There’s an empty space in my oversized closet, the type of closet that New Yorkers joke could be rented out as a room of its own. This luxurious walk-in however has a purpose, however. It caters to a hobby of mine – no, not shopping: the intimate art of costuming. Today, the void in my closet seems conspicuous. Its proper contents, six crates of costumes, are still en route, returning from the heart of the Nevada desert.

I am a “costumista:” one who collects, creates and wears costumes as a creative outlet. Though there are people who do this as a profession, for me it is a hobby and a pleasure. I use costuming to stretch the elasticity of my creative self and as an excuse to mingle and collaborate with other creative beings.

Burning Man, the art festival that leaves all others in the dust, has steadily fueled my passion for costuming, fanned the flames of my creative inspirations and fundamentally changed my life over the past six years. After hearing about it in through the grapevine, I finally took the plunge and embarked on a weeklong adventure to this temporary magical metropolis. I have been going back ever since.

However just as Rome was not built in a day, neither is the stupefying grandeur of Burning Man. Also known as Black Rock City due to its location in the heart of the Black Rock Desert, this “city” is a conglomerate of camps and villages prepared all around the country as backyard projects workshops and rooftops. The creation of these projects, from initial imaginative sparks to their full-blown execution drives the coming together of creative community, dissolving the isolation that modern life can easily impose.

For example, early this past summer I had been working late at the Jena Wellness office. As one who prefers to work late rather than early, it is not uncommon to find me in the office hours after everyone has left. As the night creaks by, sometimes loneliness sets in.

This was one of those nights. Loneliness ached in me like a seething wound. I left the building, began unchaining my bike and I rang through the “favorites” on my phone. The results were dismal. My boyfriend was out on the town with his best friend. My best friend didn’t pick up. Neither did any of the next seven friends I rang. My desire for human interaction led me to nothing but a disappointing orgy of voicemail.

I had given up and was riding home when my phone rang.

“Hey, I am at a crafting session at Stefan’s, come on over.”

Perfect! My Burning Man camp, the Kostume Kult, was in the throes of the creation of our offerings for the upcoming event. At the heart of Burning Man is its culture of gifting. It’s a moneyless society where commerce is forbidden. Burning Man was once described by a Rabbi as a weeklong shabbas. The effect of forgetting about money at the door (because there’s nothing to buy) confers an ecstatic quality to Burning Man, the event.

The nickname for the flat sandy surface on which Burning Man occurs is the playa, referring to the Spanish word for beach. Each camp conspires to give a gift to the playa and in the case of my camp, we offer costumes. Each of us has personally experienced costuming as a potent tool for instantaneous transformation and is therefore dedicated to sharing this with the masses for their delight and enlightenment. “Costuming the naked since 2001,” as goes one of our slogans. We are able to dispense thousands of costumes for free every year, thanks to our fundraising parties and relationships we cultivate with theater companies, costume manufacturers and the creative community at large.

Costumes are a signature feature of Burning Man. The majority of people wear them day and night. Unlike the typical Halloween method of “dressing up as a superhero,” this type of costuming takes a different angle. At Burning Man costuming is about using adornment to highlight your own unique energy, expression, and express any message you want. Participation in art is a leading ethos of Burning Man and costuming is one of the most accessible and intimate ways of being involved with the creative process. Where else does flesh become the canvas and art interface directly with skin? The curves of your body become the frame and even inexpensive materials can be recycled by your imagination into costume haute couture.

Last year at Kostume Kult, located in the Village “NYrvana,” a conglomerate of New York camps, we set up a huge geodesic dome with costumes inside. Imagine a boutique where everything is zany and everything is free, and you are attended by a “costumista” delivering service akin to a 5th Avenue store. Not just you, but adults of all ages and sizes are trying on lots of different costumes in search of an item, or even a whole accessorized outfit that would be neither too small, too big, nor too bizarre. By experimentation you discover your outfit and leave dressed anew and transformed.

Kostume Kult headquarters was fronted with a giant mural on massive wooden boards and, to return to that lonely midsummer’s night in Manhattan, the East Village courtyard where I ended up was where it was created.

The mural’s construction was our response to the 2008 Burning Man theme, “American Dream,” a painted panorama dubbed “KKoney Island.” Depicting a spectrum of New York’s energy, beginning with colorful roller coasters, balloons and candy floss, and transitioning to grimy, grey Gotham City skyscrapers, the mural foretold the magical transformations the costumes would offer and the range of moods they can represent.

