When I was eighteen years old, yoga was an attractive physical practice to me for many reasons. It appeared to be the perfect balance between my two favorite things in the world; throwing my body around the stage during rehearsals, and would also wake up early in the morning to get my heart rate up by jogging through the neighborhood right before the sun rose that by the end of my school day my body was so worked my limbs felt like Jello. I needed something strengthening, toning, integrative, and creative. I loved dance but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do it forever, and running was my current voyager, until I landed in my first Bikram class in 2004.
Read moreThere is a Hindu myth where Ganesha attends a lavish dinner party hosted by Kubera, the Lord of Wealth. In this story Kubera throws extravagant parties to display his riches. The elephant-headed Ganesha eats the meal and is unsatisfied. Ganesha asks for more, then more and more until Kubera is out of food. Ganesha proceeds to eat the tableware, linens, furniture, and walls. Kubera panics and summons Shiva for help.
Read moreWith Yoga Bhoga Teacher Training beginning in a of couple weeks I am reminded of my own journey into teaching yoga. In many ways, I think teaching yoga is an extremely difficult job but I also believe it to the be the best job in the world. And a job I had no intention of ever doing. Never, not in even when I was to attending yoga class 6 days a week, did I fathom the idea that one day I would guide others through their own practice.
Read moreOver the weekend I attended Meghan Maris’ Ethics of Yoga workshop. This workshop was a discussion of the yamas and niyamas, the moral codes in which to live by in action, thought, and word. What we think, how we act, and what we say are all bound by these codes of ethics so we can live a more thoughtful life and, in the process, create space for those around us to also live such a life.
Read more love blackberries. I love picking them, eating them, cooking with them. A few weeks ago I observed there were many blackberries on nearby bushes that they were rotting. Excited about the abundance of blackberries, I returned a few days ago ready to pick all the ripe berries for a cobbler. To my surprise and dismay, the blackberries were shriveled, hard and pruning. There was a hardly a good blackberry to be found. Across the walkway though, where there was a lot of foot traffic, and where berries were picked regularly, the bushes were producing plump and abundant berries.
Read moreThe Yoga Slump: Every practitioner knows it – even your favorite teacher. You begin going to yoga, you love the way you feel after class, you see positive changes in your mood, your body, your outlook on life, and you start attending class pretty regularly. Then something happens – maybe a holiday, injury, fatigue -- where you are unable to make it to class. Suddenly, you realize, one missed class has turned into a few weeks absent on your mat. And as much as you want to get on your mat, you find yourself unmotivated and lacking the discipline to get-up and go to class.
Read moreMany of us dream of theeasy life: a life in which opportunities arise without complications and we move effortlessly through our day in a happy state of bliss. In search for this idyllic state of living, we dread obstacles and disdain struggle and conflict. Yet, we need the resistance of opposing ideas, the clash of contrasting expectation, and the work of climbing the metaphorical career ladder, in order to for us to grow.
Read moreIn the natural world circles are abundant: earth, sun, tree rings, your eye pupils. Almost every ancient culture uses the circle as a symbol to represent a myriad of meanings including the cycle of life, spiritual growth, completeness, and unity. In Hindu mythology, every time you take the shape ofNatarajasana, dancer’s pose, you embrace the cycle of birth, life, and death.
Read moreWhen I focus on the life of friends, or any life outside of my own, I only exacerbate the feelings which manifest as jealousy, competiveness, laziness, and exhaustion. For each of us, our mind is the milky ocean in the myth of Kurma and the poison that arises from the ocean are toxic feelings that must be released.
Read moreA misconception is people need to be flexible to do yoga.
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