Meditating can be challenging for so many of us.   We have been raised to crave success and pleasure. Success in our Western culture is often defined by how much we can get done, how much we accomplish, how much we earn, how much we possess.   We go about our days rushing, being busy, feeling stressed and agitated - until we feel burnt out and exhausted.    Or perhaps we find ourselves in painful circumstances.   We struggle with our health or the well-being of our loved ones.   Financial hardship takes its toll.  Physical and emotional pain hurts!      We simply want to find a way to NOT feel that way. When we don't want to feel the way we're feeling, we too often tend to eat inappropriately, consume alcohol or other mood altering agents, or collapse on the couch and escape by watching television or endlessly scrolling on our devices. Yet we don't feel better. We come to realize that there's more to life than ...

This article really is about equanimity.   As you start reading it, it doesn't seem as if that's the case at all.  But it is.  If you're impatient, this is not the article for you.  Reading this little article requires a certain amount of equanimity.   The inspiration for this article is trivial.    I have a small sewing box.  On the top shelf are rods into which the spools of thread rest.   And in the drawer underneath I keep needles, straight pins, safety pins, snaps, elastic, thimbles, and various other sewing-related necessities.   Please realize:   I am not one who sews.    Oh, I'll sew on a button now and then.   Or if my grandchildren's stuffed animals start losing stuffing, I can do emergency repairs.   But I don't sew.   My mother and grandmother both sewed, and my mother gave me the little sewing box as a gift decades ago.   Despite my disappointmen...

  If I allow myself to move with grace, does that mean that I slow myself down?   Do I sacrifice strength?  If I feel filled with ease does it mean that I am not being effective?   Or efficient? The dictionary states that grace is "simple elegance or refinement of movement."   But what if I feel clumsy?  What if I AM clumsy? I think that the secret to moving with grace has a great deal to do with our sense of ease.  Of course, dancers and athletes express grace in movement because they've practiced to build strength, capacity, flexibility, and muscle memory.   What about the rest of us? When we move with ease we can begin to tap into grace.  We can start small.  Grace resides within each of us. Sit comfortably and softly close your eyes.   Notice your breathing - the inhale, the exhale.   Notice the gentle rise and fall of the belly - the lift and release of the chest.  As thoughts arise, noti...

  Some words simply beg you to study them.  Look at the word "extraordinary."   Most words relate in some way to their roots, prefixes, suffixes - their parts.   But "extraordinary?"  We think of extraordinary as reflecting that which is remarkable, exceptional, noteworthy, singular, rare.   Yet the parts of the word invite the opposite:  extra-ordinary.   Which to me sounds as if we're looking for things which are exceptionally ordinary... extremely commonplace... notably unexceptional.    The English language strikes again.   Defying logic.  Boggling the mind.   Just to be difficult, can we study the parts of the word "extra-ordinary" and still find the extraordinary?   (I know, I know, I'm confusing even myself.)   What if we could find a way to perceive the extremely commonplace as being that which is noteworthy and remarkable? Marigold Wellington said: “I live to enjoy...

  Have you ever been asked, “Where do you get your energy?”  Or “How do you have so much energy?”   Perhaps you have wondered why it feels as if you have none.  Exhausted adults wonder why children never seem to run out. We define energy as having vitality and strength for sustained activity.   That doesn’t really tell us where it comes from, how to get it, or why some people have lots of it.    “The soul reveals itself to itself Through movement, Energy-infused undulations and gestures Of hand, foot, spine, face, and form. The invisible loves the visible.” ~Lorin Roche, Radiance Sutras, Yukti 54 The above verse eloquently suggests that there is a relationship between movement and energy. We might conclude that moving consumes energy – digging ditches for prolonged periods of time exhausts us and depletes us. Yet we also know that movement can generate energy, whether it is traditional exercise, dance, mindful practice with movement suc...

  Whether you are a home yoga practitioner or a yoga teacher, you are likely to find ways to put together the yoga asana into a flow or a sequence that begins with centering and grounding, builds in intensity or challenge (or progresses in some way) before slowing down at the end.   As a home practitioner, that was never a problem for me, because I simply put together movements that felt good to me at the moment.   Sometimes I'd forget what I did on one side by the time I got to the other side, but what did that matter?   I was moving (or being still) with my breath, and that was my practice.   That is yoga. In 2019, I completed the 200-hour yoga teacher training, and began teaching.  There began my challenge.   Now I was not only putting together a sequence of movements to share with and teach to others, I was expected to offer some kind of intelligent design.   Foundational poses should build up to more challenging ...

  I’m intrigued by paradox - seemingly contradictory propositions which also carry truth.    I started paying more attention to paradox during my 200-hour yoga teacher training in 2019.   The fellow prospective yoga teachers and I were studying, in some depth, the yoga poses (asana) and learning about the appropriate verbal cues to use while teaching.    This was interesting…    we wanted to offer cues that would support the less experienced yoga practitioner, yet touch the subtlety and the nuance of the pose. Here’s one that proved to be absolutely eye-opening for me: “Root down to rise up” (and all variations on that theme).     I never thought much about the process of “rising up.”   Quite frankly, I never much paid any attention to how my feet (or other bodily part) was/were using the ground, either.     And to think that these two apparently opposite directions of energy were related! "Flying starts from th...

