YOGA and The Shape of your Butt! The fountain of YOUTH
A Birdseye look at the Butt!
by Lolly Miller
We all have our high and noble reasons for practicing yoga…and certainly they are all true. But sometimes it’s all about the butt. I don’t know what’s going on under your leggings but me…I’m nearing 60, I have many children and grandchildren …and finally… I was genetically gifted with a butt the size of two bowling balls. There it is, I said it. So… everyday I get up and I do yoga like nobody’s business. This is partially because I am afraid to find out what my butt will do without yoga. And if most of of the female butts in my family are any indicator…I have a pretty clear picture of what my butt intends to do if I stop!
To you diehard yogi nay sayers out there who want to argue that yoga has not awarded you with the “perfect” butt…I want you to carefully consider what your butt might look like without any yoga at all. Am I right?
My 20 year old grandson, Jacob, has a regular yoga practice. He has his own singing bowl and is deeply devoted to the entire concept of life as a yogi. I love spending time with him because his genuine goodness and compassion just shine from him. He is such a joy and he happily shares meditation… or chanting… with all who wish it. I asked him recently what it was that brought him to this place and he told me all about the things I just listed…and many more. The
last thing he said was, “Oh…and yoga gives me a great butt. When I am ‘old’ I want to have a butt like you grandma”. So there it is. One…I am “old”. And two…the bowling balls are holding steady! …thank you squat lunges, burpees, no rest, five intervals that last 15 minutes and make me cry!!!
This series of articles is going to focus on yoga as a fountain of youth. There is some serious scientific evidence to support why yogis don’t age as fast as the general population. Some of it is because most yogis are body conscious and often eat a healthier diet than most. This article will talk about some of the other reasons yoga is beneficial to vibrant health, disease prevention, a longer life span, avoiding osteoporosis and other degenerative disease, boosting one’s immune system, giving one a more glowing and healthy appearance, and brings a sense of peace and well being to one’s mental state.
Hi Beautiful Yogis. My name is Laura Miller …but everyone who cares for me calls me Lolly or L. I came to yoga very early in life. I was very lucky to stumble upon it when I was about 16 (which was a very long time ago) in San Diego, California. I say lucky because yoga was not really common back then. I have moved in and out of practicing for decades. About 20 years ago I found myself in a magical yoga studio…full of magical yoga teachers. They changed my life. They radiated compassion, caring, peace…all the things that I was seeking. And so I stayed. Something for which I am very grateful. It literally changed my life. My husband became extremely ill several years ago and we were housebound. I was desperate for yoga and started looking online for classes. Most of them were unsatisfactory. One fellow taught the higher level practice I was seeking but with literal vulgarities… and he spewed them liberally. Whew…good yoga or not…I couldn’t handle the negativity. One evening quite late, after I had settled my husband for the night, a miracle happened and I found Ali. It was her very first class (now called AK 1). I was smitten…in heaven. Doing yoga with Ali had some serious juju for me. I couldn’t believe how amazing she was. I wrote her (which I had never done on any website…ever) and she, to my complete surprise, wrote back. And then…she started loading class, after class, after class. I couldn’t believe someone would give this level and quality of yoga away. It turns out she wants to make this world a better place. Imagine that! To give the gift of yoga to as many people as possible…seriously. All of us who work with Ali do so because we love her…of course…but also because it is a beautiful thing to be part of this amazing gift called Ali and the Beautiful Yogis. My life has become the kind of life one dreams of having…filled with love…friendship…peace…hope…and most of all… Ali and her magical yoga. The most amazing yoga of all! We will all get to know one another more as we all travel this yoga road together. All of the Admin at Beautiful Yogis are quite accessible. If you need something or have questions…all of us…Ali, Inez, Elisa, Lolly, Ann, or Mauro are here for you. You can write us on the home page or if your need is private…you can in box one of us. With time you will learn each of us and what our individual strengths are. This series of articles will have input from the others in this Administrative group listed, making this lovely a team project. Yoga is beautiful. The whole lifestyle surrounding yoga is beautiful. And we beautiful yogis…we are all beautiful. Love to each of you and Namaste. xoxox, ever, L
