Our friend Scott Badenoch wrote a lovely article describing Sofiah’s Way as he calls it.  It is a moving piece spoken from the heart, please take the time to view it.
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2010/07/this-weekend-in-boulder-denver-embody-your-graceful-warrior-within-scott-w-badenoch-jr/
 

Our inspiring friend Ka Sundancer interviewed Sofiah a week ago for his Raw Inspiration TV show.  We recommend you check out his site and blog, very well done! 

Thank you Ka for taking the time!

Check out this video made by reporters from San Diego over a year ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKc2lv46uMI

Thanks for the promo Jenny and Krissy, come back and play with us soon!

“Like bamboo, rooted firmly into the ground, reaching directly towards the heavens, and bending with the whim of the wind, the Graceful Warrior roots herself in her own being, cultivates and propels her life force up through her body as she meets the movement of life with skill, grace and beauty.” Sofiah Thom
This Saturday May 8^th, Costa Rica will inaugurate its first female president, Laura Chinchilla Miranda.  So what does this mean? 

This is a huge step. Costa Rica is considered to be a forward thinking nation by Latin American standards, which by the way is a very short measuring stick to begin with. Still, even for the “forward thinkers of a backwards continent” the truth is aside from a few handful of female leaders, this is still a path not many countries decide to go down.  It’s interesting to note that during times of a terrible recession we don’t know when we are going to get out of, an increase in crime like this country has never seen, in stead of turning to the macho man to rescue us we turned to the graceful warrior.  I am curious to see what kind of leader Laura Chinchilla will be.  I know she practices yoga off and on, lately more off than on with the whole craziness of running an election and what not. 
Will she bring the lessons learned on the mat to the presidential office?   Costa Rica is slowly evolving, the current president Arias turned to acupuncture to deal with his asthma and the president elect deals with her stress with yoga classes.   Hopefully this will become a trend.  I happen to know Laura Chinchilla’s yoga instructor and when Laura won the election people asked her, "are you going to be the new minister of yoga?"  This was meant as a joke of course, but how wonderful if there was an actual office in the new government for a yogi!  Just imagine, they can deal with all the "not-so-pura vida" aspects of Costa Rica and turn them into a real pura vida situation! Well, one can only hope…

Laura
 

I have been practicing yoga for a while now and when I first heard of Shinade’s Yoga Bliss, Feel Good Yoga, the sarcastic side of me thought "isn’t that redundant?  isn’t all yoga supposed to make you feel good?" And right there I knew that I had answered my own question.  Yes, all Yoga should make you feel good, but if you’re like me I’m sure you’ve had classes that haven’t. 

Through the years, the more mainstream yoga becomes, more people call themselves "yoga teachers" and sadly give people the wrong impression and people can end up having bad yoga experiences.  The first time I ever went to a class, there was such a weird and creepy vibe to the whole feel of the "class" that I didn’t venture out to try another class till two years later and had gained the common sense to get some recommendations about the person giving the class before I went. 

So here is mine, after experiencing Shinade’s class on Monday I can truly attest that I felt good afterwards.  Better than feeling good, her class truly was full on yogi bliss!  Shinade guides you through a lovely warm, asanas, flows, it is obvious that the gal clearly knows what she is doing. 

This Sunday she is having a four hour class and I really recommend you treat yourself to her Feel Good Yoga.

Laura