It’s Just Play! Mama and Baby Yoga, Finally! (Video)

I’m very cerebral. I love the whole brain stimulation.

When I first got bit by the yoga bug, after those first few classes, I went out and got myself some hard core yoga books. I enrolled in a semester of Sanskrit, a course about Samkhya Philosophy and another on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. All these courses were taken at LMU, my alma matter. All this BEFORE I EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT DOING TEACHER TRAINING!!!! In my little mind I thought I would learn Sanskrit and read the classical texts in Sanskrit so I could translate them myself….

!!!!!!!?????????

……..yea……

I have no idea WHERE I got that idea, but, it proves my point, I’m a cerebral person ☺

So I got my crazy brain involved with practicing yoga with my baby. I wanted to do it ‘right’. I wanted to do the ‘proper’ experience for her, one that was going to help her develop, and grow strong, and calm down, and relax and, you name it. I kept stopping myself from getting on my mat, because I wanted the time on the mat to be ‘perfect’ and ‘productive’ and…on and on and on with the excuses.

I finally allowed myself to listen to me and to her

I finally allowed myself to truly KNOW from myself.

I finally let go of my BRAIN.

All you have to do is play!

You just have to play. Life is yoga. In life we play. We play to the best of our ability. We choose to participate and question, and deepen and refine simply so that we can offer all that loveliness back out AND so that we can truly enjoy each moment. Motherhood is also play, although at times it’s play with very high stakes!

I got on the mat and played with my daughter. I got on the mat and simply looked at her, felt her, hugged her, kissed her, and we PLAYED. We practiced yoga together, and I’m so excited. Our first practice: 5 blissful minutes. My heart is full. This is why I practice yoga. It had nothing to do with the postures or the mat. It had everything to do with our engagement with each other and our willingness to participate and do the best that we could. That’s yoga.

Wanna watch? Check out the video below 😀

Let me know your thoughts about yoga with your baby and your experiences on the mat. In what ways has practicing with your baby informed your practice?

Oh yea…in Sanskrit play is lila. That’s not just any ‘ol play, it’s divine play, how about that?

What Does Namaste Mean?

I cannot even begin to share with you guys how often I get asked this question. Sometimes I feel a bit weird explaining it’s meaning as there’s so much more to it than just the definition.

Namaste holds a powerful relationship between people. It is a deep grounded in deep respect both in each other’s individuality and EVERYTHING that makes us the same.

One of my Facebook friends shared this video and I instantly fell in love with it.

If I could just have this little video with me all the time and play it whenever anyone asked me: what does Namaste mean? You betcha I’d play this puppy 😀

Please watch. Enjoy the power and…well just watch 😉

I’m featured in Podcast User Magazine issue 18! Cool!

check this out!

Lance Anderson interviewed me for PUM and I made the cover 🙂

Read the Article and you can listen to the interview!

Why Yoga…YYoga Movie?

For whatever reason I don’t really look forward to yoga movies, or yoga videos because, honestly….they bore me. I don’t want to watch people, meditating and chanting om. I also feel that yoga vids that I’ve watched in the past are just so bland and don’t really represent what really goes on. As much as yoga is a 5000 yr old technology, we are not living 5000 yrs ago in India. Personally I’m living in Los Angeles in 2007. I would like to see the beauty of yogis now, and the desire we each have for this ancient practice. Lo and behold I stumbled upon this video….I am genuinely intrigued and can’t wait to watch it! I so loved to see so many familiar scenes and so many different perspectives on the practice, NOW. It inspired a sense of wonder and at the same time recognition. I saw people that were just like me and those who were nothing like me. Yeay for YYoga and the gift of diversity 😀  Loved the sense of humor!!!!!