Elisa – I started my yoga practice back in 1999 when I returned back to California from Greece. I was looking for some sort of fitness program and discovered Steve Ross on the Oxygen Channel. It was at the moment that I fell in love with yoga. I started practicing daily, right after the Tae Bo classes I was taking. I admit that I was a workout fanatic at the time. Now…fast forward to 2004 when I got pregnant with my first child. During pregnancy I stopped doing yoga. After my baby was born, I started experimenting with other ways of keeping fit… running, fast walking, hiking, weight training. I found myself missing the tranquility and challenge that is yoga and found a guy on youtube that I liked. His routines were repetitive though, like so many of the yoga classes are, and I quickly got bored with him. I saw Ali and Sophie’s pictures on a youtube suggestion box and fell in LOVE with Sofie, Ali’s beautiful dog, Who wouldn’t want to practice yoga with a adorable dog and a gorgeous yogini?!! After the first class I was HOOKED. Her classes were so different, very energizing and fun… colorful… personal …and so much more! In the beginning, I wasn’t really focusing on the spiritual side of yoga. It just FELT good practicing with Ali. After a while, I started listening to her, listening to her words and they began sinking in, changing me, changing the way I felt about myself and life. She hasn’t just changed me. She has made me a better person.
Ann – Hello beautiful yogis. My name is Ann Curtis. I have a similar story to L’s (perhaps as many of you do) as to how I chanced upon beautiful Ali. After moving to another state shortly after my marriage, and leaving behind a simply magical yoga studio and teacher, I thought I’d never again experience the same “floating” sensation that yoga tends to leave you with. I fervently sought out studio after studio, but all of them left me feeling like something was missing. Finally, I threw in the towel and proclaimed, “Well, I’m not going to pay upwards of $20 a class! Random online videos it is!” (This was a great moment of defeat, because at the time, the only online yoga classes I had ever come across were not the best quality). But by some stroke of good fortune or perhaps sheer miracle, on an online yoga website I cannot recall, I stumbled upon Ali’s (free!) classes. I was instantaneously hooked. Literally hundreds of classes later, I keep going back for more. You see, with Ali, you will DEFINITELY not feel like anything is missing (in fact, perhaps some days you may actually wish that something were missing! – like that second set of jump lunges, for instance!). But it is not just about Ali’s strong, intense, sessions. In fact, in a way, it has nothing to do with that. There is simply something captivating about each of Ali’s classes. They satisfy, not just the physical body, but every morsel of your heart and soul. And once more, I’m left floating.
And may I finally add, that after years of running miles and miles a day in a desperate attempt to stay in shape, in just 30 minutes of Ali’s classes, not only do I get a better workout, but I have achieved – far and away – and much more balanced, evenly toned figure. AND – after years of suffering from perhaps the flattest derriere known to man (bowling balls do not run in my family), I’m finally in possession of a plump rump. (And that alone is enough to keep me coming back for more.)
Mauro – Hello Beautiful Yogis, I’m Mauro Sau. My life has had a singular association with surgery… When I was a kid (11 years old) my brother had open heart surgery and on the day of my 18th birthday, my father had surgery for lung cancer. He died one and a half years later. This was a strong moment in my life and in my families life. In 91′ I went to Firenze for work in a center, and later in 95′, I started my Buddhist practice. In Firenze there are a lot of Buddhist practitioners, both SGI and other traditions. I’m one of the SGI, as are other BY. This is awesome for me! My bitter moment came in 2010, 21st of July. On this day, at the moment of awakening, I was nearly blind. I could see only with my right eye and I had a strong pain in my head between my eyes. It was a closed angle glaucoma attack. My ocular pressure was about 52 instead of 18, as in normal people. I was lucky at the E.R because I found a specialist in glaucoma (the vice president of European Glaucoma Society) and he saved my eyes. I started practicing yoga after this moment in order to have a practice to balance myself and to continue keeping my body healthy. My practice was not so regular until I found yoga videos on youtube, I found the ones by Ali; this was a fantastic moment for me! I started with the beginner videos on her youtube channel and later I started seeing her posts on FB. They are so rich for the heart and soul. My life changed, and is changing even now. It is a path that I’m walking with Ali and each of you BY. I am so thankful to have met Ali. Her classes are helping me to grow in balance, strength and hear I am changing not only physically but also in my soul and heart. For me, this is a path that will continue for the rest of my life. Thank you.
