More snow and inspiration!

Into the third week. 18 inches of snow last night and no power! Tally ho!

SNOW!!!

Fall in New England....And a buddha statue

Posture clinic - woo hoo

Card my sweet friends Aub and Mer sent!

They rule! thanks guys! and thanks to all the wonderful people in my life who listened to all my bullshit during the time it took me to get here. I'm so grateful to be here and couldn't have done it without all your love and support and patience and encouragement. Love and namaste!

Save the Yama for your mama...

So, another really great thing we learned about last week were the Yama's (character building restraints) and the miyamas (character building observances). The Yama's are the first limb of the 8 limbs of yoga, and include things like, ahimsa-loving kindness, and aparigraha- non-attachment, satya -truth, bramyacharya -energy management, and asteya- non stealing. The miyamas are part of the second limb of yoga and include things like saucha- purity, santosha-contentment, tapas-self discipline, swadyhyaya- self study and Ishvar-pranidahna - surrender to the universe. Anyway we each had to pick one that resonated with us. I figured I should choose Bramacharya because I have been in some fear during my adjustment and have been tempted to revert back to some old patterns, but I told myself I should tackle something smaller (because let's face it I really just wanted to give myself an excuse to indulge in old behavior). So I decided to choose asteya (non stealing)- and by the way we had to stand up in front of the whole group and say what our Yama or miyama was and apparently I am the only thief up in this piece because I stood alone. Any way I chose that because I reasoned that a better way to counteract my temptations would be with a step forward instead of a negation,and I felt that I was stealing from myself by not participating fully - our group is 63 people and I am a little intimidated about speaking in front of everyone, if you can believe it. Anyway so I chose asteya, indulged in my bad habit a little, and it occurred to me that it was not only a matter of brammacharya,energy management, since I have a real tendency to get strung out on human beings, but also asteya, since I was robbing myself of this experience by giving any energy at all to that. But of course I really kicked my own ass about it all and so changed to Ishvar-Pranidhana the next day, and I just gave it all to god girl. So namaste, and I am trying not to think about the fact I can't watch the world series. My dosha is not happy about that, but hopefully I'll be enlightened soon (they said I should be like week 3ish) so no worries, but I would not be opposed to someone tevo'ing it for me.
Sweet dreams and much peace!

More pics

Labyrinth, field of flowers, dining hall

The Dude

Aura photography

My first week...

It was impossible to write everyday, because everyday has been so jam packed. What an incredible ride! We have today off, so I got up late (7 am), and went for a walk down through the field of flowers and the labyrinth and made my way down to the lake and back up again for breakfast. We are in close quarters around here, so spend all of our waking moments together, so i needed some solitude today. It's been really interesting to notice where my energy goes, and to try and find a balance between giving all or nothing.
The labyrinth was an interesting experience,I wept deeply, as I did yesterday morning all through sadhana. It's grief I feel deeply and a path I have to keep walking, but the big picture is still there. I have defined myself by my burdens, tragedies, my "thing", the crazy..but I'm not my drama even though it is a part of me...as Yeats said, "life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived" so maybe Rilke was right if I continue to be present with the questions I might accidentally live my way into the answers.
On Tuesday night we were all given mala beads, in a somewhat ceremonious fashion. The Great Hall was set up with great care and our cushions were all in a circle with candles in front of them, after chanting and prayers we were each given our beads along with our mantra which is Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya, which translates as Thy Will Be Done. We then went around our beads and recited our mantra - this is called japa. We then moved into a meditation in motion (prana moving you) which I felt awkward about at first and a desire to make it pretty, but I got over it once I closed my eyes, I moved into a headstand, and when i came out of it i realized my physical body appreciates more of a challenge, but my minds tendency is to slack. I had been feeling pretty frustrated with all of the chitter chatter coming from my inner critic,and was able to express that with the co listening exercise we did in pairs right after the meditation in motion. I was then able to take what i learned into Sadhana the next morning, which was self directed by the way, and really challenge myself to stay the cousre when I noticed my minds tendency to steer clear of my edge.

