The Freedom Yoga Project- the aftermath-Building it up, to breakthrough.

The breakthrough comes only if there is a struggle. There has to be resistance to experience the contrast between "almost" and "beyond". It's a fine line, but the resistance creates its form sharply, like the level of tension of the strings of a guitar spanning from the machine heads over the soundhole to the bridge that determines the pitch at which the air inside the body vibrates and breaks through in finding resonance at a free frequency.

This experience has been challenging, and rewarding, and I justify the challenging by the reward. I so badly want to grow, to be better than right now. Only I know, I can only be here in the now. That is all there really is. Monica said "I’ve read the book. So go on, you ain’t teaching anything new". Monica is one of my Kula members, Kula means family or community in Sanskrit, and she is my sister from another land that teaches at the same studio as I do. She would remind me that at times perhaps my courage is better left... within. Somehow, when the words descended into my body, it was like the sound coming from a tightly spanned guitar string: it spiraled up a higher vibration that lured my courage to flow….. without.

I know what I want. Presence.

When the "From the Hips to the Hop Workshop" ended on Sunday night, a huge weight of responsibility rolled off my spine, well I was off to Subway, dinner time. I walk in with my Freedom support pillar Lawrence Pradhan, with whom I not only share my name, but more so, the passion of creation and in whom I find resonance at whichever frequency he plays the guitar. I order a sandwich “cut the bun all the way through please”, they normally do a taco style half cut to stuff it, I like it stacked. I won’t eat Subway meat, so I normally order the veggie delight, with the veggie patty- “please don’t microwave the patty, toast it, with the bun, no, no not on the bun, beside it, yeah, thanks” 45 seconds later, the bread and patty rolled out of the toaster, “will you please, spread the mayo” that’s right I eat mayo,”yes spread across the top half with a knife, right there, there’s a glob, spread that out, thanks, perfect.” I know exactly what I want and how I want it.

The distribution of energy is very much like the spreading of the mayo on the bun, we only have so much of it, and we want to make the most of what we have. The globs are like packets of energy that we let go unspread, unmentioned; just like taboos, ideas and notions that have been deemed immoral social customs.

The way I directed the sandwich-creation exercise can be seen to be laborsome to the naked eye. Even after two years of an average sandwich, every two months it’s always a surprise to those sandwich creators and the spectators in line. This time was different because of my company, Lawrence, who not only found the process innovative, but decided to apply my sandwich-making directions to re-create his own sandwich, re-creating the average into something non-average: I led the way for re-creation to happen in his Subway sandwich-creation life.

Freedom Yoga is just like giving sandwich-creation instructions. No, not bad analogies, but it’s the truth, it’s in the specifics, and it’s asking explicitly for what it is that you want, that, - although it may not seem so -, extends beyond one's individual benefit directly affecting the collective. The sandwich-making creatorship is a skill-developing exercise: it’s important to speak your mind and shine a light toward others to having the courage to speak their mind.

It is not easy to guide the sandwich-artists to follow a routine that I re-created, because it is completely different from what they create. But I do it, because it makes a difference to me, the output is greater than if I were to remain silent. That would be a glob, and I’m looking to spread all the taboos out. My natural instinct is to be a rebellion: to destroy only to re-create, to find a new shape in an update of yesterday’s idea. I don’t believe in right or wrong, I believe in the moment, in making the most, while staying tuned in to the climate that is revolving. What Hong Kong and creating Freedom Yoga here has taught me is skillfulness, and finesse; physically, verbally, and mentally.

I step away from my first ten weeks with the Freedom concept, only with the intention to re-create it again. I plan on making the expression of energy expand, spreading it out like mayo and where I find globs I will expose them. That’s the point to unleash taboos, to find a way to get skillful. We have established a base, and now we can re-create it, without destroying our foundation.

I feel we can, as the rebellion turns to pride, and the pride dissolves into a deep sense of maturity. Phase one has ended brightly, phase two will explore how light meets shadow on the journey that travels through the untouched territory of mysterious but adventurous obscurity.

To be continued.

