Wanderlust!

This last weekend was one of those dates on the calendar that you look forward to all year. A weekend where you just get nourished on many levels, even if you were a production team member. I knew very little about the event until a week or so before. It is on my calendar for next year already!

It was the 2nd year of an amazing event called Wanderlust held up in Squaw Valley, Ca. The premise of the event is to bring the dedicated yoga communities together in one spectacular place showcasing Some of todays most progressive and heart opening inspirational teachers and mix in a little live music. Talk about nourishing the body, mind, and spirit!

I had the fortune of being up there for the last day of the event. I chose to stay committed to my Taoist medicine and seminary classes that thursday and saturday so sunday was my only opportunity. After my first yoga class in the Anusara Pavilion and last class of the entire event, I was wishing I had been there all weekend. Now, lets also keep in mind that even though I have a personal daily yoga practice in my mornings to get my body charged for my day, That class was the first class I had been to in over 2 years. My last class was with an AMAZING teacher named Paul Reynolds on the island of Kauai.

So there I was at 6000 ft elevation engulfed by the warm mountain breeze, surrounded by almost 200 present conscious practicing yogis and yoginis, laughing my way through asana as my heart opened and overflowed, my body stretched beyond the limits I thought I had, and my spirit rested sweetly in the collective connection with the Divine. I say this all and I am still not sure it captures the feeling. I literally laughed with joy all through the session! Next came a little Thai massage lesson session and a bouncing rawkus dance to inspire the change we are all choosing to embody as we take the road less traveled on the way to the Divine.

Later in the day, there was a jazzed pool party and a concert played by Beats Antique and the Brazilian Girls. Besides the PHENOMENAL company of my host which was heart opening in its own ways, My highlight was the moment I totally and completely connected with the pulse of the Anusara community and the Divine mid session. I was sinking deeper and deeper into my body, calming my mind, nurturing myself through those conscious movements of asana, when we began a posture I don't know the name for. We started in downward facing dog and lifted one leg up in the air, bent the knee and let it fall over the opposite side of the body. we then helped that opening along by lifting the hand on the same side of the body back behind up creating a spinal twist. The goal was to open the chest and heart soooo much that our foot touched the person next to us. I somehow got there, touched my loving neighbor with my toes and sent love her way. In the previous movements she had been able to reach me as well and did the same. Somewhere in those movements, I connected to the Divine through my heart in a way I seldom feel and I laughed. I felt free and joyous and empowered in this group yet so solidly in my body. The laughter just overflowed from me, nearly uncontrollable for the next several asanas.

Maybe it was the elevation, maybe it was the quart of amazing green juice I had drank on my way up there, maybe it was the company, maybe it was the teachers.....maybe it was me.

I created this perspective. No one else. I choose to be so present in those moments that I touched my source and was replenished. I chose to see the creative play in those moments and dance. I stayed flexible: mentally, physically, spiritually. I chose to play and I simply showed up with all of me. I could have chosen to hold on to the frustration of the highway traffic earlier in the day, or the discontentment I felt after my window controller broke off in the 90 degree weather. I could list all sorts of things that could trigger me into a state where I am more focused on my attachments to how I want something to happen instead of basking in the creativity of what is happening.

But instead I chose to see it all as different parts of the same Divine source. There is no separation once you step beyond duality. Judgement becomes irrelevant. Why does it matter that something is perceived different by the senses. Sit still and listen to the underlying pulse. There is only One. That One is complete and unconditional. It is the same everywhere, in everything. Everything then becomes the 10 thousand faces of the Divine and it is all a dance.

Who wants to Dance?! I do! and I will....come join me because there is no dance like it and it is the most rewarding dance of all!