Yoga with or without music? Plus win free Yanni Voices CD!

Be one of the first three commenters on the question below AND win a free Yanni Voices CD. Include your first name in your comment and send an e-mail to Rama.Mama@live.com with your name and mailing address.

Do you think music goes well with yoga or would you rather practice postures to the rhythm of your breath? If you like the combo, what artists, songs, etc do you like?

Creating a mixed tape (i.e., mp3, for you youngsters) is such a joyful process for me.

When I first began contemplating becoming a yoga teacher, one of the first thing's I did to prepare was create the ultimate, yoga mixed tape because I felt it was that important to the mood and ambience of my students' practice. And you know what, I received TONS of compliments on it! (Hint: lots of Sacred Well.)

So I was very excited when Universal Music Group contacted me to giveaway three of Yanni's latest CDs, Yanni Voices. Honestly, I was never a Yanni fan and was worried I wouldn't like it. Yet, I thought it was quite lovely, especially with the variety of voices (operatic to Sarah Mclachlan like) and styles.

Lots of tracks work well as a backdrop to practicing yoga postures, including all of the instrumental and some of the "voices" songs such as track #5, Before the Night Ends. Even made a new yoga mix for my class with five songs from Yanni Voices, which surprises me because I wasn’t expecting to resonate with it so much. He's currently in tour with four singers who contributed to the the 17-track album (now I'm really dating myself!).

So make sure to comment to win a free CD. It's that easy.

Being one is fun!

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."

- Henry David Thoreau

Today is our daughter's first birthday, and she had her first bite of sugar this weekend - yum. Seems like just yesterday she was born.

My hope for Brijin Joy on her first birthday is that she learns she can follow her dreams and can make them happen! Life is your oyster, kiddo, and it's just waiting for you to find it's precious pearls!

We love you baby girl! Thank you for bringing so much joy and blessings into our lives. We've had an amazing first year with you and are eagerly anticipating watching you grow and bloom right where you're planted, just like your daisy birthday cake. ;)

Make a joyful noise

The purpose of my blog is to show how to be joyful in your everyday life. I just read an article on Oprah's site called "Awakening Joy" that has awesome ideas that are so simple to do yet so powerful and effective.

One of my favorite suggestions in the article is to sing. Sing in your car, the shower, WHEREVER. Just make a joyful noise (isn't that in the Bible?). You don't have to join the church choir to sing. Just SING whenever you get the chance, and your mind and body will thank you!

When I do sing, I take it a step further and sing happy songs. I even made a CD of happy songs I already had available to me.

Here's my HAPPY playlist:

• All I wanna do - Sheryl Crow
• Light in your eyes -" "
  
• Good day sunshine - The Beatles
• Walking on sunshine - Katrina & the Waves
  
• Shiny happy people - REM
• Beautiful day - U2
• High Tide Low Tide - Bob Marley
• Fidelity - Regina Spektor
• Groove is in the Heart - Deee-lite
• Smile - Madeleine Peyroux

What are some of your happy songs?

You can CHOOSE to be HAPPY!

As a Rama Mama, rama meaning "source of joy" in Sanskrit, my ultimate goal is to lead a joy-filled life. Especially in the last few years, I've made a concerted effort to do so, and it's really made an enormous difference in my life.

Isn't happiness the ultimate goal of all of us, yet it seems to be eluding many. What if I told you that you create your own happiness, no matter what is going on in your life? Would that enlighten you, scare you or tick you off? No matter what your answer is, I hope you consider reading the book "How We Choose to be Happy: the Nine Choices of Extremely Happy People."

Last week I had the opportunity, through the Kansas City PRSA chapter, to meet one of the authors of the book, Rick Foster. Before Foster's three-hour session, I finished reading the book, which resonated very highly with other literature I've enjoyed on the topic of happiness, such as books by Louise L. Hay and Abraham-Hicks. For those not wanting quite as much spirituality, this would be a good option for you. Foster and coauthor Greg Hicks interviewed hundreds of people others had pointed out as being the happiest people they know. During their interviews, the authors saw patterns of behavior and thinking that added up to the nine choices they thoroughly covered in their book.

"How We Choose to be Happy" illustrates the nine choices by telling personal stories, quotes and practical ways to apply the nine choices into your daily life, especially through not-so-great times and happenings. I especially enjoyed the fifth choice, recasting, which talked about the way to convert problems into opportunites and make traumas into meaningful events.

So why not try to CHOOSE to be happy. It's worth a shot, right?

The delight of my "new" yoga practice

About a month or so before we gave birth to our now 4 1/2 month-old baby girl, I began nesting and focused my energies on our screen porch, which was an eyesore to say the least. Rotted wood, screens tattered and torn. Plus the cement floor showed signs of having tile and old paint but unfortunately had been returned to its original, drab natural color of gray.

