just a reminder :)

The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me
That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.

For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life's endless toil and endeavor;
And tonight I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction
That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.

I can't believe we are down to the last two weekends... and yes Heather I got the book!

Now I take it were are to repeat our affirmations until our next weekend of training???

I just want to say all the bonds we have formed don't end with the training, we are a family like it or not!

a godsend and the soapbox (yes, *that* soapbox)

Firstly, proceed immediately to your local/virtual purveyor of books and purchase Teaching Yoga: Essential Foundations and Techniques, by Mark Stephens. You need this book, and you need it now. Why, you ask? Well, you see, it has The Goods; it's what our asana lab sheets would read like in our wildest 200 hr training dreams. Nearly 100 pages go over how to instruct each individual asana + the transitions to & from, 30+ pages on sequencing & sequences, a huge appendix listing the prep, supporting, & counter poses for every asana, and that's just the highlights. It goes into all the other important stuff, too, of course; depth is the key word here. I reckon many of us have been craving a little more of that.



That said.. I need input, please. I finally checked out (three months too late) the Yoga Alliance's standards for the 200 hour certification. Page 1 of this curriculum approval paperwork futher explains what can & cannot qualify as contact or non-contact hours.

Two concerns/talking points and I'll leave it:
1) To be fair, I'm bad with math, but, according to the standards (i.e. lunch breaks & the studio yoga classes on Sat. & Sun. don't count).. our contact hours come up short.
2) The Practicum category. Minimum 5 contact hours spent actively teaching, in the presence of Robin or Teresa. When.. how?

I'm sorry that this is all I ever talk about, especially sorry that this is the only side of me some of you ever see. :(

Have a great weekend, loves,
Heather

Just a little light reading. . .

I just thought that I would share this article with all of you, especially after the weekend we all had.

http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/2547?utm_source=Wisdom&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=Wisdom

xoxoxo
Jess

So as I came home today I found this little card that Steven gave to me, that I believe his father gave to him. Its funny how things just appear when you need them to, the card reads like this:

Attitude

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.

It will make or break a company...a church...a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.

We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you...We are in charge of our Attitude.

Charles Swindoll

Im working on it. . .thanks to all of you for being there for me, not judging me, Im trying to let it go, and you amazing women make me feel that I am safe and can let down that wall of anger and fear.

Love ya's!!!

Om Shanti

does my dog meditate?

i just thought maybe you guys would appreciate the laugh....one of my goals with meditating is to try each of the chakra meditations. so tonight i was doing the root chakra meditation, during which you are to chant "Lang" on your exhale 7 times. Anyway, here i am all focused and trying to be little miss meditation so i start "langing" and scare my dog right out of her sleep. naturally her thrashing shocks me right out of meditation and there we are staring at each other. i can't help but wonder....what does she think of meditation? :)

Meditation

So meditation today was super difficult. For some reason I wanted no part of it, but I have to say only one of my legs went numb! The one leg that did go numb wasn't nearly as painfully numb as it was during the first time in training and I was there for 35 minutes. I guess thats good, right? Im still not sure if im doing it right though. Wait, can you do that wrong?
Ehh. . .who knows. I hope everyones meditation is less confusing then mine was today.
Namaste