Back in New York, laughter, camaraderie and focused concentration filled the workspace. Critical to the project was that everyone in the camp contributed and more than a dozen people were part of the action. In order not to intimidate us, the leaders of this elaborate mural venture had created it in paint-my-numbers style, mimicking kids’ coloring books.

“Welcome, Jena, great to see you.” There were hugs and kisses, some familiar and a few new faces, a hive of bees industrially creating KKoney Island in paint. Dance and music are longtime friends of mine, but I confess painting has been outside of my realm for a couple of decades now, bar the walls of a couple of East Village apartments.

I looked at the paints, the brushes, the partially filled in murals and the numbers, and I didn’t know what went with what. I nervously balked and avoided painting, and instead flitted around chatting. Eventually someone noticed I was in disguised distress and asked gently, “Jena, would you like to paint?”

“Yes,” I said, “I just don’t know how.”

“It’s easy. Look, this area is color 23,” he referenced a paper chart with the code, “it goes with this color.” He pointed me to a particular shade of blue, handed me a paintbrush and off I went.

Soon I was under the back and forth spell of the paintbrush. My senses took in this new data, the spreading of paint over a surface and the distribution of color within an outline. I let out a quiet sigh as I touched a quiet place in myself. As I let myself sink into the moment, the tension I’d been holding melted away. The slightly nervous chatter I’d been initiating dropped away and I found a place where I could at once straddle being present with the environment and equally aware of my own inner world.

I made a few mistakes and was told it didn’t matter; we could redo lines and paint over color mistakes. The mood was bubbly and free of criticism. At 10 o’clock we were sent home so as not to aggravate the neighbors. In contrast to my arrival, I left glowing.

Seeing the KKoney Island mural out on the playa came with a great satisfaction, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. Burning Man tickles vast and varied aspects of one’s being. It’s a nature immersion, it’s an outdoor gallery, it’s a community, and it’s a ceremony.

The nature: a vast expanse of flat land, encircled by a ring of breathtaking treeless ranges and peaks. A parched ancient lakebed positioned in a high-elevation mountain desert, exhibiting barely a trace of life other than earth and dust. Dust that blows and becomes an effacing wonder, making objects a few feet away vanish and skin turn to alabaster.

The outdoor gallery: Over 200 registered art pieces out in the elements plus hundreds and possibly thousands of other unregistered ones. Vehicles that no longer resemble cars. Human beings in costume interacting with art, music and each other.

Community: A coming together, to not only survive in the harsh reality of the desert, but to thrive through acts of creativity and collaboration. 50 000 people cohabitating in harmony.

Ceremony: For me, Burning Man is a weeklong ceremony, where a sacred circle has been cast for all who enter, in which to safely burn and let go parts of themselves they no longer need or desire. And then from the ashes, to reinvent themselves anew. It’s a contemporary ritual that has allowed me to uncover my greatest gifts and deepest longings, and instilled in me the courage to sing them out loud to the world. Every year I let the pigment of the ceremonial paint leach into my soul, staining me with its significance. The message is life is the art we all create, the world is a community we share, and reality is only confined by what our imagination can conceive. Burning Man takes away the boundary between spectator and performer, reminding us that life is a stage.

“Are you performing?” a woman asked me at Burning Man.

“Yes, now.”

“Where is the show?” she asked.

“This is the show,” I explained with a twinkle in my eyes. “You are now part of it.” She first blinked in confusion and then softened as she realized that our “show” was life itself.

I recently saw a documentary about Ray Hunt, a “horse whisperer,” who tames and trains horses through gentleness instead of forced submission. Ray was renowned for “breaking in” the most difficult horses other people had given up on, to their great surprise and bewilderment. He spread his counter-intuitive but powerful method by leading workshops to horse-trainers far and wide across America.

The strange thing is, if you listen deeply to what Ray is saying, and substitute “breaking in the horse” for “losing weight and keeping it off,” then some enlightening parallels will instantly pop out at you. As you let the teachings of Ray sink in, allow yourself to wonder, if breaking in a horse can be done without brutality, couldn’t losing weight can be done the same way? Couldn’t weight loss be accomplished without the experience of deprivation and punishment via food or calorie restriction?

While looking to a horse whisperer for weight loss secrets may seem a bit bizarre, I promise you, there’s gold in this stable. Now imagine that your body is a horse and your mind is a rider and join me on this ride.

Weight Loss Secret #1
Your Body is a Living, Breathing Animal

When Ray Hunt first changed his training style from from brutal to gentle, he made a powerful statement that readily applies to dieting. “What I was overlooking was that the horse I was working with, was a living, breathing, feeling, decision-making animal. [Before,] I thought, if the horse didn’t like my decision, too bad. I didn’t think the horse was entitled to an opinion. He was just meant to do as I said.”

