Judith Hanson Lasater is the queen of restorative yoga. I love her and have read most of her books. Check out her web site at http://www.judithlasater.com/about/

Never mind that I have been teaching for over five years. None of that counts. That’s the old uncredentialed me. No more struggle and sacrifice for yoga. No more learning from mistakes–no more mistakes! It’s a high and happy time for this yogini.

I am pulsing in this moment. I am a real yoga teacher now. I shop at lululemon and wear super hot hard tail clothes. I hug earthy long pigtailed pretty girls. I am standing on my hands on the cover of yoga journal magazine. I am featured in cereal and soy milk ads. I score athletic shoe contracts. My classes are sprawling across the universe. Everybody is perfectly healthy flexible and beautiful. Everybody’s got a hard tail. I am a yoga star. My dreams are reality. In this moment. Money is just another form of energy. NRG my muse.

It’s all glossy and real that I’m certain to certify… one day like 2day.

Namaste.

So we talk alot about yoga off the mat. I am, in this moment, having a truly ecstatic yogic experience–yes– right this second. I don’t normally do it, but since I am on the road, and cruising on foot, I went to the nearest coffee shop –you know the one. It’s on every street corner and 4- lane highway in America.

So I went in for a decaf. I got swayed into buying some dark chocolate covered graham cracker cookies. Not on the ‘yogic diet’. But the pierced, tattooed, cool-chunky- dyed-hair girl barrista was SO Austinite-nice and convincing about how totally awesome dipping the dark chocolate covered graham cracker cookies in the hot coffee is. I was easily sold. Because really, how can chocolate get any better? How can coffee get any better?

I walked back to the apartment where I am staying alone. And I sat down at this computer. I dipped the cookie into the coffee as instructed, took the first bite and OMG–it’s like the union of Shiva and Shakti. The graham cracker softens and dissolves within the chocolate while on your tongue. Then the chocolate slithers all melty-like covering the entire cavern of the mouth. It is a simultaneous textural experience and taste bud explosion. This yoking, or union of cookie, chocolate, and coffee is simple in theory yet multifaceted in experience. This is tantra man! Pure delight in my heart, the free choice of a pleasurable foray (in an area usually ‘disciplined’), and it’s ALL intrinsically good. This is one of the most profound lessons from my yoga teacher training here in Austin. Oh, if the course had only cost $4.71…I would certainly be investing more into my latte factor.