early birds unite!
July 16th, 2010Today is the Early Bird deadline to apply for @OM yoga Teacher Training at the excellent Evolution Yoga Studio in Cleveland — you know, the studio where Lady Gaga takes privates from owner and OM yoga teacher, @Sandy Gross. And, well, if OM yoga is good enough for Gaga it must be good! Check it out, www.omyoga.com — click Teacher Training.
@ Lady GaGa and @OM yoga in Cleveland
July 14th, 2010My friend, Sandy Gross, owner of Evolution Yoga in Cleveland, and a wonderful OM yoga teacher (we have held OM yoga Teacher Trainings at this great OM yoga affiliate studio for years!) called me yesterday. She was nervous because Lady GaGa was in town and since it was her day off she wanted to take a yoga class and was on the way to Sandy, along with her assistant and her bodyguard. I told Sandy to teach a class that wasn’t too fast but kept moving and to give lots of hands on adjustments and good information. And, to just be herself. And, most important, to call me after the class and tell me how it went!
Here is Sandy with Lady Gaga -- looking nice and relaxed after yoga.
This is what Sandy wrote to me: Hi Cyndi! Seriously, thanks so much for taking my call today, I needed some grounding. I am still a bit amped up and I have to go to bed cause I already had tix to her show tomorrow eve and I need to sleep! Lady Gaga really liked OM yoga…she liked that it was creative and she loved the hands on assists and that I helped her low back drama in back bends.
Make Friends with Your Body
July 13th, 2010Here is my latest article for the teaching issue of the Shambhala Sun.
cyndishambhalasunjune2010
My Yoga Journal features me!
July 6th, 2010Check it out! The email newsletter called My Yoga Journal is featuring the Best of Cyndi Lee this week — all my writings and teachings and interviews and even some videos from the last many years.
http://shar.es/mUQ6Q
The Joyful Retreat with @Gelek Rimpoche
July 2nd, 2010One of my most blissful annual activities — attending the Jewel Heart summer retreat with my beautiful guru, Gelek Rimpoche. I was joined by many wonderful sangha brothers and sisters from all over the world. Here are some random pics.
This is the way to the Jewel Heart Center. Beautiful horses across the way and white fluffy clouds in the sky.
Dharma brothers: David from Boston and Derek from Singapore.
Rimpoche likes to squeeze our cheeks and lips and sometimes we do it to him, too -- this is my friend, Carla.
Dharma sisters: Sarah from Cleveland and Fran from Connecticut.
Getting ready to start the morning chants.
The summer retreat includes fun events in the evening such as Bollywood night!
On the right is our Bollywood dance teacher who taught us a fun dance and got us all laughing and sweating! On the left is my dharma sister, Colleen, who is also one of our awesome umzes/chant leaders.
After Bollywood dancing, came an amazing vegetarian Indian dinner made by our own dharma sister, Joan, who used to be the chef at the Oberoi in Delhi. She and her helpers cooked for four days to make this delicious meal -- the best Indian food I've ever tasted! Thank you! Then we watched a Bollywood movie and did the dance we learned. Fun, fun, fun.
Rimpoche and Derek at an Italian dinner the next night.
Beautiful dharma sister, Naomi, from the Netherlands. She has been studying with Rimpoche since she was 18, what good fortune.
Rimpoche and me making funny bird faces to each other. He loves to be playful!
Even though this picture is out of focus, I love it. I am soooo fortunate to have met Rimpoche and to get to study with him. He has been the most important influence and I am forever grateful to him.
Teaching as a Practice — KYTA & Ganesha
June 26th, 2010Teaching as a Practice was the title of my keynote address last night at the Kripalu Yoga Teachers Association Conference, which was very, very FUN! I totally HEART Kripalu. It is better and better every time I come here. I will tell you more about the content of my talk later because after I do this post I have to drive back to NYC, change suitcases and go to Michigan for retreat with Rimpoche. But here are some pictures:
The awesome, excellent, smart, sweet and so much fun Vandita -- Director and Creator of the KYTA conference. Thank you, my friend!
I also taught a 3 hour workshop and here they all are in savasana. I meant to take pictures during the class but I got so involved in what was happening that I forgot, which is a good thing, right?
My workshop was called Deconstruction and Reconstruction. But now I’ve learned that the word deconstruction is out and unpacking is in. So at the YJ conference in Florida in November, I’ll be teaching a workshop called Unpacking a Pose. But, for now, this was it and it was great. A fantastic group and we had a lot of fun. I quizzed them a lot, especially on their Sanskrit since the whole group were yoga teachers. They got a little bit stumped on parivritta so I said what is the second sutra and a voice with an indian accent called it out nicely. I dashed over to her and she translated Yoga Citta Vritti Nirodha in the most beautiful way touching her head for vritti and heart for citta. Her name is Ritu.
Time for Bollywood dancing! The evening began with a short performance and then a Bollywood dancing lesson which was totally fun!
After dancing, everyone sat down for my talk.
I mean, Bollywood dance class is a tough act to follow, but I did my best. I tried to get the audience involved and they were very willing participants. Even though people get up at the crack of dawn here and my talk went past their bedtime, people seemed to enjoy it or at least, they managed to stay awake!
Jonathan Ambar, OM yoga TT grad who now works here in the Kripalu marketing department, assisted me all weekend. So after the talk, he packed up all our goodies and he and I were heading up to the cafeteria for a cup of tea, when I took a left turn. I could feel some kind of fun energy in that direction and then I saw…
It's Ritu!
Ritu not only knows the Yoga Sutras and is the mother of one of the beautiful Bollywood dancers, she is a fantastic henna and mandala artist.
Ritu's artwork on my foot.
And then….
