Wanderlust Colorado: Final Day Four!

Starting the day off right! First the gym, then a Bear Claw!

 Elephant journals Waylon Lewis wears very short shorts, but stands at military attention constantly, despite growing up Buddhist.

I feel bad for speakers that have tiny tiny audiences just because if bad timing of sessions.

Is there anyone here who doesn't use a smart phone daily? One. Congratulations. The NSA is annoyed by you.

He's very quick witted, snappy one liners, but total deadpan.

Our shoulders tend to not be where they should be, thanks to laptop nation, Trex nation.

Even after three full days if yoga sessions, I have way too much ADD to learn to meditate properly for an hour.

If there's no more questions, we'll start the transdance portion of this lecture...

Waiting at the Nest is way too warm and cozy and sleepy before entering gong practice.

Circle room setup around crystal bowls and gong with stars projected on the ceiling is so sweet. Until you get cold. And then that's all you concentrate on.

"You're going to get lit up like a Christmas tree"

Heavy breathers annoy me. This is relaxation time, you are not in labor.

I think my throat chakra is blocked, holy vibrations batman.

I'm so zonked out and yogi drunk from gong that Its all I can do to stay awake for Eoinn's class.

Last class on Sunday happened to be Eoun Finn's Big Chill. Named for the easy going, been doing yoga all weekend, lets decompress on a chill level. Well, I understand that was the intention, but his ADD was so strong that he kept spacing off into awesome stories and deep thoughts, HOWEVER, that meant we were holding poses forever. Our muscles were definitely in full quiver the whole practice.

I can't say enough how much I love live music in class, especially a class this packed.

"I want to build an ant shrine" - Eoin Finn

"I wasn't really naked, I had a ski helmet on" -Eoin Finn

Eoin told us about living in the city, and his hammock art installation project. Setting up hammocks downtown, and just letting people lay in them and look up at the sky for 10 minutes, like we all should do. And people just didn't understand the concept. It was so outside of their schema. They wanted to buy them, or thought they should charge for them and then give it to charity. It's like no, the whole point is and only will be, to just relax. 

Granted, despite the actual sequence being troublesome, before we began, he had us start a group massage train. And yeah, it's a normal group building exercise, but at a yoga festival? There is no hesitation or nervousness to touch eachother and really massage! And it was no 30 second and switch either. The person to each side each got a solid five minute muscle manipulation. I wish all social events had this happen :-)

In high lunge or warrior one, Eoin has us lift our arms up in front of us high, "Simba it up!" Or Simba pose. At which point someone in the back burst into naaaaaasavayynnaaaaa! All seriousness was lost.

"I love mirror face. You look like you kinda want to beat yourself up and kinda want to make out with yourself"

Singing Beatles at the end of class with Eoinn almost made me late for Moby acoustic!

Moby, one violin, female vocalist. Acoustic of his own work and cover songs. Perfect way to end the weekend.

Day 3: Colorado Wanderlust

Despite every class being on "Wanderlust"  time they sure are nazis about where you put your mat. 

Joel Kramer:

Pusher- gets to a goal by ignoring bodily feedback

Essentialist- has a goal, but listens to body, plugs in to bodily feedback

Basically we all need to balance ego with kindness.

"Grin on your chin is more important than your chin on your shin" - Eoinn Finn

Eoin was a cold water surfer up in Canada, so he has a hard time hearing, and someone told him they were on the pale diet, but he heard pale ale diet. "I'm not losing any weight…but I don't give a shit" (while slurring).

On the topic of teaching and money, "As a yoga teacher, you'll make tens of dollars. Plenty of green in the forest, not in the pocket"

Eoin spent a full month in NYC, and made it a goal to make eye contact with one single person in the subway. It was not accomplished. 

Fun fact: In medieval times, people were punished by the rest of society refusing to give them eye contact. It proved more punishing than even banishment.

"Replace tightness with lightness"

"Keep your clown chakra open"

"You gotta let the wahoo side be bigger than the oh shit side"

Eoin had us partner up and do handstands. Not my forte. Beyond not my forte, I can't do them unsupported and getting into a supported one terrifies me. My partner struggled a bit, but was successful. My turn comes and I think I'm going to kick the girl in the face. And then I feel Eoin basing me, ready for kick back. I float and there I am. Floating on my palms. Holla that.

