Pretty little Mushrooms
I am NOT mad at BP
i am not mad at BP. they were doing what they needed to do to give us what we wanted. human beings are fallible, they make mistakes they blow off stuff when they shouldn’t. it is a disaster. it’s sad. i feel for all the birds and the fish and the earth. but more importantly i feel for the families of those PEOPLE who were lost.
all the yelling and blame the pissed off ranting- knee- jerk responses are a bit tiresome. no ONE person is to blame. we are all to blame. our cars, our lights, our LIVES. if you think you can live without oil i remind you of the last hurricane in TX where we panicked living with out power for days and WEEKS! we couldn’t drive- there was no gas anyway… where would we go? there were no lights anywhere in town! it was terrible. and we were CRANKY and we hated it!
so, if you have money time and soap go wash some birds. otherwise, get OFF the BOYCOTT BP bandwagon, and think about what really matters. how you live YOUR life, and how that was paid for by more than the lives of fish and birds.
Give ’em hell, Harry!
I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.
–Harry S. Truman
i feel you Harry, i feel you.
Texas bullies Yoga Teachers
i want to say for the record- and i hope you are out there TWC reading this… looking …. searching out for a mention of teaching training.
what you have done to yoga in TX is disgusting and wrong.
to the big yoga studio chain in dallas that is TWC “approved” thanks for taking a crap on all the other yoga teachers in TX. just because you dance with the devil does not make you the yoga police. your relenting to the taxation of your teacher training program does not make it better, it makes it regulated. regulated and taxed.
i put an amazing amount of work, countless hours of study and preparation into my program. and now, POOF! it’s gone. the wisdom, the teachings, the traditions are all still here, but you Texas have greatly limited how i share them. i have sorted that out for now BUT!-
i will continue in my efforts to fund the lobby helping to change the laws to exempt yoga studios as vocational schools. i’d rather give my money to them than the YOGA TAXMAN! please, if you love yoga, do the same. donate any amount you can to the lobby efforts thru the texas yoga association.
How do you feel after yoga?
so many times i am asked about students’ post-yoga conditions. some have questions about how they feel immediately after class. some feel it hours after and some “feel their yoga” for days after or not until days after they practice.
“Wow! I was totally Zapped after class! I was exhausted!”
“Wow! I was so energized after class, I couldn’t sleep!”
these post-yoga physical conditions are fluid and changeable, often moving from the two ends of the spectrum until finally settling down with regular practice. we do find though even after a long time of practicing in the hot room that we still can see the manifestation of extreme physical reactions to the asanas. these come to experienced yogis when they begin to get deeper into the postures or perhaps as they have breakthroughs and evolve either physically , spiritually or emotionally. (i know a very experienced yoga teacher who vomited after a class recently)
here’s my theory as short and as sweet as i can give it i decided to do this in installments to make it easier to digest. So let’s get started.
we are composed of the gross physical body. we also possess a spirit or a soul or a subtle ‘energy’ that animates the physical body. most are aware of this. but there is much more to who/what we are.
when we do asanas we are practicing yoga with our gross physical body. this is obvious. some of us are only doing yoga to benefit the physical body or to make it look in a way that pleases us. for whatever reason the yogi comes to the mat he or she is working on things much much deeper than a flat belly or a healthy back.
we (the body and our soul) are surrounded by and made up of subtle energy bodies fed by this life- force; prana. we speak of these subtle bodies and their anatomy with specific ancient Sanskrit words. chakras. auric layers. koshas. nadis. all of this subtle anatomy is touched upon and stimulated during your hatha yoga practice. the effect the postures have that day that moment, on the subtle self generally determines how you feel during and after yoga. through an experienced teacher’s sequencing and intuition you can be gently brought deeper and into hopefully, sweeter spaces of existence. as you practice your moving and breathing in yoga, the “stuff” you bring emotionally and spiritually (whether you are aware of it or not) will be affected. sometimes this ecstasy – sometimes not so pleasant.
in the next installment we will further discuss specific bits of our subtle anatomy and begin to define these metaphysical terms. until then, begin to notice which postures you “like” and those you “don’t like”. what are our reasons for these preferences? are they from the ego or the soul?
oh, and how do YOU feel after yoga?
by popular demand: Darla’s hot yoga diet.
