Another New Home for Me: Majestic Yoga Studio

Wow!!! I am on quite a roll.  Always seeking to find work that reflects my intentions for the practice of yoga.  Where business and yoga are balanced and everyone supports each other.  Recently I left Soni Yoga and in the midst of those ashes rose up an opportunity to teach at a lovely place right across the street: Majestic Yoga Studio.
I will be teaching pure Kripalu yoga on Tuesdays @12:00pm and Wednesdays @ 4:30pm starting September 14th in this beautiful light-filled and spacious studio right in Huron Village.  Classes are $17 to drop-in and there will be new student specials as well! Come check it out!
With 11 new classes plus possibly teaching one more at an elementary school in Cambridge....PLUS being the Assistant Manager at a new yoga studio....I will need to practice BALANCE!!!   Something tells me all will be fine:-)

www.majesticyogastudio  223 Concord Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Flux is the New Normal

Flux is the new normal. That is my new mantra for the past month of August! Phew! What a month. In the past month I have done so much and seen so many changes in my life.  Here are just a few:

1.) Moved to my new beautiful Apartment in Spring Hill
2.) Took a new teaching position at Majestic Yoga Studio
3.) Became "Assistant Studio Manager" at "Shanti" at the Armory in my new neighborhood!
4.) Led my first Yoga Retreat at the end of July and into August
5.) Class time at Lily Pad change on Thursdays
6.) Turned down a job offer that I know would land me right back into Housing (a field I am not happy with).  NEVER settle!
7.) Taught private sessions
8.) Have an interview to teach yoga at a Community School in Cambridge.
9.) Started a new Book Club "Literature and Libations"....(half way through the first book...gotta get moving!)
10.) Spent lots of time with my girlfriends!!! Remembering once again how important female empowerment is.
12.) Started a daily meditation and pranayama practice
13) Became a regular at Highland Kitchen for Karaoke Wednesdays
14.)Started learning where to shop, how to use buses in my new neighborhood.
15.) Last but not least, I've learned this month that I am more important than the changes that happen to me.  If I stay connected to my "True Nature" nothing will get in the way of true success!!!

See you on the mat!
Natalie XO

Thoughts on Strength

So, here is the album of PHOTOS from our trip to Stannard, Vermont.  Thank you Carissa for your amazing photography skills!!!

I am still amazed at myself when I look at the photos. I have grown so much as a yoga teacher and person in the last 2 1/2 years since I was handed my 200 Hour Certification at Kripalu Center.   I would have never pictured myself doing this work 4 years ago when I was slaving for a non-profit agency with no personal rewards in retrun.  Just having our weekend, I felt so many people coming alive to who they are and being challenged to come out of their comfort zones.  Imagine what we can do in a lifetime!!!

Uplifting spirits, soothing souls, and working for a better relationship with ourselves is so important and I'm the luckiest person alive to be guiding this work!

Last weekend's challenges fed into this weekend's as  I moved from Cambridge to Somerville and it took every last ounce of energy I had.  I really appreciated family stepping up to the plate for assistance and working together as a group to make this happen.  I am truly blessed for all I have and I never take anyone in my life for granted:-)  including Seymour who had a very stressful day moving from one place to another and taking a 4 ft. free fall in the process. All are okay!!!

In July/August of this year I have been truly challenged by the universe to exhibit the strength and courage (not to mention "self-love) that has been with me since I was a little girl.  I realized through some of my personal relationships that this strength is a gift and not so easy for others.  I believe that my relationships in the future will be with others that truly value this gift and are strong enough to support me in my ups and downs, highs and lows, and all my talents and joys!  After all, that is life. Never what we expect, always changing, and begging us to let go.

I look to the future with much excitement but remain in the present as this mystery of life unfolds.  I am thankful for an empty slate.

Namaste,
Natalie

Failing and Flying

Day one back from the Yoga Retreat in Vermont and this poem continues to linger.  During one of our sharing circles, it was presented.  It's a great poem that speaks to endings.  One of it's most important messages is that endings do not always mean failure. One of my favorite lines is, "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly."  Just Beautiful!


"Failing and Flying" 
by Jack Gilbert


Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew. It's the same when love comes to an end, or the marriage fails and people say they knew it was a mistake, that everybody said it would never work. That she was old enough to know better. But anything worth doing is worth doing badly. Like being there by that summer ocean on the other side of the island while love was fading out of her, the stars burning so extravagantly those nights that anyone could tell you they would never last. Every morning she was asleep in my bed like a visitation, the gentleness in her like antelope standing in the dawn mist. Each afternoon I watched her coming back through the hot stony field after swimming, the sea light behind her and the huge sky on the other side of that. Listened to her while we ate lunch. How can they say the marriage failed? Like the people who came back from Provence (when it was Provence) and said it was pretty but the food was greasy. I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell, but just coming to the end of his triumph.

Sky Meadow Musings

Just returned from leading my first Yoga Retreat.  I rented an amazing 100 year old renovated barn in Greensboro, VT.  Leading a Yoga Retreat is so much more than just teaching yoga twice a day, it involves all the organization, group facilitating, marketing, and holding space.  It was amazing and I did great! That's me gliding from bed to teach yoga at 8am Saturday morning!  So many feelings and thoughts going through my mind right now.  I wish I could narrow it down to a few words so perhaps a list might do of things I'll savor and remember!   I will post photos soon!

1.) Bonfires (one each night!)= sharing circle
2.) Sunny and nature infused yoga classes (Gazing upon trees and the blue blue sky while doing "Tree Pose"
3.) Amazing Food and Presentation (Creative and Cooked with Focus and Love!) can you say "edible flowers?!?!
4.) Laughs (lots of them!)
5.) Honesty (holding space for differing views)
6.) Silence (We had a silent breakfast and took a silent walk up the mountain and back down)
7.) Opening (Watching students open up and expose themselves through yoga and sharing)
8.) Acceptance
9.) Outhouses? Yes.  Squatting and Skinny Dipping was also preferred.
10.) Impromptu Meditation with Sunset in the Mountain Peak Gazebo (ooh la la!)
11.) Meditation and Pranayama Workshop (first I had ever done!)
12.) Reflections, Sharing, Impressions (group facilitation!)
13.) Beautiful Poems Read and Shared (Students brought these to the bonfire!)
14.) Sheep (very cute pet sheep behind my room I slept in)
15.) The "weird sounding" Rooster VERY early in the morning. errr er errrrrrrr!
16.) Tea, Tea, and more Tea!!!
17.)  Family and Friends
18.) Impromptu Tai Chi and Yoga Practice with Jessie
19.) Energizing and Grounding Massages done by THE Jessie Kern

20.) The top lesson I brought home with me was to honor my own personal journey and to live in the now.  I also came to terms with several issues surrounding loss and gain and seeing them as pure illusion. Abundance is here. Abundance is NOW!
Namaste!!!
Natalie  XOX