bhaktiwhite-blog

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

Heading deep into the mind today as we continue our work with the koshas at @yogajunction this morning with the Manomaya kosha. Join me to flow and feel through the mind sheath of consciousness ❤️🙏 9:30-10:45 Junction Flow #myyogajunction #yogateacher #yogainspiration #yogaeverydamnday #shambhavayoga

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

I’m so proud to be a part of this particular issue of @yogajournal. Nikki Myers shares her story and the evolution of her work developing Y12SR a beautiful approach to partnering Yoga with 12 Step Recovery. These issues touch so many of us and our families. I am honored to have been her model for the sequence. I have a lot of friends and some family who have struggled with addiction and used 12 Step Programs to support their ongoing sobriety. Please pick up the March issue and share this important work with others ❤️🙏 Thanks to @tashaeich and @melissanewman36 for thinking of me for this and my whole awesome incredible Yoga Journal Family! #yogajournal #yogateacher #yogainspiration #yogainternational #12steps #shambhavayoga #kaiutyoga

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

Guys, guys, guys!!! They’re gonna@let me keep these beautiful purple peacock pants I wore in our last shoot! Ummm awesome. Watch for them in YJ AND in class! Thanks @extra.more @lineagewear and @yogajournal ❤️😃

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

Join me this week ❤️😊🙏 Tuesday 11:15-12:15 Hatha Therapeutics (Kaiut) @soultreeyoga (South) Wednesday 12-1 All Level Vinyasa @yogaloftboulder 1:30-2:30 Yin @yogaloftboulder Thursday 9:30-10:30 All Level Vinyasa @yogaloftboulder 11:15-12:15 Hatha Therapeutics (Kaiut) @soultreeyoga (South) 12:30-1:30 Flow @soultreeyoga (South) Friday 9:30-10:45 Align and Flow @yogajunction Sunday **SPECIAL OFFERING THIS WEEK** Yin with Sound Bath 1:30-2:45 @yogaloftboulder **No extra fee for the special combo of Yin with me and sound bath by Satya Dubay** 3:30-4:30 Vinyasa 1 @yogaloftboulder 6-7 Hatha Therapeutics (Kaiut) @soultreeyoga (Simpson) #yogateacher #shambhavayoga #yogainspiration #soultreeyoga #yogaloftboulder #yogajunction #yogaeverydamnday

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

Truth.

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

Come see me this week ❤️ Tuesday: Hatha Therapeutics (Kaiut) 11:15-12:15 @soultreeyoga Wednesday: 12-1 All Level Vinyasa @yogaloftboulder 1:30-2:30 Yin @yogaloftboulder Thursday: 9:30-10:30 All Level Vinyasa @yogaloftboulder 11:15-12:15 Hatha Therapeutics (Kaiut) @soultreeyoga 12:30-1:30 Flow @soultreeyoga Friday: 9:30-10:45 Align and Flow @yogajunction (**NEW CLASS) Sunday: 1:30-2:45 Yin @yogaloftboulder 3:30-4:30 Vinyasa Level 1 @yogaloftboulder 6-7 Hatha Therapeutics (Kaiut) @soultreeyoga *PRIVATE SESSIONS are fully booked this week, message me to schedule. #shambhavayoga #yogainspiration #soultreeyoga #yogaloftboulder #yogateacher #yogajunction

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

Hey All, Taking some time off to be with family was soooo good for me. Today's classes I felt more myself, more generous and more able to take risks and explore my teaching in ways I often cop out of. I sometimes avoid sharing those parts of me that I am afraid I'll be judged for. I can fall into the same trap we all do from time to time and just stay in my comfort zone. But after some time off with my family and in quiet reflection; I'm ready to do more, share more, be more fully myself... yup, even in spandex in front of a crowd lol! Teaching can be vulnerable and I am so grateful to be allowed to be brave for all of you. Your support as I've grown and changed over the years has been OMazing! I'm still growing into myself more and more every day and I'm lucky to share this journey with such and amazing group of humans. Change is coming. I feel my teaching evolving a LOT right now. Thank you for allowing me to grow with you! Xoxo, Bhakti #yogateacher #yogainspiration #yogaloftboulder #soultreeyoga #shambhavayoga

