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A tribute to a man

My uncle Elio died this morning from complications stemming from a long battle with diabetes. In recent months he lost his legs from the knee down. As much as I saw this coming, my heart aches today.

Uncle Elio was the youngest of seven brothers:

Eduardo
Jose Angel
Felo
Amaury
Oscar
Mario (my abuelo)
ELIO

Here is a photo I pulled from one of my cousin's FB pages of part of the family, back in the day. My great grandparents are front and center, my grandparents cut off in the back left:

Handsome looking bunch

I never knew the oldest two, who have also passed. I grew up around the youngest five, and didn't fully realize until I was much older how incredibly blessed I was to grow up part of such a warm, loving, rambunctious, fiery, well-fed, vibrant, hilarious, LOUD family. I think if you spent even one hour with this side of my family, you would think to yourself: "FULL OF LIFE!"

Elio was the youngest. He was sweet, kind, generous, and fun to be around. I remember wild parties at his house, one of the rare times the entire extended family would make the effort to get together. Every time I went to his house I would meet a handful of new cousins!

I wish him peace, and a safe passage.

The Future is Now: Introducing Farmigo

Drool

One of the more challenging aspects of a whole foods/organic lifestyle is the constant planning ahead. Am I right? This is pretty much the biggest gripe I hear from people making any sort of dietary/lifestyle change: "I tried the whole gluten-free thing but I was tired after work and it was easier to grab a slice of pizza than get to the market," "I stayed late at work and Bi-Rite closes at 9," "I live way too far away from Whole Foods to schlep all my food for the week across town on my scooter."

I get it. We are busy people in an urban environment, and between all the nitty gritty of everyday life, riding your bike to your local farmer's market in your work clothes with your gym bag and laptop in tow to peruse the produce might not be at the top of your to-do list. Even as I begin to make a living as a health coach - educating people about rest and nutrition and work-life balance - I still need to check in daily and remind myself to slow down, breathe, rest, and take time to actually enjoy the food I so mindfully procured. In my experience, and maybe you can relate, the food I eat is my biggest connection to nature, to the richness of the environment that surrounds me--even if I only see it during my once-per-month jaunt over the Golden Gate Bridge. There is something about slicing up a batch of recently harvested *insert favorite vegetable here*  that reconnects me to something bigger then all the running around, wakes up my senses, and nourishes my body. 

What if you could bridge the gap between convenience and sustainable healthy eating? Farmigo takes all the steps out of your weekly market trip and delivers local food directly from farmers to your community. This new online farmer's market "connect(s) communities of people (workplaces, community centers, schools and other locations), directly to multiple local farms, providing a personalized online marketplace for local, fresh-from-harvest food. Members in each food community shop at their dedicated Farmigo farmers market online (see example here), pick and choose their preferred items, and then have their orders delivered weekly to their food community site within 48 hours of harvest."

Kiva delivery in SF

What's not to like?

From veggies and fruits, to pasture raised beef and poultry, to coffee, yogurt, fresh herbs, bread, and more, Farmigo offers up mindful convenience. Similar to a CSA in maintaining the "farm-to-table experience," Farmigo is unique in that by bringing together larger communities, you are offered more choices, the farmers get paid more, and you can rest easy knowing that in no way are you participating in the industrial food complex. Hooray!

Not only does this service connect you to local farmers, but just think: you'll get the chance to interact with other members of your community outside of the typical workplace interactions. Farmigo unites all that we love about our food: the connection to local environments and people, fresh quality, and the joy of sharing that experience with others.

And that sounds like healthy living to me.

Questions about what the hell to eat?

Sage Advice

Don't believe everything your yoga teacher says. Believe what they actually do.

More to come on this topic I'm sure, as the deeper I get into the business side of the yoga world, the less and less I like what I see. If anyone has a positive experience managing a yoga studio, I'd LOVE to hear it...

For now, I advocate a healthy dose of open-minded skepticism! Not just with yoga, but everything.

Including food, and beliefs around food.

