I am flying out tomorrow for a week so this will more than likely be my last post until I return but I HAD to share!!!


I am humbled, eCiTeD, honored, proud, and FIRED UP! to be able to share that as of yesterday (last night if I'm being specific),I have accepted the invitation and signed the dottted line to partner and represent the incredible internationally recognized clothing line and even more important; the incredible inspriration MANIFESTO

http://lululemon.com/culture/manifesto

as a LULULEMON AMBASSADOR for the New Store opening up in Austin, TX at the end of OCT.

I believe we are scheduling a photo shoot for 2 weeks from now and then there will be a little something posted on the Autin Ambassador's page as they update http://lululemon.com/austin/austinshowroom/ambassadors

I am beside myself excited and while I LOVELOVELOVE the clothes, I love what they represent when it comes to Positivity, lifestyle, way of living, loving, and being! Thank you ladies SO much for having me! I won't disappoint :)))

LOVELOVELOVE
Sanieh
www.saniehyoga.com

...You might not have a PULSE!

Let us DANCE!


http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ds2xRZ4t9hg

(Jake?! Someone?! show me how to hyper link!)

HOLY SMOKES! Do you know what TOMORROW is?

It's the FIRST day to PART TWO! Welcome to PART TWO of the second half of 2008 :D

Kudos to the Austin Chronicle who reminded me with this weeks edition of "Free Will Astrology"...

"Welcome to part two of your outlook for the second half of 2008, Pisces. I'm hoping that six months from now, you'll look back and make the following declaration: 'This year I was a real artist in the way I lived my life. Everything I did was like working on a beautiful masterpiece. I had a sixth sense about when to shut up and when to speak out, when to pull back and when to push on, when to recharge and when to ripen. Whenever my efforts were ready to climax, I brought them to a climax and moved on to the next adventure. So here's the next big question: What can I do to keep cultivating this adroit and graceful approach to being alive?'" 

Color me yellow that makes me smile and buzz inside like a bulldog on oatmeal! 

It's taken me all week working on it but I just sent out perhaps my first newsletter of real substance today :) It really did take me days because I am playing with a new professional newsletter service so if you found it in your inbox and with errors, don't hurt my feelings! OK scratch that...I promise to not take it personally if you promise to be patient with my lack of technical skills :)

*OH one error... I wrote that I had shirts going to print tomorrow...well, that was a lie. :) Well not a lie, but *I* misunderstood the sweet people at the printing place. The shirts will go to print once AA gets them sent and they arrive here! I do believe that will take 4 days i'm told... furthermore, 4 days from official order date, which is tomorrow :) What shirts you ask? Gotta get on the newsletter email list to find out! ;)

Note: If you have emailed me in the last week, (about anything really) I appreciate your patience and promise that I have read them all and am slowly getting replies out! It's somehow been a sleepless, yet highly productive last week to which I am thrilled about getting a full nights rest so that I will jump out of bed at 430am Tuesday morning preparing myself for my work week before hitting the SAND AND SURF IN VENICE BEACH on Saturday :))))) Yea baby!

Ahhhhhh life is good ;)

(Insert random factoid here): I had dinner with a friend last night at McCormick and Schmitt.... if you do nothing else in your food world, you must try their key lime pie. Enough said.

\OK- now I can sleep :)

love, light, liberation
Sanieh
www.saniehyoga.com

About 9 years ago, I once had the oppotunity to go see Luciano Pavarotti live in concert. One of few regrets that I have is that I lied to the young man who invited me because I was interested in someone else at the time.

An opportunity forever lost as Pavarotti died in Sept. 2007.

With that being said, even being a musician myself; who knows if I would or could have appreciated the expereince in the same way that I do now with music as means to invoke bhavana, or mood. Kind of like mantra or chanting or world prayers of many different kinds, even when you are unable to understand  the words or translation, there is a bhavana, when delivered with passion and conviction, that is simply FELT.

Although I do not understand the italian language, the words are not important. We can all FEEL the words that this young man sings and I am so touched by his genuine expression of his truth and being witness to the beauty of the bufferfly who broke out of the cacoon right before our very eyes in this video... THIS is what it means to be in the flow....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

...in the best way!

