, thank you for being my teachers, thank you for the inspiration to better myself, and thank you for sharing your gift with all my fellow yogis here in Tampa this last weekend.

Next stop, SB will be working towards an ass kicker class of his own…  Stay tuned!

For those who would like to see more of what I’m talking about you should definitely visit one of their classes in Venice CA, or watch here for info on when they will have class streaming enabled to share with the masses!  Or you can check out their websites: Brock & Krista

Both on and off the mat I find myself engulfed in a world of ADD and it is driving me nuts!

When did my life become so busy and complicated that I not only do two things at once but find myself doing three or more… and doing them all badly!  As I type this I’m watching TV, working on MY blog, updating the OmBlogger main site, and watching email come in and checking it to make sure it’s not “work”.

This Sunday on the plane home from my last trip I decided that I would try to focus on a single task at a time, to take each task and focus.   Then I realized who I am, and that while this is a great idea, it will never happen.  SO, I decided to at least bring awareness to my tasks, to notice how many different things I’m doing at the same time, and to try to weed out the nonsense ones.

What I’ve noticed is that I do a lot of things out of habit like checking mail as it comes in.  Is there really an email that can’t wait 15 minutes for me to respond so I can finish writing a blog post?  Well, there may actually be, but here’s the point, if I can’t learn to find my Drishti, than I will never calm my mind…

Day 3 of my experiment, and as I finish this post I am only doing 2 things…

How many things do you do at once on an average day?
How many of those things need to be done at the same time?

Its been far too long my friends, I’m sorry to say I’ve been too busy to blog.  It is sad but true.  Today, I realized just how long it had been, and realized it was time once again to get by ass back here and share the love.

Since the birth of our baby in June I have to say I’ve been further away from my practice than ever before, but that’s really no excuse.   These last few months I’ve been traveling and while being away from my girls, I have had the opportunity to make a decision for my practice.  With 24 hours in a day, 8 of which belong to the customer, what do I do with the rest of my day.  Normally I’d find a drinking buddy, go have dinner and drink the night away.  This was great for a week or so, but then I started to question what I was doing, and why I wasn’t using this time for the good of my soul instead of the bad.

SO, I made the conscious decision that if I had to be away from my family I would at the very least take care of my body and mind… So for the last few weeks I’ve made almost a class a day while on the road.  The initial benefits of getting back to a normal practice are all there, plus I quickly realized how cool it was to have the opportunity to take from that many different teachers.  Some good, some not as good, one that was down right bad… But I’d like to think I learned something from each and every one of them.  Phrases like “let the electricity from your breath spark the tingle in your fingers” as we came out of svasana.  In each class we take there are things that are the same, maybe we do them the same, maybe they are just taught the same, but hearing phrases like this really helped me realize that there are truly many paths to the same destination.

What have you done today to recognize and set your sights on your destination?  Have you checked your path, are you still on it? Or does it need to be totally adjusted?  Any way you look at it, they are all OK, just choose consciously to follow your path and you will always end up where you need to be.

I haven’t done a lot of practice these days, mostly because I’m either exhausted from the addition or, no that’s pretty much it.

Last night my sweet wife actually got off work early enough to make a yoga class so I sent her out and decided I’d include the “muppet” in my practice.   It’s amazing how much fun a yoga class can be when you have to make faces in every pose, updog with a goofy face, yes I can!  For all those yogi’s struggling with practice and family, give it a shot.  Put your baby in their favorite seat at the front of your mat, let them be a distraction, incorporate them into your would of yoga and down the road you might just end up with a great little yogi yourself.

Here’s what I do:

Baby in chair at the front of my mat

• Sun Salutations being sure to engage the little one (2-4 rounds)
• Some dancing warriors
• Warrior III making sure you are “flying” right over them
• Low lunge tickling toes

Now take your little one out and hold her for the next round

• Squats while holding her in front of you, arms extended (all the way to standing) for 2 rounds
• Wide legged forward fold gently swinging the little one between your legs, this adds weight and a great stretch
• baddha konasana with the feet out further than normal and the baby’s head resting in your foot cradle
• seated wide legged forward fold making sure to blow out some “raspberries” on her tummy
• legs straight out front for some forward folding with your baby on your legs

Now comes the fun part: Abs

• Holding your little one like a medicine ball (they will enjoy this too) lay flat on the ground
• lift your legs to the sky bottoms of the feet pointing towards the ceiling
• slowly lower one leg at a time all the way to the floor, then back up (10x each side)
• Laying on your back feet up, slowly work towards a reclined wide legged stretch by moving the legs apart 1 foot at a time, then holding that for 5 breaths, then lower another foot (to the side) and hold for 5 breaths
• Do the same pattern in reverse until your feet are back together
• set your baby on your low tummy (this will help you remember to engage these low abs and pull them towards your spine)
• do baby navasana lifting the legs and upper torso off the ground at the same time, keeping the back straight, then lower back down (5x)

Enjoy any other poses you like.  By this time my munchkin is ready for a nap so I put her down and come back for anything I have left to do (inversions usually) then work my way into svasana (and try not to go to sleep).

Well, there it is, that’s how a daddy does yoga when he’s got baby duty.  It may not be power yoga, but it’s usually just what this tired dad needs these days!  I hope that if your reading this your thinking about how you can incorporate little ones into your yoga practice (if you have them) and help teach them that it can be a fantastic shared time between the two of you.

~ Namaste

Really, everyone?

A recent conversation with a great friend has left me a little speechless.  The conversation was about another teacher that teaches only power, the comment: That they are too showy, and only care about the physical side of the practice.

While the conversation ended hours ago, I find myself going back to that thought.  I understand that the original intent, and the ultimate goal of yoga is to become one with body and mind.  The union of the physical and mental.  But the old saying “Truth is one, paths are many” keeps running thru my head.

As teachers our duty is to engage the students that are on their path, to help them on their way.  For me, I know my path would not have started, it would have been dead at the first stepping stone, had I not quickly found my way into a power class.  Now that I’ve been practicing for longer, I do find the need to have power days as well as lighter days, but now my mental path starts before, during, and after any practice.

I guess what I’m trying to say, is that yoga IS for everyone, in every walk of life, and every place along the path, and thank you to all the teachers that take us along for the ride, you are all loved!

~ Namaste

Well, not yet.  But as I think about how I want my life to play out, I’m having a REALLY hard time figuring out how to take on a career in yoga.

A little background, I currently work as an IT security consultant, I make great money, work from home (and get to see my daughter all day), and best of all I get paid to hack into our customers networks and then show them how to make their networks better.  Sounds like a dream job, right?!  The problem is that the glamorous parts only make up about 10% of my activities these days, the rest of my time is spent filling out TPS Reports (Office Space reference).

As I ponder the idea of making the business of spreading yoga my life, I keep wondering how I can make anywhere near the living that I do as an IT consultant.   I’d have to teach 3 classes/day – 6 days/week.   As I speak to others about this everybody seems to think that I will burn out, that this is too much.  I think the general feeling is that 1-2 classes/day is about the max a teacher can teach without burning out.

My questions to the readers:

1. Do you teach?
2. How many classes/week
3. Why would 1.5 – 3hrs /day be too much? (I work 12 hours days sitting in front of a computer most days)
4. Do you do something else or is teaching your only career?

I’ll post the total of the responses in another post, but I’m interested to see what others are doing, and very interested to see why this is SO different that meeting with customers for 8hrs a day doing presentations and in my case, hacking.

~ Namaste  ~ SB