Devadas is a devotee of Amma, an Indian saint known for her incredible capacity to love others without judgement, fear or seperation.  It’s cool when someone’s art reflects so purely what they love.  Devadas loves Amma, and I hear and experience her love through his songs.

Check out his music here: www.devadasmusic.com

Also, come to class with Devadas and I on Feb. 10th at 10am.

Prema Yoga Brooklyn *236 Carroll St* Brooklyn NY

This was no small feat. As you may remember, cassette tape rewinding was a skill, and it took a few rounds of rewinding and fast forwarding to catch back up with the class recording right at the point when the forearm balancing was over.  But, I did it.  Determined, and slightly neurotic, I did the rewinding routine every day for about two months.  One morning, I was particularly exhausted and sweltering in the late August heat when Sharon began her instruction on forearm stand.  I started the crawl over to the stereo, but I stopped half way.  I didn’t have it in me to fast forward over the hard part of the class anymore.  I moved back to my mat and tried the pose that I had been avoiding.  It was not easy.  In fact, it was horrible.  I felt anxious and unstable.  I felt weak, and frustrated that I could not hold the balance.  Intense feelings of judgement and anger arose.

I realized in that moment, that the crawl over to the stereo and the fast forwarding was the story of my life up until that point.  I would coast through things that were easy, and completely avoid, fast forward, everything else.  In that moment of challenge,   I learned about myself on such a deep and fundamental level, that whole life changed.  Since then, I have made an effort to stop avoiding and rushing difficulty.  In this effort, I have found a true sense of freedom and joy.

Did forearm stands and other inversions magically become easy after this realization?  Nope.  It took me four more years of daily practice to learn to balance in forearm stand and handstand.  In the four years of facing challenge, my practice ‘off the mat’ transformed.  Relationships, to myself, to others, to my work, became easier.  These days, when challenge comes calling, I try to welcome her with more open arms.

According to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, this seesaw of excessive attachment to things that we like, and excessive aversion to things that we don’t like is called raga and dvesha.  Raga manifests when we get too attached to things that we like.  It doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy things.  It’s just the opposite. Enjoy nice things, but even as you enjoy them, be always willing to let them go.  This is easier said than done.  In relationships we can grasp onto they joy of our partnerships and freak out when something in that dynamic changes. We can attach to our money and build our lives and identities around that money.  When we lose a job, or make a bad investment, we can feel devastated and lost.  We can even attach to the size of our jeans or our hair color.  Those things change too.  The pull of attachment is strong and painful, and it is the root of other kinds of suffering like jealousy, greed, and anger.

The other side of the seesaw is excessive aversion to things we dislike.  We sometimes avoid difficulty or discomfort to such a degree that our suffering only increases.  For example, I have friends who have avoided dating due to fear of rejection and the pain that might result from that.  We can avoid doctors when we are ill and need help, due to fear of bad test results.  The list goes on and on, and the back and forth seesaw of raga/dvesha can seem endless!

Pleasure and pain are part of life. We humans seek pleasure and avoid pain in the pursuit of happiness. But ironically, when we cling to pleasure or even cling to the aversion of pain, it instead brings suffering and loss of happiness.  We seek security by holding on. But true internal security comes only from letting go. When we hold on, we are attached, in bondage and not free. True freedom and happiness comes from letting go and opening up to the present moment. In the present moment our consciousness can open and connect with the inner light and the beauty in all of life, connecting us with true security and happiness.

There is a story from ancient India about a musk deer that was born with a scent of musk on his forehead.  He spent his whole life seeking and searching for this wonderful scent that seemed to be somewhere out there, just around the next corner, not realizing that the scent was there already as a part of himself.

As we become more seasoned yogis, we come to love the difficult parts of the practice, because ultimately they teach us about ourselves.  And, isn’t that what we are doing here anyways?

Clip here:  Home Practice – tripod to rooster

Love.

You will recognize many of his songs.  I play them in class often!  Devadas played with J Mascis and Tony Jarvis at Prema last year during our incredible benefit concert.  Here he is playing O Mata : Devadas

Expect beautiful music, sweaty vinyasa, soulful breath, and moments of deep inner quiet that will reveal to you the fullness and depth of your own heart.

Sign up soon.  You can email me at lesley@authenticityproject.com to reserve a spot.

Also, please sign up for my mailing list to the right of this page.  You will receive information about all the of the great classes, events and retreats that I have upcoming.

xx, lesley

xx, lesley

Kale Chips

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.

Remove the ribs from the kale and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Lay on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil and salt. Bake until crisp, turning the leaves halfway through, about 20 minutes.

Roasted Chickpeas

Here’s what it takes – salt, seasoning blend of your choice, garbanzo beans and olive oil

I like to soak and boil the beans myself.  I think they taste better and they have much more prana, or life force, this way.

Both canned and fresh beans work well with this recipe:

1. Drain the beans

2. Lay them out on a baking sheet lined with paper towel

3. Pat dry with another paper towel

4.  Remove the paper towels when the beans are dry and drizzle a good olive oil lightly over the top

5.  Toss them in the oil and 400F for 30-40 minutes until golden brown, crunchy (not soft)

6.  Season with salt and whatever seasoning you like.

Enjoy!