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

93% in Colorado. New beginnings and change are a foot. 🙏

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

When the sun shines brightly in the daytime again.... I'm teaching ❤️🙏😊 Tuesday 11:15 Kaiut at #soultreeyoga Wednesday 12:00 All Level Vinyasa and 1:30 Yin at #yogaloftboulder Thursday 9:30 All Level Vinyasa at #yogaloftboulder, 11:15 Kaiut and 12:30 Flow at #soultreeyoga South Friday 8:15 Kaiut at #soultreeyoga Simpson, 12:00 Vinyasa 1:00 Kaiut at #lifetimefitness Flatirons Sunday 1:30 Yin and 3:30 Vinyasa Level 1 at #yogaloftboulder, 6:00 Kaiut at #soultreeyoga Simpson #yogateacher #yogainspiration #yogalife #shambhavayoga #yogajournal #yogainternational #yogabody #ybicoalition

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

Colorado #yogaloftboulder studio sky views #nofilterneeded. There's so much energy building here and so many people preparing to look to the skies and see the light being blocked out by the darkness. It's a moment perfectly constructed to parallel our inward journey of Yoga. We can't always see the ways we are covering up the light in ourselves and in our views of each other. Astrologically it's a time where great change is possible. Make #eclipse day a day to recommit to your own journey through the darkness into the light. Look to the skies and see the reflection in your own ❤️ heart ❤️ We are all capable of bringing so much light into the world, if we can only see past the darkness into our own.

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

I'm baaaack... from my summer break with the kiddo! As of tomorrow afternoon I'll be teaching my full schedule! Tomorrow 12-1 Vinyasa and 1-2 Kaiut at #lifetimefitness Flatirons, Sunday 1:30-2:45 Yin and 3:30-4:30 Vinyasa 1 at#yogaloftboulder, Sunday 6-7 Kaiut at#soultreeyoga Simpson! Come see me sunned and fresh and ready to roll!

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

Take it on... but easy does it...

I’ve been thinking a lot about the things we fill our lives with. As a Health and Wellness coach I am often guiding sessions with people who are deeply exploring balance within their own lives; and because I believe strongly that, as a coach my job is to lead by example, I find myself consistently exploring balance and adjusting my own life to meet my ever evolving and very fluid understanding of balance.

I am often called a “go getter” a “leader” and a “teacher”. It is a part of my nature to fill my time and be useful to others. I have a natural desire to work hard and put a lot of love and care into the work I do. By work, here I really mean the tasks I take on that may be career oriented, family oriented, relationship building, self-care and more! This identity as being hard-working, responsible and a resource to others is one I hold dear. But, as I get older and have more years of experience and depth of awareness about my own patterns and behaviors I have begun to surrender this need to identify with this one aspect of my personality and open to letting go of the “go getter”, who can even “go get” a vacation or leisure activity and make it work too! Part of my job is self-regulation so I can even be relating to self-care time as being about more than just me. A responsibility of sorts.

What I have found is that I have this pattern of filling the modules of my days with efforts. I tend to look at free time as a time to fill up, not “wasting” a breath of this all too short time on earth. Making the most of it all! I love my work. All of my works. So I find them deeply satisfying and often don’t miss having time off or free time. I use all my time to work. I work all the time. I love to work all the time, just ask my husband LOL!

This is the real challenge of taking something you love and making it your career. It’s really not that you may come to resent it or enjoy it less, although of course that happens to some people and it is a risk, it’s that you my love it sooooo very much that you forget to open up and love…nothing…too. To just be. Taskless. Not meditating, yogaing, healthing, lounging. Nothing. 

I’m finding that as I build “nothing” into my calendar and consciously resist the irrefutable urge to make something out of nothing (my art school education rearing it’s creative head!) I begin to let that void just be. I discover what it is I want to do for me (later, when I’m done nothing-ing) on a significantly deeper level. I make better choices with my time. I let go of my identity as a “doer” and open to a more complex expression of who I am. I even unapologetically drop the ball on occasions, gasp.

It’s amazing.

Finding a life balance that really reflects your nature, goals, hopes etc. is sometimes less about constructing a structure for the things you will do and more about learning to be nothing and nowhere from time to time. It’s that space between the events of life that sometimes guides us to our true center and that’s where balance happens.

