...and once again the Universe works in mysterious ways...

OK.

Sometimes life gets weird in my yoga world, and this is one of them times it seems.

I have been sooooooo avoiding the inner conflict of picking up my yoga practice. Obvious to anyone that knows me. But yesterday I sorted through the piling up mags and made a nifty little stack of languishing, unread Aquarian Times to stick on the bookshelf next to my collecting-dust Bound Lotus manual and various other yoga tomes I haven't cracked in almost GASP a year and a half.

And for some reason flipped through one and for some other reason stopped to read the White Tantric ad....only that...(OK, I did say this was weird, right? of all the things to stop to read!)

...and I literally felt a foot connect to my backside.

White Tantric is coming HERE, to Minneapolis, in November 2008.

The marathon of meditation.

The workshop I was soooooooo set to HATE when I had to take it to get my certification, approaching the mandated attendance with total resentment for the not-at-all-in-the-budget expense of a trip to Chicago....

...and found myself wishing I could run rogue and caravan around the globe doing nothing else by the end of the day.

It will be here, in my back yard, in 16 months.

And I am going to be ready.

...this was also the day a friend (the one I "enabled" into a session with Guru Dev a few weeks ago because I was feeling guilty about avoiding his visit because I always fall apart when he's here and I was soooooooo not in a place for that to happen that week when the whole family was already physically sick...) told me there is a CFH gift card floating somewhere in the USPS between her house and mine...could the universe be yelling any louder?

Message received.

I am going to be ready.

The "getting" of which starts now.

Manifesting Miracles

Sat Nam!

It is funny and wonderful that the first post of this blog occurred on January 8 2007.

It was Kundalini Yoga and my willingness to commit that ultimately led to the existence of my son Elijah, who turned 1 year old on January 8 2007.

I knew I was going to have a child, and certainly wanted to have a child (children) when I began practicing KY at the Center for Happiness. Change after change began to occur in my life when one day I decided to see Raghubir for a Sat Nam Rasayan treatment. After the treatment, she gave me the Grace of God meditation to do - once in the morning and once before bed.

At the time, I was divorced and there was no man in my life who would be a potential father of my children.
Within one month of doing this 40-day meditation, I met Shaun. I had no idea where meeting him at the bagel shop would lead...
Five months later Shaun and I were a definite pair and I was pregnant.
I was in awe. I told Shaun about my meditation process, and before I could finish his jaw dropped open.
"what is it?" I asked
"this is crazy," he said. "The name Shaun means 'Grace of God'"
.... Wahe guru

The cycle of new beginnings

It's a sad, sad fact that most of you reading this have no clue as to who I am, and it pains me that I have most likely not even set eyes on you either. I've become something of a ghost at CFH in this year past. A bit of introduction most definitely is in order.

I'm Dawn. Pleased to meet you.

OK, a bit more than that? I warn you, I trend to the verbose.

In times past I have taught prenatal and postnatal yoga and yoga for parenting in the Kundalini style both at CFH and elsewhere. I've been a Helena junkie since my first Kundalini class at the YWCA in Saint Paul back in the days before CFH was even a winkle in her eye. Back before we knew she was Raghubir. Back when she so bravely began blazing the way to her own truth and was sharing the journey. I went through the first wave of Teacher Training we held at CFH. WOW, was that 2003 or 2004? I'm really not sure. Time twists in odd ways once you have kids. Well, whichever, the following year I went to LA and studied Prenatal Yoga in the Khalsa way with Gurmukh and the glorious yogis at Golden Bridge. Back in the small Golden Bridge. Back when we could walk from yoga classes to her house for meals and discussions curled on her beautiful rugs and pillows, resting in her serene gardens. Back before the Sada Sats followed their hearts to the hills of Italy, when Sada Sat Kaur's golden voice spiraled through the air you were breathing.

That was in my 2 kid life. Well, my 2 kid and 2 bulldog life. Said kids were what cemented Kundalini Yoga into my life in the first place. I had left my career as a pediatric physical therapist, choosing to step away from burnout and emotional overdrive. #1 came along in 2001. It wasn't so much a choosing as a knowing that I was staying home with her. It was just how I was a mom, and I was lucky enough to be in the circumstances for that to be an option. "Doable for everybody" Kundalini yoga was my salvation that dark fall. It helped heal my psyche after struggling with my identity and helped me to find my way with a very "sensitive", "spirited" baby when our world turned upside down and inside out. It helped heal my body after the ravages of the abdominal surgery that brought her into the world.