So I finally got moved into my own place since moving here last summer! It's glorious and I absolutely love it! What's best is that I am so close to most of my classes (all but one) so I save on gas, time, and can make sense of coming home between classes etc.

So much going on as always! I thought I was taking my yoga slogan shirts to print last week but I didn't realize how many tedious details there are and of course, to be able to sell them at an affordable price, you have to order hundreds... and then for each "new art" it's a different price etc. I'm working it out though! Sweet Caroline sent me home to figure out my ideal order including color of shirts/ink etc (that alone is a headache potentially, but this is a "positive problem" :) number of each style, sizes etc and then we would go from there. I'd like to have my order put in to American Apparel (USA made, 100% sweat shop free!) by the end of the week.

OH and I will be using Environmentally Safe, non-toxic INK! I was pleased to have that as an option! The only thing I am not doing is using organic material. The sizes very a lot for one and this would turn a 18-25 dollar shirt into a 35-45 dollar shirt quickly depending on how many are ordered. So I will save that for later :)

Well I finally filmed two of my classes last week which means I am nearing completion of a 2 (or is it 3?) year project (which really is a life-long continuum) that has been my extended studies towards advanced certification with my teacher. I completed the official hours last summer and have since surpassed them but the outside "OM work" has taken a year in and of itself. I can appreciate and respect this process seeing the there are many "schools" that make it too easy to do what we do. There is an awesome responsibility and a huge amount of knowledge and steady learning required to safely do what we do as teachers of yoga. I started to think that I didn't care about the piece of paper since my studies and time in with my teacher and hours in training (which are now close to 700 actual teacher training hours! I can hardly believe it!) and actual hours "being" a teacher (even more astonished with that one!) should speak for them self- but truth is, I've busted my tail if I may so say, and so now, I'm getting that piece of paper by golly!

The sacred reading list has by far been the most time consuming and difficult for me to complete. My library of reading is a wide range that still makes my mind spin but what I have gained from this portion has been the heart and essence of this entire method ranging from Kashmier Shavism, to the original texts of Tantric Philosophy, to Ayurveda, Marma Nadi Chakras, Somatics and movement. It's been a blessing and I plan to sit back down and re-read them all since I'm in a space now of better understanding. Funny how it always works out that way...

Lets see, what else? Last night was Yoga Trance Dance tm, my first one led since moving to Austin! It was a sweaty crazy beautiful mess!!! something FIERCE! We were drenched! SOAKING drenched! It was an amazing, purifying, and divine experience for all involved! This collective energy feeds off of one another and to be witness to people's first experience with truly letting go and letting the pulse of life and spirit guide them is such a beautiful thing. The roots of Yoga and dance trace back to the origins as the deities are all depicted as dancing. Dance in many parts of the world is an offering of celebration, mourning, joy, sorrow, birth and death. Dance and Yoga both re-unite us with our innate nature and bring us back to ourselves, our bodies, and the joy and love we are born with. I had not led a YTD in about a year and forgot how glorious it was! My body is exhausted today in the best way - that much I did remember would happen ;)  I am tallying the numbers now and will be back in touch with just how many trees were planted from everyone's donations.

100 % of the donations are benefiting Trees For The Future http://www.treesftf.org/ as our goal is to sponsor 200 villages in the poorest and most desertified parts of the world; mostly in southern India. This project enables these people to generate sustainable crops and educates them in this area. The goal through Shiva's Vision is to plant 100,000, 008 trees. I should check in on that status now that I'm thinking about it ;)

So it's Sunday morning, and I am writing from the tech center where I live since my Internet will not be hooked up until Monday. Normally my "weekend" begins after classes on Saturday at noon and goes through Monday and then I start teaching bright and early at 6am on Tuesday. I've been subbing a lot of classes lately since I will be gone half of July and then I spent yesterday preparing myself physically and mentally for YTD - so my weekend starts NOW. It's not even 9am and I've had my bikini on under my clothes since 715 this morning and so I am looking forward to turning my brain off and experiencing purification through swimming and sunning :)   I have to say again, thank you so much to all of you who continue to support me in what I do and for those who continue to put their trust in my guidance. I continue to connect to and bond with my students on so many levels and I am grateful for it. There is a student-teacher bond that has a pulse and rhythm of it's own and it's one that, on both ends, its a very sweet and sacred blessing. So I humbly thank you...  

