I believe that yoga practice extends beyond the mat in many and unexpected ways. Flow with me down my ThoughtStream.

Insource

Put down the phone. Invite a friend to go for a walk and discuss how you feel with a real live human being - your hopes, dreams, frustrations, wonderings, grievances.

Put down the phone. Sit on the earth and absorb the chatter of the birds and squirrels -allow that to quiet the chatter in your mind.

Put down the phone.  Play your favorite music and move your body. Read a novel, Mary Oliver poems, a spiritual text that resonates. 

Put down the phone. Return to yourself and get curious about what you have Faith in. You don’t need to outsource what to do next. Insource. 

Peace

The only reason to do anything is to create a more beautiful world. We were born to create the good, the true and the sacred: that’s is our soul’s mission, and when we’re not performing it we grow uncomfortable. Most people don’t know the origin of their soul’s discomfort only because the modern world is constantly tempting us to forget the mission.

Our greatest power in any situation is to remember who we are and why we came here. Without that, we’re stumbling in the dark of randomness and meaninglessness with no light to guide us. That applies not only to an individual but to a collective as well. A nation as well as an individual represents a ray of light from a great philosophical sun. A nation’s ray refers to the larger mission of that country, the greater vision that guides it. “Where there is no vision the people perish. “

If the purpose of our lives is to expand the meaning and purpose not only of our individual existence but also that of our nation, people, religion, and species, then we need to rise to meet the challenges of that purpose. Enough with the woundedness, the perverse comfort zone of personal limitation, the pathologizing of every little thing, the victimization, the obsession with trauma - all of which can begin with genuine desire for understanding but then spin out of control with a personal attachment to dark drama. Anything that involves only our individual self at a certain point becomes a darkened glass through which we cannot see.

One of the ways we heal ourselves is by showing up in whatever way we can to help heal others. We can live our lives in service to a larger goal than just our own. We can participate in a great creative drama involved in asking not only “How do I heal and where do I go next?” but also “How do we heal and where do we go next?” We are incomplete in any moment that we stay confined to consideration only of the individual self. The meaning of this moment is expansion beyond that. That’s when we find comfort. And that’s when we’ll find peace.

~Marianne Williamson

Anybody?

My former husband and I went to marriage counseling a few times in an effort to foster communication and connection. The therapist asked me what it was that I loved about my former husband, and the first thing I said without even thinking about it was that he made me laugh. It was a heartfelt truth, but it was misunderstood and interpreted that I’d wanted to be entertained by my partner, like a clown.

I didn’t have the language then to explain my feelings, and only recently do I more deeply understand what I’d meant then…that my then husband was able to bring me closer to Peace and Joy, and therefore closer to Love, through humor and laughter. I wish I’d been able to articulate this then… such is the passing of time, space, and opportunities to grow. Even now, these many years and difficult circumstances later, when I think of him, it brings me tears of joy. And, still, no one makes me laugh so easily and readily as he does.

Laughter is connection…it brings you to the heart of joy, Simplicity, and closer to the Divine heart of the matter, which is what really matters: equality, exploration, inclusion, and Love. As you embody that more and feel the humble joy of your Peaceful Divine self more, foolish wisdom drops away, and then you stand in wisdom. ~ The Freedom Transmissions

Humus, in Latin, means “earth” or “ground”. The earth is the source for all three words: humor, humility and humanity. It is essential to have a sense of humility to be able to laugh at ourselves, and that laughter reminds us of our shared humanity.

Simplicity

When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,

“and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

with light, and to shine”.

~Mary Oliver

Practice

“May we do the work of feeling ourselves, so that we can heal ourselves, rather than acting out of our wounds in a way that wounds others. May we begin to relax into the full cycle of life, to claim responsibility for all our actions and desires. May we surrender to the pleasure of the exhale as the antidote to the clutch of the inhale. May we learn to embrace loss and death so that we can seize life. May we allow ourselves to acknowledge sadness and grief - personally and collectively - so that we can give full throat to joy. We are not yet lost. We just need to find ourselves again and, wings unfurled, fly home.”

