yoga, dancing, windows

How on earth do those three things go together?  Like this.

Last night, the Ivy store had the crazy-awesome opportunity to host The Future Sound of Yoga , which almost defies explanation, but read up on it on their website!  It’s pretty much music and yoga, and it is so incredibly unlike any other yoga experience I’ve ever had.  Especially because, due to space restrictions and a willingness to be kind of a spectacle, I did the yoga class in our store window.

This is the middle of downtown.  It’s Friday night.  There are tourists, partiers and men in suits everywhere.  I cannot count the amount of people who took pictures of me in the window or just stopped to stare or try to get my attention.  Great in terms of generating awareness for the store and Future Sounds of Yoga… Not so great in terms of relaxing!

It was an amazingly fun experience though, and I really had a great chance to laugh at myself.  Talk about an exercise in ego – do cat/cow in front of a bunch of guys in suits taking cell phone pictures of you!

the kindness party

 

A few weeks ago, I was running through the CBD in Sydney and I got a call from our Regional Community Guru, Christi.  She wanted to let me know about this amazing organization called Wake Up Sydney! and an event they were planning.  And yes, I do run with my Blackberry, and no, I’m not ashamed to admit it.

These are the beautiful cards Wake Up Sydney sends out!

Wake Up Sydney has a goal of making Sydney the kindest place on Earth.  They’ve organized “kindness cards” that they’ll send out for free to anyone who asks for them.  People who receive the cards can perform random acts of kindness and leave the card behind to keep the ripple of kindness going.  It’s like Pay It Forward!  

When I got my first cards, I used them to anonymously buy someone a Cupcake and Coffee combo at the Cupcake Bakery, which again, I promise to update you about.  Mmmmm cupcakes.  Although really, it took a bit of explaining to get them to understand what I was doing.  ”No no, I’m going to pay for TWO Cupcake and Coffee deals now, but I only want ONE. You can give the next one out to the next person for free!”  ”So you want two Cupcakes and two coffees?” “Kind of.”  And so on.

They also host events to inspire the community and support the kindness

A gorgeous program for a gorgeous event at a gorgeous venue.

 card initiative.  Last night, I had the opportunity to attend the largest of these events to date at Sydney’s Town Hall, and it was ah-may-zing!  A few people from each store in Sydney were there, and it was a gorgeous, inspiring night.  (Not including the torrential rain that seems to be omnipresent in Sydney these days!) They had speakers, and artists, and of course the man behind Wake Up Sydney, Jono, was there and spoke to us.  

I think Jono was tied with the female vocalist for my favorite part of the evening.  He’s just so present with people and with all of us, and even sitting down and speaking calmly to us, he had such stage presence.  

All in all, it was an amazing night.  And I even got to make a How I Met Your Mother reference – “this is so going on my blog!”

city to surf

Did you know that the biggest fun run in the whole entire world (or at least Australia) happens right here in Sydney? 

And guess who just registered??? Yeah that’s right.  I’ll be running with my camera, so don’t worry, it will ALL be documented!  

My goal time is under 1:40, which is really reasonable for a 14km race, while of course allowing for time to stop and take pictures.