How yogic principles can be applied to play with children. When our hearts feel joyful, the practice of yoga and meditation can themselves be playful. The lessons we learn in this path: equanimity, focus, stability, resilience, perseverance, union, connection and balance translate well into the language and practice of play and it is possible to [...]
A simple sentence grabbed our attention: “Sometimes our most profound, life-changing experiences happen far away from home.” This was the introduction for Billy and Patti Asad’s YogaWorks Couples Retreat at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort. Under the Couple’s empathetic guidance, the program offered four yoga sessions interspersed with socializing, hiking, cycling and hot-tubbing. Sycamore [...]
Playing With Flight. Making the Sacred Fun When Brett and I arrived at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort after four days camping in Yosemite, we were covered in dust and nursing tired, cold bodies from miles of hiking. I was not only excited about my first yoga retreat, but also having a decent shower. [...]
Remembering To Breathe. Two hurdles prevent my giving yoga the consideration it deserves: time and my brain. In juggling work and deadlines, my personal time often suffers. As a result, the Wednesday night and Saturday morning yoga sessions my friend teaches never quite eventuate. So my LA YOGA editor and partner Natalie joined forces to [...]
The Generation Trap I’m a third-generation American, a second-generation control freak, and I now realize, a first-generation yogi. The other day, I was reading a teacher’s bio. Her first teacher? Her mom. She’s been practicing since she was two. “I’ll never catch up,” I thought, which just put me farther behind. If I’d been practicing [...]
Spiritual practice to nourish the self for emotional health and grief relief I was truly good friends with my mother, and when she died of a stroke at 54 (I was 20), I was certainly not prepared for life without her. For two-and-a-half years, I lived in a state of denial, completely disconnected from my [...]
In Memorium: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917 - 2008) The first time I met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was in Malibu, on the beach. It was a typical summer day in Southern California. Not much was happening. There was a south swell. From time to time a sun worshiper atop a towel would flip over, [...]
The Spiritual Path Looks Like You What does the spiritual path look like? It looks like you. Whatever you’re doing – it looks like you doing Bikram Yoga in the evening, or joining a 12-step group, or learning kickboxing. It looks like you taking care of your kids instead of going to the meditation retreat. [...]
Sutra 18 From The Commentary On The Vijnana Bhairava Tantra IN A SONG, IN THE SPACE of a few minutes, we can let go, lose ourselves and then return, refreshed, with a deeper sense of self. In music, we ride our passions into the vibrating core of energy from which they arise. On the [...]
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened onto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. —Matthew 7:7-8 Every true religion leads to God,” Paramahansa of Jesus, “but some paths take [...]