As a woman who was nine months pregnant and jonesing to nest (pregnancy is 10 months long, remember!), I couldn't do much with the porch but buy accessories and clean it out. This did help tremendously, but it definitely needed some true revitalizing of its bones.

In comes an affordable handyman who arrived at our house for the first time when baby girl was about a month old. Hired to fix a few other items in the house, he noticed what dire straits our screen porch was in and made some suggestions on what he could tackle.

I was so excited - my dream porch could finally come to fruition! He fixed the rotted pieces and put in some new screens and a new door. I ended up repainting the wood inside and painting the cement floor a dark green, which really made an enormous difference! Now my porch is a "livable" space that I can enjoy, especially with the beautiful autumn that's beginning in KC.

So a few Sundays ago, Brijin went down for her first nap very easily around 8 a.m. and the hub was still in bed... Why not try some yoga on the screened porch? There was just enough space on the side to roll out my mat without having to move any furniture - perfect! I began doing sun salutations, which felt so perfect in the early morning with the chorus of birds chirping in the background. We live in a house built in the 1940s and consequently there are enormous trees everywhere. Every time I looked up, I saw the canopy of leaves while also catching a passing cloud or two. Simply gorgeous and exhilarating combo - yoga au naturale!

Isn't it amazing how awesome doing something for the first time feels, even when you've been doing it for years? Making a small tweak is the trick to revitalizing anything, whether it's your yoga practice or your backyard-screened porch. Bouncing back after baby is tough so finding a new perspective to my yoga practice made all the difference.

If you're feeling like you're in a rut, make a small tweak to an everyday occurrence. Take a different route to work. Eat lunch outdoors instead of inside or at your desk. Listen to your loved ones wholeheartedly when they are telling you about their day.

Taking my mat outdoors gave me a whole new outlook, not only for my yoga practice but for my life. Seeing your everyday life at a new angle is what brings new joy to your world.

Happiness is a seed we sow

"Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast."
` Norman Vincent Peale

So I'm trying to get back to my Meditation Monday posts. We'll see how well I stick to it! HA!

The quote above by Norman Vincent Peale is a great one to utilize during your meditation practice. About six or seven years ago, I discovered Peale when I was looking for a motivational quote to scribe onto an internal premium giveaway my workplace at the time was going to give away to employees. I can't remember the specific quote (different from the one above that I received the other morning through my daily quote e-mail), but it led me to Peale's book "The Power of Positive Thinking." It really helped me believe in myself when I worked in sales, and I saw how my thoughts shaped my life. It's been a while since I dusted off that book - may be a good time to reread it!

Let's use Peale's wisdom during our next meditation break. It's as simple as focusing on the word joy or happiness for a few minutes or thinking of a happy moment and allowing it to bring you to a better vibration. This photo of my baby girl might help you get into a better frame of mind.



Namaste!

Bringing Joy

I really should hit the sack for the hour or two I have between Brijin's next feeding... but I couldn't resist sharing a little something tonight. My brother's wife was IMing with my hubby earlier and said my brother thought our new baby's name (Brijin Joy) sounded like "Bringing Joy."

I started to cry when the hub shared this with me... that's exactly what I want this little girl to do, not only for others but for herself because that's how she will achieve her dreams. Check out the following quotes from Abraham-Hicks Web site about joy, and you'll see what I mean.

It's not your work to make anything happen. It's your work to dream it and let it happen. Law of Attraction will make it happen. In your joy, you create something, and then you maintain your vibrational harmony with it, and the Universe must find a way to bring it about. That's the promise of Law of Attraction. --- Abraham
Excerpted from the workshop in Larkspur, CA on Sunday, August 16th, 1998


Here's some more from Abraham-Hicks teachings about using your joy to create the life of your dreams, which is exactly my hope for our little Brijin Joy:

You are here in this body because you chose to be here. You wanted the opportunity to experience this delicious contrast in time and space, and with great anticipation you came to co-create with other joy-seeking beings, to fine-tune the process of deliberate thought. (What, where, when and with whom are your choices, too.)

The basis of your life is Freedom; the purpose of your life is Joy. You are free to choose to discover new avenues for your joy. In your joy you will grow; and in your growth you will add to the growth of All-That-Is. (However, you are also free to choose bondage or pain... but everything anyone chooses is only because they believe it will help them feel better.)

You are a creator of thoughtways on your unique path of joy. No one can limit where you can direct your thought. There are no limits to your joyous journeys to experience. On the path to your happiness you will discover all that you want to be or do or have. (Allowing others their experiences allows you yours.)

Actions to be taken and money to be exchanged are by-products of your focus on joy. On your deliberately joyous journey your actions will be inspired, your resources will be abundant and you will know by the way you feel that you are fulfilling your reason for life. (Most have this one backwards, therefore most feel little joy in their actions or their possessions.)