Hanumanasana is a yoga pose that takes strength, devotion and, for some, compassion!  Celebrating Hanuman’s heroic leaps, this pose is practiced by bringing your legs into a ‘split’ position, with one leg forward and the other behind you.
In this pose we bring equal awareness to what is behind us as well as what is ahead of us.  When they support each other, balance is achieved.  When there is tension or tightness in the leg that is behind, or fear and resistance in the leg that is ahead of us, we wobble and eventually fall.

In life, when our past fights with our present, or that which is behind us limits the way we perceive and act on what is ahead of us, we wobble and we fall.  Practicing asana is a safe and effective ‘container’ to work with these mental and emotion tendancies.

When approaching a pose that is challenging like hanumanasana, often times ego and judgement arise.  If this pose or deep stretches like it have been difficult in the past, the mind will likely tell the body that it can’t do the pose.  Reacting accordingly, the body will tighten, the breath will become choppy and the mind will manifest frustration, anger or some other sort of resistance.  So rather than practicing yoga, we end up practicing some sort of agitated gymnastics that only leaves us exhausted.

A quote from Pattabhi Jois:  “When the mind is quiet, the asana is correct.”

The correct way to do hanumanasana is to find a way for you to work in the pose with effort, but also with ease, so that the mind is quiet and the breath relaxed.   The way to do this is to develop mindful awareness of the sensations in your body through your breath.

Hanumanasana

Come to Downward Facing Dog position. Inhale reach your right leg into the air behind you.  Exhale your right foot forward to a lunge. If your palms don’t reach the floor, place blocks under your hands and walk your hands back in line with your hips.  Keep the torso lifted. Lower the left knee to the floor.  Slowly slide your left knee back, straightening the knee and at the same time lowering the right thigh toward the floor. Stop straightening the back knee just before you get to the maximum reach of your stretch.

Keep your hips squared to the front. The blocks under your hands can help you here.  You can also place a block or a folded blanket under your right thigh or sitz bone for support. Try to avoid turning your left hip out. If you turn your hip out you will get lower in the pose, but it not correct alignment and you will not achieve the full benefit of the pose this way.

Once you find the proper support in the pose, keep your torso lifted, your shoulders back, your breath steady and your face relaxed.  Let your eyes be focused and yet soft and joyful.  Let your gaze, your breath and all the muscles of your face relax completely, like you are drunk with love and devotion!

Advanced students may press the hands together at the heart or raise hands above the head, put the palms together, and balance.

Note :  You can do this pose with the back foot flexed and pressing into a wall.  You can gain more control in squaring of the hips this way.  You can also put a blanket under your front heel to help you slide forward with the foot.

Stay in this pose for 30 seconds to a minute.

Preps:

Prepare for the pose by doing backbends that help to open the front of the hips like natarajasana, cresent lunge and  seated or reclining virasana.

This interaction stays with me because it was a blunt, pretty funny and truthful way to give a teaching that we all need to be reminded of from time to time.  If we want to lose weight, have more energy and feel better in our bodies, then we simply need to eat less.

In yogic practice, this is seen as less of a restriction and more of an opportunity to fill ourselves with sensations and experiences that nourish us as much as a big plate of food.  Often, we stuff ourselves full of food because we are stuffing down emotions, loneliness, worry and other unresolved karmas.  When we eat we should be 50% full of food, 25% full of liquid, and 25% needs to be left open for conciousness to flow.

A yogi eats to live, rather than living to eat. This doesn’t mean your food has to be boring and bland, or that you can’t enjoy eating.  Just the opposite!  Eating is one of the greatest pleasures, and that pleasure gets amplified when it’s done with awareness and love.

I love to cook.  It feels so great to nourish myself and my family with healthy, fresh, organic food.  I will be posting some of my favorite recipes here weekly.  These recipes are perfect for you if you want to advance your practice as these foods will help you maintain the light and energized feeling you get from practicing yoga.

So what do yogis eat? A vegetarian yoga diet, of course, consisting of fresh fruits and vegetables, beans and grains, nuts and seeds, and a moderate amount of organic dairy products. You can prepare countless dishes using various combinations of these nutritious foods.

Here is one of my favorite dhal recipes.  Dhal is a light and flavorful lentil soup.  Pair this with some steamed basmati rice and sauteed greens like kale or broccoli rabe and you have yourself a fantastic, balanced and delicious meal!

Enjoy Yogis!

Let me know how your Dhal preparation goes!

xx

It will wake you right up and get you over to the studio and onto your mat!

Energizing Breath

1. Stand with your feet together, then inhale slowly through your nose as you raise your arms to the sides.

Fill your lungs completely as you bring your arms over your head until your hands meet.

2. Exhale audibly through your mouth as you lower your arms to your sides, emptying your lungs completely.

Repeat 5 to 10 times, then relax.

Email me to register soon!

xx, Lesley