YEAH YEAH YEAH!!!

EXCLUSIVE - Last month we at Drowned Madonna told you that Madonna had a meeting and a dinner with Warner in New York to discuss possible release options for her new album, and we told you that Madonna wanted her album to be released this year, alongside October-November, so that she could tour next summer. We also told you that there was going to be an exclusive listening - 3 songs - to only Warner executives.

Drowned Madonna has learnt that this listening has already happened. As we told you, Warner executives have heard 3 tracks so far. One has HIT written all over it, and it wasn’t "Candy Shop".

They also talked about a TENTATIVE release date, which is due on October 29, 2007.

Furthermore, as we already confirmed on our community, Madonna is IN TALKS with director Chris Applebaum to direct a video.

Post Scriptum

I am freakin' sun burnt. I look like a roast pig on a rotisserie stick.

Going back home

In the lounge, at LAX, about to board my flight back to my Imperfect Island. Looking forward to it, though I will be challenged to create the space I need to expand fully.

Shivahom!

Imperfect Husband, behold, I'm coming soon.

Je t'aime.

IY.

It's all over...

It's over now...

We closed this chapter in our Life yesterday. We did an improvised Kirtan as an opening to our morning practice, with you mats laid out in a mala around an altar dedicated to Ganesha. We danced, I rocked the house apparently (many people said so - I just launched my African beat moves :p) and finished in a long sweet stream of jai rade jai rade rade jai rade jai sri rade. Our inner song, the one to sing to ourselves when suffocated in a Prana-deprived environment. We create the rhythm of our lives and expand the Prana where it is lacking.

We closed the practice with 27 rounds of surya namaskar, as an offering to ourselves, our loved ones, the World and the Planet. Sweet, meditative. I was focused like I have never been in a mala of namaskars...

After some time on the beach with my buddies, we met on the grassy patch next to the bitch for some more thoughts sharing and a sweet ceremony where Shiva individually signed each one of our certificates, and placed a mala around our necks with a blessing. I miss her. I miss her energy. She rushed out, but I managed to grab a hug and tell her a sweet word. She acknowledged our connection, and I felt like crying... I miss her already so much... I know it will be a challenge to sustain that energy without her, but I must achieve it.

The day before, we had gone to the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine, opened by Paramahansa Yogananda (Autobiography of a Yogi), where the ashes of Gandhi are located. Most amazing place, in the middle of Malibu. So heavily charged with Prana and meaning. I loved it. We took this as an opportunity to reflect on our Sva Dharma (Purpose in this Life), and I identified mine. I knew already quite well what it was, but this place gave me an incredible clarity, which allowed me to firm it up and word it up. After that, we went for a most amazing hike up the mountains behind pacific palisade, for a time of reflection. We were given material to formalise our meditation into a native Indian prayer arrow. While most people decided to take it with them, I felt the urge to live it there in the mountains. I had such a deep moment, I am so grateful that Shiva planned this for us.

Finally, we went to the beach with the whole group, and had an amazing time playing with huge huge waves for an hour. Perfect end to a perfect day. Of course, by the time, I was baked like a muffin (sun burnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnt) but happy :)

And it is now all over, which is a good thing. The challenge starts now. Will I be able to sustain the Energy? Will I be able to remain truthful to the inner truth and the Sva Dharma I have become intimate with? Will I have the strength to make my mark on this world?

Now is time for a last walk on the beach to Santa Monica before I leave for the airport...

Shanti.

IY

Photos, YEAH! Spanda Spanda

Look for Spanda in the web dictionnary. I love that word. Key word of Shiva's sutras and Tantra Yoga.

Me and my delicious mentor Coral. What a star in the sky:










Morning practice today, and my trance in utkatanasa :)

Sahaja, sweet Sahaja

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooom

Om purna madah purna midam

Purnat purnamudacyate

Purnasya purnamadaya

Purnam-eva-vasisyate

Om Shantih Shantih Shantih

That is whole/perfect

This is whole/perfect;

The whole becomes manifest;

Taking away the whole

From the whole,

The whole remains.

Om peace peace peace

Beautiful beautiful beautiful practice today. I had it all planned out, fire practice, and it did not happen. As I woke up this morning, I felt water in me, and let it rise. So I ended up doing a beautiful Sahaja fire practice with water surging at every corner. It was amazing. I was totally in the space, for 2 hours, moving around smoothly, breathing deeply, loving each breath, letting Shakti breathe me fully each time. I went into very nice arm balances, handstands... but the most delightful instants were these spontaneous movements, wave-like, arising through my skin and pores, surging to the surface from within, like lava out of the sea... I felt so free, so whole, so present... Mhhhh. The whole room had a beautiful energy today, everyone started oming in the end, a sea of oms and chants. I let a mantra rise out through my voice, and it was beautiful. Bliss... Shiva did not come to me, but i did not want her to today. I was in my space and did not want to be disturbed. She distributed As at the end of class, and I did not get one. I think it was for the 200hours certification people who needed a little boos of confidence, so it's cool.

