Posts In: Reflections

by Amy Caldwell

What does mindfulness really mean?

Sylvia Boorstein says one definition she likes is “paying attention and seeing clearly, so we can choose wisely.”

I was fortunate to attend her daily dharma talks recently while teaching at Rancho La Puerta Wellness Resort & Spa in Tecate, Mexico. “Here I am,” was the phrase Sylvia first offered as a helpful moment-to-moment tool. Often, she said, “we live a short distance from our body,” which made the large and rapt audience giggle in agreement. Through mindfulness practices, we can learn to greet this moment, and the next one, fully and sympathetically. Sylvia told many stories infused with humanness, such as how many of us worry when a loved one is late and unreachable. “Look at that,” she said, “My thought machine is doing that worrying thing again.”

“What’s here?” Look for delight

Sylvia’s lessons kept circling back to asking ourselves, “What’s here?” then making deliberate choices. We were inspired to choose where we place our attention – to consciously look for the “ooh and ahh!” moments. She suggested that doing so “keeps us in life.” Our homework over the next 24 hours was to find something in which we found delight then to share with the group next time.

At the Ranch it is quite easy to see beauty: the sun setting over the activity pool while swimming, vines eeking their way around trellises, or a friendly black cat that greets me most mornings. Today an even bigger “aww!” occurred unexpectedly. At 6am I grabbed a flashlight on my way to teach a 6:30am sunrise yoga class. Stepping onto the path, the full moon glowed clear and bright. I had enjoyed it the previous night and still, I felt so amazed to see it there greeting me in the dark of morning. I intend to recommit to the practice of taking in daily small delights and invite you to do the same.

“Here I am.” Pause for five minutes

Our next task was to pause for just five minutes each day at some point. I’m not sure if this counts, because it is part of my “job” teaching at the Ranch, but I facilitated a silent dinner that same evening. It was an intimate journey into mindful eating: vibrant flavors, colors and smells, silverware and chewing noises, along with some long gaps between courses. Sitting with five unknown guests, those pauses sometimes felt awkward and tense (slightly unpleasant) or relaxed and spacious (enjoyable) – much like the pauses in our daily life. How often do we turn away from the present by checking our phones or launching into some other type of doing? What if instead, we said to ourselves, “Here I am.”

Sylvia invited us to notice the many things that come and go. For me, this really turned up the volume: sound, sensation, thought, breath in, paying attention, not paying attention, relaxed, pleasant, breath out, so much change, unpleasant. Wow! Rather than choosing to focus on one thing as we most often do, we focused on the constancy of change, which felt like chaos.

Meet the present moment as a friend

And then, just near the end of this challenging sit, a little voice in my head asked “What is not changing? Can you connect with that?” For me, this experience simulated the over-stimulation that is often present in our daily Western life. Most of us have experienced, and know intuitively, that things keep changing. Sylvia then offered another favorite mantra, “May I meet this moment fully. May I meet it as a friend.” She nudged us to keep training our minds – “It’s your life, don’t miss it!”

On the last day Sylvia re-emphasized the importance of connecting to our core of compassion. “I’m hopeful that humans will remember that it feels better to be kind.” With purposeful practice, we can habituate our hearts to kindness. And this will not only help others and the earth, it will also help ourselves. We will experience more ease in our minds and more comfort in our lives. “We are sharing this world with people who are holding us up.” Let’s each renew our intention to do our part.

For more information, connect with Sylvia on her website

Rancho La Puerta – first time guests who mention Amy Caldwell and the code RLP-PRP at booking will receive 20% off the best available offer on a 3-, 4-, or 7-night stay. Please call Reservations at (800) 443-7565 or email reservations@rancholapuerta.com

by Amy Caldwell

What if we make a conscious choice to consider all that we do as equally sacred? 

Whether we are doing the dishes or meditating, practicing yoga or driving, listening or speaking, working or resting…

Is it possible to live in such a way that all of our doing is an expression of being sacred?