A bit too well in fact as #2 made the scene a scant 15 months later in the sunny summer of 2002. That golden pregnancy coincided with Helena starting to teach prenatal yoga herself, and I was something of a pampered guinea pig, most often in classes at the Y or June Lune one on one. Truth was my name and my truth was yoga. My recovery from the second surgery was amazingly smooth as was the transition to this new, mellow, bright and shiny baby.

Then there was much teaching and training. Several years of figuring out this parenting thing, a task made much more serene by a regular yoga practice. OK, maybe "serene" is glossing things over just a tad. I will just opine that my regular practice brought me moments of serenity in a time filled with uncertainty and challenge. It also brought moments of crystal clear intuition and a sense of connection with this new iteration of myself. While it didn't melt away the baby fat as I wished daily it would, it did help me find my way.

It saddens me that I've lost that. If these pages could reflect my tears as a written page would, you most likely wouldn't be able to make this out. My inability to get back on track with my practice has been one of the hardest things to face over the past year. To know there's something to help turn things around but not be able to access it is maddening.

I left my teaching and my practice in December of 2005, in the 7th month of pregnancy #3. This one was truly a blindside, neither considered nor discussed, except in moments of mock parenting horror perhaps. 3 wee ones were never part of our conscious equation, but once again I'm faced with the fact that what I see isn't necessarily what is, because this little one is definitely meant for us. Amid the chaos that has come, he's a daily joy and is what has made our family truly feel whole and gelled together. Amazing.

I struggled through his pregnancy though, both physically and mentally. Each class I taught was a struggle. Each meditation I sat down for was a burden. I simply couldn't face Gurmukh's prenatal DVD, though I love it dearly. I pushed and pushed and pushed through, sure that I had to be doing this. But then there was a dream. A dream that felt like I was awake somewhere not here. And that just doesn't happen to me. EVER.

An achingly all encompassing dream filled with another's compassion and crystal clear knowing that I had to put it all aside and just be encompassed by the remainder of this pregnancy. It was OK. I needed to give myself over to the yoga of being pregnant. The union I needed was on another level. So, instead of kriyas and mantras, I held space with my baby. I rested. I crocheted. I cooked. I did whatever felt nurturing and brought a sense of peace and totality.

As I'm writing that, it strikes like a bolt of lightening that I'm there again. At a rift time. I'm fighting and struggling and pushing when maybe what I need is to be letting go. So many should-s and have to-s. So many mixed messages about where I should be and how I should be and what I should be doing. So much YEARNING! Heart rending yearning. Oh and the tears are flowing again. This isn't where I had planned to go with this, but here I am. The knowing comes when it will. It IS okay. Like my favorite Yogi Bhajan nugget of wisdom reminds me...when the time is on you, just begin...and I guess the time is now.

Dawn

The First Drop of Rain

Did you enjoy some time off for Martin Luther King day, everyone? I hope it was a beautiful day for you!


I taught yoga at my old high school for their Martin Luther King day celebrations, which took place on the Tuesday after MLK day. The event organizers hoped that an experience of yoga would increase the students' tolerance and peacefulness.

Whew! My respect for high school teachers is renewed again! We should be paying those saints like kings. After four classes, I was exhausted, and all I was doing was teaching them how to breathe! Can you imagine trying to get teens excited about something more uphill like chemistry? How do those teachers do it?

Many fun moments, though...for example, the JV hockey team showed up with mischief on their minds (being a die-hard hockey fan from back in the day, I knew their story before they said a word!)...and they fell so in love with left-nostril breathing that they asked to stay for the next yoga class.

I was shocked by how much stress these kids reported. The school is a prep school, true, so a fair amount is expected of these kids academically. But ninth graders from affluent homes having such tension and anxiety that they cannot sleep seems off to me. The big hit for the students was learning how to breathe for relaxation and peace. If you can find peace in yourself, even under duress, it is possible to extend peace to someone else. That's my operating philosophy, at least!

Want to try it? Press your right nostril closed and breathe only through the left. Sit up straight, close your eyes, and really use the power of the breath, slowly and smoothly. Make sure you get all the air out of your body on the exhale. Stretch your body full of breath on the inhale. Do 26 breaths, or as much as you have time to do.

Left nostril breathing relaxes you and helps you to become more emotionally receptive.

Right nostril breathing, where you close off the left nostril and breathe through the right only, give you sunny energy and courage.

Enjoy!



We celebrate MLK day at the Center for Happiness every year with a yoga class for tolerance in which we listen to his "I Have a Dream" speech.

I recommend listening to the entire speech, which takes about 16 minutes. We're more familiar with the last few minutes, in which he delivers the Dream content. But the entire speech is magnificent and sets up those last few minutes so that their impact is profound.