Om Namah Shivaya.

Love and peace and bliss

IY.

Mood stabilisers please

Well days follow each other and are certainly different.

After that day where all amazing asanas seemed to come to me, I had a horrible day. We started with our first self practice. I chose an 'evolutionary' sequence (meaning something I really don't like, i.e. back bends...). And surprisingly it went great. to the exception that all the energy locked in my heard got released (which I need), which set me up for a moody day. Besides, Shiva TOTALLY ignored me, as she went from mat to mat, and skipped me totally. So much so that at the end, as she was working on someone on the mat next to me, she said: so Franck, what did you do today? She had not looked at me at all!!! OH MY GOD that made me go crazy. I felt resentful, heartbroken and hurt the whole day. I love her so much, have so much respect for her and receive so much from her... and she doesn't seem to care. So anyway, I was moody the whole day, also because no one was expressing a fancy for me in the group, and I want to feel attractive, which I did not. So anyway, that made me even more pissed off and just made the day hell.

Even my imperfect husband could not help, though I am not an easy one to cheer when I am down. Sorry darling :)

But today I wake up, feeling better, check my email and BAM! Great news, I have been promoted to Managing Teacher in my new studio. YEAH, triple YEAH!

So just to say that one should not dwell on one's misery, cause it does not lat (generally :p).

SHIVAHOM!

Off for the second day of Sva Sadhana, Self Practice. I will be on fire, in a pool of water today.

IY

What just happened today?

I am dubious.

I had a bad day yesterday. Very lunar practice with no namaskar, which took me into deep forward bends in a cold body. Not fun, frustrating, challenging, torturous, ungrounded, painful and quite depressing to tell the truth. As we had just moved into the heart chakra, the result of this was that I was sad the whole day, and to be honest, quite frustrated with my inability to achieve anything at all. It all ended with a walk back home in the cold, and - first time i see that in LA in July - RAIN!

So I am dubious because today turned out to be the total opposite, in a very surprising way. I had an amazing practice today to start with. We are working on the heart chakra, Anahata, and so went down the road of a somewhat lunar but very deep practice. And to be surprise, I managed many firsts in my life: almost full triang mukha eka pada paschimottanasana (http://ashtangayoga.info/asana-vinyasa/primary-series/11-Triang-Mukha-Eka-Pada-Paschimottanasana.html), then reclined version, straight up into eka pada urdhva danurasana back into the reclined version. I also managed a full lunge with a back bend, far enough for my fingers to touch the earth. It may not seem much, but if you guys have seen the tightness in my inner hips and upper spine, you would appreciate the progress.

After that, we had an amazing lecture (3rd in a series of 4) by Paul Eduardo Muller-Ortega, a renounced scholar in religious studies. Today was amazing. This guy is not only a scholar, he is an avid practitioner of kashmiri shyavism, and of tantric yoga. This was so deep, simple, beautiful and enriching. I thank Shiva for allowing us access to him (very difficult to get to see him) and to him for being so enlightened.

And after that, we had a fun teacher's lab. We went through all the marma nadi namaskars again, and after that had some fun. And one more first, I got into titibasana!!!!! For those who wonder, it looks like that: http://ashtangayoga.info/asana-vinyasa/primary-series/21d-Supta-Kurmasana-Vinyasa-out.html.
And not just that, I then managed so lightly to go from eka pada hasta bujhasana to astavakrana to eka pada koundinyasana B to bakasana. Several times. No effort.

I like California, I am better here :)

Anyway, good day, with a lot of connections with a lot of great lovely people.

Shanti and Shivoham!

IY

Teacher lab, Mala beach party and Kirtan shots

Shiva telling us about the Sva Dharma, and the organic arising of our role in this Life...


















Out of the Grassy Nole for the teaching laboratorium


































At the Global Mala Beach Party

Kirtan with Dave Stringer:

The fire has been turned off

Another day of fire... Last night Trance Dance was an amazing experience. I strongly recommend that anyone who has never attended one of these events do so ASAP. It's like a club, with a Flow, and an intention, less alcohol and smoke. The experience was tentalising, and totally cured me of my suspected sickness.

I woke up LATE this morning cause there was no way i could go to sleep last night after the dance. But this was schedule so as we went to clean the beach as part of the SEVA project at 10 only this morning. That was ok, allowed me to wake up with little trouble.