Consider the experience of going on a diet. Your mind educates itself and decides that you need to intake fewer calories than you burn, then assigns rules and regulations to what the body about what it can and can not eat. In this paradigm, the body is not entitled to an opinion. It’s not expected to “like” the diet, it’s only expected to obey.

For example, if your body doesn’t enjoy calorie restriction, too bad. Or if your body doesn’t feel like getting out of bed at the crack of dawn to go the gym, you guessed it, too bad. And if your body doesn’t feel like giving up ice cream, or chocolate or wine, that’s definitely, too darn bad. As far as diets go, the mind is a dictator not to be questioned.

By forgetting to take into consideration that the body is a “living, breathing, feeling, decision-making animal,” the overweight body assumes the status of “lesser than” beside the mind and something tragic occurs–listening stops.

When listening stops, even if your body is speaking out loud and clear, (which it usually does,) you can’t hear what it’s saying! True listening only happens in the company of equals, and unless the mind holds the body as its equal, listening is out of the question. For example, if you think you’re better than me, you can’t truly listen to me, and also the inverse, if you think you’re worse than me, you also can’t listen to me!

“I look back and see how rude, crude and misunderstanding I was to the animal. I now realize, he’s equal. He’s no better than me, he’s no worse than me. We’re equal,” say’s Ray.

If you brand your body as unlovable as it is right now, deem it “not good enough,” or call it an overweight loser that needs to be “fixed,” then all messages your body communicates to you will necessarily fall on deaf ears. Your mind will miss out on your body’s wisdom. This invaluable natural resource–the body’s instinctive know-how for natural weight loss–will be left untapped. When it puffs itself up as “better than,” the mind squanders its intimate access to the cues and guidance that your body, your beloved horse, is trying to give you all day long.

Can you recall, from real life experience, how infuriating it can feel to not be listened to? It’s annoying, stressful and disheartening right? This leads us on to the second secret…

Weight Loss Secret #2
The Body Automatically Protects Itself When Threatened

The instinct of a horse (much like your body) is to protect itself when threatened. Stress activates the “flight or flight” response in all animals, a reaction designed to mobilize energy and power for self-protection. To a horse this might look like violently bucking off a rider, but for 85% of humans, the most predictable form of self-protection is the tendency to gain weight.

Although it’s easy for the mind to perceive unwanted weight on your body as a barrier and an obstacle to what you want, from the body’s perspective weight is a well-intended protection mechanism! Excess weight is literally padding. It’s a shield that insulates us from stressors, making us bigger and more resilient to danger. In addition, weight offers more than mere physical padding, weight can act as a defense tactic by lowering expectations placed upon of you. Often weight is unconsciously used to deflect attention from the opposite sex and keep the silent terror of intimacy at bay.

Ray, our horse-whisperer, makes an observation about self-protection that offers insight to anyone wanting to lose weight: “The part that I was lacking within myself, when I began training horses, was the understanding that mother nature put into the animal the instinct that says ‘you have to protect yourself.’ It comes automatically. The horse doesn’t have to think about it. You need to break in a horse in a way that the animal doesn’t feel like it needs to protect itself. And once that instinct for self preservation is out of there, the horse will be willing to trust you until the end of the world.”

Let’s apply this to weight loss. Just as the horse will instinctively revolt under stress, so too, the body knows to protect itself through weight gain when under stress. In fact, any weight loss strategy, no matter how sensible it appears to the mind, that is stressful to implement (e.g. portion-control, dieting, punishing exercise regimes) are counter-productive by nature. Simply put, stressful weight loss strategies trigger the body’s self-protection instinct, inhibiting the very thing they set out to accomplish–lasting weight loss.

We must learn to lose weight in a way that your body, your animal, feels safe, not under threat and therefore pushed into a physiological state of self-protection. When you treat your body as an equal partner, its voice and its wisdom starts coming through the inner PA system, loud and clear. And when the body feels heard and acknowledged, it’s no longer threatened, and only then and not before, does the self-protection strategy of holding on to extra weight become obsolete.

A great example of this was my client Mary Ann who had moved to New York City from the South. She found herself living on one of Manhattan’s noisiest streets, working for a volatile boss who was angelic one day and tyrannical the next, leaving her walking on eggshells. Mary Ann’s comfort soon became quiet time home alone with comfort food, and it wasn’t long before her too-tight pants made her aware of the consequences.

Her first strategy was so skip lunch to reduce calories and commit to a 6 day a week cardio regime at the gym. She was effectively eating less and burning more, yet any weight loss advances made vanished within days, and she felt trapped between the urge for comfort and the urge for control, with neither offering what she really wanted–fitting into her old clothes and feeling good in her skin.

