where did you get your training?

[read time: 2 minutes]

…asks a follower from my proyogi tumblr blog...

i get this question all the time. people frequently say they’ve never taken a class quite like mine. i have even had a 18-year yoga practitioner tell me that i was the best teacher she ever had-i was really touched and honored.

i always say i’m a gypsy when it comes to my yoga training because i studied all over. my yoga training journey is a bit unusual and convoluted so bear with me as i relay the story briefly.

i was actually reluctant to start teaching. in june 2003, my first yoga teacher told me to pick a night in the fall. she wouldn’t take no for an answer. so i threw myself headlong into independent study.  i practiced daily and taught 5-8 classes per week. that summer was crazy!

i was always interested in taking formal training, but i couldn’t find the right teacher.  actually taught for 4 years before going to yoga teacher training. when i finally

save-my-shoulder yoga flow

i woke up with the most beautiful no-chaturanga flow in my head this morning. so flowy. so juicy. so good.

my shoulder plus ouch

last night, i went to sleep with a very hurty shoulder.  when i woke up, it was even more hurty, even though i had tried to sleep carefully.

it’s been going on for about 3 weeks; i jammed it while lifting my heavy steel bike up some stairs. blegh!

until today, i had been doing ardha chaturangas and down dogs, but when i woke up, my shoulder was like, hells-to-the-no!

so i listened to my body… and to this flow that woke me up. and went outside on the front lawn to practice next to the water, under a blue sky with seagulls coasting in the breeze.

and here, i’ll share it with you

5 steps to get back in the flow

[read time: 4 minutes]

i recently rounded a HUGE bend in my entrepreneurial career. my business feels right, and i am in the flow.  this is in stark contrast to times when i felt stuck, crazy, and wanted to give up, which was not too long ago.

in the beginning, i was a reluctant yoga teacher and an accidental entrepreneur [term borrowed from one of my favorite coaches].  i hadn’t set out to do either, but the path before me unfolded and these opportunities made the most sense.

for years, i tried to imitate, emulate, and recreate what i thought was “right”. as it turned out, the efforts i made were all wrong… for me, anyway.  this made me feel yucky, angry, and frustrated; especially when people would encourage me saying that i was doing great and i should keep going.  i knew it wasn’t right but i couldn’t explain why; i just knew i wasn’t in the flow.

what helped me most was