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Some people’s bodies tell them “ok, you’ve gone far enough out of your comfort zone” with low back pain or a tweaky shoulder… I get swollen painful lips and itchy red eyes. The message that I’ve gone beyond my capacity is in my face, and it’s in your face, and it sends me deep into vulnerablity and discomfort. I can’t hide the icky-ness, it’s just out for all to see.
I knew Tadasana Festival would be a huge opportunity for growth, I just thought it would be a little more sunny on this mountain. I was expecting the Goddess like growth that feels like I’m standing tall on my peak with my wings out and my wavy blonde hair blowing delicately in the sea wind. Instead, today felt more like I’m digging around through a giant foggy mud pile.
This afternoon, I was wandering through the beautiful Festival grounds honestly looking for a hiding place, when I stumbled upon a familiar face. As the conversation progressed beyond the chitchat, I was reminded that it is actually, officially, and fully accepted to explore the mud and the fog at a yoga festival. That it is pretty natural during a New Moon for introverts, like myself, to feel even more introverted. That the only one disturbed by my minor facial abnormalities, was me.
And so when I showed up to my last class of the day, I felt so raw and vulnerable, that I couldn’t stand the idea of connecting with anyone or anything. As if they appeared from nowhere, two kiddos were suddenly in my view. One of the kids turned to his caretaker and said firmly and loudly “Stop pushing me”. Message received…
With a high five from my own inner child, I gratefully left class early. Strolling into the foggy evening, I hopped onto my bike and gently rode to Whole Foods to pick up some GF cookies and a box of Tulsi tea.
Can’t wait to see what Day 3 of this Festival brings… maybe I’ll find my wings.
Photo gratitude to the amazing Carl Kerridge.
Have you ever taken a yoga class where, at the end, it feels like you just threw up? I mean that it was so clearing and powerful that afterwards you are trembling and sobbing and feel like that ick that was ruining your world has been suddenly flushed away?
Well, that’s how I felt today after Elena Brower’s class at Tadasana Festival. Granted, it was my 3rd class of the day. (AND I started at 8am a Brock and Krista Cahill Handstand party). Elena’s message today was “global gratitude with no preference”. As we moved through the postures, she spoke to sending gratitude into the body… can you send your energy, your focus, your gratitude to every cell in your body… no preferences? 
The concept of no preference really hit me in savasana… when she invited us to be grateful for someone we wouldn’t normally be grateful for. Of course, who pops to mind for me but “rip your heart to shreds “ guy. And then I had this magical flashback. Three years ago, and shortly after my break up from the guy above, I got in my car and drove from Colorado to California. When I got to the ocean, I parked the car walked out to the ocean and sobbed. Desperate heaves of confusion and pain pulsed through my being. I found myself in a dazed state staring into the ocean, praying for support. 
Laying in savasana today, I realized THE EXACT spot where Tadasana Festival is, is where I had that sobfest almost EXACTLY 3 years ago. That’s significant for me because I’ve only been to Santa Monice 2 or 3 times. What was once a place of sorrow and fear for me, is now a place of celebration and gratitude.
When I reflect on how awesome my life has been over the last three years, I really am grateful for that guy. Our relationship and break up was a catalyst for change in my world. Today, on the floor of this incredible yoga class, I saw him as an angel, who threw me off a cliff to see if I could fly. When I finally surrendered into gratitude for the service he did, I felt a huge tidal wave of gratitude come out of the ocean of my heart and touch every being, no preference.
This weekend, I have come once again, to the ocean to pray. This time, I pray with abundance, with trust, with gratitude, and an unspeakable knowing that I am divine. I’ve found my home in the Yoga community. I am honored to serve this community, knowing that it serves all beings, no preference. Moments like this one, are WHY I believe so deeply in Yoga and the gathering of community in the shape of the Festival.
To every being who helped put together Tadasana Festival… from the visionaries Tommy and Fabian, to the trees who provided the wood for the floors… Thank you, I love you.
Photo gratitude goes to Carl Kerridge.
It’s late night here in Boulder and I’m buzzed off of one of those days where it feels like the universe, divine, cosmos or any other name you like to call it by, is whispering and waiting for me to say ‘yes.’ The whispers have come in little budges over the past few days as I dove into yoga and journaling time in California and then landed back in Colorado to prepare for another round of travel. I have a feeling we all know these whispers are coming our way. When you feel their presence, though, what do you do with them?