We’re going somewhere.


editor-Rani Kamaruddin

Copyright © Lawrence-Jacob Milman, 2009. All rights reserved. The reproduction or transmission of all or part of the work, whether by photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means or otherwise, without the written permission of the owner, is prohibited. Any unauthorised use or act in relation to the work appearing on this website will result in both civil and criminal liability.

The Freedom Yoga Project- Blog 5- the Calm Before the Storm in tribute to Morako Victims

Recreating a Pose

It’s just a couple of days away and I am feeling the life force that breathes through this process of creation and re-creation, lifting me off the mat, and taking me on journeys that I have not taken before.

As a grounding influence, this blog has used people to describe Freedom Yoga. It has discussed acting techniques, and hinted at a strong need for movement, re-creation, of what the world knows as yoga. Many individuals that walk into the studio surprise me, of all ages, of all lines of life experience and they are the ingredients of Freedom Yoga. Freedom Yoga is the act of bringing together single individuals to form one cohesive force of energy. The explosive release of that energy in as many different forms as individuals is freedom. It’s free. Or… as the first Pure teacher attending the class on Sunday puts it:

Freedom is available all the time but I sometimes forget that I myself have enclosed it in until someone breaks it out of the box, and says -- ‘Here you go, all yours, now run and jump or stay still --- all up to you, you’re free. I’m right here, won’t judge you, will guide you if you need me and just let you be. Play.’ I loved and savoured every second and didn’t want the hour to end. Thank you for your inspiration. Wind, string, strum, ladder, glass box, ball, water, pole, wings, socks, bamboo, poetry --- my kind of symphony! You are a gift.

A gift, each class so far has been a gift. Earlier this morning I climbed the visionary ladder into the upper chambers of my head, exploring what was there that I could demystify to re-create and give as a gift. I had my workshop prepared, knew exactly how I was going to give form and substance to it, but subconsciously I knew something was about to happen, like the lightening that is expected seconds after thunder roars the skies.

It wasn’t until that moment when the Pure events staff called to me asking for my thoughts on directing the workshop into a charity event for Morakot-victims that I realized how interconnected that natural disaster was to my coincidental state of mind. As the typhoon blew its breath over the island of Taiwan, its life force took away that of many, the death toll was moving towards 500 (last time I checked) and here I was, safely harbored in the upper chambers on the left and right side of my brain, watching the re-creation of turbulence.

To be completely honest, up till the point of that call, I didn’t know about typhoon “anything”. I was consumed with the process of creating as I woke up to the realization that it’s the universe of which I form part, a universe that creates and destroys itself only to re-create itself. The universe that is freedom; the freedom is universal. I am blessed with an opportunity to look beyond the The Freedom Yoga Project, to influence it with it and in it. How ironic in a class that toys with the elements of wind and water, that its maturity is guided by the horrid effects of wind and water!

I can see myself now. I would stand up, the way Sean Penn did when he took out a full page in the Washington Post, printing a letter he wrote to President Bush addressing the way he along with millions of Americans disapproved of how the Bush administration was handling the “liberation of Iraq”, the “search” for weapons of mass destruction. Liberation means a release from constraints, yet it is barely anything close to freedom; liberation almost always follows resignation, where freedom embodies something infinite. In the hope of healing ‘the system’, I would stand proudly in my Jewish heritage, the proof is in the two central words of the old testament, known in Hebrew as the Torah, right in the middle. The core of the scriptures is the idea of continual questioning, and I’ve lived to personify its meaning. Like Johnny Depp was shaking his head in dissatisfaction, I see myself shaking my head off dissatisfaction, claiming both I and the details of all surrounding the workshop could reach a new level of reality, vitality, artisticality.

With that, and the “Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior”, we’ll twist the typhoon this weekend, by cycloning the proceeds of the event to The Red Cross. The mat brings us together, yet life is delivered in the moments between mat meetings. Power struggles, boundaries, and sheer ablity to fall at the feet of love will all shaken the inner experiences like typhoons, rallying the earth in full force freedom.


editing - Rani Kamaruddin
special thanks- Kitty Cortes

Copyright © Lawrence-Jacob Milman, 2009. All rights reserved. The reproduction or transmission of all or part of the work, whether by photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means or otherwise, without the written permission of the owner, is prohibited. Any unauthorised use or act in relation to the work appearing on this website will result in both civil and criminal liability.

