bohoBodies // Summertime Sunny-ness

It's bikini season. Time to be almost-naked in front of your friends, family, new crush, old crush, new crush's ex-girlfriend, old crush's new girlfriend, hot neighbor, hot neighbor's friend, hot neighbor's friend's brother, your brother's hot friend, and most importantly, YOURSELF.  This summer I have started doing morning yoga with Sarah. It's been great for my body and psyche. I'm stronger and also more patient. In other words, I'm getting yoked and I'm not a jerk. Eat your heart out, 'roiders!

If you're new to yoga, start with a simple Sun Salutation. This sequence is perfect for beginners and will teach you important yoga fundamentals to use for a lifetime. Yes, a lifetime. 

Stretch out your body. Breathe in deeply. Fill your lungs with air, then exhale! Push all of your thoughts away and meditate on all of the wonderful people and opportunities in your life. Inner peace is just around the corner. 

Thanks Sarah, for keeping me in tune with all this hippie $hit. It's working. 

                        In Yoga We Trust,

                           Grace

Nirvana at Chateau DeVon

In honor of Mother's Week, I thought I would write about this pretty awesome Mom that I know, my sister Sarah (Julie, you're awesome too.).

For one whole week (a whole week, y'all!) my sister Sarah and I have been doing sunrise yoga sessions. I wake up, brush my grill, then drive the five minutes to her casa and we get down on it- the mat, that is. She leads the class and I follow. She is definitely the yogi of the family, but luckily dance has made me flexible enough to fake some of the yoga poses. She always calls me out, 'Hips should be square!' Bitch. My poses look way more impressive when I'm cheating, but I guess deceiving and mediating are not synonymous, so I tell my ego to f*ck off and oblige.

Then, enter the rug rats. Sometimes Dax is very sweet, other times he beats me in the head with whatever toy he's obsessing over. Today he was being super quiet in the other room and so Sarah told me to hold my pose while she checked on him. Just as she suspected, he was filling up his water gun with toilet water. She corrected him, emptied the gun, then came back and we began again. Three minutes later, Dax walked in and sprayed what was left in his gun (which was a lot) in my face. Then he did it to Sarah. She reprimanded. He whined. We tried not to laugh. Then we kept going. Her patience is outstanding. Anyone can do yoga in a quiet room with fresh water, candles and peaceful music, but this style of yoga, this takes incredible concentration! If you can find peace while toilet water is being sprayed in your eyeballs, random toys are talking to themselves, and little people are crawling on you like monkeys, all while holding an awkward yoga pose, then I think you've discovered nirvana. Sarah Salinas DeVon is indeed the peace queen and I'm right next to her sweating and struggling, fighting for a page out of her playbook. I love her. What a woman. Happy Mother's Day, sis. To many more crazy, sunrise yoga sessions! NAMASTE!

Sarah: 'So just grab your leg like this...'

 '..and then do this.'

 Me: Ummm... #fail

 This bitch...

Peace warrior.

Here are some quotes Sarah sent me over the years (and some that I pulled off of her Pinterest!) that have given me inspiration and helped me through hard times...  She is always looking out for her baby sis!

Then last week, when I was about to sink into the black abyss of an ex-boyfriend who is NOT awesome and NOT handsome, Sarah lovingly reminded me that I need to step up my game and start dating guys on my level. I realized she was right and cringed a little bit as I thought of my roster. She noticed and quietly said to me,

"Remember, it's never too late to get a hot ex-boyfriend."

Now das profound.

In Peace, Yoga & Sisters (just ask Beyonce) We Trust,

bohoGrace 

bohoRyan... Guest Blogger

On a rainy Saturday night,  after a long day of work, my life was forever changed.  Candles were lit, splashes of rain could be heard on the windows, and I pretended to know what a chaturanga was while grunting my way through my inaugural Power Vinyasa Flow class.   Sweet BohoKD took me to my first class at Big Yoga.  I was so intimidated and scared and I definitely didn’t look the part of a fit and trim Yoga class attendee.  (I’m still trying to lose my baby weight from my first child who is now 11.)  Tugging at my five year old Lululemon pants that I had pulled up over my belly button to squeeze in anything that was bulging out, I took a deep breath and stepped out of my comfort zone.  

