Eco-Christmas Ideas & New Year's Manifestion exercise

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

The Holidays have always been such a special time of year for me, and for my family. My dad is Mr. Christmas. He absolutely adores these festivities, and my parents home is the perfect setting. They live an gorgeous cottage just outside Montreal that is nearly 120 years-old. The living room has this incredible cathedral ceiling and a massive stone fireplace. Decked with twinkling garlands and a 10 foot tree, this room is Christmas personified. It's so nice to spend a few days here.

I am so grateful for all my blessings and my heart is full of joy and exhalation as we come to the end of a most memorable 12 months.  And an incredible year lies ahead! 2012! Amazing. A historic adventure, I'm sure. I pray for peace, compassion, and global tolerance and acceptance.

Made yesterday and full of Holiday cheer, here is my first video in a long time! (Yes, I'm a little rusty in front of the camera...) In this video, I'm sharing some of my own Christmas traditions-- my eco-gift wrapping ideas, my make-shift decorations, and a special Alternate Nostril breathing exercise designed to promote energy, happiness, inspiration and love, while relieving stress, fear, frustration and anxiety.

Wishing you a wonderful New Year full of inspiration, creation, light, love, health and wealth. 

Much love,
Yasmin

Day 88 - WORLD RECORD CHALLENGE

Soon I will be at the end of my 108 days of 108 sun salutations. It has been an unbelievable adventure and a very powerful experience for me. I have made deep connections with people. I have overcome injuries and many mental blockages. I have expanded my view of what is possible in this world and I have seen others do the same. I have opened my heart to many beautiful things and I am some much more aware of my rightful place in cycle of life. I am blessed to had the support of wonderful people around me during this time, and blessed to have the inspiration to continue.

My friends, I have decided to complete what has been an extraordinary three and a half months in an extraordinary way. On August 2nd and 3rd, I am challenging the current Guinness Book World Record for longest yoga marathon, which currently stands at 29 hour and 4 minutes.

This record has been broken several times around the world, but it has never been challenged by a woman nor a Canadian. I have been in contact with the people at Guinness for some months and they have agreed to open a new category for me: Longest Yoga Marathon (Female). This is huge, because it will invite other yoginis to attempt this after me. My goal is 32 hours.

I know that trying to break a World Record for yoga is not conventional in our teachings, but this is an opportunity to expose yoga a significant way using a new voice. I want you to know that this idea has come from my heart and is fueled by a sincere desire to promote yoga for all of us, to bring together our community and to demonstrate the divine balance of shiva/shakti, yin/yang, male and female energy. My challenge will require everything the practice offers: inner strength, mental focus, physical stamina, flexibility, patience, balance, grace, and a strong spiritual connection. This an opportunity for the entire yoga community to come together.

I will also be using this as an opportunity to raise money and awareness for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, a humanitarian organization that works to prevent the spread of HIV in Africa.

I assure you, I will not harm myself during this World Record setting attempt. I am well trained, and I was taught by some of the best yoga masters in the world. And now, after nearly 108 days of surya namaskar, I am even more prepared for this final challenge, but I can’t do it alone.

Please, I need your help.


In order to authenticate the World Record, Guinness requires the following:

• 16 witnesses for five hour blocks
• 16 timekeepers for five hour blocks
• 8 yoga teachers for five hour blocks
• 8 ‘stewards’ to manage the log books and volunteers
• Someone to be the official videographer
• Two stop watches down to the 0.01 seconds
• A big digital clock to hang on the wall (it needs to be in the video recording and in the photos)

I also need -

• Yoga participants and cheerleaders to practice with me and encourage me
• A food & beverages sponsor
• Financial assistance from Corporate Sponsors to help cover the costs of the event (Details below)

We have contacted different media outlets about this event and already there is a lot excitement. The Guinness Book of World Records may also use our photographs and video footage on their website, in their international television programs, in their books, and/or in their dvds. So, corporate sponsors of this event will have the opportunity for great promotion.

Our three top sponsors will have the opportunity to:
- hang their company banner on the wall in the location where I’ll be practicing
- place their logo on the clothes that I will wear during the challenge
- be mentioned in our press releases
- have their logo on our websites and Facebook page
- possibility be featured in one of the Guinness’ international publications

All funds collected after the initial cost of the event are covered will be donated to the Stephen Lewis Foundation. (The exact cost of the event will be determined in the next couple of days.)

If you would like to make a donation or help in any of these areas, please contact Frances, who is organizing the schedule. Her email: events@westislandyoga.com

Thank you Thank you Thank you

Day 80 - Around the Sun in 80 days...

My mind has been a bit shifty today. It's been bouncing from one idea to the next and I've had some trouble focusing. I suppose this is related to my continued efforts to reorganize my apartment and by extension, my life. I'm not entirely finished going through everything, so many places in the house have piles that still need sorting and boxes that need a home. I feel a little disoriented, but I'm plodding along. Today, I managed to repair a few things that needed gluing and I finished renegotiating the space in my dressing room/yoga space, which feels great.

While I was cleaning, I was thinking about how far along I am in my quest. I can't believe it's been 80 days of 108 sun salutations. Tomorrow will be the 3/4 milestone. This project will be done before I know it and I have a lot of mix feelings about that. Part of me is looking forward to the 108th day, but another part is going to miss this routine. After all, these sun salutations, these photos and this blog are such a big part of my life. It often feels like this, along with teaching and managing the studio, is all I do. At times it's a bit isolating, but I know this will change soon.

Today's 108 was also a little scattered throughout the day. My shoulder is feeling much better, but I am still practicing slowly and leaving out chaturanga every few sun sals to give myself a break. It also helps to rest in between sets and to try to keep a clear focus.

