A quick pre-Thanksgiving note...

I'm not planning to write too much tonight - it's been a wonderful and busy couple of weeks and my body is crying out for REST!

My Thai II Intensive was this past Wednesday-Sunday.  What can I say?  It was magical.  I love Lotus Palm, I love my teacher and her assistants, and all the wonderful souls who came together to learn to spread metta and joy (and stress relief!) to others!

Here are a few pictures of the Intensive...off to Massachusetts tomorrow to spend Thanksgiving with Marc's wonderful family.  It should be fun and delicious.  I'm definitely excited about my favorite of all holidays!

Performing Cow Face II on my lovely partner for the final day, Buffie.

Chopping her back...feels so good and it's so fun to do!

Performing the Diva Twist, the most intense of the 3 twists (at least up to this point in my education!)

Vivian, who runs an amazing healthy living center in Harlem, performs Kneeling Side Arc on Marianne, a lovely yogi and Mom (who I pictured in my entry on assisting Thai I in September!)

Lots of yummy stuff - in the back corner, Buffie is pulling me into a Long Stretch; forward of that, Natalie is performing Scapulla (yep, with two l's) on Beatriz, and on the right, Tama is palming sen line #3 on Jeanette's leg.

Adventures in the Fancy New York Yoga Blogger World!

It's been kind of a weird week.  For the last two weeks I'd gotten into the rhythm of going to Karma Kids almost every day as I was covering for my lovely friend Laura and helping out with other various events.  Now that she's fully back in action, I've had some space in my life this week to bounce back to the grown-up end of the yoga spectrum a bit.

As I mentioned at the end of my last entry, I was quit honored to be invited to an event called Wake Up with ATHLETA.  Bright and early on Tuesday morning, I went to Yoga Sutra studio on 39th (which is a gorgeous space, by the way) and was greeted by several insanely nice and lovely Athleta folk.  The other bloggers and I had our pick of several Athleta clothes to wear for the class, taught by one of their models, the lovely Drisana Carey.

Now I have to admit...I had never worn Athleta clothes before Tuesday.  For all my love of beautiful yoga-wear, the reality is I have been in massive penny pinching mode for awhile and can no more afford brand name yoga wear right now than I could...well, anything else that isn't food and rent.  I have some lululemon clothes I cherish that I have by the grace of a gift card, and some Be Present pants I treated myself to last year.  The benefit to "designer" yoga clothes - they can last you a REALLY long time!

So I was very shamelessly and girlishly excited to play fashion show, and I have to say...oh my WORD, their clothes are so unbelievably comfortable.  Some yoga clothes can make you feel like you're vacuum sealed in (which makes breathing a bit of a challenge), but these fall on the body so softly it feels like you've got nothing on.  I chose for myself the Udaya tank in Vintage Violet and, my new favorite article of clothing of all time ever, the Harem Pants in black.  The material is so smooth and soft...it's almost like cotton and silk had a baby and sacrificed it for the supreme joy and bliss of wearing Harem Pants.

(By the way, when I told Marc what they were called, he said, "How are you not offended by that name as a Thai Yoga Massage practitioner?"  I told him anything this comfortable could never offend me. )

We all eventually got ourselves dressed and into the practice room, and Drisana led us in a lovely hour-long practice that helped all of our yawn-y selves wake up and join the living. 

Chatting pre-class with Drisana (center) and a fellow blogger (left).

  Row o' down dogs.

 I am absurdly serious here.

 Is there anything in the world better than a yummy twist?

Afterward, they provided a delicious breakfast for us and a chance to chat and get to know each other.

 DELICIOUS.

I couldn't stay long, as I did have to get on to Karma Kids, but I am so thankful to have been invited.

Speaking of Karma Kids...I'm off for some Downward Doll Yoga!  I'm pretty sure it'll be the cutest thing in the universe.

The Yoga Fountain of Youth

This is the most amazing article...if you find you need motivation and inspiration on a Monday morning, look no further:  "The yoga supergran who can still assume the lotus position...at age 83."

Last week was a great yoga-week.  I subbed my first class at the Matrix, my neighborhood gym, and it went really well.  I was at Karma Kids a lot, still covering for my beautiful friend and fellow KKY teacher Laura who got married on October 30th.  I taught my first Storytime Yoga, which is crazy and fun.

I also, on the subject of yoga keeping you young, was insanely blessed to finally have my one-on-one session with my beloved Thai Yoga Massage teacher, Jyothi.  I don't know exactly how young she is, and I'm sure she looks younger than her age, but let me tell you, that woman is FLEXIBLE!  She puts her age group to shame, I'm sure.  I gave her a 90-minute massage and she critiqued me along the way, and I'm very happy and humble to say that I passed my evaluation with a perfect score.  The best part of the one-on-one session?  I then got to receive a massage at Jyothi's expert and magical hands.  It was like glimpsing heaven!

The next level of my training is in 9 more days, and I can't wait.  How appropriate that it's the week before Thanksgiving - what better time to be surrounded by love and light and metta?

That's all for this morning - time to get going on my own work!  I'll write again Wednesday though to report all about an event sponsored by Athleta I've been invited to on Tuesday morning for New York bloggers.  I was shocked and pleased out of my mind to get the invitation and I can't wait to share the experience!

Happy Monday, everyone!  Here's to a beautiful week!