Oh Bali… oh Sacred Circularites.. You have done truly rocked my world! My heart is expanded, my purpose clarified and my inspiration ignited. I came to SC this year with very little expectation but an intuition of something big awaiting me.

This hoop event of all others really lives up to it’s intention to not only take people deeper into their hoop practice but deeper into themselves. In the process of bringing forth something of worth to the participants I felt a recommitment to my teaching begin to take shape. This process was crystallized in Bunny’s workshop. Among a lot of other amazingness, we were asked to write one word that represented our purpose. The first that came up was “LOVE”. Upon further reflection I recognized that what is beneath all my hooping, teaching and interactions truly is the intention and passion to share love and help hearts to open. With this thought my joy for teaching is invigorated and freed up to encompass all that serves that purpose. I feel a surge of excitement and energy to teach more and open up my sharing to incorporate more of my personal explorations as well as with the hoop.

In Ann’s workshop we were encouraged to embrace our shadow and bring up the rejected and lost parts of ourselves. I saw myself at around 4 years old and picked her/me up.. I saw my face at that age clearly and felt all that she needed and didn’t get. We danced and I hugged her and loved her until she was absorbed back into my essential self. This was a deep deep healing and a recognition of my basic human needs and an honoring of them. My self-love just went up a few notches!

Visions of all of reality comprised of just a few essential geometrical shapes danced in my head after Rainbow Michael's workshop.. We danced with the cosmos in sacred geometrical patterns... yum!

My dreaming was quickened by the amazing dream journey’s with Jane. I had many many epic dreams during my stay in Bali, but the one that has really created a whole new space to be in is a dream of having a conversation with someone and all of the sudden realizing that all the internal blocks and fears that had been keeping me from moving forward in my life were just GONE. I stopped and kind of marveled for a moment.. then felt such a surge of joy. I saw my life unfolding before me with abundance, freedom and incredible ease. I laughed out loud in the dream and the feeling is still with me.

Bali incites a feeling in me of being fully integrated with nature. Showering with a multitude of snails climbing the rock wall behind the shower head and with sun peeking through the foliage, creating rainbows in the water as it bounces off my skin.  I was gifted with the tiny exoskeleton of a dragonfly on my bathroom mirror, a symbol of change, relaxed power and a piercing of illusion. In one of my morning meditations I accidentally touched an ant on the wall next to me. Not enough to squish him but enough to feel his little body. All day that day I was bitten by little black ants, calling me to remember community, patience and to doing the work that needs to be done. At one point I felt like I was in a Disney movie, with a gorgeous black butterfly flitting in circles around me, through my legs and posing for pictures. I was visited by skinks, giant spiders, dragonflies, snails and loads of frogs.  The many sounds of Balinese creatures.. clicks, whistles, croaks and buzzes, the warmth of the air and coolness of the water,  felt to me like a big warm embrace. There were many moments where I would just stop on the path, breath and feel my whole being expand and flow with the mystery of Bali.

So Great-full for the deep friendships of Rainbow Michael, Bunny HoopStar, Ann Humphreys,and Jaguar Mary on this playground of life! Thank you Jaguar Mary for creating a sacred container for us ALL to explore, laugh and create anew. This space had allowed my connection with the divine is grow ever more real and tangible, and to forge new friendships and strengthen old ones... alive and rich with love and the bond of shared experience.

I leave on the long journey home tomorrow a newer, more whole version of myself… light, grounded and truly unstoppable!

Breathing deep and laughing loud,

Xoxo
Anah

the wonder of simple moments...

Today was a magical day. Nothing “special” happened, no specific source to point to. For no reason at all I just felt lighter. I noticed the little things; A flower sprouting up through a crack in the cement, the sun glinting of a woman’s hair as she jogged... her dog bounding playfully at her side. Two friends lost in peals of laughter as they walked down the street. The smile on my face was ever present and varied from a tiny lifting of one corner to a full grin ear to ear. It kinda felt like this SNL episode, though a bit more pure.. haha!

No matter where I was or what I was doing all things beautiful jumped out at me; the sunshine on the hills, thoughts of a dear man sleeping peacefully on a boat on the other side of the world, tensions lifted between co-workers, a sweet friend saying “I like you”, a man in traffic smiling broadly at me as I tapped my hands on the steering wheel and bobbed my head to the sound of my car stereo. I felt a buoyancy of heart as even driving through a “bad” neighborhood, all I noticed was two children running and laughing ahead of their parents, who also smiled and held hands.

