Check out a few sweet moments captured during our current yoga immersion. Some come to teach, others to learn, and all come to be inspired. Have a Merry Christmas and a HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! We really are so blessed. ((( OM )))

April's focus; systems, sequences, posture clinics, anatomy for yoga teachers, philosophy, conscious communication, and play. When we bring our hands into prayer at the hearts center we're able to recognize and feel the meaning of 'namaste', knowing it to be the truth. 

Blessed and grateful,

We Are One YTT 

These photos represent a small portion of the last half of our April training. Captured here are the trainees and their hands-on-assists, practice teaching, anatomy workshops with Dr. Taylor Donovan, cueing for asana, philosophy and history with yoga scholar; Eric Shaw, and much, much more. We Are One Flow Yoga Teacher Training Spring 2014 will be complete in two more weeks. 

W A N D E R L U S T   CA 
Summer will be here before you know it! 
July 17-20 - DO NOT MISS THIS!

Blessed to have been invited to teach at Wanderlust this year! Here is one of my classes:
Ujjayi Breathing & Your Heart Beating 
2:00-3:30 Friday July 18th at Wanderlust 
SIGN UP HERE:  GO!

This is a photo from Day 8 of the yoga training. > > >
(hello Jai Bodhi belly:) 

 ...and DJ HyFi (Ian Hyman), brother from another mother, soul mister with a twisted sister, played a ridiculously deep set. The beats were an expansion of the vibration and the feeling was high. 

Everyday of the training has been a gift. I'm humbled and it is with deep humility that I receive the gift of each and every students praise and love. Never did I think that, me, Melissa, would be the one to hold space for such a thing. But, when so many people kept asking me to do a training for Reno, I listened and really worked so hard to bring something special to my friends/family. We've grown so close to each other that the hardest part is thinking that soon, we'll be finished with our 200-hr immersion. I'm already planning the reunion!

We will have a talent show for our graduation celebration where each trainee has been invited to share something, whatever they can dream of. The response is overwhelmingly cool. Pradeep will be there. Ian will be there. Wish you all could come. Hey Radhe....

The things we take for grated... I remember the day this picture was snapped. I remember thinking that the photo would only be good enough if my arms would become a little straighter. WOW. 

My stinkin' thinkin' has come a long way baby! And speaking of baby! I would die to do a nice delicious backbend right now. Feeling 27 weeks pregnant these days and asana has taken on a whole new meaning.


I am grateful, so grateful for my body. I couldn't care any less about the things my mind thought I didn't have. It seems like ages ago when I would grasp for a posture or grip at something. I once dreamt of a time when I would feel free. Free from this mind created fake suffering. 
                                  ENTER INDIA! 
Yup, that helped me to see that I had nothing and that I am nothing but consciousness in the flowing river of life as an earthling.
 
            I can see clearly now, the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way... 

        It's gonna be a bright, bright, sun shiny day!

You are this and you are that. It's hard to comprehend by the mind.

How do we tap into that place of knowing?

Sit

Sit

Sit

Shut-up

Shut-up

Shut-up






Sitting and shutting up is this prized jewel of sacred knowledge that I literally stumbled upon through this community, this sangha that is Janet Stone Yoga. 

W A N D E R L U S T  
SQUAW VALLEY

I've attended the festival for the last 4 years and I've always enjoyed the sunshine yoga-vibe. 

As a presenter this year, I will offer a workshop on Thursday, July 17th and a rocking bhakti-infused breath class on Friday, July 18th.

JOIN ME in celebrating life. JOIN ME in moving beyond the mind and body. JOIN ME in this spirit dance.

You may get to meet the little wiggler in my belly. If so, it will be his first public debut. 

I'll see you there. I'll be the one with muscle atrophy, bags under my eyes, and a whole new appreciation for this body.

Making space for 30+ in a large room was easy by rearranging and updating to accommodate students. We've ordered more yoga props for peoples ass-anas and there is enough space for everyone to practice. When I think of the various ways folks who've enrolled found We Are One Flow Yoga TT, it really excites me! To imagine what the ripple will create fills me with so much joy. 

We have begun accepting applications for 2015 and already have sign-ups.


We Are One.
Where did the name come from?
To me, that's what life's ALL about.
Inclusion, not exclusion.
It is a knowing that we're all in this together. 


Flow Yoga.
Where did that name come from?
It's not something that I invented, obviously. It's something that perhaps emerged in the 1970's-- mainly through the work of teachers who followed Krishnamacarya and his legacy that lives on through K. Pattabhi Jois, Doug Allen, David Williams, Nancy Gilgoff, Roger Cole, and Tim Miller. The free-style vinyasa practices or flow yoga became dominate through the new age culture that existed then and it continues today in our modern yoga practice.

