Since it’s National Yoga Month, I decided to up my yoga game by adding a weekly Kundalini class to my practice. I am taking classes offered by Yoga House founder Elizabeth Greathouse a/k/a Gurumukh East on Saturday mornings.
Kundalini Yoga is known as the yoga of awareness because it uses body locks, breathing exercises, eye-focus, mantras, mudras, and yoga postures to help you gain control over your body’s mental, physical, and nervous energies. It also helps you to balance your glandular system, strengthen your nervous system, expand your lung capacity, and purifiy your blood. The word “Kundalini” refers to energy located at the base of your spine that can be drawn up through the body to awaken your seven chakras (energy centers).
In honor of National Yoga Month, I’ve been listening to some of my favorite yoga-inspired music, especially the Password CD by Deva Premal and Mitren. I have been listening to their sacred chanting music since 2004. My favorite track is “Narishima.” The song repeats a strong and powerful mantra that removes negative energy and protects those on the path to light from negative influences: Narasimha Ta Va Da So Hum. I have adopted it as my theme song for the autumn season.
Deva Premal and Mitren’s music opens my heart and allows my spirit to surrender and be present to the “now” moment. It is also very healing and has taught me how to use mantras as healing tools in my Reiki healing touch, meditation, and yoga practices.
My National Yoga Month celebration is really special this year because Deva Premal and Mitren will be performing on September 24 in Washington, D.C. Click here to learn more about the concert. Hope to see you there!
September marks the annual celebration of National Yoga Month. It’s a great time to recommit to your yoga practice.
What are you planning to do?
I am going to use the month to practice yoga outside more and take more yoga classes at my gym, Mint (like the Sunday evening flow yoga class I took earlier this year). I am also going to schedule some yoga dates with a few friends at local yoga studios.
Have you visited YogaInternational.com? It’s filled with a variety of yoga resources. The site also offers a helpful guide for creating a home yoga practice that I think you might enjoy. The guide shares the four benefits for creating a home practice. They include self-knowledge, self-help, self-indulgence, an exponential growth. I totally agree!
When I started practicing yoga in my home in 1995 after I attended my first yoga class during an African American studies trip to Egypt, I hired a private yoga teacher to guide me through the asanas (poses). Her name was Gloria. She was a kind, firm, loving, and knowledgeable woman I met in my monthly meditation group. She showed me how to embrace yoga as my own healing balm for anxiety, stress relief, and tight hips, hamstrings, and legs that needed stretching after my long runs. She showed me how yoga when paired with meditation could help me focus my energy on my creative projects. She pushed me to try poses I was afraid of (at the time I was afraid of downward facing dog) in my home practice. She encouraged me to take my yoga practice outside and into my local park.
She also taught me how to create a five-minute practice that includes seven deep breaths in a seated pose followed by child’s pose. When I have more time, I add in a few rounds of sun salutations, cat/cow, lots of standing forward folds, cobra, plank, twists, squats, pigeon, and alternative nostril breathing.
Photo Credit: Cyndi Lee
Cyndi Lee’s OM in a Box was one of the first resources I used to deepen my home yoga practice.
Photo Credit: Yoga Journal
Yoga Journal is another resource I use. What does your home practice include?
I have created many collages over the years to remind me to practice yoga daily. What do you use as a yoga reminder?
Reading yoga-inspired magazines is one of the ways I deepen my yoga practice and teaching skills. Tathaatsu Magazineis a personal favorite. The word Tathaatsu means “So Be It.”
I like the magazine because it is filled with information on Ayurveda, feng shui, healthy food, holistic living, mantras, meditation, spirituality, travel, wellness, and yoga. Tathaatsu’s web site is filled with great resources too. Make sure you visit it this week!
What magazines do you read to deepen your yoga practice?
Hindu Goddess Lakshimi, one of Ananda’s favorite yoga goddesses
Happy Yoga Monday!
During my yoga teacher training at Flow Yoga Center in 2005 and 2006, I developed a series of yoga classes that emphasized the attributes of Hindu female deities better known as goddesses or archetypes and how they corresponded to the seven chakras (energy centers in the body). See a list of some of my favorites below (the meanings are based on my own interpretation and understanding).
Durga is the Hindu warrior goddess of determination, persistence, personal power, and will power who governs the third chakra.
Kundalini is the Hindu goddess of inner power who governs the first chakra (the first chakra is the seat of Kundalini energy).
Lakshimi is the Hindu goddess of material and spiritual prosperity who governs the first chakra (physical survival including material prosperity)
Radha is the Hindu goddess of love and governs the fourth chakra.
Sarasvati is the Hindu goddess of wisdom who governs the sixth chakra. She is also the Hindu Goddess of creativity and the arts who governs the second chakra.
Shakti is the Hindu goddess of divine feminine energy who governs the seventh chakra.
Vach is the Hindu goddess of communication and speech who governs the fifth chakra.
Photo Credit: SallyKempton.com
Earlier this year, I learned Sally Kempton, one of my favorite spiritual teachers and Yoga Journal’‘s columnists, had authored Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga, a book that tells stories, offers meditations, and shares the wisdom of many of my favorite yoga goddesses. Click here to read a Yoga Journal interview with Kempton about her new book. After reading a review of the Awakening Shakti in Yoga Journal, I put it on my Amazon.com list of books to buy. Last month, I purchased it from Amazon.com and decided to add it to my stack of must read summer books (which I will begin reading on June 21, the first of day of summer a/k/a the Summer Solstice).
