The teachings show up in weird ways...

I'm walking down the street in SLO,
and this old beaten up honda pulls up.
This tired looking middle aged guy rolls out
the side door. The woman driving is going crazy!

She's belligerent, screaming and yelling, hysterically.
"Get out of my life, Get out of my life,
GET OUT OF MY LIFE!!!"
She jumps out of the car and starts pushing
and punching him.

He's walking slowly away, his head down,
mumbling you crazy B...

My mind jumps in with judgement,
she's crazy. she's lost it.
I had other thoughts like
she must be on something, more thoughts jump in
I'm trying to figure out if that's her son
or her young lover.
Maybe her drug dealer?

This is all going down with in a matter of a few minutes.

And here's where it got weird.

Trying to be casual I keep walking slowly
not to totally stop and stare.
I look back over my shoulder
as I'm getting ready to turn the corner.
I see a professionally dressed middle aged
woman kneeling down talking
into the car to the crazy lady.
She was asking her if she's okay.

Are you okay? Are you sure you're okay?
What can I do for you?

I stopped dead in my tracks,
my EGO was totally shaken up...
for the better.

I had never even considered that maybe
the guy had done something to hurt her,
maybe she was harmed by him in ways
that I didn't want to imagine.
I hadn't even given the option of the other scenario
a chance in my mind.


This whole unexpected moment showed me
how my EGO is so quick to take me off course.


Whatever the reality is
it's often that we are viewing from our very
limited perspective.
Which in turn creates our limited reality.

I felt humbled in that moment.
Unexpected teaching.

The teachings come to us each day
in weird ways.

My heart goes out to all people who suffer
from mental illness, addiction,
unhealthy abusive relationships,
lack, and fear.
It's so prevalent it's everywhere.

It's easy to forget just how blessed we really are.

I wish you well through the Holidays.
May you be well and Aware
as you open
to the light of who you are
in each moment of each day.

I hope our paths cross soon.

Much Gratitude to you!
Namaste.
lisa

What kind of relationship are you having with your ego?

Do you know the difference
between your ego and
your higher mind or self?

The ego is your roommate....
ays Michael Singer author of
The Untethered Soul.

The ego is the constant nagging,
chatter, and unnecessary
conversation
that is not serving your
best interest
or anyone else's
for that matter.

Living alone I get to hear my
roommate (ego) comment
all the time...UGH!

I am clear that my ego is
sabotaging any chance of fun,
joy, and freedom
in my mind and or experience

I'm ditching my ego...

Becoming the witness
is the first step out!!!

Not an easy battle but worth it!

It takes daily consciousness.

It's like taking a light and shining it
back onto the shadow.

We have that choice in each moment

The deal is we have to do it over
and over and over again.

Okay, it gets easier with practice.

There are so many benefits!!!

I can offer you tools in practice

To... shhhhh
(quiet your ego mind)
and
support higher states of consciousness.

Dance with me
I promise to support you in your personal growth through either a class,
workshop, or private.

Yin & Zen, City Center San Francisco

Yin and Zen for Coming to Stillness
by Lisa Marie Jansen, ERYT

In this post, yoga teacher and intuitive healer Lisa Jansen comments on her Yin beginning, the benefits she has experienced from this style of yoga, and why she is inspired to share it in combination with Zen teachings. Along with co-teacher Daiyu Judith Randall, Lisa offers Yin Yoga and Zen at City Center on Saturday, October 18, from 1 to 4:15 pm.

LisaJansen2_x600
Lisa Jansen

I have fond memories of my first Yin Yoga experience. I was about 32 years old—quite a while back—and I was studying with Sarah Powers. Because she is such an eloquent teacher in both the Yoga and Buddhist traditions, I was quite taken with her approach.

I had spent about 15 years prior to this practicing yoga in a more rigorous, ashtanga/flow style. I remember dropping into something unfamiliar in Sarah’s Yin class: stillness. “Oh wow, this is an option!” said my mind/body. The physical aspect of me was also challenged even though we never got on our feet.

I was inspired to continue including Yin Yoga in my home practice, eventually studying in depth with Sarah. I began teaching Friday evening Yin classes to my community after I completed a 10-day Yin Yoga teacher training intensive with Sarah. Mostly I was excited about the richness and opportunity to give my students balance. The Yin practice complimented the more traditional Hatha Yoga classes in a way that I felt was highly beneficial to the community of yogis I was working with.