My 7-year-old grandson asked me if I knew The Seven Elements of Harmony.    (Capitalizations are mine.)   I was taken aback - extremely impressed with the deep and reflective nature of his question.   Imagine a 7-year-old contemplating the nature and aspect of harmony.   As a matter of fact, just think about how striking it is that a 7-year-old would even use the words “element” and “harmony.” So I thought a bit and starting talking about Compassion.    Respect.   (Capitalizations are mine.)   I commented that when we have compassion and respect for one another that there is less occasion for disagreements and strife, thus nurturing a lifestyle of harmony.   (I resisted using the word “harmonious,” given his age.   I can’t remember if I actually used the words “strife” and “nurturing.”)   “What do you think?” I asked him.   I was most curious to see what he might perceive. “You don’t get it,” he said. “I don’t get ...

As I think about it, in some ways we seem to be a collection of our stories.   We have stories of our childhoods, stories of our first loves, stories of our careers, our children, our elders, our cultures. Stories of loss and pain. Stories that we tell others and stories that we tell ourselves. Tahir Shah, in Arabian Nights , tells us that "Stories are a communal currency of humanity. I was thinking about this today as I sat after dinner listening to my husband (in his 70's) and his friend (in this 80's) tell some stories about their childhoods, their parents, and about their experiences in the military before or during the Viet Nam War.   I could see their eyes lighting up in the retelling.  I could sense how vivid were their memories.  I listened to stories (some that I had heard a number of times) about sleeping in a house crowded with numerous relations, trying to sleep with the noise of all of the men snoring.   About older siblings who cared...

 I used to drink coffee.    I have many fond memories of going to the cafeteria with my work colleagues, getting a cup of coffee, and savoring it.   This was before every office had a coffee machine, let alone having a Keurig or one of those fancy single-cup machines.  We truly used it as a coffee break - we would sit around our shared work table, enjoy our brew, and chat a bit before we went back to work.   I used to get a shot of hot chocolate in my coffee to create a sort of Coffee Mocha (the cafeteria had a hot chocolate machine).    Even earlier in my professional career, I recall the pleasure with which I would approach a cup of coffee.  Somehow it represented something shared - something that connected me to the larger community and culture.   My co-workers and I used to all figure out what we wanted (in case we wanted a Danish or an English muffin as well), create a list, and one of us would trot (OK - maybe n...

This week of May 24, 2021 will enjoy a beautiful full moon - a supermoon.  The moon is at or near its closest location to earth, and thus appears larger in the night sky.    One thing that I find precious about yoga is that the practice is all about connection.   The word yoga means yoke or union.   The union of body, mind, and spirit.  The link between the inhale and the exhale. The connectedness between ourselves and the wonders of nature all around us.  The relationship of the individual to all living things. Many yoga practitioners are familiar with the Surya Namaskar - the Sun Salutation.   Just thinking about the meaning of those words can fill the heart.   We salute the sun with our breath, our focus, and our movements.    Less familiar to many, perhaps, is the Chandra Namaskar, or the Moon Salutation.   The Chandra Namaskar itself is a relatively recent practice - late 20th century - but the pra...

  What is it to be visionary?    Dictionary.com tells us, " given to or characterized by fanciful, not presently workable, or unpractical ideas, views, or schemes."  OK.  A bit flat, that one. Webster's Dictionary offers " having or marked by foresight and imagination."  There's a bit more energy behind this definition. Malcolm Gladwell stated, " The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper, and re-imagines the world."  Ah!   A bit of magic here.   We're warming up. I like to think that the visionary is unafraid to imagine the future.  Inspired and inspiring.   In my mind I see the visionary somehow weaving a web that captures the imaginations of others.   The contribution that I'd like to make to a sense of being visionary is that of the consideration of scale.   So often, when we hear the word "visionary" we think of big things - vast enterprises - monumental endeavors - brave undertakings....

 I am feeling my age.   Interestingly, through my 40's and even a bit into my 50's, I felt as if I were aging mentally and spiritually, but not so much physically.    But then I hit 60.   BAM!   The Zumba and similar cardio-dance classes that I enjoyed at the local gym caused pain in the ankles, knees, and hips.  Reluctantly, I gave up the "great-fun-but-more-impact-than-my-body-tolerated" classes.   I continued my yoga practice, and turned my attention to walking.   I thought of walking as my meditation-in-motion time.   I could walk for 2, 3, and sometimes even 5 miles with no problems other than, occasionally, needing a place to pee when there wasn't one to be found.   But then walking became a problem.   My left hip became more painful with each passing month.   I felt betrayed by my body.   I had thought that if I just stayed active and took care of myself my body...