Check it out at http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm.

And what a public speaker he was--it's public speaking as conviction, passion, and an art form at once. Compare that to the political speeches that we hear today! Perhaps we can recapture that art of rhetoric.


A final note...read the story of Mukhtar Mai at http://www.time.com/time/asia/2004/heroes/hmukhtar_mai.html.

Named as a 2005 Glamour Magazine woman of the year and one of Time Magazine's Heroes, Mukhtar took an almost insurmountable personal and political tragedy and transformed her experience into a groundbreaking school and crisis-relief center in Pakistan. I think you'll really be inspired by her courage.

After her ordeal, Mukhtar was ready to give up when her mother asked her to fight instead.

"Someone has to be the first drop of rain," she told her daughter.

When we look at the living legacy of those like MLK, Mukhtar, or Yogi Bhajan, it's easy to see them as institutions, immovable, powerful, and fixed. But they had to decide if they were in or out, just like you do, one decision at a time.

How can you be the first drop of rain?

Courage Kriya

Sat Nam, Friends,

What a morning! Went for a walk before the sun came up, and then realized that it was warm enough to do a meditation outside. Sitting on the dry, brown grass to meditate in January is a rare thing in Minnesota. I've done many outside meditations in other seasons, but can't recall ever having the experience in winter here. I felt connected to the sleeping trees with their roots deep in the ground.

And the ride continues. I have a lot of paperwork to get through over the next few weeks, before my travels begin again. I am actually hungry to get at it, which is a state to be treasured for me!

But after my walk, instead of digging into the files I wanted to conquer, I said yes to a phone call to which I knew I should have said, not right now, thank you. Life keeps giving us the opportunities to refine how we do things, doesn't it? The call was from a friend who needed to dump. You know those phone calls, where you feel a little tired and toxic afterward and are not sure how to shake it?

So I thought I would share with you a meditation that I love to use to change mental states and feel very alert and ready to go. The delightful comments on the meditation are from my bud Jai Hari Kaur in Los Angeles. Guru Dev Singh (to whom she refers as GDS) taught this meditation in LA and it was a big hit.

BTW, the meditations that Guru Dev teaches for Sat Nam Rasayan classes all come from Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan, since SNR is part of the lineage of Kundalini Yoga.

Last year, a group of ladies from The Center for Happiness did this meditation as a 40-day practice, which helps to establish the benefits of the meditation at deeper levels, and we got very bright and strong! It was helpful to have one another to check in as we went through the 40 days.

Maybe you can find a few friends online or in your neighborhood to try this for 40 days as a group...or even just doing it once is a beautiful thing.

Hope you enjoy it.


Starting here are Jai Hari's comments from 4/12/06:

Here is the courage/new intestines in 40 days kriya. It is awesome, I just have to say. I did it after we spoke & felt so much better (still do, several hours later). GDS also said this kriya "will destroy your social life", b/c it squeezes out old gas that has built up over years (ewww). But this hasn't happened to me yet that I can tell, but who knows, I still have a long way to go. When he taught it in class he also said that "this is the best kriya for your tummy. There is nothing better. You will loose inches just from the release of the old gas." So far I've done this kriya for 6 total days. I've noticed already my belly getting flatter; the return of the high school belly seems as though it may be on the way. Not a bad side effect. It seems to me that the heart gets a nice boost, as well. Also the kidneys seem to me to get some good stimulation & release. The pace for all exercises is pretty quick. In class we did it to the Punjabi Drums recording GDS has, and he kept trying to get us to do it like we were dancing. I don't have this recording, maybe you do. At home I use a peppy kirtan to Baba Siri Chand, but bhangara works well, too.

NOTE: You can order Punjabi Drums CD at www.a-healing.com or locally through CFH by contacting Barry, cfh@maloco.com. --Raghubir

