365 Yogini

Yoga Works Homework: Pre-Teacher Training Writing Assingment

Sun, 4 Jan 2009 09:58:52 -0800

1. What is Yoga?

Yoga is the practice of aligning breath with movement. When focusing deeply on breathing through a series of thoughtful poses, we can come to a place of supreme spiritual, mental, and physical health and wellness.

2. List any injuries or medical issues you may have.

I've been an athlete and adrenaline seeker all my life and have survived a number of injuries in my 26 years. I've dislocated my elbows, broken fingers and toes, sprained my ankles, broken my left arm and left wrist, and in 12/20/07, I had surgery on my right ankle to repair torn ligaments and to clean out broken cartilage fragments.

Prior to surgery, in 2006, I had reached peak health and wellness and had gotten to a level of fitness where I was regularly running 5 and 10k races in addition to triathlons. However, recovering from surgery was not as easy as I expected and I have been working especially hard in the past six months to get back to a level of supreme spiritual, physical, and emotional wellness.

3. What do you want to get out of this course?

I intend to absorb as much information as possible while creating meaningful relationships with the community. I look forward to living, eating, and breathing yoga in order to help find my personal teaching style, which focuses mostly on children and women. This is my first step in the direction of becoming a professional healer.

Gigi Yogini at SoHo lululemon

Sat, 3 Jan 2009 11:07:12 -0800

Today from 5 - 6pm I'll be doing yoga in the window of lululemon in SoHo. Come check it out :)

Year of the Yogini

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:13:35 -0800

I've been trying to wrap my mind around the idea of this 200 hour yoga teacher training program I'm about to embark on in the next 4 weeks. Having wanted to do this for at least the past 3 years, it's amazing to actually be at the point in my life when I'm actually doing it.

I am (almost) ready.

Casa Verde, Honduras

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:04:25 -0800

A modest sign reading "Yoga Jungle Chill" is posted on the fence outside a riverside property in La Cuenca outside of La Cieba, Honduras. This amazing retreat is Casa Verde, home of soul sista yogini, Wendy Green, and I immediately feel right at home. We start the morning with yoga on the patio facing the roaring river and I am able to stare into the vast jungle and use Honduras' tallest waterfall as a drishti (point of focus) during our Astanga flow.

Wendy has a beautiful style. Her balance is tremendous and she and her main man, Garth, create a positive energy in the unpretentiously glorious space. Scott is a jokester, and Marcus is a bit inflexible, so we all share some belly laughter in awe of our amazing setting. After class we enjoy fresh coconut on the rock steps and share the juice with an over sized butterfly. We eventually move inside and enjoy the most deliciously textured papaya I've ever eaten along with fresh watermelon in the open kitchen.

The two story house is wide open and tastefully designed. Tall ceilings and big doors open up to the river and again, that outrageous waterfall in the jungle beyond. The couches just cry to be lounged on but I decide to take a tour of the house instead. Wendy and Garth sleep upstairs on the same floor as the kitchen and living room, and the guest bedroom downstairs is absolutely perfect. With its own bathroom, patio, entrance from, and exit to the back yard, I can imagine myself living here. We sneak off through the back door and find ourselves in an orange orchard.

The orange trees here are tall and the river is so loud you just want to be quiet. A slack line is tied between two huge trees and a large stick is on the grass in case you need it. Wendy has great balance and shows me how to do it, making the tight rope look easy. So I try for my first time ever although I've watched people do it for the past 8 years. From this view the house looks grand, standing tall with two stories with lots of beautiful wood patios. From here I also have a great view of a chic guest house on the hill.

I venture to the little house and I am breathless when I see how beautiful it is. I let myself in and smile with glee when I recognize the quilt work from the local women's sewing collective on the beds. I love the fact that Wendy is supporting our sistas. The guest house is just delightful and I start to imagine all the wonderful people I'd like to share this glorious space with. Three people would comfortably fit in the guest house beds, and with another person in the guest room in the house, a nice foursome could call Casa Verde home for weeks if not longer.

And then there's the outdoor shower! Ahh...what I wouldn't give to strip down and shower right here, right now; but alas, I only take photos. I figure I'll shower here when I come back and stay. So now I'm trying to figure out how to get back in the next year, because after that, Marcus will probably be gone from Guaruma. I imagine myself here with three ladies (my first instinct was Ashley, Larken, and Brynn) practicing yoga every morning, enjoying hot tea on the patio, eating raw food, hiking to the enormous waterfall, and napping in the sun. I would be happy to come back with any soul sistas, even a mother daughter team. All dynamics would be wonderful. In the end, I don't know exactly who I'll come back with, or when. All I know is that I'm already looking forward to it.

January in New York City

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:36:24 -0800

It's funny how the Universe makes certain decisions so easy sometimes. Like the decision to move to NYC for the month of January in order to take a 4 week intensive training at Yoga Works Midtown. Yes! I'll be enjoying 5 glorious days a week of 9 hours learning about yoga, philosophy, anatomy, breath, ayurveda, and the art of teaching.

When I was practicing yoga in Costa Rica, I realized how badly I wanted to be teaching the classes instead of the teacher I had. Oddly, I thought my fellow students deserved a more meaningful yogic experience and I believed that I could facilitate that better than the guy who was teaching our classes 5 days a week for 2 weeks. Every day, less and less people showed up to the yoga class because his style was so uninspiring.