The Freedom Yoga Project - Blog 4 - we are the 'Dreamers'

Do. Act. Here. Now.

Just keep going, one day after another, the mechanical hamster wheel of life!

I first became conscious of the hamster wheel when I returned to the treadmill after my first yoga studio was moving away from the 26-2 bikram sequence I had been practicing for a year - 26 yoga postures, each performed twice, with 2 breathing exercises as bookends for the 90 min class - a routine that was the only yoga I knew at the time. Apparently, there were legal issues around copyrighting the name and sequence. I took it as a sign that the yoga wasn’t pure enough for me to stick with; and this was my chance to escape, back to my rightful home, the treadmill, with a book, or better yet, music videos playing on the television screen hanging in front of my eyes to help the time pass unconsciously. Now you tell me which of the two the hamster wheel was.

One of my most vivid memories of the long, storied relationship I had with the treadmill was of this day: I was at ‘extreme’ fitness in Thornhill, a Toronto suburb. As gym rats hovered nonchalantly to the world being set up for a revolutionary shift that is still quivering today, I, a fresh 22 year old, was jogging at a dilly-dallying pace on the treadmill, simultaneously eyeballing CNN, unconscious of the fact that within minutes I was about to witness the world being shaken by images of planes crashing into the twin towers. September 11th, 2001.

So, three years later, over a year into living on the Canadian west coast and practicing yoga for the same span of time, I exchanged my yoga mat for the treadmill. I brought a book, read and ran. I felt like a hamster in a hamster wheel: fooled. Though my mind and body were both there, the different focal settings led me to only getting half of the experience. It took me less than a week to get my act together, cancel the hamster wheel membership, and step onto a brand new yoga mat. The contrast made it obvious that I craved for a fully connected practice. That’s right: a practice. Not for hamsters.

Patrick Haley
AYC 2009

Let’s wheel back to Sanford Meisner in Blog 1 . In the 2-year acting program, Sandy asked the class of acting neophytes “how many light bulbs are in the room?”. It sounds like it may have been a trick, especially when perceived by a student who is looking to impress, yet there isn’t a right or wrong answer to the question, rather, the answer is irrelevant. The question is just a device, and the device is to instigate a ‘doing’. It means nothing to count it the fastest, as it means nothing to have the right number of light bulbs; as really, the focal point of that question is to actually ‘do it fully’.

When we are fully steeped in our activity, that what we do becomes us and that is what is undisputable. Like one can say whatever one wants about Michael Jackson, the artist, yet it is undisputable, that when he was in the moment performing, the stakes were high and the pressure of that moment closed in on one focal point. As such, all the opinions melted away, because in that moment he was captivating for one reason: he had a talent for ‘fully doing’. The greats seek out high stake situations. It’s not about showing off their acquired skills; rather, it is an ‘expression’ of their talent under intense circumstances to conquer the left brain and find the right side just in time for the storm. The storm brings out the deepest truths, the hidden talents as well as hidden blockages. The storm is the action of the mind and the body swirling away from the spirit. As the storms arise, we get still, connect to our center, and ride the waves. Staying cool. Watching. Feeling. Being. The serious at play.

A practice of letting go of time by so ‘fully doing’ creates the space for time to pass on its own without the urge for us to find any form of distraction to help it ease it’s passing.

Yoga has always been a form of art. While the mainstream has offered its friendship, there is a community growing parallel to what we see. What one would call the watering down is actually a fortifier. Spreading the practice may seem like thinning the quality. However, publications like Yoga Journal have taken yoga beyond the dogmatic followers of endless lineages, deepened it beyond the upper middle class and landed it there where it has always lived within the urban artists, those individuals that have made a life out of living yoga. Yoga didn’t change us, it just lent us a tool to communicate, a common language. Finally, those of us that have the ability to make our dreams come to life in this world have found our medium to share our soul secrets on a regular basis with the television generation (after all, many of us are spawned from this media culture), the generation that was conditioned into the left side of the brain, almost as if it was deprived of the right side.