Now, stop reading. Turn off the laptop. Go do nothing. Really. Absolutely nothing. I dare you :)

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

Going "Deeper"

"You keep using that (cue). I do not think it means what you think it means.." -Inigo Montoya (The Princess Bride) How many times have you heard your yoga teacher remind you about your breathing during class? So often we aren't listening any more to those fillers right?! Our teachers will cue us to "take a deep breath", "take a full breath", "breath into your (insert anatomical/energetic landmark here)" but what are they actually asking us to do and why? For convenience I'll just call this the "deep breath". Many people interpret this cue incorrectly; assuming that it means drawing in as much air as they can, or a "big breath". However, where you breathe is physiologically significantly more relevant than how much air you are able to draw in. When a yoga teacher cues a deep breath they are actually working to retrain the autonomic nervous system, which has been compromised by problematic habitual breathing patters. Due to stress, trauma, posture... etc. etc. we develop compensatory patterns; not only in the body in the form of tight hamstrings for example, but also in the way we breathe. Tight hamstrings could contribute to a slew of physical issues like lower lumber pain or even disk injuries; in the same way breathing compensatory patters will have their own negative impact on our health and wellness. An example of a very common pattern is the shallow, or chest style of breathing. We have all experienced this pattern in its most extreme form. When emotions are high and we are panicked we tend to "hyperventilate" into the chest taking quick, shallow, rapid breaths. This activates the adrenal glands and our fight our flight reflex kicks in. It should be acknowledged that this is good! If a serious situation arises and we go into this mode, our survival instinct will serve us well! However, if we develop a habit of breathing this same way (only FAR more subtly, so much so, we often don't even notice it) we can remain in this heightened physiological condition; taxing the adrenal glands, throwing off the acid levels in our blood stream and stressing the body in a myriad of other ways. This is just one example, there are many other unconscious and unhealthy breathing patterns too! So retraining ourselves to breathe "deeply" into the lowest parts of the respiratory system, activating the diaphragm and regulating the activity of both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems is the real task at hand. So, for now... I invite you to place to the side the more exotic and "stronger"or "intense" pranayama practices of yoga and head back to our good old friend Dirga Pranayama or the 3-Part Full Yogic Breath. By consciously spending a little time practicing this kind of optimal breathing on a regular basis, we bring balance back to the entire system. Just as it takes time to master any yoga pose (Here I must insert; if mastery is even a possibility which, since the body is dynamic this always in flux, I do not believe it is.) it takes time, discipline and regular practice to retrain the breath. Especially considering we have spent so many years training out of optimal function. I do this practice every time I hit the mat! Practicing in a stationary position (lying down is easiest, though sitting and standing are fine challenges) is great when you are starting out. Once you can consciously activate the "deep breath", try doing it while doing poses (asanas) and in this way the mat becomes the training ground for your whole life! If you can take a deep breath in a handstand, with all the other things you are paying attention to (hopefully, or else you will fall on your head) you can certainly access that breath any time you need some self-regulation and stress reduction in your daily life. So the next time your teacher sounds like a broken record reminding you to breathe deeply... Pay attention and really try! Dirga Pranayama: -Find a comfortable position you can sustain in stillness so you can tune into the subtleties of your own breathing. (Reclined will be easiest) -Place the palm of one hand on your navel (This is lower than most people understand. Find the space below your belly button just above your pubic bone) -Begin to send as much of the air you take in (doesn't matter if this is a small or big amount) as possible down into this low space. You will notice your belly extend forward in the inhale then retract gently towards the spine on the exhale. Be mindful that when asked to breathe her most people will believe they are doing this when in fact they are moving from the rib cage. Go lower! -Once you have established that navel breath, place the palm of your other hand at the ribs (front back or sides are fine and all those options bring new awareness so try them all at different practice sessions). -Breath into the navel FIRST then continue to inhale to feel the rib cage expand in all directions. -On the exhale FIRST, the ribs return to normal. THEN, the navel draws back in reversing the process. -Now you are doing the two-step diaphragmatic breath! This is a good place to practice for a while. -Once you are pretty familiar with this practice you can add the last step. -You can place either hand on your collarbones. -Send your breath into FIRST the navel, SECOND the ribs, THIRD the collarbones. -On the exhale FIRST, the collarbones soften and release, SECOND the ribs return to normal, THIRD the navel draws back in reversing the process. Practice regularly to maintain optimal breathing and enjoy a healthy nervous system! Namaste! Bhakti

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.

Willie Nelson

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

Molly says happy national dogs day!

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

CIrca 2006 my early days of teaching <3

[bhaktiwhite-blog]

Want to learn from the best yoga teachers around? Molly pup, Jonah and Ramalamadingdong are ready to help! Working on the syllabus for this year’s 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training. It’s always like a giant puzzle and eventually I ditch the computer and go old school pasting each day on my bedroom mirror, cutting out the curriculum blocks, my training exercises and using painter’s tape to jigsaw it all together. Happy to have some help this year from the animals!