I, on the other hand, relish in bringing out the best in people and have found that teaching yoga is a great way to do this. I thrive on helping people feel joy in themselves and each other. For whatever reason, I can't stop thinking of different ways to connect more deeply with as many people as possible.

I feel that yoga and the mind/body/spirit union is the only way to continue on a positive path. I feel unshakable, and I like that.

Lost Soles take Steps towards a Solution

Mon, 8 Dec 2008 08:32:31 -0800

Creative Peace and the Art of Yoga in Action!!!

Lost Soles

Wed, 3 Dec 2008 02:03:04 -0800

A young, eco conscious traveler, went to Montezuma, Costa Rica, for a yoga and surf retreat. Having heard nothing but wonderful things about the country and it's environmentalism, she was surprised to find the beaches covered in trash. To hear her story and see what she did about it, visit Shoe Project / Proyecto Zapato to become inspired to you do something to support the cause.

A little town called Gracias

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 08:07:22 -0800

The clouds have settled low
on the mountainous horizon with a blue backdrop so bright
it looks unreal.
Rain is in the distance but the sun shines brightly on my bare shoulders,
so hot I can feel new freckles
emerging on my skin's surface.
After two days on chicken buses, it feels good to be sitting still,
perched on this patio, overlooking the cobble stoned city of Gracias.
I can hear children playing in the courtyard below
and the sound of cars bouncing in the unseen streets.
A cowboy walks past the large gate,
and country music blares from a three wheeled toot toot taxi, filled with a family and their groceries.
Then everything goes quiet,
and all I hear is the wind rustling in the leaves,
and a rooster in the distance.
These streets host tightly packed buildings
with red tiled roofs,
many of which have turned black over time.
Clusters of grass form on telephone wires
and moist sheets swing dry on a maze of rooftop laundry lines.
And then, the city is awake,
alive again with shovels scraping against the gravel
and joyful laughter of people who are happy to be alive.

Today in San Jose, Costa Rica

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:47:25 -0800

My friends all left this morning so I explored the city on my own. The main mission was to find a calling card so I could talk to my mommy, but then I was enjoying the city so much, watching a childrens soccer game and getting drawn into little parks, that eventually I was lost. I tried to get help from a nice looking woman, showing her my map without street names, and speaking to her in Spanish, but she wasn�t exactly where my hotel was. However, she could tell that I was close, and told me that I was going in the wrong direction, and pointed me towards the Central Park.

So I walked towards the Plaza and heard some music towards the back. As I approached I saw a huge Cathedral and a live symphony playing beautiful music. So I stopped on the fountain steps to listen and relax. Then I decided to look at my map again and suddenly everything made sense. I was only a block away from the hotel so I decided to head back to enjoy my first hot shower in two weeks.

On my way, I heard clapping and singing coming from the local church and decided to pop in. Everyone was standing so I stayed in the back and enjoyed the beautiful music and the overflowing love that was in the room. When it came time to offer peace to the people around you, I was overwhelmed by the abundant joy and was grateful when locals started to approach me with smiling faces.

The first few people just shook my hand but then the older women came over to hug and kiss me. I started to sob because the moment was so beautiful, and I appreciated their generosity, especially considering I was an outsider. And the more I cried, the more people came up to me to give me love and to whisper Spanish blessings in my ear as they hugged my tightly and kissed me on my wet cheeks. I stayed for a few more songs and harmonized in Spanish, clapping and dancing with the rest of them. Sometimes I can�t believe this is my life.

I was grateful that God had found me in this foriegn place to help me feel at home.

Adventure of a Lifetime, Part 2

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:44:33 -0800

So for the past two weeks I�ve been living la Pura Vida in Montezuma, Costa Rica. Accessing the internet was not easy, and the one pay phone on the dirt road didn�t have a dial tone, so I pleasantly took a break from communicating with the outside world.

I did, however, communicate quite a bit with the amazing people I met at La Escuela del Sol who came from all over the world, including places like Holland, Switzerland, Norway, England, Chile, and the good ole U. S. of A.

I made a tremendous amount of friends and stayed ridiculously busy. On most days, my schedule looked like this:

6 am Wake up to the sound of Howling Monkeys and Roosters.

6:45 am Leave for surfing and walk 45 minutes along beaches and through the jungle to get to La Playa Grande.

7:30 - 9:30 am SURF!

9:30 - 10:15 am Walk 45 minutes back along beaches and through the jungle to get home. Then take a cold shower (yes, cold showers, there was no hot water!!!).

11 - 1 pm Spanish class in an open air patio classroom with a view of the ocean, listening to the waterfall, and occasionally shooing away the monkeys and birds.

3 - 5 pm Spanish Lab at a local restaurant and occasionally shooing away the local men.

6 - 7:30 pm YOGA in the open air hammock lounge, flowing to the sound of the waterfall and the ocean waves!

8 pm Dinner, dancing, and star gazing with friends.

Now you can understand why I happily avoided computers!

I also enjoyed horseback riding along the beach, the zip line canopy tour, waterfall hikes, hikes through the natural preserve, and a day excursion to the west end of the penninsula to check out a surf competition.

I made some really amazing friends and had an amazing time to say the least. To be honest, I got to know myself very well in these past two weeks. I wish I had the time and patience to write to each person individually but I don�t. I�m here in San Jose with three girls I met at La Escuela del Sol and we want to go get dinner before it gets dark.

Con mucho gusto,
Brigitte