Turning 2010 on it's head.

this last month has been incredible!!!
busy as well.
Oct 17-28 I led a 10 day master cleanse/yoga Program, awesome experience!!!

Oct 29-31 travelled 2 Toronto, taught 2 workshops in my home town and led a special Teaching Authentically talk with 25 of Toronto's top inspiring yoga teachers @ Kula Yoga Annex.
with no time to spare;

Nov 1st I jumped the Canada/U.S. border and landed in NYC, where I did something I've always wanted to do:

Nov 4-7 A seminar Called 'Unleash the Power Within' with Anthony Robbins, what a trip, I will get into this in greater detail in an upcoming blog entry.

Nov 10Th I returned to HK in time for the Asia Spa Awards, fun night!
and with jet lag still looming on Nov 13Th presented at the 2Nd Annual Asia Consciousness Festival, great event put together by Dr.Gino Yu and team.
I also participated in 3 inspiring workshops Joseph Lee's Storytelling, Joakim de Posada's don't eat the Marshmallow...yet! and Greg Hart's Creating Consciously.
Before the festival ended, Nov 20th I was on the Mat for my second time around with Ana Forrest; the yoga genius was in HK holding her Advanced teacher Training course which I previously completed in 2009 in Cranston, Rhode Island. 9 days of breathing deeply, while my body released mega amounts of emotional, physical, and just plain toxins.

It's non-stop the up coming year has a lot in store,
for the next 2 weeks, I'll be slowing down (slightly), teaching open classes at 7 Old Bailey Street, working with my Private Clients on their year ahead plans.
training teachers for programs that are up coming in 2011.
and on December 10Th I fly off to Bali to honor an agreement I made with Desa Seni Village Resort where I'm excited to be teaching a full schedule of classes for the Xmas New Years period and beyond.

Freedom Project is Happening.
send all and any feedback and or questions to thefreedomyogaproject@gmail.com


The Full Pure-Yoga Story coming shortly.
soon!!!
LJ

Rides of hope | Video on TED.com

While I'm Spending these 9 days With Yoga Wonder Woman ANA Forrest, here's a great Video From TEDx ISRAEL
enjoy, it's about the shift into Positive Stamina, that's my Definition of YOGA!!

Public "Education" has become indoctrination and distraction

Check out this cool vid. It starts with Erica Goldson’s speech. This girl pulls no punches on what schools aren’t doing for students. After that, RSA Animated apply their illustration wizardry to Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk on changing education paradigms.

Get a visual on the problem – and where to look for solution – then let us know what you think. Do you agree with Erica that the system is designed to build passive compliance in students? Do you think Robinson is right when he says education is alienating millions of kids?

Dylpostino - Practice

Check this out, this is my fellow yogi, MC, and Baseball fan Dylan Bernstein on the mic, push it to viral.

Near Death Experience

I've spent many a moment thinking that a near death experience would make me more efficient, interesting, and driven. It would surely make my story marketable and catapult my status to the next level. So earlier today, on route to an evening session with a client, I received my wish; and it was a moment I will never forget.

I was coming off the major pedestrian artery in Hong Kong and as I stepped off the escalator (for non-HKers, this escalator is the longest in the world) on Robinson Rd, I quickly spotted the bus that would take me straight to the front door entrance of my next appointment. As I stepped towards that vehicle across the street, I got side swiped by a green minibus that was turning the corner at the pace of what felt like a jolt into a parallel paradigm. What happened could easily have been prevented; I could have "checked both ways before I crossed" but I didn't - I WALKED INTO A SPEEDING BUS - and my elbow grazed its side. I dropped my cell phone and became a ghost. What's so compelling to me is that nothing changed; from the moment before to the moment after, nothing shifted, except my inner experience.

Life went on in slow motion, not a single person (this happened @ 6:15PM on a Tuesday night in November) acknowledged that the scattering of my cell phone and Immigration papers on the side walk was a split second alternative to my brain and guts. I gathered my belongings and looked both ways, confused by the lack of attention this event was pulling in, and proceeded to the bus across the street, a green minibus.
As the bus drove off, it felt like we were in an off-road vehicle on a never ending rocky terrain. The two minibus rides seemed to last forever. As I was contemplating oral elimination (vomiting), strangely enough, I couldn't seem to understand how I just had the most blessed experience of my life, in the most unbiblical of circumstances.

There was no burning bush, nor parting of the Red Sea;
no Cross or Crucifixion, no holy war,
nothing except, a second chance,
a funny looking green mini bus,
and then another, that got me to where I was going,
without a hitch.

I finally arrived at my client Chris's place and noticed my throbbing elbow. Thankful for that was the only kiss I received, I considered my life minus handstand, and made sure to find movement in both my hand and elbow joint. The turning point of the evening was when Chris said to me: "This is what soldiers in battle feel three times a week". Wow, I saw the face of Ori Perlman, my 17 year-old brother from another mother, who'd decided to join the Israeli Army next summer when he completes high school.

A story came to mind: I've been walking around town, listening to the audio book version of Russell Simmons' Do You. It's a success book geared towards American urban youth from the hip hop mogul. Russell the aspiring Yogi explains how Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now has changed his life, specifically the idea of presence that Mr.Tolle delivers so well. One day, Russell took Puffy/P.Diddy/Sean Combs to a yoga class and after trying to explain this concept of presence to Puffy, who after a difficult time in processing this idea, finally said: "Yes!!! I know it, I feel that every time I get shot at, everything slows down and becomes so real".