Hard at work sorting through thousands of photos for a fun hooper project, I marveled at the joy and playfulness of a community so dear to my heart. I even came across an amazing photo shoot of my own from 4 years ago that I had forgotten about!

In full appreciation of the life I get to live and ever more GREAT-FULL for the rich and wonderful myriad of people, places, things and ineffable goodness that surrounds me.!!

MMMM, the 4 M's of Hoop Dance

I just returned home from teaching my newest workshop series at Sacred Circularities retreat in Bali! Sacred Circularites is a spiritually focused hoop retreat facilitated by Jaguar Mary. Because of the nature of this retreat I felt very free to explore the deeper aspects of hoop dance and as a result wrote a truly unique and wonderful series (IMHO)! In my contemplations I was drawn to develop a sense based, yet concrete pathway to the elusive state know as "flow". Flow is a buzzword often used in the hoop community, but what is it and how do we get there? This was the starting point of my creative process and here is the result

"MMMM, the 4 M'sof Hoop Dance"

Moment + Movement + Music = Magic

Moment~ your state of being, or presence in the moment

Movement~ your body's movement in combination with the hoop's movement

Music~ connecting to and losing yourself in the music

Magic~ the arrival into the state of flow

Starting with a guided hoop journey you will be guided to connect with your body, your emotions, and your surroundings, bringing you into the moment. We will play with different emotional/mental states and how they relate to your success or challenges in Hoop Dance (and all of life for that matter).

In the second segment I will lead you through a series of energetic and focused movement exercises designed to connect movement to hoop and erase the line between body and hoop. We will also learn some new "tricks" or moves to pump your hooping up to your next level.

In the third segment we will combine your new skills with a focus on rhythm and full integration into the music. Finally we arrive at the goal... Magic!

If you missed Sacred Circularities, not to worry! You can get this workshop at the up and coming HoopVillage in Ojai, CA!

www.HoopVillage.net

You can also sign up now for Sacred Circularities in Bali for next year! Check out www.SacredCircularities.com

See you in the circle soon!!

xo~ Anah aka Hoopalicious

On this Valentines day, 2011, most of the day I celebrated all the tremendous love in my life. Friends, family and the witnessing of the love of my many friends that are in gorgeous partnerships. It wasn't till I was driving home (from a very satisfying day in my Yoga teacher training with Christy Marsden) in thick traffic full of people heading out to celebrate with their lovers, that I began to feel a deep sadness well up in me. I am no stranger to being single, and in fact have been single more than not most of my adult life. I have grown accustomed to feeling varying degrees of alone-ness, and actually love has always been a little mixed with sadness for me. Usually, though, I tend to sink into feeling sorry for myself a bit, or conversely, burying the emotion entirely. This time, rather than talk myself out of the feeling, I let it be and breathed into it.

After only a few moments I recognized that the TONE of my emotion has changed. There is now a beauty to my sadness. Where once, I felt despair and jealousy of others romantic success (when compared to my relative romantic failures), this new percolation of emotion feels more like a soft yearning. The rooted and whole desire of a strong and capable WOMAN, ready to be utterly TAKEN by a competent man. No longer the tantrums of a child wishing to be loved, but a woman full of love and yearning to burst under the skillful touch of a powerful man.

Most of my dating life I have rejected overt romance, thinking I was a woman that didn't NEED all the "frivolous" gestures that seemed to annoy most men. Flowers, remembering birthdays, surprises and gifts. I dated only one man that was "romantic" in these ways and I rejected it. Clearly I hadn't yet learned to joys of receiving! I have come to find out that I have a VERY romantic and soft heart that does indeed desire to be cherished by a sexy and inventive man... Flowers on my pillow, candles lit and a bath drawn when I come home, ravishing me in a deserted hallway on the way back from dinner, surprise weekends away to somewhere delicious. I am ready to cherish and be cherished, to surrender and be taken, to RISE into an expansive love affair. So, even as I feel the sadness of being sans lover, I CELEBRATE. For finally.. My heart has matured and ripened into the heart of a WOMAN, ready for her MAN.

divination fun!

