📷 2020 01 11 At my studio, which I would leave at the end of the year.
📷 2020 02 01 My studio was called M Yoga, it was the name my company had from 2012 and up. Before that I worked under my own name, and didn’t own a studio.
Just when I had made my peace that apparently, I would have to find a way to work whilst losing the first two to four hours of my day to feeling hungover, sleep deprived after yet another restless night (and not in a good way), and the added bonus of a pending cold which had been haunting me A.M. ever since the whole pandemic started; Yet all those complaints disappearing 350 days of every year I’d say, before noon? JUST as I had made my peace that this handicap was just gonna be the way things were gonna be from now on, they disappeared. Not exactly “like magic” because I made some sacrifices, but having my morning back is worth the price.
The price is that I stop work at 7 PM, meaning I have less than 40 minutes to finish this post. I was away for most of the day, out with a friend walking, cycling, getting sun on my face. To exercise outdoors, daily, without fail; That too is a price.
And it’s not just the computer work; I also do not see myself teaching yoga at night. For now, I give myself one night a week out of the house. Even though the Netherlands are coming out of the pandemic, and regular life is resuming more or less as it did, my life will look different. With nights spent at home, and also not writing, which is what I ve been doing at nighttime for the past 15+ years, if I didn’t have classes.
Now after 7 PM I will do my housekeeping; my yoga; and a special event tonight is that I ll be removing a wood splinter from my hand. I work at an antique desk which belonged to my late father. It frequently gives off splinters, but I managed to dodge them or they slide under a nail and are easy to retrieve. Maybe because I have my nights off now, The Universe has set up new challenges for me.
But I am beyond relief…. It feels ages ago that I woke up at 6 AM, without an alarm, and fully rested. I feel absolutely reborn, and I know it’s too soon to label what happened those two years (and that’s not even including the impact the pandemic has on our mental health), but I m going to try and exclude what I can. First off, I do not believe I ve had Covid. I have not coughed these years, but I do believe I was very self-conscious about cold-like complaints, which I probably had in the years before the pandemic as well. Just that I hadn’t noticed them.
The first year I had migraines, which were new to me. I never had them in my life, and although they returned occasionally in 2021, they were mostly a 2020 thing.
In 2021 I woke up sick from April to September, it must have been. That’s when the biggest health loss was, losing half my day time and time again. I was happy when I got tested for allergies: A dust or other home allergy would explain why I woke up feeling sick. But all tests came back negative.
The complaints however stopped. Only to return a few weeks later.
And now February 2022, they’re gone. I feel better than I have in years, I m absolutely full of life. But I also suffer from an otherworldly feel. Like a jetlag when you’ve travelled in the right direction, and at an acceptable time (so you didn’t board the plane sleep-deprived). In those circumstances, when you are at your destination, you are hours ahead of the local time. You wake up at 6 AM, and go for a swim in the hotel pool!
That’s how I feel…. Maybe I also feel a bit like Sleeping Beauty. “Where was I? What has happened?”
Yoga wise much has changed since the start of the pandemic. I was still teaching to friends, and I was working on finding new ways to teach. But none of them could take flight, the pandemic didn’t allow for yoga classes. I cancelled the studio, and I can see that although I will resume teaching friends at some point; Everything went exactly as it should. I am no longer a yoga teacher. Not in the way the business worked, or what the profession entailed pre-Covid.
But so much new is about to happen. Through this blog I will share my self-practice with you. And within weeks I will reboot my Dutch yoga channel. It will be yoga for Generation X. The English yoga will be kick started in June, with a 30 day yoga challenge. If you want to see my videos sooner, you can start now; There are several playlists with retrieved videos on my channel. Here is a beginner friendly selection of my videos.
It’s good to be back. In fact it’s great. And I m so excited to be writing here…. and to know that you and me have a whole life together. If you choose to stay.
Our yoga journey may have started rocky, with this blog being founded mid-pandemic. But now we’re on a steady course to happily ever after.
1. Subscribe to receive these posts in your inbox. You can find the subscription button on this page, probably on the top right.
2 YouTube: Life lessons in Bon Jovi songs rebooting within days! -> https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXpNMsIFP2U34A0yBKk8PUQ As part of our work together, I will also be making Rock Star Yoga or #dailybonjoviyoga videos for this channel, at some point (late 2022?).
You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala and A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi and White Tigress Yoga Workbook at the bottom of this page: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
closing: 1. Shiva Rea on free flowing movement 2. playlist from my channel, of beginner yoga 3. Rock Star Yoga opening prayer
2. playlist from my channel, of beginner yoga one of the playlists from my old work
3. Rock Star Yoga opening prayer Inspired by a speech Madonna gave in 1990, when she was defending her daring artistic choices to the Vatican, this is the opening prayer to Rock Star Yoga:
Her talk tells the history of dancing, and how it is something babies do instinctively, yet it was almost equally instinctively repressed by the church, because it represented creative power.
And when you read creative power, you could also read sexual power. Because those are the same thing.
And it wasn’t until the 50s brought us rock n roll, that it ended. Shiva points out, how you cannot be afraid and dance at the same time. Fear needs you to hold still. In the 50s Elvis came, people started to dance freely and the spell of fear and repression was lifted.
This analysis from Shiva Rea touches on something I have been trying to make up my mind about, as I am wondering how to start, or root, my second career in yoga. Will I continue to write yoga schedules for my yoga classes and my yoga videos? Or not.