As someone who is at times challenged by the volume and repetition of life’s mundane responsibilities (aka adulting?!), this approach has really been helping me!

A decade or so ago, I learned of positivism, framing our responsibilities as “I get to…” This reframe helped me a little, as did “Ask for help when you need it, give help when you can.”

Eckert Tolle and others have long been advising that now is all we have, and to make this the primary focus of our lives.  

And still, how easy and familiar it is to wish the dishes were already done, the groceries shopped and cooked, and the house clean! How human of us to seek and value the “big” moments we see and post on social media. Michael and I often joke that postcards (remember those?) don’t show the bugs! 

So for me, right now, what seems to be really working is consciously reminding myself that all of life is sacred (within the realm of ethical behavior). I hope the reminder is of value to you too!

Q: Can you tell us a time when yoga supported you through a transition?

Amy: I was recently speaking with a friend about the popularity of the game of tag. She thinks in addition to the thrill of being chased, part of what kids love and appreciate is that there is a home base built in.

This week I’ve been thinking about how our yoga practice serves that same purpose – a home base where we can reconnect, reflect and restore. Transitions for me are often challenging, and this year there have been many!! Including but not limited to our oldest daughter leaving for college, our younger son starting high school, aging and general post-pandemic life.

My yoga practice, and also teaching yoga, are refuges. When I’m feeling untethered, I often begin my practice lying on the floor. After connecting to a sense of grounded-ness and support, breath, movements and a feeling being at home often arise.

P.S. You might note that within the practice itself, poses like savasana, seated centering, balasana, tadasana and adho mukha svanasana serve as additional familiar mini-home bases (:

Dear Yoga,

As I am writing thank you notes to other loved ones in honor of a new year and new beginnings, I wanted to reach out and let you know how grateful I am for you in my life. 

Your presence over these many years has been so loving, powerful, educational and supportive.  You have taught me how to glimpse and connect to the wisdom within my own heart.  I aspire to honor that wisdom in the hearts of all. 

Through your example, Yoga, I see that love is more powerful than fear. Presence must be practiced. Relaxation is a skill. Intentional change is possible. 

Your timeless teachings of non-harming, a vision of sameness and loving kindness to all are deeply needed in this world. 

Thank you for being there through thick and thin. I have always known that if I’m having a challenging day or time, you are there. You hold me accountable and at the same time, continuously inspire me to wake up, to connect to the love within myself and all things. 

Yoga, you are a true friend and you have enriched my life beyond measure. 

With immense gratitude, 

Amy 

from our Studio Manager, Missy DiDonato

I feel like I need to say this at the beginning: I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. I don’t think about resolutions for the New Year, and I definitely don’t write them down. With that said, here’s my take on resolutions…

My life does not radically change on January 1st and I’m pretty sure that’s true for most of you. But I like the idea of taking a moment to assess the trajectory of my life and deciding if that direction is compatible with my vision of who I want to become.

So here are some of my on-going resolutions: thought processes I’m working to build, relationships I’m actively deepening, and physical practices that root me in the here and now. Hope these resonate with you!

1. Forgive Myself More. I want to give myself more grace when I make mistakes. I want to be free of my own demanding expectations for my work load and mental bandwidth. I want to let go of that feeling that I need to be everything to everyone.
2. Laugh More. Little moments often mean the most. Sometimes a smile from a friend can lift your whole day. I want to be present for more of those moments of joy and laughter.
3. Walk More. There’s nothing like being outside in nature and feeling the rhythm of walking to bring my mind and body into focus. Like yoga, walking can be its own form of moving meditation. I say yes to more opportunities to walk! Want to walk the neighborhood with me?
4. Keep Learning. I always love taking yoga classes from different teachers. The poses might be the same, but each person has their own unique perspective. I learn something new from every teacher. I want to keep stretching outside my comfort zone.
5. Make More Art. I love to create – drawing, cutting, gluing, anything artsy-craftsy. It’s magic to take ordinary materials and make something beautiful. It fills my soul when something I’ve made brings a smile to the face of someone I love.

