Archive for the 'Music for the Yogi' Category
An Offer to My Community – Burning Man Schedule
You are being called to create a new way of living on this planet!
Dear Community,
It has always been a dream of mine to be able to GIVE in a big way to a Festival that has provided me with so much incredible joy in my life. I can’t say enough about what I have received over the years on so many levels. If you’ve been, you understand what I mean!
After I came back from the Temple in Peru this Spring, I vowed I would touch many hearts deeply this year through offering my love and service of Yoga. What a magical year to take this vow! Not only is the theme Rites of Passage, it’s my 7th year (lucky number 7)!
I am destined to help create a magical high vibrational experience for those around me and I was given these opportunities to offer Love and Seva at the Burn:
- Vinyasa Flow Yoga classes at Camp Osiris at 10 o’clock & Esplanade on Thurs, Fri and Sat at 10:30am (The Great Pyramid – can it get any better for a Yoga theme?)
- Singing my newly release song, Vision of Love, live with Boomrock Saints so that I can express my extreme gratitude for the Love I’ve received in my life. Thurs 2:45am (coming off Wed night White Party!)
Using my new favorite word…simply…EPIC!!! Please support me and take this offering of gratitude and love into your hearts.
On a final note, I released Yoga4Burners with my partner, Dr. Gino Dante Borges (The Wild Self) and created a free 20 min audio yoga sequence for download to your iPods or phones specifically to address physical pain from dancing and biking and to Relax & Renew your energy, so you can go out for more fun! Email: nic@nicolepresents.com for the VIP link invitation from SoundCloud. It’s a limited invite Beta Test. Feedback is required!
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The Gold I Gleaned from Wanderlust!
The Gold I Gleaned from Wanderlust
The Wanderlust Festival this year was nothing short of incredible. Not only was this festival an opportunity to practice yoga and hear great music, but also it was a chance to collect valuable information from top-notch Yoga teachers around the world and get exposed to yoga modalities I had never tried before.
I think the most important thing that I took away from my Wanderlust experience this year was the importance of being Authentic. Yoga becomes an expression of who we are as students, teachers and human beings. The practice is beautiful, ancient and revered. Also, it is a highly creative and expressive art, science and philosophy. It draws people out of their shell, breaks them down into little pieces and builds them back up into the most powerful expression of Divine love they can be.
We are all unique and it is that uniqueness that develops the Yoga that we teach or practice. Students will follow whatever expressions they resonate with on a vibrational level and all forms of Yoga are awesome for this reason.
After 12 classes in just four days, I extracted a ton of great ideas and information from the workshops that will improve my practice and my teaching. Below are some nuggets of information that I wish to pass along from some of my classes.
Rod Stryker
I was fortunate to be able to take three wonderful classes with Rod Stryker of ParaYoga. I could write a few blogs about what I learned through Rod, but will just highlight a few.
Class One – Hatha Yoga Pradipika
He made a point that resonated strongly with me - a reminder - that Yoga is not just about the muscles, asanas and breath, but also its about the Endocrine System, our organs. It’s our organs that give us longevity and we use the breath and the bandhas to change the health of our organs.
Class Two – Treta Bandhas
Udiyana Bandha is the master key to Yoga. This is where the fire (agni) burns up what Rod Stryker calls our “landfill”, the emotional stuff that resides in our second chakra that we need to burn up to get our spiritual Kundalini energy rising from the base of the spine. He says Mula Bandha gets all the press, but it’s the Udiyana Bandha that we need to stoke.
Class Three – Prana Viyus
He was masterful in explaining the Prana Vayus. We watched our breath as it relates to the five Vayus. As teachers, we could watch our students’ breath through the five subsets and as it got shaky or stuck somewhere, we could relate that directly back to the physical and psychological blocks they were encountering in their lives. This exercise was poignant for those participating and a real learning experience on the connection between breath and subtle energies.