The reasons to do so, are absolutely overwhelming. Methodical teaching will give you a system that will allow you to understand yoga as a whole. You will be able to take classes, wherever you are, and feel like you know the poses and have some kind of reference. And I ve also quite enjoyed making schedules, usually based on vintage yoga books, on videos from YouTube, courses I took, or on dvds. I always had one schedule for every class week, which I often made available for the people in class. It gave me a sense of groundedness, as a teacher.
And yet: In the final years of teaching group classes, I already had the desire to be a teacher without a script. Just like my blog posts are never planned, but the story comes out as a whole, and without me knowing the end of it; That is how I want my classes to be!
So from a personal perspective, this really is the perfect time to step up my game and no longer teach something I have planned or written out before.
Which does not mean I will not make schedules based on dvds and books; Just that I won’t be teaching or doing them. I have always liked watching dvds, reading books, and from there to write out yoga schedules. That is a creative process. But to then actually go do that? Then it is no longer creative.
So to satisfy my own creative needs, there really is no better time for me to start coming to the mat without preparing what I am going to do. Just like when I practice yoga myself: I also do not have a schedule, and sometimes my poses are not “really” yoga poses. I ve been wondering how I could teach this free-style. Or, more specifically, I have been realizing I cannot teach it. That it’s too difficult. That I have no idea what I am doing, and that I could analyze and name it, but then I end up with a system, and it would be a scheduled practice all over again. And I don’t want that.
The talk from Shiva Rea made me realize that despite being absolutely clueless on how to teach yoga that has no system or no form; That that is precisely why I want to teach it.
That my personal system of writing down exercises, and doing yoga by what I have on paper, may not be two-thousand years old, but it is over two decades old. And that’s a long time.
Who knows how many Victorian yoga values I have internalized. I know I still feel exposed when my yoga top shows cleavage, or when the shirt curls up and you see my belly. I get this 50’s Catholic feeling of being too sexual; So yeah, it is still in me!
Shaming someone, including shaming yourself, for their sexuality is in my opinion evil in its purest form.
I ve internalized values which are directly opposing everything I stand for. And there is a very high chance the feeling I was a better yoga teacher if I prepared my classes, if I stuck to the known poses and their names, if I rooted my teachings in existing lineages; Is tied to those same internalized Victorian values which may have worked in 19th century colonial India, or early 50s in The Netherlands; But they’re not my values.
My yoga, which I already do on my mat to one Bon Jovi album every day; Is free.
And our Bon Jovi inspired yoga, which I will teach for both my English and Dutch channels; Is free.
It will not be rooted in those yoga lineages, regardless if they were good or bad or if their leaders (yes, there’s more plenty more than just one Netflix documentary) have fallen off their pedestals because they have abused their power, and justice caught up with them.
Our yoga will be rooted in freedom.
In rock n roll.
In Bon Jovi.
And let’s give them something to worry about, for the next two-thousand years.
In The Next Best Thing (2000) Madonna plays a yoga teacher, completing my vision. In particular the first minutes with the titles against a backdrop of the studio, a scene that is not (fully) on YouTube.
One of the advertisements on Facebook, which was presented to me frequently even after I had bought it, was abouta movie (2020) from the book Think And Grow Rich (1937).
In it, Edwin C. Barnes who has “nothing” goes through lengths to come to work for Thomas A. Edison, who was a successful inventor and business owner.
To Edison’s assumption that Barnes stands before him with “nothing”, he replies: “Desire is not nothing. I have a vision and I believe it will come true one day, and I will stick by that however long and hard the path.”
Barnes has the vision of becoming Edison’s partner. He accepts a job as a sweeper for the offices of Edison’s company, and after two years steps in when the sales team from Edison is unwilling to sell a dictating machine, the Ediphone. Barnes presents Edison with his plans for it, and becomes his partner, making the Ediphone a huge success.
It were his words “A vision, is not nothing” which have made it possible for me to understand why rebooting my yoga practice and yoga career, is not starting with nothing.
Because I have had moments, rational moments where I am looking for outer proof that I’m worthy of my own dreams so to speak, that I have thought:
“But I have nothing, and lost everything.”
Not true.
As illustrated by the Edison and Barnes story;
A vision is not nothing.
I have a vision for yoga where it is my most important, most purposeful work. Where it is the language which everybody understands, way more than writing can ever be.
This morning I woke up feeling entirely reborn, and eager to start yoga, not just from a business/ connection/YouTube perspective, but really feeling an incredible urge to do it. A very deep desire to practice and live it.
It was a vision for the doing, of yoga, that I had been waiting for, patiently and sometimes not so patiently.
Because I knew that next to the new and improved vision for the professional side of yoga (all about connection, through YouTube, through seminars, through writing, through touring); I also wanted to have a vision for my yoga self-practice. And that’s what I found.
For the first time in years I am so excited to get on my yoga mat, I feel like I’ve found a treasure, my most precious “possession” maybe even; I refound the yoga vision I lost a long time ago.
Which brings us back to the beginning.
A desire and a vision is not “nothing”. In all probability, your vision is what will make it a success in worldly terms. But that is not why I want you to start creating a vision for the areas of your life you want to grow.
The reason a desire and a vision are everything, is that they supply a deep fulfillment in and of themselves.
Edwin Barnes had a desire to work with Thomas Edison, a vision to be his partner, and he placed himself in a relationship with Thomas Edison. But the reason I was so adamant of my vision for yoga coming to life first, was not because of the movie Think and Grow Rich and Edison and Barnes, but because when I started yoga in 1998, it had started with a vision, also.
Madonna had just brought out her Ray of Light album, and she talked about having started yoga. Yoga had become her main workout, and she had an even more athletic body than she had had the decade before that. And she was now completely gym free.
