Coloring Flower Mandalas (Book Review)

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Do you ever feel like your creativity needs a boost?

 I think all of us can relate to that 'stuck in a rut' feeling, whether it's in regard to our own art projects, work, relationships, or even our yoga practice.

 It's so important to try new things, and to adopt a playful attitude!

 Recently I was lucky to share the amazing book Coloring Flower Mandalas by Wendy Piersall with my lovely sponsored yogini Elizabeth. It's the perfect book for bringing out your inner goddess and inner child, all at once!

Here's what Elizabeth said about the book:

 I absolutely love Coloring Flower Mandalas. It was the most colorful meditation I've ever experienced. 

 Such beautiful hand-drawn designs! It was a great way for me to be present in the moment and find a few moments of calmness. I was able to bring out my inner artist and have some fun. I even turned on some good reggae and got in the zone. Thank you so much for creating an amazing adult coloring book!

 A big thanks to Wendy Piersall for creating such a lovely book, and to the team at Ulysses Press for sharing this unique book with Alive in the Fire!

You may recall I have some mandalas tattooed in my sleeve :) What I love is that these designs have existed for thousands of years as tools for meditation and healing... the powerful sacred geometry, the spiritual symbolism, the lovely colors... all of it works together to create a beautiful, meditative design :)

 Cheers to all mandalas, whether they're in books or tattoos or your meditation space!

 Namaste, friends.

No Mud, No Lotus (On Suffering, Injury and Tattoos)

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Through my struggle, I am developing compassion.

My back has been hurting again this week. I think it became aggravated during a chair twist, one I demonstrated while I was teaching. I wasn't careful, and now there’s pain again.

I've been frustrated. I cried about it. My ego showed up, saying, “What did I do to deserve this? Why me?”

But I choose to breathe. Today I invite patience, calling upon my yoga practice.


I read recently that you can tell you've been practicing yoga for a while – that it’s working – when you notice that you’re a little slower to anger, a little more aware, that maybe you can laugh when something unexpected or uncomfortable comes along.


I think about my beautiful sleeve of lotus flowers, each of them a reminder of some pain I’ve been through.

“Most people are afraid of suffering,” Thich Nhat Hanh says. “But suffering is a kind of mud to help the lotus flower grow. There cannot be a lotus flower without the mud.”


I am in the mud, and I am the lotus.

All is exactly as it should be.


I consciously choose to adopt an attitude of gratitude for what this experience of back pain is bringing me: new appreciation for my body… new appreciation for those who support me…and a chance to step away from my mat and let my teaching be my practice. 

To see my students with adoration, and to have an intention of helping them stay safe in their yoga—good alignment, careful, integrated movement.


I even have plans to develop a class for people who are dealing with injury, and for those healing back pain. 

I have plans to use the next few months to study anatomy, to dive back in to my teacher training curriculum and expand my understanding of how each pose affects the body. And to start fundraising for my next training. 

I may be off my mat, but I am still actively involved in my yoga practice.

 

Longing, loss, devastation… they make way for repair. They are the mud that creates the beautiful, graceful lotus.


I invite the fullness of healing. I invite patient awareness. I invite growth. This, too, shall pass; in fact, this is already exactly as it should be.

Indie Spiritualist: A No Bullshit Exploration of Spirituality (Book Review)

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Photos via Indie Spiritualist website and on Facebook.

“You were born to be real, not to be perfect.”
- Chris Grosso, Indie Spiritualist

Being true with ourselves is so important. This has been surfacing again and again in my life lately: how, at a very deep level, yoga is a practice of being real.

 For all its fancy postures and esoteric spiritual practices, yoga is, quite simply, a way of tuning in to what exactly is happening in the present moment. 

 I may be on my mat, in a posture (asana), feeling what it feels like to breathe (pranayama). Or maybe I'm choosing to treat others with kindness (ahimsa) in a moment where I want to react in anger.

 Yoga helps us detach from needing everything to be perfect, and instead just to feel, to allow, to explore, to truly connect.

I recently received a copy of Chris Grosso's book, Indie Spiritualist and it's one of my new favorites. Chris explores what it really means to be honest with ourselves, to let go of the darkness of a broken past, and to heal.

 He says:

True spirituality embraces all of this [life]: the beauty that is almost too much to bear, as well as the paint hat leads some to the brink of insanity. It’s all grist for the mill. We practice our asanas and mantras, prayers and aspirations, and that’s great; but are they serving to strengthen our identification as a “spiritual person” or to help us release our identification with that illusion, and in the process deepen our exploration of more than meets the eye?

I like Chris' down-to-earth approach to exploring what it means to be human. Following his story, I really connected with the idea of him as a seeker, someone wanting to grow, and let go. And his path is not easy -- he falls down, he feels hopeless, he messes up -- but, ultimately, he chooses to keep going.

I was very inspired by his honesty, and the way he embraces all of his experiences (including the road from addiction to recovery) with an open heart.


If I am to be truly responsible for myself, then I have to accept discomfort and acknowledge the aspects of myself that scare the shit out of me and make my heart sink, because this is where the true healing can begin.


These were two other passages that really resonated:

 The gift of desperation
“I was blessed with what the twelve-step fellowships call ‘the gift of desperation,’ which means that I’d hit such a rock bottom that I was finally able to surrender. I had nothing left to hold on to, and nothing holding me back. I was completely bankrupt in every sense of the word – morally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically – which allowed me to completely let go. In turn, letting go allowed for true inner spiritual growth to begin.”