Lately, my focus is on cultivating greater abundance in my life, which is also why I've been spending so much time clearing out my home and office and getting rid of things that aren't helping me go further. Of course part of this is physical junk, but the other aspect, which is more important is to clear out stagnant mental energy as well. To help me through the psychological mine field, I created a mantra to help me stay connected to my intention. During surya namaskar and as often as I remember throughout the day, I repeat these simple words: "I am channeling more abundance into my life to enhance my health, wealth and happiness."

(in case you didn't see Sunday's photo, here's the before picture:)

PS... People have already started asking me what I'm going to do on August 2nd & 3rd, my two last days. At the moment, my ideas are still percolating, but I'm running low on the energy needed to plan events, which is why I haven't been promoting any new community classes lately. I want to continue offering 108 or 54 practices at other studios in July, but at this point, I'm spread a little too thin. Do you have any suggestions?

Day 67 - Community support heals headaches

I feel like I'm at that point in the marathon where, although I'm past the halfway mark, I'm feeling very tired and there's still so much further to go. Seriously, there have been several times this week where 108 sun salutations seems like 108 million and each one is really effortful. But here's where things get interesting and I am so grateful to have people practice with on days like this.

Today was particularly challenging, because I woke up with a bad headache, which turned into one of those migraines that make you want to puke. I had so many errands to do in preparation for a big party I'm hosting at my studio on Friday. However, this time, I refused to take any pain killers, because I really wanted to stay in contact with the pain, so I could better understand it. As I wrote in the past, the reason I don't like pain killers is because they numb me and I have no reference to how I'm really feeling. So, even though I'm clearly under strain, with a pain killer, I can push myself harder because I don't feel the discomfort or pain. The result is that later, when the pills where off, the problem is still there and usually I have an even worse headache. Anyway, I didn't want to go through that again today, so all day I just observed how I was feeling and how I was breathing.

I noticed that taking deep breaths was soothing and so was eating. My soy latte also gave me a little relief. But I was still concerned because I was scheduled to lead a 108 practice at Island Gym in L'Île-Perrot at 7pm. And indeed the first third of the practice was almost murderous, but then slowly I started to feel better. I think it had something to do with the breathing and movement and for the energy of the people practicing with me.

Steve Maier, a strong yoga teacher I've know for ten years hosted me in his class at the gym. There were more than 20 of us and the group was enthusiastic and committed. I think this, combined with Steve's help in teaching, really helped me get through the practice and clear the headache. I also had a few students join me from Om West, which was a bonus.

I'm now at home and feeling relaxed. I'm really thankful for all the people who are supporting me in this journey, this pilgrimage. It makes a such a difference in my energy. It's inspiring. Plus, it no longer feels like me alone. It feels like a community project.

OH, AND WE RAISED $207.08 for the DAVID SUZUKI FOUNDATION TONIGHT!!! Awesome. Thank you so much.

Video chat with instructor Steve Maier

PS I forgot to mention the reiki treatment my friend Isabelle did on me at a distance. I'm sure that helped as well. (By the way, Isabelle is an incredible healer-- acupressure, reflexology and reiki. I highly recommend her. Her contact is serenityflow@hotmail.com, in case you are interested.)

Day 36 – Reflections of the journey 1/3 through

As of today, I will have completed 3888 sun salutations. My friends, Jamie and Jeanine, suggest contacting the Guinness Book of World Records and see if I might be a contestant for most sun salutations. That would be pretty cool, something to cross off the bucket list anyway.

I haven’t done my practice today, because I slept in until 9am again today and then we got right into making pancakes. (FYI, sun salutations on a full belly of banana pancakes isn’t awesome.) We have scheduled a practice for about 4:30pm and as of now, everyone is keen. I’m starting to better and better about practicing. I look forward to it every day. I get high on the feeling of gliding into and out of postures effortlessly. Just thinking about it gives me tingles up m spine. I love being in my own world, where everything stressful and seemingly important falls away and I’m left with clear and floating feeling. It’s kind of like sex actually.

My body is transforming, as well. Not surprisingly, I have become leaner and much more toned. I not bulky, but I feel do feel a lot stronger. I am able to open jars all by myself and my capacity to lift heavy objects has increased quite a bit. It’s rare that I feel sore and achy, and if I do wake up a little stiff, the feeling is gone after the first 36 sun sals. The other day I had big pain in my tibialis anterior muscle, which is located at the front the shin and is mostly responsible for foot flexion. It hurt all the way up into my knee, but after a couple of minutes in sputa virasana, the cramping sensation completely subsided.

My appetite has changed too. At the beginning of this 108, I was rarely hungry despite the amount of physical activity I was doing. I just didn’t feel like eating. Now, my appetite is much stronger. I love feeling hungry, because it makes me excited about eating and there’s nothing worse that being ‘blah’ at mealtime. I don’t go for typical junk food, but I do like ‘organic’ chips, salsa and homemade cookies. Lately, I’ve been enjoying soups, stews, tripped out oatmeal and Vega smoothies, oh and dark chocolate.

Speaking of food, I learned something new today. Kat, who is ever conscious of food production, taught me how to read fruit and veggie labels this morning: If the number on say the banana sticker starts with a #3, it means it’s genetically modified. If it starts with a #4, the produce was grown with conventional agricultural practices. And if the sticker begins with a #9, it means organic. To remember these numbers, Kat suggests thinking of it as a scale from worse to best— three is least healthy and nine is the healthiest. Here’s a link to an article about why genetically modified food sucks: http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/ge/

* * *
Did my practice outside this afternoon with Jamie, Vito and Craig. The black flies and mosquitoes were bad, but no excuse to stay inside, so I adapted my yoga outfit accordingly.
(Those mesh jackets work great, despite how annoying they are to move in!)