May we savor the food we eat this Thanksgiving such that we are truly nourished body and soul! May we love the one we're with and skip Black Friday...

I hope to write a bit more this weekend as I'll have some free time away from the city.

Much love, and a deep bow of gratitude to all the turkeys everywhere~
dani

Election results 2012

If it isn't obvious considering I am a yoga teacher/health nut/spiritualish person living in San Francisco, CA, I will share here that I was QUITE PLEASED with the results of the presidential election. Obama is still part of the machine; however I am a stand for civil rights for all humans and who wants to be on the wrong side of history when it comes to stuff like that!???

Moving on--Prop 37, which would have required the labeling of foods containing GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms) did not pass, which was the BUMMER of the election. I've included a handy chart for you to get a good visual on where a lot of these so-called "natural" "healthy" foods actually stand when it comes to not only the health of their customers, but their stance on protecting the environment (e tu, Ben & Jerry's!?).

It's incredibly difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that people would actually vote against this measure; I'll take solace knowing that the campaign against GMO's isn't going anywhere. Moreover, we can still fight GMO's by choosing mindfully where we spend our money.

The following list comes from Paul Chek, outlining why it would best serve all of us (mother earth included) if we eliminate all processed foods from our diets, all of which contain GMO's. Enjoy~

CHEK Points on Processed Foods

• If you can’t pronounce a word on the label, don’t eat it! Chances are very good it is a chemical that your liver will have to work to detoxify.

• If it’s a non-food, don’t eat it! The more non- foods you eat, the more likely your body is to go bankrupt!

• The longer it lasts on the shelf, the worse it is for you! Unlike the natural foods that nature provides us with, many of the processed foods you eat today are so full of chemicals you can leave them sitting on the kitchen counter for days and the ants won’t even touch them! The bugs are smarter than we are!

• Never eat anything with “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated oils/fats” in it! These are cooked fats that have been altered in a way that make them very hard to digest, as well as being damaging to the body.

• Never eat any food product that has been “enriched”! The only reason food manufacturers “enrich” foods is because they have completely killed and stripped them in processing, leaving the foods so void of nutrition that they must add things back to them.

• Currently, almost ALL processed foods contain genetically modified organisms! Eating any genetically modified food is a risk that you may want to seriously consider if you value your health.

I've got something to say (my 'yogic' rant)

I changed the name of my blog.

The change comes after many months of reflection on my place in the greater scheme of my life; both as a yoga teacher and a burgeoning business owner. More than that though-the name change is a reflection of my renewed commitment to my own truth--not some idea of it handed to me by guru or a dietary philosophy or some future concept based on how I've experienced the past that has me completely missing, you guessed it, the present.

The catalyst for all this was the breakdown of the system of yoga I practiced, which occurred around the same time my favorite teacher moved away. I started to seriously unpack my beliefs around what a living a spiritual life actually meant for me, on my own terms, completely free of the shade I was so accustomed to living in under the previous umbrella of "yogic" v "non-yogic."

A new light started to shine.

Something else happened; during this time of breakdown in one realm of my life, I began my official health training with the Chek Institute, growing a new skill and learning that blew my mind. I began to heal myself with food. The immediacy of the results hooked me and it was incredibly empowering to look at myself in the mirror and no longer feel ashamed of my skin; to re balance my hormones without the use of birth control or antibiotics; and to heal my digestion naturally without pills or a crazy cleanse. I began to listen inward, trusting the messages from my body: checking in more easily in times of stress or overwhelm; following my intuition with the food I was consuming; working out and playing hard when called to, while equally honoring the times my body needed rest and quiet. In short, I started to experience the life I had been longing for, that I thought I would find with my yoga practice, but in reality, had been consistently falling short.

It was also the first time I was in the presence of and learning from healthy people with genuine, authentic, dedicated spiritual practices--without one mention of morality. In the yoga world, I was so accustomed to these conversations about whether or not something was or wasn't "yogic." A few examples off the top of my head: eating meat,  drinking alcohol/smoking cigarettes/pot etc; eating organic; one style of yoga v. another; driving a car; flying on a plane, and so on, and so on, and so on. I was attracted to these new people because there was a whole lot less talk, and a lot more action. I saw people living into their own personal truth without any mention of right and wrong, good or bad, should or shouldn't.