It was at this point that she came to see me and through our conversations realized that both her lifestyle and her weight loss tactics were incredibly stressful, it was no wonder she had gained extra weight for ‘protection,’ and no wonder it was now a struggle to bid that weight goodbye. Her body felt under attack from all angles and was doing whatever it could to insulate itself!

This realization propelled her to redesign her weight loss approach. First, she concluded her job was setting the whole cycle in motion, and mapped out a 3-month job-exit strategy for herself. Secondly, she started frequenting the steam room at the gym more than the treadmill for the pure pleasure and relaxation of it, and then found some dance classes that made her feel feminine, beautiful and in touch with her body in a positive way. In no time at all her pants were loose and to this day, she reports to me that she’s still losing weight without giving it a second thought.

And that leads us on to the third secret…making weight loss FUN.

Weight Loss Secret #3
Make Weight Loss Fun For Your Body

One of Ray’s students described his own transformation: “I’ve learned that the horse is not the object, it’s the objective. The objective is to be in harmony with the horse. It became a new challenge for me to get into harmony with the horse. I wanted it to be as fun for the horse as it was going to be for me.”

What if you took the same approach to your body? What if you turned the weight loss game on its head and rewrote the rules? What if coming into harmony with your animal, became your primary objective, allowing weight loss to emerge as a natural by-product?

It’s a subtle yet profound shift. How could you make weight loss as fun for your body as it will be for you? Starting from this perspective–holding curiosity and respect for your body’s likes and dislikes–uncovers all kinds of wonderful information.

If you are on the lookout for ways to make the process fun for both horse and rider, you’ll be amazed the pleasures you discover.

When I was first losing weight, and tuning into the messages from my body, I discovered my body loved an early dinner followed by an evening bike ride. I also realized it liked to have two breakfasts, one shortly after getting up, and another in the mid-morning. As winter rolled around I noticed my body didn’t find bike riding so fun anymore and it’s interest shifted to indoor exercise such as belly dancing!

By asking my body’s opinion, by seeking a solution that would be fun for all parts of me and by refusing to buy in to deprivation or militant workouts, the results came easily and they’ve endured without stress, and with much pleasure, for years now.

Paradoxically, despite fears that too much pleasure will be our downfall when it comes to weight loss, pleasure is a direct catalyst for the body’s ‘relaxation response,’ the state in which fat burning occurs. Unlike the ‘stress response,’ where weight is hoarded for protection, the relaxation response allows the body to feel safe and at peace, therefore metabolically able to let go of stored weight, previously maintained for protection.

Stop for a moment, put a hand on your chest and take stock. Do you feel your heart beat? Do you feel the flow of your breath? It’s the animal within you. It’s the mammal, the warm-blooded furry creature that is your very own body.

Just as Ray Hunt, horse-whisperer and master of communication tamed the most difficult of horses into gentle respectful compliance. You can attend to your body as an equal partner in your life and lovingly let go of all unnecessary protective weight.

The very same techniques that Ray has used with horses, for jaw-dropping success, can be applied as sophisticated strategies for weight loss. Treat your body as a living, breathing animal, employ weight loss strategies that don’t trigger your body to protect itself further, and make weight loss as fun for your body as it is for you.

No longer invisible, forgotten and unimportant, your body–thrilled to be released from the harness of blame and constraint–becomes easier to tame and will trust you until the end of the world.

References:
“Turning Loose” by Ray Hunt, Master of Communication. www.rayhunt.com

By Jena la Flamme © 2010 www.jenawellness.com jena@jenawellness.com 212 260 6064

In this video, you’re going to learn a vital principal I’ve used to help my clients lose weight on their own terms, without bowing down to any false diet god, or selling their soul to Prada, I mean the devil. (Reference will make sense when you watch the video!)

And make sure to leave a comment after you watch the video – to share what you learned. Enjoy!

In this video, I teach you about how truly investigating your desire points you exactly down the path of easy, effortless weight loss. I’ll start you off on the feminine way to weight loss so you’ll never be depriving yourself again.

Leave a comment after the video to share what you learned and how you’re going to use it!

