Day 2 Of My Second Yoga Challenge!

Day 2 Of My Second Yoga Challenge!

My practice today was invigorating and challenging and set me up to deal with a day where my energy level was low from the triumphs and low points of my week. My birthday week was a roller coaster of emotions. One day I went through the break up of a relationship, the next day I received accolades for my singing at the City College of San Francisco's Winter Jazz Concert from famous jazz pianist Larry Vuchovich, and from my jazz professor and peers as well as the audience. And the next day I found out that a close friend of mine who I had lost touch with for a bit had passed away over a month ago. I was plunged into grief again. This is the second close friend I have lost this year, not including my beloved pet of 9 years. I was able to gain a modicum of comfort from the fact that he passed away peacefully after a long battle with illness. Needless to say that to go to my last round of classes and just show up today, took a lot out of me. I am coping though, by trying to be compassionate with myself and letting in the people who care about me, and allowing them to well... care for me. Saturn is going out of my sign of Sagittarius on December 20th, and the stern and sometimes harsh energy of the planet is blowing a gale-force wind into my life. And boy is it going out with a bang. Up's and downs, crescendos and decrescendos, akin to ending of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" are building with steady intensity. I really am leaning heavily on my practice and on meditation to help carry me through. I know that "this to shall pass."

31 Days Of Yoga!

31 Days Of Yoga!

OK. So it's 30 Days of Yoga on the Yoga With Adriene YouTube channel. But Hey. I'm a glutton for bliss. I'm gonna keep going! This makes it day 31 for me. Trying my hand and 60 days of yoga. I'm going to see if I can make it to 1 year. Of course not all my posts will be about yoga even though I might make occasional mention to how my practice is going and what day I'm on. I'm gonna diversify and talk about my crystals, where I am in my healing journey and of course talk about my life passions. I invite anyone who's reading to make comments below this post and share with me your own personal healing journey, passions, and loves -- what makes you hunger for life and what gives you unadulterated bliss!

For me it was performing last night on my birthday with Larry Vuckovich a world renown pianist who has played with jazz greats such as Elvin Jones, Dexter Gordon and Mel Torme. Yours truly got to sing one of his favorite tunes "Serenade In Blue" written by composed by Harry Warren, with lyrics written by Mack Gordon. It was a song made famous by Glenn Miller's Big Band and I got to be that singer -- the one who's hand get's kissed like a proper damsel by Vuckovich himself. It was an honor and a definite "marker" in my life as a singer and musician. I also was offered by an amazing percussionist Leonel Hernandez to have my own band of amazing musicians to sing a selection of rare arrangements of jazz standards. I performed that evening with The City College of San Francisco's Jazz Improvisational Ensemble led by my mentor and Professor David Hardiman Jr. and MC'd by David Hardiman Senior who started the jazz program at the college. It was a remarkable evening! And I know that from here on out, not matter what's in store, I have to power to choose how I want to react to any situation, "bad" or "good" news and that I have to power to make my biggest dreams a reality!

It's All Me... I Am Unique!

It's All Me... I Am Unique!

Yay! Day 30! Happy birthday to me! 🎂 I made it to the finish line... or did I? Today was a free form practice. Adriene didn't lead me through the asanas. She didn't even have a particular mantra, but let her viewers come up with their own. I chose the mantra "I Am Unique". I feel as if this year I am discovering my own truths and becoming the free-spirited individual that my soul craves to be. This doesn't mean that I don't have boundaries, but rather that I define the limits and where I draw the line in the sand. Taking back parts of myself that have been denied -- maybe for many lifetimes -- feels so incredibly liberating! I'm back and I'm here to stay. I'm finally discovering the real me. I Am Unique! Don't ever forget that you are to. And that is beautiful.

I Love... Myself!

I Love... Myself!


