The Sun

Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again

out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–

or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things? 

- Mary Oliver

Save the Date: April 9th from 10 AM-1:30 PM

April marks All Life Is Yoga’s fifth year in business! From what I understand, if you can get through the first five years of having a business… :-) To celebrate, I will be teaching my 10-11:30AM class as a community appreciation class and we will have a potluck gathering afterwards from 12-1:30. Feel free to bring a yummy, vegetarian dish.

Also, I will be sharing some big news. The time I’ve taken away from running the business as a traditional yoga studio has brought me a tremendous amount of clarity about the direction I truly want the business to go in. I am looking forward to communicating this new clarity with you.

I hope you are able to attend. Thank you so much for supporting All Life Is Yoga for the past five years. Many more to come!

Rutu Chaudhari is a certified Purna Yoga teacher who holds a 2,000-hour certification. Rutu assists teacher trainings, yoga workshops and conferences with Aadil Palkhivala.  She is the Director of the College of Purna Yoga in Atlanta and conducts teacher trainings at her thriving studio, All Life is Yoga.

Rutu is a shining example of the discipline and love for yoga. She sincerely lives her yoga and her radiance and light shine from the inside out. Rutu offers an abounding knowledge of alignment and anatomy, meditation, practical application of yogic philosophy and nutrition and lifestyle from Ayurveda, Chinese and Western traditions. She is also a leading teacher of yoga therapeutics.

Yeah, I'm competitive.

Everyday I compete with myself. Have I become better than yesterday? That is my objective. I'm not interested in being better than you. I'm interested in experiencing the fullest glory of my own self. Why do I settle for a mediocre version of myself when I have, in my heart center, access to unconditional love? Good Question. Good Practice.

Rutu Chaudhari is a certified Purna Yoga teacher who holds a 2,000-hour certification. Rutu assists teacher trainings, yoga workshops and conferences with Aadil Palkhivala.  She is the Director of the College of Purna Yoga in Atlanta and conducts teacher trainings at her thriving studio, All Life is Yoga.

Rutu is a shining example of the discipline and love for yoga. She sincerely lives her yoga and her radiance and light shine from the inside out. Rutu offers an abounding knowledge of alignment and anatomy, meditation, practical application of yogic philosophy and nutrition and lifestyle from Ayurveda, Chinese and Western traditions. She is also a leading teacher of yoga therapeutics.

May Your Medications Bring You Peace, Love and Bliss

According to an article on insomnia and effectiveness of the popular sleep medicine Ambien, there is virtually no difference in the quality and amount of sleep you get when taking sleep medication. The average increase in sleep with Ambien is only twenty minutes more than when not taking a drug for sleep. What Ambien does do is trigger short-term amnesia, so that you forget that you tossed and turned all night. By blocking memory, it creates the illusion of a good night’s sleep. Insomnia has become a subject of study for me because I’m currently challenged by it. For the past five months, I have received, on average, a total of two hours of sleep a night. I’m opposed to taking drugs because I know that they are just a Band-Aid; only addressing symptoms does little for long-term healing and, in many cases, creates a myriad of other ailments and potential disease. However, after a few months of not sleeping, I caved and took a sleeping pill. I woke up feeling refreshed! So I did it again the next night, and again I woke up invigorated and ready to greet the world. Then I decided to stop as to not create a habit.

So, if I actually didn’t get any additional sleep by taking those sleeping pills, then what is it that had me feeling so rejuvenated? Seth Godin explains that it’s about the story we tell ourselves. Not sleeping for months created a certain story that only perpetuated the frustration and exhaustion I felt. I’m tired, I’m unproductive because I haven’t slept, I’m depressed because I haven’t slept… what’s wrong with me? If I’m not getting sleep by taking a pill or not taking a pill, then my best option is to change the story I’m telling myself about my insomnia. And that’s what I’m working towards now.