So those are my thoughts as we approach 2022. I have faith the new year won’t be as crazy as the past two years, but I’ve been surprised before! Spending time with the people you love is what truly matters. Wishing us all more of those moments. <3

from Yoga One Teacher and Co-Founder Amy Caldwell

I wanted to share a great acronym that we can use in our yoga practice but also anytime in our daily life:

A-G-E 

No matter when you were born, change is constant and we’re all aging. But the letters are really powerful when you use them as a way to center attention and arrive in the present. 

A – Arrive. It could mean a little bit of physical movement, rolling the shoulders, taking a few deep breaths. Maybe closing the eyes and listening to the sounds in your environment. Whatever it is that helps you to arrive right here, right now.

G – Gather. Wherever we are and whatever we’re doing, gather your attention on the breath. If it’s helpful, you can close your eyes. If you’re driving, or whatever it is you’re doing, just keep the eyes softly open. 

E – Engage. Once we’ve arrived more fully and gathered our attention in the present moment on the breath, we can choose to engage more consciously with our lives and the people around us.

I hope that helps in your practice and in your life. Have a great day! 

~ Amy Caldwell

guest post by Karen Beers

The power of gratitude is remarkable. When we take time to slow down and mindfully recognize the abundance in our lives, we create a positive inner shift that extends far beyond ourselves. 

1. Start the day with gratitude by acknowledging that we are given a priceless gift – to be alive right now. Each day, we wake up with new possibilities and opportunities to learn and grow. Each day, we are gifted time and the pure potentiality of how the hours can be utilized.

2. Feel gratitude for yourself, your body, your physical abilities, and talents. There are countless lessons to be gained from acknowledging what a gift it is to move and breathe. It’s important to appreciate your individual limitations, too. Gratitude can help you slow down and acknowledge the countless skills you have to share with the world. You are an integral part of the community and what you offer is incredibly valuable.

3. Express gratitude and appreciation for community. Family, friends, neighbors, and those connections near and far are integral support systems. These people are there to help us show up and be the best version of ourselves. Our community lifts us up so that we can share our strengths and abilities, and these people also help us to ground and center ourselves when we feel fractured or unsettled. 

4. Expand your awareness of gratitude to all of nature. We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful world. By simply stepping outside and looking around, we provide ourselves space to receive many therapeutic qualities that enhance our well-being. Take time to acknowledge the natural beauty of the world and receive the benefits it provides to us.

Many blessings tend to go unnoticed when we are distracted by our daily tasks and obligations. By making space in each day to practice gratitude; we find an abundance within and around us. As Albert Einstein so wisely said, “There are only two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” 

by Amy Caldwell

One morning, while I was practicing in my usual spot outside on our back deck, I took a photo to see if the backbend looked like it felt. In the photo, I see strength and openness, I feel presence and persistence. I also see and feel a place adjacent to my heart that is challenging to bend.

I’ve been focused on the physiological theme of back-bending and its alignment: long torso on all sides with balanced core engagement. The corresponding mindfulness theme I am exploring is conscious participation:

How can we arrive in the present, allow ourselves to be OK with what we are feeling, then to engage in the next moment with openness, curiosity, presence, and kindness?

As I physically and energetically explore opening my heart, there is intense love intermingled with fear. Not fear of my own death or harm, but fear that the safety of my beloveds is out of my control. We continually seek to be equally grounded and spacious, strong and open, balanced with present moment awareness and love. As we age, we have to work harder at both – not to become set in our ways, closed and rigid.

“Every movement toward flexibility, there must be an equivalent movement toward strength.”

– Diana Beardsley

What is it that you need more of in your practice? In your life?

How can we metaphorically open our hearts while remaining strong and grounded in the present?

How can we stand up for what we believe is true and right, while simultaneously loving our adversary as a fellow human who is also doing what they believe is true and right?

As Pema Chödrön advises, we can let go of fear and control… even while embracing the groundlessness of being human. Sometimes the way forward is not without, but within.

