That was simply one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It was surreal and a little disconcerting to re-enter life. Especially when my first real re-entry point was LAX.

While I was at the festival, even with the ridiculously oppressive heat and dust, I had a remarkable sense of community and peacefulness. The kirtan was soothing and uplifting all at once. The classes were somewhat disorganized and the only part of the festive I felt I ddin’t get to experience as fully as I would have liked. Bhakti Fest is expanding to 4 days next year; try to get there to experience everything.

Kirtan, Kirtan, Kirtan. I had all good intentions of attending at least one class today, but the music grabbed me and held me captive. Or should I say, released my soul.

Saul David Raye was unexpectedly great and had my body up and moving, especially with his version of “People Get Ready”. When that was performed, the people in the crowd were joined together. I had really wanted to take his class, but the kirtan ran so late that Jaya Lakshmi, who was one of my main reasons for attending, went on at the same time as Saul’s class. So I stayed for the music and was transfixed. Lakshmi literally has the voice of an angel. I found myself moving into asanas just following her music. Then I realized at one point I had entered a spontaneous meditation. So transforming. Wade Morissette played a shorter set than expected, but all my favorites. Sunday I am definitely taking class. Really.

I can’t say enough about the kirtan. It was moving, relaxing, invigorating, heart filling …. so many things all at once.

And … I got my first henna tattoo! So did Angel & Kristi.

Yesterday was amazing. Hot. Dusty. Dry. Music and dancing. I spent most of my day wandering around, looking at the vendors, listening to kirtan, talking to people. I had a massage with Arianna Gouveia which was amazing. Because it was the first day, The Healing Sanctuary was not packed so I chose to visit there. I wanted to try something that I’ve never seen in South Florida – Chi Nei Tsang (chee nay song) is the ancient Taoist healing art of applying chi energy to the internal organs for detoxification, emotional release and health enhancement. This Classic Chinese abdominal massage accesses the deepest layers of the core belly as the practitioner gently manipulates the liver, spleen, large intestine and other organs with precise and intuitive movements. In terms I understand, it was a belly/core massage and it was amazing. During the massage I could feel the energy moving around, shooting out my fingers; feelings of intense lightness alternating with feelings of being grounded. My mind definitely was in another place. There were times when I felt like I was floating a few inches off the table. I had planned to take Shiva Rea’s class after, but was far too blissed out, so I spent the rest of the afternoon looking at some of the amazing art and ware that the vendors had. Some of the artwork and statues were just crazy beautiful – I got so many names of artists to look at websites when I get home! Today is day 2 and it’s my big music day – Jaya Lakshmi, Wade Morrisette, Wah! – and in between all that I definitely am going to try to get in a class today. Namaste.

I am in Yucca Valley, California, for the first ever Bhakti Fest, which is going to be held on the outskirts of Joshua Tree National Park. It begins today at noon, and I will try to have some thoughts and pictures up soon. For anyone who has never been to the desert – oh my. And the teachers and artists and vendors that are here are amazing. I’m hoping to take class with Saul David Raye today, Rainbeu Mars tomorrow, and Shiva Rea on Sunday. The kirtan participants include Joey Lugassey, Wade Imre Morrissette, Wah!, Jai Uttail, and my personal must see, Jaya Lakshmi. So far this is an amazing experience: the warmth of the people, the feeling of community and going with the flow, it feels like home in my heart.

Headstand … for about 18 months, headstand was the bane of my yogic existence. I had weak arm and neck muscles, minimal core strength, and alot of fear about falling over. Headstand came into my life because I practiced Sivananda yoga at Yoga and Inner Peace in Lake Worth for several years. Headstand is a key asana in Sivananda, being the King of Asanas. The goal was to hold it for 3 minutes. Ha!

First of all, you have to raise your legs in the air using your core and arm muscles (particularly):

This is not always easy or fun. You really have to be focused and have your core engaged to begin lifting. I love to see someone with a good core lift their legs straight in the air! It’s amazing to see. Then you have to find the point of balance – again using the core, shoulders and arms to stabilize:

Once you’ve found center and are firm in your headstand, you have to start thinking about details. Pulling shoulders up and away from ears. Breeeeaaathing. Deeply. We have a tendency to hold our breath when we are doing something difficult. Headstand is the one position I am most likely to forget to breathe in.

For many months, I actually had the headstand physically achieved, but lacked the confidence to come up on my own. I had this vision in my head that I would fall and hit the person across from me and start a domino effect of yogis falling out of headstand …. this asana gave me alot of anxiety.

Now, after 6 or 7 years, I can hold headstand for 3 minutes. Not all the time, but some days, especially when I can really climb into my head. And I can do very simple variations:

This is not in any way meant to be a instructional guide on how to do headstand. This is just an abbreviated tour of the months of sweat, anxiety, strength building, fear releasing, and eventually, guiding me into actually enjoying headstand. We do not practice headstand at Bindu for safety reasons, and I only practice it at home. I find it’s great if I need to try to focus and physically, I find it helps relieve anxiety (ironically), PMS, and mentally, it builds enormous confidence. I’ve seen students so strong and flexible they could get into variations in headstand I couldn’t even do on the ground. Many times I witnessed Neal at YIP hold headstand for 10 or 20 minutes, without breaking a sweat. Neal was, I believe, in his 70’s at the time.

What I really learned from headstand is to give everything a try, and keep on trying. Unless it causes you actual physical pain, don’t give up. Moment by moment everything can change until you find yourself looking forward to what you used to dread.

Namaste

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve suffered a number of stress related illnesses over the years.  Still do, to some extent.  I don’t think there’s any dispute that yoga helps relieve stress.  One of the physical issues that yoga has helped me with, that I didn’t even realize would happen, is a marked improvement in my posture and shoulders.

I don’t come from a family with good posture.  I realized I had bad posture but didn’t really know what to do about it.  I didn’t realize that my back and shoulder muscles were weak, that my core was weak, or that I could fix it.  For a long time I was very concerned about getting rounded or hunched as I aged.

As I followed my path through teacher training, I became aware that my shoulders were not as tired as they used to be.  Angel has worked with me consistently to both strengthen and loosen my shoulders.  Oh, how I struggled.  My shoulders felt encased in concrete.  I couldn’t, just couldn’t, bring the tips of my shoulder blades together.  I took a workshop in restorative poses for the shoulders and spent quite a bit of time with Gary Kraftsow’s book, Yoga for Wellness.  Although I’ve heard it a million times, one day fairly recently I heard my teacher say in class “broaden your collarbone”.  For all the times that I’ve been told to slide my shoulder blades down my back, bring the tips of my shoulderblades together, nothing made as much sense as “broaden your collarbone”.

When you broaden your collarbone, you open the heart center and the chest.  Your shoulders roll back and down and the shoulderblades slide down the back.  All you have to do is lengthen the tailbone down and voila! your posture is improved!

The core:  let’s face it, we’re soft in the middle.  And that’s what should hold us up.  There’s really nothing to be said about this except, get down on the floor and do a little core work.  We all need it.

This is not second nature to me at all.  Every day I have to think of broadening my collarbones, breathing deeply.  And sometimes it’s unavoidable to use bad posture, especially at my desk.  My shoulders still ache but it is a much better ache.  Importantly, my neck is also looser and as a result, I don’t get that knot on the back of my head that can cause a migraine or tension headache nearly as often.

When you start working on one thing, it all falls into place.

There are days when mind and body work together, and those days make all the struggle worthwhile.