1. Sit in easy pose. Arms are bent, elbows skim the ribs, hands are relaxed like little kangaroo paws (GDS demonstrated his fingers looked a little bent, relaxed, but not quite in tight fists). As the shoulders shrug upwards, the elbows & upper arms squeeze & drag upwards along the ribs w/ the movement of the shoulders. The elbows release the squeeze of the ribs as the shoulders move back downwards in their circle. They drag up the ribs, release at the top, and go back down to squeeze and drag upwards again. GDS said, "squeeze the elbows where the cheesecake landed." The breath seems to find itself coordinating with the movement, inhaling as the elbows begin the squeeze & drag, and exhaling as the elbows release & drop. 11 minutes.
2. Easy pose. Arms are held still & straight out in front of the body, parallel to the ground 7 parallel to each other, palms facing down, at shoulder level. Squeeze mulbhand (NOTE: this means squeezing the muscles of the rectum, sex organs, and naval. --Raghubir) & drop it. Everything from navel downwards squeezes up on the inhale & drops on the exhale as the arms & shoulders stay perfectly still. The emphasis is on the drop of the mulbhand. GDS said that was the important part, the drop. Maintain a nice challenging, peppy pace. Squeeze, drop, squeeze, drop, don't stop - hee hee, etc. 3 minutes.
3. Easy pose. place arms in "I dream of Genie" mudra - elbows bent at shoulder level, hands holding opposite elbows, arms parallel to the floor. This time coordinate the peppy mulbhand squeeze, drop with shoulder shrugs. The arms lift w/ the shoulders, but they stay parallel to the floor. Mulbhand along w/ shoulders & arms, squeeze, drop, squeeze, drop, continue. GDS prefaced this exercise saying, "This one is my absolute favorite, because it is so painful." 3 minutes
4. Easy pose. Hands relaxed on knees. Here, isolate the belly & move it around like you have a washing machine in there. Move it in circles in each direction, bounce it around. GDS said, "just the belly." (Some people looked like they were doing spinal grinds. The spine may move a wee bit, but the movement is instigated from & isolated at the belly.) 3 minutes
5. Easy pose. This time it's the same movement with the belly as in #4, but you have clasped your hands (not interlaced fingers, just clasped hands) w/ elbows bent, you're holding this mudra at forehead level, right in front of 3rd eye point. Hold this mudra still as you practice your bellydancing isolations. 3 minutes.
6. Easy pose. This one can be done w/ a partner, and GDS said, "if no one is there, do it with a ghost." I do it looking into the eyes of our Guru Ram Das picture. If you have partner, you'll sit in front of each other and hold hands, interlacing fingers, at shoulder level. Then your push and pull the hands alternating left and right sides back and forth, push, pull, push, pull, etc, at, you guessed it, a nice peppy pace. Lock the eyes. The shoulders & shoulder blades move, pulling alternate elbows all the way back as far as you can, as you push the opposite hands forward. Keep them moving back and forth. Arms stay parallel to the ground at shoulder level the whole time. 7 minutes. Relax.
And that's it! It's fantastic.

Welcome!

Welcome everyone to the new Center for Happiness blog site.

We'd like to use this site to inspire our yoga community locally and beyond the Twin Cities to stay connected and interactive with the teachings of Yogi Bhajan, special yoga and Sat Nam Rasayan events here in town and around the world, and most importantly, with one another.

Many thanks to our great Dawn Ellerd for creating this site.

I'm going to start by asking anyone who feels inspired to comment on any of these categories...

• a yoga or meditation personal practice that has moved you recently
• a yoga or meditation class recently attended that spoke to you
• stories of yoga-related travels that you have undertaken in the last year
• any in-depth study of yoga or meditation that has made a difference to you

I'm going to include a few notes on my life and practice to get you started, cutting and pasting from recent things I've written.

Since most of what I write is an attempt at inspirational "publicity" for yoga and healing, these sample writings below do contain a few plugs for various teachers or programs, just so that you are aware of that tone. We do not, however, intend for this to be a publicity blog site per say. Instead, we want it to be a place where people can draw inspiration, information, community and connection. And we totally support the sharing of healthful recommendations and experiences, whether they be for programs, teachers, meditations, etc.! Please note that if someone other than an official poster on this site recommends anything/anyone to you, this recommendation should not ipso facto be considered the voice of CFH or myself. Okay, disclaimer over!

One piece is a letter about how 2006 affected me, which I shared with our emailing list at the Center for Happiness. That appears at the bottom of this message.

The second piece, which appears just below, is a testimonial that I wrote for my dear friend Mahan Kirn Kaur, my teacher in Bound Lotus meditation.

I recently completed a year of Bound Lotus meditation, practicing 31 minutes a day every day for a year, and it reminded me of the power of Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan.

Two big miracles, both of which I would never have dreamed possible even after years of doing this work, manifested within a few days of completing this yearly practice and as a result of it. The miracles involve other people's stories that I don't have the right to share. But I will say that I agree with Guru Dev Singh, the master teacher of Sat Nam Rasayan healing, when he tells us that we need a different word for miracles in this line of work...since miracles are absolutely what we are about as commonplace, daily events!

I'd love to hear your miracles, too, the ones that you attribute to a contribution or change gained from your yoga practice or experiences...whether they involve something "small" like realizing that you have gained the choice to relax tension in a meeting, or something "big" like having the courage to start a new relationship or job.

