Our bodies house our spirits. They don’t define our spirits. You are amazing beyond your body. Let me say that again. You are amazing beyond your body.

You are going to make wrong and right decisions when it comes to caring for this beautiful architecture of  bones, blood, muscle, nerves, etc…but your SOUL. Oh, your soul. It’s going to live past everything else.

Here’s how you really create wellness and fitness in your life. Just say one selfless thing. Say it once. If it affects someone else, or houses someone else, or keeps someone warm, you have done it. You have made the world a better place. You’re fit.

Do all of this when it is really hard to do. I speak as a scrapper, streetwise, angry, old woman….be nice when the easy choice is to snap.

I like to think that we are given genetics like we are dealt cards in Vegas. It’s barely up to us. Our bodies are barely our decision. Yes, take care of it as much as you can. Beyond all of that. Just be nice.

Be generous and see what happens.

Don’t play the mediocre game that is so obvious. Work the hard road. The one that makes you a better, more authentic person. The one that brings more dimension and richness to your character, your perspective, your art.

Hold your hand out and help a friend or stranger out.  Let someone know that you are there to help, to listen, to love. And if it is you that needs help, ask for it.

You are amazing beyond your body. Inner Alignment. Outter alignment follows.

I wish I could control the world….

I am so mad that I can’t.

I want everyone to put down their guns, their walls, their bubble gum.

Stop pulling your weight around. Just let go and tell me you love me, tell them you love them, scream it out and put your big penny in your endless fountain.

Oh, please, make a fool of yourself. Flap around in the gulf, spill your guts onto the deck, cry out in the night, howl at the moon….

Please join me on the fools journey, and spread your inexperienced wing. I will cower under it….

Tonight I passed by a neighbors house. They were blasting the most beautiful melody from their kitchen. They were kissing over their stove. They were giggling as the air felt beautiful and their home spread their hearts on their walls. Okay, that last part was my imagination.

The important part is that it inspired. Oh, symphony. Oh, sunset. Oh breeze blowing through. Oh perfect lighting. Those lovers have no idea that they changed my life tonight. More than this, I slowed down, and I witnessed love in someone other than myself.

Oh friends. Witness love.  See it out your window, through your door, in your ceiling, out your floor. Love. Love as an action, and an inward reflecting. Just devote to and pray for it. Welcome it, and send it away. Love…..keep on reaching for it and talking about it.

It’s the new black.

Meaning it will hurt you, but, oh, God, it’s worth it. Hurt, and then heal, and your love will get even bigger.

Playlist

Opening the Gates   Drala
Where The Light Gets In    Sennen
Elevator Beat     Nancy Wilson
Intro: Loving   India.Arie
Feeling Good    Nina Simone
The_XX__Intro
Lenny_Kravitz_Let_love_rule
A Letter To Elise     The Cure
Sigur_Ros__Njosnavelin_acoustic_live_in_Paris
Brian_Jonestown_Massacre__Anemone
Wild Is the Wind    Cat Power
Sarah    Ray LaMontagne
Silver & Gold      Neil Young
Rocket Man   My Morning Jacket
Ready for Love  India.Arie
Dawn    David Darling

Love came, and became like blood in my body. It rushed through my veins and encircled my heart. Everywhere I looked, I saw one thing. Love’s name written on my limbs, on my left palm, on my forehead, on the back of my neck, on my right big toe…Oh, my friend, all that you see of me is just a shell, and the rest belongs to love. – Rumi

May I examine my mind in all actions and as soon as a negative state occurs, since it endangers myself and others, may I firmly face and avert it.

~ Tenzin Gyatso (born: 1935-07-06 age: 74) the fourteenth Dalai Lama

Good and Bad- both are Guru”s for us in this Universe. If we see Good things, we feel like doing them. If we see bad things we feel like leaving them. It all Depends on Individual choices and Conception of things in Mind. We make a Mould of these things and follow them with firm formations in Mind. If bad is there we can recognize Good, In darkness only we know the value of Lights Brightness. – Sri Ramana.

My life continues to pry my heart and soul open. The experiences, each with many ingredients, continue to cook and serve. Today I learned that hard decisions have to come up and expand my understanding of the world and my place in it. I mourn and rejoice all in the same breath. I dance and wither in big and small ways. Whatever comes my way, I learn to loosen my grip a little more and ride the wave all the way to the sand. One thing I know for sure, I am always going to pick up, turn around, and get back out in the ocean.

Join me.

It takes time. It takes light. It takes wisdom. It takes love. Most of all…..it takes courage to peel away everything but what is important and be honest. Honest with fearless abandon.

Here is what I wish for you and me…..that we see goodness, grand gestures, long hugs and awkward moments as tiny bits of beauty. That we see and create beauty on a moment to moment basis, even when we feel lost, even when we are overwhelmed….that we feel love even when we feel attacked. Even in small insignificant moments – we feel whole.

I wish these things when I blow out candles….when I look around and want to tell everyone that my wishes every year are about them.

Art makes sense when all of this comes together inside of me and I see it on a wall or out the radio or beaming out of the people I meet. Art is when the outside world melds with my insides and we love each other, or even hate each other. Same difference.

