As my dedication to Yoga grew, the perfect event was bubbling in my mind. How cool would it be to have a festival that combines all of my passions – Yoga, music, nature, and yoga clothes?  I am forever grateful to the Wanderlust Festival founders for making this dream in my mind’s eye a reality two years ago!  The Wanderlust Festival has combined everything I love so well.

Yoga and music are entwined.  They are equally inspirational practices. They share the common goal of elevating one’s spirits. They offer liberation and can elicit strong emotion from the heart.  Both can help one dive deeper within themselves.  Powerfully, they can create a platform for community involvement and spread a message to a large audience in a profound way.  In cooperation, they can bring one closer to themselves and to others. Music and Yoga will take you on a journey.

Wanderlust is a German word for the irresistibly strong desire to travel or wander. All of us festival-goers, Yogis, musicians and artists are all travelers.  Seekers.  Searching for a way to connect to others and to Self and to the Divine. We have been built creatively to ask the questions and when we find the answers, to share our journeys.

Last year, for me, Wanderlust was an opportunity to explore the myriad of Yoga practices and teachers offering their various Yoga styles on a physical plane.  This year, I left with a totally different experience, way beyond the Asana and so much more about the Spirit.  The messages all around me were bottled with love, devotion, sharing, community, consciousness, action, grace, dedication and leadership.

I was imbued with a sense of the Universal, the Divine and really understood the word dedication and how it is embodied.  The “Yoga Superstars” as I like to call them, are major Spiritual leaders. They offer us gifts that are so precious and incite in each of us a call action to help others. The masses are truly moved by their energy and enthusiasm. I wished that I had a voice recorder for every class I attended.  Each one contained a plethora of beautiful, eloquent messages.

The Wanderlust Festival is an opportunity for like-minded conscious people to gather and remind each other of who we are.  The natural beauty of Tahoe is a recharging environment. In it’s magnificent we are shown that we are not our fears, our challenges and our bodies. The message was clear that we are all conduits of the Divine and that we all share the responsibility to raise the consciousness of our planet and to help each other transform.  Through helping each other, we’ll find our own Divinity.

It was a great gift to be able to bask in the glory of the mountains, soak in the crystal clear skies and gaze out to one of the most gorgeous lakes in the US.  In the distance you could feel the Eternal energy of over 5000 people sharing in the collective OM. This was a majestic experience.

There were so many highlights.  I can’t recount them all, but I’ve listed a few of the wonderful moments that I am grateful for this past weekend (aside from the fact that I love all the friends that I got to connect with old and new!!!):

THURSDAY

Rusty Well’s Bhakti Flow Class
Message:  Everything is Yoga. Life is Yoga. Love. Devotion. Humor. Joy.

Shiva Rea’s River Rafting Trip
Message: Friendship is all around you. Live music is so fun while rafting. Thank you to the Manipuris and Steve Gold for breaking out Proud Mary and all the other river songs and for Shiva being the eternal Prana.

DJ Dragonfly
Message: Great music is always a great way to end an evening, especially while hula hooping!

FRIDAY

Baron Baptiste
Messages: Transformation. Community. Sharing. Empowerment. The importance of spreading love and giving. Thank you to the Africa Yoga Project for spreading your love of Yoga to Africa and being an inspiration.

Sianna Sherman
Message:  Grace. Beauty. Inspiration. Love. Light. Eloquence. Prana. Sharing. Circularity of energy and its relevance to the lovely hoping class that followed. Divine play. Humor.

Sean Corn, Shiva Rea and Baron Baptiste

Off the Mat and Into the World and YogaAid Challenge class!  We raised money and got to practice in the front row!

Message: Serving is sharing. Empowerment. It’s not about pity, but empathy and compassion. Send your love into the Universe. To give is so much bigger than us individually. Thank you to David Stringer and Suzanne Sterling for amazing music!

Pretty Lights and Moby

Great energy.  Awesome music. I hadn’t either live before and they seriously rocked out!  Dancing is so epic when you are full of juicy energy.

SATURDAY

Seane Corn

Messages: Speak the truth.  Empowerment. What are you are going to do with your inspiration? How can you take this off the mat and into the World? Purpose. Value. Dignity. Grace. Light.

