culture club
kefir with fresh milk to eat!
i’ll tell you all about what this is and why you want to know -in a day or so. right now, there is a bit of tex-mex i need to show who’s boss!
Why are there so many “hoops”?
This morning I got to thinking about yoga, and teaching yoga,specifically me teaching yoga.
I have been TEACHING yoga for 10 years spring 2010. It is amazing how things in my life have evolved over a decade. Wow!
Let’s see… I have gone from mid 30’s to mid 40’s. I started off with a Bikram certification and a desire to teach Bikram yoga differently. Back then, you could. Well… you could until you pissed off another studio! I wont go there. But I did teach Bikram yoga with love, humor and compassion. And it was different. And GREAT!
Shortly though, I was fired for being a Bikram renegade. In response- exactly 12 weeks later I opened my first studio! I studied, moved forward, and taught a ton of classes. LOTS and LOTS of people came and it was very successful. Many teachers came and taught in this place and many more went off to be certified and some went on to open their own successful studios. So rewarding!
I opened a bigger studio- it was a horrible construction mess- it failed. An epic dramatic failure. But life goes on, so I went on. I started teaching my hot yoga at the local hare krishna temple in a very hot room above their kitchen!! This was surreal. Incredibly- the yogis came. Darling, loving kind yogis. So many lessons were learned there. Humility, patience, openness. It was grace that I was offered the opportunity to teach there. I will be forever grateful to krishna’s sweet devotees.
In time I was certified by Jimmy Barkan in his flow series. (yeah, I need to get back to florida for some refresher) Then I travelled to Rhode Island and Seattle to be certified by Ana Forrest.
I became an E-RYT 500 registered teacher with Yoga Alliance. (of course that’s another interesting path …) and I got married! We regrouped and took a couple of years off to sort things. (I had shoulder surgery that’s another blog post- but I am back to head stand stregnth)
This brings us to now. We have built another studio. It’s in the Houston Heights. It’s beautiful! The hot room is amazing. It’s clean, its warm and loving- all the things that make it feel right. While my husband and I build the house we will share- I sleep upstairs in an apartment with my standard poodle. So it’s also my home.
My favorite thing? It’s small. 15 people and myself are all that I will book for each class. Essentially it is a semi-private studio.
The best thing is, you won’t vie for space. You don’t need to get here early for a spot. There are no dirty looks- we are expecting you, and you are welcome. (We promote green living. We use hand towels not paper towels and wash them. We have a filtered water system we offer free to the students. We also supply refillable water bottles for your use. AND weekend bike riders get a discount- see? We try.)
So here’s the deal. I want you here. I want you to do yoga. I also want to know who you are and if you are a fit for the hot room. It’s not elitist or mean or difficult. It’s just me being safe and smart. If you are coming here, you would want no less… right?
So you have to email me, you have to answer my questions, you have to tell me about your physical self and you have to make a reservation. Once you get here you have to call to be buzzed in. There are security cameras. You park behind a beautiful iron fence amid huge groves of bamboo. You are offered all you need for your class, including mats, rugs, towels, straps, blocks, water and electrolytes. No, we don’t have a boutique, all you need is here for you to use as part of your experience. Everything is clean and sanitized and available for you.
Oh-and your class is the best hot yoga in Houston.
You see, Darla’s Yoga Garden is different. It’s not about ‘doing it right’ or volume cookie cutter yoga. If you just want a hot room and a place work out this is not the place for you. If you want the same postures the same way the same day everyday this is not the place for you.
BUT, if you are looking for a yoga home, a place to learn and develop your practice, a place with a loving nurturing vibe. Please email me. immediately!
Have I got a place for you!
the watermelons are coming! the watermelons are coming!
soon they will be here, and i for one can not wait. i have bought two watermelons this year. one went directly outside for the birds to enjoy, the other one was less bad. as i put it on FB- barely good enough to keep. they do sweeten when they are juiced so i went on and juiced that not-so-bad-boy last night. as always, when juicing prep is everything. since yogi M has started juicing (a newbie) she asked about w-melons last weekend… so here we are. watermelon juicing 101.
choose a watermelon that has a yellow belly and a brown stem. the yellow belly means it has been sitting on the ground a while to get sweet and a brown stem means it wasnt picked off the vine too early. usually a fat green stem means a young not too good melon.
i like to cut the thing in half crosswise. this makes it more stable and easier to “peel”.
use a really sharp knife and slice away the thin green part of the rind. if you stand your melon on it’s cut end you will find it to be easier.
after you have peeled the halves, slice them into “juicer ready” size spears and juice seeds and all.
several minutes later and a big ole mess later…
YUMMM!!