It dawned on me: I was sick and tired of yoga. Just the thought of it tilted my eyes back to the top of my skull and had me running for the nearest shot of tequila.

Not MY yoga-the practice that gave me back myself; that made me feel stronger in my body and mind then I ever thought possible; that reconnected me to people and gave me some of the best friends in the world--no, no, that wasn't it. Rather, I found myself alienated from a culture whose breakdown revealed a foundation built on a faux-spirituality and spiritual bypassing that tuned me out out faster than you could say "om."

I don't care if you down a steak after every yoga class or subsist solely on organic raw sprouted almonds harvested lovingly from a biodynamic farm; what interests me is actual reality, not some idea. Do you keep your word, not only to yourself, but to others? Are you able to speak authentically from your own truth, rather than parroting something you've heard a million times or saying what you think people want to hear? Do you stand by your beliefs regardless of ever shifting popular opinion while staying open to a new perspective? Are you living a life that leads you every more closer to your heart and heart's purpose, or are you simply filling it up with as many distractions and to-do's as possible?

I'm officially coming out as a carnivore. No more hiding-this is the real yoga. Expect a lot more tyrannosaurusasana from here on out. I hope to see you on the mat, I promise not to talk your ear off.

Navigating a new normal

It's been an interesting couple of weeks over here in Sage land. I am managing two businesses, teaching 2 classes/week, plus going to school. My partner just moved in, I play on a softball league, and am coaching a leadership training through Landmark education. Hence the title of this post.

I am a little nervous about writing this post. But I recently got clear about the work I want to be doing, so I'm going to share anyway.

My stress level in the past three weeks has skyrocketed significantly. After returning from my year sabbatical in Thailand, I devoted myself to creating a fulfilling schedule that left plenty of time for nothing; I knew that my experience of happiness hinged on the possibility of plenty of idle-time---to nap or write, take yoga class, be with friends, cook, clean; the possibility of simplicity and slowness. I'd experienced life from the confines of a cubicle and I did not like what I saw; more than that, I did not like who I was in that box. I was angry, borderline depressed, drank a lot, and my self-esteem non-existant. The thread of yoga alive in my life at this time often was the only place where I actually liked myself, where I felt strong.  After re-learning how to like myself, I vowed that this balance was a million times more valuable than making tons of money. It took some time, but I found that balance and although money was at times tight, I felt healthy and happy for the first time in years, fell in love with a great man, and started teaching yoga.

Fast forward four years, and I'm noticing many old tendencies arising that I thought I had laid aside. Cattiness. Anger. Impatience. I've started drinking more. The glass is decidedly half empty.

I am bringing all of this up for a reason. As the Every Day Sage seed continues to germinate, grow, expand, I want to be as honest as possible. As a health coach I often feel like everything I'm putting out into the world has this glossy veneer of positivity--as if living a healthful, vibrant, happy, meaningful, fulfilling life is so easy. As if finding balance is the most natural thing in the world, and there is something wrong with you if happiness isn't your experience.

So, how DO we navigate the dark moments? Where what worked last week simply stops working? When old habits/patterns/addictions rear their ugly heads, seemingly out of the blue? In those moments of overwhelm, how might we simply sit with the sensation, instead of longing for distraction? When we feel small, how might we channel it into something creative instead of being cruel to our partners/friends/family members? How can we use the tools we've learned on our own selves? How do we quiet the inner critic, that at times relentless devil? How might we learn to honor equally both the peaks and valleys of our lives?

This is the current inquiry.

While exercise, eating whole foods, healthy relationships, and a spiritual practice are all what I wish to support people in, I also want to honor people where they're at. What if we could look at the bad, accept it for what it is, and then move mindfully from a space of acceptance, instead of should-ing all over ourselves or making our experience wrong, or (my personal favorite), constantly comparing ourselves to others we perceive as farther along the path? This is what I'm committed to: radical health and wellness for everybody--even you. Even me.