Shiva Rea

Message: Be playful. Get loose. Let the Prana move you. Be fluid. Feel the flow and rhythm and the pulse. Tribal connection. Ecstatic dance. Thank you to Rara Avis and Shamans’ Dream for incredible music.

Moby Acoustic Set

Family. It was a moving experience listening to his partner sing so beautifully and then watching her sing to her son.

Yard Dog Road Show & Bassnectar

I love the Yard Dogs and their creativity and sense of humor.  Inventive and crazy.  Bassnectar is just electric. What more can I say? He’s one of my favorite DJs.  Passionate.

SUNDAY

Les Leventhal
One of my greatest teachers and personal friend!

Message:  Come to Yoga as a beginner often. Teaching is joyful. Breathing is really joyful.  Your mat is your sanctuary.

Notable Quotables:

“You got to root down to get down” ~ Baron Baptiste

“If you give a little more bhakti, you get a little more shakti”– Sianna Sherman

“What are you going to do with your inspiration?” – Seane Corn

“The ocean of devotion” – Shiva Rea

“Swimming in the Cosmic Soup” – Shiva Rea

“Movement is the excavation and you are the site” – Shiva Rae

“I don’t have to do anything it’s already doing you” (talking of Nature as Yoga) – Seane Corn

Let’s Twist Again

By Julie Gudmestad

Try asking some nonyogis what they think happens in a yoga class, and at least one will answer that people get “all twisted up like a pretzel.” In fact, we yogis do twist a lot in a well-rounded yoga practice: We twist while sitting, standing, and standing on our heads. Because there is such an intriguing variety of twists, you might guess that twists provide an abundance of benefits. And they do. There are physiological benefits to the circulatory system and internal organs, structural benefits to the musculoskeletal system, and focusing benefits to your consciousness.

Indian yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar describes twists as a “squeeze-and-soak” action: The organs are compressed during a twist, pushing out blood filled with metabolic by-products and toxins. When we release the twist, fresh blood flows in, carrying oxygen and the building blocks for tissue healing. So from the physiological standpoint, twists stimulate circulation and have a cleansing and refreshing effect on the torso organs and associated glands.

While these physiological benefits are undeniably valuable, this column will focus primarily on the functions of and benefits to muscles and joints used in twists. Yoga twists involve the spine, as well as several major joints, including the hips and shoulders. In fact, full range of motion in spinal rotation is essential to many yoga poses. Unfortunately, many people lose full spinal rotation in the course of living a sedentary lifestyle. Some losses can occur if joints fuse due to trauma, surgery, or arthritis, but most range of motion loss comes from the shortening of soft tissues. If you don’t lengthen the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia (connective tissues) to their full length at least a few times a week, they will gradually shorten and limit the nearby joint’s mobility. In the case of twisting, the limitation is usually in soft tissues around the spine, abdomen, rib cage, and hips. If you regularly practice yoga twists, there are some clear benefits to these same joints and soft tissues. Not only do you maintain the normal length and resilience of the soft tissues, but you also help to maintain the health of the discs and facet joints (the small pair of joints on the back of the spine where each two vertebrae overlap).

A Twist a Day
To maintain or restore the normal spinal rotation, I recommend that you practice a simple spinal twist once or twice a day. (Note: If you have a spinal disc injury, consult your health-care provider before practicing twists of any kind.) A variation of the twist Bharadvajasana (Pose Dedicated to the Sage Bharadvaja) done sitting on a chair is an excellent option because it is so easy to integrate into everyday life.

Even in such a basic twist, however, there are a few anatomical points to keep in mind. Most important is to elongate the spine; a slumped-over posture significantly limits spinal rotation. So begin by sitting sideways on a stable, armless chair, and take a moment to ground your sitting bones and draw your spine straight up toward the crown of your head. Also, make sure that your spine is perpendicular to the chair seat, neither listing to the side nor to the front or back. The second important point to remember is that each section of the spine has a different rotational mobility. The cervical (neck) vertebrae, for example, are the most mobile in twisting. Because the 12 thoracic (midback) vertebrae have ribs attached, they can’t twist as freely as the neck vertebrae. And because of the orientation of the lumbar (lower spine) facet joints, the rotation of these five vertebrae is the most limited. So to ensure that you don’t overtwist in the more mobile parts of your spine, begin your seated twist by bringing your awareness into your lower back and beginning the twist from there. Let the twist gradually unfold up your spine, as though you were walking up a spiral staircase, so that each vertebra participates in the twist. If instead you twist quickly and without awareness, your neck will likely do most of the twisting, and whole sections of your spine can remain “stuck” and unmoving.