Testimonial that I wrote for the work of Mahan Kirn, January 3, 2007

I received a Bound Lotus treatment from Mahan Kirn on Christmas Day of 2005, and it was truly the best Christmas gift ever.

In the year following, I was able to generate change in my life that had been on hold or stalled for years.

I progressed and transformed more spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and in terms of financial prosperity than I would have believed possible in twelve short months--and I have been a dedicated healer of the self for well over a decade!

It was as though each new transformation fueled another level of growth, almost without pause. I have come to think of it this way....

Most powerful healing treatments open up a new step for you. Bound Lotus opens up a new staircase. You have the opportunity after a healing to expand over time to places that you would not have known nor have dreamed.

Eleven days after receiving the treatment, I spontaneously began to practice Bound Lotus myself. Without fuss or preamble, despite insisting frequently in the past that my body would never be capable of such a practice. Receiving a Bound Lotus treatment, or doing the practice oneself, are independently each so powerful. You can probably imagine that the combination of self practice AND a treatment really cannot be equaled. I'm a wordy gal, but words fail me!

Here are someone else's words about me, then, instead. I run a yoga center and am frequently involved in healing others. A student recently said of me, "She has always been present to do the work and serve, but now she actually seems ALIVE." People keep telling me this year how I appear happier, healthier, more vital, more radiant. Some just say, "Wow!" if they haven't seen me for a while. It's such fun feedback to receive!

Tomorrow is my one-year anniversary of practicing Bound Lotus. I've also begun to give Bound Lotus healings, at Mahan Kirn's suggestion (since I'm also an SNR practitioner, this is possible), and they are the most fulfilling work I've ever done. I am forever grateful to her, to Yogi Bhajan, and to Guru Dev for having the courage to teach and to share this amazing technology. God bless them.

If you're like me, you knew that you wanted to receive a Bound Lotus treatment the moment you heard about it. Go for it, and more power to you. If you're doubtful, that's understandable--it's a big step. But my response is still the same: Go for it! And more power, prosperity, health, alignment, happiness, juiciness, and joy to you! You deserve it all.

...end of testimonial...

You can read more about Bound Lotus as a practice at Mahan Kirn's website, www.boundlotus.com. She is the foremost expert on Bound Lotus internationally and inspires people of ALL levels to try Bound Lotus. Check out her Bound Lotus manual at the above site or www.spiritvoyage.com. Or, if you are a regular at the Center for Happiness, Barry cfh@maloco.com can order it for you.

Here's a little more info on Bound Lotus treatments if you are curious.

A Bound Lotus Treatment aligns you with your destiny. It is a sacred experience of coming into relationship with yourself at your highest level.

A Bound Lotus Treatment can also allow the destiny of an individual to change...if it is necessary for one's higher good.

A Bound Lotus Treatment is literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Except in rare cases of severe nervous system damage or stress, you will only need one Bound Lotus Treatment in your life.

During the treatment, the practitioner sits before the client in Bowing Bound Lotus posture for thirty-one minutes, while at the same time practicing Sat Nam Rasayan contemplative healing on the client. The client sits comfortably cross legged, and may choose to lean against a cushioned wall for back support, or to lie down.

This fusion in the practitioner of the Bowing Bound Lotus posture, taught by Yogi Bhajan as the most powerful yoga posture, with the grace and space of Sat Nam Rasayan, creates the shift in alignment with destiny in the client.

After this time, the client and the practitioner sit face to face, while the practitioner uses a technique of Sat Nam Rasayan administered through the eyes. This is sometimes called "bringing infinity through the eyes." This second phase of the treatment can last as long as twenty-two minutes. During this second phase, the practitioner and client also synchronize breathing.

You may find that your life post-treatment quickly becomes easier, as though what you need to do is simply flowing through you. Those conditions, relationships, beliefs, and situations that counter your really being "you" just begin to drop off or drift away, or they begin to change to become in line with your true nature. New possibilities gracefully emerge. Direction from the core of you may seem suddenly clearer than ever before.

For more on Guru Dev Singh and Sat Nam Rasayan, see www.gurudevsnr.com.

...end of Bound Lotus info...

A New Year’s Message that I shared with our CFH Mailing list at the beginning of 2007


Sat Nam, Dear Yoga Community,

Whether we see you daily or once a year, know that you are in our hearts and prayers at this time of letting go of the old and blessing new arrivals.

I’m writing to thank you, and share with you a little about our year at CFH and my recent travel experiences.

I know many of you have had an intense experience in 2006 to say the least! Good, bad, difficult, abundant, stressful, blissful, exhausting, exciting, unbelievable, what have you…but the general consensus is at least you have not been bored!

