Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training ~ Week 3/Exhausted

I'm exhausted.  Mentally, physically and emotionally, exhausted. Week 3 was a beast!  If you read my blog about Practice Teach 2 then you have an idea, but really I didn't get into the feeling of it all.  What I mean is this.

Weeks 1 and 2 I was tired, but still excited.  At that time my classmates and I were still in the thrill of it so to speak.  We are overloaded with information, but we just keep making it happen.  Then last Sunday hit and we were faced with another week  of the same and it became too much. For a while I just zoned out. Well as much as I possibly could in this situation and I was not alone.  Last week was the first time I heard talk of wanting to go home or folks who could go home for the weekend (which is one day for us) saying they didn't want to come back.  Of course they were going to come back, but it's a feeling.

I understood. I didn't so much want to leave, but I was missing my friends. I was missing familiarity and the people who just get you without having to say a word. People who aren't asking you if you're OK all the time. Yes I'm OK! Now leave me alone.  LOL!  In week three you get to the point where you are tired of crying. I'm so happy that my crying here has been minimal, but for some others it was a daily process.  I'm not saying that one way of being is better than another, but think back to what I said at the top. I think if I had been crying every day I would be under the bed right now. Crying is good. It's necessary, but it let's be honest; it can be exhausting.

There is so much to process here and folks have been going through it. I am included in that "folks," but the transformations and realizations here are deep.  If you think you are just gonna come here and learn some cool poses you are sorely mistaken.  Month long YTT is a pressure cooker and during week three some people did indeed pop, but all for the better.

During week 3 the winds of change were blowing.  Sandy was just one of the storms that passed over.  As I mentioned in my earlier blog, we lost Joe, we lost power and we damn near lost our minds, but I suppose it's all part of the process. I'm starting to think I like the pressure cooker. Hmm... What's that all about?  I'm not sure exactly where to begin when talking about last week.  A lot of it seems like a blur, so I'll just tune in to yesterday, which was our day of silence.

I have been doing the silent meditation retreat thing for quite some time. I went on my first silent retreat around 2004.  I remember it being a rough time in my life, when I learned about a People of Color (POC) silent retreat that was happening in Garrison, NY at the Garrison institute. My friend Gayle told me about it.  I immediately went home that day, bookmarked the site for the retreat on my computer to make sure I would be there the next time it came around.  So much sprouted out of that trip. I met some of the women who would then become my circle sisters at Casa Atabex Ache and I also found the silence is so much more than golden, it's a God/dess send.  Since then I have been on a couple more silent retreats and have began to meditate regularly. I was looking forward to the silence, but for some of my other classmates, the thought of silence was terrifying.  No texting, no email and no talking. What was going to happen?  I am an empath so I was feeling some of the anxiety in the room. It was thick.

Our teachers treated our day of silence like a retreat. So our morning Sadhana (yoga practice) was something called Inward Diving, which is basically some really deep pranayama or breath work. The class was led by a man named Micah and it was incredible. He had us doing a lot of deep breathing in various styles including Dirga (three part breath), kapalabhati (breath of fire, while alternating nostrils) and some other things that I can't remember the name of that were new to me. Talk about feeling the energy.  Usually I don't like to do so much pranayama in the morning because it's challenging to get into it, but I was all into this and loving it.  I later found out I wasn't alone.

After breakfast we did an OSHO meditation. I had done this before so I was ready, but many other people had not so it was a lot. If you are not sure who OSHO is, just give him a google and you can get all this info. Anyway, this meditation consists of 15 minutes of shaking, 15 minutes of dancing, 15 minutes of seated or standing mediation and 15 minutes of shavasana.  If you are not ready for this, it can be life altering.  This mediation reminds me of the emotional release work I did a Casa.  One of the things we would ask women to do when they felt something coming up was to shake and then at the end of the emotional release we would have the women dance.  Shaking is usually the most challenging part of the meditation.  We don't usually move our bodies like that or when we do it's because something really terrifying has happened.  So the first part of this meditation can be very intense for some.  Then after 15 minutes you move to the dancing.  My teacher was playing something really tribal so I just went in.  It was great!  That part always seems to go fast because I'm all in it.  Then we did the 15 minutes mediation. We could either do it standing or sitting so I chose standing.  I was dripping with sweat, but it didn't bother me a bit. Then we laid down for shavasana.  I have been fighting off a cough for the last week as well.  It has been getting me up from shavasana at least once or twice a day.  I was hoping to make it through this one, but I did cough a couple of times. Then I was able to settle in.  After that I was beat.  I went to lunch and then took a nap to get ready for the end of the day.