Once you’ve begun to rotate toward the back of the chair, you can use your hands on the corners of the chairback to deepen the twist in your spine and rib cage. Pull gently with the hand on the near corner and push with the hand on the far corner. Continue to sit tall, and don’t work so hard with the pulling hand that you draw that shoulder forward. As the twist unfolds all the way up into your neck, your head will turn, but be sure to keep your eyes and gaze soft. Hold the twist on each side for a minute or so, and use your breathing to help deepen the twist: On one exhalation, draw yourself taller; on the next exhalation, twist a bit more. With regular practice of this and other simple twists, your spine will regain its full potential for twisting.

Criss-Cross Action
Now that you know the basics about restoring your spine’s rotational range of motion, let’s take a look at muscle activity in twists. Many, many muscle groups are involved in twists, contracting and shortening or stretching and lengthening. There are several groups of back muscles of varying length-the rotatores, semispinalis, and multifidus-that contribute to spinal rotation. Some of the muscles that actively rotate the torso are quite small, like the intercostals, the layers of muscle between each two ribs. And several sets of muscles contribute to your ability to turn your head; the easiest to see is the sternocleidomastoid. The two SCMs sit on the front of your neck, forming a “V” starting at the top of the breastbone and running to the base of the skull just behind each ear. Look in a mirror: If you turn your head to the right, you’ll see your left SCM contract, and vice versa.

Probably the most important muscle group in active twisting is the abdominal obliques. The obliques form two layers of muscle on either side of the better-known rectus abdominus, the “six-pack” muscle that runs vertically up the center of the abdomen from the pubic bone to the rib cage. The two internal obliques, left and right, originate primarily from the pelvis and travel diagonally up across the abdomen, while the two external obliques originate primarily from the lower rib cage and travel diagonally down across the abdomen. All of the obliques have strong attachments to the substantial fascia of the lower back and to the abdomen.

Taken together, the four obliques form a diagonal cross that girdles the abdomen, and they have important functions in supporting the lower back, pelvis, and internal organs. The diagonal lines of the muscles also give them strong leverage in rotating the torso. When you turn to the right in Bharadvajasana, for example, the left external oblique will team with the right internal oblique to rotate your torso. At the same time, the opposite pair of obliques will have to lengthen. And so your twisting range of motion can be reduced by the inability of one pair (one external oblique and the other opposite internal oblique) to lengthen, while weakness in the opposite pair could limit your ability to actively draw yourself into the twist.

The obliques have a big part to play in yoga poses, and sometimes that role can be extremely demanding. Twisting arm balances such as Astavakrasana (Eight-Angle Pose), and Parsva Bakasana (Side Crane Pose) require big work from the obliques. If you’re not quite ready for the difficulties of arm balances, you can still challenge your obliques in standing poses like Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose), Parsvakonasana (Side Angle Pose), and Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle Pose). Each of these poses requires a strong rotation of the torso against the pull of gravity. For example, when you perform Trikonasana to the right, your muscles actively twist your trunk and neck to the left so that your heart looks straight ahead, not at the floor, and your eyes look up at your left hand. But when you do Parivrtta Trikonasana to the right, your torso and neck twist strongly to the right, requiring strong contractions of the obliques, the spinal rotators, the intercostals, and the left sternocleidomastoid.

In addition to the regular practice of standing poses, you can help keep your obliques strong by practicing the full or modified versions of Jathara Parivartanasana (Revolved Abdomen Pose). For the modified, milder version, lie on your back, with arms stretched out to the sides at shoulder height and knees pulled up toward your chest. Exhaling, smoothly drop both knees to one side, keeping your knees pulled up toward your arm. On your next exhalation, lift your legs back up toward your chest, flattening your back waist into the floor. For the full pose, lie on your back, arms outstretched again, and stretch your legs straight up toward the ceiling. Lower your straight legs toward the floor on one side (for the maximum challenge, don’t quite touch the floor). Keep stretching out through the soles of the feet; also, when you lift the legs back up to vertical, be sure to press the lower back flat. Since this can be quite a challenging pose, you may want to consult with your health-care provider before trying this if you have lower back or sacroiliac problems.

