Christmas Countdown: 1st Day of Christmas

On the First day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
A session with Shiva at Flow Yoga S-L-C.

That’s right, Shiva Rea, Shakti goddess and master teacher graced Salt Lake with her presence this weekend, and I was there to receive! She’s doing classes all weekend, but one 3-hr session was a perfect dose for this yoga mama.

(I want you to know it took some serious cojones to share this with you… but as part of my spiritual awakening and getting comfortable with my new size, I figure baring the belly is the best way to do it! Besides, I originally took the photos to find something for the Make and Takes article I’m writing.)

Anyway, back to Shiva.

She’s such an insightful and spiritually sound teacher. In yoga, lineage is a big deal… and so my teacher, Jami Larson at Flow, has received a lot of her teachings from Shiva (Rea, though the Hindu god has also played a key role for anyone involved in the practice). So I guess you could say she’s my teacher’s teacher.

Shiva created Trance Dance (check it out on her website). And before you just jump to the conclusion that she adopted the name Shiva as some sort of awakening once she “found” yoga, she was actually given her Indian name by her surfer father. That led to the beginning of her lifelong study of yoga at a young age.

I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to receive from her today. Like I mentioned, class was about 3 hours and I had to make a lot of adjustments in the practice, but it was totally worth it. This woman travels all over the world sharing her truth and teachings… she gave me some great advice about pregnancy/birthing. During class, she kept referring to me as Pregnant Goddess which does wonders for the self esteem… and after class she even rubbed and blessed my belly/baby.

The "Bhagavad Gita," in explaining the process of birth/reincarnation* says:
Reaching the heaven of righteous
after uncountable years
that man will be born again
to parents who are upright and wealthy.

He may even be born to parents
who have practiced yoga and are wise,
though a birth as fortunate as this
is more difficult to obtain.

[6.41 - 6.42]

Namaste yogis. Holden will be blessed.

*This is not an endorsement of reincarnation from me. But I do believe that we have always existed in some form, and that what we do in each stage of our being determines where we will be in the “next round.”