Ritu also did a henna painting on my hand. This is me and Vandita looking at the picture in the computer which Ritu was using as a guide. It was a picture of a Ganesha in tree pose which she had done before.
And here he is! Isn't he cute? He will cut through obstacles and bring happiness. We love Ganesha!
Thank you, Vandita and Stephen Cope and Kripalu, for inviting me to be part of this beautiful event.
OM yoga TT faculty – a turning of the wheel
June 25th, 2010We love each other and we love to hang out together. Sometimes we let our significant others join us but mostly we like to just be together with us. So, we were happy but also a little bit sad because this dinner party was a send off to our dear Sarah and Margi. They are both going West. Sarah is moving and Margi is semi-moving. Margi might come back (we hope). So for now, what can we do but eat and drink and laugh? We went to Gemma on Bowery and Great Jones.
I think Frank's face means "I want more olives in my pasta."
Did you notice that Edward is with us but Joe is not? Yes, that does mean something. It means that Joe was not feeling well. We tried to call him but the restaurant was too noisy. The food is great, by the way, but somehow this street has become the hottest place in town and it is just packed with lots of people, many of them are very loud. We might have been some of the loud people.
Did you know that all the OM yoga TT faculty women are originally from the West coast? Christie is from Eugene, Oregon; Sarah is from Seattle; Margi is from San Francisco and I am from Seattle. Now that Edward has joined us we have another West Coaster — he is originally from San Francisco. Yes, it’s true — Edward has joined our ranks. He will be apprenticing as an OM yoga Teacher Trainer this summer and I have also appointed him our new Director of OM yoga Teacher Training. I think he will do an awesome job. He’s already brought in some new ideas and fresh insight!
Edward, Frank, Margi, Christie, me, Sarah.
I am tremendously proud of the team I have gathered together and of all the work we have done together. Every single person puts all of themselves into the process and we are constantly revising and evolving the living practice of OM yoga to make it be the best, most useful, elegant and practical yoga method. The training is thorough and our graduates tell us they have no problem getting teaching jobs anywhere in the world.
But, now it is time to turn the wheel. You know, Big wheel keeps on turning. Proud Mary keeps on burning. Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river. We wish you all the very best of everything, dear Margi and Sarah.
Summer yoga days in the city
June 23rd, 2010Random guy sitting in a chair on the sidewalk. He let me take a picture of his t-shirt.
This is a t-shirt made by famous graffiti artist, James de la Vega. You can check out the De La Vega museum on St. Marks Place.
The guy in the t-shirt wanted to see the picture but he didn’t like it because it didn’t show his face, so here he is.
Hello, sir. I like your t-shirt.
This is Lena. She took my workshops at Hamsa Yoga in Copenhagen. She came to my class at OM yoga last week because she is in NYC working. She is a cellist. And she does a very nice Vishvamitrasana!
Judith Lasater is teaching Experiential Anatomy at OM yoga this week. So I took her out to dinner last night at Tabla. Yum!
We were joined by her daughter, the lovely and talented, Lizzie. Lizzie said the dinner was a high "WPM" meal. That means words-per-minute.
Mama Gena’s School of Womanly Arts!
June 21st, 2010Back in April I did an interview with Dr. Christiane Northrup as part of the research for the new book I am currently writing. Chris invited me to attend the graduation ceremony for Mama Gena’s School of Womanly Arts and so I did — yesterday! It was fun, uplifting, kooky, and very brilliant on many levels. Here are some pictures:
Here is Mama Gena!
There were about 25o women graduates who paraded down the aisle to the wild cheering of another probably 250 guests — all women. Lots of boas and tiaras and feathery fans. The school color is pink (which I love because pink is my favorite color.)
So, what’s it all about? It’s about women fulfilling their desires, identifying their desires and learning to be proud of themselves and their accomplishments. It’s about sex and pleasure and living a life of joy. It’s about sisterhood. It’s about embodying your life! I tell you, it was pretty darn inspiring and uplifting.
Then, I ran into Christiane Northrup and her daughter as I was leaving. She remembered me from our interview (she said she really liked my yoga DVDs which I had sent her) and she asked me what I thought of the event. I was momentarily speechless. I know, that is shocking. But then I said, “Well, I am thinking so many things right now, and first of all, I’m struck with what a need this is filling for us women”. You women know that basically we have been taught that it is illegal for us to feel proud of ourselves (they learn to Brag in this course and everyone cheers each other’s brag), we’ve grown up learning that it is selfish to take care of ourselves and our own needs and desires; and that to feel and act really sexy is not for nice girls. All that gets flipped on its ass in this training and it was quite remarkable and genuine. I liked it!
OM yoga pranayama Teacher Training
June 17th, 2010Here are some pictures from our OM yoga teacher training taught by Joe Miller and me.
8am. 40 people breathing. peaceful 6th floor up above the Broadway rush.
This is Ryan, a graduate of the OM yoga 200 hr. TT program in Cleveland. Here he is doing one of the pranayama TT assignments: teach a warm-up vinyasa to prepare for pranayama.
Joe gives an anatomy of pranayama lecture with the skeleton and slides and his fun drawings.
Working in partners to feel how the breath moves in the body.
Working in partners to explore the rib cage while Joe works with his partner, the skeleton! Actually I am Joe's teaching partner and also have been teaching this training but since I'm the one with the camera there are no pics of me...
This morning Joe guided students in feeling their bellies in preparation for practicing Kapalabhati.
Joe demonstrating Jalandharabandha using a rolled up yoga strap.
Then it's their turn to practice Jalandharabandha.
Then class is over for the day. 4 hours each morning and then we go out into the world and take our breathing with us, sharing it with every other breathing being who lives in this vast ocean of air.
