May I have a drum roll please, the winner is……..Tina Herbst! Congratulations Tina!

Believe it or not, since I knew so many of you it would not have been possible for me to make a fair and impartial choice so I  asked my 6th Period Web Design students to read my post, then each of the comments and then chose the winner. This was a great reading comprehension tool for them, but also provided them experience in the world of web design and blogging. They were excited to be a part of choosing the real life winner.  Thanks to my students for all your help!

As usual, I have been really busy lately, taught a Yin class last week at Serenity Stream in Brandon and it was amazing. Thanks to all of you who came and enjoyed the juiciness of a Yin practice. Even though I didn’t practice, but taught it, I was on cloud nine for a little while afterwards, just the aurora of yoga makes me relaxed and sharing what I love with others of course.

If you want to come, I am teaching another one this Sunday 2/21 at 2 at Asana Yoga of Brandon!

I had the day off from work yesterday and headed over to Yogani, to take Ashley’s Shakti Flow class. She returned a few weeks ago from a long trip in California where she beefed up her tool bag with new teaching skills while there. I have always enjoyed her classes.

I am reading several books now. I just can’t read one at a time, I am a little bit ADHD if you hadn’t already noticed, or if I hadn’t already told you. The ones I am reading now are:

My Stroke of Insight- by Jill Bolte Taylor	Meditations from the Mat - by Rolf Gates
This book is about a lady who just happened to be a brain surgeon that had a stroke and she documented her experience from the time the stroke happened, through her recovery. It is amazing and I really love reading about how much our brain sides have so much to do with the way with think and do.	This book is a daily guide to Sutra based meditations for one year. I wasn’t expecting this when I bought it but I have since fallen in love with it. So, far I am reading one meditation each day and trying not to read ahead so as just to digest the current days meditation.

Are you reading any great books now? If so please share, what are they about?

What are your favorite studios in your area?

In fact, I can’t even remember when the last time I got sick was, but I got sick yesterday. I had a great day, took Shakti Flow with Ashley at Yogani Studios,  photo shoot with photographer Kerry Travilla-Brown, then taught my own yoga class at Serenity Stream, came home made dinner, ate and oh what a feeling.

My tummy began to hurt like a knife was sticking in it and then twirlling around. I thought it was something I ate, but when I only had lentil soup and a salad what on earth could it have been? Even though I am still not entirely convinced that it wasn’t something I ate – maybe the soup was bad (it was from a can, but an organic soup – even so).

So the next day when I woke up and will still really sick, I realized, I can’t do yoga. I couldn’t teach my class last night either, oh no reality set in! I am defiantly not good at sitting around either, even though being sick you don’t have much choice, but beyond watching boring tv, sitting in silence, and talking to friends on the phone there isn’t much else to do. I couldn’t even be on the computer as I couldn’t sit up for very long. And the Blackberry was not working out either while trying to type laying down.

But, there was one thing I could do that is one of the eight limbs of yoga and that is – Dhyana- Meditation! I could do this lying down, I could keep my blanket on me,  and I could be in peace and get my mind off the pain of my topsy turvy tummy.

A good friend of mine, Loraine, gave me a bunch of CD’s from my favorite author, Jon Kabet Zen. You have heard me mention his book before in an older blog post. Inside the batch of CD’s there was one with Lying Down Meditations. Right up my alley!

As I meditated, it was interesting because although I was supposed to revisit the sound of my breath if my mind drifted, it seemed during that particular present time to refocus through the sound of my own tummy grumbling.

So, the moral of the story is, Yoga is something that you can still practice, even when you are sick! And even if you don’t have any meditation cd’s, or lying down mediations, you can do your own meditative practice, or even listen to one from Itunes (Meditation Oasis, etc.)

You see, I already teach full time (high school & middle school), then I teach at HCC (community college), then I teach yoga  – now 5-6 days a week, am a Yoga Vibes Ambassador, work out at the gym, and practice yoga for myself.  Crazy schedule, so scheduled that I have to schedule everything else because it is so tight. As the new year approaches, I am in a pickle, do a lessen my schedule by teaching less yoga (my true passion), I just don’t know what to do.

My good friend Loraine says, “Tiffany you have to take care of yourself first before you can take care of others. Honor yourself first.” Although the more I think about teaching yoga is something I enjoy so much, it isn’t really not like work at all and I get so many great benefits from it.

Humm…in time the answer to the question will be revealed, do I keep it tight or make it loose?