mornings

as i sit in front of my laptop writing this, i am enjoying a cup of coffee made from a french press. while i am definitely a lover of tea, i still love & enjoy coffee as well. from my desk i have a lovely view of this:

my beautiful morning glories

i also have a lovely view of this:

my lovely potted herbs and flowers (sanjay is on herb patrol here)

i believe he's asking me "why didn't you plant cat nip?!" :)

so, tell me, or better yet, show me, what is your morning view?

have a lovely weekend! hugs!!

thankful thursday

this thursday i am thankful for:

• all of you lovelies who have responded to the 2nd annual tea trade. if you haven't signed up yet, please consider doing so.

• enjoying my beautiful roses (see pic above) that ryan planted for me last year. i've enjoyed plenty of fresh cut roses all summer long - thank you sweetie!!

• getting together with the bliss book club to watch eat pray love together & then gathering at the kenyan cafe afterwords to enjoy each others company, dine & discuss both book & movie. we had a wonderful time together! if you are local, consider joining our book club, we've got some exciting events coming soon!

• finally getting to meet long time bloggy friend jessica and having her in my yoga class. :)

• teaching yoga to puppy parents at this years splash bash at marilla park - bring your pup, do some yoga & play in the pool sunday august 29th 10am-4pm

i hope you have a thankful thursday as well. hugs!!

a heated debate

i was perusing around the blogosphere the other day and ran across one of my favorite bloggers analiese wrote about hot yoga. instead of leaving all of my thoughts in a comment there i decided to do a blog post about it. yes, i know, i haven't been posting much as of late and i apologize. i will have someone to speak to my secretary immediately.... oh wait, i am my secretary. so it goes! :)

as some of you may know, amongst other classes, i teach hot yoga. in fact, i am the only person that teaches hot yoga in morgantown.

let me just start out by saying that i am not a fan of bikram, which i wrote about here. bikram felt a little more like boot camp rather than yoga to me, but that's just my opinion.

ok, with that said, my student's safety is of utmost importance to me. i heat the room between 90-95 degrees - hot but not too hot! trust me, if it were any hotter, i wouldn't be teaching it. :) i know one of the many perks of the heated room is so that your muscles will warm up faster but i always start my hot yoga class out the way i would any of my classes - by doing easy poses that warm up the body slowly. and being a licensed massage therapist, i always make sure to mention to my students to honor their bodies limitations.

i think that a student can be injured in any yoga class. in fact, i am one of those students. i injured my sacroiliac joint during an iyengar class.

the most beautiful thing about yoga is that there is something for everyone! if you want to try out hot yoga, i say go for it!

image credit ici

monday moment of zen

"the purpose of life is not to be happy. it is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."
~ ralph waldo emerson

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2nd annual tea trade

can you believe that is almost autumn already? where has the time gone?

the good news is that it's almost time for the 2nd annual tea trade!! last years was a blast and again, my thanks to all who participated.

this years trade is going to be just a little different than before. i am opening up this tea trade to loose tea as well as bagged tea. to participate you must be willing to ship your package internationally.

how it works: tea traders will send a sampling of 3 - 4 ounces (85 - 113 grams) to another participating tea trader. (most boxes of pre-bagged tea is usually between 1.8 -2 oz or 51 - 57 grams)

details: please send an email to melitamollohan@gmail.com with the subject line "tea trade." in the body of the email please share your address . i will then match up people round robin style and give you a name and address of where to send your teas packages. all of your personal information will be kept strictly confidential. if you feel more comfortable providing your work address rather than personal that is totally fine. also, if you do not wish to provide your name please make sure you let me know in the email and who ever will be sending your tea package will label the envelope "tea trade" and your address.

special prize: i will award a special prize to one lucky tea trader. special prize will be announced soon (i'm still working on gathering a few goodies for the lucky winner).

due date: please email me your information by september 15th so that we can start tea trading at the end of september!

image credit ici

monday moment of zen

"very little grows on jagged rock. be ground. be crumbled, so wildflowers will come up where you are." ~ rumi

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monday moment of zen

"beauty is not in the face, it is in the light of the heart."
~ anonymous

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wow, it's been a while since i posted. i know that's rather unlike me. so, let me catch you lovelies up on what all has been going on recently.

we've been missing our pup sadie for sure. grief is a strange beast. one day it isn't so bad and the next it feels like the weight of the world is pushing you around. we are taking it one day at a time - that's all we can really do. we share memories of sadie and laugh at her silly antics. thank you all so much for your kind words. we really appreciate it, more than you will ever know.

i've been doing more & more massages and building my book. i am really loving what i am doing. plan b is a dream become reality (but that's another post).

tomorrow i'm off to pittsburgh, pa for join these lovelies for another week long intensive yoga teacher training. i'm look forward to sharing more details about that as it unfolds.

when i come back to morgantown (or motown as the locals refer to it), i'll be adding teaching two more yoga classes per week to my schedule. at that point i will be teaching 4 yoga classes per week - yippee!! i'm super excited that hot yoga seems to be a hit at blissblissbliss.

and speaking of bliss, i started a bliss blog. yes, i know what you are thinking... what doesn't she do? well, let me answer that question for you - nothing! :) there's nothing that i don't do and i love it!!

i've also been visiting with my parents while they have been camping at coopers rock. i'm trying to get in as much visiting as i can in my hectic schedule. the above photo is a pic i snapped while visiting coopers rock on a previous visit. nature clearly hearts that rock!! here are more photos of the rock - such a lovely place to get away either with friends, furry or otherwise, or for some solo time in nature.

