Our sense of touch is one of our most human traits and penetrates the core of our needs. Through our sense of touch we help shape the world around us by manipulating tools, and also bring the external world inside of our selves. Our sense of touch pervades our skin from head to toe and [...]
Books To Gift Your Favorite Yogi On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Ten Kirtans playing, Nine Swamis singing, Eight Yoginis posing, Seven Tantrics teasing, Six Gurus gabbing, Five Pundits preaching, Four scholars scolding, Three tickets to the Kumbh Mela, Two asana mats, and a statue of Ganesh in a [...]
The Grace Of Oil Massage On Straw Mats Awakens The Circulation Of Prana Nearly naked, sitting a straw mat in a sparsely furnished room in Kannur, Kerala, simultaneously vulnerable, curious and expectant, I waited for my first treatment session to begin. I had traveled half-way around the world to Kerala to receive Kalari treatment, the [...]
A Personal Reflection on Kalari All is quiet inside the Kalari practice space. I enter the space slowly, first touching the red clay earth and then my heart as sign of respect. My teacher’s voice echoes in my mind, “When you enter the Kalari, leave everything behind.” I head to the Puttara, the main altar, [...]
Community : Seen & Heard Cha-Ching: Swapping The Mind For A Song Wednesdays Through December 15! Having been hit hard on the head by the Woo Woo Fairy’s weighty wand early on (at birth), I’m already a member of the striving-towards-awakening choir to which Beth Lapides is not really ever preachin’ in her frolicking [...]
Yonnus Becker, Photo: Jean Kim The Sun Beckons To This Venice Local On a beautiful autumn afternoon, the sun sparkled on the vibrant streets of the Venice thoroughfare, familiar faces wandered about as a feeling of calm permeated the air. The years have seen drifters and ramshackle huts give way to luxury homes [...]
A Discussion Sparked By Dr. Mark Singleton’s Yoga Body At any given moment in Los Angeles, from pre-dawn into the evening, from the beach to the Valley, and all across the basin, people are striking a pose. Surfers are standing on the shore doing Yoga-inspired moves to warm up for the waves. Runners, dancers [...]
Pandit Rajmani Tigunait Karma Yoga In Action In his evococative biography, Touched by Fire: The Ongoing Journey of a Spiritual Seeker, teacher Pandit Rajmani Tigunait PhD describes his own path of spiritual seeking and questioning, of meeting his spiritual teacher, Swami Rama, and the great benefits that can come from living the contemplative [...]
Question: I crave hot and spicy foods and seem to need them to stimulate my digestive fire. The problem is that they aggravate my hot flashes. Is there anything I can do for my hot flashes that will not dampen my digestive fire? Answer: I presume from your question that you are in your perimenopausal stage of [...]
Our sense of hearing is a vital part of who we are, how we relate to the world, and on a spiritual level it is a vital part of how we relate to the Divine. Unfortunately, as we age our ability to hear typically begins to decline and as a result, so too does the [...]