"Dance, when you're broken open.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you're perfectly free."
~Rumi

Sanieh
http://www.saniehyoga.com/

There is nothing like connecting with another human being on a level that is beyond and outside of any fears of judgment. There is nothing like connecting in the space where only truth exists and where UN-truth is without a name. There is nothing like sitting in the sun losing all track of time while being brutally honest, bouncing off one another the hidden neurosis of the mental patters that can be overtaken only by the equally neurotic emotional pattens, only to learn that you are in fact NOT the only one who has gone through the bullshit, the let downs, high excitements, glory days, or undeniable heart ache etc. There is so much therapy in connecting with another human being who holds the space for this freedom and welcomes the truth of the matter but not without gut-busting laughter to accompany the uprising of verbal pukage to come.

There is nothing, like being a woman and connecting with another woman on this level in a space of supportive, non-judgmental, loving tenderness... without shame; without apology and doing so in a such a way that recharges your sweet spirit in a way that only this kind of connection, friendship, and bond can fulfill.

Sunday was an "ordinary day" with the exception of my waking up to find that my dear friend Marvin, waxed and polished my car and left a hidden track of music (that later had me in celebration!) for me waiting in my cd player. An ordinary day it was with the exception that I got to spend half of it with my glorious, and oh so beautiful Goddess yoga teacher friend, Lauran, who "answered the call"  (and then literally made a call!) and reached out to me recognizing that there was in fact a sutra, a thread of connection which landed us on top of the roof at whole foods in said verbal pukage ceremony a week later!

It might or might not make more sense to know that I was just 17 when my mother was killed. I know for sure that this major life changing event shaped (over and over again...) the entire feminine aspect of my experience in every single area of my life from how I view, experience, and express my sensuality, sexuality, sense of self (as the nurturer and also the provider), how I view my world, and how I respond to it. There is, without a doubt ,a level of evolution in all of these areas but not unlike anything else, I continue to deepen into the discovery of it all while gliding into that perfect space of equanimity.  

I grew up with a bunch of brothers and so there was always a lot of masculine energy around me.... my mother was my feminine grounding. Becoming a woman, was, has been, and continues to be something that I have had to teach myself; through trial and error. maybe because I grew up around boys perhaps, and/or because I lost what was my foundation at the time in my life I did, connecting with the women of the world; was always very difficult and uncomfortable. Not until about 7 years ago did I even start to do so.

While we all have qualities of both the feminine and the masculine which we pull from day to day based on the need, It's interesting for me to look back on my experiences  to see where I might have pulled more so, from one or the other in order to get me through some of those experiences. Today, while their is a lot more grounding, sense of purpose and sense of self  in the world, the waters are much more calm in my life and I am able to see that there is a strong need and desire for me to create, marinate, and swim in the nurturing, healing and therapeutic component that is solid female supportive friendships, bonds, and connections.

I left my sweet friend that day feeling like I just got up from an extended stay on the most plush couch at my therapists office! To say that it was glorious would not even begin to do my day justice. As we discussed that day while drinking our "young coconut milk (with pulp)",  the process or the act doesn't always make "it"/"things" go away; just like the practice of yoga... one could be a yogi(ni), but it doesn't mean you are always living in the "light". There is the light and then there is the form. 

(side bar: if you come to either of our classes this week, I'm almost certain you will experience a theme of light / form from our own point of views and expressions :)  

With light and form, there is masculine and feminine. We aren't necessarily without one or the other, EVER, but we swing between the two. What I realized from that afternoon was more of "the why" for my craving this divine (and it IS divine!) connection with others in my life.  There is STRENGTH in that... but the feminine strength is more meek, it's softer... it's still very much so alive, but its not the pit bull. Think of it more as the Golden or more as the mother whose child is trapped beneath the car.  It's there on reserve for when and how it needs to be set free.