In 1998, her yoga gave me the vision of wanting to do yoga. And it was this vision that ultimately unfolded into a whole yoga career, even more so when in 2000 she played a yoga teacher in the movie The Next Best Thing. Just like I had adopted her version of what a yoga practitioner was, I took it next level to what a yoga teacher was. Like Abby, the yoga studio owner in The Next Best Thing
I built my vision of yoga, and my career of yoga, on her work.
After three transitional years, where I changed, stopped and started yoga, and then stopped again, and started again, you get the idea; I understood that yoga was still my passion. That I would never be able to turn my back on it, because I just loved it too much. Somewhere underneath, the vision I had started with, was still there.
The execution, the doing it, had not been ideal, in all likeliness that was only because I forgot to run it by my vision first. But that’s all water on the bridge, and not particularly relevant to this story. Either way; I did realize at some point, that yoga was still very much alive in me.
And that I had to start showing up for the relationship with it, even when that meant I had to sweep floors for my yoga like the two years like Barnes swept floors for Edison.
And I did.
I started to show up.
This step back, this deliberate step back, from the doing; In favor of the very flaky, very not-concrete “being in the space with yoga”? In favor of the “being in the relationship with yoga”? Like what I wrote you yesterday, about me getting back to taking courses on Udemy?
That has brought me more vision, dreams and clarity, than all the times I seduced myself into doing yoga or teaching yoga. Even though those were fun, and I enjoyed them very much! But on a deeper level they were not grounded. I had to start from scratch every time I wanted to do yoga, by finding or by creating motivation.
And that was definitely not the case in those first years where I just flew to my mat!
Because in those early years all I had to go on was my vision, and I didn’t even have the knowledge yet of how to seduce myself into doing yoga.
So I’m not saying that you need to have a vision for yoga, before you start.
But if you want it to last for twenty years, and then still being able to find each other after three years of turmoil?
I’m getting back on the yoga teacher wagon, yoga do-er wagon , or really any wagon that involves doing something with my body, because man! I really have been cutting corners here….
Every free hour, I have been publishing my books. It is work that I had been waiting for, praying for, and that in my experience can almost only be done with, I don’t know “the Universe on your side” would be a good way of putting it. And after years of the Universe not supporting, the flood came.
The past 6 weeks, I have only pulled myself away from the screen, when I absolutely had to go, or had to sleep, and even that was sacrificed occasionally. By now I can make healthy meals in a minimum of time, and I ve learned to live in a house that crosses the line to being closer to a stable. And then before going to bed, sometimes as late as 3 AM, I quickly do the dishes and sort my house out, so that the next day it begins on the other side of that stable-line.
But with enough sand and kitty litter everywhere to make every visitor run away screaming.
For the first time in a year, I ve had weeks when I had more days when I didn’t cycle or walk for an hour or more, than days that I did.
I’ve dropped on the spectrum of taking care of my house and body, and I don’t think I did yoga once.
And yet I always knew that I would get back on the wagon, and pick-up my own yoga practice #dailybonjoviyoga; Start making Bon Jovi yoga videos for YouTube; Reinvent my yoga and put myself back in business, as a yoga teacher.
I knew that.
And I am.
My publishing is now contained, and it is no longer allowed to consume my life. So I knew that this Monday I would cycle, see some daylight, and also pick up my yoga.
And here we are, you and me.
Because the thing I came up with to inspire myself, was so good that I immediately wanted to share it; The original Rock Star Yoga.
Meanwhile the prices for these amazing courses have dropped significantly, and sometimes (as is the case today) they’re even on special and you pay even less.
It is an absolutely crazy low no-brainer offer, in particular if you have yoga experience and want something meaty to sink your teeth in.
But there are also courses for beginners.
So if you are looking for inspiration for your yoga practice, I strongly recommend you check out the Udemy page with Sadie Nardini’s courses: https://www.udemy.com/user/sadienardini/
5 September 2002, one month before the Bounce album was released
#dailybonjoviyoga
daily practice log
Saturday 14 August 2021
starting time yoga 8.15 PM cd Bounce (2002)
49 minutes 10 seconds
songs:
1 Undivided
2 Everyday
3 The Distance
4 Joey
5 Misunderstood
6 All About Lovin’ You
7 Hook Me Up
8 Right Side Of Wrong
9 Love Me Back To Life
10 You Had Me From Hello
11 Bounce
12 Open All Night
I did yoga and the final 2 songs were relaxation.
log:
Okay, that was definitely one of those “You can do yoga and feel worse after”- sessions that Facebook memes claim do not exist.
But they do.
I think it’s mostly that before yoga you could run away from your feelings or numb them down with social media and pretzels (which may explain why I felt so awful during practice)
But I guess the point is:
You gotta start somewhere.
My last practice was a few days ago, and I spent an insane amount of time behind my desk the last two days. Postponing all exercise including yoga to the evening hours.
I m lucky I even got to my mat at all.
So.
Resolution time.
Daily Bon Jovi Yoga, from this day forward.
And definitely as EARLY in the day as possible.
As much offline time as possible.
And keep on going with the cycling and walking!
And until my belly looks as great as Jon Bon Jovi’s in the Bounce era, Time Square 2002,
I m taking it easy on the pretzels.
Jon Bon Jovi by Anton Corbijn* for Dutch magazine OOR (1993)
It was a printed interview that I never would have guessed had actually taken place,
because I thought all interviews in Dutch magazines, were basically bought from international magazines, and then translated…
But this was the real deal!
In 1993, a Dutch interviewer* went to Worcester, Massachusetts, to have an interview with Bon Jovi.
It was printed in the most prestigious Dutch music magazine, and I received a copy recently.