Come as you are, and fall in love with yourself.

Happy Friday

What are you up to this weekend?

Whether it's landing on Mars for the first time or accessing a previously impossible yoga pose, anything is possible once we commit ourselves.

 ...until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise ocurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.

~Goethe

I'm navigating a new normal; two jobs, teaching, a relationship, starting a business, school, the Self Expression and Leadership Program, and of course, taking care of my own self. Walking my talk is challenging at times-but when I get really present to my commitments, suddenly I'm able to expand myself enough to encompass everything (AND get enough sleep AND practice yoga AND lay in the park two days in a row with dear friends).

I felt a little physically run-down this week, and let me tell you, it felt so good to give myself permission yesterday to simply rest rather than attend the sweaty Vinyasa class I've been going to on Thursday afternoons. Being committed to health means knowing when to rest just as much as knowing when to charge ahead! 

How do YOU stay connected to your commitments? When you feel overwhelmed, what do you know to do to restore balance?

Have fun out there~

xo
dani

How to create "Peace Points" in your every day

Something I'm committed to in my practice is off-setting the urban overwhelm with simple practices you can incorporate into your every-day. 

In this foot-always-on-the-gas-pedal culture of ours, idleness, relaxation, and let's face it, peace, are oftentimes elusive during our busy weeks. How many of us have crammed through the Monday-Friday race, and then at 6 PM on Friday night, ask ourselves, what just happened? Where was I? How has another week flown by already?

Peace Points (a term I first heard coined by the brilliant Paul Chek) are little actions you can take within your days that draw you back to your center, out of your head, and back to the "why" of your life. We all have greater intentions, purposes, and ambitions in our lives that often get lost in the busyness of it all; the following practices seem simple, but act as powerful ways to re-connect you with yourself. What's more, these pauses in your day, however brief, will actually serve to make you more productive, as you will be working with greater aim and purpose, not to mention clarity and focus.

Examples:

• Go outside on your lunch break, find a bit of grass, take off your shoes, and simply feel your feet on the earth. Take it a step further: lay down outside, and stare up at the clouds. Ten minutes of this and I guarantee a perspective shift.
• Scheduling in your exercise.You get busy and what's the first thing off your calendar? Usually self-care. Schedule your run/yoga class/dance class/gym session on your calendar, and honor it like you would the strictest of deadlines.
• Set an hourly alarm on your work computer. Every time it buzzes, stand up and stretch, or take 5-10 full, soulful, deep breaths.
• Wake up 20-30 minutes earlier in the morning and allot yourself some personal time. This can look like meditation; a nice, nourishing breakfast; a walk/run with your dog; catch up on reading.

I will continue to add to this list as I continue to implement them into my own life, but in the interim, how do YOU re-connect with yourself when you start to spin a little too fast?

Introducing Every Day Sage

Greetings~


I am thrilled to announce I am beginning a new business, Every Day Sage, where I will combine wellness, nutrition and yoga. I will be working with people on how to reach their health goals, including stress reduction, increasing energy, losing weight, and improving their confidence. I’ll accomplish this by supporting them with their food and lifestyle choices. I am specifically interested in bridging the gap between mindful lifestyle choices and the challenges of city living.

As you know, I have always had an interest in health and wellness and delight in sharing this knowledge with my friends, colleagues, family, the cashier at the store, taxi drivers, bartenders, and the many people I run into on a daily basis. I decided to increase this knowledge and learn, in a formal training program, how to live a better life through eating well and taking care of myself. I am currently enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City. I am not only learning to improve my life, I am also receiving very detailed and careful instruction on how to coach others around food and lifestyle choices. It’s an exciting time!

I can't wait to share more with you about my new career path, and all of the benefits of this work. I’ll be inviting people to health consultations in the near future, to have the opportunity to support them to create happier, healthier, and more fulfilling lives. I’ll be in touch periodically to let you know how my training is progressing. I appreciate being able to share this with you. Please feel free to visit my Facebook page at facebook.com/everydaysage to get a preview of what I am up to!