When we returned for the last half of the day, we spent the first hour outside doing any sort of mediation that we wanted. Some people went to the lake, others to the labyrinth and my group went to Swami Kripalu's meditation garden.  I have to say there that here is a strange bust of the Swami in the mediation garden, which I wasn't expecting to see.  Although it was his garden I didn't really expect to see him there. LOL!  Anyway, it was a nice space and has a great view of the lake from there.  So I spoke to my ancestors for a while and then we returned to the center.  For our final activity of the day we had to hold bridge pose...for a while.  The exercise was about finding our edge and edges were surely found. But what I realized is that I'm always living life on the edge, which can be good when it comes to taking risks and leaps of faith. I don't ever want to be rid of that in my spirit, but I would like life to be a little less on the edge in some aspects of my life. So that's what I got out of it. I know how to go to the edge, but maybe a little stability would be good. Very good. I'm not coming back from here and looking for a full-time desk job or anything like that, but I am going to work to shape my life to be the way I want it and have all aspects of my life working for me.  It can be a challenge to be yourself and really step into your authenticity, but I'm going to keep stepping. I've gotten this far, I know I can make it even brighter.

The last thing we had to do before breaking silence was find someone near us, look them in their eyes very close up and then give them a hug...for 6 minutes.  Now, coming from the artsy, hugging and kissing community that I come from, this was no big deal, but for some it was life altering.  The woman I hugged broke down afterward because she was so scared of the eye contact and the hug because she didn't think that she was lovable and she could feel that I really loved her when I hugged her and in that moment she realized that she really deserved to be loved.  POW!!!  It was deep for sure.  I know I have had some hard days, weeks, months even, but I have never felt unloved or not lovable.  Did I say it was deep?  Well, it was deep.  It made me even more thankful for my life and the people in it.

Then about 5pm we broke silence and some of my classmates spoke about their experience.  Besides the one mentioned above, others had found a new sense of self or at least realized it in the silence.  I had a few revelations myself, but that is one of the reasons why I came here. Another thing I realized is that Music is my Yoga.  Don't worry, I'm still going to teach, but yoga is more than just postures.  Yoga is really the breath and I'm breathing when I'm making music.

Week three is done and tomorrow begins my last week here.  As much as I'm ready to go home, I'm gonna miss this place and these people.  In some ways they have become my family. We are the only ones who will understand what happened here. Yes there have been other Yoga Teacher Training classes before us and there are many to come, but I know that no two groups are alike.  I'm so glad I went through this process with these people.

OK, I'm signing off.  I had studying to do, but there is also an acro-yoga workshop going on. What to do?  Thank you so much again for all your support.

Jai Bahgwan!

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Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training ~ Practice Teach 2/Man Down

Well it's been quite and week and it ain't over yet.  Before I get into what happened the night and day of Practice Teach 2 I'll explain the "Man Down" part of my title.

Two weeks into the program, which is the half way point, Joe one of my classmates, dropped out of the program. I was really shocked, but he was struggling with his health since he arrived here. In fact he went to the hospital due to dehydration in the early days of the program, but that being said I still didn't think he would drop out.  That really threw me. I know how much it takes for people to get here and it kind of broke my heart. I know if something happened and I had to leave it would be devastating considering all the work I had put in for two weeks and all the support that you all have given me along the way.  So we had to say so long to Joe. Actually I didn't even get to say goodbye.  One night he was there and the next night he was gone.  He was a good guy I wish him well.  So that actually makes two of our classmates that have left the program either on their own (Joe) or due to circumstances beyond their control (Scott).  The man count keeps going down in our class. So as of now, the last men standing are Barry, Troy, Peter, Andrew, Ben, Alex and Michael. Stay strong guys!

Moving on to brighter notes, I had an awesome Practice Teach 2!  Of course there is always room for improvement, but it was pretty amazing.  But before all that was the Hurricane Sandy watch.  We were also on alert here in the Berkshires, and it did hit us for sure.  It was nothing like NYC, NJ or CT, but she still came through.