I went right into my week  of practice and teaching (that started later that afternoon with my sweet  Goddess- friend's class who teaches much within the same method as myself which was amazing for me to be able to take "my own"  class from someone else's transmission if you will, without having to stand in from of a room to do so :))) fresh and with new inspiration and perspective... all from simply spending time with someone who is from "the same planet".

I'm really into the collective whole at the moment; collaboration, building my tribe, and being the observer of my own experiences. I'm ever so sweetly seeing the unfolding of my life right before my own eyes rather than getting lost in it waking up and saying "WTF! What just happened?" ... and I feel the gift in doing so.

Here's to supporting, loving honoring, believing, trusting without dismissing, sharing, creating, bonding, building, reflecting with one another and starting anew.... and to doing so with those who are riding the same wave and reminding us that while "it's a long trip alone", we really are not alone at all.

Ode to my super natural Goddess friend, Lauran; ode to the beauty that is the bonding of soul-sisters everywhere...

"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well." Diane Ackerman, poet

LoveLoveLove,
Sanieh

Thank you to everyone who has sent out their well-wishes for my accident recovery. I have continued healed quickly and peacefully.... now just nursing the new skin tissue and tending to the new found grace....

One of my most favorite things about living in Austin are those warm summer nights...

Somehow we skipped Spring and went right into Summer ...but I'm not complaining!

The nourishing warmth on my skin allows me to breath into those spaces that were not always as open during the cooler months. The summer lovin' seems to send me right into childs play like a todler on a playground that holds such sweetness and purity in it's most raw and natural form; it defines liberation of the soul of all who are open to celebrate in the glory that is Surya, the Sun Goddess.

I'm thrilled that I will be able to connect with the SUPREME force of summer and nature that is the Ocean in Venice Beach realy soon!

Last night I completed my plans to travel to the west coast early July to assist my lovely and inspiring teacher, Shiva Rea (www.shivarea.com) at her summer immersion teacher training! It is such a priviledge and honor that I humbly hold close to me and I look forward to a new depth and perspective as both a student and teacher on this life-long journey. I also look forward to reconnecting with old friends, making new ones and being able to be a part of this collective who will lovingly hold the space for a very sacred experience for all who will attend.

I've attended a few of these immersions both with Shiva and with others and they are certainly profound! To be witness to this beauty through the eyes of others is just an amazing opportunity...

JULY TRAVELS!!!

I will be on the west coast from July 5th- July 12th, back home in Austin teaching the week of July 13-July 19 and then flying to the East Coast area.... to Kripalu (www.kripalu.org) for Shakti Sadhana wemon's retreat with Shiva and Gurmukh from July 20-25... then back home to Austin. So July will be full of the SHAKTI! I do have some wonderful subs lined up and tried to find some consistancy in doing so, so when it gets closer, I will post that schedule.

Lots of goodness happening in the business/career/ and personal areas that I am excited to share in due time as the tide rolls in.... stay tuned and share the love love love!

"THE TIME HAS COME TO TURN YOUR HEART INTO A TEMPLE OF FIRE." ~Rumi

LoveLoveLove
Sanieh
www.saniehyoga.com

Sometimes forgetting about yourself and moving into the truth that there are children living in dumpsters in different parts of our world, is what one needs to find lightness or clarity in our own dilemmas.

Last night's fundraiser for the Cambodian's Children's Fund had us all beside ourselves with the turnout and how much energy was shared at the beautiful Mercury Hall. Although I do not know the numbers at this time,  I am so So grateful to have been able to be a part of it  in the making and am so grateful to my fellow yogis/yoginis who came together in the name of all things outside of ourselves.

This event came together out of a need, turned vision, turned event... and in a short amount of time and had us opening doors so that people could throw down mats outside to participate. Mat's were touching and although there was little room for assistants to navigate the room- the event was successful and powerful... I hope someone will share with me a photo so that I can post :)

Pranams,
Sanieh
www.saniehyoga.com

Late last night I received a text from a friend that said the following:

"It appears that the notion of body, mind, and soul existing holistically as "one" is being well represented in this experience for you".

