I've often wondered what early humans must have thought during a solar eclipse. Were they terrified? Did they fall to their knees in awe and wonder, begging the universe for mercy? Or dance wildly in the fields, abandoning their toil in the majesty of the moment?
Read moreCooking potatoes: Moving from grim to grace
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 moreA thought, or four
All we can do is recognize the precious opportunities we have right in front of us to celebrate joys and to hold space for pain, whether that pain is in our own hearts, in the hearts of friends and family, or halfway across the world among human hearts enduring devastating violence.
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 moreI can see for piles and piles
From the Buddhist viewpoint, as goes a stack of paper, so go I.
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 moreGiving Joyful
Consider joy as an active state of loving friendliness, compassionate presence, and generous spirit – envision it as the energy that you radiate, and not an energy you consume.
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 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 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 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 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 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.
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 moreYoga On Every Corner
Before the pandemic, I used to muse about the proliferation of yoga studios popping up on every corner, wondering how it would shake out economically and socially, wondering if yoga communities would disperse to the point of evaporation. Then Covid happened.
Read moreCreeping Quietly Into 2022
Personal ritual certainly has its role in navigating life – a prayer in the bathtub can never hurt – but time is the only thing we can reliably count on to carry us forward, and it doesn't serve us to bargain or argue with its pace.
Read moreGetting in tune
As our fall season winds to a close on Sunday Dec 19, take some time to TUNE IN between then and the new year. Our annual holiday tune-in schedule is back, with some fun and festive opportunities to get in just the right amount of yoga while the rest of holiday activity swirls around.
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