And then there was the practice. 3.30 hours of Agni practice. Oh my god, i was burning all around. What intensity, what combustion of limitations, what crazy sequences, we did about 8 to 10 hand stand kick-ups on each leg throughout the practice, did a partnered version, and a long, long, long, long, long sequence of hamstring stretches and balancing poses. My quads were on fire the whole time. We did these amazing Kriyas! WAHE! Hanuman Kriya most especially was exhilarating. Hanuman mudra is interesting too.

After that, we hit the beach for a yoga teacher party. It was nice and relaxing. The best part was taking pictures for the official posters of the Global Mala Project.

And after that: KIRTAN. Amazing as well, with David Stringer. First time I see a Kirtan with flute, saxophone, electric guitar... Everyone stood up to dance like crazy on EVERY song. that was quite an experience. And to top it all off, Donna De Lorry, was there. It may not matter to many, although she is an extremely talented singer of her own. But she is the back-up singer of Madonna on all her shows. Yeah!

Rocking week.

Tomorrow is a new day, and we enter a new Chakra: Anahata. Time to open the heart and crack my upper spine open.

Shivahom!

IY

PS: my teaching schedule when i come back is not cool at all. 13 hot classes in a week, that is not cool at all, when I am the only one in that case...

Agni, the alchemical fire

I am sore. Am I sick? I seriously hope not. I believe this is just a reaction of the agni practice we had this morning.

I had a nice long night of sleep, and woke up very rested, which is nice. We went for meditation, and then Shiva announced that today was an Agni practice. I knew that we were entering the first day of our Fire practice, after Earth and Water, but did not know there would be a particular ritual to it. And there was.

We started with an om and mantra to Ganesha in Ganesha mudra, which was both new and powerful. Then, Shiva made an offering of fire, burning some incense and oils in a beautiful Indian metal plate. We chanted a different mantra 9 times, and finished in a sea of oms. And then the practice started. OH MY GOD! Facing the sun, she announced to us that we were going through a very simple practice designed to activate the fire within us. In the core. In Manipura Chakra.

We did rounds of nines :-) 9 uddiyana bandha Kriya (and I had had Mexican again the night before, CONTRAINDICATION, TRUST ME!!!), and then variations on surya namaskar, the main one being that each round involved 12 repetitions of the movement between plank and chaturanga dandasana. And that occurred 9 times in the practice. We then did various repetitions and variations on lunge, vira 1... I managed to bind in revolved parsvakonasana with the back foot down without bringing the knee to the floor on both sides. Yeah :)

After what seemed a VERY long flow with too many chaturanga, I realised that I had finally surrendered. I was so much in my head at the beginning of the Flow, and in the first chaturanga s, that I had mentally given up already. Then I moved into the heart and the core, and Manipura took over. I finished very strongly, forgetting where we were in the counts, and remaining in each breath, without anticipating the next. What an experience. We finished in a strong core activation peak pose, hold the first set 1 breath, up to the 9th set for nine breaths, legs and arms in the air, seat bones and shoulder blades of the floor... We ended with a kriya of our choice, a cleansing practice with either baddha konasana, bhujangasana, upward dog, danurasana or urdhva danurasana. As my Manipura chakra was so strongly activated, I went for upward bow, and that was very powerful, we did a krama over 9 breaths, and that was a very releasing experience. Wow. The fire was BURNING at the end of this flow. Most beautiful sivasana of course...

I then finally got the courage to get started working on all my projects, including the global mama project, which i will organise in Singapore. By chance, I ran into my dear dear mentor Coral, and we talked a lot. she is adorable. In a way, she reassured me on the fact that I am seen as an anchor my Shiva and the assistants, and that they expect me to go far with them in Shiva's steps. We connected a lot about our personal lives and other things. She really supported me with my plans to talk and write to Shiva, and I know she will circle back with Shiva regularly on my behalf.

Most beautiful day, thus. Though I feel strange now. Almost sick, but let's hope it's just the agni.

Trance dance in an hour, I will let you know.

IY

Opening up...

Opening to grace, that's what i try and achieve every morning now with my meditation practice. Today, for the second day, i completed a full Mala, which today was dedicated to mister Imperfect Yogi back home. It is a soothing experience to devote some minutes to the person you love, and dwell on your emotions for him. And he needs it today. Shiva had that beautiful image to close our meditation, comparing us to a field of sunflowers in the south of France, popping our head to the sun and moving slightly through the day to continue and enjoy his rays.

After that, we kicked an amazing practice again. I have to say I was VERY sore from Seane's class last night, and my first adho mukha svanasana was not a happy one. My first lunge was a real torture... but the rest of the practice was (almost) a breeze. We did Dancing Warrior 1008, the most beautiful of all, and an amazing flow leading to full danurasana and pincha mayurasana. All so great. I got a great assist in wheel again from Corral this time, and in the ardha baddha pashimottanasana twist. I feel amazing since then.

