Bamboomoves Warrior Teacher Training 2010

Day 2 of the Bamboomoves Teacher Training:

Today our students had special guest instructors; Stephanie Miller from Bamboomoves Englewood and Yoshio Hama from Bamboomoves Forest Hills.

Stephanie lead them through the warm up and the crescent moon sequences as well as how to do basic (and a few advanced) adjustments. And even the 9:30 am class had a chance to experience her awesome class!!! (Come back anytime Stephanie)

And later that night after Andrew shared from "The Yoga Sutras" and gave a much needed holistic energy healing workshop, Yoshio came in a taught a hip opener class that was intense but great! I rewarded everyone with smoothies; bananas, almonds, avacados and rice milk in a blender. De-Li-Cious!!! (try it)

Oh! And I started out the day by leading the class in 103 Sincerity bows and then Pranayama and chanting!

This was a major breakthrough for me since I have small, tint, fear of singing publicly!

But one can only lead from the front right? So I did it.

Goodnight future B.M.W. - keep the fire going! You're all doing a great job...

My very FIRST yoga class

It all began one night in L.A. when my friend Onahoua invited me to take a yoga class.

I had never done yoga before, but I was always interested. So I went.

The class was being held in someone's home. A small studio apartment in North Hollywood (NoHo as they call it, which has totally different meaning in the Bronx!)

The class was by donation only, which I thought was a nice touch along with the incense, candles and soft music.

I was feeling the ambiance.

The class began and 10 minutes into it, I think during "downdog" or "scorpion pose", I was hooked!!!

Now I had studied and even taught karate for over 10 years, so the balance and flexibility came pretty easily (not to brag).

And a lot of the asanas were similar to the Martial Arts; the "Warrior 1 & 2" stances were identical to a "Front Stance" in karate.

I was like - "OK. I can do this".

And then came shavasana. Ahhh...

Everyone's favorite pose. One of mine 'till this very day ;-)

I think in yoga class and in life we go thru all of the twists and bends and challenging poses that make us sweat and ask ourselves "why did I sign up for this again?" -

We do it all for shavasana. Ahh...

The class ended. We all said our goodbyes.

I thanked the teacher (Korbi was her name) and Onahoua and I left.

Now I had never been to a chiropractor (I have now, but that's for another blog) but I felt like I had just been "adjusted".

I felt like my back and spine was straighter. I felt lighter. Centered. Calm. Like I just had a really great "power nap".

To this day I'm so glad I said "yes" when Onahoua asked me to go.

I didn't care what people back home would've thought of this "Bronx boy" doing yoga in L.A. because I felt great.

I practiced yoga on and off with Korbi and eventually at other studios in L.A. and in N.Y. but I will ALWAYS remember my first yoga class.

Do you?