~ Elise Loehnen from ON OUR BEST BEHAVIOR

AN INVITATION - TO PRACTICE

to move fear through and out of your own body

to create space for more Love, more Compassion

to raise your vibration and hold it HIGH

A Request From The Divine

Please always ask for what you really need from the Divine

Often you ask for God

When you are really asking for Home

You ask for abundance

When you are really asking for Stability

You ask for relief

When you are really asking for Permission

You ask for alleviation

When you are really asking for Liberation

Often you ask for justice

When really you are asking for the strength to Forgive

You ask for redemption

When really you are asking for Forgiveness

You ask for angels

When really you are asking for Communion

You ask for spirit

When really you are asking for Presence

You ask for adoration

When you are really asking for Love

You ask for truth

When really you are asking for Strength and Courage

You ask for Jesus

When really you are asking for Christ

You ask for Yeshua

When you are really asking for Peace

And you ask for home

You are really asking for God

Thus, moving forward, ask for what you truly need and the answer will be revealed, the need received, through the very nature of the question.

~ Yeshua

Focus, Attention, and Awareness

“We focus when we are grounded in the sensations of the body. This is a big part of what asana practice is about.
Attention is what we use when we are practicing pranayama; breath captures and directs our attention.
Being in stillness and silence as when we are Present is facilitated by cultivating a deep internal spacious awareness.
I really like this approach in my practice these days.
And the delightful thing is, we can use focus and attention to lead us to spacious awareness any time any place, on or off the mat.
That ability reminds us that yoga practice is a living practice, not an academic or theoretical one.
Never forget that when we are Present, not only does our behavior change, but the behavior of those around us changes as well.
We have the potential to affect the world in every moment.”

~ Judith Lasater

This idea inspires a deep sense of responsibility and accountability…that in every moment we have the potential to affect the world around us. It prompts me to ask the question: What will my contribution be? Will I contribute to the shadow or to the Light?

We get to choose.

(Image by Jenny Bosben @jennybosben)

Wholeness

"I believe spirituality is to religion what wholeness is to wellness—religion and wellness offer an externalized ideal, some sort of “target” to achieve, a system of beliefs—while the former stand for the practice of faith, the path that actually must be walked: Spirituality and wholeness represent living the vertical in the horizontal, of being, while religion and wellness stand for the doing. And while we’ve historically rushed to the doing for permission to be, it might be leading us farther astray—to a place that feels ever more dislocated and confused.

The call instead is to reconnect to that internal knowing. To start where we are. To turn inwards and then reattach to where we came from. And I don’t just mean spiritually. I mean physically, materially, as well. That longing for ritual and tradition is real..."

~ Elise Loehnen, author and (my favorite) podcast Pulling the Thread

Wholeness...Yoga, to yoke

Community... comm-Unity.

Belonging... longing to Be.

I think about these words when planning the classes I teach.

Yoga is so much more than asana.

Integrity

When you're whole, you actually become stronger...you align the energy. Everything wants to harmonize with it. And things start to flow with you and it's silent and it's quiet, it's gentle, but it's incredibly powerful, the strength you can access when you're in a state of integrity. 

When you're in total integrity, the next step arises from within. And you don't even feel like you're doing it...And what you do then comes from some wellspring of goodness. The force, the Tao, the way, whatever... it's moving all of us, it moves us. Like the wind moves the trees and you find yourself doing something and you don't even remember choosing it, but it brings you enormous joy and there's no pressure to sustain it. It just sustains.

~ Martha Beck (paraphrased and transcripted from an interview)

The word INTEGRITY is defined:

1. The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles

2. The state of being whole and undivided

As yogis we endeavor to cultivate both definitions of integrity, on and off the mat. In postures we seek an expression that honors our whole selves in the moment - mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually. And of course, that is ever changing, ever evolving. As we set the intention to move towards wholeness and practice with devotion and dedication, we become more attuned to the inner voice that guides us towards this wholeness. We discern what is true and resonant. And hopefully we construct our lives in a way that allows us the freedom to follow this path.

On Sunday this inner voice spoke up with a quiet, unwavering clarity, like a silent bell: it’s time for me to go Home to Georgia where I can be near my family. This news will not come as a surprise to many of you - it has long since been a dream of mine to head south, and I think the decision was made long ago. As Martha describes, I feel enormous joy choosing this, or did it choose me? Who can say. But there is Flow and Peace and Ease in it. It feels like Wholeness. Integrity.

