Troubling emotions can be likened to raw potatoes, inedible in their current state, but subject to transformation when effort and intention are applied.
Read moreMeditation for Peace
Let's soften to the very real pain inside as we witness fellow human suffering across the world. And better yet, let's soften into that pain together and hold each other up with care.
Read moreBe Micro-Amazed
It's a lot easier to be mindful for extraordinary moments - reading a captivating novel, or eating a delicious meal, or sitting with a dear friend in their heartache - than it is to be mindful while walking 20 steps from one place in our home to the next.
Read moreFinding Your Inner Guide
Investigating the balance between being a student who follows a teacher's lead, and being one's own guide in a moment-by-moment existence with ever-changing needs.
Read moreGetting in
Instead of having to remember a password to "get in" to a good place, we only need recall that we already are just where we need to be: right here in the present moment.
Read moreInsight Yoga Intensive with Sarah Powers This Summer
Sarah will guide us through three streams of study: the active stillness of yin yoga, the energizing mobility of yang asana practice, and the deep inquiry and insight that can come from meditation.
Read moreLaser focus yields big energy
This phenomenon of sharply focused attention yielding a surplus of energy is the opposite of our social programming, which tells us to divide attention in multi-tasked directions, to push beyond our comfort zones, to go big or go home, but all this external focus can leave us frustrated, anxious, and depleted, much like the state of Earth itself.
Read moreMaking Simple, Happy Habits
If we view meditation and contemplative practice as opportunities to turn the skill of thought-quieting into a reflexive habit that doesn't require much effort, like the mundane chores of daily life, we can become adept housekeepers of the heart and mind.
Read moreOriginal Yogis?
Observations collected with unflinching wisdom over several hundred millennia evokes a nascent yogic awareness: the horseshoe crab as an original yogi – calm and composed, reminding our troubled parts that time marches to a beat and at a depth we can't begin to fathom.
Read moreFour solid reasons why yoga helps
Integrated mind-body practices are uniquely suited to help us reckon with the injustices we see, the indignities we experience, and the incredulousness we feel. Here are four demonstrable ways.
Read moreWhat's the quality of your attention?
I now recognize the experience as awareness waking up to its full potential for expansive wonder, a lesson in how paying full attention is fundamental to mindfulness. It anchors us in the moment, it helps our nervous system distinguish between real and imagined threat, and it orients us to the realm where the breath is most available.
Read moreSense and Sensibility
Emotion and vivid memory are engines with powerful sensory ignitions – play me one bar of Madonna's "Get Into the Groove," and I'm instantly back in 1985, dancing in a dive bar in Syracuse with a lacy bow in my permed hair and a dozen black rubber bracelets climbing up my sleeve.
Read moreHow do we know what we know?
Yoga offers insights into consciousness that help us sort our present world perceptions. With discernment and equanimity, we can avoid sliding into habitual negativity and misunderstanding.
Read moreMorning light
Early mornings can be sacred moments, wholly suspended in time, without the weight of technology, the volume of society, or the pressure of scheduled time.
Read moreEmbodied Gratitude
We know what gratitude feels like in the "body" of Sun & Moon. It feels like the promise of a fresh, warm breeze in spite of so much uncharted chilly territory. It feels like knowing that we still stand in humble service, with hands joined, ready to guide your next breaths.
Read moreIt's getting wobbly again out there
The only thing we're really ever required to do is pay attention. Notice the fullness of every moment – pleasurable and painful alike – and allow that awareness to feed steadiness, and steadiness to breed support. It may indeed be a windy winter, but together we can reinforce our shock absorbers, cushion ourselves in the presence of the buffeting winds of change.
Read moreAre things hard or do they just seem hard?
Learning to be fully present with what's rising up in the tide of right now, we can allow the receding tide to carry away the stuff that seems hard but isn't really. And then when we're left with the truly difficult stuff, we're ready for it.
Read moreLike She Already Knows You: Class with Jackie Shaffer
Jackie Shaffer’s voice is like sipping tea with an old friend on a front porch. It’s as if she already knows you before you have met and before you even know yourself.
Read moreA Magic Carpet Ride: Meditative Yoga with Alex Levin
Small, little movements that don’t seem to be doing anything, but then when it’s over, you feel really great!
Read moreThe Best Meditation
by Amir
Last summer while teaching at The Mindful Unplug at our Feathered Pipe Ranch retreat in Montana, someone asked the perennial question, “which is the best technique for meditation?" The classic answer is, “it’s the one you will use."
The answer I actually gave was, "the best meditation technique is with your cat!” Whenever I lie down, I inevitably end up with a cat lying on my chest, gazing softly and lovingly into my eyes. At this point, I can't help but return the gaze and my mind clears of everything except my present connection with this magnificent creature. My body stays naturally still, because I don't want to disturb our cozy posture. And internally, we both create a feeling of love and caring.
Cats are masters of meditation and can teach us everything we really need to know about it. By nature, all felines are predators. They require huge bursts of energy to capture their prey. And because they have to preserve their energy for these huge bursts, they require much time for restoration and nourishment, sleeping up to 16 hours a day. If you have a cat, you may often notice her in a resting, kind of dazed state. Not asleep, but almost. Her eyes half-open and completely still, focused, and relaxed. The cat has just enough awareness to respond to danger if alerted, while still getting the benefits of relaxation. The perfect meditation. I get it. Not everyone is a cat person. Dogs are cool too, though you may have to teach them how to sit still and meditate with you.
I also get that not everyone is an animal person. In this case, try meditating with another human. In the same way that a yawn is contagious, simply meditating with another person can be all you need to get started. It doesn’t really matter who or what is your inspiration – the same principal applies – choose your source of quiet. Put down the phone and all the other distractions. Allow yourself to get lost in the sweet presence of stillness and ease, and it will call you back again and again and again. This is meditation, the natural and easy way.