Stillness, staying awhile, learning to be with “what is” are wonderful benefits of this Daoist form of yoga. Opening up the body in a deep way and relieving stiffness are other main benefits. Coming into the practice from a meditative perspective, Yin can be a great support in preparing to sit still.

What can you expect when practicing Yin Yoga?

Holding passive postures, practice on the floor, with holds from 3-5 minutes.
The postures themselves are aimed at preparing one to meditate.
Some Benefits of Yin Yoga:

Calming and balancing for mind and body.
Regulation of energy in the body.
Increase of mobility in the body, especially the joints and hips.
Better lubrication and protection of joints.
More flexibility in joints and connective tissue.
Release of fascia throughout the body.
Help with TMJ and migraines.
Deeper relaxation.
A great coping tool for anxiety and stress.
Ultimately better Yang practice, or more range of motion in any physical pursuit you have.
I find that students come to Yin Yoga for a variety of reasons. One simply is to increase and maintain flexibility. As one ages, flexibility in the joints decreases. Many people don’t seem to be too concerned about flexibility until they notice it is gone. Students who are stiffer, athletic, or cannot seem to shake a holding pattern in the body will also find their way to Yin Yoga, often finding it gives them deeper release in their bodies than any other form of bodywork.

I also find that Yin Yoga has increased in popularity due to our very fast-paced lifestyle. The intimate practice of Yin requires students to be ready to get intimate with the self—with feelings, sensations and emotions. These are things I have noticed can be easy to avoid in a brisker yoga practice.

Daiyu Judith Randall (photo: Florian Brody)
Daiyu Judith Randall (photo: Florian Brody)

Judith Randall and I will include teachings that are more specific to the topic of intimacy in this workshop. It’s here in our longer practice sessions that we have the opportunity to get real with ourselves. We are blessed to have been given the time and space to study these ancient practices. We come together and are able to drop in, one breath at at time. We learn to develop great awareness and intimacy, and ultimately free ourselves from our held conditions. Without covering anything up, running away or staying addicted to movement we can learn to be authentic, to feel deeply and to open to our own life situation.

I love our traditional ending of practice by saying “namaste.” Namaste—always remembering that the practice is for all beings; that as we do this work within our own being we become able to turn that light back onto another and another.

I look forward to meeting you, sitting with you and dropping into both Yin and Zen on Saturday, October 18th. I really do believe that incorporating a little of both will create a more well-rounded practice and version of the awesome you!

Namaste,
Lisa Marie, ERYT

in·spi·ra·tion

in·spi·ra·tion 
something that makes someone want to do something, or that gives someone an idea about what to do or create. 
 I'm in the middle of teaching the 200 hour
Yoga Teacher Training Program.   
Somewhere, about half way through 
I noticed a shift in my energy. 
It felt like the program 
was running itself. 
 The flow of the curriculum 
had taken over 
and was easily and naturally 
just teaching itself.
  My awareness stepped back and asked, 
what's going on here?   
Simultaneously I was aware
of the fact that the students
had really taken off in with their own passions,
many of them were already offering classes 
to friends and neighbors. 
The teachers in training were 
all practicing together, 
totally inspiring right?
One of my students, Lydia, 
sent me several images
of the flower fields in 
Lompoc in full bloom,
she shared that her inner voice 
was nudging her
 to name her offerings sunflower.
Her sincere desire 
to share her newly found love 
of teaching yoga in a way
that was personal 
and meaningful to her 
was quite touching 
for me as the teacher.
  I noticed that an overall
inspiration 
had spilled through the group, 
It had shifted my experience 
as the teacher into 
such ease,
and a place of true inspiration.
 It inspired me to write this! 
  I want to share with you how
I've learned about my own 
natural energy
and where it arises from.
I have found that it is 
very important
to continue to let that energy 
flow through me.  
I notice when I hold back,
I not only feel stuck, I now have lesenergy to tap into. 
Reading the Untethered Soul
has reminded me once again
that it's not personal.
What I mean by that is that is
it's universal energy
and my body/mind are just
a funnel or channel
for it to run through.

It's not my energy,
so I must let it go.
The more I do, the more
inspired I become,
I feel more aligned
with passion and purpose.

I am inspired by my students in
the teacher training,
because they are rocking the
flow of energy and offering
Yoga to students in prisons,
in schools, friends, people in pain,
students in social programs.
The list goes on!