Sandy hit the night before the practice teach. I was having a crappy day and everyone kept asking me if I was ok. They said I looked sad and thought I was worried about folks in NY. Honestly I thought my people would be OK and I was really PMSing and needed some space that day. LOL.  I love these folks, but after living together for almost a month I can't wait to get back into my own bed and not have to carry my toiletries to the bathroom. I know you feel me.

As I had mentioned before, I am a crammer. So on Monday night I took my spot in the Kripalu sanctuary and began to put together my practice teach. As I mentioned before, it's not that I don't have any idea what I'm going to do, but I let things swirl around in my head for a while before I put them on paper and Monday was no exception. I also sometimes like to go back to my room after everyone has gone to sleep so that night I stayed out until about 12:30am.  By the time I was on my way to bed Sandy was in full swing.  In the sanctuary you could hardly see the rain or hear the wind, but when I went upstairs to the forth floor on the other side of the building, the wind and rain were raging.  It felt like the windows could blow. Now that was scary!  So I quickly headed back downstairs to go to bed.

Now, we never lock the door in the room where I stay because there are 22 women in the room.  Did I mention that before?  With that in mind there are so many people coming and going at all times that there is no need to lock the door.  Well that night I got locked out.  Only briefly, but still I couldn't believe it. I know exactly what happened, but of course I was caught out there with no key.  So I had to knock on the door to have someone get up and let me in the night before the teach!  I really felt bad, but that, but folks understood.

Then I was getting ready to get in bed and had taken my pants off, when my roommate Alicia taps me on the shoulder and tells me there is water leaking on her from above the bed. Seriously??  OK.  So I ask her what she wants to do and she says she's going to the front desk to let them know and see if she can find another spot to stay in.  I waited for her to come back and she said they gave her another room to sleep in for the night.  Cool!  I'm about to get back in back, when there is knock at the door and three maintenance guys come marching in and I'm in my drawers!  They head strait to were the leak is, which gave me a minute to duck out of sight and put some pants on (damn!) and then I went and spoke to Alicia.  I asked her  if she wanted me to come sleep with her in the new spot and she was kind of hemming and hawing, which meant yes to me (and it did) so I went to sleep with her in the other room. We get to the new spot, set the alarm, turn on the ceiling fan because the new room is stuffy and hot and then head to sleep.

Now it's about 1:30am or so. Maybe later.  I finally get to sleep and then wake up again at about 3:30am. Strange bed and all. I look up at the ceiling fan and it's moving slower, but I thought that maybe Alicia got up to turn it down. So I went back to sleep.  Next I wake up at 5:45am. When I look up the fan has stopped and the clock is out, and I knew what was next.  No power.  So Alicia and I decided to get up and go back to the other room since we had to be up soon anyway.  When we opened the door to the room the emergency hallway lights were on.  Damn!  No electricity. We were told that the generators would come on, but that was clearly not happening at that point.  So Alicia and I walked back to the room and were trying to decide if we should wake people up because a lot of folks were using the room clock to wake up, which would clearly be out.  Turns out most of them knew that the power was out and people were looking for me and Alicia.  Everyone had slept through all that commotion from the night before.  Crazy.  Now we are all preparing for our practice teach in the dark or semi-dark. The building provided lanterns in the hallways and also some of the emergency lights were.  It was quite a scene.

Practice Teach 2
I went first in class to do my teach. I was actually glad about it because then I would have the whole rest of the day off. I would just be doing yoga for the rest of the day as a student in the class for the rest of my group.  By the time we were ready to start the generator power was on so we had lights.

I started my teach and everything was going really well. This time around I had to teach Virabhadrasana Eka (Warrior 1) and guide Virabhadrasana Dwi (Warrior 2), Kapalabhati breath (breath of fire) and Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) with the sanskrit names, plus two more postures.  I felt way more comfortable this time, which makes sense. I feel that my personality came through in this teach. I think the thing that really impressed me was that during my teach, the lights went out again, but I was so in the zone that I didn't even flinch. I remember it happening and I just kept it moving.  There was light coming in from the windows so it was no sweat.  I stayed so deep in the zone that the lights came back on and I didn't even notice.  It was a lot of fun. Nerve racking, but fun!

So Practice Teach 2 is done! We are already talking about 3.  I can't believe we are over half way done with this process.  What a journey and it ain't over yet.  I'm going to wrap this up, but don't forget there is still time to give. I'm just gonna keep going till they kick me out next week. LOL!  Thank you all so much!  What a blessing!