you have to eat to live. to live through a hot yoga class you have to eat specifically and purposefully. once the class is done, again you have to consider eating. this is the danger zone of eating… you may think you can eat anything you want because you have worked out so hard, but that’s exactly what can get you in “trouble”
here’s my sure-fire plan for losing weight remember I AM NOT A DOCTOR- I AM NOT A NUTRITIONIST – this is what works for me, and as a short time thing if you are healthy it will work for you too.
this is the after yoga dinner plan:
do hot yoga at 430.
if possible, stay and also do as many of the postures at 630 class as you can.
drink lots of water during classes and a few e’merge’nc packets.
go home.
go to kitchen.
stand in front of open fridge.
realize your legs do not want to hold you up while you prepare dinner.
decide you aren’t that hungry anyway.
sit quietly for a while.
go to bed.
read my other post about food. it has realistic suggestions for preparing for your class.
remember, you have to eat to live…
donation based yoga classes
there is a trend apparently for donation based or what is called “free yoga”. it is happening in new york city at yoga to the people and other studios are announcing they will try it out.
an article in the new york times we learn that Greg Gumucio (post-bikram golden boy done wrong by “the man”) is the multi-studio owner and brain child of this new yoga “manifesto”. in the manifesto they state:
“There will be no correct clothes, There will be no proper payment, There will be no right answers … No ego no script no pedestals.” they go on to say: “In a time where yoga as a business is getting a lot of attention, the fact that it is being priced out of many people’s reach is in direct conflict with what we consider to be the spirit of yoga itself.”
hummm… the spirit of yoga itself. yoga is “from india”, india has a caste system. is that also the spirit of yoga i wonder? the fact that yoga is priced out of peoples reach may be a concern but their teacher training is another story. (now truthfully this is not out of line for teacher training costs… ) but for the privilege of being certified to give away your talent and hard work it does seem a little much. (you can do the teacher training to teach for yoga to the people for between $2400. – $2600.) really?
The website goes on to say “The question our studio seeks to answer is: Can a yoga studio maintain itself as a business while keeping the focus of its intention on providing yoga as a service first and foremost?”
well, i have the answer. YES! this is exactly what i do. i love the yoga students. their yoga, their experience at the studio, their comfort, their joy, their injuries, their pets, their families. ALL of these i take into my heart and my mind and my spirit as i guide them through class. i offer the heat, the towels, the water, the electrolytes if needed. i offer the love and the laughter and a space for the sweat and the tears. this is my service. my service has nothing to do with paying the bills and making the numbers work. that is a separate issue and the reality of life in the world is (apparently just lately) , if you want a service from someone else, you will need to figure out a way to pay them for it. my students gladly pay me for my service. they appreciate what i do and who i am and have no expectation of anything else.
yoga to the people has had great idea for marketing their $10. classes. the new york times, the webs and yoga journal all have written about it. there is another great article about this subject of donation based yoga that intrigued me. this guy has his own manifesto, and some great takes on the concept. in NYC most people will pay $10, but most other parts of the US that are less accustomed to paying $10 for coffee most would pay less and some will pay nothing. these donation based classes are crowded mat to mat. of course there are only so many students a teacher can really teach yoga to in a class, regardless of how many are there. in a crowded yoga class the teacher is pretty busy just managing the crowd; your chances of getting any personalized help are pretty slim. seems to sound a lot like, “you get what you pay for”.
ALERT: THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS WILL BE SHOCKING TO SOME: i love teaching yoga. it has been my passion, my nemesis, my blessing and my curse for a very long time now. i love yoga! i am not going to spend all my time and my efforts to attend multiple residential REAL yoga teacher training programs, build a yoga studio and then give the classes away. why should i. you see, teaching yoga especially as a certified teacher and studio owner is not cheap. sure anyone can “tell you the postures” and call themselves the “yoga teacher”. yoga IS accessable to everyone. you can practice at home for FREE any time of night or day. but, if you want a yoga studio, small sweet classes, a sweaty space, a certified teacher you trust, who knows what she’s teaching, who wont hurt you and knows your injuries. if you want room to stretch (it is yoga after all) you are to pay for it. someone pays for everything.
and since i expect you to pay the going rate for your class apparently to some that makes me less yogic or out of the spirit of yoga? no i don’t think so.
naked yoga advertisements
Once again I have seen Kathryn Buddig naked.
