5 Reasons Why You Should Live in Another Country for Over a Month

1.) Be whoever you want

No one knows you, where you come from, or the mistakes you have made. You can be anyone you want, reinvent yourself. You can be a yoga teacher from California, an art student from New York City, professional wiffle ball player, or cousins with Orlando Bloom. Though I would recommend not stretching the truth too far because with everyone’s life documented on social media someone will call you out. Be confident and have the skills to back yourself up and people will believe you. Back at home you might be the quiet wall flower no one seems to want to talk to, but elsewhere you can be the life of the party.

2.) Meet unique amazing people

The people you meet on your adventure are going to be people you never forget. They are going to be in your heart and memories for the rest of your life. Probably some of your most precious memories. There is a bond there that no one will understand. You will forever remember the time you and the girl you just met got lost trying to find the ice cream shop everyone has been talking about that was supposed to be just around the corner.  You and your roommate being kept up all night because the drunk couple in the room next door took multiple rounds to smashtown, or when you and that tall, tan, rippling stomach surf instructor kept your bedroom neighbors up all night. Every time you go back to those memories you can never cover the smile that sweeps across your face or the little giggle that hiccups through your lips.

3.) Live disconnected

One of the best parts about living in another country is the disconnection. You cannot bring all the luxury technology we as humans seem unable to live without with you. Having to leave your cell service behind is almost like stepping back in time before cell phones, laptops, and GPS. If you meet someone you simple hope your paths will cross again and especially hope to remember their name. If you make plans to meet up with someone you better be on time at the right place or all is lost. If you don’t know how to get somewhere better learn how to read a fold up map and fast. The best part is that you actually talk to other human beings and have deep meaningful intellectual conversations. You truly appreciate the world around you instead of your nose pressed to your phone screen or eyes glued to the TV screen.

4.) Appreciate home

Traveling and living in a completely different place and culture makes you appreciate what you have back home. I am not saying you get home sick I mean you realize the grass on the other side isn’t always fresh cut green. From my travels I have come to realize my great appreciation for employee rights and laws at home in America. I cannot count the number of times I thought what my employer did overseas would never fly in America. I now also greatly appreciate the wonders of basic sink faucet. Everyone has done the classy move coming home after an exhausting night out and sticking their head directly in the sink to take some cold tap water to the face (and hopefully some make it in the mouth). However, in many other countries drinking the tap water can give you diarrhea making water a constant concern as well as trips to the store.

5.) Learn about yourself

Going to live in another country with a completely unknown culture really puts you out of your comfort zone. Then you truly learn about yourself. You learn what you are capable of. You learn your strengths and you learn how far you can push yourself. You learn how to navigate around a place where you don’t speak the language and actually reach your destination. When you go outside your comfort zone and go on a crazy adventures you experience some of your life’s greatest highs and lowest lows. Always the highs overpower the lows. You discover that you can stay positive and push through the hard times no matter how long or low they might be. It might feel as if there are two yacht anchors holding you down under water but just keep swimming it will pass. Soon enough you will have a smile on your face again.

Fire Log Pose

Agnistambhasana 
•
This pose opens our emotional state of mind. It stretches the hips and ground.

•Seated on the sit-bones evenly, if hips are tight you may need to place a prop under the knee that is lifted off the ground. 
•Props under the top knee. 
•Knees are bent stacking the knee with the opposite foot and visa versa. 
•Sit upright or folded forward. 
•Right hip to right knee parallel to the side of the mag when right leg is on top.

Soon Will Come The Day Everyone Will Know The Name Andra Day

https://youtu.be/5Sv2zyTQ3VQ

Just this past Monday night I was floating in a lagoon of pure music at School Night at the Bardot in Hollywood. You know the feeling you get when you release all holds, relax all muscles, clear your mind, and just float letting the water take you where it may. That is the only way I can accurately describe Andra Day’s voice.

If you have not heard of her you will soon. Born California native she is bringing back old Hollywood in ways most of us can only dream of. She is a combination of Billie Holiday, Amy Winehouse, and Lauryn Hill with her cool soulful voice whether it’s jazz, rock, doo wap, or soul. Her sassy red lips, cat eye eyeliner, and scarfed hair she is truly a beautiful girl to accompany her jar dropping vocals.

Andra Day was born Andra Batie in San Diego, California where she performed in nightclubs until who else but Stevie Wonder discovered her. She soon signed with the production company Buskin and eventually caught the attention of Warner Brothers Records.

She gained popularity on, what else, YouTube with her cover of Notorious B.I.G. and Marvin Gaye’s “Big Poppa”. She absolutely kills the cover, but also she covered Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” which people should check out as well.

This year she made a storm at the BET Awards as well as playing at ESSENCE festival. Day also did a cover of “Mississippi Goddamn” which is up on Google Play free exclusive download of Nina Revisited. Day was featured in Rolling Stone’s “10 New Artist You Need To Know: July 2015”. She even grabbed the attention of the infamous Spike Lee who directed her music video for her single “Forever Mine”.