After that, we had the teaching lab, which was fun. I partner up with Andrew, a lovely guy from DC. He is my official lab buddy. It was fun and short, as we had to rush back quickly for the second leg of the session with Paul Ortega. Very very interesting, but i have to admit i was tired today and totally phased out during the first hour. Plus, I was thinking too much of my mister back home, who is tense today, and whom I would love to be with to help. We are so far and yet so close, I feel him next to me all the time, and send him prana the whole time I am awake.

The session was good though, and we approached some really crucial issues. The whole fact that we live with the illusion of eternity, when our time in this Life is finite and very short, so we had better rush and act quickly to complete our dharma. Also, we should not live in the fear if impending death, and instead focus on action and meditation. All very good. I must make a move towards my dharma.

We had another teaching lab, which was really interesting, where Shiva gave us questions to reflect upon. What is melting in you? What is arising that needs to be dissolved and recreated. I had a great brainstorming session with a lovely girl from Seattle, Heather, who went through similar issues as me, relating to the release of creative material and so on. She strongly suggested I find my own practice of creativity, but that I ought to let the bubble burst shortly. She suggested this cool book, which I think I will get online.

To close the day, I got to message my dearest, after his first class, who was in a slightly better mood, but i wish i could have crossed the ocean to meet him and care him as he deserves.

And to close this, I had a real nice meal (was starving today) with a Caesar salad, some salsa with chips and a mini bowl of pasta :)

Love to you all.

IY

Day 5

Nice nice nice day...

Beautiful meditation this morning. I went through the whole mandala, and had a powerful bhakti celebration. The class was beautiful this morning, starting with a long long repetition of mandala namaskar 1, which is a beautiful circular salutation, with a lot of deep hip opening and circular motion throughout. We then moved into a beautiful - though short flow - leading up to dragonfly. I almost managed it but we were too rushed to spend too much time on this. We then entered our daily back-bend sadhana, which was so great. Michael, an assistant, helped me out and for the first time, I FELT MY WHEEL! Oh my god, he got my arms in the right closed in position, and my legs close in, heels down. What sretch on the quads. It was beautiful. We did this twice. Beautiful closure to the Sadhana, as usual, with Shiva's amazing words. She cracked us up again today, playing the police and lenny kravitz during the namaskar, as we were riding the crazy waves of our flow. Loved it.

The afternoon was very interesting with a conference with a university scholar, who wrote 'the Triadic Heart of Shiva'. So very interesting to hear personal experiences and educated views on meditation, life management and happiness. Amazing guy!

After that, we rushed into the teacher lab, which was ok though we were in the sun and i was cooking totally. I am now officially roasted on top of the head, shoulders, chest and face :)

I cut this short as I had to attend Seane's Corn class, which I am so grateful for. She just started teaching at the Sacred Movement, where we have most of our sessions, and I bought a pass for 50 dollars, which allows me access to all classes and the spa. Her class was nice. Clean, tough, hard work. A lot of core, a lot of hips (as if I had not had enough) and looooooong holds. Oh my god, we were all puffing and huffing. Was great though. I enjoyed it. We finished we that cool variation of cow face, lying down. We also did prasaritta from lunge with cow face variation. Nice good work. I spoke to her after class and she is an adorable person.

After that, I went to buy (healthy) grocery, rushed home and ATE FINALLY!!!!!

Now in bed, ready to drift into the wave of the night.

Take care all.

YI

Eka Pada Frankasana

Amazing day again. God I love Shiva.

I will skip the little things and go to the juicy part. After this morning's practice, which was totally incredible (mandala namaskar prep, mandala namaskar 2, solar waves around bujapidasana, silver surfer, ardha bekasana... peaking in standing visvamistrasana), I had a short rest then went back for the afternoon session. We had this really cool discussion on krama and Shiva made us laugh so much. She is hilarious when she gets into her stuff.

Anyway, during the break, she was alone - FOR ONCE - and I went to ask her my millennium question: how the F-U-C-K do you get up into eka pada bakasana? For those who don't know, this pose is my total kryptonite. No matter how and how hard i try, i just can't make it. Anyway, i started telling her my bullshit excuses: 'uh, I think my waist is too short and my legs too long...' and she told me shoosh, shhooooooshhh, SHOOSH! She said try. After flattening my self like a pancake, I looked at her. After several further discussions including a lot of my bullshit :) she asked me to go into prep, which i did, then she asked to dip forward chest towards the earth which I did, then to coil into the core, which I did, then push my supporting leg down into the arm, which I did, to extend my leg back, which I did. And ooooooooohhhhh miracle. I was in Eka Pada Bakasana. If you have never struggled to the core for an asana, you can't relate. But how great I felt. She was very happy too. And so were the 15 or so people who had gathered around to look at me. And that took 3 minutes. SHE IS AMAZING!

