I Love Playing Yoga Classes...

Yoga For All Movent class w/ Hannah Muse, Terre Lee

7/13/18 - I love playing yoga classes. I remember as a kid thinking if I’m not a rock star (ha!) by the time I’m 30, I’ll be relegated to a life of playing county and western in honky tonk bars… Just glad I’m not the sole script-writer for my life.

 
About 5 years ago, my yoga teacher, Daniela Kosmalski, asked me to learn a David Newman mantra “Jai Radhe,” and play it with her at the end of a class. I didn’t much understand it all at the time, but the seed had been planted.

With Daniela Kosmalski, Jennifer Holt at Toadal Fitness

 And as time went by, and life happened, I grew to embrace the singing/playing of devotional songs and mantras at Kirtan gatherings and concerts, in my writing and releasing albums, and in yoga classes.

One of the blessings about playing for these classes is that *it’s not about me*… It’s the underflow for the magic that happens collectively, individually, and between the teacher and the yogis in the class. Sometimes instrumental, sometimes with vocals. It’s like a dance, like a waltz and the teacher takes the lead and I try and follow step by step. Sometimes pushing when she creates space, laying back when she pushes… just co-creating the flow.

With Johanna Beekman, Hannah Muse at Yoga Church

And one of the greatest joys is being able to lead a mantra at the end of these classes, to share a little about the practice of mantra and Kirtan, and invite everyone to join in with their voices and spirit as we weave our way through a call-and-response mantra, just adding to the buzz they already feel from a great yoga class. And truth be told, it’s a wonderful opportunity to invite those that haven’t experienced a Kirtan gathering, like a ‘gateway drug’, to join in and connect at one of the many monthly gatherings we have here on the Central Coast, and add to their practice. 

With Hannah Muse at Yoga Church

Grateful for the many teachers that hold space for musicians and singers to be a part of these classes. Grateful for the opportunity to just be a clear conduit for the goodness to flow through. And grateful that life hasn’t become an endless succession of playing music in honky-tonk bars.