Perhaps this period of insomnia is a recalibration in my nervous system. Per the recommendation of my meditation teacher, I’ve spent nearly past ten years in a state of involution. I’ve been focused on inner work, not taking in 85% of the outer world. For nearly a decade, I stopped listening to music, reading books; I stopped watching movies and news, and discovering art. I occasionally peeked out, but for the most part social interaction ceased so that I could go inside to discern between what is my truth and what is the influence of the outer world. It was an incredible period—but now, I’m coming out. I’m ready to be in the world and integrate my inner work with the outer world. I’m emerging!

That’s the story I tell myself. And I am sleeping five hours a night, now.

The story we tell ourselves about our ailments can be a vehicle for change, a tool for healing. Personally, meditation is what helps clarify and implement this new story into my day-to-day routine. While most medications serve to help us forget, and to numb what’s actually going on, meditation serves to increase our sensitivity and connect us more deeply to ourselves, others and our planet.

Rutu Chaudhari is a certified Purna Yoga teacher who holds a 2,000-hour certification. Rutu assists teacher trainings, yoga workshops and conferences with Aadil Palkhivala.  She is the Director of the College of Purna Yoga in Atlanta and conducts teacher trainings at her thriving studio, All Life is Yoga.

Rutu is a shining example of the discipline and love for yoga. She sincerely lives her yoga and her radiance and light shine from the inside out. Rutu offers an abounding knowledge of alignment and anatomy, meditation, practical application of yogic philosophy and nutrition and lifestyle from Ayurveda, Chinese and Western traditions. She is also a leading teacher of yoga therapeutics.

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The Road Less Travelled

One day I was walking down the street and I fell into a hole.The next day I walked down the street, and again, I fell into the hole. The next day I walked down the street, saw the hole and fell into it. The next day I walked down the street, saw the hole, examined the hole, and fell in. The next day I walked down the street, tried to walk around the hole and fell in. The next day I walked down the street and I painstakingly walked around the hole. The next day I chose a different road to walk down.

Here’s to learning our lessons and choosing another, more glorious path!

The Most Prominent Color is Black

The current fiasco that is our presidential race has left me feeling nauseous, so much so that I don’t have the heart to write about how much it matters that we vote this coming Tuesday. But I hope you do, here’s a link to find out where your poll location is. I thought instead I would share a piece on the pharmaceutical industry, medications, their ineffectiveness and why.  Blah blah blah…and again I felt disheartened.

And then I watched a beautiful music video from one of my favorite emcees, Kendrick Lamar. It made my heart open. A celebration of blackness and self-love feels like the most meaningful message to share right now. I needed a reminder that we're gonna be alright. Thank God for art.

Most People Are Other People

So true, Mr. Wilde. A great reminder that most things in our world condition us to conform and fit in. A sincere yoga practice cuts through the veneer and teaches us that if the masses are doing it, it behooves us to run in the other direction!

Instead of using the gifts of your mind to gather data from the outside world to help define who you are, draw your senses inward. Dwell in your heart center and listen for the moment-to-moment truth guiding you towards your weird, creative, and wonderful self.

Join me Friday, March 4th from 6:30 to 8:30 PM to learn meditation techniques that have helped me on my journey to discern what is real from what is pretense.

Register Here

200 & 500 Hour Purna Yoga Teacher Training begins in April

200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training at All Life is Yoga  This course covers the foundational curriculum of Purna Yoga—alignment-based asana and pranayama, meditation, nutrition and applied yogic philosophy.  In addition, learn the anatomy and physiology of yoga and breath, how to understand injuries and health concerns, how to develop confidence and leadership, and discover the difference between yoga from the mind and the approach to practicing and teaching yoga from the heart. The act of learning to teach elevates your understanding of yoga to a level that practice alone cannot reach. That is why this course shows you how to do, teach, and live the whole of yoga.

At the 200-hour Level you gain the knowledge, confidence and awareness that is essential for becoming an alignment-based yoga teacher.

