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How I Hurt My Shoulders. Every. Single. Day. (And It’s Not From Yoga…)
Ladies (particularly my yoga friends), I have a question for you, because I CANNOT be the only one! Sports bras… Is there something wrong with me or does it hurt your shoulders every time you try to pull off your sports bra? No joke. I’ll be the first to admit that I do not have…
Read MoreThe Insecurity Blanket
For years before I was a freestanding handstander in the middle of the room, well…I wasn’t. I was utterly stuck to the wall, petrified to practice my handstands in the middle of the room. Funny thing is that this love affair with Paul (The Wall), was fairly loveless, indeed. Before I finally ventured to the…
Read MoreUnintended Side Effects
My mind has been going nonstop lately. Yeah, I know, not very yogic. But sort of human, you have to admit. A couple weeks ago, I went to visit my sister in Israel. For those of you who don’t know Danni (The Dodo does!), she runs The Tiny Pet Rescue out of her home. Her…
Read MoreOm, My Goodness
I was a skeptic. When I went to Sri Dharma Mittra’s Life of a Yogi Teacher Training, we were taught a Mantra for Purification that we chanted daily. It didn’t resonate. Though I stumbled through the mantra, I didn’t know what it meant, I didn’t understand the words, I simply couldn’t connect. Fast forward a…
Read MoreHard Reset
I tried intermittent fasting. It worked. And then it didn’t. And then it did. It wasn’t quite that simple. But it worked. Here’s what happened: First, I got a Lumen metabolism hacker and it taught me how to balance my carbs, fats and proteins for my personal activity level, at any and every point of…
Read MoreYOGAthletecture
There’s something very magical–mystical, even–about the yoga asana practice. People seem to float on air, they twist themselves into inhuman shapes, they stretch themselves like rubber bands. It can really seem like a practice that is reserved for an elite group of aliens from the Planet Pretzel, and inaccessible to most. But…it’s not. More than…
Read MoreDecompression = Relief!
We all know what a terrific tool yoga is for decompression. The practice allows us to relieve stress and anxiety to reattain mental equilibrium. But… When you practice advanced asana, sometimes yoga can actually cause compression. On a physical level, that is. Despite my strongest efforts to be incredibly mindful with my alignments, I have…
Read MoreOld Dog. New Tricks.
It’s not true what they say. Who the heck are they anyway? You can teach an old dog new tricks. As long as the dog is willing to learn. At 50 years old, the one thing I hear the most about people and relationships is that–by this age–people only become more and more entrenched in…
Read MoreLet. That. $#!&. Go!
Once upon a time, I had a dream job with an abusive boss. Actually, twice upon a time I had that, but let’s focus on just the once. A situation occurred where my boss quite inappropriately publicly shamed me and someone who is very close to me took it upon herself to tell him off.…
Read MoreWhat view?
Ah, life. It’s complicated. Especially these days of uncertainty and instability. Pandemic (epidemic?). Inflation. Political turmoil. Social justice challenges. Climate change. Violence. Oh…sorry. I meant to say it’s complicated. Not it sucks. These are days of growth and change. Of infinite possibility. Of new opportunities. Of miraculous medical breakthroughs. Of change. Of awareness. Of taking…
Read MoreWho Has Time For Yoga????
Life. Enough said. But I will say more, because that would make for a very short blog post. Life is a lot. And it’s even more these days. Everyone is on 24/7. Working, texting, social media-ing, living, doing things… And yoga people–teachers and students alike–are constantly telling me that they don’t have time to practice…
Read MoreThe 5000(+)-Year-Old Game of Telephone
Remember Telephone? The game where one person whispers a phrase into the ear of the person next to them, and that person whispers to the next person, and so on and so on until the message reaches the end of the circle…usually bearing little to no resemblance to the original? Now imagine that game being…
Read MoreAwakened
I went for a walk today and was thinking: our local park really isn’t that nice. And as I walked by the park, here’s what I saw: Peewees playing soccer. One in full princess attire. People playing tennis. Some competitive. Some could hardly keep it in the court. Men playing basketball. Their dogs lazily watching…
Read MoreThat Insta-smile!
Okay…okay! I’ll admit it. Despite what you see on Instagram, I am not always happy. There. I said it. And in times like these–with the people of Ukraine suffering in the most dire and frightening of circumstances–all I want to do is cry. But instead I smile. Because that’s what you do on social media.…
Read MoreThe Fallacy of Free
There’s this thought in the world: if you offer a good or a service, you should give it away for free to all your friends and family. And perhaps to various, sundry acquaintances, as well. It seems “fair” enough. What are friends for, after all? To take care of each other, lift each other up,…
Read MoreBah, Humbug…Well, That’s Too Strong…
New Year’s is not my thing. I may wish you a Happy New Year and, in fact, I probably will. But I am just as likely to wish you a happy Monday, or a happy August 29th (a very good day), or a happy Whateverdayithappenstobe. Truth is: I don’t think there is anything special about…
Read MoreWho Am I To Question Jois…?
I know I will be burned at the stake for saying this, but I find the classic Ashtanga Primary Series video led by Sri Pattabhi Jois to some of his most prominent students……well…….sort of cringy. From the tense-shouldered Urdhva Mukha Svanasana to the Chaturanga Dandasanas that are an inch off the floor, from the splayed…
Read MoreAh! The Naïveté of Youth!
When I was but a wee lass in my pre-yoga 20s, I used to wake up at 4am every day to go to the gym before work. Every day, it was the same group of worker-outers. Always the usual suspects. Among us was a man in his early 90s, who not only did an hour…
Read MoreYou’re Getting Sleepy…Sleeeeeepy….
One thing (if I can possibly name one thing) that everyone is talking about these days is how hard is has been to get a good night’s sleep during the pandemic. A year-and-a-half into all this craziness, that’s a long time to go sleep deprived. Sleep is such an incredibly important part of not just…
Read MoreWell…I Gotta Have Faith…
In a recent personal exploration of faith, I came to an unexpected conclusion: that one can be a person of tremendous religious devotion without being a person of faith. Typically, these words are used more or less interchangeably. Devout, faithful…same thing. And yet… My revelation emerged from an examination of prayer itself. The act of…
Read MoreFinancial Abundance…Beyond Wealth
I have financial abundance. Not because I am rich. Not in the conventional way, at least. In fact, my financial abundance has nothing to do with with what I have and everything to do with what I have to give. Like many, this past year-and-a-half has been a rough one for my business. When you…
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