"Our most fundamental sense of well-being is derived from the conscious experience of belonging. Relatedness is essential to survival."
Tara Brach
We get older in illogical increments. Birthdays pass and pass, but there are some years,...
Despite the plausibility of good intentions, the yoga industries emphasis on transformation around the new year feels a bit too opportunistic. Personal transformation may come as a natural progression in the context of yoga practice but the process...
For many of us, simply caring for ourselves is a counterintuitive and confusing process. We may equate kindness with material goods, and so buy ourselves clothes or goods to quench dissatisfaction; or we might believe an indulgence will make...
I am back in New York for a few weeks and noticing my angry thought patterns as I wait for buses in the bone chilling cold, as I stare at passer-by and pout about my to-do list. The truth is, I do this in Seattle to. Sometimes I am just seething and...
We give up what makes us feel bad about ourselves, at least in retrospect, and take on what makes us feel good about ourselves. Practicing the precepts is said to result in the bliss of blameless.
Is it just me or did 2011 feel like a complete wash? Nothing particularly horrible or great stands out. The small triumph of not letting daily mundane tribulations get the best of me may not rank high on a scorecard but I am nonetheless...
Flipping through the catalog for a big name yoga and retreat center, I was shocked to notice that they advertised their yoga teacher training programs as “Yoga Alliance Approved.” Misrepresentations like this are the dirty little...
What is holding you back anyway?
One answer to this question for all of us is DOUBT, one of the fabulous Five Hindrances that slow us, stop us and also serve as teachers on the path.
Here is how doubt works for me.
I doubt myself.
I doubt...
I am so happy about starting up the Seattle Interdependence Project.
I imagine a space where people can come to learn to work with their minds as I did a few years ago at IDP NYC. I am excited to be able to share this with the city that has...
Trolling yoga blogs and the comment threads that ensue reveals a prevailing sentiment of tough love. Sure, there are a few hold-outs from the sixties still hanging around but the new breed of yogi is way too savvy to be fooled by any fluff and...
"...the root meaning of the word radical is just that...the root or origin of something. To be radical is therefore to go to the root of something. Radical is a method or approach to "knowing"...going beyond surface manifestations...
Ever heard the one about the Dalai Lama and the hotdog vendor? Make me one with everything. This has always been my favorite joke. Recently, I was made aware of how, like a lot of effective humor, the punchline is based on a not so funny...
I spent ten days in New York and worried for almost the entire time. I worried and the worry multiplied like beads of condensation in a sealed terrarium. When I arrived, I felt tired and I worried about relaxing. I also worried about my homework...
Exploitation of yoga in advertising is nothing new. When a product wants to associate with a low-stress or healthy lifestyle, invariably, the commercial features people doing yoga poses. Increasing popularity of yoga makes the marketing...
I have only been in one fight. It was in the third grade. I don’t recall what the impetus was but it ended up in a war of words between me and another boy on the basketball court. I remember deciding to hit him but when I went to strike...
“....At Castagna we see product as a cycle of abundance: when you eat it you become part of the cycle, and if it has been artfully prepared you can taste it, feel it, smell it, hear it, see it, and we hope understand it.” - Matthew...
Taken together, these studies show that the value of a meditation practice is almost quantifiable, on a societal level if not an individual one. Meditation practice = reduced stress = lower health care costs.
"Curing is remedial and involves fixing whatever outer problem arises..It does not help you avoid the nails on the road, the snakes in the woods, or the disease that caused the tumor."
I continually assert that yoga practice encompasses more than physical fitness. As much as I generally try to avoid admitting it, this does implicitly question whether the use of yoga poses for physical fitness alone can even be considered yoga...
“I want someone on this path with me”
“That’s’ codependency”
I just spent a weekend in New York with a group of people I am happy to call my sangha. A sanhga is a community of meditators. They may not be...
