Happy Valentine’s Day
And what did the rubies say standing before the juice of pomegranates? – Pablo Neruda This week of love should not demand a lot from you. It does not require that you be good, message everyone in your address book, or march out to save or the world. Stay simple. …
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Unfetter Thyself
“Unfetter thyself” is one of my favorite things to say in class. Partly it just feels nice rolling off the tongue. Partly because it strikes right at the heart of what yoga is about. This month of study and practice we are engaging the yoga bandhas. The concept of bandha …
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What Is Somatics and Why Is It Important for You?
Have you ever noticed how tension builds up in your body after a stressful day? Maybe your shoulders feel tight, your neck is stiff, or your lower back aches. What if there was a way to release that tension and move through life with more ease and comfort? That’s where …
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Should I Turn and Look the Other Way?
I have been speaking to fellow yogis who I trust and admire who say that they just can’t watch or listen to the news anymore. It is all too depressing. With the new administration in power, social justice, gender rights and climate protections are corroding right before our eyes. The executive …
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Kimchi Yoga
Yoga is like fermentation. Through a time-honored process, both require soaking and ripening for chemical change to occur. Like yoga, the aim of fermentation is to preserve and prolong the life force. To ferment kimchi, you take napa cabbage, radish, burdock root and carrot and store them under tight seal. …
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Original Energy
In each yoga practice, we tap into the original energy that we are made from. This primal energy is as old as the big bang and as brilliant as the light of the stars. The original energy we inherit is sacred, auspicious and all-pervading. It is derived from the wind, …
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Be the Sponge
Yoga is the art of absorption. In each practice aim to be like a sponge, soaking through your skin, muscle and nerves, all the way to the pithy core of your bones. These days, the feeling of absorption is getting lost (or dried out) as classes go lickety-split down the mat. When …
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The Body of Bliss
In many of the old yoga books, it is said that through devoted practice one “obtains the highest bliss.” I once thought that this talk of bliss was hyperbole, sugar coating the practice to give it an out-of-this world appeal. But today I realize just how essential it is for …
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Psychic Immunity
We have dedicated this month to building immunity in our practice. This involves pumping, stretching, compressing and squeezing the connective tissues of the body. Via waves, pulses, and ripples we support the lymph to flow. However, building a strong immunity is not limited to the glands, vessels, organs, and cells. …
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End of the Year Yoga Nidra
At year’s end we practice yoga nidra, the yogic sleep, to empty our vessels and clear out the cobwebs of distraction and despair. And what a year it has been! In the days following the election so many of us have felt a collective clench, a kind of unconscious contraction. This …
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