I've become increasingly aware during my yoga practice that I become much more sensitive to smells and odors. At first, I thought it was because my mat was starting to spoil on me after too much sweat and not enough hygiene. Despite airing the mat after every class and whipping it down with scented towelettes, I could still detect a kind of gym smell during practice (not outside of class, however, which had me bewildered). Last week, I thoroughly washed the mat, and I still noticed body odors, the incense or a whiff of perfume. I guess when my head is hanging in Downward-Facing Dog, my sense of smell becomes more acute.

On the other hand, my eye sight is demoted to a secondary sense, in part because I don't wear my glasses, but also because I zone out the rest of the room and concentrate on a drishti (a focus point during meditation or yoga practice). I wonder if there is any relationship to this shift in sensitivity.

I have started to read the book Are You Ready to Succeed: Unconventional strategies for achieving personal mastery in business and life by Srikumar S. Rao. I chanced across it because a sample chapter was featured on the Yoga Journal website. After reading a little and then checking out the book site, it immediately struck a cord. I have been looking for something like this since I finished my masters degree -- strip away all the external crap and get down to the real basic of self-realization.

Rao comes at the subject of self-improvement (his MBA course is called Creativity and Personal Mastery) with the cool head of a professor of management, the intellectual rigor of an academic but the soul of Buddhist. His course was originally given at Long Island University, shifted to Columbia University Business School and exported to the London Business School. His approach keeps the book from sinking into a New Age touchy-feeliness or guru-style lessons. If anything, he is constantly warning you that if you're not ready, the course or the book are not for you.

You should also check out the links to news articles and even audio feeds that give a quick read on Rao's reputation, his MBA course and how the program developed.

You could probably read the 200 pages of the book in a weekend, but working your way through the text, doing the exercises, reflecting on the experience and absorbing it into your life, that can take months. As with Rao's MBA course, it is just a first step in a long process of liberation.

It has a great reading list at the end of the book: A One-Year Reading List brings together 12 core texts, like Tolle's The Power of Now, Capra's The Tao of Physics and Coelho's The Alchemist. Suppplemental readings are organized around themes: Creativity, New Physics and Science, Business and Management, Mind over Matter, Life-changing Books, Paradigm Busters, and Thought Provokers. A few, I already had, but I quickly order three of the core texts. Each list entry has a paragraph describing Rao's reason for including it.

You don't even have to buy Rao's book. He has the curriculum from his course online and there is also a course that's going to be given at the Leader to Leader Institute (formerly the Drucker Foundation).

Washigton Post Breathing New Rhythm Into Tired Streets:

"The city does not count its yoga studios, but an informal survey turned up 25. The oldest are clustered around affluent Georgetown, Tenleytown, Cleveland Park and Dupont Circle -- with six on Wisconsin Avenue alone -- while the newest have set up shop on steadily gentrifying U Street, Logan Circle and beyond. The most recent arrival is Yoga House, which opened on Georgia Avenue in the Petworth neighborhood in October. "

Debra Perlson-Mishalove greets yogis and yoginis with a smile at Flow Yoga Center.

My downtown DC yoga studio, Flow Yoga, will be expanding its facilities over the next few months. It's taking over the second floor in the townhouse that it shares with a liquor store on P Street. I went back to class after a two-month absence due to my daughter's illness and the class was packed on both occassions, four rows of seven mats. That means no long-winged arms in Warrior III or when bowing from Tadasana. Of course, there are classes when attendance is lighter. but the limited change facilities and clogged common areas during evening classes are really holding back the business. Debra, the owner, started out two years ago and was doing well in her second year. Of course, expansion means that Debra is going to have to deal with building permits and trades, a test for any yogi's composure.

The Post article talks about yoga being a sign of gentrification (not necessarily a wholely great thing) and that the neighborhood is seen as safe when a woman to go to class carrying her mat rolled up under her arm. Out in the "burbs," the classes at Thrive Yoga tend to have more mature clients, moms with kids and professional women. The big selling point is child care during class hours. The packed classes tend to be on the weekends in the morning. Rockville is definitely not a yuppie hotspot.

In certain poses (crane/crow, wheel, warrior I and II, especially any position in which arms are extended outwards horizontally or above my head), I tend to stop breathing or breathe very shallowly. It's as if my lungs or diaphragm just shut down. That's one of the reasons why I get winded in vinyasa practice. At least I am aware of this habit now.

In most classes, we start our session with three oms chanted together and end with a single unison om. I really enjoy the experience because it seems to punctuate the session. I've noticed that the quality of my voice changes between the first and last. My voice seems more resonant and full at the end of my practice. Surprising in a way because I usually have not spoken at all in the whole 60-90 minutes.