I ve transformed a corner in my living room where I am going to shoot my #dailybonjoviyoga videos, to look like my 80s room, and bought posters from Jon Bon Jovi.
The majority are pages from this magazine, which I copied before I drilled my pins into them so don’t worry!
No original prints were harmed.
But the final print I bought was still in the magazine so I got to read the entire interview.
“Just listen to the first sentence of the first song,” Jon says referring to Keep The Faith. All I Know Is What I ve Been Sold About the desillusion of being a touring rock band and the day-to-day frustrations, that ultimately broke the band and its members.
In 1993 these details were still kept indoors, but it was known the band had broken the seven year pattern of album-tour album-tour, from 1984 to early 1990.
That much was known.
With each of the band members going their own way after the final concert and Jon doing his solo project Blaze of Glory, the highly acclaimed soundtrack of Young Guns 2. His songwriting got to a whole new level, and I would not be surprised if “Keep The Faith”, the first album that came after the band’s sabbatical, is the album with the highest number of songs regularly played at concerts.
But Jon’s disappointment, of the profession and status he fought so hard for not being what he thought it was? Yeah…. That was still there, even though the nitty gritty of it was not shared at the time.
Yesterday night, just before I pressed play on a little over an hour yoga session to the cd Keep the Faith, I jotted down a few words in a box that said: “Today’s focus”. Find myself.
It almost made me laugh! That was quite a tall order in my opinion. And yet the session did not disappoint. Unlike the massive disappointment I still feel when I look back on my career in yoga.
And it’s so unwelcome! It’s so “not done”!
When you are or have been a yoga teacher, you feel this invisible pressure to never investigate or ask questions about the nature of your work and your integrity doing it.
And this is a code of silence that will go to your grave.
Just like Jon Bon Jovi had his fans, his reasons not to tell the uncomfortable truth about how bad it got, I feel like I cannot tell how bad it got. And maybe, to a degree, still is.
Every time I try to express myself, and analyze what happened, I feel the unease by the people I tell it to. They took my classes, they believed in me, they paid me, they were inspired by me, and now I betray them.
Yet even Jon Bon Jovi, as many secrets as he kept, did already say in that interview in 1993, he had felt like a whore. Without resorting to graphic terms; Something was very wrong for me.
And it needed to be sorted before anything else could be born.
But one of the things I loved about yoga WAS, and STILL IS the connection with other people.
It was something way more subtle that didn’t work for me.
So I knew that by reinventing something that could be called Bon Jovi yoga, I am basically trying to bypass whatever THAT was.
The thing that didn’t work…
You know what the funny thing is?
Everything I went through what I thought I had against yoga? That did not have anything to do with yoga.
Nor even with teaching yoga as a professional.
It was way broader than that; I did not have my own vision for my professional life.
The yoga teacher/ student paradigm didn’t work for me.
The service provider paradigm also didn’t work for me. I had a powerful yet also incomplete vision that did not cover areas and practicalities I should have had an answer to.
As spot on and never out of alignment I have been in other areas of my life, the part where you determine how you want your professional life to look, was not sufficient.
And I have an academic degree and I ve done my education at the biggest yoga institute of the Netherlands; So I HAVE peers. And they work, they’re successful, and yet I always felt with every job I ever had including being a yoga teacher, that at a deeper level, something was disturbingly out of integrity for me.
It was never about the yoga. Yoga and me have always been okay, just that for a while I thought it was yoga when it was about not having that inborn-by-many vision for my professional life.
I was living on borrowed concepts that did not suit me.
Now that, was the good news…
Because my new yoga channels absolutely do not come with a guarantee of me knowing exactly how much I ve figured out!
The only thing I CAN assure you, is that this will probably make my yoga channels way more exciting than all the other stuff out there.
Like an adventure!
Think more rock star and less yoga teacher! Think mood swings!
Showing up late!
Being a total mess and yet putting on a show you will NOT forget!
Yes;
I will rock yoga.
But be prepared to be rocked as well!
And although I still have no idea of the specifics, and I m absolutely just putting one foot in front of the other, in the dark and possibly wearing sunglasses, and I have no idea where I am going;
An hour after I had written “Find myself” in that box that said Today’s Focus?
I did know one thing!
“Taking a break while rehearsing for our first record” | credit Jon Bon Jovi https://twitter.com/jonbonjovi/status/1415729287664214023
“Runaway” is one hell of a song to start this series with. There is so much meaning you can attribute to this first single from Bon Jovi – and I will bite my teeth into that in a minute, so that will definitely be done.
But aside from the context of how this song was created, and how it landed as opening song on the very first and self-titled Bon Jovi album Bon Jovi – Bon Jovi (1984), it is also the only song that has been on the setlist consistently, almost as consistently as Bon Jovi’s biggest 80s hits from late 1986 and up.
So even though this single was never the mega-hit as those other songs were; It has a special place in Bon Jovi canon, and by having it played for 35 years straight, it should probably have its own thesis written about it, and not a small blogpost which is just meant as the back story of my first #dailybonjoviyoga video, which I will shoot for my YouTube.
Runaway is the only Bon Jovi song that has been consistently played live for 35 years (with pre-pandemic 2019 as the last touring year), despite never having been their biggest single and dating from before the band was known.
And that makes Runaway a strong point to own your own history. To be aware of what once was, but also to choose, tell, and in Bon Jovi’s case hammer HOME those facts using your own narrative.
A narrative is a story that you make from events mixed with what you believe or choose to be the way it should be looked at. And now I m getting to the context of how the song was made, to see how choosing a narrative works.
Because Runaway is not a Bon Jovi song.