I've had a wild year myself, with more development on my spiritual self than I would have thought possible in twelve short months, lots of travel to work with my beloved teacher Guru Dev Singh, meeting new friends from around the world, moving into a new home, and discovering new avenues of healing work just to name a few things. Wow, and wahe guru. It’s been awe inspiring. I know I couldn't have done it without the beautiful home base and sangat, which means community, that you provide here in Minneapolis/Saint Paul.

The word on the spiritual street about 2007 is that it’s going to ROCK! (Yes, that’s exactly the words that the yogis in the Himalayas are using. It’s going to ROCK OUT, they tell me.) Folks in the spiritual know say that we’re going to feel a shift in energy. This will happen as people become more attuned to living with purpose. Many are just going to get ravenously hungry for the tools of transformation. Maybe this will even affect those people whom you've written off as resistant to change—they might just be coming to you asking for a breathing technique to manage stress, or an exercise for boosting energy!

Believe me, others will see in you that you have a secret, and they will be on fire to figure out what it is. It doesn’t matter if you call yourself a yoga teacher or a yoga practitioner or not. The glow of your experience is on your face, and your face is there for everyone to read when they are ready to perceive it. Your radiance is really not that much of a secret after all.

Kundalini Yoga has begun to make a unique fingerprint on the Twin Cities scene, and I’m so impressed with you because of that. When I began to be interested in Kundalini Yoga for its singular efficiency, it was 1999, and I could not find a single local teacher.

Now, thanks to those of you who work as Kundalini teachers and those of you who simply spread the word of your own experiences, I see Kundalini classes all over, in universities, boardrooms, health clubs, even church basements. There are wonderful Kundalini classes in Fargo, Hastings, and Duluth, and a new Kundalini center, Closed Eyes Yoga, in Saint Paul. Who knew this was even possible? Ten years ago, it wouldn't have been.

I overhear people talking about Kundalini Yoga in public places like coffee shops and the grocery store, and I get such a smile on my face. So often, when I tell a new acquaintance that I direct the Center for Happiness, the response is, “Oh, I've heard of you! That kind of yoga is supposed to be amazing; I've been meaning to check it out!” All thanks to you.

Bless you for helping us teach others—those of you who teach in formal environments, and those who teach others by the example of your own lives healing and getting juicier.

What drives me nuts in this world is seeing and hearing about suffering and not being able to do anything about it. I am forever grateful to Kundalini Yoga, beyond any preaching or even any devotional aspect, because it shifts suffering so darn quickly. Though I wouldn't have thought of myself as a science girl, it is a scientific relationship.

Through Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan, and the related healing art of Sat Nam Rasayan that Guru Dev teaches, I watch people slough off suffering every day—sometimes so much so that they forget they had it in the first place!

Watching you become happier, healthier, more clued in to your infinite nature, more stable, more able to allow resistance, more productive and able to help others, more peaceful, more full of fun and frolic even when the going gets tough, more beautiful in your unique ways…it’s the blessing of a lifetime.

Remember where you were when you started to practice yoga, versus now—has anything shifted for you? Do you see things differently, feel things differently, do things differently? Yoga doesn't necessarily take away challenging times in our lives, but it definitely gives us the tools to make those stretching times brighter and easier.

This is also a fun time of year for me because we've begun to publicize our next Teacher Training and Advanced Study program.

It happens like clockwork—as soon as we put the word out about Teacher Training, a group process starts, and the first step in that process is MASS RESISTANCE! Super cute.

You know what, though, I go through that process in my life, too.

Here’s an example.

I have the great fortune to travel to the sacred city of Assisi, Italy, the home of St. Francis, in early December each year to work with Guru Dev. The event is Guru Dev’s annual international conference of Sat Nam Rasayan, and he rips the roof off the teachings each and every year. I know this well, because I've experienced it many times.

Especially exciting, Sat Nam Rasayan (SNR) is a living teaching. Guru Dev is the first person authorized to teach SNR out loud and publicly, after thousands of years of this form being taught in silence. So, he is creating a linear, talkable form for this art literally right now and for the first time. Some of his proposals work instantly, and some he refines as he goes. This year, for example, he refined healing through the electromagnetic field with elegant efficacy.

It’s almost surreal to be present to a teaching happening and unfolding right in front of you. Sometimes I have one of those perspective moments during his classes, when I think, “Oh, my god, we are the very first people ever to talk about this technique and try it in a group! Right this second, we are the first ones.”