Bye Bye Bloating, Hello Flat Belly…At Any Time of The Month

Thursday, June 10, 2010 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT

If you’re like many women, your belly may be the body part that gives you the most grief. Whether it’s bloating, cramping, or conspicuous belly rolls that drive you crazy, rest assured, there’s a solution to all of it…and it’s just as delicious as chocolate! The irony is, when your hormones are balanced and your digestion is humming like a well-oiled machine, your belly is no longer a source of distress and inconvenience, but rather a center of power and pleasure. However when your hormones are out of whack, and your belly is anything but flat or pain free, so-called “reproductive health” can feel more like “reproductive hell!” If you want… freedom from mood swings and depression… to eliminate PMS from your vocabulary… to manage fibroids or PCOS naturally… And, if you want to enjoy your fabulous, feminine body to the fullest… …join me, Jena la Flamme, weight loss expert and founder of the Jena Wellness Center in NYC, as featured in Glamour, Pilates Style and on Discovery Health Channel, and Kristen Domingue, women’s power and pleasure coach, for a FREE webinar designed to help you banish the bloat and have a flat belly once and for all. In this webinar you will learn: How to bring an end to menstrual madness and say bye bye to bloating and ciao to cramping How to uproot crazy out-of-control cravings at their source so you never have to fight them again (you’ve got better things to do with your energy) How to stop being dependent on the pill to manage your period How to lose weight the feminine way without putting yourself in food jail and have the flat belly you desire How to have full access to you sensual and sexual power without a hint of shame or guilt

REGISTER HERE

How to Lose All The Weight You Want This Summer Without the Stress

Of all the seasons of the year, summer is the ideal time to reset your metabolism and along with it, your relationship with food.

Not only do you have lots of reason to lose weight (beach here we come!), but more important, with openness, possibility, and freedom in the air, the benefit of the attention you pay to your body is multiplied, as the habits and attitudes you set in place now set the tone for your whole year.

Unfortunately, too many women ruin the natural relaxation of summer with undue stress about how to fit into that swimsuit—and the season is no longer about fun and sun, but rather, another time of deprivation and self-recrimination.

If your body is fed up with diets, and desires a weight loss strategy that allows you to lose weight as you kick back, relax and enjoy the summer, then this free webinar is for you.

Join me Jena la Flamme, weight loss expert and founder of the Jena Wellness Center in NYC,as featured in Glamour, Pilates Style and on Discovery Health Channel, and Marc David, renowned nutritionist, founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, author of “The Slow Down Diet: Eating for Pleasure Energy and Weight Loss” for a FREE webinar called

How to Lose All the Weight You Want This Summer Without The Stress

In this webinar you will learn:

• How to drop chronic overeating habits like a hot potato and shed your lingering “winter coat” of excess weight

• How to make the most of soaring temperatures to fire up your metabolism and melt away extra “padding” like ice cream on a sunny day

• How to turn off your body’s “fat storage mode” and switch on “fat burning mode” for summer and beyond

• How to restore your trust in your body and how to apply that trust to effortless weight loss

• Why summer is the time when we are most susceptible to new imprints in relation to our body

• Why summer is designed to having you feeling and looking your hottest and how to capitalize on this today

If you’re like many people, losing those last 10 or 20 pounds or more is one of the most important priorities in your life–with implications for your sex life, your sense of self-esteem, your happiness, your romantic relationship, and even your career.

Is it worth it to you to spend 1 hour to access information that could literally save you years of more frustration, more diets, more self-loathing, and more weight on the scales?

If you’re ready for the shortcut–and if you’re ready for that shortcut to be fun, pleasurable, and easy–then I look forward to seeing you in this call.

Register Here

love

JENA

P.S. If you can’t make it at that time, no problem, just register anyway and I’ll send you the mp3 recording, so that you can listen to it on your schedule.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM EDT

REGISTER TODAY!

Have you tried everything under the sun to lose weight, but still find yourself losing the battle against the bulge?

Even though you may have tried umpteem different approaches which appear distinct from one another, they all have something in common-and that one thing they have in common is also the one thing that is keeping you from losing the weight you want to.

Let me explain…

Almost everything you’ve ever heard in your life on the topic of weight loss, probably falls into the category of what I call the “masculine strategies for weight loss.”

These strategies include dieting, deprivation, food-restriction, portion control, self-control, calorie counting, diet pills, and punishing exercise.

Sound familiar?

It sounds like it should work, (right?) but here’s the problem…

95% of women who use these approaches gain back any weight lost within one year-if they lose weight at all in the first place.

Even though you may have tried umpteem different approaches which appear distinct from one another, they all have something in common-and that one thing they have in common is also the one thing that is keeping you from losing the weight you want to.

Let me explain…

Almost everything you’ve ever heard in your life on the topic of weight loss, probably falls into the category of what I call the “masculine strategies for weight loss.”

These strategies include dieting, deprivation, food-restriction, portion control, self-control, calorie counting, diet pills, and punishing exercise.