The other day I got an email that mentioned the importance of putting aside real, quiet, intentional time each day to reflect on the life you want to have. For some people, this reflection expresses itself as a drawing. For others, words on a page. And for a close friend of mine, it’s all about hanging in a dark room and meditating on an image she has of her future life. However you see your dream, the practice is making space for it each and every day. Sit, pause, reflect, envision, breathe and then, trust.
I like to tune in first. Then I ask myself what I really want. If I haven’t clearly defined it or there’s a deeper level of want, I try to dig for it. Then I try to get clear on how I want to feel in life: balanced, peaceful, alive. Will this vision make me feel that way? Next up? Commitment. To the ritual of visualizing and to the dream when you seem to face obstacles (our greatest teachers) along the way. Listen to signs from within. Go into your fears including failure. And breathe.
I’m taking all the whispers coming my way this week and starting this tomorrow. Manifesting is the homework of the month. That and getting on my mat as much as I can. Are you ready to join me?
Livia Shapiro is a dynamic spark of a yoga teacher straight out of Boulder. She describes herself as a teacher, writer, artist, spiritual activist, body poet, and forever a student. Her classes are a beautiful blend of vinyasa, alignment, ritual, poetry and amazing playlists. You can read more about her on her website, Ecstatic Unfoldment.
One of Boulder’s favorite teachers, Livia will be teaching at Hanuman on Sunday from 3:30 to 5:30 with another favorite, Erin Phillips. Their class will focus on spiritual service combining a mix of asana from backbends to twists to inversions, meditation, contemplation, and ritual. Sounds divine! We met with Livia this week to get her answers to the Hanuman Four, the questions we ask all of our teachers:
I began studying Hindu and Buddhist philosophy and iconography when I was 15 and have since studied various eastern philosophies both in the academic university setting and in the yoga setting. In terms of asana I went to my first Iyengar yoga class when I was 16. I also practiced ashtanga and vinyasa yoga later in my teens and early twenties. I then chose to go deeply into the method of Anusara yoga for about 8 years.
I teach a style that brings together the teachings I have received in a way that feels authentic to me and in which I hope might serve others. My classes which are highly vinyasa in nature are steeped in alignment principles, infused with a rich tantric philosophy, and bring the essence of contemplative psychology onto the yoga mat.
Basically, I just do the best I can every day to be a good person. This is living my yoga. To be honest, to be real, to be true, to be kind and compassionate—this is our good work in my opinion. I look for the openings of where I can serve. I practice patience (probably better with others than with myself). I allow myself to feel and hold space for others to do the same. I practice a life that is not about eliminating difference but rather using it to make connection and union.
Well, first I am more humbled and honored then excited. One of my mentors always tells me that our fears and excitements are often very similar if not the the same. Overall I am thrilled that this festival brings together a variety of styles of yoga in a truly harmonious way. I am also thrilled about the service oriented nature of this festival. When we are beyond blessed to have the great good fortune we do it seems only natural to want to learn to cultivate how to direct that as good work on the planet.
(Photo Credit: Jessica Christie Photography)
Isn’t 2012 feeling like a year of having faith? One that’s pushing a lot of us to take some huge leaps away from security and towards the things we love?
I’ve missed all of you since last year’s festival and can’t wait to see you in Boulder in a few months. Leading up to the festival last year, I promised myself publicly to commitment. I aimed to do yoga everyday until the Hanuman Festival and worked hard to show up for the abundant life available where I was instead of doing my usual: daydreaming other possibilities and then moving into them. Commitment was my edge. I’m happy to report that I’m still living in Boulder, calling it home and feeling grateful everyday for the life I live at the base of the Rockies.
This year, what resonates with me as an intention for the next few months is something I’m calling ‘the leap of faith.’ I love that this happens to align with the god Hanuman so perfectly: his image often depicts a leap he took grounded in a heart full of love and devotion. This past year I created a stable and secure life for myself: a business that more than sustained my lifestyle, a home, a community. But I kept feeling like despite getting this security, something was missing. It wasn’t love or support, but an alignment with what I’ve known is that unmistakable deep pang of a calling: to pursue healing as my full-time work.
To say ‘yes’ to this path, I had to surrender the stability of payroll, clients and solid income and take a leap to make space for what’s next. I was so scared and hesitant to do this, and so I decided to be patient and surrender. Then I landed in a women’s retreat with Sara Avant Stover, an incredible teacher. We began class by pulling a card that would guide our practice. Mine? A goddess who represents taking a ‘leap of faith.’ It was that day that inspired me to trust in letting go of security to create room in the deepest corners of my gut for new possibility. That week, I ended my relationship with the one client that represented a stable income for me. And then, like magic, life said ‘yes’ to me in an incredible way.