It was a song from Jon Bon Jovi solo, then still recording under his own name John Bongiovi. The other songs he released in those years were reissued later under several names one of them being the The Power Station Years. They are reissued by the studio/ his father’s cousin Tony Bongiovi, and are (as far as I know) not official records.
So all songs were left behind so to speak, except one; Runaway. Which had been Jon Bon Jovi’s game changing song.
In 1982 he had pitched it himself to a new radio station, where they were still so in startup phase that they did not to even have a receptionist so he could walk straight up to the booth of the disc jockey. The song became a hit, and the radio station turned out to be active in multiple states which then picked it up, and that’s how Runaway by John Bongiovi became a local hit/ hit in America. So far not so much a chosen narrative, these are all facts.
When two years later, the band Bon Jovi was formed and they were at the studio for their first record, they chose to include Runaway. The song stayed exactly the same, all musicians on Runaway are the musicians from the Power Station Years.
And now here’s where the narrative steps in; From I believe mid-90s, Jon introduces Runaway on concerts by counting back the years to 1982. You can find that video at the top of this page, and if it has been removed just check YouTube searching for Bon Jovi live Runaway time machine
In this introduction Jon counts back to 1982, commemorating the moment he asks the dj to play the record and adds: “And in 3 minutes and 30 seconds you’re gonna see, a rock n roll star”
STOP!
Just like Jon screams “Stop!” when the time machine has landed at 1982; Stop!
Because what was that? That was a narrative.
The more humble version of that same story of Runaway could also have been; “Runaway was a song that really opened doors for me. So when in 1984 we were making our first album, we chose to put it on there because we wanted people to know who we were, you know,” (this is all fiction, me, Suzanne, making up a story, Jon Bon Jovi never said these words) “But after the 80s we stopped playing our first two records.”
So that would have been a totally different narrative to the story of Runaway, and there is even a third version where Runaway is pretty much shamed into not being good enough. It goes like: “Runaway was a good song at the time. But we all hated the video, and none of the other guys had played on this song you know. It was a good start, but it wasn’t a Bon Jovi song.”
So you see how these two other stories, other chosen narratives, just suck the life right out of you? Even though the fact that the band at many points in its history has failed to be a real band, and two original members have dropped out, something which may not have happened if someone had listened to Richie Sambora trying to get it through to Jon Bon Jovi’s head that they were An American Rock n Roll BAND
Can you see that choosing to include Runaway to be on the record, to keep playing it, and to make it Bon Jovi canon to know how this was the song that started it all; How that narrative has got as much pitfalls on a band-level as it has perks on a success-level?
That’s a narrative. That’s choosing your perspective, and taking massive responsibility for the choices you have made.
That’s saying in a studio in 1984: “Runaway is READY, it is GOOD, people know it! And we’d be fools to not put it out there, and kick start our career!
That’s saying every night on stage, since the mid 90s: “The story of that “punk” becoming Jon Bon Jovi? OF COURSE we’re gonna use that every night to spice up our show!”
So, what have you got on the shelves that is frickin’ READY? GOOD! And that OF COURSE you should be using, and milk it for the next 35 years?
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The big breakthrough for my vision for yoga came in the form of an interview from Jon Bon Jovi with Julie Brown. This interview, together with the entire Blaze of Glory 1990 period of Jon Bon Jovi, has been on my mind for weeks now, but on Independence Day that particular interview even more than the album and what it stood for; It just clicked. And on tiny seemingly irrelevant details, such as the Independence Day color scheme of Julie Brown’s clothes .
The thought of resuming sharing my Daily Bon Jovi Yoga on Twitter and Facebook in these colors excited me: To look for blue, red and white emojis.
I just made my first yoga practice tweet/ Facebook post, and I did not even use those colors.
Maybe I will in the future. But the point is, it were these colors, and the flirting between Jon and Julie, the lightheartedness and festive atmosphere, that sparked excitement for Daily Bon Jovi Yoga. And that ultimately led to a big breakthrough this week, that I had been waiting for for weeks, if not years.
Ever since 2019, the concert of Bon Jovi, I have known that my yoga journey had not ended after 15 years of teaching yoga, but that instead the best was yet to come. A new rock-inspired version of yoga, would be what was next.
Yet as certain as I had been that I would be a rock star yoga teacher, or develop a new form of yoga, and I did what I could setting it up and teaching the little I knew, I backed off every time.
It didn’t took flight.
The word “yoga” alone; It was a minefield!
Filled with so much restrictions, heaviness, and the business model of being a yoga teacher so stale. For the past two years developing a cool yoga that rocked was like trying to lift a concrete block by a butterfly.
There were times I thought I was never going anywhere yoga ever again. That if yoga had ever been alive, it was broken now. At least it was broken and beyond repair, for me.
And then the Blaze of Glory period started to inspire me, and even that took a little while before I realized WHY. Why? Because it was Jon Bon Jovi’s solo project after 7ish years with the band. Heavy touring had taken its toll and in 1990 it was uncertain Bon Jovi would ever get back together again.
The album Blaze of Glory stands for cutting ties with all that brought you success in the past and starting from scratch. I intend to start teaching Daily Bon Jovi Yoga on YouTube SOON (that was your cue to subscribe!) and I think our first videos should definitely have the “from scratch” tag! Learning yoga from scratch; there is no better way!
I had to start yoga from scratch, after over 15 years of being in the industry.
The 2019 glimpse of the future that I received for rock star yoga, was just the beginning. There was still massive clearing to be done.
And then last weekend when I watched the Jon Bon Jovi/ Julie Brown, that hot mess of scripted interaction and blatant chemistry between them, and I laughed with them (and hoped it had an off-screen follow-up!) that’s when I knew: I m ready.
