YOGA TRANCE DANCE... left me like jello!

...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/