Since I’ve left the job, work I can do from anywhere in the world has filled the space. And many less hours of it that will keep me sustained as I adventure. I’ve been to Hawaii (it’s beauty pictured above). Spent days on my yoga mat at Exhale Center for Sacred Movement in Venice with a whole host of amazing teachers. Re-discovered my love of yoga. Swam in the ocean. Spent time with a whole host of people I love across the States. Was asked to lead a yoga trip down the Grand Canyon (no, seriously). Join me?
And the next ninety or so days leading up to the Festival are about to be an adventure in leaping. I’m headed to Israel and Jordan. I’m still debating coming back early to do another yoga teacher training at Exhale in LA instead. Journey abroad or inward? Biking Santa Fe. As a finale, I’m headed back to school the week before Hanuman to start my med school pre-reqs. My dream is to work as either an integrative MD or a ND. Time will tell. Huge and long path? Yes. Scary? Yes. And yet, I’m learning that these sort of places we step into in life, the ones that seem scariest, are the richest ones to learn. I’m sure my idea of healing and how I want to work in it will evolve, but it feels oh so good to have said ‘yes’ to trying the path on. And even better to see the universe, intelligence, whatever you like to name it, respond with a hearty ‘yes’ in return.
I can’t wait to keep you updated as these next three months unfold. And I’m already so grateful to be able to share the leap with you as it unfolds. So, in the next three months, is there a leap you can take, big or small? In my next post, I’ll share some of the ways I’ve found are helpful to prepare for a jump. I may just have to include some California adventure details in there soon.
So great to be back!
Hannah Manasana
It’s official. In three months we’ll be here in Boulder, patiently awaiting your arrival on your mats for the 2012 Hanuman Festival. Okay, okay, so that’s our projection with a dose of optimism. It’s more likely we’ll be running getting all the gathering’s last minute details in order. Either way, we are beyond excited to welcome you to Boulder and what is bound to be an amazing gathering in inspiring students and community. In honor of the launch of this year’s official countdown, we thought we’d share some of our favorite blog posts from last year’s Hanuman Festival:
See you in June! We can’t wait.
Happy Leap Year! In honor of Hanuman’s leap, we’re offering up a sweet little sequence that will help you get into Hanumanasana. Hanumanasana (Splits Pose) is an intense hip and hamstring opener. In order to achieve this peak pose, you need to warm up the hips and hamstrings well enough to move deep into this posture without straining or pulling any muscles. Follow the series below and use your breath to guide you into your deepest expression of Hanumanasana. Now is the time to practice, practice, practice before the Festival in June!
1 ) BALASANA (Child’s Pose)
• Bring your knees out wide, toes come to touch behind you, walk your palms forward and relax your chest between your thighs
• Hold for 3-5 breaths
2 ) VIRASANA (Hero’s Pose)
• From Balasana, roll up vertebrae by vertebrae and rise to a seated position on your heels
3 ) ADHO MUKHA SVANASANA (Down Dog)
• From Virasana, plant the palms on the mat outer shoulder distance apart, curl your toes your hips towards the sky
• Hold for 3-5 breaths
4 ) HIGH LUNGE
• Using your core strength to pull your forward, step your right foot for right leg forward lunge
• Hold for 3 breaths
5 ) ANJANEYASANA (Crescent Moon)
• Release your left knee onto the mat, keep your back toes curled under, sweep your arms overhead, and slowly rise into Crescent Moon
• Relax your shoulder away from your ears, draw your belly in and soften your tailbone to protect your low back
6 ) ANJANEYASANA Pulses-3 rounds of breath
• Inhale: Use your core to back away from your lunge slightly
• Exhale: Deepen back into the lunge
7 ) ARDHA HANUMANASANA (Half-splits Pose)
• With your finale exhale, sweep the palms outside your right foot, send your hips over your left knee, and begin to straighten your right leg
8 ) ARDHA HANUMANASANA Pulses-3 rounds of breath
• Inhale: Back away, straighten the spine and life your heart
• Exhale: Bow forward and fold over your straight right leg
• Modification-Keep a soft bend in the right knee
• Up Level-Extend your left leg straight keeping the hips level
9 ) HANUMANASANA (Splits Pose)
• Begin to inch your right toes forward and your left toes back to sink your hips deeply into the earth
• Use your breath to find the depth of the pose & SMILE!