As Caroline Myss PhD. and bestselling author says: the parts of us that we have developed are just as much part of us as the parts we have yet to discover. By use of music, imagery, organic movement, breathing/pranayama exercises, and one of the best workouts you’ll find in a Hong Kong hour, Freedom Yoga is creating a small space for big transformations in empowerment to take place, within you. Again, not for hamsters.

I can’t tell you how proud I am of the first 8 classes, guards down, students come back and back, times 8. To sweat, and play, to dream a little and smile a lot. The intention for me is to create that space where inspiration and insight meet one another. I now walk out that studio door, feeling both.

Parkour

The mat played a part in a new type of domestication. The Freedom Yoga way is to throw the mat to the side, stepping off the mechanical wheel, out of the box, into the unknown, into becoming Freedom Yoga. It can never be anything but yoga, no matter what happens; baseball is yoga, dancing is yoga, Sebastian Foucan is yoga, Jill Bolte Taylor is yoga, Freedom is yoga, everything is yoga, because, ‘The Dreamers’ don’t do yoga; we live yoga.

Welcome to the start of the re-creating of what we thought we already knew. Do it fully. Break the hamster wheel.

Stoke of insight-click on Jill Bolte Taylor for amazing link.

editing - Rani Kamaruddin
special thanks- Peter Lloyd

Copyright © Lawrence-Jacob Milman, 2009. All rights reserved. The reproduction or transmission of all or part of the work, whether by photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means or otherwise, without the written permission of the owner, is prohibited. Any unauthorised use or act in relation to the work appearing on this website will result in both civil and criminal liability.

Testimonials- From Freedom Fighters

Rani Kamaruddin-
from a freedom follower who's attended 4 out of the 5 sessions:

break the routine, don't become a machine;
get out of your shell, you too have a story to tell;
start to feel, it makes everything so real
spice it up with that beat, really that's what you'll need;
a class that empowers liberation, in movement and imagination;
create your own creativity, apply a sense of sensitivity
check it out yourself, this doesn't come off a shelf;
so get your spot fast, that mat belongs to the past;
it's going to set you free, and that's just one guarantee

GO CHECK IT OUT, words are limited in terms of expressing freedom. DO IT.


John Morgan-

First taste of FY tonight: lively, unique, fun, unpredictable, positive, different… it sneaks up on you to make you sweat… perfect sounds for the experience… then you sweat more… a combined sense of work in development and , yes, freedom. Well done, L.


Angel Yan-

Not yet find a simple & easy way to explain what is "Freedom Yoga" though I already took a couple of classes...so the best way to understand it is to "try it" & "feel it"...as sometimes feeling cannot be literally expressed. Once you try, I am sure you will love it as I do.

The Freedom Yoga Project- Blog 3- The Definition Of "Hip Hop"

Today is Saturday, July 25th. The day started as my friend Patrick woke me up. I stayed over at his family’s home the night before. We watched Inside the actor’s studio with Johnny Depp , then slid in the DVD of “Dead Man Walking”. Sean Penn. As mentioned in "WRITE NOW” (Blog 2) , I love to read. I recently colored my life with Sean Penn, by completing a transition book on the return long haul from NYC: “ His Life and Times. Sean Penn the authorized biography”. Penn had just become one of my teachers; his life carries a stench of integrity, and I stand in that stench inspired. As the waft lingered, we made Vision Boards. Slicing up magazines to create a creative collage of what I’m designing of my life. Inspiring INTO my life.

Book Cover I carried From NYC to HK

I would be speaking at an interfaith dinner tonight. I was invited to speak on the topic “Freedom”. I would be sitting there side by side with religious scholars, an ordained Interfaith Minister Peter Llyod, a Lutheran Priest of the Christian church, a Hare Krishna since he was eight years-old and then there was me. What life throws at you can be so odd! Of course this is a dream, and I am the contributer assisting its unfold, one moment at a time.

This day off felt different. I intentionally created the space to be exposed to the space to create. The real conception of what happens in FREEDOM YOGA starts from here: the creative process, which heavily relies on my spirit. In the way a musician leads the breath through a saxophone deducing sound, it’s the breath capacity that leads the spirit through me inducing creation.

