Pop Down. Do Less.*

So I recently - like yesterday - decided to reevaluate my financial goals. I'd been operating from the understanding that money is energy and by desiring it, we manifest it.

So there I was, jonesing for 5k a month, and just not getting anywhere close. And I was like, what's wrong? I'm working my ass off, I'm giving away as much as I can, where the fuck is the money!?!? I had a sneaking suspicion that I was somehow still the problem, but was skittish about exploring that.

I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.

...When we should be burning fears,
tattooing our declarations,
and praying for the courage
to reign the terrain of our purest potential.

-Danielle LaPorte

I've been surfing for some time now, but I'm still really hesitant about going out by myself. I started surfing because I was very afraid of the ocean, and although over time my fear has lessened considerably, I still have a very healthy respect for the power of the ocean. Even a tiny 1 foot wave is stronger than me.

The Mysteries of Surfing Lineup Etiquette

Ah, surfing. The lessons just keep coming. First of all, the nuances of lineup etiquette. They're endless. What a mystery. Snaking, dropping in....When is it ok, when is it not? We're not sure. One day the Inertia publishes a piece with the title "Gabriel Medina Drops In, Forgets to Knock" and the very next day "Medina Knocked After All!" - turns out the guy he dropped in on was like: Go Gabe! The rules totally fly out the window when you're surfing with friends - then every wave is a party wave.

PSA: Sharing (waves) is caring

I guess I'd been lucky enough to avoid it as long as I did, but then came that one fateful day where I felt the hate on the waves pretty hard. Ah, surfing. And here I thought the hardest thing to learn was popping up. Turns out, that's not true. The hardest thing to learn is how to continue to have fun while very, very intense surfers around you viciously compete for waves, without the slightest regard for your safety or your feelings or your turn. Like I said, I escaped even the slightest hint of this for many, many months, so statistically, for the most part, surfers are an easy-going, good-vibes bunch.

But a couple of days later, I got some intel that suggested the problem was, in fact, a problem, and not just a once in a lifetime anomaly.

Autumnal Equinox and J Alfred Prufrock

I just had a lovely experience.

Somehow I stumbled upon a sweet, very gentle sequence that feels very grounding and calming. I've been doing it for the last few days preparing to teach it, and I only this morning - running through it one last time before class - realized how much I needed it, and how beneficial it was to me.

Driving to class - a half hour commute - I was thinking how I was going to theme the class - usually I like this to happen pretty organically, and usually this is directly inspired by how I'm feeling and what's going on with ME.

Yoga: Reclaiming Ownership of Our Bodies

So the other day these words just popped out of me onto the twitterwebs: "modifications ARE yoga."

And they got some attention and retweets and that made my ego happy, and the phrase was catchy and all, so I was like: yeah! And that was kind of that, until today I was talking to an esteemed yoga colleague of mine, getting her wisdom on teaching and communicating modifications.

So we got through modifications, assists and cuing and I asked - well, how do you approach a student who clearly needs the modification, but hasn't taken your gentle suggestions that were offered to the whole class, but really meant for this one person?

Big Waves - The Beginning

(nb: Written by a beginner surfer who thinks 5' waves are big.) So the hurricanes have started brewing this past month and finally, we've had some swells come through here in the LA area. When the first swell came through, we were camping at Leo Carrillo, which as some of you may know has a takeoff point directly behind a jagged rock outcropping - fail to turn down the line and.... (Half of my readers are now frantically googling Leo Carrillo.)