I hope you are well and I wish you a great day! I look forward to talking with you soon. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions~


Big love,
Dani

Heartbreakthrough

The saga continues. It's been so interesting to see how people are dealing with it. Some are withdrawing, some are rooting down for the long haul; some are pissed, others beseeching--and then there's the occasional "OM OM OM LOVE AND LIGHT everything is fine!" sort of cheerleader voice thrown in. There are the folks who want the nitty gritty details, and others holding space for a bigger perspective; there are poets and jokesters and analysts but more than anything there is a sadness. There's just no other way to put it: this is a big bummer for everyone.


It's been just over two weeks since the you-know-what hit the fan and I am about tuckered out from the constant feed of news on the internetz. It's sick. I'm exhausted. I'm sick of hearing everyone and any one's opinions.

As much as it sucks, the more I think about it, the more it makes total sense. This is the year where everything is set to shift; the world as we know it is coming to an end. The end of this beginning is just another symptom of a greater cosmic unfurling. We are being cooked in the great pressure cooker of the universe, and shit is about to get real. Who'd have thought one of the first big shake ups of the year would be a complete crisis in the yoga community?If it weren't such a disappointing cliche, it might actually be really funny.


Government is breaking down, the health care system is in shambles, and access to education is rapidly diminishing; I can't find an apartment in the city to save my life so it looks like I'll be living with roommates until I'm 50, and I'm making less money/year than any year since I was 21. Old ways of being no longer serve and we are collectively feeling the great squeeze.


OF COURSE this top heavy, patriarchal, hierarchical, single white-man run organization is unsustainable. Of course the new paradigm will be a horizontal system run collectively and cooperatively. You can't preach riding the great shakti wave in every aspect of your life and then ignore her in how you run an entire global organization. Truly, I see this as what the universe is demanding-no longer asking, but DEMANDING-happen to not only all aforementioned systems, but also within each and every one of us.


Another reason I'm grateful for this drama is the light it's shed on a few dark corners of my own sadhana. There were aspects of the Anusara community that I no matter how I tried, I just couldn't relate to--now that this is happening, for the first time I realize I am not the only one who felt that way. For example, one of the tenets of the method is fostering community. This is an incredible part of studying Anusara--no matter where you go in the world, you will be met with open arms by similarly oriented folks. However, certain parts of it felt false to me--what I call the Anusara bandwagon. Sometimes all the "SHINE OUT" jargon felt like cheerleading which quite frankly is the last thing I needed. I kept waiting for something to click within me, like one day I'd wake up and feel different. One day I'd wake up and realize that new John Friend endorsed Manduka mat really would elevate my practice to a whole new level! (har, har)


So that's one thing. I feel a new freedom that I don't have to fit into a certain mold to gain acknowledgement (because, let's face it, I am not the cheerleading type and I'm rounder than most yoga teachers you see out there). For now, I am clear about what this is all about for me and in this moment, it's not about a license, or even a certificate. It's about following my heart and those teachers who speak directly to it. None of my teachers have resigned which I find interesting.


I heard a Baron Baptiste quote recently that went something like "When you squeeze and orange, juice comes out. When you are squeezed, what do you get?" This scandal is such fodder for the practice. It's a great opportunity to learn to make spiritual lemonade!


Love to all
<3

Bring a friend for free promo

Hey Everyone! I am lucky to be able to offer this promotion--for the entire month of February, bring a friend for free to my class: Friday nights @ 7:45. Much love...

Notes on a Scandal

On Friday, February third, two things happened that couldn't have possibly pulled my heart in two more opposite directions.

Ever since I started my novice yoga teaching career just shy of two years ago, I always said I wanted to give the practice back to communities who perhaps wouldn't have access to the teachings/public yoga classes. Friday afternoon saw me on the 49 bus up Van Ness for a meeting with case managers from La Casa De Las Madres, an organization that serves women victims of domestic violence. We are moving forward and I will teach one class per week to the residents at one of La Casa's centers. I start this Wednesday.

