What do you get after 4 days of 4.5 plus hours of yoga each day sprinkled with live music up on the mountains at Lake Tahoe and seeing Moby in person 3 times? A whole, whole lot of bliss. And maybe slightly sore transversus abdominis muscle.
This whole experience at Wanderlust Yoga Festival in Squaw Valley has affirmed my belief that by letting the Universe set its course, (meaning, to surrender - give up trying to control everything - stop feeding the ego) all that is meant to be, happens. Again, "meant to be" doesn't mean what I think should happen...but letting life blossom. We don't have the power (any, really) or control over what happens to us, but we do have the power to be present and react in ways that hopefully serve us well and those around us.
I'd chanced upon a free ticket thanks to Yoga Loft in San Francisco. Up till the week before the event, not confident I'd really be going, I hadn't set up a ride or lodging which seemed cost prohibitive on my meager yoga teacher income. Emails to a few fellow yoga teachers turned out futile at this point. My first lesson of trusting the universe came through Peter, a stranger who'd offered a ride up to Squaw Valley and affordable lodging in his home through an online service, Zimride. Sounding too good to be true, I waited till another rider signed up with him. After stalking and interrogating the rider, I happily bought the ride as well. If I'm going to be kidnapped, might as well be with someone seemingly nice and real. Indeed, driving up and staying with Peter turned out to be the glue that held my 4 days in Tahoe so beautifully together. His home was such a lovely hearth to return to after long days running around different locales of the varied classes. To top it all, Peter was such a warm, welcoming, interesting and fun person to chat with at the end of our individual evenings.
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| Rod Stryker leading a very big class |
My first day of classes was with a chockful of nationally known and highly respected instructors: Rod Stryker, Annie Carpenter and Dharma Mittra, each with their very own distinct styles of yoga. I was just bowled over with the amazing energy from each class. (For more details on instructors, please visit my other blog here, soon to be updated!) An inspiring talk by the wonderful women who make up my favorite yoga non-profit, Off The Mat Into The World had preceded these 3 classes. A fun opening night concert ended my already wonderful day.
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| Quixotic at opening night |
I took it easy the next day attending my first class at 10am with Sianna Sherman on arm-balances, which is probably my favorite group of yoga postures. I've been working on them as a weaker upper body has been one of my challenges. Having just recently discovered visvamitrasana, I was gleeful when Sianna took us through the pose. In the same class, I'd also taken flight for the first time with "flying pigeon" (Eka Pada Galavasana) although just on one side. The second class thankfully turned out to be a talk on ayurveda and yoga so I was able to rest up before heading to a rigorous Kundalini class with Gurmuk Kaur Khalsa. Somewhere in between, I was able to sit in on an interesting talk about "Jesus the yogi." Having just taken my first Kundalini class early on the week, I was in for more jolting as we danced, shook and gyrated our bodies like mad people. Had I any ounce of depression, they were long gone by the end of that class! This second day of the festival ended yet even sweeter, with a lovely group hike up the mountainside serenaded by a yogi violinist.
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| Hannah Thiem playing her violin for the hikers |
On the third day, I was in for a big surprise as I switched courses last minute while my new un-kidnapped ride-share friend and I headed out to our first classes together. I'd expressed my lack of excitement about the teacher I'd signed up for. Betty simply said to take another instead since no one seemed to be really checking registration. So I circumnavigated my direction to another class on a topic of interest even though it was led by an unknown teacher. Being one of the last to show up in class, I situated myself right by the doorway and began my first om with the rest of the students. On the second om, a fellow showed up at the door (remember, next to me) who started om'ing with the rest of us really loudly and of course, I couldn't help wondering of this late student's ballsy attitude. Turned out, he's the substitute teacher, and one I'd been avoiding taking classes with back in San Francisco! I'd noticed a few months ago Pradeep Teotia taking over a popular weekend morning spot from one of my favorite local instructors, hence my aversion to Pradeep's class. Lo and behold, his class at Wanderlust turned out to be one of my favorites. Perhaps because of the circumstances leading to it. Perhaps because, he, like the teacher I studied with in India for 2 months, vehemently expressed the true reason that makes yoga so special: the spirituality of the practice that gets us a little closer to the divine, our truth, our bliss, and not simply to emulate folks at Cirque du Soleil. Though, I must say here that I'm a big fan of those contortionists. I also felt like I made a new friend in Pradeep and wonder if that's how all his students feel. Another lesson learned and affirmation on the power of syncrodestiny, as Deepak Chopra would say.
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| Moby |
The second class I went to on this third day was directed at teachers, "Evolutionary Leadership for Yoga Teachers." Since I'd been mulling over my quest as one of the thousands of yoga teachers in San Francisco, this topic lies close to my heart. We went through a few group activities to dig deep into our purpose and intentions of being a yoga teacher. I'll just say the class proved quite profound even in a moment of shameful reaction to another teacher! My last class that day was on "spicy sequencing" by Kathryn Budig, which provided some rather interesting ways of moving from pose to pose. That night was when I finally got to see Moby in action, dj'ing some funky techno beats. I'd bought tickets to a concert some years ago which he'd cancelled out on. While I was excited to see him, I also began to truly accept signs of "old age" as I thankfully put on ear plugs.
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| Annie Carpenter at a very highly attended back-care class |
Amazingly, I made it to an 8am class the next and last morning at Wanderlust. It was led by Shiva Rea, another very popular yoga instructor I'd taken a regular weekly class with in LA couple of years prior. This class was on Kalari Vinyasa, which was an extra class for me since a fellow yoga teacher-friend who'd signed up for it decided the night before not to attend. Not really knowing what Kalari was about, I was in for another surprise when we were taught warrior-dance like moves a la smooth, vinyasa style. Both the next 2 classes I took were with teachers I'd practiced with at the festival: Annie Carpenter (on back care) and Sianna Sherman (on empowering teachers.)
And again, I enjoyed and learned much from them. My last session at Wanderlust ended with the same 3 women from Off-The-Mat-into-The-World that initiated my experience at the festival. By then, I was quite beat. There was a whole lot of rah-rah'ing to close out the 4 days. At the last singing bout with eyes closed we chanted om mane pad me hum, I started crying when Suzanne Sterling belted out her rendition of the Buddhist mantra above our sea of voices. I'm not sure if I cried because Suzanne's amazingly powerful and beautiful voice struck me so deeply or if I was just plain exhausted. Possibly a combination of both.
The day was not yet to end! After sampling more soy based ice-cream and other such goodies, I trudged over to the main studio hall where Moby was on acoustics accompanied by a violinist along with his female lead singer on sight belting out oh those very familiar, cool Moby tunes. This was the Moby I'd paid to see so long ago. I was in Heaven's haven. At the end of the superb performance as the crowd dispersed, all I longed for was to jump into a stream, to cool off and refresh. But I wasn't quite sure where to go. Again, the starry junipers threw the lovely Athena, a friend from Yoga Loft, my way who told me of a path up the hillside to a secluded swim hole. And that is where I regained some prana and stillness. Upon descending the hill, I took a little detour to the tea hut where Athena had been working to thank her. The first person I see as I stepped into the hut looked uncannily like Moby. Athena sat me at his table where I was one person away from him, so I couldn't stare profusely before I finally realized it was really him. Athena is truly an angel. And that is how my Wanderlust experience wrapped up! With humbleness and gratitude. Ommmm. ~magi.
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| Athena's swim hole |
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