I hit both ends of the spectrum yesterday.  Is that living a balanced life?  I guess maybe so. 

We have so many excellent yoga teachers in the Bay Area and two handfuls of them right here in Sebastopol.  One of my teachers, Judith Lasater, offers a 6 class series in Marin a couple of times a year.  It's a great opportunity to have her in a small group.  For two hours yesterday, I was rapidly taking notes as she spoke--soaking in her knowledge and wisdom.  She asked us to consider the difference between discipline and obsession.  Does riding your bike 200 miles a week discipline or obsession?  What about a 2-hour daily yoga practice?  What about meditation?  When does discipline turn into obsession or, additionally, compulsion?  After our discussion, we held 3 restorative postures for about 20 minutes each and we all left feeling relaxed and rejuvenated.(1)

Fast-forward 3 hours and I'm sitting in the uber-hip, LEED registered, Roche Bobois laden, H2Hotel.  It's the cooler, hipper sister to the Healdsburg Hotel.  I have an elegant, tasty, specially "crafted" martini in my hand.  I'm there to be entertained by two yogis, in a laughing, ha-ha way, not "Wow, look at that Laghuvajrasana pose" way.  Neal Pollack, author of Stretch, the Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude(2) and Mark Morford of The Darling Spectacle(3), teamed up to promote their books.  Both are satire writers, and are a hoot to listen to as they banter back and forth about yoga.  Mark has been practicing and teaching for over 10 years and Neal is new to the practice.  "While struggling to master difficult poses without kicking other yogis in the face, I, remarkably, began to feel better, both in body and mind" says Neal. Although he jokes and mocks yoga, he has become a devotee.  His writing is hilarious and the most laughs of the night were at Neal's yoga fart stories!  Mark is a columnist for what was the SF Chronicle and now sfgate.com.  His book is blurbed by Dan Savage's as "A kick-ass, take-no-prisoners, laugh-out-loud-funny liberal writer, thinker and cultural critic.  I would have his babies."  Both even showed off their favorite pose--a headstand for Neal, crow for Mark.  A yoga evening like this you don't get too often. 

So, my day felt amazingly balanced--I had experienced two different ends of the yoga spectrum.  Is that what Mr. Buddha meant by "the middle path?" 

(1)    Unlike the relaxation everyone else was having, one of the restorative poses actually caused me nausea.  It's happened to me before as some backbending poses with pressure on the kidneys can (supposedly) cause a release of toxins in the kidneys?  Liver? 

(2)    www.nealpollack.com

(3)    www.markmorford.com