Midsummer Night

Golden Buddha Yoga ITALY RETREAT June 2014 ......

Midsummer Night...

The summer solstice, "Midsummer Night", is today and in honor of that shift we made hippie flower headdresses and homemade Epsom salts. This auspicious day is about checking in, taking inventory, and seeing what you need to "wash away"....

Here is what I have...

Clarissa Pinkola Estes is a truth speaker and a total inspiration. Anytime I need a slap upside the head, I open her book "Women Who Run with Wolves". Like most women, I STRUGGLE with my body image. Especially since I have broken my year long strict candida cleanse, I have put on a few lb's. I am nice and soft and round and...soft and round. Ha! All of the women on this retreat are true goddesses, and we all share a similar fight, that against the mind and ego telling us that we are less than, not enough, or too much. I read this passage from WWRWW and it really hit home for us all...

"The body is like an earth. It is a land into itself. It is as vulnerable to overbuilding, being carved into parcels, cut off, over mined, and shorn of its power as any landscape. The wilder woman will not be easily developed by redevelopment schemes. For her, the questions are not how to perform, but how to feel.

The hips, they are wide for a reason, inside them is a satiny ivory cradle for new life. A woman's hips are outriggers for the body above and below; they are portals, they are a lush cushion, the handholds for love, a place for children to hide behind. The legs, they are meant to take us, sometimes to propel us; they are the pulleys that help lift us, they are the 'anillo', the ring for encircling a lover. They cannot be too this or too that. They are what they are.

There is no "supposed to be" in bodies. The question is not size or shape or years of age, or even having two of everything. But the wild issue is, DOES THIS BODY FEEL, does it have right connection to pleasure, to heart, to soul, to the wild? Does it have happiness, joy? Can it in it's own way move, dance, jiggle, sway, thrust? Nothing else matters."

Can my body move, dance, jiggle, sway and thrust? NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.

After class we did a journaling exercise and wrote a poem based on one by Ntozake Shange. Shanges' goes...


HERE IS WHAT I HAVE...
POEMS
BIG THIGHS
LIL TITS
&

SO MUCH LOVE.


To write your own....

Line 1: "Here is what I have..."
Line 2: Insert noun (yoga, dances, knowledge, etc)
Line 3: one body part (that frustrates you)
Line 4: one body part (that you love)
Line 5: &
Line 6: blank
Line 7: "and so much <insert word>"


My poem was...

Here is what I have...
Yoga
Big ass
Huge smile
&

So much fucking joy.


Namaste beautiful people !!

Wine Tasting!!!

Our group of 14 took VITALONGA winery by storm yesterday! We had the BEST evening of wine tasting and then came home for a kickass dance party. Yoga this morning was painful for most the girls, but they did it!!! Yay for hangovers that let us know that we are alive and how important it is to take care of our bodies hahahaha !!!

Siena and Aperol Spritz!

Golden Buddha Yoga ITALY RETREAT June 2014....SIENA. 

Today our group of 14 split up and cruised the streets of Siena. We were on our own for lunch, so Cass, Sarah and myself stumbled into a side street restaurant and ordered ourselves a meat plate, a cheese plate, and some porcini mushroom risotto. We sipped on Aperol Spritzs which came with a "warm appetizer"....a soft chewy bread, rolled with delicious ham and fried. GAH. Heaven. 

Cailin Callahan

www.goldenbuddhayoga.com

GBY goes to SIENA!

Golden Buddha Yoga ITALY RETREAT June 2014....adventuring to Siena for the day!! 

Cailin Callahan

www.goldenbuddhayoga.com

Rolfing and Flying.

Rolfing is a crrraaaazy amazing form of bodywork, and thankfully Teah, the hostess for this retreat, is a rolfer! She's also powerful and amazing and an amazing acro yogi. So last night, after everyone had gone to sleep, we rolled out blankets in the kitchen and she "flew" me while "Rolfing" me. Apparently she made the discovery that by flying people it opens up certain parts of the body allowing for deeper access. All I gotta say is WOW and OW! Amazing.

Italia GBY...

Golden Buddha Yoga ITALY RETREAT June 2014....

Cailin Callahan

www.goldenbuddhayoga.com

Italy Retreat!!!

The Italy retreat is FULL SWING and FULL POWER!!!!

Thanks Isabel!

Thanks so much for our hostess with the mostess, Isabel Allen. What a magical weekend!

On Fire in the Rain

We did a BADASS "Goddess Flow" ...embracing our beautiful, powerful, divine and utterly amazing selves this morning and 3/4 of the way through class the sunny sky turned stormy and the rains poured down. It was torrential, monsoon rain. The playlist was freaking amazing and EMPOWERING, and we kept the speakers going despite the rain. We took refuge on the veranda and started a dance party...and then moved it into the rain because, WHY NOT?! And then, we were already soaked so why not jump in the pool?? The highlight was when Alicia Keys song "Girl on Fire" came on as we were dancing in the pool, in the rain, and we all started singing at the top of our lungs THIS GIRL IS ON FIRE!!!!!! What a powerfulandfuckingamazing day!!!

Golden Buddha Boo's

So. Much. Fun.
Such. Delicious. Food.
So. Much. To. Be. Grateful. For.

Dinner was "everything green" curry (broccolini, kale, etc) with toasted pumpkin + sesame seeds. No one spoke, we just moaned with delight. Oh yeah, and dessert was espresso tahini fudge....!!!!

Food, Fun + Lots o' Fucking Yoga

GAHHHHHHH. Having the most amazing trip ever here in Fort Lauderdale running my first ever "mini-retreat". Amazing. So grateful. The food that breezie is cooking up. Epic. GOLDEN BUDDHA YOGA is going global, spreading the love and empowerment!!