Next he calls out forearm stands, I get excited cause I think they are fun, but that's not saying I can do them any better than handstands. Nevertheless, he sees my excitement and calls me into the middle mat of a group of 50 Wanderlusters, most far more accomplished than I. Crap. Here it goes. Set up dolphin. Pressure on forearms. Lock shoulder girdle. Float feet. Heels pushed to sky. I could have burnt a hole in the ground as hard as I was focusing on it. But I did. And I held. Eoin's hands went away and I got a solid five seconds before I got so excited that I lost all focus and landed. That's a win right there. 

If you are ever told about a pose entitled IT Love. It does NOT love your IT….its a LIE!!!!

In Blissology, its all about loving everyone and loving life. You always start class by hugging someone. And you can end class with a puppy pile savasana. And I love every part of it. 

When you are at a yoga festival, there is nothing held against anyone. Find a partner means no awkwardness or self conscious behavior but smiles and love and a new friend to sweat all over ;-) 

It also means in Love Revolution with MC Yogi, that my partner Daniel and I did a half rotating squat holding hands so fast that there were full moments of complete suspension not holding on to anything and it was fabulous…..until the quad cramps kicked in from severe lack of oxygen at mountain level. 

Amanda (MC's wife) led part of the sequence, and it got to this crazy part in the playlist, and she had all of us (several hundred) literally jumping up and down and dancing all over the place for a solid two minutes (check back with that whole lack of oxygen in the mountains thing) so we had blood pumping, hearts racing, near pass out energy going, and then all of a sudden she yells out TREE! And with amazing balance and grace just lands and pulls into a perfect tree pose. We all chuckled for about half a second before we realized we were expected to do the same after such sheer chaos. Following suit, it created a very weird group energy. 

Theres always the guy, at the very front of the stand by line, that has been then FAR before the second person in line, and he always feels the need to inform everyone of information they already know. But very rarely, does this guy stop the guest of honor (MOBY HIMSELF in this case, as if he was trying to cut the line). Oops. Little egg on your face there buddy….

Moby totally outted this guy Eddie, who had a mohawk, who used to sell drugs to NYU students. And that was only the beginning of his fascinating stories. And yet, somehow, it always wrapped around to the theme of using music to heal (kinda). 

But it was hilarious because he had just taken the class that I had taken with Eoin, and he felt "like he was on a special k bender" but "trust me, I'm fine to sit" 

"70s jazz is just musical masterbation"

I gotta admit, hearing that Moby's favorite movie is Southpark, was quite surprising. 

"Is that coffee? This is what recovering alcoholics do. Oh god. I just want to look at it"

Fun fact: Playing music in waiting rooms and operating rooms reduces recovery time by distinguishable amounts. 

Fun Fact #2: Stroke victims, when played their favorite song from before the stroke, they will be able to sing and dance along, despite complete physical immobility otherwise. 

Fun Fact #3: Music therapy given to those with early onset alzheimers, have the possibility of being completely discharged.

"Stress hormones aren't good when you're waiting in line at Whole Foods. What mother fucker can't figure out it's their turn to pay for their tofu cups?!" - Moby

"I shouldn't like that shitty Britney Spears song, but we do" - Moby

"That was his name, Mr. Buddha, he's in the yellow pages" - Moby

Moby's life advice. Don't do it because someone says to. Don't dismiss because someone says to. You know you. 

"Does anyone do public speaking here? Do you ever finish and wonder, I have no idea what I just said?" - Moby

"Do you know the band Pantera? Sometimes I listen to Pantera and it just calms me down… " - Moby

Apparently approximately 10,000 people attended Wanderlust Colorado this year. 

"My problem isn't that drugs are bad, its that they're way too good" - Moby

Moby ended the amazingly energetic and upbeat session with a story about a barber who had his arms cut off by a gang who wanted money. It ended positively…well, as positive as an amputee story can get? 

This by far has been the best day. Totally floating on blissful cloud nine. My body feels good, my mind feels good. Everything. Is. Good. 

US Bank loves to black out my debit cards. ALL THE TIME. Ugh. 

When your last session ends at 5, but Moby concert doesn't start until 10:30, you feel like you should nap, but yet, you feel like you shouldn't too. Cunundrum. 

Moby concerts make everyone else melt away and all you want to do is move. Bass beat in your bones and move.

Cops were busting people left and right for glass bottles, but then you walked outside and theres a ton of people smoking weed and the cops just stand there and chill.

Knee twisted. Beer on my feet. Collapsed arches. Drenched. Best time. Completely had. 

Wanderlust Colorado Day Two!

Day 2 @ Wanderlust



You'd think yogis would be punctual. Not so much.

