Josh and I brought Ellessia to college last weekend.

It was a week of tears and uncertainty as she was recovering

I feel that I am moving at a much slower pace since returning from Sicily. I just don't feel the need to push, to force, to respond to requests, to emails, to run a to-do list and get anything done. It seems completely ok to sit on my deck and just let my body breath

Images from our spectacular Spirit of Sicily retreat 2022!

A big CONGRATULATIONS to the Myriad Yoga 200 Hour Class of 2022!

I have been leading yoga teacher training programs for almost ten years, and each time we close out a training year I feel the bittersweet emotions of pride, joy, and sadness to see it all come to a close. It is like releasing my little birdies out of my yoga nest and into the world!

As you know, I have completely shifted my relationship with the breath because of this book: Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, by James Nestor.

There are so many lessons to learn inside those pages, that I thought I would share a few quotes to inspire you to think more deeply about Prana (our theme for May) and your breath.

This is your greatest asset–your most immediate connection to energy and life-force in your body.

Mark Twain taught me how to meditate…

*Image from Elmira College on Flickr

I think most of us have a complex psychological relationship with money.

I am constantly pondering and examining my own relationship to this ancient form of energy exchange.

Over the past few years, I have opened my yoga teacher training programs with a lengthy discussion about cultural appropriation and yoga. The Brittanica website defines cultural appropriation in the following way…

How often do you find yourself in the uncomfortable position of wishing you hadn’t said yes?

Maybe you didn’t want to seem rude and you responded too quickly to a request, but deep inside you wish you just said “no”.

“For Courage” by John O’Donohue

From the book: To Bless the Space Between Us

​When the light around you lessens
And your thoughts darken until
Your body feels fear turn
Cold as a stone inside,

Both of my teenage daughters received their driving licenses during the pandemic. If you are, or have ever been, the parent of a teen driver, then you understand how exciting, liberating, and completely terrifying this moment in time can be.

Now, I had to practically force my oldest daughter to sign up for driver's ed and take her driver’s test. She was eighteen when she finally got that license. It just wasn’t high on her list of priorities; she’d rather draw her comics than drive around shopping. But my youngest daughter was begging me to sign her up the minute she turned fifteen. She was in drivers ed right when the pandemic began in early March of 2020, and it took twice as long to complete due to the new precautions. She finished her remote drivers ed course and all her driving hours five months later, in September of 2020. She was thrilled to finally schedule that drivers test. Then she dropped a ten pound dumbbell on her right foot 🦶🏿

We humans like to compartmentalize our thinking into categories and boxes. One of the most common questions I get asked is: What type of yoga do you teach?

John Trudell was an author, poet, actor, activist, artist, and a Native American of the Santee Dakota people.His words reflect many of the principles of yoga philosophy (particularly Vidya—seeing clearly) and they have been inspiring my thinking all this week.

You know me for my work as an artist and teacher, but I also am passionate about healthy plant based eating!

In order for me to do the work I love, I’ve had to learn how to take care of my body with healthy food.

It’s been a game changer.

But honestly, learning about how to make healthy food that tastes good can involve a steep learning curve…

I am a little over infatuated with learning, accumulating books, and acquiring certificates. New knowledge makes my brain tingle and I feel the need to constantly chase a new idea.

I feel the constant pull of learning new things. Sometimes this works in my favor, and sometimes it just places me in the “too many pursuits” category.

And I have a huge pile of books I haven’t read yet! Does that happen to you too?

I took my first yoga class during my final semester as an undergrad to fulfill a PE requirement. I knew very little about yoga, but somehow it appealed to me more than signing up for a running or random exercise class…

We all know that we can only improve our skills in a subject through regular practice. I believe that we actually embody and become the thing that we practice daily. This is a reason why I am not fond of video games, especially violent video games. If one spends hours a day pretending to shoot people, then that patterning becomes well ingrained into one’s consciousness (and subconsciousness). One’s body and brain connection becomes attuned to whatever it is one practices—whether that is shooting pretend bodies, mastering a new art, or noticing our thought patterns…

“Santosha invites us into contentment by taking refuge in a calm center, opening our hearts in gratitude for what we do have, and practicing the paradox of ‘not seeking’” ~Deborah Adele, Yamas and Niyamas

I believe the niyama of santosha, contentment, to be the most important of all practices. To abide in santosha is to have a deep sense of gratitude for what we do have…