yoga beyond belief
a few days ago i mentioned i was reading a new book. (not newly published, but newly purchased and read by me) yoga beyond belief insights to awaken and deepen your practice, by ganga white. i said i loved it, and i am loving it. i own many many yoga books. my spread sheet says over 800, so when i go looking for a yoga book, i have some specific desires. i prefer to receive NEW information. and if you have nothing NEW to me, then i’d like a fresh look at that subject please.
yoga beyond belief, at first looks like a yoga primer, the contents pages outline history and origins, the branches of yoga are explained… all of the names of the chapters were familiar. as i thumbed thru further, the titles got more interesting; “fear as limitation”, “competition and comparison”, “enjoying your practice”. Humm…. that sounds new and different. It was!
what looked like chapters actually turned out to the names of a paragraph or two on these ideas. this made navigating thru thru book to the “good parts” much easier and more fun. and reader, when i say “good parts”- i am here to tell you this book was filled with good stuff. white talks about heat and cooling and believes too much of either is bad. well that’s a given… balance and all that. but other ideas he offers are delicious, especially of you are a yoga teacher. simple little revelations that can bring instant understanding to the student. such as: “loosening hamstrings is part of the formula for reliving back pain, as long as the forward bends are done without aggravating the posterior spine.” i have told students a million times in my yoga teaching lifetime to “pull in the abdominal muscles when forward bending… and to stay completely aware of the lower back while stretching your hammies.” i feel happy to now have this little “extra” to remind them of. “dont avoid the f-bend do it safely! until hammies are stretching a bit- that low back can not release”. priceless reminders while we are in the throes!
there is talk of sequencing, meditation chakras and such, and it’s all good. there is also a forward by sting. i skipped most of it. i love sting- i crush hard on him but he’s a little too self- important. (duh…)
this book is a must read for the yoga student, and a fun MUST read for the yoga teacher. you can pick it up, get smarter and put it right back down without thinking you’re unfinished. this is one of those books i will go back to again and again for reference, reminders and refreshment and no doubt so will you!
Mr. President
the beloved – world-renowned poodle of all poodles president franklin roosevelt has returned to the garden!!
frank took a short sabbatical in the country while we worked on the finishing touches of the yoga garden. after much anticipation (and a little heartbreak) he has returned. yogis please do stop and give ole franklin a scratch. he’s an old hat at greeting and demonstrating postures to friendly ones. just be a little patient it’s been a while since he has been “on the mat” too- he might be a little creaky!
sunday=fun day!
this weekend i am reading a wonderful book, Yoga Beyond Belief Insights to Awaken and Deepen your Practice by Ganga White.
I LOVE THIS ONE! truly i have already benefitted from this refreshing honest look at yoga and all things yoga. i will have some new understanding for you to contemplate and make your own next week- until then… chill.
happy easter, peeps!
d.
hot in herrre!
acclimation is essential to enjoy hot yoga. but you have to get started. spring is here and what a relief it is! BUT summer is coming and we are on the verge of living in air conditioning 24 hours a day. i live in houston…we will do anything to avoid the heat outdoors. this is a problem, because even though it is very hot outside YOU never get truly warm. you never REALLY sweat. you need to sweat everyday. and if you can’t sweat everyday, you need to sweat when you can.
(all the time really, but especially) in the summer you MUST sweat safely and make the most of your actions.
doing yoga in a warmed room is the perfect solution.
you will sweat profusely, you’ll stretch deeply, your mind will quieten and you will feel much much better. i’ll be there to help you through, and likely there’ll be a few laughs. so come on… get yourself re-acclimated to the hot room. it’ll be alright. i promise. 😉
healthy green juice
lately I have been drinking a great deal of “green juice”. my green blend of choice is- cucumber, spinach,celery and a bit of granny smith apple. i drink this beautiful concoction every day, often as a meal replacement . it’s filling, it’s delicious. and it’s dang healthy. green juice is a delight to have, but like all juices- the prep is key… and pretty intense.
the main ingredients are cucumbers and spinach. fortunately, spinach is in season here in Texas. central market is selling a beautiful LOCAL pre-washed REAL spinach by the bag. i am not talking about that taste-less baby spinach crap-ola you can get anywhere, this is serious spinach. of course the big deal isn’t so much that it isn’t baby leaf, it the big deal is that it is pre-washed. regular spinach is so much work washing and washing and washing off all the sand. however, it’s non-negotiable it only takes a little grit to ruin the whole batch. i confess if i cant get good spinach prewashed- i usually skip it and do a different receipe. 