Now that you know how to reap the physiological and structural benefits of twists, you might also notice the centering benefits to your consciousness. As the layers of muscle and bone revolve deeply, your attention is drawn into the stable, unmoving center of the pose. And this ability to stay centered as the hubbub of the world swirls around you will pay obvious dividends in the yoga of daily living.

A licensed physical therapist and certified Iyengar Yoga teacher, Julie Gudmestad runs a private physical therapy practice and yoga studio in Portland, Oregon. She regrets that she cannot respond to correspondence or calls requesting personal health advice.

Wanderlust Festival
July 29 – August 1st
Squaw Valley, Tahoe

Wanderlust is a one-of-a-kind festival bringing together the world’s best yoga teachers and best performers in rock & roll, all in a setting of breathtaking natural beauty.  It is a place to relax, unwind, bend, dance, revel, and contemplate. It’s a community of like-minded people who share a common set of interests and values.  It’s a chance to escape the mundane and dwell in the extraordinary. It’s healthy hedonism and spiritual exploration. Most of all, it’s a long weekend of satisfying, stick-to-your-ribs fun.  Join us.

Wanderlust 2010 will offer a number of high-traffic opportunities for exhibitors at our Pulse main stage and in the Kula Village.  Instructions and information are available in our Exhibitor Application, which you can download in PDF format.

Simply type your information in the fill-in fields in the application. When you are done, click Submit Form and follow the simple on-screen instructions to complete your submission.

Applications will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.  Please email any questions to: exhibitor@wanderlustfestival.com

DOWNLOAD EXHIBITOR APPLICATION HERE: http://www.wanderlustfestival.com/vendors

APPLICATION DEADLINE IS JUNE 1, 2010

GENERAL INFORMATION BELOW

Squaw Valley
Squaw Valley provides the perfect natural setting to meditate, contemplate, or just get away from the concrete and crowding of our large cities.  Take the cable car to the top of the mountain and you can wander for hours across ridges and meadows where there aren’t even any trails.  Or go for a five minute hike out of the Village and you’ll find yourself on an immense network of paths interspersed with streams, rock climbs and wildlife.  Come get away.

Yoga Classes
Wanderlust will offer yoga classes at nine separate venues Thursday, July 29 through Sunday, August 1, 2010.  Most classes are located in the Village, but there are a number of classes at High Camp as well.  You’ll need one of our yoga + music tickets to practice.  You can schedule your classes in advance through our website beginning March 29, 2010.

Meditation & Lectures
For those interested in exploring the mind, Wanderlust will offer meditation workshops, lectures, and demonstrations covering topics of importance to our yoga + music ticketholders. You can schedule these events using our scheduling app beginning March 29, 2010.

Stay tuned because we will have a ticket giveaway in a future newsletter!  Sign up for our newsletter!

• Three yoga classes per day led by your choice of our gifted instructors, including Seane Corn, Baron Baptiste, Shiva Rea and more!
• Unlimited access to all music at Wanderlust, with shows by Moby (DJ Set), Brazilian Girls and Pretty Lights, to name just a few!
• Access to the Cable Car and High Camp Resort & Spa (with restaurants, a hot tub and swimming lagoon).

If you already got your pass, good for you! Spread the word to everyone at your studio. If you haven’t secured your spot yet, purchase a pass today before advance pricing runs out!

WANDERLUST AT THE FILLMORE
Imagine hundreds of people practicing yoga in the venue that launched artists like Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead. To give Bay Area folks an early taste, Wanderlust will stage a festival teaser on Sunday, May 2, 2010 at the historic Fillmore in San Francisco. Wanderlust at the Fillmore will recreate the spirit of the summer festival on an intimate scale. The all-day & night event will be filled with yoga, music, hooping, juggling, poi, flow arts, community and fun. Yoga teachers include Shiva Rea, Yoga Tree’s Janet Stone and Kula Yoga’s Schuyler Grant. The music line-up will be led by Rupa & the April Fishes , DJ Dragonfly and MC Yogi. Tickets are $25 (music only) and $55 (yoga + music) and go on sale March 14, 2010 here.