I'd like to share this energy of inspiration,
with you when we meet up again!

For now, may you be well, and
naturally inspired to be you.
Namaste,
Prema
You are invited to flow with me...

Why do roses only bloom once a year?

Why do roses only bloom part of the year?

(If you wish you can skip content and scroll to bottom for upcoming events.)

Ok, so one of my favorite flowers is the Rose,
what's not to like right?
especially when you see the orangish/peachy
colored one in like a perfect bloom. 

Oh ya, and the scent, the sweet, subtle and sensual scent
of the rose is oh so yummy.

Now that I'm in this gorgeous new studio
I wanted to have a rose bush out in front of my house.
But I'm kind of in a pickle.
I mean if I get the rose bush and plant it I have to accept
that a lot of the time there will be thorns without blooms. 
Not lucious scents and soft petals all the time.

"So why is that a problem? " I ask myself.
Well, it's hard for me to see the thorns. 

I feel like a little kid crying to her mommy,
"I just want to smell the pretty rose!"

Hmmm, I ask myself again from my oh so spiritual state:
"What about the thorns without petals is so hard for you? "

 

And therein lies my teaching.

It's the barren part of the plant in the midst of the winter months
that is such a part of life.
It's representing more solitude, nothingness, it's also my reminder
of what is or isn't. 

I think I'm gonna do it! Dive it and get that rose bush,
get real comfortable with the thorns!
Then wait and enjoy the blossoms when they arrive.

The coming and the going, the opening and the closing,
moment by moment I am being asked to let go
and appreciate what is here and now!!!

Come on by and learn to be 

Like a Rose, learn to open and close effortlessly,  

gracefully, and embody all parts of life!

  

PremaYoga  
Teaches us to be free and access our wholeness! 

Like beautiful open flowers, as well as accept all of our thorns!  

"may you live like the lotus, at home on the banks of the muddy river."

Namaste,

Prema

The One Eyed Cat

The One Eyed Cat 

My daughter has been an animal activist since she could talk. It was very common for us to drive by telephone posts when she was a child with pictures of lost dogs where she would BEG me, “please stop the car”. She would cry until I would so she could get the information necessary to start her search for the lost animal.

For 5 years now she has been feeding a stray calico cat in her father’s neighborhood,  The only reason she hasn’t officially adopted it is because there are a few dogs in the house and the cat is too afraid to stay indoors.

The other day she called me begging please you have to help the calico something has attacked it and taken out its eye.  I shivered at the thought, the vet bills I knew were beyond me, but she would not let it go.

I also had to admit that the small little voice inside me was there to remind me that I had mentioned only a few weeks ago that I might want to get a cat.

She was right the cat’s eye was missing. Within a few short hours we were getting vet care, one of my dear cat lover and cat rescuer yoga students whom I’ve known for years came to mind as an ally. She actually offered to pay for vet services, (not my intention of calling her) 

With full surgery, repair fractures and sever damage, the vet also had to patch up the hole where the eye was missing.  It was quite dramatic.  It wasn’t easy, and I absolutely couldn’t help but take the cat in.  Ok, I fell in love with it pretty quickly after I said Yes, and my heart opened in a way that I hadn’t expected.

No kidding, as all of this was going on I opened up a magazine at the Vet’s office. The page I opened to was an advertisement for a book that was written, Titled Cats and Daughters.  Signs, Signs, and more Signs, pointed to Yes, Yes and Yes.

This poor calico cat had been either beaten by someone or hit by a car, not attacked by another animal like my daughter assumed. The angelic offering of Lucy Taylor, my dear Yoga student made it possible for Calico the One Eyed Cat to become my new pet.

I’m living in Gratitude for so many things right now. The studio I am renting on this property that has the healing energy of Hawaii, the new kitty to hold and care for, and the way in which people show up and give what they can when they can.

It happens. It’s the reminder of Life Works, rather than the opposite.

Our egos are so strong, they are so conditioned, they look to slip into the nooks and crannies even on our best days to tell us otherwise.

The ego goes on and on and on and on and wants us to strive for something other than what is now, for more, for struggle in any way shape or form, and the truth is it’s just not necessary.

I’m happy to be back here on the Central Coast. I’m grateful for anyone who took time to read this today! I’m excited to share the gifts the of Yoga & Mindfulness Practice

I'd love to hear from you!

Namaste

Prema

premayoga108@gmail.com