Persnickety Tutu

I'm just back from assisting Anthony, my main teacher and the owner of my yoga studio - City Yoga. As part of my path toward eventual certification (which takes something crazy like five years in my school of yoga) I have to do an apprenticeship with a certified instructor. I was only required to assist in one class per week for three months, but I dig it so much, I'm in my fifth month of assisting two classes a week. I mean the chance to lay hands on bodies and bring people some serious bliss twice a week? No brainer.

I am free. I finished my five day photo shoot yesterday and it kicked my butt. I have bruises up and down my backside and legs. I sliced a finger to the bone cutting up ginger for the star photographer who wanted carrot, apple, and ginger juice every day. You remember the handsome photographer I mentioned before? It turns out his girlfriend is a freakin’ super model. Figures!

I got a call to assist Anthony's yoga class over at City Yoga this morning and I gladly took it. It was a total vacation for me after a long week of 10-12 hour days! It was almost shocking how easy it was for me to jump back in and I realized how much I have learned. I was on fire! Anthony, who I adore, told me after class that I am damn good at what I do. He always did support me and he told me I'd be a great teacher one day.

I am becoming one now...

I am creating great balance in my life. Slowly but surely, it is finding me.

More on my upcoming trip to Antigua Guatemala below!

I have been so busy with events I have had no time for my yoga. This is hard for me as it is a delicious part of my life and the part I need to grow.

OK, so I've committed to one class a week at Hollywood Gym here in Los Angeles. It's a real gym that specializes in boxing, but they have some good classes there (I'm going to be working out there myself). My dear friend Holly asked me to take over her class and was, well, fairly relentless about it. I so adore her for that. She is teaching yoga and Pilates full time and still has several classes at Hollywood gym herself. I highly recommend this lovely former ballerina friend of mine. She is damn good and knows her stuff.

As I always need the balance in my life of teaching and still doing events, writing, etc., one class a week is perfect for me right now. I'll eventually rent a small space and teach more of my own private classes, but this is a good fit for me at present. I'll still keep subbing classes for friends as well. They have been very kind to me and have given me total freedom to teach whatever I want and I am choosing to teach a restorative yoga class as I believe Sunday is the day of rest. We all need a day to go within, find some peace, relax and renew.

The first time I took a restorative yoga class I was so blissed out afterward I couldn't stop talking about how amazing I felt. So, I call it BLISS YOGA. It's all about opening the heart, relaxing and re-centering. I also give yummy adjustments that help you stretch and expand. It will be playful as well. Life is far sweeter when plenty of silliness is involved.

So, I'll be at Hollywood Gym on Sunday nights at 5.00 pm from here on out. It's an hour class and if you say you know me, Kathy, you get in for $10 (it's usually $15). I think I'm worth it...

So I taught my second restorative yoga class yesterday. I did a day long yoga therapeutics workshop at City Yoga on Saturday and then taught my class last night. I have to say it all just feels really yummy to me. While I sell my class as a bliss experience for my students, and they keep telling me it is (I thank them for that), I get as much out of it as they do. Sharing myself with my students is a joyful experience for me. I get to step out of my own sometimes crazy world and just be there for them. This is a good thing.

I had a student tell me after class last night that I massage the places on the body most people overlook. I had my students in a supported Savasana (bolster or stack of blankets supporting the back), the most restful pose, and I gave them all head, neck and ear massages. I know I love this myself so I am happy to do it for my students - truly. I even incorporate some acupressure into my adjustments as I know how amazing it feels. I can't even begin to tell you how rewarding it is to feel someone's energy settle and to feel them relax and let go. After all the training and investment in this part of my life I have to say I have not one regret. It is is all so wonderfully worth it.

Once upon a time this little tutu realized she wanted to be a teacher. She also knew she wanted to help heal people and provide them with a little comfort and care. It's amazing what we can achieve when we just dive in.

May we all allow a little more bliss into our lives. We deserve it!

Because we honor our teachers and not only is she the woman who inspired me to teach Restorative yoga, which I now do, she has also become a friend and confidant.

When we allow ourselves to let the light in the light can often bring us wonderful and inspiring people.

And if we're lucky they're wonderfully wicked and fun as well.

Catch Sharon's Restorative Yoga class at City Yoga in West Hollywood on Wednesday night at 7.30. You might just find me there on occasion hanging out to learn something new. Well, and to have some damn good fun too...

Yes, this little tutu is on a plane come Sunday night making her way back to the land of the Mayans for some time by the lake and more time in that special little city where the volcanoes rise up above you and root you so beautifully to the earth - Antigua.

I told my students a couple of Sundays ago that I realized I was feeling rather off center and a tad cranky and I knew when I got that way there was really only one remedy: TRAVEL

OK, travel and yoga. Both feed my soul...

So, I got online and booked myself a ticket back to the land of Jade and for eight glorious days I will be free, open and filled with a sense of adventure and desire. Happy little me.

