What is a Doula?

Here's the first of a series of questions I usually get about doulas.  I asked my head doula, Pati Garcia (aka Chula Doula) for her insight.

We get asked this a lot: What is a Doula?

And our second most-popular question..."Isn't a doula like a midwife?"

Stay tuned for more doula-related questions...and please give me feedback if you're still not clear.  Thanks!
   

Yoga Teacher Training 2011

On Saturday, I gladly volunteered bringing lunch to the new group of 2011 Kundalini Yoga Teacher Trainees at the Awareness Center, Pasadena, CA.  Wow, it feels like just a second ago that I was in their shoes, in my very first weekend of training!

Knowing what was ahead of them and what might unfold made me super excited; I wanted to connect with this group.  What better way than through food (spoken like a true foodie)?  A few of us 2010 graduates pitched in together, and my dish was salad.  As I created the salad the day of, I chanted mantras to infuse the food with love and well wishes.

Hungry yogis line up for vegetarian lunch after a hard morning kriya!

Awareness Center yoga teachers relax for lunch.

Wahe Guru, owner and visionary of the Awareness Center, asked us graduates to say a few words to the class, regarding family groups cooking for Saturday class.  When it came to my turn, I told the group, "You can choose to bring your own sack lunch, or you can get together with your assigned family groups to bring lunch for everyone.  I suggest the latter.  Why?  Because, in spite of it sounding like a chore, it is in fact a good lesson to gain the understanding that when you provide what you can for others, you will be provided for many times over."

Prenatal Teacher Training

Just a brief announcement that Golden Bridge's Prenatal Teacher Training is coming up at the end of this month.  Here's the details.  

I've met amazing women from this training.  They came from diverse backgrounds, from simply being pregnant and wanting to know more, to being a doula who already helps women experience their own power through birthing, and yoga teachers from different styles (not just Kundalini).  A really profound experience and highly recommended!

Angry Yoga

The other day I was super pissed off (over something that was nothing), and instead of vomiting my emotional mess on my boyfriend, I closed myself off into my room and did a full, long set of yoga and meditation.  This included: recitation of the Japji, tuning in, warm-ups, a kriya for tolerance, the Mul Mantra meditation, and sealing it all with Longtime Sunshine/Long Sat nam.

Instead of practicing in my usual "indoor" voice, I belted every chant out!  And I mean, belted it!  Top of my lungs, music cranked on high. The yoga, I did with care and precision (no need to pull a muscle when one's wanting to punch walls), but I used my navel center to shout out each word of the mantras.

It felt so good!  I felt electrically awake afterwards.  Was I less angry?  Yes, and no: it channeled itself into energy with which I was then productive.  Totally took my practice to a whole new level: what an experience!

  

2011 Numerology Forecast

Here it is guys...strap on your seatbelt and get ready for this coming new year!  It's the 2011 Numerology Forecast, by yours truly, Nam Hari -- Master Numerologist of the Universe.  (Sorry about the crying baby...couldn't be helped!)

Find the Ek Ong Kar Sat Gur Prasad mantra track here: 

    

Happy New Year!

Instead of getting wasted last night, I was at Golden Bridge Yoga's New Year's Eve Celebration, and did 3 hours of yoga meditation to usher in 2011 (along with ~200 other people).  It felt nice to get high on breathwork, and to experience group consciousness, as we move forward towards the Aquarian Age.  Here's some highlights from the event:

GuruShabd, Gurmukh, Tej, and Harijiwan (Sr. Teachers) giving a warm welcome, and blessing for 2011.

Do we have that post-meditation afterglow?

The gongs stand at attention.

Sam digs into his first meal of 2011 (food tastes so good after yoga!).

 Stay tuned for Nam Hari's 2011 numerology forecast!