Photo Credit: Paula @ ThirteenThoughts

I finally had time to sit down and make a new playlist for the power vinyasa class I teach.  Honestly, it wasn't so much that I "had time" as it was that I was fairly certain if I played it one more time in my Tuesday night class my students would go insane.  Or maybe think I didn't care about them or was lazy or one of many other insecurities that can arise in regard to teaching yoga.  There is a reason I play this Power Yoga Playlist so often, though.  It was the first playlist I made, and it was made specially for the first class I ever taught.  When I created it, I assumed (I was wrong, you know what they say about people who assume, oops!) that I would probably make a new one every week and it would get easier with time because it wouldn't feel so incredibly important.  I spent hours, days really, selecting the perfect songs and then arranging and re-arranging them into what I hoped would be a playlist that both followed and inspired my students through the arc of the class.  I tried it on and practiced the sequence to make sure it was just right.  There were some tears involved. 

There are two schools of thought when it comes to playing music in yoga classes.  Some purists believe that silence is necessary to experience the full process of moving inward on the yoga mat and that the addition of music is a Western distraction from the more spiritual aspects of the practice.  I don't entirely disagree.  However, isn't learning to go inward in a world full of noise and distractions also one of the many benefits of a yoga practice?  I believe in meeting your students where they are and leading a class that is genuinely authentic to you.  So I play music.  I find it both motivating and relish the feeling of a favorite song coming on while flowing to the beat of the music and my own breathing.  It doesn't resonate with me to pretend to be someone I'm not just because I'm a yoga teacher.  Personally, my skin crawls when I am in a yoga class and out of nowhere the young, midwestern teacher is leading us to "om/aum" in loud unision.  Not to be judgmental, but I find it hard to believe that I am the only person sitting in a yoga class in eastern North Carolina who could do without another "om" for my entire life.  And I don't even want to get myself started on kirtan (the repetitive chanting music that never ends. Ironically, a friend of mine who is also a yoga teacher posted a video of "The Song That Never Ends" from the kids show Lambchop this morning and that is the only thing I heard in my head all morning, including during a yoga class).  I know yoga teachers aren't supposed to say this, but I hate it and if I ever knew when it would in fact end, then I would probably have walked out of a few classes.  It is only the hope that I am overreacting and it will be done soon that has ever kept my ass firmly glued to my mat.  You will never hear any of that in one of my classes.  What you will hear is precise language as you're guided through a power vinyasa flow, gentle alignment cues, and on more days than not - this playlist that I love listening to more than anything.  I love it so much I listen to it not only in yoga class, but when I go running and on the rare occasion I make it to the gym to lift.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!  Comment below and let me know your favorite songs.  I can't wait to hear them!

I appreciate auspicious moments and want to believe there's a little bit of magic in the air say, for a little manifestation around a new moon or reflection and completion around a full one.  (Although really, anytime is a good time).  Oftentimes when I realize a lunar event is about to occur I declare I will spend the evening doing something intensive with sage (but never again one with palo santo after the infamous New Years fire of 2016 that took the life of my entry table) and indulging in self-care rituals like an essential oil bath, reading from my favorite yoga books (I'm really into listening to audiobooks, they're the best ever - Get Two Free Audiobooks to try here!), journaling and manifesting.  Manifesting is so sexy, just like full moons.  However, I almost always lose interest when a quick search online reminds me that manifesting accompanies the much harder to get excited about new moon and the full moon of my dreams is an ideal time for completion and letting go.  Ideally, you would deal with some cosmic loose ends from whatever you manifested two weeks prior at the new moon.  That is, if you had even acknowledged the existence of a new moon two weeks prior which I, for one, had not.

My experience with yoga has taught me the benefit in finding authentic ways to give in to the universe and to sometimes try the crazy sounding one; like that one time I finally made a vision board that would then be hid under my couch whenever company came over and still somehow eerily began to shape my life into what I wanted it to be.  Friends often see a correlation between my astrological sign (Cancer!) and full moons.  So after a pretty intense weekend - the good news I got accepted into the degree program of my dreams; the bad, my husband was involved in a crash that wrecked my car, but thankfully no one was hurt - I have decided that this is the full moon where I finally do some full moon sh*t!  Now what to do...

Full Moon (Anytime) Manifestation Ritual

Cleanse, Create and Meditate