For me it was a momentary opportunity to re-evaluate everything, a re-distribution of what is important, I mean a green minibus saved my life.

The Power of Intuition...see it

the power of visualisation has changed my life, I took the time to do it, then I realized it changed in my habits, my addictions were falling away, I no longer am a slave to what my mind 'thought' I wanted, but learned truly from my sensitivity what I needed. Imagination, and visualisation have become a pillar in the Freedom Project Process, enjoy the video.
L

KEVIN SPACEY WISE WORDS!!!!!!

NYC's Finest- Schyuler and Elena Two, One of a KInd.

I would go as far as calling these two women the best yoga teacher's in the world.
Friends, Major Faculty members at Wonderlust Music/Yoga Festival, New York City Yoga Studio Owners, and two BIG Personalities.

At the same time the two couldn't be more different

Elena Brower has, in the last year, emerged as not only the first lady of Anusara Yoga but the Face of Yoga [for women?]. She carries herself like a superstar: she walks into a class, literally, one minute late, slips off her coat and scarf then goes on to teach a well prepared class in her jeans.

On Tuesday, Elena was back in NYC after a Bali retreat. Her class was fresh and compelling, both in sequencing and themeing. She managed to make me feel special - as she always does - even with a room capped at 80-plus. She threw out words like Shit and Fuck to exaggerate strong points but always in an appropriate context; her teaching layered with poetry, emotionality, and basic asana. She chose poses for their ability to annoy and then dedicated them to the self haters in the room. She gracefully went through her notes and pointed out that "how you invite something into your life is exactly how it arrives", linking that to instructions of breathing-in and deepening the challenging poses.

Elena may just be the most relevant yoga teacher on the globe today. She gets it like a New Yorker, whose round-the-clock schedule asks her to preach 'taking a moment'.

Schuyler Grant couldn't be more different.

She may just be the best yoga teacher that no one has heard of, at least outside of New York. In NYC, she just opened her second studio in Williamsberg, that's where I was for her midday Wednesday class. Around 20 people did the creative, unconventional flowy flow that weaves an intelligent alignment with rhythmic movement.

What Grant does, no one else does. She calls her style "Kula Flow", a well thought out yogic movement that is unorthodox at times. She would never admit to enjoying the "shiny happy people approach" of Anusara Yoga, but when you take her class, her alignment is as precise, only you don't notice it because her rhythm is so perfect - she can get you to do anything, It ended up feeling like a dance without it ever leaking into Shiva Rea land of liquid, it was a powerful class throughout.

Her lack of spiritual theming is very honest to her love for keeping it simple. It is obvious her prep is in re-creating the practice. Schuyler is a creative athlete whose sequence is compelling. It captivates all your senses, by conditioning a natural pull towards the next pose. This is a pilgrimage for your body.

Her message is closer to home than Elena's, Schuyler lives in New York, and reeks of it. There's a smidge of tough guy in her attitude that makes her straightforward and inspiring. Her class is advanced and, therefore, limits her ability to reach the level of students that Elena can, but there is no doubt she is Next Level.

For a Spiritual Sweat Schyuler, for an Emotional Journey Elena - these two are Masters of what they do. New York has the two best drop-in yoga classes in the world, as New York Would.


www.Virayoga.com Rock-Om rating of 7 out of 5 yes!!!
www.kulayoga.com Rock-Om rating of 6 out of 5 yup!

Kula Yoga Annex!!! the Toronto Studio experience Review!!

I just spent the day (Sat Oct 30) teaching two specially designed classes @ Kula Yoga Annex in Toronto. This Studio is very special to me as it embodies so much of what I believe in.

Christi-an Slomka, the Director of the Studio, has put together a space that brings together a raw mix of healing arts: from Reiki Healers that accompany restorative classes, to community acupuncture sessions, mixed in with a regular schedule of popular Anusara Inspired yoga classes, plus hot yoga options throughout each day. The place is a true Yoga studio, there to serve the needs of mostly curious University of Toronto students, and those that share passion for learning. It's a large contrast to Hong Kong's Pure Yoga crowd who has to be coaxed into expressing interest (mostly). 'Expressing' is the power word here; the Kula Annex crowd is hungry for self knowledge, and not ashamed to ask for it.

"Teaching Authentically" was my first seminar-style presentation. We went deep into the steps of rocking a class: from the energetic journey to the personal touch one could give. We easily went over the two-hour scheduled time... this is the beginning of a new kind of continuing education for yoga teachers in the making.

The evening session was a Freedom Project event called "In Rhythm Align - the Art of Moving Through Time". The class was connected and strong. We had my old friend Mike Facciolo, aka Facc, strumming the strings of his guitar and we journaled and sang in savasna ... the class was one of my favourites I've ever taught, with a theme based on Einstein's Theory of Relativity, and objects' relationship in space, and how space responds and tells the objects how to be.

Solid time, solid students, solid studio.
check out the sight @ www.mykula.ca

Rock-Om rating: 5 Om's

Next Stop NYC for Kula Yoga Project and Vira Yoga