Well folks, it's 11:08 and well past my bed time. I just wanted to give you a little something to get you through.  Next week is the election. PLEASE VOTE!!! That's all I'm gonna say!  Thank you again so much and I'll be back with you shortly!  Thank you again!!!

Jai Bahgwan!

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Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training ~ Week 2!

I can't believe week 2 is over. I am half way thought this process!  Sometimes the weeks feel so long and it seems like Saturday is never going to come. The thing is, I'm in no rush for it to be over, but I, and I would dare say my whole class, feel like we are working for the weekend. LOL.  The thing is we don't get a whole weekend.  We get Friday night after 6pm and Saturday off and Tuesday after practice teach. So here I am in the small town of Lenox, MA once again, drinking a chai latte and breaking it all down for you. This blog could be really log, but I'm going to do my best not to make it too crazy.

This time around I'm going to start with the animals. I don't know how I kept forgetting to talk about them.  First, there is a rabbit that lives on the premises and he or she comes out all the time and eats lunch with us when we sit outside. We, eating our kale and the rabbit eating the nearby plants.   It's very sweet and the rabbit seems not to be phased by us at all.  Then last week when I was walking home from Lenox I saw a deer eating off of a tree at Tanglewood.  That was an amazing site because it was so close to me.  Really beautiful.  Then for the final and most strange animal encounter.  One day I was in my room with a few of my other roommates, trying to take a nap. All of a sudden we heard this loud tapping and looked out the window and there was this HUGE crow tapping on the window with its beak.  When we walked closer to the window it seemed to fly off, but then it came back and tapped away for a while.  It was like he was trying to get someones attention. So I jokingly said, who has got the crow as an animal totem in here and it turned out that my roommate Suzane actually has a crow as her animal totem!  So I think he came to see if she was home so they could talk. LOL.  Honestly I don't know, but I do know that it was amazing to see, but a little too close to Alfred Hitchcock for me. LOL!

Last night for our evening yoga class we had a guest teacher named Jay.  He's a real athletic looking guy so we knew this class was going to be kick-ass for sure and he told us so in so many words.   But he was a really great teacher and even though he was making us work, he was making sure we had a lot of fun falling down.  After dinner he taught an arm-balancing class, which was great.  I have a special shoulder so I'm always curious as to how far I can go with it. Well last night I did a forearm stand on my own! Well for about 2.9 seconds, but I was up there!  Hey, you have to start somewhere.  We also worked on handstand, tripod headstand, crow, side crow, scorpion (which will be another lifetime to get into for most of us) and a few other poses that kicked my butt.  But we had so much fun trying that it was an amazing class.  It was one of our optional classes, but I'm so glad I took my time out to go. Now I have some idea of how to teach and assist people in arm balances.  There is still so much to learn, but I'm so glad a have a bit of a foundation in that area. I'm going to get his DVD and keep working on my core.  Yeah arm balances!

Well kids, Practice Teach 2 is coming up. Feels like we just did the first one and here we are again.  So this time we have to teach for 45 minutes and we must include Warriors 1 & 2 and Nadi Shodhana  and Kaplabhati pranayama (breath). Just to give myself a little test, I'll tell you that the sanskrit for warriors 1 and 2 is Virabhadrasana Eka and Dwi.  As far as the breath, Nadi Shodhana is alternate nostril breathing and Kapalabhati, which is known in some circles as the breath of fire, is where you breath with a rapid inhale and a passive exhale through the nose. It's also called skull polishing breath because it helps to clear the mind.  Not bad for not book in front of me.  I will admit I had to look up a couple spellings, but I'll be speaking it way more than writing it so I feel good about that!  As I said in my last blog, I'm a crammer.  I think about what I want to do for some time before it actually hits the page or the stage. So that will probably happen again for this teach as well.  On Monday night I'll be getting it all together and I'll report back on Tuesday night. :-D

So I'll leave you on this fine Saturday with this.  I'm not sure if I said this before, but here in school we are also learning the Yamas and Niyamas (I'll break them down for you later.). Anyway, I picked the Niyama of Ishvar-Pranidhana (surrender, opening to the Universe) to practice for the month and beyond. Surrender can be really challenging for me and I'm sure many of us. Especially living in New York, when waiting for anything is hard for us to fathom.  So I am working on both surrender and opening. This niyama really much to my yoga practice on the mat as well. If I can't find surrender in the poses and I'm always tight or holding then I will not be able to open to all the benefits and gifts that are inside the postures.  So, surrender.  I'm trying not to think too hard out here. It can make you mad and I don't mean angry. LOL.   Just trying to sit with what I've got and always have gratitude. Surrender and be open to receive.