• Special Note: Try to avoid rushing into the posture, connect with the breath and find serenity in this pose
10 ) Repeat entire sequence on left side ending in BALASANA (Child’s Pose)
At Hanuman Festival, it’s important that our event be a vehicle for self-discovery, growth and community. In beautiful Boulder, CO, we seek to come together and raise awareness. Raise awareness about yoga, about conscious businesses, about good people and about the power of connection. We seek to raise the global vibration and churn up some positive energy.
In this day and age, we believe it’s needed. As protestors occupy their local public spaces to call out the government for its many shortcomings, a very real issue has catapulted to the forefront of the 21st century of the American lifestyle. Greed, selfishness and hoarding are no longer acceptable ways to operate.
We sense a powerful shift occurring, even if only on a micro-level. People are starting to care and become aware.
While technological advances have connected us more than ever before, we have also become isolated from the power of human connection. In a way, we are now yearning for a simpler way of life – liberated freedom on a progressive yet modern Main Street. We crave a time and place to come together and share common interests. We seek to learn and become informed. We seek to serve and help others. We seek to be.
Hanuman Festival wants to provide that space for you to come and share your common interests of yoga, health and mindfulness. We want you to grow and love and discover and connect. We want it to be simple, yet modern.
We hope you can join us in occupying your own mind and body, come into your power and spread your ideas, love and wisdom. We all have something to teach, and we hope to see you in the classroom this June.
We’re in the planning stages here at Hanuman, busy at work gathering the best teachers, cool sponsors, awesome musicians and neat vendors for your enjoyment next June. While planning is an intense, detail-oriented process, we always remember that the fruits of our labor now will benefit your experience later.
To give you a behind the scenes look at what we are up to in October, consider the following considerations:
Where will Hanuman be? Team Hanuman works with the City of Boulder to secure permits, signs a production company to erect tents and create a space, finds potential alternative spaces in case of bad weather, all while keeping in mind that the location can have major implications for the experience of a Hanuman Festival-goer. Also, the monkey god needs to be in Boulder June 8-10, 2012.
Who will be at Hanuman? Which instructors are going to teach? Some repeats, some new, some famous, some up-and-comers? What types of yoga do they teach and what types of yoga might Hanuman attendees be interested in taking? What type of entertainment will Hanuman provide? Who wants to sponsor Hanuman and help spread the word of love, devotion and strength in a struggling economy? What type of vendors do Hanuman attendees want to see in the Vendor Village?
Even though planning is a good thing, we are yogis and we know that you can only plan so much. As they say, “you don’t know what you don’t know” and we sure don’t know what will be thrown at us for the remainder of this year and in 2012.
It’s a lesson in flow, really. Have we prepared to the best of our ability? Yes. When something unexpected comes up, can we respond with a deep breath, grace and a can-do attitude? Why, yes we can. Because that is a conscious choice, and we always have control of the conscious choices that we make.
See you in June!
Anand Mehrotra would not lie to me. When asked what he feared, he confidently answered nothing. And I believed him.
To Anand, who grew up in Rishikesh, India, the great mysterious unknown universe is nothing to be afraid of. Sure, the mind will create illusions, causing you to think that a task, decision or activity is hard or easy. But instead of allowing the mind to take control, I learned from Anand to ask yourself, “Is this possible” and “Am I willing?”
“There will be things you won’t know but when you live in a state of grace, there is no fear,” says Anand. “And it’s a practice. You don’t just wake up one day and are fearless. There is no perfection. That is a bunch of crap. You have to practice the art of existing in a state of grace or fearlessness.”
A well educated and intelligent soul, Anand never came to yoga. He was born in it. “My father went into the forest to get our guru Ananda Swaroopa to tell him that I was coming and I was named when our guru said ‘Anand has come,’” explained Anand after teaching a class about the Shift needed in the present age to consciously sustain humanity into the future. “All my life growing up yoga was a part of it. It was my lifestyle. And I’ve always been inclined to practice. It’s been a lifelong love affair.”
Founder of Sattva Yoga, a style that blends multiple traditions together into a rigorous yet meditative practice that tears open the heart no matter how hard you resist, Anand’s story of how Sattva Yoga came to be mirrors his submerged upbringing in the yoga tradition.