That was May,  and now I am an avid Big Yoga subscriber.  These people have it figured out.  When you walk in, everyone, I mean everyone is smiling, happy that you are there, happy that they are there, happy that anyone is anywhere.  This is the kind of person I want to be.  They rent out mats, towels, whatever you need they have it.  They treat you like you have been part of their yogi family for years.  I am the queen of “fake it till you make it” but with this crowd I didn’t even need to fake it.  They see the potential in me that even I don’t see, so they treat me as if I am already that empowered, awesome, hard core, peaceful, playful, did I say peaceful, yogi that they know I can be.   

(here is what I think of when I think of Big Yoga)

Big Yoga is a Baptiste inspired studio, and if you haven’t heard of Baron Baptiste,

you may want to go ahead and open another window and order his book/s ASAP.  

Baron Baptiste

Baptiste yoga is (in my own words) a place to release the need to be perfect, the fear of failing, and push yourself to your edge, maybe even falling over it to come into who you are wholly.  The classes are hot and sweaty, and sometimes you might touch someone else’s leg, foot, etc...but its worth it.  On these mats there is a sense of community and a place where vulnerability and mistakes are applauded.  

I recently signed up for the 40 days program at Big Yoga.  Wow!  I could stop there because that’s how I feel, my muscles hurt, my eyes are sleepy, but man my biceps are starting to look good (Hey gurl, Hey!) and I don’t fly off the handle as much as usual with my sweet family.  I am at the beginning of week 3 and feeling as if this challenge is a little harder than I thought it was going to be.  Waking up at 5am to make it to 5:30 class is harder than I thought and actually today I totally slept in today!  

One day at a time, one foot in front of the other, here I am, this is me, and I may be crying on my mat or I may be asleep too, but I am no longer thinking that I am the only one who feels this way.  I realize/d that everyone is scared, everyone is insecure, everyone has fears, everyone wants to be loved and love…..alright enough, you need to experience it for yourself.  Get off your computer and go! Go now!!  

Also for all of you juicers they just opened a juice bar (Big and Juicy) too!! Now Big Yoga will become one of the biggest expenses of my monthly budget because Sophia, the aforementioned 11 year old, has taken a liking to their Kid’s yoga.  She loves it and I love that she has a place to go and feel good about herself.   Also I like that I have a place that I can go and feel good about myself too, life can be so difficult when we are worrying about everything and everyone, its so refreshing to put down my masks and be who I am, to be fully present, to shine light beams out of my chest (okay so that’s a little much…) but you know what I mean.  See you on the mat.

Peace, Love, Light

Ryan

bon Iver Power in the Park Austin

It pains me to write this.  Because I cannot go.  But if you are in Austin and you like yoga and you have ears, please go to this for me.  Please.  

Between the TWO ACL weekends, BFree Yoga is excited and honored to be leading a yoga class benefiting Safe Place at the Long Center. Live Music from a very special guest who has headlined ACL, 5 bad-ass teachers leading you through powerful flow, over pouring of Kosmic Kombucha, a raffle full of ridiculously awesome giveaways, and a view of the entire city scape of our beautiful Austin, Texas! AND an after party at Stubb's with DJ HYFI :) All in the effort to provide seva (selfless service) to the Safe Place Foundation and share yoga to the community at large. Lets share what yoga has done for each of us in a public display by gathering hundreds of yogis together and elevating the vibration of our city and our hearts! POWER IN THE PARK YOGA. MUSIC. SEVA. Tuesday, October 8th 5:45 p.m. $15 @LONG CENTER PAVILION SPECIAL MUSICAL GUEST Justin Vernon from Bon Iver :) namaste, bohoSarah