A couple of years ago, one of my then-clients knew that I was a couple of years into my yoga practice and a year or so into meditation. She suggested that I check out a group called The Art of Living Foundation, a non-profit organization that taught her techniques that she swore up and down helped her to manage stress in her daily life. As a working mom commuting five days a week to her job at a politically charged multi-national, I suspected she had plenty of stress to manage, too!
I, however, am always putting too much onto my plate, so even though the breathing techniques she showed me in a conference room one day totally worked to instantly chill my ish out, I always had an excuse for why I couldn’t attend their five day introductory workshop. I was always too busy, quote unquote.
2010 is a new year, though, and my most important January goal (click here to read the gory details on my personal blog) is to refocus on getting onto the mat regularly, both for yoga and for meditation. So I clicked over to The Art of Living’s website on Monday and was excited to see that they were offering a free 90 minute workshop the very next evening on managing stress just by blowing air in and out of your nose-holes (my words, not theirs).
I checked the stress management seminar out last night on West 25th Street, and wow. Wow, wow, wow. The room was packed with a dozen other New Yorkers, mostly women, ranging from accountants to lawyers to magazine editors and beyond. You could tell it was a good bunch of people and that this wasn’t some sort of weird New Age nonsense (which is the vibe I got when I sniffed around at a workshop at The Meta Center, sad to say). One of the breathing techniques — Bellow’s Breath — instantly energized me (you can check it out by the video below). (Try it! Don’t worry about looking dumb — just think about how silly those people on treadmills look when regarded from afar.)
So, here’s the deal: I’m attending the 20 hour Art of Living 101 course from January 15 – 19th. The weekday classes are held from 6:30 to 9:30, Saturday noon to 5, and Sunday from 10a to 4p. It’s $350 which works out to about $15 an hour, which is, like, way cheaper than a decent Manhattan therapist :) And I’m the kind of person who is probably going to corral people after each class to see if anyone wants to grab a bite to eat, cuz that’s how I roll.
Here’s the alleged course benefits:
- Breathing techniques to eliminate stress and tension
- Skills for improving relationships at home and at work
- Tools to handle your mind and negative emotions
Now, if you happened to skip over to my per-blog and peruse, you’ll note that devoting time to DinnerGrrls.org does not appear on the list. In fact, I was even out in Portland last week and had coffee with the fabulous Kelly Wallace, under whose leadership the PDX chapter of DinnerGrrls.org grew to be the largest in the nation back in the day. And I had to admit to her that as much as I do want to bring DinnerGrrls.org back full-speed at some point soon, I also know that there are some more fundamental problems that I still need to solve (such as: mountains of paper; non-molehills of clutter) before I can be the best ANP that DG.org needs me to be.
But, hey, until I can get my DinnerGrrls.org groove fully back on, I will definitely keep bloggin’ here about any DG-worthy goings-on and whatnot. And you can always join me for the Art of Living course, too!
- Learn more about the five day ‘Breathe Stress Out Your Nose, Yo’ workshop
- Learn more about the free 90 minute introductory seminars on Tuesday nights
- Connect with other DinnerGrrls in the New York area
- Download that catchy ambient-ish “Breathe” tune from a few years ago
Best wishes for a deeply fulfilling 2010. Stay tuned, and big hugs!
P.S. The Art of Living has been around for 27 years and has outposts in over 150 countries. Even if you’re not in New York, you can check ‘em out.
Photograph taken by me in Iceland, May 2007