Luciana– Dear Beautiful Yogis. My name is Luciana Dagnan. I am thirty years standing and live in Stamford, England with my handsome man slave Samuel ( we are equal slaves for the other 😉 ) I came to yoga first when I was seventeen; my Dad bought me a very basic book on the structure of a Sun Salutation. He had never practised or known a jot of yoga, nor had I, he thought it was just ‘very me in a way’. I looked through and had a stirring of familiarity, I tried the ‘moves’ and it felt too simple… I dismissed it. I went to a few classes. I dismissed it again. Four years later, a sure headed twenty one years, my Dad died, tragically and awfully. He was my sun. It shattered me. I became a shadow, a minuscule one at that as I stopped eating. I drank and smoked. I cried and prayed. I prayed as I always had to empty space, to a God I did not know, I did not understand but I spoke to anyhow. I painfully left my Mum, brother and sister to live in New Zealand – the furthest land from ‘me’ and I came back to life. I met Tamir, a true light warrior. He taught me, intensely and I basked in the glow of ‘spirituality’… I floated on the clouds. I started a regular practice and was drawn home, me but entirely ‘new’. I was glowing… and pretty ‘out of this world’. I immersed myself at a studio in London, lots of ‘luvies’ and physical perfection but lacking the solitude and connection I craved. I took up Kundalini yoga, home dvds; I was captivated! My own space and yet I could workout and chant and feel elevated 😀 I moved to France with Sam in 2011 (a childhood, dear friend, now my love), happier and healthier. Six months later, my brother died of malaria. Fuck. My hours of practice came into practice in my every hour – every waking second! We were thirteen months apart (Lee and I) and in the minutes of his passing, I felt him lift me up and say, ‘I’m here, I’m here.’ I experienced a dazzling emptiness, devoid of time, of me, of any ’thing’; just love and bright light. Summer 2013, sat in my yoga space at the end of my bed in my childhood home, I found Ali. The ‘cellulite burner’ – I was still prone to punishing myself – and a true magic sparked. I was intrigued by her voice, her intensity and her surety, I was transfixed and I have been every day since. I have been a gardener, worked for Greenpeace and many, many other ‘things’, most rewardingly I work with children and have for many years now. I see it as service. I blend with a family and live my practice. I absorb the pure love of children – and I hope I am able to reflect it back and beyond. I study Ayurveda and wish to do so professionally so as to guide people to self care. After my turbulent relationship with food, I have found great peace and understanding, inspired hugely by Ali! I wait for the day Ali teaches how to teach beautiful yogis… no other teacher can take my heart now 😉 I am blessed beyond belief to be here – and fully aware of it. My life has had intense darkness, making the light all the more dazzling and luminous; I hope I can bring this balance to others someway. Ali has transformed me through sheer devotion to strength, truth, grace and beauty… God bless Ali and all Beautiful Yogis, Sat Nam. Whooooooop whooooooop! Let’s get this party started! Hakuna Matata X<3 X
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I wrote this article before Luciana had joined the group….and missed that her name wwasn’t listed in the admin team. So Lucinana…if you read this comment…forgive me for the over site…We are so excited about having you join our team…Love to you…ever, Lolly
That was incredibly enjoyable. Thank you all for your service to BY and for sharing your beautiful journeys. I can relate to things from each.
I’m so grateful for Ali’s “magical yoga.”
And grateful to be a part of BY.
Love, Karla
oh this is lovely i am so grateful to stumble across this morning love having a wee noisy lol Namaste x