So you would think that every year, I would be beyond elated to go to Assisi, yes? SNR is my heart’s work, and Guru Dev is my heart’s teacher and a living saint (Yogi Bhajan named him as such), and I know without a doubt that the program is outstanding, so I would be jumping up and down weeks in advance just thinking about it, yes?

Why now that you mention it, actually, not at all!

My reaction is hilarious and utterly predictable. I've now started to call the weeks before Assisi my “resistance dance”.

Every year, starting, oh, around October, I start to think things like, “Man, I can’t afford it. The exchange rate is atrocious. Do I really want to go? Why bother? What if that person who annoys me comes? What if there’s nice weather in MN while I’m gone?”

This year, I even added, “But there are only so many weeks of Christmas music on the radio, and I’m going to miss them if I go to Assisi!”

That was when I could REALLY start to laugh at myself! How totally reasonable. A once-in-a-lifetime experience with a living master, versus one more time through “Jingle Bell Rock.” It’s tough to make these decisions.

And, by the way, I do the same resistance dance with experiences that are unknown.

In the yoga community, we celebrate the natural rhythms of summer and winter solstice in our home cities, and in larger gatherings. I have traveled to the Summer Solstice gathering in New Mexico several times. Though Summer Solstice has been difficult at moments, I've gotten loads out of it.

But I never wanted to go to the Winter Solstice gathering in Florida. It offers three days of powerful White Tantric yoga and a chance to connect with the larger yoga sangat, yes, but I can get those things other places and other times. Besides which, the end of December is typically a recovery time for me after Assisi. Catching up on email and sleep is necessary after Guru Dev’s long days of working us over!

Yet this year, I found that just days before leaving for Assisi, I “had a feeling” that Winter Solstice in Florida was supposed to be on my menu. To be honest, the feeling had been happening for a week or two, but I suppressed it as much as possible! Finally, at the last minute, I made plane reservations to Orlando. Then I packed it in for Italy and tried to forget about what would be happening thereafter.

I had about forty-eight hours after Assisi and before Florida to get things marginally together. Laundry, manically checking the backlog of email and phone calls (sorry if I still haven’t gotten back to you—it’s coming!), borrowing a tent and a sleeping bag from students (bless you, girls!), checking the Florida weather, giving my housemate a hug goodbye, and then I was off before I really knew what was happening.

May I just say that I was NOT happy about going.

You know the dance, don’t you?

Why am I doing this. There’s not enough money and time. What if my hunch was wrong. None of my old buds are going to be there and I’ll be lonely. I've never even set up this tent, what if it has a big hole in it! What am I going to get out of this, anyway?

And on and on.

The funny thing is, folks, I’m a yoga teacher. I deal with resistance every day. It’s what students and clients go through as they heal. I should know better than to take it seriously for even a moment, but when it happens to oneself, it just feels so REAL. And so PERSONAL. As though the message is, everyone else’s resistance is a tease, but mine is telling me the God’s honest TRUTH. Hee hee.

So here’s how it ended up. Those of you who like happy endings should enjoy this!

As mentioned, going into the Winter Solstice, I was already missing the presence of my closest friends from Sat Nam Rasayan. I've been blessed to have around me at SNR events a group of pals to make me laugh, sneak me “off campus” when I get overloaded, and listen to me when I am processing something important.

Showing up onsite at Winter Solstice, I felt rather melancholy, thinking of White Tantric days of yore with the SNR gang where we giggled through the tough moments, shared our tarps and sheepskins on the hard floor, passed around non-camp snacks, and rubbed each other’s sore shoulders.

White Tantric yoga is done with a partner (male or female, does not have to be a romantic partner) in long lines of meditators, and one of its many benefits is to clear the subconscious mind. Each White Tantric day is typically long and intense, a sequence of meditations of generally 31 or 62 minutes each. The process requires commitment but at the same time offers huge support from the group even for those exercises that seem impossible (like holding the arms in a painful position for over an hour!)

I thought, well, maybe it will be a solitary week and a less group-oriented Tantric, and perhaps that’ll be good for me after so much travel activity. I wasn’t delighted about this prospect, but I accepted it.

Right around me at Winter Solstice, however, banded almost instantly a new group of friends to play with as we work so hard and diligently on our spiritual paths.

My favorite “little bro” of the yoga world, the charming and disarming Hargobind who is revamping the world of Spirit Voyage music at an astonishingly young age (check him out at www.spiritvoyage.com –you’ll love his photo and music pics!), quickly introduced me around to some of his friends and family…who introduced me to their friends and family…and suddenly there I was, sitting on a blue tarp in the Tantric lines with a fabulously entertaining and sustaining group, sharing secrets and advice, asking one another thought-provoking questions, cracking up at a bad joke instead of giving up, and sampling a truly fantastic array of munchies from town!