That same day, immediately before clocking out of my day job and hopping on the bus, I learned of a crisis in the Anusara community (for those of you who read this and don't know what that is, it is a method of yoga/spiritual practice that I have aligned my entire life with). I am not going to link to any information here as I do not wish to contribute to the online brou-haha, but suffice it to say, it rocked me to my core and I spent the weekend investigating my thoughts, feelings, and initial reaction to the news. In a nutshell, unsubstantiated allegations were made against the founder of Anusara, and it is rattling the community as we patiently wait for the truth to come to light.

The juxtaposition between the political drama of what in the West is an elite system (yoga) and spending an afternoon with women, most of whom are old enough to be my mother, who are at-risk homeless, living in single occupancy rooms without even a bathroom to themselves, effected me all the way down in my bones. My emotions ran the gamut between heartbreak, anger, disappointment, anxiousness, disgust, fear, annoyance, bewilderment, and uncertainty.

What a brilliant opportunity to practice.

In yoga, the first step is to remember the bigger picture; take a step back, breath fullness into the back of your body, listen, and allow for a little space. We practice this subtle attunement on our mats again and again, day after day, week after week, so that when challenges arise in our "real" life, we learn to respond in a conscious way instead of being held captive by habitual patterns of reaction. This doesn't happen overnight. I doubt there is anyone living for whom this level of presence is a permanent state! Think about it as a well-worn dirt road; regardless of your intention, it is really difficult at first to steer your wheels in a different way when they are so used to just grinding down the same old grooves. But with practice, it is possible to shape a new and distinct path.

If the moment, ahem, shit gets real, I bail on all practice and training and insight and growth I've been supposedly committed to for the past near-decade of my life, then what is the point? It is easy for me to default to the anger that used to so easily rage out of me, that for years now I have been training myself to channel into higher forms. I take this practice so seriously, and the hardest part for me is how with all the online back-and-forth, speculation, and full on vitriol, it is relegated to mere tabloid fodder. I am not over exaggerating or lying when I say yoga saved my life--my early twenties were spent throwing myself so fully into the void just like so many of the ones who came before me that I am grateful every day to be healthy and safe, and even better yet, happy. 

So I guess what I'm saying is practice more. The last thing I will do is claim to have all the answers; I am still young and have so many more experiences to come. All I know is it is on my mat that I feel the anchor that connects me, that connects all of us, to the source. It's the only place where that bigger perspective grows; tuning in to the universal, we are brought back down to earth.

Amen Hallelujah Namaste and a big dose of LOVE
x
See you on the mat, where the rubber literally meets the road (;

FOCUS 2012

Friends!

Here are my top three overarching goals/intentions/aims/foci for this great year of 2012, still so shrouded in mystery:

• Find a new home with my partner, Dave.
• Gain Anusara Inspired teaching certification, the next level of certification in the Anusara method.
• Create a lucrative career.

It is my aim to complete one action per day in service to each of these goals, even if that action is a simple prayer.

My practice goals for 2012

• feet flat on the floor in ado muka svanasana 
• drop backs
• full hanumanasana
• handstand (without the wall!)
• cannonball jumps into handstand
• hips over hands when leaping forward from ado muka svanasana to uttanasana
• full natarajasana
• full vasisthasana (both sides)
• pinchamayurasana (without the wall)
• Memorize the Anusara syllabi (the whole thing)
• LOVE MY BODY

These first few days of the new year have been soft and quiet. I have cut back on caffeine and haven't had a drop of alcohol...save that shot of tequila last Monday with Dave's dad. I am enjoying the clarity and focus that this time is providing, before the busyness of life takes center stage and my energy turns to projects, workshops, trainings, and hopefully a bit of travel.

I'd also like to send infinite blessings of gratitude to the endless support I receive every day. Thanks to those of you who read this blog! Oh, I guess that's another thing I'd love to fire up this year...

In service,

Dani