The Musings of a Gypsy Yogini

Yeah, I do…

But we’re friends now, right?

I went through a period of time I called “dismissing my monkeys”. It started when I became very dedicated in my yoga practice. Little by little things in my life that no longer served me began to naturally fall away. I became much more aware of my body, my feelings, and what I needed to be happy and content.

None of these monkeys left by force. I simply shined a light on them and said “good-bye”. They seemed to just smile and wave when they left. Away with the jealousy! Away with the greed! Away with the toxic foods! Away with the alcohol! Away with the cigarettes! Away with low self- esteem! Away with negativity! ….. you get the point.

Amazing… the little bastards never put up a fight! ~~~OK, wait a minute- the little smoker monkey was a little (a lot) pissed- and he’s the one pictured in the above photo. I’d still smoke if it didn’t kill me, make me look older, and stink, and was still cool like in the old movies. I loved smoking… it was just so rock and roll cool.

How I finally got rid of the little smoker monkey was becoming a yoga teacher. A teacher… I could never truly consider myself a teacher of yoga and still sneak cancer sticks. It made NO sense to me. I had fallen in love with all that is yoga, and that’s why I did it. Yoga is bigger than myself, so it was sort of like handing it over to a higher power. That’s the only reason I think I was able to do it. I smoked for 22 years- a pack a day of Marlboro REDS! (Oh, did I mention Keith Richards is one of my heros?).

So, now with the little crazy monkeys all gone, (for the most part)- I find myself very happy and content in my own skin… (geographically is for another post)…. and honestly?

Pretty empty headed.

I’ve been in deep yogic/ Buddhist studies for a solid amount of time now, and find myself  wondering if I’m headed for true enlightenment or true laziness.

All this meditation… stilling the mind…

Well- it works for me. I find that I can come to a place of empty pretty easily. I’m lucky- I know… but here’s my edge-

I’m single, and I have no kids. That’s a HUGE advantage when it comes to stilling the mind and not worrying/ stressing/ list-making/crazy monkey- mind!

…that’s all for now…

Yesterday I went to the nearby women’s prison for an orientation class so that I may begin teaching yoga to the inmates.

The transformational power of yoga is undeniable, and proven. I speak from experience… It’s absolutely true- that with a regular practice, your whole life improves on every level… I think this can be just as possible- if not more so- for women locked up.

Not to make light of a horrific situation such as imprisonment, but it’s actually sort of an ideal place to be when beginning a true spiritual practice… which is what yoga is.

This experience will make for some interesting writing, no doubt. I can’t wait to meet the women that will sign up for the class.

I won’t be able to begin teaching until next month. I’ll be leaving for Massachusetts in 2 weeks to finish up my formal teacher training class at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, but I’ll be getting the dates and times arranged soon.

Here’s to sweet freedom…

This is brilliant. I’m not even sure why I’ve been so successfully sucked into the magical addictive world of Twitter, but I love it.

I’m still relatively new to it, so I’m not entirely hip to all of it’s uses, but I’ll give a brief explanation of what Twitter is… ready???

Answer the question “What are you doing?”, and do it in 140 characters or less. That’s all…. Then, you can pick and choose who you want to “follow”- these will be people you actually know- to complete strangers all over the world. When you check in with Twitter, you will see the updates of people you decided to follow/stalk… (I kid).

The first time I investigated what the hell the big deal was, I thought to myself, “Really?? That’s really stupid…”  and joined immediately. I sort of pride myself on not being a “joiner”, but decided to give this a few days to play around with. That was October- I think.

Since then, I’ve picked some pretty cool people to follow. In my case, fellow yoga lovers mostly. I also follow Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos because I think he rocks. He has 30,199 followers as of today- so the chances of him reading one of my posts is slim to none. BUT- he did! We have the same birthday and he sent me a direct message making me feel like a rockstar- I’m that easy to thrill.

Of the 44 people I follow, I actually only know one. The others are folks I feel like I’m getting to know- at least a little bit. It’s a fascinating little toy, and marketing tool. I would have never known about a couple of really sweet little yoga-related companies if not for Twitter.

SO… I love the networking tool that it is. I’ve become quite skilled in filling the quota of 140 characters to perfection. I hope to grow my network of people I follow into many more over the year…

All is good.

I added an “Intention” page to the blog because I believe it’s an important part of everything in life. What I wrote there is kind of simple, but I’ll be expanding and explaining more as I go.

Hey- I’m brand new to this!

I’m sending out another post because I can!

Webmaster D and myself!

This guy has done all the computer stuff to get this thing going. He rocks my socks…

I plan to get this thing started soon-

right now I’m just fiddlin’ around a bit…

I just love this picture- it’s my dream home… where to?

Be patient and stick with me while I learn how all of this works. This is going to be really cool eventually!