I leave April 1.

As a sangha we have moved through many iterations of community practice over the past few years, so this is just another chapter unfolding. I envision going back to weekly Zoom classes (remember those?!) and planning some in-person retreats, both local and exotic! To Be Determined. I’m excited just imagining it!

For now, while in transition, I will shore up my website and online prerecorded offerings.

And just one more thing…I have been teaching for Perennial Yoga off and on for many years, and I was blessed that those doors were still open when I moved back to Madison in July. If you are looking for a community practice, I hope you will try a class in Fitchburg or at the Garver Feed Mill in Madison. Perennial is growing in a direction that I'd hope for ALL yoga communities… it is the real deal. A true Yoga Sanctuary. Message me if you’d like a recommendation for a class / teacher that might be a good fit for you to try.  

With All the Love and Gratitude My Heart Can Hold,

Hope

Transformation

Thank you for this beautiful day of changing.

My shell is shifting, my skin shedding, and I am uncomfortable with what is leaving me. Help me find the language to describe the discarding, the baring of my branches. Bring understanding so that I can welcome what is coming.

When I am unsure about how to go forward, help me prepare for my new stage. Help me trust that I will love myself through it. Encourage me, when the time is optimum, to let go of what has passed.

When those around me are not eager to know my restored original spirit, soften me with the realization that if I am uncomfortable with my changing, they must be too. Let me be an example of becoming more whole while I am leaving unneeded parts of my previous shape behind. Startle my senses with cellular renewal, awakening my purpose and direction. Move me through the dark nights, and ease the pain of liquification inside the chrysalis. Excavate my soul's gestural poetry, and help me find what is next with fluid movement.

Unfurl my damp, untested wings and lift my willingness to the limitless skies.

Rouse my interest in the world I am seeing with newborn vision. Reinforce my sacred commerce with the Divine. Guide my hands to build altars to the portals of existence I can now pass through with ease. Protect me as I construct relationships that are more complex than those I have previously known. Strengthen my small shelter in the woods, my room of one's own to re-create, re-invent, and re-imagine.

Help me to weave healing medicine with my acquired gifts and experiences.

Harmonize my fresh layer with knowing the meaning of this shift. Ease me through the other side, and set me down delicately to fully embody my unusual, more-me form. Clear me of any blockages that stop the flow of goodness from me, and the flow of goodness to me.

Salt me with grateful tears and cleansing rain. Bathe me in the distilled waters of evolution.

~ “Honoring Transformation” by Pixie Lighthorse

* photo: Hermitage in Georgia. Home.

Surrender

I sold my house and most of my Earthly belongings in April 2021. I did not overthink the process because it felt so easy, so obviously the right thing to do at the right time. It felt freeing and I relished in that freedom!…for a while. Then RESISTANCE moved in and brought with it a few friends: Tension. Frustration. Anxiety. Grief. Grasping. Doubt. Inertia. On April 30 2022, I hefted myself out of the gloom with a fresh perspective and a clear intention…now, I’m slowly meandering my way back to the Peace and Ease that I felt a year ago.

Yeshua says that The Sacred Heart longs for Simplicity, Stability, Surrender, and Stillness. The Divine / God /  Gaia / Mother Earth / Buddha / Yeshua / Allah all want this for us. SURRENDER is the path I’m stumbling down today but I’m learning and growing - I feel it in my very bones. Tomorrow I might fall into resistance again, but I have Faith that it’s all part of my soul’s journey. The Practice is not linear. Two steps forward, three steps back, ten jumps to the left, then four inches to the right. Circles, spirals, waves, bursts, sparks, sharp angles and smooth curves. But we persevere with as much grace, patience, compassion and passion as we have on any given day.

• artwork by Alight Arts, Madison

Thanks Be to Rolf Gates

This morning I was doing my practice with Rolf Gates (which, today, meant moving around with my EarPods on, cleaning house) and he said:

“Practicing mindfulness is accepting where you are, and start right there.” 

I grabbed my sticky notes.

Holy WOW. This hit me hard because it takes the passivity (as I’ve perceived it and thereby resisted it) right out of the concept of being in and accepting the present moment as is. 

To break it down as I heard it:

To begin where you are, you first have to know where you are. Then, if you need to make a change, you start from there.

