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The Phoenix Rose

Returning from Lake Tahoe …

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First time ever stopping by Nevada City returning from Lake Tahoe.  While I did not purchase anything, I fell in love with this store – The Phoenix Rose.  Everything there is produced in Bali and so very creative … lots of yoga wear for both men and women. Loved Ash there – she is a beautiful creative soul.  Yoga retreat in Bali?  Another Dream now implanted by this red-headed fire with beautiful green eyes – Have Ash show you some of Forest’s work of art – an artist designer who runs Liquid Fire Mantra temple in Bali.  Isn’t it soooo very strange – here in Northern California there’s a connection to Bali? This world is indeed a village – getting smaller and smaller – we are all inter-woven. Dream-like. Talking to Ash is very therapeutic – rather funny to run into “Ash” for one feeling a bit burned out from the rajasic city/suburbia life and all the stress that goes along with it.

IMG_2969And that’s what birthday weekend vacation get-away is like – a dream.  Back to reality tomorrow.  Yoga Therapy Teacher Training weekend … Share with generosity what you know.  And what my peers and I learned that it’s not about merely dispensing herbs and prescribing asanas and pranayama techniques to strengthen our resilience.  It’s about … you will know when you know yourself better. The world is not a place of competition but a collaborative ventures of ideas by generous souls.  It’s an open book, really.  It’s an exploration for the curious minded.  It’s the mind that’s vast, reflective of the world we live in … isolated in little villages and towns we didn’t even know about … and yet, inter-connected, thanks to these creative artists not afraid to journey to far distant lands.  So strange and so intriguing to feel closer to distant far away, one may even call exotic lands that exists in our dreams – our heads.

As Judith would say, life is short, let’s not squander it.

Yes, we need to get out of our own way, get out of our own head … trudge along many paths only to find out what we were looking for all along was right here – at home.  Happy to be home to resume … where I had left off.  I love being “home”.  Because our loving heart resides in that cozy bare-foot humble home. Humming and doing laundry and puttering around trying to bring back routine and regularity back to the day to day.

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IMG_2968Turkish lamps … I saw in Tokyo … here in … what do you know … Nevada City !?? of all places.   Amazed how these trades take place by the entrepreneurial tradesmen.

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Beautiful People Beautiful Places Beautiful Things Healthy Food

Santa Monica?

IMG_2974No, Nevada City – California – what a gem of a little town.  3 Hr. drive from San Francisco. There’s nothing there and there is something there.  Will have to revisit kind of a place – as this is only a lunch stop…

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Why Santa Monica ?  Because this guy who sat near us looked just like a Kundalini Yogi from LA… Lovely Cafe …oh, it’s a brewery –  lots of fresh veggies dishes. My thoughts were where did all these beautiful people come from ?  What do they do here?  Do they actually … live here? I know so little about California after all.

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Beautiful Things

Tiramisu of Delight NOT Stress

Referring to this post from few days ago – click here. I think either with or without children, single and alone or whatever the marital status, young, old and in-between – it does not matter – everyone, especially the most conscientious, studious and the highly driven, hard-working types have that risk of becoming “maxed out” and burning out. Yoga practice has really taught me what I need to do (or not do as the case may be) to best take care of myself and those who I care about – family, friends, students … I’ve also found Judith Hanson Lasater’s book, “Living Your Yoga” really insightful to take yoga practice from ON the mat to OFF the mat into the everyday life. Highly recommended as it was one of many books on my teacher training MUST-books. It’s a gem of a book that helps you deal with life’s disruptions, struggles, and disturbances culminating to agitations and generalized anxieties with a little more equanimity and grace – wait, that’s yoga!

tiramisugreen Here’s the green Matcha Tiramisu
teramisucoco & the traditional Cocoa/Cacao Tiramisu

BTW, right after scrumptious tiramisu cake photos, this may seem at odds BUT … it’s true – we are balancing out our neural pathways when we engage in poses well sequenced … physically, we are more than just our muscles, skeletal bones and connective tissues and internal organs and brains …all those parts of the whole and MORE get a boost when we practice – we are complicated but sometimes there’s a simple solution, i.e., YOGA:

nervous systemFeeling so blessed to find this practice – Delicious Yin & Vinyasa Flow in the mornings; Gentle Flow, Yin and if I’m lucky, Restorative in the Evenings- flushing out the system but not losing the essence … Just feel GOOD. ENERGIZED in one’s own skin – feeling that clarity like azure blue ocean glistening. Thank you for this practice.