Thanks so much for continuing to share this journey with me.  Remember we have almost reached out goal! Thank you for all who have donated and those whose donations are still to come.  Have a wonderful week and I'll check in on Tuesday night!

Jai Bhagwan!

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Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training ~ Practice Teach One!

Today was a really big day.  Lots of stress going around the place, which is exactly the opposite of what Kripalu is about.  Kripalu is ALL about tranquility and good food and great views and all that jazz, but today was test day...so to speak.

After only a week and a day and after learning in lots of Sanskrit names of postures, press points, proper yoga language, etc., it was now time to put all of our knowledge to the test and actually teach for 30 minutes.  

How it works here is that we are split up into groups of three or four and we have to teach to our groups. Just to add on the pressure; our teachers and class assistants would randomly jump into our group while we are teaching to join in and evaluate!  OK. Breathe. LOL.  

Of course you have to remember that this is Kripalu after all. So in our first teach there is nothing, but positive feedback, but that didn't stop me from stressing a little bit. 

As I prepared last night for the teach today I was reminded of my college days and that fact that I am a crammer.  I mean it's really nothing new. I worked on my class outline last night for the practice teach today.  I had it all in my head or most of it, but I just couldn't get it down until last night.   That's how I write articles and even deliver songs.  I don't like a process to be too long and drawn out. Where some people will wait until a song is perfect to put it out, I'm like, let's put it out and see how it goes and then we can tweak.  You can't quite do exactly that here, but the one thing our teachers did say was that today would be messy and not perfect and if it was perfect then we would fail. LOL! That was a joke of course, but the point was for us to have fun and know that if it wasn't perfect that's OK and we would have a chance to do it again.  

I think for me one of the things that made me nervous was mirroring. Every time I got to yoga class I'm in awe of the teachers who can mirror the class.  In other words their left is right and right is left. The other thing that amazes me is when teachers can teach a whole posture while talking. That has always been incredible to me. Well today I did both!  I mirrored and I demoed and talked at the same time!  

Surely everything was not perfect today. I switched the order of my plan by accident, but I quickly learned that it was OK because the class/group didn't know what my plan was so they didn't know anything was out of order.  Yes!  I also did something today that I am really the most proud of. When I messed up or realized I was out of sequence, I didn't beat myself up about it. Yes I'm human folks. I do have negative self talk just like you, but today I told my negative talking self to take a hike!  I did a great job and yes I'm saying it myself.  :-)  

I was the last to go in my group today, which was kind of tough actually.  Yes I had the benefit of watching everyone else and taking some mental notes, but after the first person went I just wanted to go and get it over with.  Que Sera...  My time was my time and it was right on time.  

There were lots of tears and revelations today for my classmates, and I was not exempt in that department.  I came here saying that I wanted to teach, but having no idea if I actually could. I kept thinking of all my teachers along the way and drew from so many of them.  I got to give Reiki to my students in shavasana, which I have ALWAYS wanted to do and as I heard myself guiding the class into tadasasna, I could hear the voices of the many teachers along the way who told me in class to tuck my tailbone and lift up through the crown of my head to elongate my spine.  Now I am sharing that and it's amazing!   

Today I learned that I am a teacher.  I can do this damn thing and that is exactly what I said to my class today after our teach. I was sweating after it was all over. I could feel it dripping down my back.  The nerves were that for sure, but I'm ready.  Today's class was 30 minutes and the next will be 45 minutes. Now it seems like no sweat. Bring on the hour class!  

There is still so much to learn. I know we will be getting lots of feedback from out teachers in the days to come, but one big hurdle has been jumped.  I am shocked daily by the amount of information that we are asked to retain and the fact that it's actually, really and truly in there.  In our brains that is.   

One of my classmates is a pianist, another plays piano, guitar and harmonica and then there is me. So tonight we shared our victory together with some of our other classmates around the piano in the main hall. We listened, made up songs and I even sang a couple of my own.  It was the perfect ending to an amazing day. Every day should begin with yoga and end with music or a combination of the two.  