Blowing Breathe

The breath and the instrument are powerful tools, independently; the saxophone is a brilliant architectural design, and the breath, the birth right of every human being, yet together they create a brand new paradigm, re-creating their solo identity, a whole new world view. It’s a creation of the breath journey - a new wave of frequency that concurrently fuses with the truth already existing, like a ray of sun shining through mosaic glass, creating a kaleidoscopic range of colored light, yet it’s still light in it’s purest form.

Freedom Yoga is yoga, yet it carries the spine of Sean Penn’s courage; the courage of a man that married and divorced Madonna, said “no” to a ten million $US film role for the mere fact that it lacked depth, got on a plane to Iraq, when the world was convinced that “Weapons of Mass Destruction” were hidden under some Persian rug in the region. He is embarrassed by being an actor, because he is much more than that, he is an artist. Like Sean, Freedom Yoga invites you to go beyond the boundaries, to reform the shapes that condition your mind, to step out from the expected and be curious as to what else is there. Here.

It soaks up Johnny Depp’s heart, the man is completely unsatisfied, “If I was completely and totally over the moon about my work and I was satisfied. I would get out of the business immediately. I would leave this work behind. Because I think, for me as an actor, if you get to a place where you're satisfied, you're happy with it, then you're dead. It's over. You're not hungry anymore. You won't try things anymore.” That thought personifies his lust for life, Depp illuminates life’s beautiful unknown, the Freedom that lives in the mystery, and the mysterious urge to lose control by the continual evolution of exploration, and experimentation.

When your full time job is to play, playing itself becomes focus. Freedom Yoga, is yoga, but it’s so much more.

It’s a yoga class by all means, but ignore the gossip, it’s neither a dance class, nor is it a hip hop class, (although it is derived from the deepest truth of hip hop - to make the most out of limited resources). It is the canvas of a painter, the blank page to a writer, the denim of the designer, the empty studio of a choreographer, a welder’s metal and now a playground to the explorer of breath, imagination, and emotion.

Spiritual, in it’s very true nature. As it calls on your spirit to give more then it’s used to. Giving more in the sense of complete surrendering, the ultimate LET GO.

Alignment, increasing one’s breath capacity, or exploring the great philosophies that were born out of the yoga traditions, are the pillars of the yoga zeitgeist. Freedom re-creates all three by marrying them; alignment, breathe, and deep truth, contained in a makeover that asks YOU to participate. You must show up with the open mind of a philosopher, but then be prepared to throw it all away again just to allow your spirit (you may call it your subconscious) and your body to be swept by the music, while your imagination leads you through the rise and fall of your body. In some classes you can fake it, in this class you’re exposed. BIG TIME. The feeling of inability to play puts the truth right in the centre of the spotlight: to play is a choice, and choice is the most powerful energy there is, even eclipsing love; for even “to love” is a choice.

As the mic was handed to me, after freedom was explained from the Christian perspectives, as well as the Hare Krishna angle, I simply said I was born Jewish, and I teach yoga, but my religion is Art, I am an artist. I believe in the truth of expression, creation, and ideas. Freedom is the process of the three coming together and moving apart as solo identities with the sole purpose of coming together again to move apart again; making the most out of limited resources. recreation and re-creation.



editing - Rani Kamaruddin

Copyright © Lawrence-Jacob Milman, 2009. All rights reserved. The reproduction or transmission of all or part of the work, whether by photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means or otherwise, without the written permission of the owner, is prohibited. Any unauthorised use or act in relation to the work appearing on this website will result in both civil and criminal liability.

photo- Patrick Haley
Asia Yoga Conference

Freedom Yoga Project Blog #2 - WRITE NOW

“When I read I get lost, willingly, hopefully, I beg of thee, book, take me away from this reality and flow my imagination to a playground where dreams come true.” – Lawrence-Jacob Milman

Freedom Yoga Project Blog #2

When time frees up what better, then get a book to let your mind grow, fill it up with mystique. And when a long haul flight to JFK airport in New York is ahead, 15 hours in a sky steeped tube will grant you a head start. Books don’t usually tie me up or render me helpless, but when they do, the pages smother my existence, as they did this time.