It occurred to me that this is one of my gifts: I am a catalyst for friendships and group interconnection. I wanted a beautiful group around me, and so it formed. No need to worry about it! I realized that I had received the blessing of these new pals, and the blessing of realizing a talent in myself that I had not fully celebrated.

The three days of Tantric Yoga themselves were like a destruction and resurrection of the heart center. They capped my year of self-rewiring like I could not have imagined, and were truly the most powerful Tantric I've ever done.

Not to mention that my tent stayed BONE DRY even during the torrential and flooding rains that sometimes accompany a White Tantric event! It became funny, even fun, to play with my own doubts.

I didn’t want to go to Winter Solstice, boy oh boy did I not want to go. But look at all that I received when I followed the juice of my life, the intuitive knowing, rather than letting the doubt and resistance decide the course.

Doubt and resistance come up. So what. Are they going to stop you, or are you going to find a way to laugh at yourself and follow your deeper desires anyway?

For many of you, I’m talking about our upcoming Teacher Training and Advanced Study Program.

For others, the resistance is about something else equally important…taking the plunge in a new relationship or ending an old one, starting a business venture, calling someone with whom there’s been a lack of resolution. Whatever it is, I hope you go for it.

My favorite quotation about teacher training came from our first coordinator back in 2003. She said, “If you have any inclination to take teacher training, sign up as soon as possible. As soon as you register, your doubts and resistances will start to come up, and you’ll have plenty of time to deal with them before the program begins!”

And, of course, you don’t need to be perfectly resolved, or perfectly ANYTHING (in shape, on time, or ready, whatever that means) before you start the program. I certainly never am before I begin something new. If you decide to do it, and one way or the other get your butt in the door on the first day, that’s ready enough in our book!

Contact our wonderful coordinator Rebeka Ndosi if you are interested in signing up. rndosi@gmail.com . She’ll give you lots more info.

If you want to see a full list of the rich course curriculum, which I still can’t believe that we can pack into eight months, check out the PDF on the program on our website www.centerforhappiness.com.

The program will introduce you to information and experience on yogic history, philosophy, diet, humanology (the science of men and women in yoga and more), the context for Kundalini Yoga in the greater world of yoga, how to teach, how to apply yoga kriyas and meditations for various conditions in your own life, yogic prosperity, your relationship in the “stream” of yoga that goes back thousands of years, Yogi Bhajan’s concept of how Kundalini yoga works, understanding yogic chakras, nadis, vayus, kriyas, and much more.

You’ll also receive teachings from the teachers voted the favorites by the 2003 class: Nirvair Singh of Alaska, Guruchander Singh, DC, and Kirn Kaur of New Mexico, myself, Helena Raghubir, and if scheduling permits, Guru Dev Singh of Rome. You’ll have the opportunity to know these teachers in greater depth than the previous class, and we believe they will be able to give you excellent examples of yoga instruction and to help you shape the next step on your path. You can read their bios on the website, too.

NO EXPERIENCE OR MINIMUM LEVEL OF FITNESS REQUIRED, AND NO AGE RESTRICTIONS!

We say this over and over, and everyone seems to think that s/he is the one exception. Oh, well, I thought the same thing back in the day. So, what can I reiterate except, YOU, I’m talking to you, and YOU can do it!

And you know you can take this just for self development, right, you don’t have to plan to be a teacher? And what a tremendous self-development and self-enriching experience it will be!

Here’s a final thought on the Advanced Study program.

I think of this program like money.

Money is essentially a neutral asset. If you have a lot of it, it is simply easier for you to be who you really are. If you long for education, lots of money makes it easier to become well educated. If you are really compassionate and generous, lots of money makes it easier to give and share. If you long to create something big, lots of money makes it easier to get the resources in order for that great creation.

We might have all sorts of goofy “money issues”, but cash is really just there to take care of your needs and manifest your dreams on the material plane. More money can help you be more you more easily.

The advanced study teacher training program can do the same thing.

A student asked me, “What is this program going to give to me?”

I answered, “It’s going to give YOU to you.”

Whatever you’ve been longing to accomplish, or have been putting off because it seems like too much, or whatever destiny is already written inside you waiting to burst through the surface…whether or not it involves yoga directly…this program helps you to do it, be it, envision it, and become it with greater grace, efficiency, inspiration, tools, and FUN.

So those are my thoughts for today on teacher training! Wahe Guru!


Bless you, and come to us with your questions! We’d love to help.

Raghubir