Anyway, after that, we did a bit of practicing teaching, where I met Gopi, a really sweet and nice Indian Brit who lives in DC. We had a lot of fun playing with poetry and metaphors. She gave me some very good feed-back, which is to pause. Take time to take time. My flow is nice and slow, but I don't stop. Great feed-back. Thanks Gopi.

After that, we went to the teacher exploratorium, which was OK. I partnered with Andrew, a guy who i think is gay, from DC. Very nice. We did our teaching practice on Mandala Namaskar prep again. That was good. But after that, we sat down cause people had questions, and that became 'chiant'. Luckily, I had to leave early as I was on my way to Shiva's public class.

OH MY GOD, I have never sweated to much, and I have never loved a class so much. We got into this amazing progression from (uttanasana, lunge with pulsation with back bend and core activation, eka bakasana prep, vasistasana variations, back bend variations). It was totally non stop, non stop for 1.5 hours. People were moaning in a good way, letting the energy out, and loving it. She dedicated eka pada bakasana to me and my birthday, renamed it eka pada Frankasana :) I loved it, I was totally on fire. At the end, 2 urdhva danurasana (how open was I), and shoulder stand and that's it. En vrac: don't just pay the toll in chaturanga, sri sri Chaturanga (YEAH!!!), up dog with toes under from cobra...

After that, I was totally high, really high, as if I had taken illicit products. I was burning, on fire, excited, and at the same time in an amazing space. I went home, did my laundering, had a fantastic and big burrito (I was hungry by then, trust me).

Oh what a day. Shiva, I love you, and though I thought I would never mean that for any of my teachers., I worship you always. I love you so much.

Bye everyone. Sorry if that was thick, but the day was intense.

IY

Rushing out but you deserve an update

Great afternoon yesterday. Very interesting discussions and work around Swadisthana Chakra, our connection to fluidity, creativity, sensuality and sexuality. To cut a long story short, I have the water but it's not flowing.

Afternoon finished with Shiva surprising me at the end of the session for my birthday, offering me a Ganesha and a card, and a trance dance on music i like, so that all of us (80) started dancing like crazy for 15 minutes, all around me :)

As per Shiva's command, I went to the Ocean to experience rebirth in the flow. I had a great time and lost my keys. :p

Drama resolved quickly (the manager of the hotel was in the office, which NEVER happens) and i was on my way to the evening session in Santa Monica with Shiva's husband on Ayurveda. Uber-interesting.

I finished with dinner with Nik, my good friend, in a very good (and pricey) Italian restaurant on the beach front in Venice, and had a lovely risotto next to William Hurt who happenned to be dining there too.

Great morning today, day 3. I TOTALLY CONNECT WITH MY WATER and had the most amazing practice. We went into arm balances, bird of paradise... and I was flying.

Anyway, very happy now, excited about the rest of the intensive and of my life.

All my love.

IY

Day 2 - Morning

Aching thighs and shoulders... This is what I woke up with, as a definite evidence of the work we did yesterday. But that motivated me even more to rush in, practice and burn these aches into strength.

We started right away this morning, for about 2hrs of Sadhana. Though we started with some structured namaskar (jala and surfee namaskar), we ended up going in a total Sahaja flow (no structure, totally spontaneous), where Shiva led us through amazing water-inspired moves, and then let us finish in a free flow of spontaneously arising postures. It's funny how structure is so ingrained in all of us though. Halfway through, Kishan, an assistant, asked me to continue deeper, and surrender more to the Flow and let go of the form. Which I did, and I had an amazing moment moving through beautiful shapes in a wave like motion, back and forth, no always finishing in the full form of the asana, but definitely embodying something.

This great moment finished with a beautiful meditation, and a quick escape of the room to let the next class come in. I had the most delicious smoothie after class. We got this Juice It Up store that allows us buy smoothies at a 20% discount, and they get prepared just ahead of time, so they are nice and cold and ready by the time we finish class. Awesome.

I was going to go to the Spa after class, but figured I ought to do some laundry first. I will go to the spa this afternoon right after class, before the evening session in Santa Monica.

Let the flow be with us. Imperfect Husband, I love you. Moomoo and Keke I adore you. The rest of the world, I worship you.

IY

PS: it's my birthday today :)

Day 1 - Shiva's summer immersion

Resting in bed, it's 9.30PM.

The bad news today is that I could not be bothered to attend the evening session (opening ceremony up in Malibu on the hills). The combined effect of a long first day, of a number of admin things to do, of the jet lag and of the distance of the venue (with car pooling involved) drove me to stay home and enjoy a free sweet night.