I didn’t go looking for her, I was innocently reading Yoga Journal Magazine, and flipped the page. There she is AGAIN wearing nothing but great lighting and the yoga accessories she’s selling.
I am no prude. I am a Scorpio! But this is too much. I know it’s not a popular view because she is a “yoga star” but I am really tired of her nude ads every month. One is shocking and gets the point across, but one every month is like having a pin-up calendar.
Now there’s another; the shakti mat has gone from the cool sadhu in its ad to a photograph of a topless woman laying in the mat, hands covering her breasts.
Do we need these in our yoga mags? Do I need another reminder that my body is not that body?
Do I need to be prodded by yoga teachers now that if I buy THIS yoga product my body will be perfect like theirs?
No, thanks. I can get that in any fashion magazine, and lately i have been getting just as much yoga in those same fashion rags.
We don’t need sex to sell yoga. But apparently we need sex to sell silly yoga products. Maybe Yoga Journal will be off my renew list this time. It’s become less about yoga and more about “yoga cool”.
UPDATE: I have posted again about this recently since Yoga Journal’s receipt of a letter about this very subject from Judith Hansen Lasater. You can read that new post here.
young thai. worth the trouble!
drinking fresh young thai coconuts is wonderful. i had my first one just after i started teaching bikram yoga. a yoga teacher friend of a friend brought a case of them for us to enjoy after doing “advanced bikram series”. well dear ones, i was HOOKED immediately! young coconut water is nutritious here is a great website with easy to read info about all the nutritional values. another site says :
” It’s a natural isotonic beverage, with the same level of electrolytic balance as we have in our blood. It’s the fluid of life, so to speak.” In fact, during the Pacific War of 1941-45, both sides in the conflict regularly used coconut water – siphoned directly from the nut – to give emergency plasma transfusions to wounded soldiers”
wow! that sounds amazing!
friends, i know this i have been drinking coconut water for 10 years now off and on. it makes me feel great. the taste is not like a pina colada or that horrible dry coconut in a bag. this tis not the water that’s left in a brown coconut. young coconut water is a little salty, a little earthy and completely refreshing. after a hot yoga class there is nothing better tasting or better for you. each nut holds around 8-10 ounces of water and at around 40 calories, no fat and just a few carbs , these things are like little miracles!
coconut water has become very popular as a prepackaged processed “sports drink”. they are usually sold in a juice box type package. i have tried these drinks, they taste nothing like a fresh coconut water. i suppose if that’s all you can get, it’s better than nothing BUT you can get these nuts year around at asian grocery stores. most towns have one, if not you might ask your local chinese restaurant where you can get them. i have seen them for purchase online. i get mine at the asian market super mall in houston waaaay out by the beltway. i go there because i feel like they “turn over” a fair amount of produce daily and since freshness is key to deliciousness -i feel good about making the long trip.
after you have your coconut stash safely stored in the fridge,
the hardest thing is opening the nut and getting the water. and since the point of this blog post is to get you to drink REAL fresh coconuts i am going to teach you how to open them. there are a few techniques. most of them involve a cleaver or a very very sharp knife. i tend to be a little too easily frustrated to use a cleaver for anything. my tool of choice for opening coconuts is a spike and a hammer.
the spike can be a number of things. my first spike was a cheapo dollar store knife sharpening spike that was a bit pointy. over the years i have had many, my current favorite and the best ever is a tent spike from the sporting goods store. it looks like a HUGE nail and is the perfect diameter punch for a straw .
(thanks to marcelle g. for gifting me with this lovely spike as thanks for introducing her to the coconuts)
position the spike on one of the flat surfaces of the shaved nut. (they come like this out of the box) hold the spike at a slight angle while bracing your hand on the nut to keep it from flying across the room.
hold tight. now hit it with the hammer a few times. once it’s in, push it around a bit to open up the space for the straw. (a crimped straw is maddening) remove the spike …
insert a straw and enjoy!!
strike a pose
this is a silly “pose-y” shot of me standing in the yoga room.
yoga fashionistas will want to know… it’s all Lulu.
i also picked up 2 cases of coconuts today… yummm. ask for one after class.
they are deeeelish!
darla cooks 