Photo Credit: SallyKempton.com
Last week, I glanced through Awakening Shakti to see what juicy wisdom and insights I could expect to receive. Here’s what I found. Kempton shares how the qualities of 11 yoga goddess archetypes can help people deepen their meditation and yoga practice and better understand themselves. She also shares her personal experiences with each yoga goddess archetype. I am excited about exploring each goddess archetype’s meditation exercises, invocation mantras, visualizations, and personal Gayatri mantra. I adore chanting the Gayatri mantra, one of the oldest and most powerful of Sanskrit mantras. It’s one of the first mantras I learned before entering yoga teacher training.
Click here to learn more about Awakening Shakti. Be sure to visit sallykempton.com, follow her on Twitter, and LIKE her on Facebook.
Enjoy your day!
OM #YogaMonday OM!
Photo Credit: “OM” drawing by Ananda Leeke
PS: If you would like to read about my yoga journey, check out my memoir That Which Awakens Me on Amazon.com. It is available on Kindle
My debut novel Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One features a main character who works as a yoga teacher in Washington, D.C. Click here to visit the Love’s Troubadours’ Pinterest board which contains some great information about the novel. You can purchase it on Amazon.com.
I love writing and reading stories about characters who practice yoga. One of my favorite yoga-inspired fiction books is Yoga Mamasby Katherine Stewart.
Yoga Mamas, one of my favorite yoga fiction books
Yoga Mamas is a great chick-lit book to read during the spring or summer seasons. It tells the story of four pregnant women who take an exclusive prenatal yoga class at a Soho yoga studio in New York City. The main character Laura is the book’s narrator. When the book begins, it seems like the only things Laura has in common with her three chic, well-to-do, Prada-wearing mothers-to-be is her pregnant belly and a yoga mat. They do lunch (like the Sexy and the City gals) and become fast friends as they share stories about their lives and partners. You’ll travel with them through their NYC and Long Island adventures. You’ll also witness the unravelling of a juicy secret that gives birth to scandal (it’s a good one….). So pick up the book and read it!
What are your favorite yoga-inspired fiction books?
I love the DC Yoga community. Why? They come together each year to offer yoga lovers an opportunity to practice free and $5 yoga classes during DC Yoga Week. This year, over 40 yoga studios are participating in DC Yoga Week which will be held on April 29 through May 5. The week closes on May 5 with Yoga on the Mall at the Constitution Gardens by the Vietnam War Memorial. The event will begin at 11:00 a.m. and end at 1:00 p.m. Three of my favorite studios, Embrace Yoga, Flow Yoga Center, and Tranquil Space are participating in the week-long celebration. Smith Center for Healing and the Arts is a partner for the event (FYI – I work at Smith Center as an artist-in-residence). Click here to learn more about the events.
If you are in DC, are you planning to participate in DC Yoga Week?
If you would like to read about my yoga journey, check out my memoir That Which Awakens Me on Amazon.com. It is available on Kindle
My debut novel Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One features a main character who works as a yoga teacher in Washington, D.C. Click here to visit the Love’s Troubadours’ Pinterest board which contains some great information about the novel. You can purchase the book on Amazon.com.
Janice Gates’ book Yogini: The Power of Women in Yoga
Happy Yoga Monday and Earth Day!
Yoga is a sacred gift because it helps promote self-acceptance and self-love. Check out my yoga video that shares yoga wisdom on self-acceptance and self-love from Janice Gates’ book Yogini: The Power of Women in Yoga .
Today is also Earth Day, an annual celebration that is held across the globe that calls individuals, communities, organizations, and governments to acknowledge the amazing planet we call home and take action to protect it.This year’s theme is “The Face of Climate Change.” Click here to learn more about the day.
Take a few moments and breathe in the beauty of Mother Earth today. Give thanks for all the planet does for you and your loved ones. Make a promise to do three things to support the sustainability of our global home. If you are in DC, stop by the Earth Month celebration at Union Station this month.
How are you celebrating and honoring Mother Earth?
OM #YogaMonday OM! OM Mother Earth OM!
PS: If you would like to read about my yoga journey, check out my memoir That Which Awakens Me on Amazon.com. It is available on Kindle
My debut novel Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One features a main character who works as a yoga teacher in Washington, D.C. Click here to visit the Love’s Troubadours’ Pinterest board which contains some great information about the novel. You can purchase it on Amazon.com.
I started practicing yoga to support my running practice in 1995. Right after I turned 40, I decided to pursue my dream of becoming a yoga teacher at Flow Yoga Center in 2005. Click here to watch a video about my personal yoga journey. Enjoy!
Why did you start practicing yoga?
OM #YogaMonday OM!
PS: If you would like to read about my yoga journey, check out my memoir That Which Awakens Me on Amazon.com. It is available on Kindle
My debut novel Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One features a main character who works as a yoga teacher in Washington, D.C. Click here to visit the Love’s Troubadours’ Pinterest board which contains some great information about the novel. You can purchase it on Amazon.com.
Today, I want to share the Uttarabodhia mudra, a yoga hand movement you use to remind yourself of your oneness with everyone and everything in the universe. It’s a perfect way to practice yoga on the go! Click here to watch my short video. Enjoy!
Healing Mudras by Sabrina Mesko is a great book for understanding mudras.
OM #YogaMonday OM!
PS: If you would like to read about my yoga journey, check out my memoir That Which Awakens Me on Amazon.com. It is available on Kindle
My debut novel Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One features a main character who works as a yoga teacher in Washington, D.C. Click here to visit the Love’s Troubadours’ Pinterest board which contains some great information about the novel. You can purchase it on Amazon.com.
Ananda Leeke 