I am late. All the time. Usually only a couple minutes late, sometimes maybe five. I’ll call if I’m going to get to ten, so at least I seem polite about it. But I am consistently, irrefutably, unarguably late. I’ve been mulling over this habit of mine of late and trying to ferret out its […]
Top Ten Life Lessons from my students
1. Practice. We all reach plateaus in our practice. “I’ll never get handstand.” “I’m afraid of bakasana.” But with every class, their sun salutations get a little stronger, their bodies more integrated, and their feet a little lighter. Then one day, we have the a-ha! “I’ve never done that before!” Watching my students inexorably progress […]
Michelangelo’s Yoga
“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” “Every block of stone has a sculpture inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” – Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Michelangelo had the ability to see the form inside the sculpture. He carved away […]
Kitchen Music: Second Hand Rose
Okay, this one is a bit of a different style. Broad, brassy, silly and Broadway. I recorded this as a present for my Grandma for her recent 92nd birthday. Back when I was wee (and had permed hair, see figure A), I used to sing this as a cabaret tune, and she’s loved it ever […]
The Pleasure Manifesto
You have a right to pleasure. Pleasure. Say it. It’s slow, it’s sensual, it has a lovely shhhhhhh sound right in the middle. Pleasure. You have a right to feel good in your skin. It is, in fact, a divinely given right bequeathed to you via your senses, who, like tiny angelic messengers, are constantly […]
Ache
Fantasies are fun, my dear When you long for relationship To fill The hollow ache You close your eyes and swoon Dreaming of strong hands and soft glances But your body has a fire Your heartbeat a steadfast companion Each breath more intimate than the deepest kiss How can you be lonely when the world […]
Kitchen Music: Fever
Heat up your night with Peggy Lee’s classic. Fever “Kitchen Music:” Music recorded literally in the kitchen. No auto-tune. No fancy mixin’. Just me and my Garage Band and the sink. Thanks for listening. (Although a caveat to this one. This one was actually recorded in my Dad’s tool shed while visiting Texas. But the […]
Spring into Spring: Handstand!
Spring into Spring! Flowers are blooming, sprouts are sprouting, the sun is out in Vancouver, which means that it’s time to do handstand! Inversions are asana of marvelous integration, asking us to stabilize our mobile shoulder joints and connect all of our moving pieces together – no small task while we’re all topsy turvy. The […]
Shifts in my body
The subterranean landscape moves, jiggles, giggles, wanders, flows My animal, innate need rising through tissues Impassioned, empowered, wild Seeking relationship Yearning for movement, for cycles of change, for radical break through and then Sleepy, cozy, comfort Settling into the arms, the cooling sweat of another’s body Gliding planes seeking connection A thousand relationships through the […]
Kitchen Music: Black Coffee
Another sultry classic. You know the kind of day: Coffee. Cigarettes. A man who won’t come home. Oh yes. Black Coffee “Kitchen Music:” Music recorded literally in the kitchen. No auto-tune. No fancy mixin’. Just me and my Garage Band and the sink. Thanks for listening.
Kitchen Music: Summertime
One of my favorite songs ever. Sultry. Sexy. Feel the southern heat settle across your skin as you sit on a lazy porch rocker with a cool glass of lemonade. You gaze out at the fields, where the grass barely sways to move in the warm wind. Condensation slips down the side of the glass… […]
Kitchen Music: Joni Mitchell
Kitchen Music is a series of songs that I literally sing in the kitchen with the aid of Garage Band. God bless Garage Band. This one is Joni’s Mitchell’s “Case of You.” This song is very special to me. Thanks for listening. Case of You
A story of growth and a sea monster
“If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” “The only thing that doesn’t change is change itself.” “The right decision isn’t always easy.” These hard nuts of reason come easily to the tongue and slowly to the spirit. I get swatted by a new life lesson and it’s as if I’m […]
Brene Brown: The Power of Vulnerability
Are we teaching yoga?
The Times recently wrote an article about the 2012 yoga competition held in New York City. Yoga competition? As in prizes? Seriously? Founded by Rajashree Choudary, the wife of the famous Bikram Choudary, the competition is open to all asana practitioners but is primarily attended by those who practice the Bikram style. Competitions like this […]
Words of wisdom from Grandma
Yesterday, I sent my Grandma an article from Harvard Medical School about some new research touting the merits of a protein from a plant-based diet. As someone who has run the spectrum between carnivore and vegan, I was rather cheekily lamenting my recent departure from the ranks of vegetarian. Here’s her reply, which just goes […]
Sit your ass down, already…and other thoughts on meditation
Today, or this morning rather, I was eating piece toast with cashew butter (homemade, even, dee-lightful). And I decided to make a little agreement with myself. To self: I will eat this toast with homemade cashew butter, and endeavor to do just that, and only that. No checking email, no reading the paper. Just simply […]
Freeing the Shoulder: quick tips for creating space
What exactly is the shoulder? And why do they get so freakin’ stuck when we try to lift our arms overhead? Two Joints of the Shoulder The shoulder is actually two joints in one: the gleno-humeral joint (the ball and socket joint where the upper arm connects to your shoulder blade) and the scapulo-thoracic joint […]
Karma Chameleon! What is Karma anyway?
I heard this great podcast from the guys at “Stuff you should know.” An accessible and interesting primer on the history of karma from Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant.
Alchemy! The secret roots of hatha yoga.
Did you know that alchemy is part of the roots of hatha yoga? The desire to transmute the body into a worthy vessel was inspired in part by the alchemical explorations of turning lead into gold. “The siddha is a spiritual alchemist who works on and transmutes impure matter, the human body-mind, into pure gold, […]