A few years ago, I read an amazing book by Kamal Ravikant called "Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It". I remembered this succinct advice today as I was delivered some news today that really saddened me. I sat on my bed and cried, thinking that it's one day to my birthday, and this so sucks! That's when my surviving cat Fjord (I lost one of my cat's in September) looked up at me with such unconditional love in his little green eyes and literally crawled in my lap and put both his little paws around my neck and allowed me to hug him. He just stayed there as proof that there is so much love still in the universe. I thought about Dickens Faire, which just yesterday my friend Jay had made such an awesome birthday present to me with, and how much love I felt from the whole experience of yesterday, and I thought love is all around me. It made me think of the lyrics by 90's Brit pop stars Wet Wet Wet and their hit single "Love Is All Around". Love is there, if you just look for it, and it comes in the most unexpected ways. And then I remembered to quote the late, great Whitney Houston that "learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all." Cue the dramatic musical crescendo, because this is the honest and beautiful truth." So today, I place my focus on a mantra I modified from Ravikant's self-love meditation. 'I love myself. I'm loved. And I am loving!' I recognize my value, my worth and my place in the Universe, and I send this love to everyone in the universe, to the persons places and things I  have hurt, to those that have hurt me, and to everyone who supports me and my journey enough to love me right back!

I Celebrate!

I Celebrate!

With only two more days left in my yoga challenge, I have a lot to celebrate. Should it be the fact that I've come so far, The fact that I was able to reach back and grasp my ankle in a pigeon pose variation that had previously eluded my flexibility, or that fact that it's my birthday in two days and as an early birthday present a really close friend Jay treated me to my first Dickens Faire -- a Christmas, 19th century period-themed convention dedicated to the world of Charles Dickens? I have a lot to be both grateful and thankful for today. I'm basking in love, joy and appreciation. Day 28!

I Am Grateful!

I Am Grateful!

I really am grateful today. And for the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm on the right track to greater abundance -- feeling the glimmers of the edge of my destiny forming from the ether. I'm hopeful. I'm starting to plan out the steps I need to walk in order to begin to create the reality I've been dreaming about. And the Universe is lining things up along my path. These are what Janet and Chris Attwood refer to as "markers" in "The Passion Test" -- goalposts that reveal themselves when you are headed in the right direction. And yes, I've had plenty of setbacks. And yes, that's all part of the road trip. I'm really grateful for all of the challenges and detours because they've taught me so much. I'm really grateful for the journey. I feel like I'll look back and find it's so much more satisfying than the destination. Time to put one foot in front of the other -- full speed ahead, dangerous curves and all!

I Attract...Abundance

I Attract...Abundance

Or rather I finished this statement because there are a few things I love to actively bring into my life -- abundance, love, peace, hope joy, and clarity? Yes clarity. In my journey things had gotten a bit cloudy I was gaining some amazing things, a musical community, honing my talents both as a writer and a singer, and making strides as a performer, but I had lost the clarity to give myself a single-minded focus and had put my spiritual lens in a blur as well. Events have happened that remind me that I also came to this plane to walk the path of  the "wounder healer". I have the ability and the privilege to heal others as I am healing myself.

In  today's Yoga Camp practice, Adriene said something interesting. She remarked sentiments to the effect that she had attracted her whole YouTube channel, Yoga With Adriene. I looked at her thousands of viewers and all the lives that she's affected included mine; as evidenced through these posts, and I am in awe. Apparently she is too. I felt compelled to look back at my own journey. I used to be painfully shy, I had no confidence, I lacked a purpose, and I was severely depressed. Then I moved to San Francisco under the most darkest of shadows, grappling with the sadness I was feeling behind my late sister's diagnosis with cancer. It was everything that happened from the time she was diagnosed to her death in 2014 that put my life on this sometimes devastating, and sometimes exultantly joyful road. I realized that I am finally owning that legacy and allowing more good things to come my way. It is my dream for my blog, Facebook and YouTube channel's reflections about healing to affect and help thousands of people as well. There. I said it. Cat's out of the bag. There's nowhere to go but up from here!