Just like Jon Bon Jovi let go of the band, to make that album, which resulted in the best most fun interview of his career; That’s how I have let go of the past.
I m ready to rock Daily Bon Jovi Yoga.
It was not just the best Independence Day of my life, but just like for Bon Jovi I was certain that the best is yet to come.
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Related and also by me: Rock Star Writer, a blog dedicated to Bon Jovi, sex, and rock n roll.
We have a singer here in The Netherlands, who also hosts television shows where he goes to live with other people or works in unusual places.
I have never watched it, but a few snippets did reach me, and one of his classic sayings is:
“I don’t have the strength for this!”
Usually accompanied with him falling onto the bed after what was apparently an exhausting day, and dramatically covering his face with his arms.
That’s how I felt this week: I don’t have the strength for this.
I don’t know WHOSE life this is, with all the madness and mayhem, but it better not be mine because I m definitely not cut out for this!
Ten days ago, I wrote a big piece for my art blog World Between Worlds, and it was about a new relationship form. The Baby Koala Relationship. In this relationship I was (of course) the baby koala. A sweet little creature who cannot be held responsible and who has to be looked after 24/7.
Since I do not have such a relationship, one of the conclusions that could also be drawn after writing that, was that I was basically an unbound, not looked-after baby koala, who was not really supposed to function on their own. Who needed a caregiver to provide food, shelter and most of all, emotional safety.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, things went a bit rocky from there.
I felt like a turtle without a shell, and this did not improve when Life had Big Events, Insights and Purpose lined up for me! One thing even more exciting than the other.
So last night I indeed was like that Dutch tv host and singer, as I threw myself in bed and covered my face with my grey furry arms: “I don’t have the strength for this!”
The work under two names; This name and my alterego. The work related to yoga as well as sex, Bon Jovi, art. Publishing books, writing blogs, and I have two YouTube channels which are both face down in the mud. And this is just my English work, in theory I also have my Dutch work to worry about. It’s also only my purpose work, and not (yet) the work I get paid for.
Social life and sex life, my two main sources of creativity aside from Bon Jovi, are also not included yet, in the above list.
I can totally understand why I ended up a crying baby koala in my bed, last night. Not pretty although slightly cute. But not ideal.
And I came up with a plan to save myself, while also sticking to my guns of purpose work and standing my ground sexually and socially. The plan included yoga which is why this ended up on this Daily Bon Jovi Yoga Blog!
So, Daily Bon Jovi Yoga is basically me saying to you: “Hey! You! Yes, you there! Do you know yoga is really cool and awesome if you do it to Bon Jovi? It could save your life, you know!”
And you would say: “What do you mean, Suzanne?”
“Well, it’s like, if you’re an unsupervised baby koala with immensely challenging tasks on their plate, you could do Daily Bon Jovi Yoga and not end up suffering from anxiety.”
Anxiety is that feeling you need validation, reassurance, and comfort.
If you have the luxury of being in a real Baby Koala Relationship, this is the role of the caregiver who will take you on their lap and rock you until you’ve calmed down. Probably playing a little game or distract you from your panicky thoughts by asking you what you want to do this weekend.
But since most of us do not have a caregiver, we must look for ways of creating those moments of emotional safety for ourselves. For me, as a creative, this has to be something “actionable”! Just relaxing only increases anxiety, and even social interaction so talking to a friend, very often does not work.
So to soothe your inner baby koala, you must find something that increases your ability to handle stress yourself. Which is when yoga came in. I know that doing Daily Bon Jovi Yoga was one of the very few things that would be able to “save me”.
I’ve been a yoga teacher since 2003 and if you count me inspiring you to do yoga as teaching, then I am still a yoga teacher. And as widespread and widely available yoga is nowadays? The path of you taking ownership of your own yoga practice is untrodden….
You diving into yoga, and crafting your own practice out of music, your body, your memory, and everything that you know and don’t know; Very few have gone there.
Maybe even none this year…. I know I have been flaky as f with it. Which is why I end up in bed with anxiety, I know that much.
So, I am making the commitment today, to do Daily Bon Jovi Yoga. Most of the time I will be using these albums: Monday: Bon Jovi – Bon Jovi (1984) Tuesday: 7800 Fahrenheit (1985) Wednesday: Slippery When Wet (1986) Thursday: New Jersey (1988) Friday: Blaze Of Glory – solo album (1990) Saturday: Keep The Faith (1992) Sunday: These Days (1995)
In 1990 Jon Bon Jovi had his Braving The Wilderness year, as Brené Brown would call it. After gruesome years of touring had bled the band dry, it was each on their own, until someone was ready to pick up the pieces. Jon Bon Jovi spent it riding his motor bicycle to the West coast. He spent it on the set of the movie Young Guns 2. And he spent it in a recording studio in the Hollywood hills and in a mansion he called Disgraceland.
He spent it writing the award winning album Blaze of Glory, working with Jeff Beck, Little Richard, Elton John.
Life gives you two choices:
Either you face the wilderness. Alone. Not knowing where you’re going and without your old friends to fall back on.
Or you cave in and make yourself small, pull the blankets over your head and hope it all goes away.
But if you want to reach that peak in creativity and sexuality;
If you want to receive that clear vision of your future, which Jon also received.
And if you want to be so on purpose that every step you take is always ON the path;
Because you ARE the path.
Then there is only one choice.
Related and also by me: Rock Star Writer, a blog dedicated to Bon Jovi, sex, and rock n roll.
And my rock star writer YouTube [ a channel that is also “braving the wilderness” until I know how to pick up the pieces ]
My vision for Daily Bon Jovi Yoga is to help you practice yoga by yourself.
