i will document the amazing spiritual experiences i've had on my trip to australia and korea in march/april 2010. i want to keep the warm buzz of these encounters going and thank my sweet friends, gretchen and jim, for the encouragement.
this vacation was truly a journey of my internal self. i feel mentally and spiritually different since i returned three weeks ago. i'm less anxious, but more restless. more content, and also more driven. better focused, but still doing too much at once. things are changing inside of me in a more tangible way. i feel more concerned about my immediate world, but also more distant. hmm. new perspective is the greatest gift.
part one of the trip began before i left chicago. i was so happy to study with my yoga teacher, rod stryker in march. i work for him while he's in town and felt joyous to help. he's a very special person and i have great respect for him and his teachings. we studied the sun, moon and fire practices in the burbs and then a yoga teacher training, "the yoga of fulfillment", in the city. two of my yoga students came to the burbs and a co-worker teacher studied with him in the city because of my recommendations. i'm tickled to be part of the transference of knowledge. 
in the burbs, we did a yoga pose that made me feel emotionally uncomfortable. i held the pose, despite my wanting to squirm out of it and scream. driving back to the city that night, i was actually glad that traffic was terrible so i could cry more than drive. i listened to my friend's band, judson claiborne, sing their gorgeous song, "twilight spirit" over and over again. it was my soundtrack on the highway as i held my forehead and cried. these emotional bursts happen often in yoga. to me, at least. my dear friend jim bennitt says he's never had an emotional upheaval in yoga. hmm, different karmas for different dharmas. (i just made that up. i'm sure it's been said before. what a great line!)
at rod's yoga training in chicago, we wrote down many emotionally uncomfortable ideas, including our "deepest driving desire". this is the idea that truly motivates us to do what we do. it's sometimes dark. after days of asana (physical poses), pranayama (breath/energy movement) and meditation, we were raw and ready to dig deep to find our truths. my deepest driving desire is sad and has to do with the ancient idea of "deserving" love. my friend, sue, says that we inherit our mother's, mother's mother's and their mother's pains and histories through the land, through our DNA, through our lineage. i kind of agree with her. even though this was the second time i've taken this teacher training, i'm still digging for my dharma code, my personal mission statement. the verbiage will evolve but the basic gist is that i'm here to help people and inspire them. great work if you can get it. and you can get it if you try.
working for yogarupa is a great way to be involved in this parayoga community that i love. although i am distracted with managing staff and making sure the training runs smoothly, i feel honored to be trusted enough to help. i've met some wonderful yogis, including mark and margherita from london. mark is the best person to take pictures with because he makes you laugh really hard before the shutter is clicked. it's really fun - take a photo with him if you see him:
vienna daniel and i had the same interest to spend 5 days in the austrailan desert at uluru. we agreed over email to split rental car costs and stay at the same back packer hotel at uluru. i was to fly from sydney to melbourne to alice springs and after a 4 hour lay over, fly to uluru. at the time i thought this was a crazy itinerary with too much hopping around. this nutty flight schedule and following that ol' dharma put me in the right place at the right time to meet a group of people in the alice springs airport that changed everything. just, everything.
