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 moreYou Might Need A Butterfly Hug Right Now
Try this simple hack for moments of anxiety and overwhelm
Read moreWeathering Storms Together
Our hearts and minds are with those in Puerto Rico and Florida and everywhere else lying in the wake of this current storm, and anyplace where suffering takes hold as we strive to coexist on this struggling planet.
Read moreWhat's A Weekend?
While setting aside Saturdays and Sundays for pure relaxation is still the ideal for many, what seems more common is a daily jumbled program of work, ease, socializing, exercise, and self-care.
Read moreShifting on axis
It's hard to know how history will view our current times without a couple thousand years of hindsight, but it's not hard to feel and see the numerous data points currently shaping our own sort of axial moment.
Read moreAre you busy?
What happens when we rest/breathe/contemplate is the grand and invisible work of a nervous system recalibrating our frail humanness, leaving us better in balance: strong enough to meet big moments of activity, soft enough to enjoy our own quiet company, compassionate and patient enough to tend relationships with full hearts.
Read moreInto the Deep: In-Depth Teacher Training Sneak Peek
Have you been toying with joining an acclaimed 200-hour teacher training program? We lead folks into the deep curiosity, fellowship, and learning that a yoga journey can inspire.
Read moreThe fine line of flexibility
On the road to flexibility, we must be on the lookout for significant potholes. Hitting those at high speed risks losing the integrity that defines and holds us together, and many of us move so fast that we don't realize we've gone beyond safe boundaries until something breaks, whether it is a tendon or a heart.
Read moreNew Skills and Freshly Cut Grass
Because we know that the human brain is malleable, neuroscience has been able to map the avenues of new neural pathway creation toward the best of who we can be: more confident, more creative, more attentive, more patient, more resilient. In a word, happier.
Read moreShaken ground, steady breath
If something hurts, feel the pain. If something confuses, ask questions. If something angers, trace the anger’s source. If something is untenable, reach out to what you can reliably touch: a friend to give a comforting hug, a donation button to give material support, or the earth where you’ve planted – with eternal optimism – your summer tomatoes.
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 moreMake it a playshop!
Clothes come in different sizes, food comes in different flavors, and humans come in different shapes. Why then should we expect every person to do yoga postures the same way?
Read moreChange your outlook
Humans flourish when we expose ourselves to diverse experience: our worldview expands when we live, learn, and work in diverse communities; our digestion works better when we eat a wide variety of food; our bodies are more balanced when we move in lots of different ways; and our spirits are lifted when we lay our eyes on fresh landscapes.
Read moreTexting, typos, and making connections
The beauty here is that our brains are programmed to put the pieces – or the letters – together. It's the same neurological mercy that prevents us from having to re-learn to brush our teeth each morning, or check a recipe every time we want to boil water to make tea. It frees up the mental and emotional space to learn and process the big stuff: how to live through a pandemic; how to know if we're in love; how to appropriately mourn losses and celebrate gains.
Read moreThis is yoga!
Donations for Ukrainian refugees
The photo above is a mountain of care! We are so grateful to our community for heeding the call to help. If you're reading this before April 14, there's still time to bring blankets and any gently used coats, including springtime raincoats, and new socks to the studio, or contribute to the shopping fund; volunteers will gather to pack boxes on April 22-23 – sponsored by the Northern Virginia Regional Commission – click here to learn more about how to donate or volunteer.
Read moreWhat do we have in common with a cherry blossom?
Those tender blossoms were beautiful, and even more so, relatable. Like us, they seem to have a destiny for presence, an insistence on showing up against adverse odds, and an innate shine that creates small brightness in dark times.
Read moreWhat's Your Dosha?
We all have a special combination of these _doshas_ that make us unique. Each of us has all three _doshas_ within us, and using a minivan analogy for our constitutional makeup, we could say that one _dosha_ is usually in the driver’s seat, one in the middle row, and one in the back row.
Read morePrayers for Peace, Ingredients for Connection
If your heart is breaking, if your gut is clenched in fear, if your thoughts are hot with anger, take some long breaths and bid a grateful welcome to your beautiful, interconnected soul.
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