cucumbers are notoriously “burpy” so they have to be both peeled and seeded before juicing. this process is not very fun- and is quite messy. you really want to be certain your kitchen sink spotlessly clean before doing this chore. i generally peel right into the sink for ease of clean up, plus you are going to drop those slippery cukes, trust me. this will insure they don’t hit the floor. to streamline the process i peel all the cukes i intend on juicing all at the same time. next is seeding.
seeding is essential and is easiest when you halve the cucmbers, keeping them big enough to hang on to. seeding a quarterd cucmber is very frustrating and s-l-o-w. i have tried many methods and tools for cucumber de-seeding. the important thing is to get the seeds out with out removing the flesh- the flesh is where the juice is! my favorite tool is a plastic spoon. it’s just thin enough, it’s not too hard to hold on to when it gets slippery from all the seed membrane and it’s not aggressive on the flesh.
After you have prepped the cukes, gathered your spinach, celery and an apple you are ready to JUICE!
i prefer to juice the spinach first and use the cucumbers to “clear” the juicer.
After you are finished juicing, pour your beautiful juice into jars. almost “over fill” the jars if possible to leave the least room for air. Refrigerate immediately and enjoy! (within 24 hours max!)
oooooo…. that smell….
this morning early over coffee, i found a funny.
having been certified by Bikram as a teacher i have heard almost every description of “that smell”… you know the usually carpeted odor called Bikram yoga college Of India? Well if you haven’t ever smelled it, this is a pretty good description. If you have smelled it, this is a pretty good description.
John Seaborn Gray discusses everything food for the houston press a weekly rag:
“Like us, the Japanese have their own dubious hangover cures, but we think we’ll stick with our favorite hangover cure: a huge, greasy breakfast. It seriously works. Of course some people recommend avoiding certain foods and then heading out for some Bikram yoga. These people are insane. In case you don’t know what Bikram yoga is, it’s yoga that you do inside a big steam room while you bend and sweat and strain and try not to pass out. Essentially it is Hell, if Hell smelled like mushroom soup and balls.”
Yep. that’s about right.
however! at Darla’s Yoga Garden, we practice on tile. Beautiful clean sanitary tile. 😉 that means it is just hell. (not smelly mushroomy soup balls hell)
just hot as hell. and that’s how we likes it.
it’s working!
last night after my good-byes to the yogis, I was airing out the yoga room when I noticed, thru the window, the exit gate was acting possessed…. AGAIN! You need to know this gate has been both my love and my nemesis. it protects me, lets people out easily but it’s lazy and crazy. We have been a few rounds, this gate and me so this was really more of a pain than a surprise.
i was tired and after 2 really really hot classes in the same Lulu ensemble I was beyond wet. i was simply soaked from hair to toes. (however my core temperature was soaring from DOING and LEADING these silent classes) it had been raining and the cool front had come in, but i decided to dart out and see if i needed to just “dry off” the sensor or something. no luck. unfortunately it was not going to be an easy fix. I was going have to call Joe the builderman.
i mentioned it was chilly and rainy, but it was also windy. when troubleshooting the gate the front door slammed shut and locked behind me. no problem, i thought- I’ll use my “hidden key” and get in. Around to the back door, found key in lock … WHAM! the chain is engaged. No entry here. No problem, I will go thru the front door. Thru the front door I go, I pick up my phone, lay the key down on the table and head out front to look at the gate while I call Joe. I walked out the front door again and WHAM! The wind got me again. SLAM! Still in wet yoga gear. Still cold. This time no hidden key to save me.
As always, Joe’s kind and will call the fence man . And he is on his way, but he has no key either.
Did I mention it was cold and I was SOAKED?
Well, I did not flip out, freak out or panic. I found a gift.
You see, the monster heater that beautifully heats the room, also draws the heat out! So I stood in front of the heater chimney out side and waited…. and waited… and thought about how to get in. The yoga room window was open… but I needed a tool. A tool that would gently open the screen and not cut it. Then I remembered! IF my car was unlocked, I have a bottle opener in there! (it’s to open secret bottles of mexican coca-cola drank with out witnesses.) SO… full of hope i run to my car and YAY! it’s open! YAY! There’s the bottle opener. So I got the screen off the window with out damage and climbed up on the handicap ramp rails and viola! I was in… just as Joe pulled up.
I grabbed a jacket, offered a flashlight and happily went upstairs to change into my dry clothes.
“So, what’s working” you ask?
THE YOGA. The yoga is working on my equipoise as well as my body. There was not even a wave of upset. I found myself curious as to what was going to happen. The HEATER: it kept me warm inside the yoga room as well as outside in the rain.
And THE GATE? Well, it’s working at the moment. 😉
darla cooks 