Yea, I wrote it.

It's possible and not in the way you are thinking.

I look forward to taking class with Govindas and Radha every week at 4:30 at Santa Monica Power Yoga. It's a recurring appointment on my blackberry. I get very disturbed when I can't go as its the one thing I really treat myself to and the one thing I know will transition me sweetly from a long week to a restful and recuperative weekend. Needless to say, in light of my schedule, good but very busy, I have not seen them in over a month.
In fact, MY yoga practice has been dormant for close to that length.
But, I went today.

Yes, there was some moaning involved but just because my muscles were all wound up and tense and, listen everyone, when things are goin' on, whatever it might be, it needs to be released.
Have you ever had a really annoying encounter or something fantastic happen and it makes you 'feel', physically, a certain way? I mean, you know, in your mind you 'feel' something, but in your body?
Well, those feelings need to go somewhere. They can go in a conversation with your mom or my mom, I can give you her phone number if you'd like. Or chatting with a friend, getting a massage or going for a run or to the gym to 'work it out'. There's a reason they call it a work out.
Work outs started to work things out. It did. You can google it. Then they figured out all the benefits physically. If you watch Madmen, you'll understand. Those people, back in that time, were all toxic- smoked and alcoholed up that they screwed themselves physically and took out all their frustration in negative ways. I know, its a TV show but it's based on a time period. Ask the people who were livin' and workin' in the 60's and 70's in NYC. Well, actually, you can ask anyone living in NYC now. Just kidding.
I love NY...it's my hometown. But they are all wound up, those crazy bananas!!

I digress...
I can release in yoga class and meditation. I can honestly say that in my yogic career, as a practitioner and teacher, I can't remember 'letting go' of so much at one time then in that class today and Radha (the most beautiful girl in the universe with her sweet, sweet voice, wasn't even there today).
And I was in child's pose 40% of the class.

It was like yogic surgery and Govindas was my trusty surgeon, telling me what I might expect and how I might feel. I scrubbed in as well! I slowly cut in, looked around and decided what needed to be removed, what needed immediate attention and what was doing really well inside.
I'm forever grateful that I can still find teachers that allow me to feel the way that class always does.
A combination of kirtan (devotional singing or chanting), slow movement, philosophy and quiet meditation, they allow us to explore the deepest parts of our practice and our lives.
I only hope that my interpretation of yoga and guiding others might, on a different level, inspire me the way they do.

They are so different from how I teach. There are some times I wish I could reflect what they do in my classes but that is why there are so many of us teachers in Los Angeles. We are all so different and give our gifts by the way we interpret the art. I know that the shared energy of the experience I have with all teachers and students inform what I do in my classes and my life.

I can't express enough how yoga is the absolute for me. Like writing, performing, running, fitness and Pilates, it is the way I can express myself fully in this crazy world.

So this, yogasm, is just that, the culmination of perfect and uncomfortable bliss.

I hope you can find yogasm in the classes I teach or the yoga you create in your life.

Be good to yourselves, find your y spot, drink lots of water and call your mother.

Divinely inspired,
Laurie

6 times this week, I was cut off by truck/SUVs/4x4s donning McCain or Bush stickers. Hmmmm, was it something my Ford Focus said or is it something they said.
I'm just sayin'

I had a meeting with my manager this afternoon. We discussed the fact that at this point, 'I' am currently managing two careers successfully at this point. Acting and teaching. I'm grateful for the support of a really great team behind the performance aspect of my career and grateful for the clients and students that keep showing up to my classes and vividly coloring my life.
We are in discussion on how to combine the two 'loves of my life'.

Today I decal-ed my car, LA advertising style, pic attached and I'm so happy that I have a terrifically talented friend that designed me my promotional logo and a wonderfully dedicated student that referred me to Production Graphics in North Hollywood that did the work very inexpensively. It looks great.

With all of this work and gratefulness, I find myself challenged with the delicate balance of being two people, sometimes at the same time. It makes it difficult to manage at times.

I remember the days when I was working in an office, temping or long term 'temping' at law firms or investment banks where I thought I would tear my eyelashes out in disgust or that my head would pop off in an instant if I had to don a blazer, hose and smile one more day for the tune or an hourly slightly minimum wage.

These days, I design my own days and sometimes those days are out of my control. Auditions and client schedule changes all the time.

Swaha, the loosely translated sanskrit word for 'whatever' is my mantra because as a yogi, I have to go with the flow, otherwise the flow stops with me and that would be...bad.
Flow is good and my daily thought is peace in spontaneity. I try to structure what I can and allow for the sand of life to fill up the spaces in my jar of gems.

I don't like watching television. Most of the television I watch is just to get the vibe of what's out there 'cause I might be up there with'em some day soon. Or, to take a habit from my mother, the television is on in the background whilst I'm doing other things, which just ends up being noise. Not a good habit but a guilty pleasure at best.

I'm liking that I'm mixing three of my loves, television, performing and fitness altogether in my fitness videos. What a joy.
But for the most part, compartmentalizing (an activity I learned from a mommy/small business owner) is key.

So, in essence, my days are truly living from moment to moment and that is a wonderfully yogic view of my days that start at 6AM and end at 10PM.

I fit in the nooks of my day what I can. At the end of the day, though, when I'm fried and can't take another thing into my life, I do, in fact, turn to the tube, for a show on TLC called, John and Kate Plus Eight. This couple has eight kids. This show chronicles their life as a couple and managing the craziness of raising eight freekin' beautiful and insanely individual children. They live in PA. I love their accents. I love John and Kate and the eight kids, especially Aiden and his little coke bottle bottom glasses. I love the way, as a married couple, they deal with each other. I love the way they fight and make up. I love the life they create for these kids and how they manage problems. I know they have financial and personal support from TLC, but I swear, sitting back at the end of the day and popping on their life makes me mellow into my own.

Its like watching the puppy bowl around the holidays. Its this zen like bliss just watching lives unfold. Well the puppies you just watch on a mock football field play with each other, but it's like they are subliminally sending messages to relax and let go and in a pinch, these programs can be my yoga!

Of course, my mom got me into this show. She was into it first and I followed. She was also Rachel Ray's first fan. I was her second and then she exploded and became annoying.

Anyway, there is no educational purpose of this blog but to say that sometimes, when things get crazy in your life and business has fried your existence and meditation and yoga are not an option but a bottle of wine or Ben and Jerry are, turn your head, man and turn on the tube to the channel of TLC and listen to Kate in a Philly accent I swear I'm starting to speak in and all will be well.

Be well, drink lots of water and call your mother.

Shanti,
Laur