As I go thru the names of the people Iv’e trained this year, it gives me a chance to reflect on the amazing people that keep showing up in my life. Every year we hold at least three 200 hour teachers training at Yoga ah my studio in Cincinnati as Rocket trainings which take place in Cincinnati as well as internationally. Over all there is a lot training going on around the clock, however there has to be a balance of fun and time off as well.
This year a big bulk of my training’s completed by July 11th and did not start up again until October 15th, so this lends about 10 weeks of down time, even during down time I still am instructing about 8 classes per week, however myself as well as some of the trainers after all our hard yoga work found ways to get out of the city of Cincinnati and have fun.
Yoga students Cole, Allison and Keena ventured out to San Francisco where it was being celebrated “The Summer of Love”. This is especially important because San Fransisco is where the Rocket grew wings to fly, so when any of us Rocket yogis visit, it is like taking a pilgrimage. We love walking by the gates of 848 Folsom st. where the former Larry Schultz studio was and get our picture taken in front of the famous gates that welcomed 1000’s of yoga students on their journey of self realization thru the breath, body, mind connection that Larry Schultz made accessible to the masses.
It was billed as “the Summer of Love,” a blast of glamour, ecstasy, and Utopianism that drew some 75,000 young people to the San Francisco streets in 1967. Who were the true movers behind the Haight-Ashbury happening that turned America on to a whole new age?
Yet the phenomenon washed over America like a tidal wave, erasing the last dregs of the martini-sipping Mad Men era and ushering in a series of liberations and awakenings that irreversibly changed our way of life. Vanity Fair
A word about Larry is that he was not only known for developing The Rocket he was known for introducing a lot of people to yoga. Larry got people into yoga that didn’t even know what yoga was. Larry’s vision of having a very large studio in a booming city like San Francisco was a forward way of thinking in the 90’s, when the city itself only had maybe 5 yoga studios. Larry could turn anyone on to yoga and make it seem like the coolest and sexiest thing to be doing. In Larry’s world yoga was the only thing that made sense. Larry brought all walks of life together, and in all kept the doors of 848 open for almost 20 years. So with that many people passing thru the gates the space defiantly has a lot of energy and we still see 848 as a very sacred spot.
While the yoga gals who just graduated 200 hour training at Yoga ah were in San Francisco, July Rocket Training took off here in Cincinnati. We got visited by Nick form Athens Georgia and Lisa from New Mexico. We spent a week together practicing and studying the Rocket. We talked a lot about creating a vision and using the Rocket as a vehicle to get us “there faster”. Nick surly felt this and within three weeks of being back in Athens, opened a studio. That is how the Rocket is meant to be shared and I am happy to report the we have started a “pocket” of Rocket in Georgia!!
Myself having some down time meant a trip to New York city. The city that never sleeps and it is so true. New York in August could very well be one of my favorite ways to spend late summer. I got to feel the pulse, dive into New York culture from the upper westside to the Greenwich Village, another place in the United States that felt the free love hippie movement in the 60’s with a bit more of an arts twist that bore a new breed of beatnics and troubadours. I saw the vision for having a little Yoga ah in the village, a studio that would have Ashtanga and Rocket classes around the clock, I joke and say maybe in my next life! Which is within this life. Hey, every dream has to begin somewhere.
As it got later in summer we all came back together in Cincinnati, grounded down at the studio and prepared for the Eclipse. This area of the midwest was in direct alignment of or very close to Totality, which means the moon completely blocks out the sun for up to two minutes. We drove to Totality in Knoxville Tennessee. If you are ever close enough to see Totality DO IT!! It was one of the most magical moment of the universe that I have ever witnessed. It’s really true the birds get loud, insects make all kinds of sounds that they normally would make at dusk, and then the sun is completely blocked out by the moon and an electric blue light radiates around the moon and you can see plants reveal themselves in it’s shadow.
So again we see a theme woven in the Rocket, the universe and the wonderment of nature. And who studies the universe? NASA. What has started happening is that every time us rocket yogis see the sign for Nasa on a shirt or anywhere it may appear we are reminded of the Rocket and how we use the Rocket as a vehicle for expanding our minds and limitations in our physical body. We are reminded how we are all connected by this beautiful practice and how magical and wonderful life can be. We are reminded of the perfection of the universe. We are reminded that every interaction is meant to be and our connection to the infinite and how by trusting in that perfection we can flow and dance through life.
Today is weekend two of my Yoga ah 200 hour training, I am so delighted to be back in the circle sharing some great Larry stories and Rocket stories. In two more weeks we begin a Rocket 5 day training as well. My hope is that we are laying the ground work to have a solid strong foundation for the Rocket community to grow and be supported. What I see with my eyes is good, because it’s lots of yogis, what I feel is we are all healing and the more we all can open our minds to what’s next, without having the answers, the closer we are to discovering all the secrets of the universe. Namaste Amber Gean