The fear behind the fear
“As I kept moving forward with my recovery, I began to explore the reasons I was so scared to look at the things that sucked in my life—self-loathing, fear, emotional scars, and other baggage. I began to see clearly the futile nature of fear behind the fear. And herein lies a perfect opportunity to explore why we’re scared to take an honest look at the unpleasant things in our life (besides the obvious fact that they’re unpleasant). And more importantly, to figure out what we can do today to begin making even small steps toward changing that.”

Thank you, Chris, for sharing your story, for choosing not to hide, and for being true to yourself. Namaste.

All Tatted Up

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As you know, I'm a big fan of tattoos.

Do you have any?

If you have tattoos (especially ones related to your yoga journey), or if you're a tattoo artist interested in promoting your work, please consider emailing me a photo and description of your ink. I'll share your art with the world via Alive in the Fire.

Namaste.

Lotus Sutra (A Poem)

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Lotus Sutra
There is the sound of this train
traveling by
my thigh burns
with the beauty of a new
tattoo -- he inked into me
a symbol - grace,
effortless grace,
this night echoes on. I feel
a stirring in the depths

 sitting there,
more like laying there - reiterating my life
to myself in numbers, waves,
heat pain in the most pure, simple form...
I felt as though we knew each other 
long before this night. Speaking while creating
art. The rhythm of it. The others,
unspoken truths, spoken 
laughter... sarcasm and cigarette smoke
hanging in the air like
a lotus petal
stuck on water.




Sometimes we have nowhere

else to go except
back to 
who we are to begin with.

 Begin again.

 Now.

 He speaks there, writing into me.

 Now is the right time.

 Where have I gone 
to deserve this?

 Going onward,
knowing pain,
growth.

 You touch me, 
knowing me,
won't you be
beginning again?

 Go on,
follow me.

Tattoos in the Blogosphere

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All photos in this post courtesy of Alive in the Fire readers who are inked. 
Many thanks to all who shared!

Ever wondered what sorts of tattoos yogis have? I posed that question a while back on the blog and through Twitter, and received some fascinating photos.

Take a look!

Just as we are on our mats, these yogis are a diverse and colorful group.




I wanted to share some great links from around the web, too. I read some other blogs written by those who share a passion for body art :) You can find tattoos all over the place...
  • The blog Sometimes Sweet runs a weekly feature called Tattoo Tuesday highlighting some incredible bloggers and their tats. I love reading the meaning behind certain symbols and seeing all of the close up shots.
  • Tattoologist is a tattoo blog with an artful approach. Most of the tattoos I've seen there seem to have an effortlessness and a lightness about them (not a whole lot of sleeves or intense color). If you're into tattoos with text or interesting typeface samples, be sure to check this one out. 
  • Needles and Sins is a tattoo blog that tracks news and trends. With a wicked name like that, it's hard to resist swinging by :)
  • Even on some wedding blogs, such as A Practical Wedding, you can find posts about how tattoos are everywhere.
  • So Fawned is another of my favorite blogs. When I spotted these sleeves, I ooohed and aaaahhhed at the screen. Aren't they breathtaking? 


  • A post from the cooking blog Sweet Paul featuring the funniest guy tattoo I've ever seen. You've got to be a serious crafter to sport that tat! Do you guys know anyone with comical tattoos?
  • A post from Not Your Average Ordinary on script tattoos. Elegant and eloquent. If you got a word on your wrist, what would it be?
There's always a story behind getting inked. Coming soon: my story on the new tattoo I've got big summer plans for! :)

A Video to Inspire Your Spring and Summer

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Video via Lululemon on YouTube.

Anyone else ready for sunshine? I'm hoping it brightens up this weekend, but yesterday and today have been so gray. (Although I do enjoy fog because it reminds me of growing up in northern California, I wouldn't mind a few rays and puffy clouds!)

I just discovered a beautifully-composed video from Lululemon. I love the way the upbeat music, close-up shots, and outdoor settings make me feel fired up for spring and summer.

Hope they inspire you as well! Oh, and see if you can spot the cool tattoo in this video :)

Happy Friday, all.

Yogi Tattoos: Got One?

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Photos via the Bikram Women's Retreat on Facebook.

Hey yogis! Happy Thursday. Hope you're having a rockin' end to the week.

Are you practicing your yoga? I'm excited: I'm heading to a class tonight at Grateful Yoga of Evanston, a local studio I love. Nick and Lela, the owners and head teachers there, are amazing people. So full of heart! I'll be posting about them again soon.

Plus, tomorrow I'm going to be teaching a little mini yoga class at Northwestern's huge philanthropy event Dance Marathon. I'll be leading the group's highest fundraising individuals (probably around 20-30 undergrads) in a short flow class. It should be fun to incorporate the most invigorating postures so they don't fall asleep on me! During the event they dance for 30 hours straight, and the class is being held about half way through... so I'll be making it as engaging and fun as possible. No savasanas :)

It should be a fun and yoga-filled end to the week. Where are you practicing?

And are you sporting a sweet tattoo at your yoga studio? Lately I've been a little obsessed with them.



I'm also planning a blog post featuring yogis I know with awesome body art. Want to be included? Send me an email with an image of your tattoo! (You can reach me at aliveinthefire at gmail dot com.) You can also leave a comment below and I'll follow up with you. 


Hope to hear from you (and see your sick tatts) soon, yogis!


PS Check out Teeg's awesome response to this post. Namaste.