Rod’s funny response to our discussion on the Apana Vayu and the importance of elimination on a physical and psychological level….“Spirituality goes out the door if you haven’t crapped in four days!”
I would highly suggest checking out Rod Stryker. His new book the “Four Bodies” was just released and I would bet that it’s nothing short of amazing!
This is his website: http://parayoga.com/
CorePower Yoga
CorePower Yoga was an expression of Yoga rooted in physical training and fitness. It was a high-energy class filled with lunges and Utkatasanas. We used weights to sculpt and sweat a bunch. I could see this form of Yoga doing really well for the gym devotee and was very happy that I got to experience it. I could see myself hitting one of these classes once a week to really get the heart rate up and challenge myself on a physical level. CorePower Yoga teacher Becky reminded me that, “there are seeds of transformation at every turn.”
Seane Corn
Seane is epic all the time! I don’t even know where to start other than to say that I find her to be one of the most empowering individuals on the planet. She always has a huge message and it calls you to do great things. When I leave her classes I want to be her – a badass – ready to save the world, raise money and do something great!
I could write a book of favorite quotes from Seane, but this one was particularly funny and it stuck out in my mind…(it’s paraphrased)… “Wow, I just whiffed the alcohol some of you are sweating out. I’m getting high off your sweat. Luckily, Yoga is a practice of detoxification!”
Shiva Rea
I walked out of Shiva’s class with Random Rab and Steve Gold and found myself walking around completely stoned off her energy. It’s Shakti - its sensual and mystifying. I don’t even know if we did much asana, but we sure shifted our consciousness quick. What I love about Shiva is her willingness to be spontaneous, her ability to hold space and allow people to dive into their sensuality. I get high off her love of music and dance. It’s a breed of Yoga that’s just plain … Shiva.
Off the Mat and Into the World – “Finding Your Voice” with Suzanne Sterling, Kerri Kelly and Hala Khouri
A revealing and empowering experience! We worked with our fifth chakra, Vishuddha, to enhance our ability to communicate. In our society, many of us are told at a young age that we can’t sing or that we shouldn’t say something when maybe we want to. From these mini traumas we close down in this center. We are dying to express ourselves! We learned the power of singing as a tool to heal, express and release the tension we’ve accumulated at the throat. Together, we practiced opening this chakra through asana, moaning, groaning, shouting and above all singing as a large community. I realized that we are all amazing singers and have tremendous voices when we can sync up as a community and feel safe and supported! Beautiful.
John Friend, “Creating Potent Themes”
All heart, all the time. John Friend is a devotee to Bhakti – devotional being and practice. He embodies Yoga as a prayer. In his workshop, Creating Potent Themes, we discussed the importance of language in creating an experience for students of Yoga. He taught us how we can call upon themes as they relate to the Universal Divine and how themes draw upon heart characteristics. As an example, we analyzed the ‘Five Elements’ and how they relate to actions in our bodies, characteristics of the heart and ultimately express the Divine. I love Anusara and its intention to open to grace and love!
Kathyrn Budig
I knew Kathryn was beautiful as I see her in Yoga Journal all the time, but I had no idea how down to earth and absolutely adorable and funny she was until Wanderlust. She’s hilarious and promotes fun and joy! She also has a sick practice and is really great with analogies, simple instruction and making really hard poses achievable. I look forward to taking many more classes with her in the future.
Michael Franti
I captured part of a story he was telling and thought I’d share it. It’s a little cut off at the end but you can just see his sweetness! He is astounding. Michael is a family man, a musician, a Yogi, a businessman and a spiritual guy. His energy is profound and intoxicating. He’s got a heart of gold and a real purpose on this planet to help transform it.
Overall, Wanderlust Festival was amazing and I look forward to next year and all the related events they are hosting around the U.S.
Yoga is a conscious practice that is raising the vibration of this planet one breath at a time on a massive scale. I feel so blessed, honored and grateful that I am able to get on my mat every day and experience this gift of breath and transformation.
