I'm Home!

It was an amazing month at the Sivananda Yoga Ranch. I will be updating the blog soon with some of my journal entries. I've been home for a couple weeks and I finally feel clear-headed enough to write. And I miss writing! My goal is to eventually divide my time between writing and teaching yoga. This means that I am going to be more proactive about finding new writing opportunities and working consistently on my novel. The past couple months have provided a lot of writing material. I'll end this entry with a picture of me on my head in the Catskills. It sums up my experience pretty well...


PS- I teach at Baltimore Yoga Village on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday 7am, Wednesday 9:30am, Thursday 6:15pm, and Friday 12pm.

11 Days until Sivananda Teacher Training

I'm not proud to say that I took a couple days off the TTC challenge, but I'm back on the mat tomorrow. I had my last Sivananda class at Baltimore Yoga Village on Thursday before the TTC because BYV is on vacation this week. I felt good about the practice and ready as I can be for the course. Actually, I can't wait to get up there. Simultaneously, I realize that I'll miss my freedom and the amenities of Baltimore, not to mention the people (especially my new husband). The newest challenge added to my practice is the peacock. I can raise my head, but not my legs. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

My New Blogging Gig- "About Baltimore"

I am very happy to announce that I am blogging for a company called 451 Press. I am writing the Baltimore Blog that you can view here. It is exciting to have a freelance job writing about something I love-my home. I hope that anyone reading this blog will check out my new blog that covers Baltimore on a bigger scale.

Only one week until Kripalu! I scaled down to a weekend program after signing up for TTC at Grass Valley Yoga Farm. I'll be participating in The Inspirational Teacher workshop with Angela Farmer. I hope it is a good warm up for TTC. Kripalu describes the course as:

"This workshop is an exploration of ourselves, our practice, and our teaching. We will explore asana and breathing in an intuitive, creative, and playful way, opening up new channels of energy that can change concepts of "right ways" and "wrong ways" to practice, and lead you to greater joy and freedom in yoga."

Starting tomorrow evening, I am on vacation for 10 days! I am going to fill it with meditation, yoga, writing, reading, spending time with BYV folks, and relaxing with my soon-to-be husband...only four weeks until the wedding!

The Search for Yoga Teacher Training...

My search for yoga teacher training began with residential programs recommended by yoga teachers. The Sivananda Yoga Ranch in Woodbourne, NY and Kripalu in Stockbridge, MA stood out to me the most at first. As I wrote about here, I visited the ashram in Woodbourne, but didn't feel like it was right for me. In two weeks I'll be practicing yoga at Kripalu for a week. There are two new ashrams on my radar at the moment. Yogaville in Buckingham, VA and Yogi Hari's ashram in Florida have teacher training programs in the fall. Yogaville practices Integral Yoga and Yogi Hari's ashram practices Sampoorna Yoga, but both styles are based in Sivananda. I would like to visit Yogaville this summer for a welcome weekend. Florida of course is not as easily accessible.

A friend and yoga instructor gave me some good advice the other day. "Have patience," he said. He also suggested that I focus on my practice for a few months before worrying about teacher training. I've taken his advice to heart this week, and pranayama and asanas have effortlessly worked their way into my day even if I don't make it to BYV (I even do a few Sun Salutations if no one is around in the bathroom at work!). Now if I could only stop trying to figure out how to swing it all and stay above water... In any event, tonight I'll enjoy a Vinyasa Flow class at BYV.