This is MY LIFE

My boss sent me an email today with The Holstee Manifesto on it and it really says it all about life.  I am not sure about copyrights, etc. so I am reluctant to copy the whole thing to my blog but I would encourage anyone to check it out on http://www.holstee.com/.  It starts out with "This is your LIFE" and then reminds us that we are responsible for our own happiness and it doesn't have to be as hard or as complicated as we tend to make it.

"Do what you love and do it OFTEN"..how simple is that.  We get so caught up in the things that others want us to do or what the community/society thinks we should do that we forget that it is all about choices, and ultimately we choose for ourselves.  Of course we find ourselves in situations where we are under someone else's power and sometimes that is okay, but we forget that in the end we can choose to or choose not to.   I constantly hear people whining about what they have to do, me included..but really why can't we do what we want?  What is holding us back? Sure most of us have commitments, family, financial, professional but if you can figure out what it is you want (and sometimes that is the hardest part) why can't you work towards it.  That is what I am doing right now.  I know I want to be a Yoga Dance Teacher and although I am very impulsive and would have loved to take the training last year when I discovered it,  it just didn't work out for me.  It is really strange but I am anxious to do this but I am also content knowing that I will be doing this when the time is right for me.  I am on the list for training in 2012, the first time the training is in Canada and am very excited to think I will be one of the graduates in the first Canadian Training session.  There are Canadians already trained in this but the training has never been offered here before.  I am so grateful and excited to be a part of this group.  My youngest child graduates next year and I really have been a mom who wanted to be around my kids as much as possible, so I can't help but feel that it is working out perfectly for me.  I am working towards it, practicing yoga daily, taking pilates and dance classes and reading books that the Instructor suggested, so I really feel like I am a part of it already.  There honestly isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about it and feel it.  Even with music...I am constantly hearing songs and wondering if it would be one for a Yoga Dance song.  I finally have started a list of music that moves me and hopefully will move others too.  I really can't explain the feeling that came over me from that one Yoga Dance class at Kripalu last year..it was an experience like I have never felt before.  I felt so alive, joyful and free and you know what...I felt beautiful and you don't feel that way very often, or at least I didn't.  I know that my sister-in-law and everyone else in that class that day felt the same thing as the energy and joy was just incredible.  I have never participated in anything before where at the end you were hugging complete strangers and just sharing such love and joy.  I was so happy that my sister-in-law experienced the same thing as it is something that we shared that was such complete bliss and so special. 

Back to the Schedule, vacation is over for now.

Two weeks off, a trip to Montreal to see U2 with the fam and now back to work and back to my work out schedule. I actually only missed one scheduled class during vacation as we didn't leave for Montreal until Thursday am and were home late Monday night.  My summer classes are on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, so the rest of the week I mix it up with different DVD's and always wake up to Rodney Yee's AM Yoga (my favorite).
I saw an interesting fact this morning when I was printing the Active Living Daily articles to post in the crew room at work.

The article was called "11 Activities for your Heart" and guess what # 5 was..DANCE
#5 Dance Every Day
Whether it's country dancing or ballroom, dancing burns 480 calories an hour, uses your muscles in new ways - and puts joy in your heart.  Some Cardiologists say their patients who dance are the healthiest of them all.  Try to go twice a month.

This just keeps getting better and better.  It cements my thoughts that Yoga Dance is the ultimate workout routine.  It combines the beauty of yoga with the joy of dance and is good for your muscles and your mind.  When I first contacted the Let Your Yoga Dance Leader, Megha Buttenheim and asked if you needed to be a Yoga Teacher or a Dance Teacher to take this training, she said that I didn't need to be either but it would probably be a good idea to try a dance class or two until I can get to the LYYD training next year.  Earlier this year I started taking Belly Dancing Lessons with my sister-in-law and our teacher is so beautiful when she dances...well, she is just beautiful anyway, but when she dances, something just takes over and I could watch her all day.  We struggled a little with the choreography, so we joined the Beginners class again for the summer and our 17 year old daughters joined with us so Wednesday nights are a really fun outing together and I think the girls are having fun.  I also joined Tribal Dance, with the same instructor and I love this.  This actually was what I wanted to take but the instructor suggested taking Bellydance first to get some of the basic moves.  I am determined to master some of these moves and although I am not a natural, I am really enjoying it.  Hopefully my teacher will continue to be patient with me.  She has been an absolute doll so far.  She also teaches yoga and there is a 5:30 class both Monday and Wednesday's before my  7 pm dance classes, so I am trying to get to a couple of these.  It is a little tough to get into town for 5:30 as I work outside the city, cross a ferry to get home and it is another ferry ride to get to the city.  I did manage to get there a couple of times when I was on vacation and really enjoyed her classes, so I am trying to convince my daughter to attend the Wednesday 5:30 class before our Belly Dance class.  Tuesdays are Pilates @ 6 and Restorative Yoga @ 7:30 which works out great and they seem to compliment each other.  I'm not sure how the schedules are going to match up come fall but it has worked out perfectly for the summer.

Up til now

Okay, here it is..my very first post.  I have been very slow at getting this started but to tell the truth I got a little freaked out at having my thoughts and feelings posted for everyone to see.  After I created this, I realized that I am an intensely private person and am not comfortable with putting it all out there, so I have decided to keep this blog related to my journey of becoming a Certified Yoga Dance Teacher.  I am not so much trying to get people to read my blog as I am just wanting a place to catalogue my journey for myself.
I attended an Introduction to Yoga 4 week course March 2010 and totally fell in love.  When the 4 weeks were up, I could not find a yoga class in my area that would fit in to my schedule so I bought a couple of Rodney Yee Beginner tapes and started on my own.  It is like a hunger, I just want to learn more, more, more.  I have practiced every day for over a year now and there have been very few mornings that I get up and not do Rodney's AM yoga.  It is a great way to start the day and now it is a habit and I miss it terribly if there is some reason I can not practice it.  I have even typed up and laminated a little card with the poses on it that I can take with me when I am travelling.  I call it my Yoga to Go card.  I love the way I feel when I do yoga and I am sure it will be a part of my life forever.  I have been semi athletic all my life...High School basketball, softball, aerobics...what ever the exercise fad of the year was.  Yea, I had the Jane Fonda LP's, the Suzanne Somers Thighmaster, etc...man, we have come a long way.  None of these things have ever made me feel like Yoga does..that's right I have to capitalize it, it means that much to me. 
Well, that's start.  My next post will take me through why I crave Yoga Dance, why I need to do this.