If I think about how spot on I was when I just started yoga!
Created my own yoga ring-binder, based on notes I made after my local yoga classes, and with books from the library.
And how far off I got when I got all caught up in learning how to do it properly..
If only I can prevent you from drifting half that far off from what you already know?
And what already comes through you? I will consider Dialy Bon Jovi Yoga a huge success.
And that is without saying that any of the training I got was bad. Because it wasn’t. It was good training. But I simply didn’t value what was directly from me, and was way too eager to replace it with what was from someone else.
And that’s never a good idea, you know?
It’s never a good idea to learn anything from someone else, when you’re already well on your way to your own unique blend. And one where, if you do stick to your guns to name but a Bon Jovi song that is on one of the albums we’ll refer to today, will always be in touch with your inner-voice.
Whereas if you learn something from someone else, you must first detach from yourselves. And you may never get back to what was you about it, or what would have been your blend. In this case your blend of doing yoga.
So although I understand that what I m offering here as Daily Bon Jovi Yoga may not be inspiring to beginners, and especially if you want to use the outline, it does require familiarity with them and having done the poses with a YouTube video for example; I invite you to keep your formal training minimal.
If you go to theYoga With Adriene Channel, you can find many videos you can do which will make you familiar with yoga.
And be on your way to start recognizing the names poses have, and to understanding the logic behind the 10 song album outline of the list below. . So I am aware that for promoting this self-practice, of Daily Bon Jovi Yoga, I am indebted to YouTube yoga, and paid yoga channels, for making yoga so widely available.
If it had not been for that, I may not have been so sure that a new era has begun where yoga can and will be practiced without setting a foot in a classroom.
And perhaps even without ever having done that in the past either.
I think yoga has broken free, from the classroom. We, are free.
If you want to know if I believe classes still have value? Yes! I believe both online communities and real life classes and yoga studios, have great value because they provide a sense of connection, and they are also great if you want to know more about yoga or learn a certain system, or within a certain lineage.
But compared to 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago, yoga classes are no longer nessecary to be able to do yoga at home.
The 10 Song Albums
The 10 songs Bon Jovi albums are:
7800 Fahrenheit
Slippery When Wet
Blaze Of Glory
Burning Bridges
2020
I am currently practicing with the first 7 albums from Bon Jovi, including Jon Bon Jovi’s solo album Blaze Of Glory from 1990. I practice them every day of the week: Monday Bon Jovi – Bon Jovi (1984); Tuesday Fahrenheit (1985); Wednesday Slippery When Wet (1986);
Thursday New Jersey (1988); Friday Blaze of Glory (1990);
Saturday Keep The Faith (1992); Sunday These Days (1995). So I m basically practicing vintage Daily Bon Jovi Yoga, all albums are at least 25 years old.
It was in this setting that I encountered the Fahrenheit and Blaze of Glory albums.
For Blaze of Glory I m not counting the 11th song which is only a minute long.
What I ve done for this outline, is that I ve used the very first outline I made, which I shared in the previous blogpost, about Wembley 1995;
But I ve translated it to an album that has 10 songs.
I also saw some often used yoga poses I forgot, which I added.
I m ending this official part of the blogpost with the summary Yoga For A 10 Song Album, which will describe the general idea. You can just go with this, or scroll down and find the extended version with poses that belong to each category.
.
Yoga for a 10 Song Album [summary]
. song 1: opening sequence and/or sun salutations
song 2: balance poses
song 3: standing Poses
song 4: transition poses between standing and kneeling & poses on your knees
song 5: backbends & close with child’s pose
song 6: seated, forward bends and twists
song 7: lying down, supine poses you can add inversions* if you want * do not practice inversions when you are in your period
song 8: Lying Butterfly, or restorative yoga with props you can add inversions* if you want * do not practice inversions when you are in your period
song 9 + 10: long relaxation
Enjoy your practice. And rock on!
~Suzanne Rock Star Writer
Follow this blog for inspiration to start your practice!
The button is on this page, probably somewhere on the right.
The next review ofmy rock star writer YouTube will be this concert, 2nd night Wembley
So subscribe to the channel to see it.
print out the outline on A4 and keep it next to your mat/ where you practice:
Yoga for a 10 Song Album [Poses]
With every song, I provide a selection of poses you can do.
All poses are just suggestions, to help you create your own practice. In asymmetrical poses, repeat on the other side.
Breathe in and out through your nose and breathe to your belly: Inhale through the nose, let your belly expand. Exhale slowly and completely, through the nose, let the belly release and soften.
.
Song 1 opening sequence and/or sun salutations
the Daily Bon Jovi Yoga opening sequence:
on hands and knees: child’s pose with the knees wide and arms extended forward forehead to the floor resting pose, stay as long as you like
on hands and knees: child’s pose with twist cross one arm under your body to the other side turn head on one cheek resting pose, stay as long as you like
on hands and knees: cat or also called “cat cow” inhale: arch your spine and look up exhale round your spine, tuck your chin in to your chest easy moving pose, repeat as often as you like
from hands and knees move to: downward facing dog hold for longer or shorter, depending on if you re familiar with this pose It’s a pose I suggest you throw some YouTube tutorials at!
from downward dog move to: standing forward fold walk your feet forward, until you can come in a gentle forward fold (bend your knees) roll up the spine and reach your hands all the way up, inhale deeply bring the palms together overhead. Exhale, bring the hands in front of your chest in “Namaste”
you have now completed the opening sequence
from here you can move into: Half (standing) Sun Salutations & Sun Salutations of your choosing
.
