The Power of the Lotus!

Today was the first day in a brand new session of Lotus Palm's Thai Yoga Massage Level I Intensive (there is no way to convey that information that is NOT a mouthful!).  I'm assisting Jyothi, my beloved beloved teacher, and it was such a beautiful day!  As always, though, I'm totally wiped out.  Time for a shower, some tea, and time to get cracking on making the class contact sheet!

Today is my designated blog day for the week, however, and just when I was about to sit down and wax poetic, I remembered that I received an email last week from a friend at Athleta!  She shared with me some youtube videos from their most recent catalogue photoshoot, which took place - what are the odds - in Thailand!  So it seems terribly appropriate to give myself a break during what is always an energetically demanding 5 days and to let youtube do the blogging for me!

There are three videos:

The first is Dr. Karina Stewart, co-founder of the absolutely heavenly looking Kamalaya Koh Samui, the Wellness Sanctuary and Holistic Spa resort where the photo shoot takes place, sharing her insights on the popularity and benefits of yoga.

The second is Dr. Stewart again explaining the founding of Kamalaya and the origin of its name.  I loved her insights on the lotus flower - especially after a day of immersing myself in Lotus Palm!  As far as the resort...as Liz Lemon would say:  I want to go to there.

We were twins!  Kind of.

The third is pretty straightforward - behind the scenes on the catalog photo shoot!  Especially cool are the partner poses toward the end of the video.  (Not to mention the ELEPHANT!  I love elephants)  You might recognize one of the lovely models, Drisana, as my yoga teacher on the day of the awesome Athleta NYC Blogger event!

Next week, there I promise a post involving more rambling and waxing from me.  A number of interesting articles in the New York Times have come out recently that have inspired a lot of pondering, as well as some really powerful articles in Yoga Journal.  I've also completed Day 23 of the 40-day japa mala practice!  So expect some muse-y ramblings about that coming up as well.

In the meantime - please enjoy the videos and for the love of everything, stay warm!