Great thanks to the Wanderlust Festival founders for having this vision and manifesting it into our reality!
4 commentsCheb i Sabbah Needs Your Help
TO DONATE: http://www.chebisabbah.org/
Fundraiser Event: FUNDRAISER THIS FRIDAY AT 1015 FOLSOM in San Francisco
Dear Friends and Fans of Cheb i Sabbah:
Recently, our dear friend and musical pioneer Cheb i Sabbah was diagnosed with Stage 4 stomach cancer at San Francisco General Hospital. He was advised that the cancer was spreading to his liver and left lung. Without immediate and proper treatment, the prognosis given is very grim. The phrase “weeks maybe months” was repeated to a devastated group of close friends and family who were there to support him as he received the heartbreaking news.
Like many Americans, “Chebiji” — as he is affectionately known — does not have health insurance. Private health insurance is astronomically expensive and public state funded health insurance barely provides the most basic treatment — and it does so only if you qualify. Due to his weak health condition, Chebiji found himself having to cancel live shows, meaning his income stream has come to a complete halt, with mounting medical bills and future medical costs ahead.
Upon learning of his condition, a few close friends and artists have come together to rally around Chebiji and assist him with his fight. Devastated by the news and outraged that an artist of Chebiji’s caliber cannot afford to care for himself and receive the proper urgent medical treatment needed, we have set up a fund to help.
Please help by donating and spreading the word to your communities. With our financial support, love and healing thoughts let’s help Chebiji receive proper medical care and beat this cancer. Chebiji’s debut album for Six Degrees Records, Shri Durga, is considered one of the true classics of South Asian Fusion. Although he was born in Algeria, Sabbah’s unique affinity for the music of India and Pakistan has resulted in some of the most distinctively beautiful marriages of tradition and “DJ Science” ever recorded. Following Shri Durga, Sabbah’s recordings featuring collaborations with Indian master musicians include Krishna Lila & his latest studio recording Devotion as well as the Maha Maya remix project. On La Kahena (and it’s subsequent remix project La Ghriba), Chebiji returned to the music of his North African homeland with equally mesmerizing results.
Cheb i Sabbah has led a fascinating life, with stints as one of the very first DJ’s to spin records in the early Parisian Discothèques more than forty five years ago. As an actor he worked for two decades with the famed Living Theatre and as a director and cutup sound manipulator, he created the group Tribal Warning Theatre, performing with Psychic TV in his adopted home of San Francisco in the early eighties. He has managed the great Global Jazz icon Don Cherry who insisted that Sabbah continue his DJ mission and quoted him as “a professor of music”; Sabbah eventually ended up on stage with Don mixing layers, sound-scapes and beats way before software and laptops. As a promoter, under the banner of 1002 Nights, he was the first person to book concerts with artists like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Khaled, Hakim, Transglobal Underground and a host of electro and world musicians from Asia, Arabia and Africa.
Sabbah’s influence on the global electronic music and DJ scene cannot be over estimated. He has shown two entire generations that classical world traditions can blend beautifully and respectfully with DJ Culture. It is our hope that the many people from around the planet who have been touched by his music, might be able to give back however they can in his time of need.
The fans and friends of Cheb i Sabbah have experienced his music and artistic vision through his many albums. For those of us who can recount those ecstatic moments on his dance floors — whether in Goa, Essaouira, Moscow or at Nickie’s, where he ran an eighteen year San Francisco weekly residence, we know what a beautiful gift Sabbah has been to the world at large. This is our opportunity to give something back to Cheb i Sabbah in his time of need.
Please donate generously and spread the word about this wonderful artist and human being. Remember that this could happen to any of us. Donate not only to Chebiji but donate as a way of expressing your support for the millions of uninsured Americans who quietly suffer the undignified humiliation of not being able to fend for themselves simply because their economic and social status.
Thank You and Blessings to All.