Playlist

Elevator Beat    2:44    Nancy Wilson
We All  Need Saving Jon_McLaughlin
Secret    4:55    Maroon 5
Gold    4:00    Interference
Hide & Seek 2    4:17    Imogen Heap
John legend and Pink doing dont’ give up
Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight    3:08    Amos Lee
She Has No Time    5:46    Keane
Mercy Street    6:21    Peter Gabriel
The Power of Goodbye    4:14    Vienna Boys Choir
Passing By    4:52    Zero 7    When It Falls
Flow    4:34    Sade    Lovers Rock
The Rain Song    7:39    Led Zeppelin    Led Zeppelin

Reading Finding Your Way Home, Melody Beattie

Sometimes you may feel like a lava lamp, bubbling out one feeling after another. That’s okay. Pure joy, integrity, passion, vitality, sensuality, spirituality – and our highest level of creativity- will be loosened when we set our emotional body free. Stop enduring, controlling, waiting, repressing, and telling yourself that life is just how it is and that feeling your feelings won’t change a thing. Let go. Go with the flow of your vital energy and what you know to be true. Value who you are and each burst of emotional energy that passes through. Pay attention to your thoughts and the emotional energy that’s connected to them. Don’t separate thoughts and feelings in the universe around you. Don’t disconnect them from yourself.

Feeling your feelings is how you change your life. Let each emotion pass through, and in the passing, know that you are reconnecting with your soul. Go back to the past as often as you need–whenever emotions and life get intense. Feel all you need to feel; then let it clear out of your energy field.  Become emotionally fluent.

Kishan Shah is a practitioner of Ayurvedic Holistic Medicine, Lecturer, and Teacher of Yoga, Meditation and Kalaripayyat Martial Arts. He has trained extensively in the Himalayas with Swami Govindananda, in Mysore with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and in Los Angeles with Shiva Rea plus many others Masters. His primary influences on the method of practice are within the lineages of Sri T. Krishnamacharya and Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati Maharaj. When not teaching Yoga and practicing Ayurveda locally in Los Angeles, you will find Kishan worldwide leading workshops, teacher trainings, and retreats. Kishan is a Lecturer and served as adjunct Professor for over four years at UCLA teaching Yoga Philosophy and the practices of Yoga and Meditation, as well as guest lecturing at Cedar Sinai Hospital and Santa Monica College. He has been featured in Yoga Journal, Whole Life Times, Yogi Times, Details, and Allure Magazines. Kishan has also served as a Massage Therapist and energy healer for over ten years. Born to an Indian father and an American mother, Kishan blends both ancient Eastern and modern Western scientific, cultural and philosophical ideas of spiritual evolution into his practice. Drink from the cup of the ancient masters with a 21st century kick.

Check out Kishan’s retreat coming up here.

I was born alone. It was my body that grew and came out into the world when it was ready. My mind and heart created a rhythm together. My soul was ready all along. As I grew, I made choices. Then, yoga.  First, I heard about it. Then, I started it. It was in a room with other people…I had to take into account that I was willing to move around others. Then, I let all of that go and just trusted my body again, my heart. My soul kept teaching me through breath. I learned that ultimately, my body holds my history. I reveal myself to myself and others daily. Am I strong? Sometimes. Am I good enough? I decide that every moment of every day. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. All the while, I try and try and try. I try my best. I make mistakes and enemies. I break hearts and I get my heart broken….the moment and my energy in that moment determine this. I am naked, I am clothed. I am open and then protective. Moments keep passing. My breath asks for time.  More than this, there is love. God, parents, satan, friends, strangers, artists, sinners and saints…hear me now – my yoga is personal. My life is hard and easy. I breeze by and get stuck. I love and I hate. I learn and then trash the lesson. I float and then sink. In the end, it is personal. I hope I don’t hurt you or myself along the way. Ultimately, this is my personal journey. I offer it to you without fear….I offer my story, my boring, brilliant, stupid and rocky journey. Take it as I live it. Love or hate….It’s personal. When I roll out my mat or start my classes, I am giving you my person. It’s here for you. It’s here for me. In the end, my body will leave as it came…alone. At that time, I hope I leave the world wiser, better, happier, with more love and kindness, and more than this, I am thankful for the love I’ve received from you.

True love will find you in the end
You’ll find out just who was your friend
Don’t be sad, I know you will,
But don’t give up until
True love finds you in the end.

This is a promise with a catch
Only if you’re looking will it find you
‘Cause true love is searching too
But how can it recognize you
Unless you step out into the light?
But don’t give up until
True love finds you in the end.

I dance in my freedom.

I dance to the beat of a different drum.

I dance when I am alone, with girlfriends, and very slow with the man I love.

I dance in the face of danger.

I dance to celebrate, to devote, to express my deepest sorrow.

Thank you, country that I was lucky to be born in, for my dance.

Happy IndepenDANCE day.

Before you even read about Dice, you can learn so much about him by watching this incredible footage. Zen much? Please take the time……

Dice and Bri love being upside down in an inversion or playing with arm balances as well as transitions from upside down to right side up and vice versa. Using inversions like Adho Mukha Vrksasana/Handstand, yogis can create the space for confidence and strength to grow in a fun yet focused way. The playful aspect of yoga is just as important as its disciplined aspect. Yoga helps to bring awareness to one’s own body. This awareness is the balance of the body and mind. In their classes, Dice and Bri’s goal is to help yogis bridge the gap between the two. Their classes are fun and rigorous with a focus on body awareness and key alignment points to help yogis get in and out of risky poses in an intelligent and safe way. Yogis can expect to work hard and have a blast doing it!

Check out Dice’s retreat coming up just around the corner!

Dice will be teaching his regular yoga classes at Equinox MDR in August. Join him.