My friend was right on when he mentioned that the spiritual, emotional, and psychological affect this experience is having on me is an obvious one and that has got me thinking deeply. I was challenged during my first class this morning, as in this representation, because I felt off...furthermore I was having difficulty in digesting the idea that my transmission was as such. Funny, sometimes teachers can carry a lot of guilt over this kind of thing...  Initially this experience was a physical body thing...

I went in to teach my second class tonight where I found myself in the bathroom changing the dressings of my wound and behind the tears I searched for understanding of what had me so shaken and upset. afterall, Physically, I'm pretty well off although there are some limitations. I "pondered" back to what my friend said about about the body, mind, and soul existing as one and I began to soften into what I was feeling; finding more "sense" in feeling so off kilter. ahh ha moment...

Sometimes a good cry makes all the difference.

At the top of my next class, I paused and shared an experience I had with a teacher once who went into very personal details of his life experience at the start of a workshop, with hopes that we would understand the space from which he would navigate the weekend. I tried to honestly convey to this class that our practice isn't always about the body and if it is, that too will change... if not by conscious choice, then sadly, one day, by force. Be it injury, or death.

Which brings me to impermanence...

One of the most amazing and memorable documentaries I have ever watched was "Fierce Grace" by Ram Dass. Throughout the entire film Ram Dass says "I've been stroked" in reference to the grace he had been given. The name of the documentary rings strongly in my ear at the moment  because in less than 48 hours, after an accident that has shaken me to my core far deeper than any damages or possible scarring that might be left of my physical body; all that  I  can sit with is the reminder that it's all impermanent and that having grace throughout this life is the strength of what my practice is becoming- being one with the SHAKTI... perhaps by force of this event, or perhaps by  the GRACE of.

In my confusion beneath the search for understanding the message and lesson, I sit within myself a little softer, feeling more feminine, and yes, with much more grace than I embodied even Sunday morning. Although I really don't know if any of this is making sense to any reader out there or if I'm connecting anyone on that spiritual level, there is a shift unfolding and perhaps THAT was the intent for me to take from this experience.

My /our practice is not my/our  body, my being a teacher even, is not this body. The strength of my love is not this body and my soul is not this body. So now I move into the advanced practice that is defining grace and teaching it ...through becoming it.

"Impatient with grace, we pray faster" -by Steven Levine
(excerpt)
Some see grace as their destination, other as their process. Both however often share the trap of wanting to "go faster than grace".

Born into a life in which we own nothing, yet love none-the-less, we become attached to so much then decompose when what we never owned departs.

Though we may be hard in sorrow, unable to discern our face in the mirror, pained as we may be, that does not alter the fact that behind who we think we see
Grace is our original face.

With lovelovelove and Bhakti; devotion to that love...
Sanieh
www.saniehyoga.com

This image is from early afternoon Yesterday, where my Sunday included yoga and sun and ended with somewhat of a freak motorcycle accident (almost posted that photo but thought I'd spare you for now) that has me asking myself where the lesson is in all of this.

My teacher reminds me often to find the guru in all forms, in all things. I am looking down at my bandaged leg that sometimes allows just about 50 percent of weight on the side of trauma: and while my mind is healthy, I'm finding difficulty in all of this at the moment.

I KNOW that everything will be fine but as a yogi friend of mine once shared with me; right now, it's not.

While in this moment I am experiencing difficulty, I am present enough to recognize that there is in a fact something deeper here that I need to see... I'm still working that out though. I also recognize that its in this moment  where opportunity rests; that I can bring forth the grace of a woman and practitioner of yoga and step up and REALLY be a teacher to those around me.

I find no irony in that tomorrow night (Tuesday), I will be attending the "Changing the World One OM at a Time" event for the Cambodian's Children's Fund where I have been blessed and given the honor to share Bhakti, the Yoga of Devotion, with all who will graciously donate their time and money to this cause where there is real trauma and tragedy.

So it's 830 pm and while I write this with a heavy heart, it is with the belief that collectively, in a few areas, the calling of my life is here to be the guru that my own teacher speaks so fondly of... the time is now that I sit and be with the underlying current as I breathe, meditate and listen to that guru.

With Bhakti,
Sanieh
www.saniehyoga.com