About the 'Trip and the Trade'

This is a journey about connections, friendship, new experience, community service, and yoga. This idea quite appropriately came about during a yoga class. While I was supposed to be watching my thoughts pass like clouds through the sky of my mind, I was instead thinking hard…thinking about the road trip I was planning. I intended to drive through multiple cities visiting friends and family along the way. As I thought about this trip an idea began surfacing in stages. It went something like this: Oh no! How am I going to practice yoga while I’m gone??... Hmmm, I bet there are studios in most of these places …oooh, that’d be fun! Trying out new studios! ... and then I began to wonder about how I could integrate my yoga with community involvement. I love connecting with people and places. I kept thinking and by the end of the class decided that I would attempt to forge relationships with at least one studio in each location where I stayed, a relationship based on passion for yoga and interest in their community. That’s it! I would ask them if they would be willing to trade me one yoga class in exchange for a couple hours of my time giving back to their community, and THAT is exactly what I’m doing.

I will be blogging daily along the trip, mostly about my time with each studio and community. After my class with each studio I will dedicate a post to my experience there with photos and a direct link to their website. Although I am open to all that this trip will bring, I do have a few objectives. These objectives fall under two things: ‘Trip’ and ‘Blog’ and one crosses over into both:



Trip Objectives:

1. To connect with each location through community service

2. To experience a yoga studio in each community

3. To inspire people to incorporate yoga in their lives and get

involved in their communities as well as others



Blog Objectives:

1. To have a forum for writing and sharing my experiences

with others

2. To track/document my trip

3. To inspire people to incorporate yoga in their lives and get

involved in their communities as well as others



I have sent hard copy letters to a few studios in each of the places where I plan to stay. Getting to this point has been an interesting process. I vacillate regularly between excitement and fear. Excitement about meeting new people and doing good things in their community and fear of well…fear of failure. Will anyone be open to my idea? What if no one responds? Each time I feel nervous I remind myself to move forward with a heart and mind open to possibilities and yes, one of those possibilities is failure and that is okay. So here it goes, cheers to trying something new and being satisfied with unknown outcomes. I invite any of you that will be in the same locations as me to join me for a yoga class. The map with destinations, dates, and yoga studios is below. If you are interested in joining me for a class in your town during the dates I will be there please e-mail me at berghk@gmail.com and I will let you know what class(es) I will be attending and when. Cheers to The Trip and the Trade!




Saturday, October 16, 2010

Yoga with Marcy & Lakshmi: Prosperity, Beauty, & Grace




http://www.museyoga.com/MUSE_YOGA_NEW/Yoga_at_Muse.html

http://www.museyoga.com/MUSE_YOGA_NEW/Marcy_Westover.html


Marcy held her yoga class in the same studio space as Kendra, The Muse Building. What a great space to get to visit twice! (Please review post titled 'Kendra Helps us Find our Inner Durga' for building description.)

Marcy has been practicing yoga for about eight years beginning with Iyengar and Ashtanga and now practices flow full time. She began with prana flow yoga 500 hour teacher training with Shiva Rea in 2007, and continues to practice and study with her along with other master teachers including Micheline Berry and Max Strom.


A word from Marcy:

"I feel that the most profound aspect that the practice of yoga can offer is the ability to let yourself be as you are, to love yourself and those around you unconditionally; and to listen, observe, and feel the creative and boundless energy, The Universal Truth, that resides in each of us."

I couldn't agree more with Marcy on this --
Marcy opened her class by educating us on Lakshmi.

Lakshi, is the Hindu goddess of weath (both material and spiritual), light wisdom, fortune, fertility, generosity, and courage, and the embodiment of beauty, grace, and charm.


Marcy's free-flowing organic stye of yoga was very different than most of the yoga I have previously practiced. The flowing style opened my body and my heart. Inspired by Lakshmi, Marcy sequenced her class in a way that promoted grace and beauty. Throughout the class she guided us through poses that embodied these traits. Some of our poses were the same that can be seen in sculptures of the goddess. Mirroring these poses was a significant part of Marcy's class. I actually felt closer to Lakshmi's attributes as we held and moved through these poses, more sweetness, more grace, more beauty - it was magnificent! Marcy choreographed her transitions seamlessly and had the class run through multiple sets of each pose, holding each a significant amount of time. Marcy's gentle but confident voice brought me through some very deep stretching and flow sequences that sometimes presented challenges to my balance. She very successfully made connections betweeen spirituality and physical movement throughout her class. Marcy's natural pension for teaching makes her a joy to practice with.
This class was full of people who were excited about The Trip and the Trade - I mean seriously...look at this class photo - how can they not be awesome??

Marcy has been supportive of The Trip and the Trade from the beginning giving me hope for my journey. Her spirit is open and her practice beautiful - thank you Marcy!
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