I recently discovered a fun new divination tool.. I am a big fan of cards, runes and the i-ching and use them all often; mostly to get confirmation on intuitions or to get clarity on a specific situation. I recently moved to a new place and had a whole set of refrigerator magnets in a little tin I had yet to put up... One day I was walking through my kitchen and thought.. hmmm I wonder if i stuck my hand in without looking and just pulled some out what would i get? This one on the right is the first ------->

Cool, huh?


So, i began asking questions and I have been really tickled by some of the answers I have been getting! I am leaving out the details of the questions, but in general:



Asking about my next step:

Interpretation:

To transform my entire existence by FULLY embracing the woman I am in the truest form!













About what could help me heal:
I actually lost my voice for a whole month and a half AFTER i pulled this one! I regained my voice after a half a day of silence at the Mentor Retreat. In my silence I realized that I need to step back a bit in order to allow others to have space to step into strong leadership roles. And that it didn't make me less than, it made me stronger and MORE joyful!












These two were about having healthy love and maintaining good personal boundaries:
The first one I interpreted as:

"meditate birth" = Focus on what I want to manifest

" bear care" = first i thought about care bears.. hee hee! then I realized that the Bear has always been an important spiritual symbol for me so I interpret it as taking care of my spiritual self

"believe you" an obvious one.. Believe in myself!






The second one I interpreted as:

we always recover our wisdom even if we have to heal for a bit..
















Asking about my first Mentor training retreat:

I am bringing up gorgeous inquiries and to trust in my vision!












Fun stuff, huh!! Try this one!!

1. If you have fridge magnets, pull them all off and put them in a little tin that you hand fits into easily. Or buy some (hopefully ones with juicy woo-woo words like "transformation" and "spirit", etc...

2. Ask a question, general or not. A couple easy ones I like to use are:

" What is hidden from my view that could be of use to me right now?"
or

"What about ____ in my life?"

3. Without looking, pull however many words out of the tin that seem to naturally come into your hand.

4. Again, without looking, place them on the fridge in what every order you grab each one out of your hand first.

5. Contemplate, and enjoy!!


With love, gratitude and everlasting joy~ Anah

First Mentor/Teacher Training was a HUGE success!

The first annual Joshua Tree Mentor Retreat, Jan. 2010

What an amazing 4 days! I am so great-ful for all the amazing hooper BE-ings that showed up open to looking deeply within and embracing all new ways of looking at hoopdance and people. I embarked upon this journey some time ago and went through my own transformational process in order to drop my fear and offer my thoughts and processes to the world. This first training will always hold a special place in my heart.. after all there is nothing like the first time! Hee hee!

In everlasting love and devotion to all people everywhere,

Anah aka Hoopalicious









PS; if you interested in participating in the next HoopRevolution Mentor training, check out my website:
www.HoopRevolution.com/classes

A VERY simple thing you can do to reduce your footprint!

I just experienced the Alchemy Conference in Los Angeles and it was so powerful! I have transformed many time over in just three days and way too much to blog about here. What I want to share now is one simple, practical thing I thought of that we can all do to begin to change one of the habits that causes so much waste and pollution in our environment. Throughout the day how many of us use “disposable” cups, plastic ware, grocery bags and take out containers? I have been mostly good about using reusable bags for my groceries, but I am guilty of getting a regular Starbucks drink and taking my food home in (yikes) Styrofoam take-out containers. What if, instead of just following the insanity of disposables simply because that's "the way it is", on our daily travels we carried a little bag with the following things:

Travel Mug

A silverware(or bamboo ware) set

Plenty of cloth grocery bags

Snacks and/or a lunch

A small set of Tupperware

I know it seems like a lot, but it really is only a small bag and just think of all the trash you would take out of the cycle!! Our disposable habit must shift to make a real difference in the world and no new habit is easy or even comfortable at first. However it is shown that if you can successfully repeat any action for 30 days it will become a habit and be as natural as brushing you teeth in the morning. SO what do you say? Are you in? Simply cut and paste the text below and place it in TWO places, one by your front door, and one by your bathroom mirror (so you don’t have the excuse of only seeing the reminder on you way out the door and not having time to get your kit together).

I am so excited to commit to this new habit!! Please share your experience with me as we all endeavor to take better care of our Home Planet!

Much love and inspiration,

Anah aka Hoopalicious

Remember and Rejoice!!

Do you have your travel mug?

Do you have your cloth grocery bags?

Do you have a fork, spoon and a knife?

Do you have snacks and/or a lunch?

Do you have your Tupperware?