Amy Caldwell
Contributing Writer

Amy (E-RYT 500) has dedicated herself to the practice, study and teaching of yoga since discovering its joys and benefits in 1997 while backpacking throughout Asia, Australia, and parts of Europe. Amy is a Co-Founder of Yoga One and lead teacher for their yoga teacher training program.

by Amy Caldwell

“A piece of old cloth, especially one torn from a larger fabric, used typically for cleaning things.”

Although likening meditation to a rag is not a common metaphor, we are living in uncommon times.

Each one of us is a piece of the whole. And while we aren’t necessarily “old,” we have some amount of human experience under our belts. In our regular daily lives, we can sometimes feel separate or “torn” from the whole.

Right now, we have an opportunity to deeply see and connect to the reality that we are part of a much larger fabric.

Especially under the current circumstances, the importance of cleaning takes on a powerful relevance  – why not use this time to investigate our perceptions, what filters and lenses we employ to see the world? Can we allow ourselves to be more open, curious, and loving?

R.A.G. This simple acronym can serve as a daily meditation in as little as three minutes (one minute each):

R      Relax
A      Awaken
G      Gather

Relax. Enjoy a few deep breaths. Move in any way that helps facilitate relaxation: Exhale with an open mouth, roll the shoulders, tense, and relax the face.

Awaken. Bring awareness to anything in the present moment: sound, smell, thoughts, emotions, body sensations. Meet whatever you find with curiosity and love – as you would a cherished friend.

Gather. Locate an area in your body where you feel the breath: i.e, the torso or nostrils, etc. Choose one location and gather your full attention there. Each time the mind wanders away, return to watching and feeling the breath. Remain here, in the present, and enjoy the experience.

Amy Caldwell
Contributing Writer

Amy (E-RYT 500) has dedicated herself to the practice, study and teaching of yoga since discovering its joys and benefits in 1997 while backpacking throughout Asia, Australia, and parts of Europe. Amy is a Co-Founder of Yoga One and lead teacher for their yoga teacher training program.

guest post by Heather Fenwick

How does your meditation practice look and feel? We’re highlighting stories of meditation in everyday life to help de-mystify this life-changing practice and share simple meditation techniques with those just getting started. Share your experience in the comments or by email, info@yogaonesandiego.com

My meditation practice lately is not as regular as you might think – some days on, some days off. I meditate for up to 20 minutes, or as little as 3 minutes. Even just three minutes, (as Amy Caldwell reminds me, “any amount”) is helpful.

I have a meditation altar, which I love. It’s a place that always invites mindfulness when I see it. Kuan Yin, the goddess of compassion, sits atop the triple India guide book throne. The Dalai Lama, Chinese medicine accoutrements, and Himalayan salt lamps (to neutralize the ions put out by electronics) complete the scene.

Sometimes I just observe the monkey mind in disbelief (when your thoughts are restless and swirling) and I try to cultivate amusement or acceptance, or some combination of both.

Other times, I drop into a breathing practice that I learned from Sarah Clark:

Breathe in and feel the height of the inhale in the upper palate, lifting to the crown.
Exhale, engage a light root lock, feel the seat heavy on the ground.

Breathing is so simple and so profound.
~ Heather

Even just enjoying a conscious  breath can be meditation. Give it a try?

guest post by Irene Jones

How does your meditation practice look and feel? We’re highlighting stories of meditation in everyday life to help de-mystify this life-changing practice and share simple meditation techniques with those just getting started. Share your experience in the comments or by email, info@yogaonesandiego.com

These days, my meditation practice is me waking, taking my time, checking in with my emotions, my physical self, and my breath (when I remember, because there is a tendency for the cogs in my brain to start gaining momentum pretty quickly.) I do a little yoga in bed. Nothing strenuous, a few yummy stretches, cat cows and twists and neck attendance to loosen up any stiffness.

