Grounding yourself when you are on travel

Certainly nothing has helped me more recently in my life than dedicating myself to a yoga practice. Going through a painful divorce, having my daughter, Olivia, diagnosed with epilepsy, and adapting to the frenetic lifestyle of a New Yorker after living in California for 8 years, to name a few events that have worked towards disrupting any semblance of a peaceful centered life for me. Anyone who has dedicated themselves to a yoga practice knows that the practice itself is a wonderful metaphor for life and teaches you to live in the present moment. A lot of our life's problems and difficulties can be symbolically "worked out on the mat." Yoga had become such an integral part of my life, that when I had not practiced in a couple of days, I could feel those same feelings of remorse for the past and fear and uncertainty of the future creeping back into my life. When my job forced me to travel all over the country and sometimes the world, I found it more and more difficult to find the time for my practice. Of all times to need to feel grounded and centered, being on travel is one of them. So many things are out of your control - flight delays, being in a strange unfamiliar place, and missing the ones you love. After many yoga-less trips, I resolved myself to bringing my practice with me when I was on travel. First, I tried simply stashing my mat in my suitcase and planned on practicing in the privacy of my hotel room. The first couple times my mat never made it out of the container that had become like my second home. Again, I reminded myself of my commitment to my practice, and I started to search for yoga routines on the internet to help inspire me to practice. What I found was an amazing wealth of "Youtube" videos, and the like, containing 10 minute yoga flow sequences, some of which could even be pieced together to create a complete 60 minute yoga session. The best online yoga sessions I found were on Sadie Nardini's (one of NYC's premier yoga instructors.) YouTube channel. See http://www.youtube.com/user/sadienardini. This kept me going for a while, but I started to feel like something was lacking. What was missing was the collective breathing of everyone in the room as you transition from Urdhva Mukha Svanasana to Adho Mukha Svanasana, the subtle adjustments from the instructor, the collective humor of everyone trying to not take themselves too seriously when working into the more challenging poses and it doesn't quite work out. I realized this was a huge part of what kept bringing me back to the mat. So, the answer seemed simple - seek out the local yoga studio (indeed almost every yoga studio has a website these days with their schedules readily available online) and come in and practice. Well, this was easier said than done. Before leaving town, I would check the schedules from all of the local yoga studios and find classes and times that, "in principle", would work for me. However, after returning to the hotel room after a long work day, I would always find excuses not to go. "Oh, I am really tired and haven't eaten dinner yet.", or "Hmmm, maybe I will go tomorrow." What was really causing me not to go was fear. Fear of going to a new studio where I didn't know anyone. Fear of not being good enough to practice there. Fear of meeting new people. When I realized this, I asked myself "What are you really afraid of?" I was certainly not afraid of kicking up into handstand, knowing that I am not even close to mastering this yet, or testing out the possibility of getting into a new funky arm balance that I never did before. So, again, yoga became the answer to conquering my fear of what has yet to come. That is, I realized that through yoga we learn not to worry or fret about things that have not happened; in essence, to live in the present. I saw clearly that I really wanted to go in and practice, and there was nothing stopping me except for my silly fear of things that had not even happened yet. Since that realization, I have been going into random yoga studios all over the country and have not only found that I can keep my commitment to my yoga practice and stay more grounded when I am away from home , but also that I have access to a very unique experience that other practicing yogis do not have. Just like other things in life, when practicing yoga, one can find themselves getting into the proverbial "rut." While there are surely ways of getting out of this "stuck" place while practicing at your same studio, in your same town, at the same time, practicing yoga in a different studio, in a different town, at a different time, can really give one a brand new perspective, not just on yoga, but the pulse of the people in a different place. Those differences are not to be judged, but rather to be celebrated. And yet, even with those differences, I find that in any studio, any where in the world, that I still feel part of a community. So, why I am writing about this? Well, after returning from my trips, I would always tell my yoga instructors, friends, and fellow practicing yogis about my experiences practicing in this studio or that studio. My good friend, and one of the best instructors I have had the pleasure to practice with, Summer Shirey, suggested to me that I should start blogging about my experiences. (Check out Summer's website listed on my blog page for her info and teaching schedule.) To be honest with you, I have never blogged about anything else before and never read other people's blogs. So, I had to do a little research, and what I found was basically, anything goes. So, what can you expect in the future from this little side project I have committed myself to? (Partly because Summer announced yesterday in class that Samantha is starting a yoga blog and you should all check it out. "Thanks, Summer." ;-)) Hopefully, you will enjoy reading about my experiences, some of which have been very interesting and fun. As a more practical outcome, I would like this to serve as a kind of review or recommendation of yoga studios from the perspective of the outsider. So, if you ever find yourself traveling to the same city, town, etc., you will know where to go to ground yourself and find that the center is never too far away from home.

Nameste