The day was amazing. The morning was great (see below). After updating my blog, I went down to the beach (which is a long walk away from my door: the sand stretches forever before you reach the ocean), walked in the water for a while and enjoyed the amazing breath, energy and radiance of the Pacific Ocean. I initially wanted to jump in a swim for a while, but the fact that my feet almost turned blue when i stepped into the water suggested I refrain from immersing my whole body in the very very cold blue liquid.

The afternoon session was nice, mostly spent on analysing our mudhara chakra, discussing with partners... Shiva asked if anyone had anything to share, had a spanda arising to take the mic and talk. the first three ladies who took the mic shared very sad and dramatic stories, one of them even cried, about how life is tough and they don't feel loved or celebrated in their bodies... It was so sad, and I am so grounded these days in my Muladhara (mainly refers to the areas of health/embodiment, home, relationships and Dharma/livelihood) that a tremor (spanda) occurred, and i decided to take the mic to say that Muladhara was an exciting place to be, and that it was important to take the time to root oneself, to feel that joy. I made people laugh a lot. I guess some will think I am proud to stand up just to say that I am doing well and am happy, but that is what my spanda was about. It was fun though.

I finally connected with Coral, my teacher training mentor, who is adorable and hugged me the whole time. I am sure something interesting will happen for my birthday tomorrow.

Talking about birthday, my dearest dearest Imperfect Husband, whom I love so very much (I know you are reading this, dear), was the first one to wish me a happy birthday, given that my birthday is spanning three continents this year: my home in Asia, my roots in Europe, my body in America. Long stream of good wishes, and a few arrived already. I am actually feeling nothing major about turning 30. Anyway, we will see tomorrow.

After the afternoon session, I decided to attend a yoga class, as the morning practice totally helped my back, but was too short to completely fix it. So I attended Twee Merigan's (Shiva's assistant) class at Exhale. Few people, but very nice. Started a bit strange with a long breathing meditation in Shiva Lingam mudra, but it turned out very very fun, quite challenging with some cool moves: nice balancing sequence leading at the end to Garudasana, Vasistasana and Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana, and a few other things. Anyway, totally fixed my back, I felt nice and happy after that. Went to get a nice smoothie from the store next door and an organic avocado and tofu sandwich for dinner, which proved surprisingly tasty.

At this very moment, I feel the waves of sleeping slowly coming over me, and I know i won't be up long. I need to rest as I feel tomorrow ill be arm balancing, with, I suspect, and interesting flow including Eka Paka Utkatasana to Galavasana to Eka Pasa Utkatasana to dragonfly and a few other things. We shall see.

Love to Shiva, IH, Moomoo, Keke and all the other heart centers in my life.

Good night.

IY

Morning 1

Oh it's good, oh it's nice, oh it's filling and fulfilling to be with Shiva again. After a mid-night wake up resolved with one more pill of melatonin, i slept until 5.25AM today, and woke up excited and scared not to be up to scratch.

We came in for a beautiful beautiful chanting and movement meditation (I got totally stuck on Muladhara chakra - AGAIN... ARGH!!!!) and moved into a nice easy practice of dancing warriors 1, 2 and blossoming namaskar (down dog to pigeon to frog to pigeon and over again) to a new namaskar with a low horse riding holding the ankles - loved it) and some back bends. Believe it or not, I managed three beautiful wheels. Yummmmm, felt so good. I love how she started us in down dog for like 5 minutes and let us move with the flow, and everyone totally got into it. Amazing stuff, I was dancing in down dog, again, like the good old days...

Well, off the to beach now before the afternoon session. I better enjoy it cause the rest of the schedule is totally packed.

Shakti to you all

IY

Day 1 -48 minutes

There we are. 5.42 AM, July 14th (Vive la France).

The summer immersion led by Shiva Rea, which led me to cross an ocean and spend a lot of money is starting soon. My back is still in pieces from the flight, I am tired by jet lag and have not had a strong practice in a week.

I am scared. But hopeful.

First report tonight on my back.

Wish me (a lot of) luck.

Imperfect Yogi

First pics from my home in Venice, CA

some views of Venice: the roof top of my building, the yoga studio entrance, Ocean Front Walk with my apartment building in the middle, the beach in front of the building.

Off to get some food now.

IY

Lalaland

24 hours in the city

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, yogis and yoginis, mamas and papas, hookers and pimps, Francky has landed in Hollywood. I arrived ahead of time yesterday at 4.50PM into LAX. Simple little thing that I am, I thought this would give me more time to get my luggage and rush to the little boys' tree before I met my friend at arrivals. Simple little thing I am...