Apply Here 

500 Hour Yoga Teacher Training at Purna Yoga East, NC. 

I look forward to assisting Aadil Palkhivala for the 500 hour program that begins April 16th, 2016. This is a rare opportunity, and probably the last time, Aadil and Savitri will teach the entire 500 hour program.  The College of Purna Yoga 500 Hour training Affiliate Level is for yoga teachers or serious students who want to affect the world in a positive way by teaching yoga and meditation with more power, potency, professionalism, and purpose!

There are two important facets to this training, expanding your technical knowledge and the commitment to your spiritual development.

Expectations are higher and living yoga is the goal for the student at the affiliate level.

Apply Here

Hip Compression and Decompression

This Friday night from 6:30-8:30 PM, I’ll be teaching the Hip Series with assisted traction: a seemingly simple set of movements that open the hips and allow the body to move freely. Balanced hips and decompression of the hip joints are critical for sustainable, enjoyable, and fluid movement. The hip joint is a ball-and-socket joint. It’s the most mobile of all the joint types, moving in the six different directions possible for your body. Given our body’s structure and the force of gravity, the ball is perpetually being pushed into it’s socket. This joint feels impact whether we are sitting, standing, or moving. Arguably, even when we sleep, the subconscious tension our bodies carry continues the contraction of muscles along the joint.

Therefore the hip joint needs decompression on a regular basis. When Aadil first introduced me to the hip series, he said you will not understand the gravity of what you are learning until many years down the road. After ten years of practicing and training my eyes to see and understand the human body, I cannot say with more conviction; the Hip Series is the single most important thing you can do for the health of your entire body.

We will explore the Hip Series with assisted traction—basically taking a method that is already perfect and refining it with the help of a friend for an even deeper experience of decompression. Bring a friend or make a friend!

Pre-registration is required.

Gentle Reminder: Registration to Vote for Primaries Ends Feb. 1st

I realize that your feeds have been inundated with quotes from Dr. King, so I decided to wait a week :-)

“Let us never succumb to the temptation of believing that legislation and judicial decree play only minor roles in solving this problem. Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decree may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless. The law cannot make an employer love an employee, but it can prevent him from refusing to hire me because of the color of my skin. The habits, if not the hearts, of people have been and are being altered every day by legislative acts, judicial decisions, and executive orders. Let us not be misled by those who argue that segregation cannot be ended by the force of law.”

We have the fortune to stand on the shoulders of giants in this city. We honor their work with our participation.

Register to Vote Online

Georgia Has Open Primaries

...Which means that you can vote without declaring your party affiliation; Great news if your party’s current roster of candidates is disappointing. You could vote for, say, Bernie Sanders, if you wanted :-) February 1st, 2016 is the deadline to register to vote in the March 1st, 2016 primaries.

Here's a link to painless online voter registration.

Dharma: Action Tinged with Dream

I’m teaching a restorative practice this Friday evening from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. I’ll be reading the “Dharma” section of Fire of Love during class. Dharma, or “life purpose,” is the first chapter in Aadil’s book. Why dharma? Because the exploration, discovery, and fulfillment of purpose is the most worthwhile endeavor of our lives—what could be more important than understanding our purpose, or more satisfying than living a life that fulfills that purpose? It seems to me that our collective evolution is hindered when we are individually not doing what we are here to do.

“Discovering our dharma is the most important step in our life. A dharma undiscovered is a life not directed towards the soul’s end. Without the realization of dharma—even if you work hard and long—you will remain unfulfilled. You will climb the ladder of success only to find, when you have finally reached the top, that it was leaning against the wrong wall. Without a clear purpose, a life mission, you short-circuit your freedom. How can you wholeheartedly put effort into your life if you have no direction in which to go? And how can you possibly feel fulfilled even with the effort you are making?” Aadil Palkhivala, Fire of Love

Dharma is the foundation of Purna Yoga. We spend some time during class asking these questions, but once or twice a week is not enough. On a daily basis, create moments of quiet to, connect to your heart center and ask yourself:

1.     Who am I?

2.     Why am I here?

3.     Where am I going?

Ask with sincerity, and you may just become the answer.

I hope you’ll join me this Friday night.  Register here!