Song 2: balance poses
Examples of balance poses are
tree pose
dancer’s pose
hand to big toe pose (advanced)
holding big toe and extending the leg forward
variation: open/ rotate leg to the side
variation: place hand on hips, hold leg hovering, keep extending it forward
eagle pose
half-moon pose
variation: with a twist
“the mountain” place feet at hip width interlace your fingers with the index fingers up extend your arms high above you, index finger now points to the sky come on toes
.
Song 3: Standing Poses
examples of standing poses:
crescent pose/ high lunge pose with the back heel up
arms extend overhead, at shoulder width
crescent pose/ high lunge pose with the back heel up variation: with a twist
reversed warrior pose
warrior pose II
upperbody turns open to the side
reversed warrior pose
warrior pose I
looks simple but it is a tricky one
keep your lower body turning to the side as in warrior II
and twist/ turn only the uppertorso, from the waist up, facing forward
extended side-angle pose
triangle pose
variation: with a twist
variation: bow forward over the leg
Goddess pose standing wide legged squat reach your arms up overhead, at shoulder width
fierce pose bend knees (“squat”) with the feet and knees together reach your arms up, at shoulder width
wide-legged forward bend
variation: walk your hands to one foot and stretch over the leg
variation: from folding forward, bring your body halfway up/ horizontal, and extend your arms to the sides. Lift your head up. Making a bird shape with your entire upper body.
standing forward bend
feet at hip width
variation: with a twist
keep fingers one hand (left) on the ground, bend one leg (left), twist body open to other side (right) and reach other (right) arm up
variation: gorilla pose
feet still at hip width in the forward bend. Bend your knees deeply and place your hands, with the palms up, under your feet.
.
Song 4: transition poses between standing and kneeling & poses on your knees
transition between standing poses and on the knees wide legged squat pose +with a twist crow pose (arm balance)
high on your knees
gateway pose camel pose
plank pose variation: side plank variation: starfish or a moderate (half) starfish with your toes on the floor behind you, in side plank
downward dog
on hands and knees:
cat or also called “cat cow” inhale: arch your spine and look up exhale round your spine, tuck your chin in to your chest easy moving pose, repeat as often as you like
on hands and knees: cat free flow circle the hips in a big circle, let rest of the body move with it
tiger pose or half tiger pose
on hands and knees: arm and leg extension on hands and knees: extend left arm forward, right leg up, look up, inhale “crunch” bring left elbow and right knee together, exhale repeat as often as you like | always practice both sides (repeat other side)
tiger pose or half tiger pose
for the called ones: full body prostration lie on your belly, face down, with your arms extended overhead, palms together
.
song 5 backbends & close with child’s pose
on hands and knees: puppy pose
forearm plank & sphinx pose hold low forearm plank and then move into sphinx pose (hold) repeat
cobra
seal
locust pose
bow
———-
child’s pose with the knees wide and arms extended forward forehead to the floor resting pose
.
song 6: seated, forward bends and twists
seated forward bend also called forward bend or forward fold
janu sirsasana with a twist
head to knee pose, janu sirsasana
& janu sirsasana with a twist
“easy pose” sit with the legs crossed or in lotus pose: -side stretch, reach (right) arm overhead and lean sideways (to the left) -repeat other side -relax forward -place fingertips behind you, lift/open chest and stretch head slightly back change legs (other foot up or in front of the other) and repeat the four exercises
wide-angle seated forward bend variation: grab toes and lift your legs up (upward facing wide-angle seated pose) variation: now roll back and forth
butterfly pose/ bound angle pose place soles of the feet together, so that the knees drop open grab the ankles and draw the feet closer towards you – sit up straight, breathe to your belly – or gently sway left to right, maybe even rolling from side to side – or sit up, roll/rotate the knees in the direction of the floor with every exhale – relaxed version: place the feet further away from you, and relax forward with your head in the direction of your feet
seated spinal twist
double pigeon
song 7: lying down, supine poses
all these poses are done lying on your back
lying twist stretch lie down on your back, pull one knee (right) towards you now twist it over to the other side (left) with the left hand on your knee extend your right arm to the right at shoulder level turn your head to the right (optional)
repeat on the other side
supine leg stretch start with both feet flat on the floor extend one leg (right) up and pull it towards you maybe relax the other (left) leg on the floor repeat other side
supine pigeon stretch or eye of the needle
happy baby or dead bug pose
(I) inversions* * do not practice inversions when you are in your period
bridge
plow pose/ snail pose = a relaxed plow pose with the arms overhead
shoulderstand (compensate with fish pose)
song 8: Lying Butterfly, or restorative yoga With props
lying butterfly, reclined bound angle pose lie on your back, place soles of the feet together and let the knees drop open
let the arms rest next to you or place them wide, at shoulder level
legs up the wall pose, here with a yoga block to elevate the hips
(I) restorative inversions* with a meditation cushion to elevate the hips or multiple cushions or a rolled up blanket * do not practice these poses when in you are in your period
bridge pose with a meditation cushion under your hips
legs-up-the-wall-pose place a mediation cushion under your hips and relax with your legs up
(II) restorative poses with a bolster to rest your upperbody on
or a rolled-up duvet/ blanket
reclined bound angle pose with a bolster
-child’s pose with a bolster -wide-legged forward fold with a bolster -seated forward fold with a bolster
-backbend,
legs and hips lying on the floor, and back and head resting on the bolster.
variation: legs in butterfly = reclined bound angle pose with a bolster
song 9 + 10 long relaxation
Long relaxation
Lie on your back, cover up with a blanket and maybe you’d like pillow under your head.
Lie down with the feet at hip width, hands open next to you, close your eyes and relax your face and entire body.
****
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