THERE is HERE.

But you don’t just stop there (here)! You START from there (here). Skillfully. Mindfully. Digging into the yoga toolbox for right action. And sometimes (oftentimes) the next right action is to inhale. Then exhale.

This practice is so simple yet so profound. It’s radical.

So, let’s practice:

Find a comfortable seat with a tall spine, slip your eyes closed, and take a few slow, deep breaths. Be still and take stock. How are you? Really. How are you? How are you feeling in your body? (Are you eating healthy foods, getting enough rest, fresh air, exercise, and hydration? Substance use?) How are you feeling mentally and emotionally? (Stress? Balanced work / social life? Too much social media / news intake? Engaged in healthy relationships?) Without judgment, find your baseline by getting really present and really honest with yourself. Then, BEGIN.

Thanks Be to Rolf Gates.  

Open Palms, Open Heart, Offering, Receiving

I have been reading about the deep loneliness that many are experiencing. A dedicated practice can help alleviate this heaviness and sadness by bringing awareness to the underlying longing for connection and belonging. 

Do your work…then rest in stillness with open palms and open heart. Step off the mat and reach out to share the gifts of the practice with others - as we are meant to do. Offering and receiving, receiving and offering…the beautiful reciprocity of Yoga.

May all beings be at ease & free from suffering. May all beings know love & connection.

The Grounded Warrior

I like Sames. Whether the change is inside of you or outside of you, initiated by you or happening to you, it’s helpful to stay close to the Sames that ground you:

Morning coffee 

Calling my sister

Walking my dog

Loving my People

Good ol’ Warrior One 

What are your Sames? What makes you feel surefooted and aligned?

I bet your list is short, too.

When your feet are planted in a strong Warrior One, you can lift, open, and offer your heart.

When you are centered, calm and grounded, you can show up more loving, more compassionate.

Let’s practice.

Yoga Dance

Vinyasa. Flow. Breathe. Move. Strengthen. Open. Release.

Put on your favorite music - loud. The shapes don’t matter. Let it be awkward and free. Be in your body. Be with your whole self...wholehearted, unselfconscious, unfiltered. Madonna. The Grateful Dead. Kanye. Rush. Taylor. Harry. The Commodores. Nirvana.

“We hold every experience we’ve ever had in our body, so being able to move may release something that we’ve been holding, tucked away in a muscle,” says Angela Grayson, a clinical psychologist and president of the American Dance Therapy Association. “The muscle has the memory of it, and when we’re moving, we can release that.”

~ from “Anxious, Lonely or Angry? Try Dancing”, The Washington Post

The eyes have it.

When you walk into a room, do you look at other people, or do you look past them? Are you looking down at your phone, or perhaps you’re looking at the thoughts inside your head?

For a world that is supposedly more connected than ever through technology and social media, we are suffering from mental illness, addiction and loneliness more than ever. I offer no solutions to this dilemma other than to do the small thing that’s in front of you to contribute to the greater good. Let’s all try a little harder to offer moments of connection to each other - a small smile or the simple acknowledgment that someone exists might be the only human interaction they have all day.

Yoga = to yoke = to connect

Goodness

One morning after class a student asked me if I thought that doing yoga made you a “good person”. I answered (in a confident way that a new, inexperienced teacher would!) that if doing yoga makes you a more compassionate, more loving and more forgiving human being, then yes, doing yoga makes you a good person.

Now after many more years of practice, I wish I could go back and change my answer:

Yoga helps us remember who we already are. Our true nature is Goodness. Our true nature is Love.

"You do not become good by trying to be good but by finding the goodness that is already within you and allowing the goodness to emerge." ~ Eckhart Tolle

Nothingness

“The essence of your mind is intrinsically pure. Pure means clear, void.
See? If you think of this idea of nothingness as mere blankness, and you hold onto this idea of blankness then kind of grizzly about it, you haven't understood it. Nothingness is really like the nothingness of space, which contains the whole universe. All the sun and the stars and the mountains, and rivers, and the good men and bad men, and the animals, and insects, and the whole bit. All are contained in void. So out of this void comes everything and You Are IT. What else could You BE?”