On May 10th sitting on the runway moments away from lift off, I put away my cell phone after sending text messages to many that touched my life in the past year and a half of my HK experience. I felt I was preparing on something to shift. I was committed to returning to the Asian island different, reinvented, fresh. The text messaging was as much a “Good Bye” as it was in appreciation. In fact, simply those two words graced one particular message, “GooD ByE”.

With one ending, many beginnings were about to be born. I’m a descendent of Russian Jews, my Mum, and Dad, both from the Ukraine met in Canada, married in Toronto, and had three Canadian children, we are the first generation, I’m the eldest, middle sister Jax, and eight years my junior Mark, our name is spelt Milman, one L. It was a book that has been brought to my attention various times over the years, and it only really stuck due to the author’s name, he phonetically shares my family name. It’s called “Way of the Peaceful Warrior”, by Dan Millman.

The book was made into a Major Motion picture. While still living in Vancouver B.C., I connected with the big screen version. I very much have a system when embarking on any journey: 1. Choose a book that will color my perspective, and 2. Write, in fact WRITE NOW, which happens to be my personal mantra. This time, the book chose me. A new yet keen student offered to lend me the sequel Millman book “Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior”, she said it helped her get through a loss of a friend. It turned out that the book prepared me for the shift, as I was going to spend nine intense days with Ana Forrest, an unconventional master of the art of yoga, in the unconventional yogic setting of Cranston, Rhode Island.

I’m a Poet. No question about it, everything that leads you to this point is part of who you are. I came into teaching as an Anusara-Inspired yoga teacher, meaning, I jumped through the hoops to get my name accredited on the Company website. Hoop jumping is a huge part of what everyday life is, the hoops that Anusara led me through were truly heart opening, empowering and nourishing. It’s a system and philosophy that is both bio-mechanically and spiritually elegant and since I decided to live a life of elegance, the flavor was satisfying. The lines are sharp, the physical benefits are sleek, the performance visually stimulating and intellectually challenging, a high performance vehicle, somewhat like a Cadillac. BUT…. I’m a Poet – and in being one, it’s where my heart hijacks my mind, and takes it on a joy ride into my gut. I see yoga as the breath that links these three, The Mind, The Gut, The Heart.

Ana Forrest stands in all her shit and, like a lotus flower, rises above it. The depth and darkness of her story frames the context in which the use of the word “shit” is appropriate. Against her story, that word carries sweetness in the images that she has passed through. Forrest Yoga is flavored in a way that’s more like my time studying theatre; sharing the commonality of feeling. Ana’s mantra is “mending the hoop of the people”. To heal we must surrender to the disease, and the discomfort would not be pretty, in fact the demons inside of us are dark. How do you make come to terms with your monster? By creating a safe space, and believing in its ability to heal its hoop. It’s not swatting the cockroach but surrendering to its quirkiness.

In the book, Dan Millman’s journey has him striving for an opening beyond the third chakra, into the heart. It is said that the journey from the third to the fourth chakra is the biggest leap any individual can take. The shift from manipurna to anahata is as huge as if you’re taking off on a long haul flight to JFK, it’s like flying. Or like in the movie The Matrix, where Neo had the ability to leap like superman, but still had parts of his identity to let go of before he was ready to feel the depth of his ability. That giant’s leap, that was the shift; that was my shift!!!

Ana’s hoop imagery is inspiring to me, so much that I recognized it in Leonard Cohen lyrics-

"Ring the Bell that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."

Healing is the ultimate acceptance of the monster, and the monster when looked at through the eyes of possibility, through the fourth chakra, Anahata, is the window to the light. The crack is nature finding an artery to shine the light in. Mending the hoop doesn’t need to look like a car with a brand new body, as it’s perfect already as it is, as a vehicle with a dent in the fender and a rope holding the door closed. In these creative moments we discover character, grit and authenticity. This is the seed of Freedom Yoga.