With her vast rang and eloquent control of her voice she will grab your attention too. If you have not checked Andra Day out yet I strongly advise you too.

Day’s new album “Cheers to the Fall” will be dropping August 28. You can go to iTunes now to pre-order now and receive five songs instantly. If you don’t you can be sure to hear her on some highly publicized commercials in the next few months as well as on soundtracks. Watch out the 40s and 50s are coming back with full force.

Source:

Andra Day Official Site http://andraday.com/CheersToTheFall

Rolling Stone, “10 New Artist You Need To Know: July 2015” http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/10-new-artists-you-need-to-know-july-2015-20150713/andra-day-20150710

Essence, Red-Lipped Maven: Andra Day Talks Beauty http://www.essence.com/2015/07/02/red-lipped-maven-andra-day-talks-beauty

UPROXX music, Nina Simone Remembered: Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard, Mayer Hawthorne, and More Reflect on the Icon http://uproxx.com/music/2015/07/nina-simone-remembered/

Take Your Yoga Practice To The Board

Want to up the ante with your yoga practice? Take your yoga to the board, to the water, to the SUP. Traveling to Greece and Malta not only blessed me with the opportunity to see the gorgeous countries, but also push my yoga practice to the next level by practicing on the stand up paddle board. In Greece I had the opportunity to help out at Sporades SUP where I really test out my yoga skills and balance. In Malta I visited a yogi friend who is an instructor at SUP Yoga & Fitness Malta. She and I challenged our skills with some partner yoga on the board.

Taking your yoga practice to the board deepens your practice of the basics, makes you face a new challenge, it is one hell of a work out, introduces you to a new connection with nature, and all in all is empowering and fun.

Deepens the Basics

SUP yoga brings you back to the basics and gives you a new appreciation for the simple asanas. If yoga has been a love of your life as long as it has been for me you got the basics down pat. You practice the postures but you simply flow through them instead of taking the time to concentrate on each. Like me, your concentration and effort is geared more towards that challenging pose or flow that will impress the masses and brings the “wow” factor. There is nothing wrong with that, but we should never neglect our foundation. Bringing our practice off our mat and onto the board forces us to concentrate on breath, weight distribution, posture, and body positioning of each pose.  SUP make the basics a challenge once again.

Challenge

I have been practicing yoga for about eight years now on my mat but SUP yoga made the most basic pose a challenge. On the board on the move and groove of the living ocean, forces you to really concentrate on the level one asana. If you are unevenly distributing your weight or putting extra pressure in one area in the slightest bit the board will make it known. Not only is there a challenge to hold the pose but the slight fear that if you don’t hold your will fall. Though the fall will just be in the refreshing water it is still a fall to the brain.

A Hell of a Workout

With the board dancing to the waves beneath you, you really have to stress every muscle in your body to hold the pose. Through my years of practice and now teaching I have noticed that many students don’t understand that with the practice of yoga your entire body is working with each posture. SUP forces the body to use every muscle (including the heart and mind) through each flow of asanas without your brain even realizing it. Then once stepping off the board you feel the tired energy rushing through your body, almost like you just walked out of the gym.

New Connection with Nature

I have always had a deep personal relationship with the ocean, but when I took my practice to the board I could feel that connection blossom. Yoga has always been known to bring a yogi in tune with nature. Yoga on the mat can make you feel connected to the earth, wind, and ether, but SUP bridges the gap to truly embrace water. The board bobs with the ocean becoming one with the water and in turn you become one with the water. You feel and embrace every up and down every push and pull as the water guides you through your yoga practice. (Next we just need to figure out how to become one with fire without burning ourselves.)

Empowering and Fun

Flat out, SUP yoga is a lot of fun. Being out on the water, facing an semi-unknown challenge, and seeing that you are capable of it is fun. I know for me anything that has to do with being out on the water brings a smile to my face and unless you are terrified of the ocean it will so the same for you. SUP is something fairly new and different to try that isn’t too drastically challenging, anyone can do it. Then when the lesson is over and you make your way back to solid ground you have a rush of empowerment leak through your body and soul. You have just accomplished something that many people never dreamed they would be able to do. You feel your muscles being energized and your mind relaxed. It is a feeling you are going to crave from that moment on.

Happy Times

Recall some of the happiest times in your life. Maybe it was the birth of a child, your wedding day, or when you received a well-deserved job promotion. Write about how you really felt on two of these occasions. Do you remember the unending joy coursing through your body? Did you feel elated? Did you feel connected to something bigger than yourself?
-Goldie Hawn 10 Mindful Minutes

On the board has been some of the happiest times of my life. I have always been obsessed with the water (and to this day wish to be a mermaid). Being able to practice my yoga on he board gives me a connection to the water I have never felt before. 

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