Oh my goodness, I am so obsessed with Kathryn Budig you guys. No, seriously she’s my favorite yoga teacher at the moment. I found her on  yogaglo & she quickly became my go to girl. Her cues, her philosophy, her ease is so easy to digest. And I met her! So cool! She came to Portland for 3 workshops and I was in town yesterday for the last one that was all about backbends and hip openers. I teared up, I laughed, she was my partner on two poses. She said, “Stop being an asshole & shine! How’s that for a bumper sticker?” Maybe if you know me you now know why I love her. 😉

So on to a few words on yoga & backbends & what I took away from 3 hours on the mat. In backbends we are open, exposed, eyes to the sky, neck stretched- voice open but probably so much so that no words can come out (sit with that for a moment), your shoulders are pushed & rolled back, chest is up up and away, abs are strong, groin is stable- not poofy & your psoas (the muscle that rules your life according to KB) is w-o-r-k-i-n-g i-t o-u-t. And breathe. Another gem that we’ve all heard before, never tell yourself you can’t do something. You immediately limit yourself & your experience by saying to yourself, “nope that’s not available to me”. Open your heart. Change yourself. Life is always going to throw down some shizz that will try to shake you. What changes is how you react to it. I SO work on this one almost daily. And breathe again.

I felt so honored to look around and see all the yoga peeps in the room. Beauty all over the place! And I’ll admit I was scared to go. Almost didn’t go & I had paid for it in advance! Fear! Ugh! A portion of one of my favorite quotes from Marianne Williamson, “And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
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Get on the mat. Get shining with your life.