More pictures

Life without coffee

Is not so bad... I do three bags of white tea (oh in my white tee ooh) before sadhana in the morning, and so far no one has died. Also am big on the ginger tea after meals since our lecture on Ayervedic medicine. (ginger aids in digestion, no surprise) It's clear that many of us are ingesting more fiber than usual. Namaste

Prana love and tea

So much to tell! Yesterday Bethiny felt her prana ball after our first class ( i know right, the first day ?) I felt kinda ripped off, like hey I want one. Well it happened today, during sadhana, which we did outside today. We gave thanks to all nine directions: north, south, east, west,the sky the earth, ourselves and all other sentient beings, and then we shook our whole bodies out ( yes all 65 of us on the front lawn) And when we brought our hands to Anjali mudra (prayer) and there it was. Yay prana!
Also, every morning we have silent breakfast, and they say it's to promote mindfulness in eating, but I think the real reason is they don't have coffee and everybody's too pissed about it to talk.
We do however have tons of different teas which is just delightful! Will take pictures and post tomorrow. It is something to behold.
Namaste

My daily life

A few pics: activity board- where we're supposed to be and when each day and what's for meals, one of the sitting rooms near the entrance, and one of many inspirational posters found in the stairwells oh and the magnificent view.
Namaste

Wow!

Today was our first day of class, although our 6am yoga class was optional, so I opted for a walk in the woods down to the lake surrounded by mountains. It was ok, and by ok I mean totally incredible. I was alternately laughing and crying, I had to pinch myself, it is so breathtakingly beautiful here. I kept saying, really? Really? I mean I can't believe all it took to get me here and now I am, and I am so grateful..and I'm open to the possibilities, not running from my fears, although have been tempted a couple times. But this training is addressing all of that and so much more. the classes were crazy good and I would tell you all about them but there is just so much to tell and I am so tired. We chant, we learn breathing techniques, we learned about the koshas and after each lesson we have an experience, which means some physical way of integrating the learning. Then we had saddhana(class), which was basically an ass beating in disguise. Not one sun salutation. The instructors are amazing all around. Great dinner, an amazing French onion soup, they have the soups down over here ( sweet squash soup for lunch), we had the night off, aside from an optional drum circle. But i am in the cafe with my friend Diedre, who drove here from Utah, waiting for our soup to digest so we can hit the whirlpool and then crawl into bed.
Oh, another really great thing about my program is that many who are in it are also broke from getting here, so no one is really worried about new prayer beads. What a relief.
Peace, love and namaste
Trisch

My "boo", Saint Francis

My bed/dorm

Slept all night

Oh and this

Here's the view.Settled into my dorm and met several of my fellow yogi's,ate dinner,food's awesome, and so far nobody's pointed out any of my inadequacies. This place is amazing!

Hey to the hey Buddha

I'm pretty sure everyone here is cooler than me...I don't have the right prayer beads, and I doubt anyone will talk to me once they realize my eyelashes aren't real..

My ride

Could not post in the air,but I managed to survive my flight even though the chicks in front of me talked incessantly about nothing interesting and the guy behind me had to point out that all the seats on my row were empty, not just the middle one. I clued into this when he leaned up and said,"were you assigned that middle seat?"
I'm pretty sure what he meant was, "what kind of a dick are you? Sitting in the middle seat when the isle and window are free." So, needless to say I scored a window seat. I caught a few z's in spite of the chatter and a dog whining periodically, clearly they are no longer shipped with the luggage like in the olden days.They either stay home at a perfectly good kennel or they ride with the people.
Bumpy landing, but nobody died, I did get a little motion sickness which was only exacerbated by the hour and a half drive through windy mountain roads, but
I was in good company. Pictured is Bradley, my ride from the shuttle service Helping Hand. Super nice guy, loves the red sox though. Anyway, he got me here safe and sound and this place is beautiful! So now we're all just sittin around drinking chai tea, getting henna tattoos and our cards read.
namaste bitches

The road to 5am Sunday flight...

Woke up with mama's pizza kickin my ass, and what send off from my kids would be complete without an attack on my wardrobe. I stood my ground and took several "grandma"sweaters against their ill advice anyway,my reasoning being that I have pretty stellar fashion sense, even if I do own several beige sweaters, and am not a fan of the remorse I often feel when I take the advice of others on this matter. To this my eldest informed me that her favorite quote is, "the only regret I have in life is not making more mistakes". She reasoned that someday I could look back at that sweater and realize it was a big mistake.

My sweet girls

Delicious times!

Lunch with Brook and Angel..my sweet yoga peeps...and Nona Tata was delic! Thanks guys
Namaste

Fred's farewell!