This is both a pleasure and business trip as I am going to check out yoga retreat spaces on Lake Atitlan as my hope is to create retreats with friends and fellow teachers in the future. I'm a chick with a vision, don't you know?

I am the mistress of my own destiny.

I'll be blogging it out on the road as my new MacBook is coming with me so stay tuned and fasten your seat belts:

There will be tales to tell...

I had one of those blissful Sundays yesterday that was filled with yoga and time with great people. Fabulous...

I was invited to participate in a two hour AcroYoga jam in a park under the glorious sun and with fellow teachers and yogis with crazy practices. I've never done AcroYoga before but a new friend Josh said I'd love it after we played together in another yoga jam at a shared friend's house last week. Last week was Sake and yoga (I've never laughed so hard doing yoga) and we all had such a grand time I think it will be a regular thing. Get a group of yogis together, give them some Sake and let them loose and amazing things happen. We all need to play more. Play is divine!

So there I was flying yesterday. Yes, FLYING. AcroYoga is a combination of yoga, Thai massage and acrobatics. I spent a lot of time being lifted up in the air and doing yoga poses with nothing more than a pair of feet keeping me up. I went for it and tried everything. I even tried basing (being the person on the ground lifting the flyer) and realized how strong my legs have become. Have I mentioned how much I love yoga? Yoga rocks, yo.

After two hours of play I headed home and taught my restorative yoga class. I had my students do some partner stretches I've learned over the past week and even showed them some of what I did whilst playing yesterday. I also gave them a lot of massage and I must confess, I get as much joy out of it as they do. Touch is so healing...

I love my students. They are just wonderful and delicious people. One of them, my girl Rashmi, brought a mask for us to use and we headed off to the sauna for some masking, girl talk and heat. What an utterly perfect day. Man, sometimes I just feel so damn blessed.

A friend took pictures of us all doing AcroYoga and he's e-mailing them to me. Pictures to come!

So, the lesson I have learned over this past week has been that in surrendering, in letting go and learning to trust not only myself but the person I am partnered with in yoga (and this can extend to a lover as well), I break through barriers and walls and become more fearless and therefore more ME. Surrender is a beautiful thing.

Photos below

We've all heard about those people who wake up one morning and realize that the lives that they have been living no longer feel authentic or organic to them. So, they start taking radical steps to create the lives they have always wanted for themselves. We've all heard that old lovely tale, right?

Well, I am one of those people. My name is Kathy.

When I made the decision to take time out of my work life and invest in my yoga training I did it with a sort of blind optimism. I had just gotten to the point where it occurred to me that my life was, well, happening NOW, and that it was about time I created the kind of life that really turned me on, filled me with a sense of excitement and hope. I wanted to wake up every day with a feeling of joyfulness, not just acceptance.

I have no regrets. Best damn money I ever spent. Truly.

I have been asked to teach another Restorative yoga class at this really lovely studio here in Los Angeles called Urth Yoga. It's in the Silverlake area and I felt at home the first night I taught there. It also happens to be an eco-conscious studio to boot and the space is simply fabulous. Now I just have to work on my bio for them. No easy task!

So, catch me Sunday nights@ 7.00 and get your bliss on at Urth Yoga.

I'm telling you, this good stuff just keeps finding me...

Just a short note to announce that april 15-22, 2009, I will be holding my first yoga retreat on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala with my friends and fellow teachers, Linda Eifer and Tom Jermain. Yes, I am doing it! And yes, it will be playful and joyful and amazing! We three are such a great team. They have both been my own teachers and I have grown so much with them beside me. Now they are my partners as well. I am humbled that they believe in my vision.

We'll have a website up soon. I just wanted to share the news. And it will be a true vacation retreat where people get a taste of the Guatemalan culture, get to do some yoga, eat great food, savor spa treats and simply relax. It's the retreat I'd want to go on myself.

And yes, we really can make our dreams come true...

I'm setting off for San Francisco tomorrow morning. I'm going up to do another yoga teacher training and will be there for six fabulous days. Yes, another one! The more I know, the more I grow. And I'm all about growing my fine and lovely people. Oh yes...

I'll be studying with Judith Lasater, the women who wrote the bible on Restorative yoga, Relax and Renew. Restorative is my specialty so I figure why not go and play with the big cheese? I'l be at the Yoga Tree Studio in the Castro for five days getting my Restorative groove on. I'll have my nights free so I'll be meeting with the oh so fun Sharon from Slow Travel for some wining and dining on Tuesday night and then Friday night it's a Summer in the City night with Marcia and David and a few other wonderful Slow Travel cats. Fog City Diner, here we come!

This is sort of a training vacation as I'll have mornings and nights free. Just me and the city at my feet. Bloody beautiful...

I'm flying Virgin America for the first time and I've been looking forward to trying them out. I'm staying at The Metro Hotel which is a sweet little neighborhood kind of place with real local flavor. I also got a free week long parking coupon for LAX airport parking in the mail so I'm just driving myself there. No fuss, no muss. It's always a pain in the booty trying to find rides to the airport so I might be onto something here!

Just livin' life...