I brush my teeth, drink some water, and soon enough I sit comfortably on a cushion facing my window that opens out towards spaciousness and the natural elements. Just before this, I light some incense. I sit nice and tall, roll my shoulders back and lift my heart, starting with a good posture. Of course, it relaxes as I meditate and from time to time, I gently reset the weight in my sitting bones and lift the crown of my head.

Grounding first, I encourage my lower body to be heavy and my pelvic floor to relax. I check in with the Manomaya Kosha, the mind sheath, or how we process our thoughts and emotions. I rest here for a while scanning my entire body head to toe.

I check in with my breath and follow it with my awareness until I get distracted and then I gently bring my awareness back to my breath again.

Most importantly, for me these days, in my meditation practice is opening to my emotional self, so I feel-in. I ask myself, “How am I feeling?” “How am I?” and I patiently wait and open to my experience as it unfolds. I meet myself with kindness and permission for whatever is there and for whatever wants to come to my attention. I hold the sensations of my inner experience in a very sacred and tender embrace. This is my practice.

I rest here for as long as I like. I can then move on to my mental space, check in, honor my mind and all that it does for me and for all its potential. I ask myself, “What would peace feel like in this moment?” I rest in patience for a sense, if it comes to me; if I can cultivate it this morning, if not, no judgement. I rest in the light of my own awareness. Every day is different. 

I especially love when I can get outside early in the morning, when it’s quiet so I can meditate in nature; I’m not sure if there is anything more lovely. Maybe I’ll do some yoga or qigong too. I am blessed to have gained these skills over the years, practicing on and off, making a gradual home for my expanding awareness and my inner peace.

Meditation in itself is not a difficult thing to do – however, to commit to a daily practice, even if just for a few weeks or months can be challenging. Though the rewards are worth it. Meditation can make a huge difference to how we approach ourselves and others; gifting us with opportunities to experience space and patience and self-acceptance while in relationship, it is a fantastic teacher.

Ultimately, we are listening to our own inner teachings and wisdom. I recently heard, that if we can think of it like brushing our teeth, then it will be an easy habit to begin. Five minutes every day is all you need. For me, it depends on how I feel, 20 minutes, sometimes longer, sometimes less, and sometimes I incorporate meditation into my daily activities themselves. Just being present and mindful in each moment is a practice in itself.

by Laura McCorry

When I think about meditation, I think about sitting down someplace like this: quiet, peaceful, with yellow butterflies (the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail) flitting from blossom to blossom.

But being Mama to two little ones, I don’t always get to sit down when I meditate.

Sometimes meditation is simply the awareness of my own breath, breathing in, breathing out. Answering a question about turtles. Bringing my focus to the warmth of the sun on my back. Feeling a small fist close in a vise around my index finger as we walk further along the path. Breath in, breath out.

Even if I had arrived to this spot without the children, who both pull me away and bring me back to the present moment, the world interposes itself.

I can hear the rumble of a backhoe across the street, and the rush of traffic on a major road just on the other side of the park. I stay focused on the butterflies, and the dragonflies, but then come the bees, and the mosquitoes, and the ticks.

It’s hard to welcome it all in, to simply brush away the undesirable (and sometimes it’s scary). But this is the practice – of both meditation and life.

It’s not just quiet and butterflies. Life is also noise and chaos and the wide kaleidoscope of living things all sharing the same living earth and life-giving sun. Breath in, breath out. Can you see that we are all one?

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura(AT)yogaonesandiego(DOT)com

AMNESIA

Once again
I’ve confused rigidity for strength,
domination for embodiment.

I’ve missed opportunities for appreciation
for acceptance
for love.

We know in our minds.
We feel in our hearts.

And yet we forget.
We get lost,
confused.
Amnesia of the spirit.

What if the only purpose of life
is to communicate love?
Through our breath
Through our body
Through our thoughts
Through our words
Through our actions
Through our relationships
Through our life
Through our being

Begin again.
Every day.
Every moment.
Every breath.
A chance to wake up.

*****

BELIEFS

How do they form?
How do they shape and filter
the way we view ourselves,
each other, the world?