i hope that you all have a lovely week. i will be thinking of you! hugs!!

monday moment of zen

"how people treat you is their karma;
how you react is yours."
~ wayne dyer

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monday moment of zen

"everyone thinks of changing the world but no one thinks of changing himself." ~ leo tolstov

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rip sadie dog

after a roller-coaster of an emotional week it finally came down to giving sadie the rest she needed & deserved.

as those of you that have had to put a pet down know, it's never easy. we certainly feel your pain. one of the hardest parts was that today is ryan's birthday. it's been really hard on him since sadie was his first dog.

thank you to all that sent their well wishes to us and sadie during this tumultuous week. we appreciate each and every one of you more than you will ever know.

sadie, i know we've had our differences but do know that i love you and will always miss you. i'm glad i got to be in your life for a little while.

happy birthday ryan

happy birthday ryan! today is the last time you turn 20-anything - just keep that in mind ;)

i love you more than anything. i am grateful that our relationship has blossomed the way that it has and i hope that it continues that way for a long time to come.

anusara goodness with deb neubauer

i had such an amazing time with deb neubauer at her "the heart of the yogi: a weekend of anusara yoga and a joyful celebration of freedom" workshop. it was truly transformative. i don't know how morgantown got to be so blessed that deb was willing to travel from her home in easthampton, mass but i'm not going to question it!

i was so pumped after this workshop that i'm surprised that i'm waiting until now to to write about it. i guess i was still trying to process, absorb and retain all of the fabulousness that surrounded me.

i was also honored to share the weekend with some wonderful yogis from morgantown, fayetteville, wv, and pittsburgh, pa. it was one big happy anusara family.

while i'm not an anusara yogini, i do love to try other styles of yoga. i had done some anusara (inspired or otherwise) classes at home from some online sources (an example of a fabulous online class). this was my first hands-on experience with anusara in the classroom and i loved it! i am extremely honored that my first experience was with deb neubauer!!

as you well know, anusara was founded by john friend. one of my favorite sayings in anusara is "soft heart, sharp mind, and vibrant body." i really think that phrase embodies all of what anusara offers in a nutshell.

during the series of workshops, i learned lots of amazing poses that i'm now going to try to pretzel myself into: astavakrasana, eka pada sirsasana, eka pada bakasana, and eka pada galvasana to name just a few. or the "eka pada yada yadas" as deb referred to them. :)

i did learn a little more about bakasana. add it to the list of other tips & tricks i referred to here. and ya know what... i was able to fly for a few seconds at least! longer than i had done before and i'm happy with that!

the lovely adrian kettering from yoga for wellness happily soaring in bakasana

deb setting colleen up for a delicious heart opener.

adding in some props and an assistant, leigh anne

colleen thinking about how wonderful this pose feels. (just look at that smile on her face :) )

as of now, deb has plans of returning to morgantown next year. i will be sure to post it as soon as i hear about it so that hopefully some of my bloggy buddies can join in on all of the anusara fun!

namaste

leave only footprints and peace rocks

this past sunday, ryan and i took the dogs to cooper's rock for a small hike. all 4 of us love spending time in nature.

the peace rocks left behind are from my dear friend sasa. sasa's mission is to "spread peace one rock at a time." love that!!

here are a few photos i took along the way...

inside a broken tree

the beautiful details of a fern

the inside of a fallen tree

a baby fern (my index finger for scale)
cadyn on top of a big rock (queen of the mountain if you will lol)
leaving a peace rock behind
precariously placed peace rock
careful to keep dry

monday moment of zen

"you will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. you will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life." ~ albert camus

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finding my crow

for the longest time i've wanted to soar in my crow/crane pose but kept falling flat... sometimes literally! i've been working & working until my right wrist screams at me - NO MORE!! so then i try once more for good measure and then give in to my screaming wrist.

so to the internet i go, reading different tricks & tips on how to make my crow/crane soar. i came across a fabulous post at the lovely yoga to go blog on just this topic!

here she is soaring high and making it look completely effortlessly gorgeous!

so of course, i tried out her tips and was able to fly a little bit longer than my usual few seconds. so i decided for the time being that i would attempt a baby crow and work on building my upper body strength and balance.

my baby crow as cadyn looks at me like i'm nuts :)

a better view with my sweet girl out of the way

when i teach my yoga classes i let my students know that we all have limitations and that they are temporary, to honor them and work around them and that one day it will change. i decided to take my own advice to heart.

instead of getting caught up in the 'i'm not good enough' 'i'm a yoga teacher and i can't even do crow' negative self-talk i turned it around and accepted where i am right now and will enjoy the journey of one day flying my crow high. (and yes, once i get it to where i don't fall flat on my face i'll be happy to share a pic of my crow with you ;) ).

i hope that you have a wonderful weekend. namaste

image credit yoga to go

blissblissbliss

the adorable heidi and moi are modeling our newest inventory stock - blissblissbliss t-shirts and tanks. we have these on sale at blissblissbliss. if you are local, stop on by and pick one up. tanks are around $16 and t-shirts are around $18.

a few hours at the lake

can make everything better! ryan and i spent a few hours at cheat lake yesterday. the water was soothing on such a hot summer day. it made me realize that we don't get to the lake often enough!

monday moment of zen

when you are silent,
the very movement of spirit,
the very breath,
the very light,
the very illumination of your being
can be perceived.
~ kwan yin

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keep calm and practice yoga

i think it should be "practice yoga and keep calm" ;)

i found this via the lovely yoga to go's tumblr account. check out her beautiful & inspiring blog yoga to go. created by julierenee.tumblr.