Love Is A Safe Place with Alana at Ojai Yoga Shala: Ojai, CA: October 3, 2018

“I scarcely know where to begin but love seems like a safe place” — Emily Dickinson. The alignment of friends is one of the best ways to be in Love. Here with Alana and Lisa after Alana’s morning class at the Ojai Yoga Shala.

One of the reasons I love to tour is because I get to see so many beautiful places and be with so many friends. The underbelly in the adventure is pain. The discomfort of wear and tear and grime, bearable only because its a barometer to see if my practice is working. Can I still stay grounded, kind, patient while moving at the speed of light? Can I find that home in my own heart while David insists on air conditioning the bus while I prefer open windows and fresh air? Sometimes it’s the little things that can send me right on over the edge. That straw that broke the camel’s back lies in the panel switch just over the driver’s seat. When David falls asleep, I sometimes tiptoe up to the front of the bus, flip the button from on to off, open all the windows, and savor natural air floating on my skin and in my lungs. If I stay aware of the Third Noble Truth, I can remember there is always an end to suffering. I also have become acutely aware that I can’t get there through anger or complaining.

Its been a short run through California, but it’s been intense. Landing in Ojai, my former home, is nirvana. Until I start craving to buy a house here. I mean, when does this ‘want to buy a house here ’ thing stop? Maui, Paris, and now Ojai. It presses my unworthy suffering button, my addiction to ‘I can’t’. Like the windows in the bus I’m prying my thoughts open for fresh perspective, and flipping a switch to turn those negative thoughts from on to off. Its asking me to show up and write the damn book. This book has become my compass, a great experiment to see what happens when I mentally shift away small thinking, mainly about myself.

Buddhist Eightfold Path and yoga’s Eight Limb Path are right here to help us out of suffering. When I stop long enough I can see there is help all around, all the time. This includes birthing this book. Our design guru, Chris Jensen, is closeby in Ventura and is a key step in my process. I just have to pull myself away from the chai and cute new shops long enough to go to work.

I know, I know, the layout is one of the last tasks in getting a book to market. But being a visual person, it helps me to sort my way through this massive project. Take the help, follow your instincts, and ‘stride confidently in the direction of your dreams’ a la Thoreau. My bold adventure hit the hard door of overwhelm almost immediately the morning I disembarked from tour. I felt slightly unsettled until practice with Alana that evening. As I mounted the familiar steps of the Shala I heard a distant call from Emily Dickenson, who said, “I scarcely know where to begin but love seems like a safe place”.

Ojai Yoga Shala, formerly Lulu Bandhas. I taught and practiced here for over a decade.

One of the safest places on the planet is the Ojai Yoga Shala, especially when Alana is teaching. It’s not that she doesn’t ask you to stretch and feel deeply, in fact she does. She’s so sweet and lovely that you’re inclined to move into tight spots and investigate what’s really going on, which in my case was a crushing sense of defeat about my whole book dream.

The practices of yoga are here to help us see the tight spots. (PYS 2.1) and navigate thorough them to see what is on the other side. It does support us in going in the direction of our dreams and it is true what the sages have claimed for thousand of years-that we have all our answers on the inside. First I needed some breathing room, which relaxed my sympathetic nervous system, which opened up my mind and heart enough to see while there are obstacles in my path to publishing, there are also great possibilities.

After class a bunch of us friends went out for tea. Ojai will forever feel like home because I have forever friends here. Part of my big dream is to spend more time in yoga and with my friends, and when I stopped sipping tea long enough, I saw that was exactly what was already happening. I’m already on the path.

In the Bhagavad Gita, in the battlefield the warrior Arjuna sees that people have already been killed. Krishna reminds him that he is the instrument. Things happen first in the spirit world. That’s why one of the suggestions to manifesting dreams is to imagine its already so. The practices of yoga are here to quiet our surface tensions so we can hear the call of our deep desires and see the path that’s already open to us. Its up to us to listen deeply and it is up to us to have faith to keep walking the path. Its almost impossible to do by yourself so I was extra grateful to be in the company of friends today who happen to think my book sounds fabulous.

After tea I went back to my bungalow and sat down with my freshly reorganized book. I sorted through some working book covers Chris Jensen and I co-designed. Feeling in love, unstuck, and energized with just the right amount of caffeine, I took out my writing pen, drew a deep breath, and dove in afresh on the path that who knows, just may lead to buying that house in Maui, Ojai, Paris or wherever I’m instructed from beyond to land.

Health, Love, and Rock N Roll.