“Sattva yoga came to be when I started traveling to teach. People would come up to me and ask what I was teaching,” said Anand, referring to students who would inquire as to what style of yoga they had just practiced. “Growing up, I studied all of it – Gyan Yoga, Tantra Yoga, Sufi movement. And so that is what I taught. To me it was just yoga. Then, I gave it a name. Sattva means dynamic stillness. It encompasses all of the practice and it is really the ‘whole.’”
Now there is a convenient yoga style that allows you to practice a hodgepodge of all the ancient yogic traditions in the span of 2 hours! While it would be easy to market this “whole” style of practice as a convenient way to meet all your physical, mental and spiritual goals at once, the sanctity of the movements prevents you from even wanting to waste breath on Americanizing this one. The magic is within you – not the pocketbooks of businessmen.
Yet, when asked about his thoughts of the Westernization of yoga, Anand replied,
“To me there is no Westernization or Easternization of Yoga. Yoga is not Indian. That is only in the mind. Yoga is just the way. The heritage of humanity. We must use this science to create the transformation of being. That’s the problem with America, you don’t just get your foot in the water – get your whole body in.”
Yoga is just Yoga, and it’s about time we Americans jump in.
Despite his radiant divine energy, Anand is a human being just like you and me. He is not God (because that is inside each and every one of us), and he doesn’t want to be worshipped. In fact, he isn’t even interested in teaching a good class! As a teacher, he simply finds pleasure in witnessing the shift in his students.
He loves motorcycles, sports and technology and contrary to popular belief (for those of us who have practiced the Ha Tha Kriya), has no problem with people enjoying their lives and the fruits of their hard work. “There is nothing wrong with money and prosperity, but without consciousness it becomes poisonous,” warns Anand. “When you bring consciousness into you life, it changes the way you live in relationship to the rest of your world.”
His laughter is contagious, joyous and frequent, like a small child with eyes wide open in awe of the world. In fact, that is how Anand lives his life each second. His booming voice commands in class, but with a gentleness that inspires you to hold your hands out in front of you for five more minutes when your mind is screaming “NO!”
His natural leadership skills led him to write three books, help film and star in a documentary, open a school in Rishikesh for poor children and create a foundation to spread the teachings of Yoga to poor communities across India. But these are all just his side projects…
His books are not yet available in the US, but will be published next year. One is a commentary on the Yoga Sutras, another a book about charkas and the third, called The Free Life, outlines his own teaching philosophies about living free from the bondages of the mind.
The documentary, The Highest Pass, has been a huge hit thus far in this year’s festival circuit, winning awards and high acclaim. The project somewhat fell into his lap, much like the universe often works. “The Highest Pass came about when one of my students in LA wanted to come and study with me more in India,” said Anand. “I told him I didn’t have time because I was going back to India to do a motorcycle journey alone up to the highest pass in the Himalayas. The student said ‘I want to come.’ The bike ride is a metaphor for life.”
His team is currently negotiating distribution rights and is hoping to release the film in early 2012.
“It’s not just a movie about yoga with people talking and being interviewed. It’s very watchable and people have really enjoyed it. Adam [from the movie] said it’s ‘putting spirituality to the pavement.’”
When he’s not putting spirituality to the pavement, Anand is certainly making sure he spends time at his school, the Khushi Foundation, in Rishikesh. Currently, 350 children from the slums of this spiritual mecca, enjoy free health, education and food. Khushi, appropriately, means happiness.
When talking to Anand about his school, you quickly come to realize that he cares passionately about education and the world hunger crisis. Most of the funds he makes from his travels teaching go right back to the school. He has made a commitment to the school’s village to help anyone who comes to him with a genuine need. “We never say no. I’ve committed to finding a way to make it happen, even if we have no funds.”
At Anand’s school, he conducts an educational experiment. “The way it is now, you get an education so you can get a job,” says Anand. “It is not about consciousness.” At his school, there are no prizes, or 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Everyone just celebrates together.
Anand spends his summers traveling to teach. You can catch him in the US during the hot summer months, or visit him at his retreat in Rishikesh throughout the year.
Even though it seems his time is spread thin, you never get the sense that Anand even understands what the word stress might mean, let alone feel like. He does understand the importance of balance quite well and cautions that although we say we seek balance, we often view it as an obstacle rather than an opportunity. “We are afraid of balance and so we choose not to seek it.”
And if it all seems to good to be true, Anand has this to say:
“Don’t believe in me, don’t agree with me. Just meet me.”