~ Alan Watts

Pause

If you don’t see a window for practice, find a moment to take a grounded posture...a seat or a mountain...align with a tall spine, good head and shoulders...slip your eyes closed... and take a few slow, deep breaths. Get still, drop the mind into the body, and settle into the bliss of being.

You don’t gotta chata…

Looks pretty good, right? I loved Chaturanga Dandasana, or four limbed staff pose. After years of practicing flow and working hard to do it “right”, it made me feel strong. And I was strong…until I wasn’t. I attended a 10 day training where I must have done a thousand chaturangas, and my shoulder was never the same. It could be argued that I was doing it wrong, but my teachers never pointed that out. Sigh.

I haven’t had surgery…yet… but I know many yogis who have. I wish I’d paced myself. I wish I’d been encouraged to skip a few chaturangas in class. I wish my teacher had said to me “You don’t gotta chata.” Evuh.

Here’s the thing: You can strengthen your arms and your core without shredding your shoulders. Plank to Downward Facing Dog. Just consider it. You’ll still find your yoga - I promise! p.s. Do yourself a favor now and skip the jump-backs altogether. Your future yogi self thanks you.

Find a sustainable practice that will enable you to keep practicing the whole of your life, not just in the prime of your life.

Hoka Yoga

Today my yoga looks like this.

No mat. No mantra. No music. No downdog.

I laced up my new Hokas and pointed my compass in the direction of moving closer to myself.

Left foot, right foot, inhale, exhale.

Asana

“Yoga is a contemplative practice - it arose from the mystic traditions in India in order to give human beings a framework for experiencing who we are and what we are doing here on this small planet floating in space. However, the place where contemplation occurs is in our bodies, so that is where we will begin.” ~ Eddie Stern

The body is a container…mind heart and soul are housed in the body.

So let’s begin in the body.

Open the windows in your spacious body house. Shake out the carpets and sage the corners.

Spacious body

More light, more flow of blood and lymph and prana

Spacious heart

More love, more compassion, and yes more forgiveness

Spacious mind

More space to witness, to respond, to be still

Strengthen. Open. Breathe. Align.

Asana.

~ Me

(art by Alight Arts)

Where God Lives According to Michael Stipe

Interviewer:

It seems like you need to discover things by accident. You work, and make mistakes, and then you look at the mistakes and you think, That was good.

Michael Stipe:

That’s where God lives. You have to allow for the mistakes. You have to not dismiss them, or instantly erase them, or quantize them out. You have to allow for them. And that’s where you find real inspiration. That’s where you find instinct.

Yogis.

Where will you find real inspiration this week?

Dig deep. Make mistakes. Realign. 

Keep practicing. 

Om shanti shanti shanti

More Love

I have stacks of half-filled notebooks, colorful sticky notes with torn edges, large and small note cards poked into the pages of favorite books. To some this may not seem like much of a system, but I have found that a quote, poem, or unfinished thought will find me at the just the right moment.

When I arrived at the studio this morning, a student mentioned that her heart was heavy and she was so grateful to be on her mat. I remembered that a beautiful poem “More Love” had surfaced from a dusty pile while I was preparing for class…I thought perhaps it was meant for her, so I shared it with the class, hoping it resonated.

We come to the mat exactly as we are… point our compass toward an intention… and practice.

“More Love”

If sorrow is how we learn to love,

then let us learn.

Already enough sorrow’s been sown

for whole continents to erupt

into astonishing tenderness.

Let us learn. Let compassion grow rampant,

like sunflowers along the highway.

Let each act of kindness replant itself

into acres and acres of widespread devotion.

Let us choose love as if our lives depend on it.

The sorrow is great. Let us learn to love greater—

riotous love, expansive love,

love so rooted, so common

we almost forget

the world could look any other way.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Calling All Angels

Bittersweet

I highly recommend finding this book by Susan Cain, or at the very least look for one of the many interviews in which she discusses the concept of Bittersweet (Tim Ferris, Brene Brown, Ted Talk).

I FEEL SO SEEN.

“Music makes my heart open…literally the sensation of expanding chest muscles….if you define transcendence as a moment in which your self fades away and you feel connected to the all, these musically bittersweet moments are the closest I’ve ever come to experiencing it…a deep kinship with all the other souls in the world.”

~ Susan Cain

Empty Before You Begin