We look to some beliefs
to help guide positive thought and action,
such as Ahimsa (non-violence),
or a vision of sameness,
to see ourselves in others,
or to (radically) love ourselves…

But perhaps any belief
comes with a small weight,
what we should be or do.

Maybe the next step
is to let go of the belief.

To realize that we already are the same.
We already are love.
We always have been.
We don’t have to think it,
or believe it,
we can just be it.
We
Are
It.

by Laura McCorry

SaveSave

by Laura McCorry

Time has started to unravel a bit for me. As I move further into this pregnancy, I’m falling out of routine, becoming less attached to the segmented hours of the day. This is probably a good thing. I wake when I’m finished sleeping (some days at 8:30, some days at 6am), I eat when I’m hungry (always, always snacks before bed), and I’ve found myself baking banana bread muffins at 10:30 at night.

In Walking on Water, Madeleine L’Engle writes about two different conceptions of time, “Kairos. Real time. God’s time. That time which breaks through chronos with a shock of joy, that time we do not recognize while we are experiencing it, but only afterwards, because kairos has nothing to do with chronological time. In kairos, we are completely unself-conscious and yet paradoxically far more real than we can ever be when we are constantly checking our watches for chronological time.”

The birth of a child is a moment like this, always outside of time. But you are also ushered into kairos at the death of a loved one. (I remember being shocked when I realized that practicing savasana, or final relaxation, in yoga is also a way of practicing death. It’s translation is corpse pose, after all.)

How can you practice both life and death with grace? I think the word that matters most is practice (meditation). Or perhaps grace. For me, moving into kairos is the same as practicing meditation. You allow yourself to move outside time, into space that is neither here nor there, you are not awake or asleep, you simply ARE.

The paradox of life is that we need both kairos and chronos. I need the immediate, tactile chronos, the skin, muscle, and bone of my hands dusted in flour, forming a dough, placing it in the oven, setting a timer (because humans being can move outside time, but yeast, water, and flour cannot if they are to become bread.) And I need those moments of timelessness, of seeing the moment arrive and stepping into it whole-heartedly, whole-bodily: when my toddler bumps her head and needs to be held RIGHT NOW, so I drop everything and cradle her in my arms.

I hope you are gifted the experience of time in all its splendored variation. The moments that are breath-giving and the moments that take your breath away. Moments of kairos when you allow yourself to be fully present; when you take in whatever sensation, thought, or emotion is most present, but practice not letting it define you. And when you need it most, I hope you find those life-affirming moments of chronos, of baking late at night, a solid grounding in time as we most often know it.

We hope to help you find that Kairos time on your mat at Yoga One, click here to view our schedule.

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura(AT)yogaonesandiego(DOT)com

SaveSave

by Laura McCorry

Lately I’ve found myself more drawn to silence, more drawn to sitting still and taking in the world as it presents itself. Life asking to be noticed in a small, quiet voice. It hasn’t paraded into my consciousness with fanfare and demanded attention. (There’s enough of that already, and we all know the strategy works, at least immediately.)

As Franz Kafka wrote, “You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

These are some of the moments that stopped me in my tracks, when my only response has been to sit very still observing, listening:

• My daughter already in pajamas stacking blocks as high as she can into a tower just before her bedtime. 
• The sound of my friend’s voice who tells me that in the middle of the night, she will ask her husband who recently died to go comfort their baby. 
• The late afternoon sunlight illuminating a hand-brocaded Indian elephant on a square tapestry, how I see for the first time the sparkling gold threads.
• The stark black and white text from a friend asking for prayers while she sits beside her husband in the ICU. 

SaveSave

by Laura McCorry

It’s been said that life is about the journey, not the destination – but if you’re traveling with a toddler, just packing for the journey can feel like outfitting a polar expedition. Getting on the road with the family can be the hardest part!

I recently attempted this challenge, on an annual trip to the mountains to visit loved ones. The car ride itself is five hours without stops, and we wanted to arrive well before the two year old’s bedtime. I very quickly felt stressed about remembering everything to bring and anxious about keeping the kiddo entertained.