We Are One Flow Yoga

If you take my class consistently and/or friends with me on Facebook, you've heard the awesome news. My husband, Dan and I are expecting our first child in June. 

If you know me, and most of you do, you would know that prior to this year, I was very... what's the word? Chicken? Many stories were held that  motherhood wasn't for me. In the plan; Dan and I traveling endlessly and effortlessly to exotic places far, far, and away. 

A little being has a different plan for us.

We were not trying. I repeat, not trying for this to happen. Dan was actually a bit disappointed to know we conceived the one time we let our guard down. He thought that at the very least we could enjoy a journey of intimacy through multiple romps of intention. 

NOPE.

I grew out of my stories.

I surrendered. 
(ONE TIME)

I let go of being in control of this type of miracle. (still working on the others)

Pictured here, Shaelah and I  holding up our dear teacher, Janet Stone. (who does all of the holding with the exception of this photo) From Janet, a blossoming began. Truly it is like a mirror of self-reflection through the practice and study of yoga with Janet in a way that only she can offer. She is a strong Mom. She is a radiant Mom. She has ignited a spark within me to reflect and to let go of... shit. 

Harmonium 110 - Sargam for my ancestors who have left their physical bodies. I can feel their presence and their love surround me as I nurture this new life. I feel strong and brave when I remember they're with me.

This little being inside of me is so blessed. They are so loved. From the moment the pregnancy was confirmed, they began to be my biggest teacher.

As I blog, the belly is growing... and the hips, the thighs... oh my! I'm about to Incredible Hulk these lululemon pants, oh dear!



As I write this at 15 weeks, 5 days, I feel completely amazing. Never better. (The first few months were not fun but, I made it.)

When the training begins, I'll be about 6 months and the meeting dates tapper off with the last one at about 7 1/2 or so. From which, I will take a leave from teaching yoga at The Studio for about 3 months.

What's great about this to me is that, I can pass the torch! 

Perhaps someone with their good-ju-ju's can complete the training and teach for me. 

I see this lineage of yoga that incorporates flow with bhakti chants and the love, surrender and vibrancy as a ripple. 


This ripple is infinite and carries on through you and you, you, you, you, all of you on this path.

To you, the one who ((((( OM ))))))'s and, to you, the one who lip-syncs. 

You carry the torch that lights the path and you bring your unique and special way of seeing this practice. Leading the training is not something that I think "I'm doing". That is not in my nature at all. This is a collaboration and a gathering of beings who each in their own way, bring something special. 

I happen to be highly organized, crazy stay up all night when I have an idea or project, very motivated and thrilled, inspired, delighted to be the one to hold the space for all of us to grow, love, and just be who we are.

I have no idea what this journey of motherhood will look like but, I do know that nature is perfect and that there is a divine plan that has already been decided. I am not in control. I do not drive the bus on this journey. Over and over again, life in it's many ways, through another being perhaps-- has shown me that the plan has already been decided. 

Surrender she said. 

OK.

Fine.

Have it your way, life.

I surrender, I bow, I honor the forces of nature, the divine in you and me, every being everywhere. 

Sat Nam

Om gam ganapataye namaha!

Prana is a sanskrit word containing two syllables to make it's definition, 'pra' and 'an' which is it's root word. 'An' means movement and 'pra' is a prefix meaning constant. Prana means constant motion or life force; an invisible energy that fuels the subtle body. Since the moment our mother's egg united with our father's sperm, we're in constant motion. Prana is at the helm of energy that exists within you as the infinite source of matter from which you were born and sustained. 

When I think of prana, it has a quality to it beyond the breath. This quality reminds me that it has different levels of energy. Some things take my prana, while others actually heighten it to a place of physical awakening. 

Do you ever notice how you breathe? Not just in general. In situations when it's the most difficult to stop and pause to notice? Here is a thought; what if we have a pranic field just like there are other fields of energy? What if prana was a physical substance? What if you have a physical reaction by not supplying your brain with a constant moving flow of prana? These thoughts are rooted in the yogic or vedic tradition and have been with us since the upanishads.

Stop and notice your breath when you're feeling something that makes you angry or brings up an emotion that is hard to deal with. Notice what physical reactions are happening in your hands, yes, your hands. Notice your face, your neck, your shoulders. Notice what is happening to your body.

When we don't give ourselves the time to stop and notice, we create wave like patterns in our mind that disrupt our thought patterns. We become restless in our minds and this effects our energy field.