Hey party people hey!
I had a most excellent send off at Fred's Texas last night with many of my sweetest, dearest friends! I am so lucky. Thank you.
Namaste

So anyway...

Of course that was not actually a picture of me "before" but I am considering eyelash extensions and am a little bit concerned that my fellow yogi's at Kripalu will be more earthy than myself. But, I can 't help it if I want to look naturally fantastic.I do not want to be the girl from Texas who has to put make up on every day. How superficial would that be?
Anyway, I leave in 3 days...and I am trying to ignore a certain someone from my not so distant past who no doubt is in fear that I will take flight on my new adventure,meet some hot yoga stud, and never look back (it could happen).I'm actually doing a bang up job on the ignoring front.Whereas, I could whore myself out for a new dress, plus shoes, and a date to some fancy debutante ball (gag). And it's not that I have standards, I 'd have eyelash extensions for cryin out loud, I just want to stay the course of being true to myself for once. How weird is that? And weird that it's weird. I always thought I had this wicked imagination, yet I've never been able to imagine myself living outside the limitations of my own self destructive patterns of behavior, until now. In the infamous words of Guy Clark, "Life is just a leap of faith, spread your arms and hold your breath and always trust your cape." I'm trusting my cape, and I am deeply and profoundly blessed.
Much love to all my sweet peeps for all of your love and support along this journey!
Namaste

before

countdown commences...yikes! I leave in 5 days

I think this is actually going to happen. Wow! Of course I have many things to do before I am on my way, like buy shampoo and decide if I sould take my down vest or my parka or both (even though the vest is a little Marty McFlyish), it's important to be as cool if not cooler than all the other yogi's there. Although I am already imagining that every single one is an ace at arm balances unlike me, but my regular crow is pretty bad ass if I do say so myself.
My friend Meredith asked me what my favorite yoga pose was and today I realized it's wheel. They say that forgiveness can be found in back bends, which I don't know how true this is since "they" was only this one chick this one time, and clearly backbends have the potential to jack you up, but most definitely a lot of release can be found there.
This morning I slept in and then went for a bike ride (fucking glorious), and was going to attempt to make it to yoga class- since the Kripalu people said we should continue our daily practice  to be ready for doing it 10 hours a day for a month, so I thought I should start that-but could not get there since of course I forgot to account for the time it would take to find my car keys. So, I did a mini practice on my own and discovered a few things: #1. I'm lazy #2. my personal practice is completely different than teaching, although not entirely seperate #3. I can't share something I do not have #4. so what the hell am I trying to "share" with others by teaching yoga, when I am not entirely sure what it's given me #5, I think about my looks alot #6. I like backbends, in particular, wheel, I must remember to tell Meredith.
Until next time.
Namaste bitches!

The Road is Long...and so is this night (not like that)

I am one week away from changing my life, or atleast beginning my 200 hour yoga teacher certification at Kripalu ( a super fancy yoga teacher training school that 's the oldest in the United States). I don't really know what I'm doing, but this is nothing new. I've been practicing and teaching yoga for a few years now, and one day I realized, well actually every day since I was an adult, that I was never going to fit the corporate mold so why not do something groovy that could potentially get me alot of dates.
People respond to "I'm a  yoga teacher", in a host of ways, all of which are about their own and may times preconcieved ideas about what yoga is. I'm heistant to tell people what I do sometimes, especially men - who tend to say things like, "you must be really flexible", with one eyebrow raised. And then proceed to tell you how they are not and could never do yoga which translates as " I could never do anything I don't already know how to do". I did actually go on a date with a guy who was in one of my classes once, a fireman, which was hot, but no love connection. I mean the fact that he was a fireman was hot, not the dates. But I digress...

The point is, I went to a party last night, a good friend who is also a yoga teacher (Holla Angel!) got married in the woods last month and had a swanky party for all her friends last night. So, of course I was talking about myself and my upcoming Kripalu adventures when Ang's good friend Lisa suggested I blog about it. Since I just graduated from regular college (that's right folks a 4 year degree in 20) with a degree in English/writing concentration I figured what the hell. So when I woke up to pee I decided to go ahead and publish some thoughts, after I peed of course,and fed the cat. But, I will save them for my next post since it is nearly time to go teach my old geezer class at the country club.