Sound familiar?

It sounds like it should work, (right?) but here’s the problem…

95% of women who use these approaches gain back any weight lost within one year-if they lose weight at all in the first place.

Let’s face it. These strategies simply don’t work for most women.

Why not?

Because they were designed by and for men, to fit with men’s psychology and physiology. They just don’t work for most women

But fear not. For us women, there is a better way.

Introducing what I call the “feminine strategies for weight loss.”

The feminine strategies work with, rather than against, the wisdom of your body, and include:

Relaxation

Pleasure

Desire

Sensuality

Curiosity

Nourishment

Nurturance

With these strategies I’ve seen the most astonishing results of women losing weight after years of suffering with emotional eating, bad body image and stubborn weight gain.

If you’ve had enough of living in fear and stress around food, disliking your body, and not being able to fit into the clothes you really want to show off to the world…

If so join me, Jena la Flamme, weight loss expert and founder of the Jena Wellness Center in NYC, as featured in Glamour, Pilates Style and on Discovery Health Channel, and Marc David, renowned nutritionist, founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, author of “The Slow Down Diet: Eating for Pleasure Energy and Weight Loss” for a FREE webinar called

The 4 Biggest Weight Loss Myths That Prevent You From Losing Weight and What to Do About It

In this webinar you will learn:

Why almost everything you’ve been taught about weight loss actually sabotages your results and makes it harder and harder to burn fat as time goes by

The little-talked about scientific principle that immediately erases feelings of guilt and shame around food

How to permanently stop worrying about fat on your body (or in your food) while still getting the results you want

Why lasting weight loss is NOT a function of eating less and exercising more–it would have worked for you by now if it was going to, right? And what actually counts to melt away the pounds.

Why over-eating is not a willpower problem, and the surprising remedy

The secrets of a “No Diet” Diet — that actually works to shift your weight for good without struggle

The wisdom of “pleasure” and why you’ll battle with food and weight forever without this piece to the puzzle…

The secrets of the 1 – 2 % of women who lose weight and keep it off longterm, effortlessly

The good news is the weight loss solution is actually quite the opposite of a restrictive diet. In fact it’s fun, delicious and satisfying.

If you’re like many people, losing those last 10 or 20 pounds or more is one of the most important priorities in your life–with implications for your sex life, your sense of self-esteem, your happiness, your romantic relationship, and even your career.

Is it worth it to you to spend 1 hour to access information that could literally save you years of more frustration, more diets, more self-loathing, and more weight on the scales?

If you’re ready for the shortcut–and if you’re ready for that shortcut to be fun, pleasurable, and easy–then I look forward to seeing you in this call.

Register –> HERE <–

P. S. If you can’t make it at that time, no problem, just register anyway and I’ll send you the mp3 recording, so that you can listen to it on your schedule.

P. P. S. Restricting yourself seems like such a “logical” solution, but as you’ve noticed, it’s never a livable, long-term solution, and equates to walking on egg-shells around food for life. No fun! Come discover a whole new paradigm for re-setting your metabolism for permanent weight loss without deprivation. Join us –> HERE <–

Join Me for this Free Webinar – Wednesday, March 17, 2010, at 8pm EST, 5pm PST

You’ve likely noticed, there are areas of your life where everything works…

…and there are areas where you get really discouraged, easily frustrated,
and can’t for the life of you make what you want happen.

For many powerful women, feeling unhappy about their weight and body image falls into that category.

While for others that missing thing is a satisfying and rewarding career.

And for others still, it’s nourishing, fulfilling, and passionate relationships.

In either case, there’s a voice whispering in your ear, with never ending persistence, no matter how many times it’s been ignored, that is part of the solution…if only you would listen.

Join me, Jena la Flamme, weight loss expert and founder of the Jena Wellness
Center in NYC, as featured in Glamour, Pilates Style and on Discovery Health
Channel, and Elizabeth Joy Mueller, former corporate management consultant turned soul healer, for a FREE 60 minute webinar to ignite your path to weight loss, wellbeing and getting exactly what you want.

In this webinar you will:

Discover how to get your body to tell you EXACTLY what you need for easy, effortless, and lasting weight loss

Learn how to turn up the volume on that quiet voice within, from a whisper to a roar, and how to use the “download” to feel happier and more powerful than ever before

Learn one easy technique to clear out what’s getting in your way–in business, love or wellness–and propel you forward towards the life and body of your dreams

Discover how to confidently toss all the diet books on your shelf into the recycling bin and be guided by the voice within as to how to ignite your innate fat-urning powers

Break through the inexplicable barrier that is restricting and limiting your success
Discover how to apply your feminine body wisdom to melt away fat like butter on a hot day.