We have a cd of kid’s tunes we play in the car and this is one of the songs:

“Try to move a moose in the middle of the road, he’s much too big for you.
He’s ten feet tall and that’s not all, he weighs a ton or two.
When you can’t drive under, you can’t drive over, and you can’t drive around,
you have to wait for the moose to move although it slows you down.
But what’s your hurry, don’t you worry, don’t you know it’s true –
it may take a month or two, but the moose is bound to move.”

If you keep listening, the moose decides to take a nap, cars pile up on both sides, and eventually, everyone gets out of their cars and befriend the moose, taking pictures with him and scratching his chin.

In my yogic journey to the present moment, always trying to arrive, I don’t often embrace the obstacles in my path. I think that’s hard for most of us. What would happen if we did? Would the obstacles change, would we ourselves change, or both?

Yoga teaches us to observe the present moment, to sit with discomfort, to notice our reactions before acting upon them. All of these mindfulness techniques run counter to our culture of more, better, faster. Before you get caught up in the busy-ness of the last months of the year, try to observe the obstacles in your path. Maybe the “obstacle” is an important part of the journey.

As it turned out, we had everything we needed for the trip, the toddler didn’t have a single meltdown in the car, and we even enjoyed stopping to stretch our legs while appreciating the crisp air and fall colors. I hope you find the same joy in whatever journey you undertake.

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura(AT)yogaonesandiego(DOT)com

by Olivia Cecchettini Hughes

The Tao of Wu

by The RZA

Editor’s Note: Congratulations and welcome back to Olivia who took a break from this monthly column to get married!!! We wish you all the best on this new journey in life. ~ Yoga One

Summary: The Tao of Wu is written in a light conversational style that’s easy to read and hard to put down. What keeps this book out of the light reading category however, is the depth of spiritual insight within that stayed with me for days as I processed and digested it. After I finished reading, it kept me buzzing for a few days: a sign of a really good book!

Part spiritual manifesto, part autobiography, The RZA openly shares his wisdom, guiding principles, and experiences as founder of the Wu-Tang Clan and as a fellow human being. The Tao of Wu follows his journey from growing up in a violent neighborhood of New York City to deeply embracing Eastern Philosophy in Shaolin, China.

Why I Love It: I was completely blown away by this inspiring spiritual memoir which was unlike any other I’ve read. Combining street knowledge, pop culture, eastern culture, spirituality, and rawness, this book was one of my favorite reads of 2017. Highly recommend.

I love that The Tao of Wu breaks through and breaks down stereotypes. I think stereotypes, labels, and boxes are human devices to keep the world small and simple. Yoga has always helped me bear witness to my own judgments and allow them to shatter in the light of authenticity. It’s only when we truly SEE and LISTEN to one another that we grasp the beauty, wisdom, and amazing insight diverse people have to offer.

Suggested For: I’ve been recommending this book to everyone! Seriously. For the hip hop lovers, I gained a better appreciation of RZA’s work – specifically the depth of his lyricism. If you ever wondered why The RZA, aside from being the Wu-Tang Clan’s chief producer, is heralded as the group’s leader, The Tao of Wu will make that unmistakably clear.

For the spiritual seekers, this book is a more personal, more philosophical follow-up to The Wu-Tang Manual. The RZA pulls from a deep school of thought that reflects the inner work he has achieved. I found his writing to be forward thinking and courageous in its authenticity.

Even Cornel West gives it a thumbs-up: “RZA is a towering artist and deep thinker who has much to teach us. I salute his courageous vision and compassionate witness – as manifests in this book and in his life.”

Olivia Hughes
Contributing Writer

Olivia’s yoga journey began in 2003. She is certified in Vinyasa, Hatha, and Aerial Yoga and holds a Masters degree in Spiritual Psychology. She believes the mind, body, soul connection is sacred and encourages her students explore and expand within their own bodies and consciousnesses.

