Yoga Teacher Training Finals!

Well my friends, the day has arrived!!! I have my final yoga teaching exam today at Prana Yoga Center and graduation is tomorrow evening! I am so excited, thrilled and beyond eager to start teaching after I get my certification. Enrolling in yoga teacher training is probably the BEST life decision I have ever made and I can say that with full knowledge and confidence of everything I have accomplished in life thus far. I'm not one of those people who has known from a very young age what she wanted to do. In fact, I have NEVER been sure of what my passion was, until now- Yoga is it for me. I finally feel as if I have a purpose and there is no grander feeling in the world. Today I dedicate my practice to all those in the world searching for their purpose- that they may discover a world of opportunity, creativity, imagination and abundance in their life's passion and that they find it right when they need it the most. I would LOVE to hear about your life's passion and purpose as well if you would like to share!

Wish me luck today, I don't think we say "break a leg" in the yoga world but I think "break a sweat" would be completely appropriate! :)

My teacher helping me in Pincha Mayurasana or forearm balance.

How Yoga Affects Your Life - Ahimsa and the Yoga Diet with Kino MacGregor

Natural Flow

"Your mind's ability is limited in the way it thinks about itself, by the way you think about you. The process of Yoga is one of undoing the obstructions and limitations in your body and mind that inhibit the free flow of the creative life force." 

~Erich Schiffman

My Boycott Against Lululemon Ends in Happily Ever After

Well, here's another one for the "things I used to hate but now love" list.  I think I've had a grudge against Lululemon from the beginning, that is- when I learned how expensive their athletic wear was, in combination with the fact that it seemed EVERY single woman in my yoga classes was wearing head to toe Lululemon. 

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I'm kind of a rebel- at least in my own head. If "everyone's doing it", I want to do the opposite. Sort of like a reverse peer pressure I suppose, or just being a brat, more likely. So I've been living high on the hog (or in this case, low on the hog) and buying my yoga wear on sale at Marshall's and Target, with a few pieces from Sport Chalet which the hubs gifted me for Christmas. All the while thinking- take THAT Lululemon- my yoga wear is just as good and 1/4 of the price!!! Ha! 

Then it happened... I actually tried on a pair of their yoga pants last week for the first time and my resolve melted like hot fudge on an ice cream sundae. I have to admit it- Lululemon has THE. BEST. YOGA. PANTS. EVERRRRR. I don't even want to say that but I have to because it's the truth! They are insanely comfortable, the fit is perfection, the coverage is total- meaning no one can see through the pants (a fact I discovered about certain pairs of my yoga pants a little later in the game than I would have liked) and they make my bum look PHE-NOM-EN-AL. When I turned around and looked in the mirror in the dressing room, I had to do a double take because the vision of what I remembered my bum looking like was now a lifted, plumper and perkier version of it's former self. 

Lululemon, you had me at "OMG- that's MY butt?" Game over. I bought three pairs. 

The first, must-have purchase was the cropped Wunder Under  a basic cropped pant that fits like a glove and feels like a second skin.

image via Lululemon.com

the second is the Will Pant- a full length stretch pant with pockets and a higher rise (perfect for my long torso) that can also be folded over. These are SO comfortable that you will want to sleep in them and wear them all the time (and maybe you will for the first week or 2 because you're so excited but that's totally ok because you can do whatever you want- you spent $98 on these friggin' pants!)

image via Lululemon.com

Then to top it off, just for fun, I also bought the Wunder Under Crop *Special Edition which is exactly like the first pair only with a little extra length at the bottom that also houses a secret pocket for cards, keys and/or a phone supposedly- but I haven't tried that yet. All Wunder Unders have a secret pocket in the lining of the waistband as well, and you know how much I love secret pockets!

image via Lululemon.com

Lululemon- I'm pretty sure you have officially ruined me for any other yoga pant for the rest of my life. I spent about $260 ($68, $98, and $78 respectively- with tax) on these three pairs of pants, and I can honestly say without regret, it was the best investment I've made in a while! 

Happy First Friday of Spring Everyone!!!

Xo,

Abby

Learning to Unlearn

If there is one thing I've learned thus far in my Yoga Teacher Training, it's how much I don't know. Not only in Yoga, but in life. I have been broken open as far as thinking that my knowledge is enough. It is just a beginning of a long journey of unlearning what I thought was "right" and settling in to being comfortable in the unknown. This is a process I can't quite wrap my mind around yet, but feel in my heart and soul is true. I once heard a statement (from Marianne Williamson I believe), "In my defenselessness, my safety lies." Every time I repeat this mantra, I feel a little more at peace. I no longer feel the need to fight or defend, to argue or debate, to compete or have the desire to win. I have been through enough trauma and pain for this lifetime, to continue to beat myself up as I have. I just want to be open and absorb the good things left in this world- the simple things. Sunrises, sunsets, true friendship, genuine love, honesty at any cost, learning to love myself after years of being my own worst enemy- these are the things that matter most to me now. 

"You can enter yoga, or the path of yoga, only when you are totally frustrated with your own mind as it is. If you are still hoping that you can gain something through your mind, yoga is not for you."

~Osho

via dailycupofyoga.com

Funny...

...How it seems like yesterday I never thought I would ever be able to practice a pose like Eka Pada Rajakapotasana. Yoga is funny like that, you practice and practice and practice and then one day...your body says, ok- I'm ready, let's do this...

When you understand who and what you are, your radiance projects into the universal radiance and everything around you becomes creative and full of opportunity.

Yogi Bhajan 

What If...

What if our religion was each other

If our practice was our life

If prayer, our words

What if the temple was the earth

If forests were our church

If holy water- the rivers, lakes, and oceans

What if meditation was our relationships

If the Teacher was life

If wisdom was self-knowledge

If love was the center of our being.

~Ganga White

for the Rainforest Benefit

NYC April 1998