Are you ready to stop drowning out the smartest part of you, and unlock your power?

Wednesday, March 17, 2010, at 8pm EST, 5pm PST

Space is limited so register HERE

Love,
Jena

P.S. Even if you are unable to make the webinar live, enter with your name and email and we’ll send you an mp3 recording as soon as it is available. That way you can listen to this great information when it suits your schedule

As odd as it may sound, one of the best things that ever happened was being stood up at a salsa club. I had always presumed I needed a companion to go to a nightclub, but that night when my girlfriend failed to show, I discovered I could safely and pleasurably navigate club space alone. The setting was a salon on Broadway. La Belle Epoque, reminiscent of Paris in the era of Art Nouveau, had a black and white tiled floor, small round tables, wicker-backed chairs and a wrought iron balcony. I had learnt the basics of salsa many years ago in a friend’s living room and fortunately retained enough to venture out on my own. Little did I know, as I dared the dance floor, that hypnotic magic was being invited into my body.

Sadly, la Belle Epoque eventually closed its doors to salsa, and the dance fell out of my routine for several years. It lingered however, in the shadows of my psyche, like a latent seed seeking fertile ground.

And then one evening at a New York dinner party I was introduced to George, the charming owner of a Latin dance school, Stepping Out Studios. My eyes widened and a smile erupted as George handed me a pass for one free month of classes. Perfect! I knew this signified the long-awaited return of salsa to my life.

This time, I decided I was going to take it more seriously. I sought proper salsa shoes and discovered they have soft suede soles that enclose the feet with a firm caress whilst gripping the dance floor with ferocity – and yet remain too delicate to be worn on the street. Equipped with new shoes and excitement, I was ready for class.

After completing one month of formal lessons, I had signed up for my second when a friend introduced me to a venue that has since become my second home: Taj Lounge on 21st street between 5th and 6th. It thrilled me from the moment I walked in. The dŽcor is exotic and sensual. Large swathes of raw silk drape the room in rich color-saffron, crimson. Recessed booths piled with cushions are framed with ornate wooden latticework, circular tables proffer aromatic food and exotic Indian statues overlook the dance floor.

Since then I have returned every week to this place that feeds my hunger for movement: the salsa dance floor. Like great food, yoga and sex, salsa makes me feel ecstatic and alive. This “effect” is nothing less than trance. At the base of the music the drums weave a rhythmic web with beats that ensnare the dancer. They are designed to be hypnotic, allowing with the dance to continue forever. Overlaid are the melodies that repeat like mantras, deepening the hook the music has on the psyche. And why is this so important? Simply put, trance heals. In the depths of such a state, the whirring thoughts of the mind quiet and peace descends. It can feel like a wonderful relief. As I dance I feel the medicine of the music tranquillizing my frazzled mind and washing away layers of stress across my body. Salsa demands that I let go.

In essence the dance is a meditation in motion. Salsa draws its roots from the Earth-based spiritual tradition of Voodoo. This way of celebrating the divine focused more on what’s below the feet rather than in the sky. For them, where our feet kiss the Earth is the same level where plants take root, animals graze and we bury our dead. The salseros focus on the Earth because that is the source of life.

So back to the dance, each step of the feet on the floor is as deliberate as each sound of the drum. The rhythmic beating-feet on ground and hand on drum-remind us of where all life originates-Mother Earth. Salsa prompts us to pay attention to our hips and the raw energies that animate our bodies. The movement is inherently sexual, acknowledging we too are part of the reproductive world. It’s no wonder that here in the concrete jungle where the fertile Earth can seem far away and difficult to touch, that salsa feels so reassuring to me.

I was raised listening to classical music characterized by complex melodies that float to the sky, in the direction of a heavenly realm. Salsa, with its wild and wanton rhythms has an entirely different spiritual emphasis-it literally drums praise down into the Earth.

With salsa now lodged deeply inside, I have arranged my New York existence to encompass regular doses of this medicine. I am not just out at clubs or socials, I also attend classes. The school is a scene of its own. Don’t be fooled by the stereotype that Latin dance is only for Latinos. Every color and creed are present in New York salsa scene-united by the contagion of ecstasy bred by this dance. The technique is taught in bite-sized chunks, as with cookbooks that show if you read you can cook so too these instructors guarantee: if you can walk, you can dance. All it takes is showing up.

