Yoga + Chocolate
“I held a moment in my hand, brilliant as a star, fragile as a flower, a tiny sliver of one hour. I dripped it carelessly. Ah, I didn’t know I held opportunity.” –Hazel Lee
DO ANY OF THESE RESONATE WITH YOU?
- you feel you leg buzzing even if you left your cell phone at home
- the first thing you do in the morning is run to your email
- you have a strange feeling that life is not meant to be lived in front of a computer screen
Whether being only partially present at a child’s school play, barely responsive to a spouse’s bad day, or sadly unaware of a full moon’s rays, we are missing important events in our lives…not because we don’t care, but because we’re so busy.
The Yoga + Chocolate experience highlights an exotic Vosges chocolate truffle as a secret gateway to the richer life available in the present moment. It’s not just chocolate…I’ll show you how great music, yoga, wine, or any everyday passion can become an accessible gateway to the present moment.
The Story
I was seeking a snack at the campus Munchi-Mart my sophomore year in college. There was another student next to me perusing the aisles, and I asked her if she thought the bologna cracker sandwiches were a good choice. Her response: “Disgusting!” Little did I realize this other student would one day become celebrity chef, Bon Appetit Magazine’s Food Artisan of the Year, and Vosges Haut-Chocolat founder Katrina Markoff. We fast became great friends but if I hadn’t asked Katrina that silly question at the college Munchi Mart, I might have never made the connection. It was easier to strike up a conversation with a stranger in the days before cellphones. If that were to have taken place in 2009, I’d probably be doing something on my iphone while perusing the aisles in the Munchi-Mart. I often wonder what opportunities, encounters, and moments I may be missing because most every spare moment is spent knocking out a text message or listening to a voicemail.
After college, Katrina began experimenting with chocolate, mixing it with unique ingredients like curry, sea salt, wasabi, and tallegio cheese. And I joined forces with some friends to create a modernized yoga experience, At One Yoga. In 2003, Katrina and I realized we were both in the business of fusion. She was fusing chocolate with tastes from every corner of the globe. I was fusing yoga with fashion, music and technology. Considering that for a lot of women, and some men, yoga and chocolate are two of their very favorite things, we realized Yoga + Chocolate was a deliciously natural evolution.
The Experience
Yoga + Chocolate exists as both:
A. Two hour vinyasa flow that offers a chocolate tasting before and after the yoga class. The chocolate is a metaphor emphasizing that anything in life is better, richer, sweeter when experienced in the present moment. I offer various themes depending if it’s my first visit or a return trip to your studio. The messages range from cultivating an ancient Eastern form of strength in order to ward off distraction and live in the moment; or recognizing exotic chocolate as immunity to the three major human weakness…lust, anger, and greed; or the my brand new theme about making the most of each day when the gloomy economic forecast makes the bigger picture oh so daunting.
“Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you…all of the expectations, all of the beliefs…and becoming who you are.” –Rachel Remen
B. Two hour deep stretch experience called The Chocolate Chakra Tour. This is a relaxing way to spend a weekend afternoon. As you lie in very soothing yoga postures for 3-5 minutes, I share stories on the 7 energy centers the yogis call chakras. For instance, the first chakra relates to finding your purpose in life. If you lose touch with your deeper purpose, you lose touch with your sense of being rooted in life. For instance, your job has little to do with the yearning of your soul and you exist in a deep malaise. The yogis believe such malaise can cause health problems in your knees, feet, bones, rectum. I’ll share how there’s a genre of music to stimulate healing in each chakra. Hip hop for the 2nd chakra. A little Jerry Garcia for the 4th chakra. After class, you’ll experience a flight of 7 exotic Vosges Chocolate truffles, each specifically chosen to stimulate a chakra.
View the schedule. To book a workshop or corporate event, contact me: yeahdave@yeahdaveyoga.com