As I watch the leaves fall right before my eyes and that landscape that was all reds, yellows and browns, turn to gray as some remain evergreen, I am so thankful.  Thank you all again so much for your love and support.  So many goals have been reached and there are even more to come.  We have almost reached the fundraising goad. We are so close. Thank you, Thank you, Thank You! 

Goodnight and Jai Bahgwan!

BTW-Sorry I haven't had more pictures for you. My camera on my phone has been acting special out here since that first day. Gonna try and work it out for you soon.  :-)

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Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training ~ One Week Down!

I have finished my first week of yoga school!  I can't believe it's been a week already because the days feel very long here. We are up and in class every day at 6:30am. We are not in yoga class at people think of it, all day long, but we are indeed doing yoga all day long.

I feel like I have so much to share and no time to share it.  When the end of the day comes I'm often too tired to think about blogging or there is other work to be done. But I will take the time to share a bit.

I am staying in a dorm with about 25 other women. I know that seems like a lot, but since we are all on the same schedule one would have to be way out of pocket to really step on anyone's toes. We are very mindful of the schedule.  As I said the days are long. Classes begin at 6:30am and most days end at 9pm. So if you can sleep, you would want to go to bed at 10pm. I say if you can sleep because I and some of the other folks had trouble sleeping at first.

There are about 65 of us taking the training from all over the world.  There are folks here from Germany and the UK as well as California, Wisconsin, Ohio and of course all over the east coast. It never fails that when I'm in a group of new people I will always find a person or two who remind me of people I already know.  There is also several generations of people in the training. We are ages 18-67!  There are a few men in the class; about 6 to be exact and I thought I was the only African-American women in my class, which honestly I wouldn't have been surprised about. But then I learned that one of my classmates who I thought was Latina is actual mixed (mother German, father black).  There are a few other people of color in the class. A woman from Panama, one from Mexico, one from Korea and one of our teachers is from Singapore.  I am so inspired by everyone in class for very different reasons.

I am on information overload, which was to be expected.  I am not really nervous about the written test we have take at the end, but next week is our first practice teach. Although I have been practicing yoga for 10 years there is so much to remember when actually teaching a class. The thing I have always been fascinated about most when in yoga class at home is how the teachers can get into postures and talk at the same time!  We are doing that here too and I wonder how that is going to be for me. Also the mirroring thing (left is right and right is left) has me a little shook.  LOL!  But I'm working on it.

I walked this morning with a couple of women from my training to the small town of Lenox, MA. It's an amazing fall day. To me, there is no better place to be in the fall then New England. I might be a little bias being from MA, but it brings back a lot of memories.  They went on to explore the town and I'm here in a little coffee shop getting my homework (meaning this blog) done.  Is it 65 degrees here and just an amazing day. The weather since I arrived has been some of the best fall weather I've felt in ages.  I really love small towns.  I'm the kind of person who either needs city or country. That in between thing just doesn't do it for me. So Lenox looks like heaven. It's easy to see why James Taylor and Carly Simon lived in Stockbridge, which is the next town over.  I am really happy. I can't explain it, but it all feels so good.

Thank you so much for all of your continued support. I have almost reached my fundraising goal.  I am $245 away!  Thank You! Thank You! If you didn't get to read about my first day of yoga school please take am moment to ready the blog below.

I will leave you with this saying from Swami Kripau who the center is named after. This really resonated with me as it reminds me of "Right Speech," which one part of the Buddhist Eightfold Path.

"Before speaking, consider whether it is an improvement upon silence." ~ Swami Kripalu

Namaste.

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Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training~ Day 1: Thankful

I'm Here!!

Hey Everyone! I know I didn't officially finish my countdown to school.  The last couple of days have been jammed with things to do.  Packing, admin work, putting together surprises for you.  They didn't all  quite come together in the time I wanted them to, but trust me, everything is on time. So look out for a great surprise coming soon.

I want to say Thank You again to everyone who supported me on this journey monetarily and spiritually. I can feel your love.  I know I'm going to have a life changing experience here.

So just a little about the journey.  I am so thankful to my girl Vilma for driving me up.  I was really dreading the thought of getting on public transportation with a months worth of stuff. That was not looking sexy at all.  So Vil came through and this morning we left Brooklyn for Lenox, MA.  I have never been away from NY this long. I came close in 2003 when I went to Italy for three weeks, but this feels very different.