I return again each week, not just for hypnotic high, but the nourishment of the social environment. From castles to meadows, the practice of partner dancing pervades space and time as the ultimate model of etiquette between woman and man. It demonstrates how opposite sexes can relate in a synergistic, respectful, yet sensual way. This practice is particularly healthy in guiding men to treat women as artistic partners not sexual objects. All my salsa partners have been consummate gentlemen; the dance teaches skills that persist off the dance floor.

There are many other rituals going on outside of the dance itself. For example the practice of asking someone to dance, the subsequent acceptance or decline, the subtle signaling that one wants to be asked to dance, saying goodbye at the end and switching partners. It amazes me how I can dance intimately in the arms of a stranger for five minutes and then be passed along to another and another, all in complete safety. The yogic teachings of non-attachment and opening the heart are unwittingly woven into the Latin social structure.

Perhaps the absence of regular social dance while growing up is the reason we have so much social dysfunction these days, maybe we haven’t had the environment to practice behaviors that cultivate honest communication within a community and between genders.

In the movie “Take the Lead,” Antonio Bendaras’ character, Pierre Dulaine volunteers to teach Latin and ballroom dancing in NYC schools. When the relevance of his work to the average high school pupil is challenged by a narrow-minded teacher who threatens the future of his class, he explains the deeper benefits: “Now if your 16 year old daughter allows me to lead, she is trusting me, but more than that, she is trusting herself. And if she is strong, secure and trusts herself then how likely is she to let some idiot knock her up? And if your son can learn to touch women with respect, how will he treat women throughout his life? I teach dance, and with it a set of rules that will teach your children about trust, teamwork and dignity. And that will give them a vision of the future they will have.”

I appreciate Latin values for the importance given to dance. It delights me that the Latino mindset deems dance a necessary ingredient for the fullest expression of machismo. In salsa it appears that the man is leading, but energetically both create the dance. As Dulaine went on to say, “in salsa the man leads, or rather he proposes the step-it is the woman’s choice to follow.” The onus is on communicating beyond words. The overflow-as you learn to do that with another, so you learn to do it with yourself.

Partner dance fosters self-awareness in a way that is akin to yoga practice. As I fall into beat with the music and my partner at once, I feel optimism flowering in me. These movements also deliver me to the same place an hour on my yoga mat does. I simply feel better about being alive, the small problems seem less bothersome, and the possibilities life offers me seem wider. I feel reminded that people can mix harmoniously and that happiness is our natural underlying state.

The perks are many and myriad-did I mention that salsa tones and defines abs, arms and shoulders? I could go on with more reasons to dance, but at this point, words have no meaning; you simply must surrender to the music and the raging call of your body’s desire to move with another.

In New York salsa music pours abundantly from live bands and DJs alike. Like a Latin mother’s milk, it nourishes communities and reignites their aliveness with an ecstatic marriage of percussion and melody. As dancers we become family on the dance floor. And as individuals we become peaceful, delighted, self-expressed and a celebration of ourselves.

© 2008 Jena la Flamme

Thursday, March 4th 8:00-9:00 PM EST

The demands of daily life can be exhausting and so stressful that even the thought of relaxing can be simply too much to handle.

When stress escalates, it’s predictable to feel that food, substances or mood swings have more control over you than you have over yourself.

This quickly becomes a vicious cycle: feeling too heavy to be happy, too stressed to chill out, and too darn fatigued to do anything about it.

Are you lacking energy and exuberance, barely making it to the end of the week, too exhausted to make use of your precious time off?

Do you feel constantly in an energy deficit and a stress overload, and turn to food, drink or mind-numbing activities as an attempt to balance it all out and feel better?

Is your self-esteem a fraction of what you know it could be if you were to get your stress, energy and weight under control?

If so, join Jena la Flamme, weight loss expert and founder of the Jena Wellness Center in NYC,as featured in Glamour, Pilates Style and on Discovery Health Channel, and Lea Kraemer, yoga instructor and founder of Prana Mandir Yoga Studio in Manhattan, as seen in Time Out, Fit Yoga, and Aquarian Times, for a FREE 60 minute webinar to recharge your batteries, relieve your stress and melt fat off your body.

In this webinar you will:

• Learn how to release stress and build a powerful immune system, not just to cold and flues, but to infectious negativity that circulates faster than a virus.
• Transform your inner energy reserves from a deficit to an overflow with 3 very doable lifestyle changes, that don’t take years to master.
• Discover how you can stop overeating with one easy technique that you can do anywhere, whether you are at the office, out with friends or home alone.
• Explore the delicious, scrumptious, natural foods that boost energy while melting fat. Learn the stress-busting activity that requires zero preparation.

Space is Limited so Register Soon! –> HERE <–