I had not quite taken into account the master plan of the immigration services... After waiting roughly 20 minutes in line with a lot of Asians (flights from Seoul, KL and Singapore had just flown in) and a huge huge huge lot of Mexicans (it looked as if the population of western Mexico had just marched together as one man onto LAX at 5PM sharp), my turn came up to talk to the nice immigration officer. Now, I had had some issues in the past, so I had taken no chances this time: I had gotten myself a brand new passport with a brand new picture the week before, I had provided all my accommodation details, down to the room number to the airline, and I had even shaved, in order not to look too Latin/eastern/hairy/suspicious to the immigration officers. Well, that certainly did not suffice, as the officer checked my (empty and brand new) passport (which I had forgotten to sign until my turn was about to come up in the queue) over and over and over again, trying to match some stuff that came up on his screen. After clarifying that I had indeed lived in 4 different countries in the last 5 years and was not a yoga instructor who had just arrived in business class from Singapore on a French passport to attend a yoga retreat at a local spa, we realised there was a problem. He found one (I am not sure to this moment what the problem was), and I knew I had one (when he did not return my passport and asked me to take three steps back and wait for an other officer).

And there I go in an empty booth with the new officer, who looks nice but bigger, stronger, tougher and more armed than the first one. And there we go again... Where do I come from? (last city? where have I been in the last 3 weeks? last year? last 5 years?) What do I do? (my real job that I left or my dream job that does not look good on an immigration form?) What am I here for? What is a yoga retreat? Why do I practice yoga? Why do I come for a retreat here? Do I have proof of my attending the retreat? ...

Let's say it lasted long enough for the luggage of my flight to stop turning on the carousel, and for my bladder to be near the point of explosion. He then typed what seemed to be a long, long, very long, really very long sentence on his computer, and let me go. To be honest, I was dying to ask what had triggered this special attention to my little insignificant and imperfect person, but I thought I should not tempt the Universe, and just ran to my luggage and the bathroom, to empty my bladder, which had now reached the size of a small watermelon.

12 minutes of peeing later, I stepped out of the washroom to find my good old friend Nik waiting for me. We left for Studio City, had a quick dinner (Greek salad the size of a roof garden, 5.99, not bad but waste of food).

After 7 hours of sleep made possible by a double ration of Melatonin, I woke up - tired - and we started the day with a lovely breakfast at The Good Earth in Studio City (omelet tortilla the size of my living room, 7.99, not bad but a real waste of food - come on people, cut down on the portion sizes...).

Nik then drove me over to Venice Beach for a lovely walk in the sea, after which I checked into my hotel, which is A-MA-ZING!! I was upgraded to a kick-a$$ suite and there is a huge amazing roof top on the 4th floor, overlooking the beach. I am writing from there now, getting a nice sun burn on my caucasian's shoulders.

That's all for today, more stories tomorrow after the Teacher Intensive starts (6.30 AM, sharp).

Bye bye from Lalaland!

Imperfect Yogi

At the airport

Singapore Changi Airport, Thursday July 12, 14.48.

In just about an hour, I will be (hopefully) flying high above the skies that lace the sky of the South China Sea, on my way to California, the sun, Shiva, vegan breakfast burritos, my ex and a bunch of excited yogis to attend a teacher intensive. I am thrilled, and at the same time, I hate to leave.

It's quite a curious game, which the mind plays with you, when you are about to exercise such an outstanding opportunity (flying half-way across the word to attend an amazing retreat with one's guru with a bunch of like-minded carefree whisperers), and still all you can think about is staying home, watching TV with your partner and playing around with your doggies. It's definitely a puzzling reaction that i have witnessed in me several times. I can't quite understand whether it's just laziness, ultimately, or the realization that in the end, your heart calls you back to the most simple components of your life.

Now the real question I have been struggling with lately, is whether one should heed its inner calling (stay home to enjoy the simple things), or if one should give oneself a good kick in the seat bones and get going. I am torn.

For a little while, I have been so happy with my life that I start getting scared of losing it all. More clearly, I am getting shit scared to die right now. As a result, I am displaying this defensive behavior, and am focusing almost exclusively on what I know is key, and on what makes me most happy in the short term: my imperfect parter, my imperfect doggies, and my imperfect little Life. But while it looks like a healthy conscious decision, I am also anxious that I might thereby be shielding myself from greater opportunities in Life. Let me explain. Not that I think I should abandon my Dearest, Moomoo and Keke to lead a totally different life at all. I just think I should stop being so scared of losing this part of my life that I am preventing myself from knowing anything else. It's a little bit like Arjuna's questionning in the Gita, when Sri Krishna tells him that Yoga IS action, and that Arjuna has no option but immersing himself in the World, no matter how tough, uncomfortable or dangerous this may be. Yoga is action, karma yoga, Life must be experienced fully to come to a state of Yoga.

As a result, the struggle in Life is to preserve the most precious elements within, and yet not compromise the necessity to take action in the World. What it means for me is that I must continue cherishing my Jewels, and yet take a fierce and courageous step in the world, to explore the range of opportunities it holds, and display the range of qualities I have.