BECOME A FAN AND WIN!
We want to make sure everyone knows about Wanderlust, so we’re asking everyone to help by doing two simple things: (i) becoming a fan of Wanderlust on Facebook and (ii) suggest that your friends to become a fan of Wanderlust. When you’re done, just write anything at all on Wanderlust’s Facebook Wall and you’ll automatically be entered in a contest to win a free pair of Sage tickets. The contest will close at the end of March, with the drawing to take place in early April. Instructions are below — thanks for your help!

1. Log into your Facebook profile.
2. Type “www.facebook.com/wanderlust” into your address bar.
3. Click the “Become A Fan” button (top of the page in the middle).
4. Share the experience by clicking the “Suggest To Friends” link (on the left directly under the Wanderlust Festival profile picture).
5. Select all your friends by profile picture and click “Send Invitations.”
6. Write a comment on the Wanderlust Wall to enter the contest!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Repost Wanderlust

February is Love Month!

*****Special Discounts for Couples Through February 28th!****

Grab a friend or your significant other….it doesn’t matter, it’s all about sharing love, music, fun and positive energy! Share your love and spirit.

Breath, movement, and touch is a powerful way to connect with another being, especially in a beautiful space with great music!

Dance and yoga master instructors Val Cunningham and Nicole Doherty are joining forces to offer a unique opportunity to work with your partner one-on-one.

At the Dance Loft, begin with Nicole’s 45 min energizing Partner Yoga class to warm up the muscles, free the mind and align your body in preparation for Val’s 45 min fun and exhilarating dance class in partner movement.

“It is through our intimate relationships with others that we come to know and love ourselves.”

Email Us:
nic@nicolepresents.com
http://wellness.nicolepresents.com

Val@valcunningham.com
http://valcunningham.com

Start the new year off right with Yoga Warrior Power Bootcamp @ Cocoon Urban Day Spa!

Regardless of age, experience and fitness level this training fits everyone! A Hybrid of Yoga Asana, Pilates, Plyometrics, Strength training & Yoga as a martial art, combining inspirational indoor and outdoor arenas. Guest Trainers and nutritional advisors will add extra dimensions to your experience.

Drop pounds, build lean muscle, increase energy, flexibility, balance & focus!

January 25 through February 19 – Nicole Doherty will be teaching Yoga every Wednesday morning!

4 weeks; 5 days a week Mon-Fri
6am – 7:30 am

Price – $450 ($400 for Cocoon yoga students)

LIMITED SPACES LEFT CALL NOW TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT.  Call 415-777-0100 to make a reservation
or email sarah@cocoonurbandayspa.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Give the Gift of Yoga & Dance to yourself, family or friends for the holidays!

For a limited time only, dance and yoga master instructors Val Cunningham and Nicole Doherty are joining forces to offer a unique opportunity to work one-on-one to achieve your fitness goals for 2010!

We all know that toned muscles, great posture, core strength and improved energy will not only help you look better, but will make you feel your very best to exude the confidence needed to succeed.

At the Dance Loft, begin with Nicole’s 45 min energizing Yoga class to warm up the muscles, free the mind and align your body in preparation for Val’s 45 min fun and exhilarating dance class in solo or partner movement.

Studies show that the combination of these expressive movement modalities will help you reach your highest potential and optimal performance.

3, 5 & 10 class packages! Discounted holiday pricing avail until Jan 31st!  Book now. Email nic@nicolepresents.com!

There are many amazing Yoga studios in San Francisco. In fact, from what we understand there are close to 150 Yoga studios in SF proper alone! But there are very few that specialize in Ashtanga Vinyasa Flow! Meet AstaYoga, a beautiful, new studio in the Mission district offering a full schedule of classes with very experienced Ashtanga teachers.

One of their most popular teachers, Reed Taylor, teaches MethodYoga classes, workshops and trainings to lead students to an advanced Yoga practice. This unique system unites the most effective training disciplines: interval athletic training, Pilates, Yoga and Circus Arts.

The AstaYoga website is still being fully developed, but they do have a full Mind|Body Online class schedule, Facebook and Twitter pages: AstaYoga.net

Here are some Yelp reviews too!