The drive here was amazing. The foliage is in full effect and just getting better. We got a little turned around, but what a drive to be turned around on.  The houses, the cows and horses we saw along the way just accented the colors of the trees. I love this time of year. It's my time.  I am a fall baby after all.

Kripalu is right next door to Tanglewood. For those of you unfamiliar with this area, Tanglewood is where the Boston Pops play during the summertime as well as on the esplanade in Cambridge.  Tanglewood also hosts a bunch of non-classical shows like that of James Taylor.  It's a really amazing place that I used to visit quite a lot with my family as a kid.  This is truly one of the most beautiful places in the country.

When Vilma and I finally got here my mom was here to greet us! I checked in and went to my room. Well I can't really say it's my room, I share a space with 20, yes 20 other women.  Privacy is not something I will be getting here this month. But I'm not worried. I 'm just channeling my old Ohio State days of 16 in a suite.

The room is big, there are a lot of us, but I am grateful to be here for sure.  I dropped my things off and then we headed to the cafe and then outside to take in the view.  Amazing!  This place is overlooking the mountains and there is a lake. It's crazy beautiful.  Soon it was time for dinner and I was starving. I hadn't really eaten all day. I'm so happy to know that this is going to change. There is food, food, food and everyone I talked to was right about it.  The food is killin'!  I've only had one meal so far and I was floored already.  So don't be surprised if I'm blogging about food a lot. LOL!

I had to hurry back to the room, change and get ready for my first class.  I said my farewells to Vilma and my mom and quickly headed to class.  The first class was really a welcome.  Everyone getting to know each other.  I am the only black person in the class, but I have to admit that I expected that.  There are a few other people of color, but I am the lone African-American representative.  I have lots of thoughts about that, but no need to belabor the point. At least not at this time.

It was a great night. I should be in bed now. My saving grace is that we don't have 6:30am yoga tomorrow. We start at 9am instead.  So here I am getting this out to you and I am so happy to be sharing.

I will give you more details as well go along, but for now I say once again, Thank You!  Some of you have asked if there is still time to donate toward my fundraiser and the answer is yes. I will be fundraising till I reach my goal. You all rock so hard!  Sending you lots of love. Let the transformation begin.

Namaste.

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I'm going to Yoga School at Kripalu!!

Hi Everyone!

I know it’s been a while since I have been on the blog page. So much has happened that it would honestly take too much time to recap it all. But you can check out my music blog (the burning büshe: In Gratitude) and get a clearer picture of what I’m talking about.

I was away most of the summer and I have to admit that I’ve been out of practice. Funny thing is that I was probably out of practice at the time I should have been in it the most. I think that was lesson #1 for me. When we are feeling the worst is when we need to go the mat or the cushion most even if our mind and body are saying something else.

I know that yoga helps me with so much including keeping my stress levels down and my spirits up. So on that note I am back to the mat.

I’ve been back now for a few weeks and in that time I found out that I got into yoga school! Before I left for Michigan Womyn’s Music festival I applied. I didn’t expect to hear back to quickly, but I’m in! So I will be going to Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Stockbridge, MA to do my yoga teacher training! I’m so excited about the possibilities. This is a major life shift for me because although I am a musician, since I live in New York I have to do a few other things to keep the bills paid. I have made the decision that if I have to do something or things outside of music to make a living I want it to be something that I love. Something that has healed me and others and that something is yoga.

I got a partial scholarship to school, but I still need to raise some money. I was so stunned when I got an email from my friend Katie Elevitch saying that she wanted to help me raise the rest of the money through the launch of her website RockandRollYogi.com! She started something called "Pay it Forward" and I am the first person she is reaching out to help. What a blessing! So if you feel so inclined to help me reach my goal of going to yoga teacher training please make a donation at wwww.gofundme.com. We have great incentives so check it out! Half of the the money MUST be in by September 13th to secure my reservation. So remember that a donation of any amount will get me closer to my goal.

While I’m away I will blog as often as I can about my experience. I’m going to do my best to make it daily, but I’m not making any promises. The blogs might be short because I know I’ll probably be exhausted, but I want to share this experience with you. So let’s make this happen. Thank you so much for checking out my blog. I am a healer and I’m so glad to share this journey with you.

Om Shanti.
Shelley

Trikonasana: Triangle Pose

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