Long long long unclear story cut short: good think I am on my way to LA to reconnect with my practice, the Universe, and the Flow within. And after all, it might be a good thing to pass the ever-so-important 30 years-old threshold alone and away from what I have put together in the last 29 years.

I will tell you how things go.

Imperfect Yogi

Hot hot hot

When is too much hot yoga... too much? Although I now practice hot yoga (generally flow classes) a couple of times a week, I teach up to 12 classes of hot yoga each week. Today, I was Madame Hot Queen, teaching hot flow, hot hour and hot flow again in a row.

Although I like the energy of students in the hot room, the rashes on my face and my need to drink up yo 4 litres of water a day suggest I may be getting exposed to too much heat. Do take into account that the average weather on my imperfect island is quite similar to that of a hot yoga studio, with an average of 34 degrees in the afternoon, with a humidity level reaching that of the heart of ripe cucumber.

Besides this, not much. Very much in love with Mister Imperfect Yogi, totally crazy for my two little Imperfect Poops.

On my way to Lala-land tomorrow at 4.25 PM, for a Teacher Intensive with my Mama Shiva in Venice. 15 days of strong, hard, tough, dirty yoga, 8 hours a day. CAN'T WAIT! I will try and update you on a daily basis on the life of your favorite imperfect yogi in CA.

Lastly, strange thoughts this week, as a result of this crazy book I have been reading: 'Sauve moi'. Scared to die. Scared of going on a place. Scared of being cut short in my happiest journey ever. Scared to loose my three dearest souls on this Earth. Scared not to have time to go through all that's coming. Hopefully, these are just dark thoughts in preparation for my 30th birthday, which I will spend alone in Lala-land. Hopefully, Shiva will have a few kind words to make the day special in some way.

Baraka!

Imperfect Yogi

Not bad...

Mission almost accomplished? From a perfect yogi perspective, it's actually a 100% success.

I did practice yesterday at 8PM (not the most appropriate time, but then again, better that than pigging out in front of the TV). I proved to lazy though, to go out and meet my buddies for drinks. Which, on the yogic scale, is a good thing. So all in all, I did well.

Today will be a long day of teaching, practicing and getting pissed off at retards walking at the speed of snails on the streets while blocking the way to people who want to move at a normal pace... I hate the City on week ends: shopaholics with no money going to town to express qualities that they don't have, spend money that they don't have, and eat crap food that they certainly don't need.

Bloody consumerism. Viva no logo. Viva Live Earth. Viva a weather-led retaliation by Mother Earth. Viva Madonna (not much to do with the above, but the lady rocks and always will :D).

Have a very imperfect day, I know I will.

Imperfect yogi

Value added today? Hmmm, think again...

What a non-day today... Nothing much happened.

Imperfect yogi wakes up (with a little hang-over), imperfect yogi drinks herbal cleansing tea and rushes out under the rain to teach a packed hot yoga class. Imperfect yogi has a shower before teaching a packed yin yoga class. Imperfect yogi comes home his family, has lunch and falls asleep.

Imperfect yogi wakes up (with no more hang-over), imperfect yogi drinks herbal energizing tea and rushes out under the sun to teach a packed power yoga class. Imperfect yogi comes home to his dogs, and decides to update his blog.

Hmmm, not much to today, is there? We will see. It is 8PM and I am trying to talk myself into practicing then meeting friends and Mister Imperfect Yogi for drinks.

I will confirm tomorrow whether any of the above pre-set objectives has been achieved. Until then, let me say ('one more time') that I will never drink alcohol again.

Shanti.

Imperfect Yogi

First day

Dear reader,

My mother always told me to introduce myself to strangers, especially when I am about to drown them in unnecessary and one-sided perspectives on my world. So there we are. My name is the Imperfect Dancing Yogi, I am 29 years old (for 9 full exciting days more) and live somewhere hot, hot, and hot some more, with a lot of water around. I am a yoga master, or working as one, but am really a struggling little boy deep inside.

I am tall, brunet, although people who have not seen my hair could rightfully suspect I am a natural blonde in view of my behavioral pattern. I have lived in many countries and will probably live in many more. I like food (too much) and physical activity (not enough). I also like the sea, yoga, arts, cheap European TV drama, dogs, noodles, planes and Twix, although not necessarily in that order.

I am quasi-married (laws will be laws) to Mister Imperfect Yogi, who is a yoga master himself, but less imperfect than me. We have two adorable boys, Imperfect Moomoo and Imperfect Keke. We live happily everafter in an Imperfect home in a very Imperfect City.

Expect a lot of pointless and confusing thoughts' drewling on these pages in the coming months, but at the same time, don't expect too much.

Off to hit the mat for my self practice of the day.

Toodle...

Imperfect Yogi