Some Yoga Etiquette Guidelines

You may (or may not) know that I am a yoga teacher and practitioner. After teaching for seven or so years now, I've come up with some yoga manners guidelines. There aren't many, but the ones I do have are some about which I feel quite strong:

1.) Start your practice with a (relatively) clean body. Yoga is about building heat and patience in the body, and so I get it! - people sweat! If you start sweating during practice, GREAT. No worries if you come to class after work, but what gripes me is someone that will come in after not having showered or washed in a very long time with layers of uncleanliness on them, and even before class starts, they may smell so off-color that even being next to them is disagreeable. It is a simple thing have a small package of baby-wipes in your car, if you need a quick swipe under your arms. Some of us are sensitive to smells (me!), and it makes practicing difficult. The smell of sweat is fine; "sour" from unwashed-ness is not so ok.

2.) In your attempt to be clean, also please do not overcompensate by dousing yourself with cologne or perfume. This is just as bad as unwashed flesh, for the reasons mentioned above. Nothing worse than being on your mat, and the woman who is head-to-toe spritzed in her daily perfume plops down next to you. Overload!

3.) Last but not least -- Please, please, please DO NOT walk on other peoples' mats. I have been in classes where students have walked on other students' mats, and this bothers me to no end. A yoga mat, to me, is a sacred place. It is where we do some of our most introspective work; it is the only place where some people can really connect to their "quiet place." It's like being in church or temple. When someone other than that mat's owner walks on it, it is as if you came into someone else's meditation spot and made a bunch of noise.

Yoga love and kisses to all, and please KEEP PRACTICING! Yoga does a body good!

~Michelle

Sarah Palin for President? No, She Has Another Role To Play...

Much has been written about and against Sarah Palin... here's my two cents' worth.

Sarah Palin, after having been thrust onto the national stage, has been bandied about as a possible presidential candidate, and many people have good and bad things to say about her. While I believe that she is an amazing personality, and she lives and breathes her staunch opinions, I am not of the mind to think that she would make a good president. At least at this point.

After seeing her on many talk shows and in interviews, I believe her power and strength lie in rousing the lazy populace to their feet. That's all.

Listen to any of her interviews. She has many bywords she throws out, and she drops conservative expressions and one-liners faster than I can count. But she lacks the substance and underlying knowledge and wisdom that a president would need.

That said, it is my belief that liberals attack her with such vitriol because they KNOW that their candidate, Barack Obama (whom I think shares the exact same inexperience on the national stage, as well as the same political greenness as Sarah Palin) got elected nonetheless. And if liberals can see that their candidate could get elected, well, then heck! Sarah Palin has just as good a chance of becoming president, as well. And THAT scares liberals.

Sarah's got heart, she's got personality, she's got charm and charisma. I think her position in the political arena is best served as the luminary for the liberty movement. Her strongest attributes are her ability to rally the troops against big government, and to inject energy into the reclaiming of this country's values and independence.

And for that, I say.... GO SARAH! ROCK THIS COUNTRY AND GET IT BACK ON TRACK!

But then, again.... give her a decade or so of being a public figure that can again kindle the American spirit into a frenzy of independence and liberty, and she might just make a damn good president, after all.

Hello to all.

So a little about me: I'm a mom, a divorced woman, a college student, a part-time yoga teacher, a wonderful home cook, an armchair political commentator, amateur crafty artist, a carnivorous health nut and many other things. Oh, and, I LOVE COFFEE with rice milk - yum.

I have two kids, a son who is 14 and taller than me... he is handsome, sweet, intelligent, quick-witted, he plays football, loves being around other people, and is just a doll to have around. He keeps me entertained and laughing.

My daughter is 11 and is smarter than I know what to do with lol... she is so pretty, and smart, and logical, and kind to others, and has a fiery temper when not happy. She makes me so glad to be a mom, and I wouldn't have it any other way. She makes me be a better person, and a stronger woman for her.

As for me, I was married early at 20, and was married for 20 years, and am almost through the divorce process - thank goodness! - but I'll not dive into that subject right now.

I love politics, being a true-at-heart Libertarian. I'll be posting lots of Libertarian thoughts, articles, links, even some conservative stuff, too.

I love to cook, so we may have some recipes on here, as well.

I am a health nut, but not in the way you may normally think. I have long subscribed to the Peter J. D'Adamo Blood Type Diet, as I am a blood type O, which makes me a hard-core, out-of-the-closet carnivore, and I have to tell you, I have never been so healthy in all my life.

Hmmm, what else? Not sure, so I'm out for now.

Yoga love and kisses,

Michelle

Hello to everyone... possibly no one!

Well, here I am.

For ages and ages and ages, I was the person who internally snarled, "Why would anyone blog? Do they seriously think they're so self-important that ANYONE would want to know each and every thought? Who are they kidding?"

Ah, how things change....

I do not think that I have all the answers, by any stretch. Nor do I believe I know it all. But somewhere amidst the thinks that I have and the things that I hear, stuff goes on up here in my head.

In this blog, I will not stick to one thing in particular, but rather we will hopscotch about, talking politics, motherhood, divorce, friends, frenemies, and you can even suggest a topic or two.

This is my first foray into blogging, so forgive me if it takes me a while to learn the ropes... I am not a child of technology, so I may delete something I didn't mean to, or take too long posting something else, or even get mixed up while trying to post a link or something. I DID learn to use facebook, so I am willing to give this a try.

But I make a promise to do the best that I can no matter what.