7 Ways to Rock your Cortisol taught by an integrative physician/yoga teacher. More about stress relief. Not my thing.

But getting to sit on the floor on pillows with pillow backrests? I can listen for an hour.

Random fact: Alzheimer's starts in your 20s.

I'm sorry, but no matter what you say, I don't believe that my iPhone camera can measure my heart rate.

Beastie Yogi w/ MC Yogi &DJ Drez- yoga class led by MC Yogi, spun by DJ Drez set entirely to Beastie Boys mashups and MC Yogi songs and b-boy samples

To Enter the Center
You can taste the nectar
But to enter the Center
You must surrender

200 people waving their hands in the air is cool.
200 people doing downward dog and waving their feet in the air is awesome.

"Don't bump into anyone's Lululemon"

Its unbelievably easy to groove to hip hop during yoga sequencing.

Am I the only one that has never thought about twisting to each side in standing yoga mudra?

At the end MC Yogi called us all up to the front to take a family picture. Something about that, just makes me happy.

Guiding Empowering Yoga was supposed to be a class for teachers to help with sequencing and whatnot. It was not. It was a a flow sequence that had poses I have never heard of in my life. It wasn't what I wanted, but I came out with enough that it wasn't total loss.

The lady next to me was from England and now teaches yoga to parolees with swastika tattoos.

All the ladies love that Tim is not only here, but actually doing yoga too.

Live music propelling class is happiness inducing.

I have hamstring death. There is also a death that involves the top of your foot bearing into your plushy arch, and it makes me go OWWWWW.

There is a sun salutation that involves rolling like a ball. I dig.

I totally concurred big toe grab side plank extend leg today. This makes me proud.

Tonight we braved outside of Copper and went to the Mexican joint in Frisco, and as always, it was delicious.

There is such a thing as "Wanderlust" time.

MC Yogi bounces on trampolines and makes me smile. Great mini concert. And then, came the happiest picture in awhile.

 

Getting To & Wanderlust Colorado Day One!

Driving to Wanderlust Colorado! We will skip the first ten hours. Because Nebraska SUCKS. 

Copper Mountain!!!My Colorado home.

Shopped inside the d'Om. Thank God there wasn't too much unique stuff, I'd have been so screwed. But we came out with a single piece for me and a single piece for Tim. I consider this success!

Vendors with free food will always be the favorite.

Budokon Yoga: Floating and Inversions- Cameron Shayne was late, so Matt Giordano subbed.

Sweet class, learned some new techniques for poses like high lunge, chair, pigeon, side crow (although that one got about 10x harder) and how to drag toes for floating. 

And there will for sure be introduction of the real cobra into my classes. Inchworm butt! So will "heart up to thumbs" instead of twisting.

"Lift your pinky toes if you want to experience God" -Matt Giordono

In my 15 minute break, Tim brought me my sandwich before I ate a skinny yogi chick.

AcroYoga is always fun, but how much fun relies completely on your partner(s).

Cole from Lulu was fabulous and energetic, but Nicole from Jersey was tiny tiny tiny. Sunburnt Jen was an amazon and rather pushy.

Charlotte was my second amazon, but the first to fly me in the class and holy cow that lady had LEGS, it's just too bad this ADD kid was our spotter and he acted like a coke head. 

But I learned some new group work and a bunch of new partner poses: double plank child's pose, knees on back lifts, and throne.

Plus at the end they led us through some short Thai massage and there's an outter shin technique to die for....

After quite the time outside, and nowhere near enough water intake and the sun and yoga had put my head in quite the vice. And since I've done Thai massage before and I feel like I myself would have been the sucky partner, I opted to skip out.

So Tim and I walked around the Village getting all the cool stuff at vendors. Toyota had a cool tent to get screen printed bags, engraved key tags, make your own mat cleaner, make your own granola, and get pictures taken. It was a fun walk around the village collecting goodies.

Mini retreat to the room before we found this sweet seemingly secluded path along the stream towards the back of Copper. 

 Opening ceremonies at the lake, the Quixotic Fusion fire dancers, were fine, but I was far more enthralled with the violinist and drummer. Soothing and engaging and they just sucked you in COMPLETELY. 

The Wanderlust Spectacular was the night cap of the evening, if only we weren't so exhausted. Cameron Shayne is an animal. A pure muscular intense animal. Its inhuman. His eyes and his structure. Indescribable. But we also got to see Matt and Chelsey do acro and all the other instructors do their thing with MC Yogi as the MC (shocking). 

Sadly, we lasted only about 40 of the 90 minutes. Yoga in the mountains is exhausting!