Posts Tagged ‘nature’
Wanderlust is a one-of-a-kind festival bringing together the world’s leading yoga teachers, top musical acts, renowned speakers, top chefs and much more — all in a setting of breathtaking natural beauty. Enter through June 1, 2012!
Wanderlust Contest Rules
This contest runs from April 1, 2012 through June 1, 2012. Unfortunately, any entries received outside of this timeframe will not be considered. Contest entries must be received through the contest landing page: www.prana.com/wanderlust or http://www.prana.com/wanderlust-contest. Only complete entries will be considered (Name, Email Address, Mailing Address). By entering this contest, you grant prAna permission to send you marketing messages, promotional material and good karma. The winning participant will receive 2 “Sage” festival passes which grants access to Yoga and Music events, as well as travel and accommodations for all 4 days of the Wanderlust Festival taking place in Lake Tahoe, California. Good luck!
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Six years ago I had the idea of making a documentary film about a man named Ruedi Beglinger. I was living in Santa Monica, far from the snow-covered majesty of the Selkirk Mountains where Ruedi makes his home and his living, as a world renowned mountain guide. With no roads leading to his hand-built chalet, and only access by helicopter, Ruedi has created an oasis among some of the most majestic and unforgiving mountains in North America. He shares this existence with his wife, his two young daughters and anyone who ventures into his world to climb mountains under his tutelage.
I was drawn to this story on many fronts. It had been ten years since I had been to the Selkirks to climb and ski with Ruedi in his extreme backyard and I was interested in trying to capture the poetic beauty of these mountains and Ruedi’s passionate and consuming relationship to them. I also wanted to explore the simplicity of a family life so off-the-grid and different than my own, raising kids here in California. And I was also curious about how Ruedi and his family were coping three years after a tragic avalanche killed a number of the guests he was guiding.
I am interested in stories about people, about what makes them tick, about how they come to terms with the hurdles in life, and about how they transcend life’s challenges. It was that interest that brought me to make this film. When I started I didn’t know Ruedi very well. I had witnessed his incredible drive and his gifts as a mountain man, but I could only sense what lay buried beneath his sun-drenched skin. I wanted to better understand his relationship to fear and his dedication to the simple yet physical life that he lived. And I knew that I was also looking for answers to some deep questions I had about my own life.
Mountains have always held a paramount place for me. Growing up in Denver, mountains framed everything. From every vantage point, the Rockies called out to be explored. At six, my father rode me up the hills of Winter Park and pushed me down. That was the start of a life long affair with mountains that continues until today.
This movie in many ways is an honoring of that part of my life, and an exploration into the complexities of that relationship. Over the years, I have found in mountains unrestrained freedom, loneliness, personal triumph, fear, a deep connection to things beyond me, limitations, the sense of peace that comes in the isolation and grandeur of nature and the healing that comes with being alone with the triumphs and losses in life. But film making is a different endeavor. There is this microscopic observation followed by the period of crafting a story. And in that process even more gets revealed. For a long time, I thought I was making a film in the mountains about loss and redemption. That is where I started. But just like climbing a mountain, a transformation happened along the way. Now, I see that this creative and cinematic journey has been more about hope and possibility.
What a gift that has been to discover along the way, and I’m finding it as a thread through so much of what I do in my life. Its why I climb mountains, practice the piano, surf, do yoga and read books. There is the work, the struggle, the failure, the challenge of it all, and then there is the arrival at the previously unimagined vista. And from this new place comes an understanding of what came before, and all the possibility of what lays ahead.
I set out to film and observe an incredible life lived by the Beglinger family simply and way up on high. What I got in the end was a much better view of my own life down here in urban America, with the constancy of distraction and the ever presence of noise. But now I have a different sense of it. There is the hope and possibility of the quiet and solitude that lies around the corner, be it in the most remote wilderness or the mountains looming above LA. This is where I will continue to find myself, and where I will continue to take my children so they can see all the gifts that are at their fingertips if they just look for them.
I hope you get a chance to see A Life Ascending and will let me know if it has any meaning for you.
~Stephen Grynberg | Director | A Life Ascending
A Life Ascending is out on DVD today. You can watch the trailer and support the film at http://www.alifeascending.com
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Retreat with Shiva Rea at Esalen in Big Sur fueled my heart fire and fed my soul with nature, yummy organic food grown on the land, community of dear friends and new friends, rejuvenation in the hot spring baths, and entrainment to my inner rhythm. Radio Devi (Vir McCoy and Evan Fraser of Hamsa Lila) guided our experience with infectious instrumentals weaving thru electronic beats DJ’d by Shiva. They were right with us every step of the way in a dance with our collective energy leading us into epic moments of trance, flow, and quiet heart reflection.
I made the journey with my friend Michelle Bouvier of Hoop Nectar; we arrived at Esalen in the afternoon when the light was golden, shimmering on the land illuminating the gardens and inviting us to explore. Within moments we were adventuring and engaged in Bodacious Play. Michelle was spiraling in her hoops as I was loving nature yoga and cartwheels. We explored the gardens smelling the healing herbs, checking out the variety of colorful veggies, and tasting the yummy apples right from the trees.
On this first night together Shiva shared some valuable information and visual slides that outlined the importance of “Tending the Sacred Fire”. She explained that studies show that stress has a rhythmic brain wave state that creates a dissonant energy field often resulting in dis-ease in the body and in life. Dr. Sue Mortor also talks about this in her recent TEDx NASA segment. By learning to tend the fire within on all levels, physical, creative, emotional, and mental in varying degrees we contain the fire making it fully available to us. The reward is access to and expression of our innate creativity.
Primed with this new knowledge we proceeded to move into the experience. Shiva shared shaker eggs with us and the room filled with the entrancing rhythmic sound. Shiva and Radio Devi took us on a musical journey that morphed into a movement alchemy. Soon we were guided into deep rest and silence. Inspired by the brilliance of the stars a few of us went to the hot baths and settled into our new rhthym as it entrained to the crashing waves below.
Celebrating the last new moon of the solstice year we met the next morning to sit in inquiry and process composting the essence of the year. We composted these emotions and energies while riding the waves of prana flow asana that offered both strengthening structure and gentle freedom. Our afternoon and evening were free for connecting with nature and nurturing the soul. We met again under the new moon for a fire ceremony and celebration of the seeds we were planting for this next season. Soon we were moved again by an entrancing musical journey inspiring ecstatic free form movement.
Sunday morning, while most of our group was at the baths, I enjoyed the opportunity to practice Tai Ji with master Al Huang. Shiva, her dad, step-mom and I gathered with the Tai Ji group on the deck open to receive the fresh morning sunlight rising over the mountain. Al has been teaching on that deck for 50 years and happens to be one of Shiva’s cherished teachers. His teachings are simple and humorous yet packed with power. It was beautiful to witness Shiva’s connection with her family and deep affection for this teacher of hers. I caught a glimpse of the little girl inside and could see this beautiful affinity for spirituality and truth had grown from seeds planted by her father. Curious, I asked her dad what he had wanted Shiva to be when she grew up. He said with a smile on his face “ a warrior” of the light, a yoga master 
After welcoming the sun and connecting with the earth we met for our last session together. This was an energized prana flow vinyasa and upbeat musical journey. Through the full range of yoga asana into free form movement we synched our breath, heart, and brain waves into a coherent field. We ventured out into nature for our final savasana meeting at the river to send gratitude and dreams into the flow of rushing water.
Thank you Shiva for leading the way on this journey to an experience in life that is full of creativity and vitality!
~Heather Keely, Bodacious Living Yoga and Lightworks Creative
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