All things human. Reflections and research on everything that contributes to our well-being and human experience beyond the yoga mat.
I’m usually a hangry girl. Vata-deranged, angry glint in my eye, don’t-get-between-me-and-my-chocolate-at-3pm kind of person. But the last couple of days, my body has felt…well, weirdly satiated. I eat a big ol’ breakfast at around 9 and don’t even really feel hungry for lunch. That isn’t to say that I haven’t craved an apple (oh, […]
Well, a few days into the course and I am down the rabbit hole. One tweet leads to instagram, which leads to website, which leads to an article, which leads to a different article, to a twitter feed, to a new post, to a new twitter feed, to a new article, to a new picture..and […]
Here’s how the day broke out: Breakfast of eggs, squash, spinach, hummus. Lunch: steamed greens, omega 3 dressing, and a chunk of sweet potato. Dinner: turkey, walnuts, squash. And my yummy stevia, unsweetened almond milk, cocoa delight. So…no rice, no flours, just whole plain recognizable foods full of goodness. Wasn’t hungry for hours after my […]
I had no idea. Rather than endlessly trowel the net in search of information, or – god forbid! – visit websites, here is news coming to me. Like a little child with a basket of presents, all these goodies in one little place! And I had no idea. While I understood the idea of subscribing to […]
“So when you get a text,” my friend says slowly, “you first respond to what they say, and then you have to answer with a question to keep the conversation going.” She is a fabulous and attractive woman in her mid-forties, now venturing into the waters of online dating. I nod, commiserating. I’ve been down this […]
This morning I’ve been inspired to revisit my Twitter feed and actively peruse profiles of people that I admire. I can see how immediate this medium is, trying to create lists (including one for FSU) to try to organize how I receive information from my different communities. It is better to specialize, or shine the […]
Well, my first evening of exploring Web 2.0, and I went a bit crazy. First of all, checking out other people’s Twitter feeds caused me to feel self-conscious about the shabby graphics on my Twitter feed, so I had to update those. Then I started reading articles from sites I was lurking on and decided to blog […]
My mother never knows what to expect when I come home. Chatting about my plans for Thanksgiving, there will come the inevitable pause as she tries to plan her menu, “ So, uh…what exactly are you eating now?” Then the big (and well-deserved) sigh, “I can never keep up.” Poor Mom. Yogis change diets like […]
I’m back to my food shenanigans people. Back with a vengeance. Oh, the food adventures that I have been having! Well, since we last connected about food, I have become interested in the power of paleo. Just a little. That’s right, I’m exploring what it’s like to run with the dinosaurs (I know that statement […]
Hello, friends. Many of you may know that I’m passionate about yoga, relationships, and teacher training. What you may not have known quite so explicitly is that I’m also a fledgling educational nerd. I am passionate about the delivery of education and excited to investigate how we can leverage current technology to create communities of […]
Last year I heard a monk speak at the Wanderlust Festival in Whistler. In contrast to high sweat, uber upbeat, bouncy vinyasa classes that I’d been taking, his talk occurred in a shushed and darkened theatre. He was settled into a chair on stage in his robes, while all of us shifted in our multi-hued Lulu’s, wrung out from our asana. […]
At the office. 8 pm on a Friday night. With my yoga administrator, Caecilia. And I’m fussing over syntax in an email. “Sorry, C,” I sigh, “I know this is picky.” “No, no,” she waves me off. “Love is in the details.” I stop short. “What? What did you say?” “Love is in the details,” […]
Big Box Yoga. Mainstream yoga. Franchise yoga. “It’s so…corporate,” the yogi whispers. “Sure, I occasionally go there, but the real yoga is happening at (insert name of small, financially unstable, ma and pop studio name here).” The multi-location heavyweights – be it YYoga, Yoga Works, Core Power, or Bikram Yoga – are often criticized […]
I really suck at preparing for the holidays. Oh, how I long to be the person who mails their holiday cards weeks in advance, or buys christmas presents in April! If only I were more like my Grandma Vera, who just bought next year’s holiday cards in the “After Christmas Sale” rack. Now that woman is prepared. But […]
7:48 AM: sunrise. 4:30 PM: sunset. That’s right, it’s full winter in Vancouver. And It. Is. Dark. When darkness descends, my immediately reaction is resistance. The long night is too quiet, too settled, too oppressive. Slowing down feels like depression, sadness, existential malaise. The darkness is a gaping maw of introspection. Like a bear with […]
Solar eclipses are spectacular. There was recently a partial solar eclipse. Miraculously, the perpetually cloudy Vancouver skies cleared at just the moment of the eclipse’s maximum expression. I raced out onto the office patio, shielding my eyes and squinting up at the sun (an enthusiastic, but slightly dumbass move, since you’re not supposed to look at […]
“Rachel, what’s going on?” “….” “…Rachel, clearly something is on your mind….just say it.” I am silent: my oceanic feelings are contained behind the steel-trap of my teeth. I feel, I feel, I feel, and I have no words for my feelings, because I’m desperately afraid that if I say them, the person in front […]
Finding your essence by cutting back Imagine a gorgeous rosebush in the fullness of her bloom: overflowing with fragrant flowers, dripping with honeyed scent, full of wild, buzzing bees. During the summer, we are like this rosebush: lush, busy, sensual, full of distraction and sensual delight. We romp late in the perpetual daylight, drink pink […]
A Rabbit Noticed My Condition “I was sad one day and went for a walk; I sad in a field. A rabbit noticed my condition and came near. It often does not take more than that to help at times – to just be close to creatures who are so full of knowing, so full […]
It began with a text exchange: Hey Rachel, that’s a sexy, sassy new POF profile! …What new profile? …Uh, you’d better call me. A friendly Fish directs me to the username of the new profile that has cropped up on Plenty of Fish. “It’s definitely you,” he says with animated concern, “The pictures are of […]
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