Copyright © Lawrence-Jacob Milman, 2009. All rights reserved. The reproduction or transmission of all or part of the work, whether by photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means or otherwise, without the written permission of the owner, is prohibited. Any unauthorised use or act in relation to the work appearing on this website will result in both civil and criminal liability.

the leap

grey's chakra's

The Freedom Yoga Project

Freedom Yoga Project.
“What is Freedom Yoga?” That’s the most popular question that’s been asked of me since the class description was first published on the Pure Yoga website. It’s also a good question; I’m introducing the Freedom Yoga Project – Blog, in hopes of getting some answers for you as well as myself. This is part of the process that makes up this other world experience, a true yoga experience, it’s made of everything, and everything is everything.

For months and now years, I’ve heard motivational whispers from those that have discussed yoga with me. Yoga is a topic that is personal, ones relationship with it strikes a cord for even the most reticent of individuals, though I am not reticent, my love for expression, and my belief in its healing ability tend to be easily sifted from conversations.

My first Yoga experience came in theatre school, studying behavior while simultaneously learning to actively listen, it’s an exercise created by Sanford Meisner , the BKS Iyengar of the modern acting culture. The Meisner Technique asks one to listen with every cell in their body, becoming sensitive enough to the subtle or not so subtle behavior that the partner they are working the exercise with, may not be aware of, then, tell them honestly – based on what it is you’re seeing, colored by your personal feelings, in that very moment. (My teacher would say as long as it is in the moment it’s always appropriate) This goes on and on, for two years (length of the program @ the neighborhood playhouse theatre school in NYC) under different variations of the exercise with the intention of invoking truth from each other. Just like on the Mat bringing unconscious behavioral patterns to our awareness, can be emotionally heartbreaking all the way through to euphoric, and often liberating from limitations. The time I studied this technique was awakening as well as my stepping-stone to taking the seat of the yoga teacher. Discovering that our bodies range of motion is directly related to our minds range or lack of motion; our emotional life exists connecting these two experiences. This proved to me it was possible to manipulate us to evolve our character.

The whispers rarely related to the above connection, what the whispers revolved around was how I should do a Hip Hop yoga class, okay, sounds cool, what is it? Back to where we started, I had no idea how to make that a reality, I already play Hip Hop music in class, and I’m not rare in that either, MC Yogi gave us Hip Hop lovers a rapping guilty pleasure. I love to Dance but have had fewer then 10-dance class experiences in my life, “I’m not developing a hip hop dance yoga class, at least not yet.”

So as I taught my class schedule, a handful of hot classes, Anusara’s, the Powers and Yin’s in between, in my mind there was this burning question how was the traditional going to manifest into a hip and dynamic offspring? I called my hot flow classes Funky Hot Flow, and made killer playlists. As successful and enjoyable as those classes are they just weren’t quite the feeling I was going for. I left the idea but it always lingered in both my head and the whispers.

It wasn’t until Mid March 2009 that opportunity and guts met. I received an email asking PURE YOGA Teachers for any fresh ideas for classes, I pressed the delete button and didn’t consider it; Until a few days later, between Tuesday Morning classes a time slot that normally ranges in activity from breakfasting with dedicated students, practicing asana and pranayama in the studio, to talking scheduling and administrative details with management . This wasn’t a normal day many major shifts in my life were freshly executed; I took a walk around the park behind Taikoo place. As the sun kept the city soft with her heat, she also spotlighted a group of elderly Chinese women doing a dance routine, I watched with amazement, as a whole new personality rose from these local women, a completeness, an involvement in the moment that inspired me, “to capture it” as Eminem say’s in his track "Lose Yourself" , and we must complete what we started as the women in the park finished the dance moves with the indulgence of Tai Chi.

For the first time since living in HK my heart and mind collectively opened wide, and the idea of FREEDOM yoga was born. In less then 6 minutes, as I returned to the studio, I gave the idea enough form to share it with my good friend and fellow teacher Lisa Mak. I said tough sell huh? Lisa listened, asked me to explain it again and again…till she said, “I wanna do this class!”
The class didn’t see the light of day till mid-June, but with the whispers, now sounding like full out voices something was about to happen.

Over the Next 6 weeks the “Freedom Yoga Project” Will follow the creation of the weekend work shop Freedom Yoga – From the Hips to the Hop… stay tuned.