This week, I’m teaching all about peace on the inside and the outside. We need some peace now in this crazy world. The focus is on backbends with a special backbend variation at the end.

Here is the end of the dharma talk, which is the prayer of St. Francis calls for healing and peace:

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

It’s a sweet playlist, too.

We yoga teachers can spend 10 minutes or two hours making our playlist. This one, I call it Dixie Chicken, took me about an hour. I love it so much that I’m using it for two weeks straight. I usually don’t do that because I get bored listening to the same soundtrack for 20 classes in a row. But this one was a winner. It has everything from classic vinyl to modern hip hop to 90s tunes and good old yoga music. Run time is 1 hour, 10 minutes.
Dixie Chicken Playlist for Summer
1. California Dreamin’
Sia

2. Typical Situation
Dave Matthews Band

3. Break On Through
The Doors

4. Sky’s the Limit
The Notorious B.I.G.

5. Catch & Release
Matt Simons

6. Dixie Chicken
Little Feat

7. One Man Can Change the World
Big Sean

8. I’m on Fire
AWOLNATION

9. Aperture
Tor

10. Whir
The Smashing Pumpkins

11. Moondance
Van Morrison

12. I Feel Love
Hector Zazou

13. Need the Sun to Break
James Bay

14. Retrograde
James Blake

15. Red
Phoria

16. Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
Jane Winter

Fight poverty holiday season with Powerflow Yoga. We have teamed up with Eva’s Village, an incredible non-profit in Paterson, New Jersey, that is dedicated to feedng the hungry, providing shelter, treating addictions and giving medical and dental care to some of our state’s poorest people. They operate 12 different sites in a three-mile radius in Paterson to ease lives, starting one family at a time. Eva’s Kitchen heals families and aids them every step of the way toward independence. They help establish stable homes for children to grow up in.

Eva’s Kitchen always needs donations of specific items. This is where Powerflow yogis come in. You can help. Every studio location will be collecting different types of things. So go ahead and get your good karma going this season while you make others peoples’ lives better. Do yoga. Give. Repeat.

Here’s how you can help at the different locations:

Chatham, Livingston, Morristown
Bring socks, hats, gloves gently used or new. No coats please.

Glen Rock, Ridgewood, Westwood
Bring toiletries like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, feminine products, baby wipes. (No mouthwash or hand santizer or any products that contain alcohol.)

Bloomfield, Wayne, Hoboken, Clifton
Bring canned goods and dry goods. Any kind with long experiation dates.

This drive for Eva’s Village will be going on until 12-30-14. We hope you’ll help us with this fantastic charity.

This talk about vulnerability really got me thinking. So I learned that vulnerable people are joyous, creative and loving. WTF? I’m totally vulnerable and am in constant need of a Valium for which I have no prescription.

I can base a whole fictional protagonist on this talk. And on the researcher, Brene Brown