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

by Laura McCorry

I’m still rather new to minimalism. I love the concept – a clutter-free home that invites both unexpected guests and private relaxation. But the practice of de-owning often feels overwhelming and exhausting.

In July, I was invited to participate in a 30-day declutter group hosted online. It was great to have the support of other people in the group and to have a pre-set monthly schedule of different areas of the house to tackle each day. It usually didn’t take me more than ten or fifteen minutes, and every day I found items I could place in a large cardboard box marked for donation.

Then the cardboard box sat in a corner of my bedroom for three months. Does this sound familiar? Sometimes the follow-through is the hardest part. But just last week – last week! – I made a trip to a household hazardous waste site (don’t throw your batteries in the trash, people!), electronics recycling, and a local charity that accepts household and clothing donations. It only took about an hour.

When it doesn’t take very much time, why is it still so hard to let go?

So often in life, I find myself clinging and grasping. I keep letters from loved ones, gifts that remind me of people, books that remind me of people. I try to hold on to the idea and experience of my toddler as an infant, and I feel a kind of desperation every time I realize another day has finished, never to return.

One of the eight limbs of Yoga is Aparigraha, which translates as non-greed, non-attachment, non-grasping. Fear teaches us to cling tight, even to things which can’t be held. When we let go, maybe prying open one finger at a time, we find Trust, Plenitude, Equanimity. (These words that don’t have an everyday coinage because they’re so frequently out of circulation.)

To what (or to whom) do you find yourself clinging most often? Is there physical or emotional baggage holding you back from feeling a sense of peace with the present moment?

Yoga’s emphasis on the present moment actually helps me to be a better minimalist. When I shift my focus to what actually matters, right this very moment, it’s easier to see how so many objects in my life belong to the past or to an as-yet-unrealized future. As Autumn’s full glory approaches, I intend to simplify my home and my routines, letting go of excess to better appreciate the things, people, and routines that serve me best right now.

Thoreau himself embraced yogic values with his injunction to “simplify, simplify.” Let go of grasping and see what fills your hands and your heart.

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura(AT)yogaonesandiego(DOT)com

by Amy Caldwell

Life is fragile
enjoy each day
make time to be
grateful
joyful
playful

We know this life is temporary
why not live
like it’s our last day

Be kind
love
see the good
don’t sweat the small stuff
be here now
find a way

All the things we know to be true
but forget because we get busy
and distracted
and afraid
let’s choose to remember
and when we forget,
remember again,
sooner

What would we change if we could
if we can, why not try
if we can’t, how can we find peace
with what is
sometimes terrifying
sometimes heart breaking
one human moment at a time
one moment in time

What is it that helps us remember
our aliveness
our connection to breathing
our power to love completely
just humans being

Life as we know it
could end tomorrow
why not
be
here
now

Head Yoga Teacher and Co-Founder of Yoga One, Amy Caldwell has dedicated herself to the practice, study and teaching of yoga since discovering its joys and benefits in 1997.

guest poem by Tiffany Brown

I realized sometime recently that I had lost this.
This ability to sit. Stand. Be. Still.
I am moving, texting, calling, playing.
Always.
I often put down the tech for the joy of real life activity but never for stillness.
Never to be bored.
Never to be unstimulated.
My free moments have been raided. Captured by the little blue f, the Clash of Clans, the internet.
My children will remember me in their childhood and it will often be the view of the top of my head as I look down at a lit screen.
I do not simply sit in the sun. Or on the porch. Or in the car.
I do not give myself time to ponder. To think.
I wonder now what we are losing when we lose this.
Because I am not alone. I am not unique.
We are all losing the art of stillness.
Of simply being.
And with this loss comes a new sense of stillness.
A new sense of connection.
And it is with our smart phone, our kindle, our tablet.
This is now our alone time.
Connected to millions.
I am not sure yet if it is better, or worse.
But I am very aware of it being different.

by Monique Minahan

The birds are chirping even though it’s still dark. This kind of silence – the kind that isn’t devoid of noise but rather full of presence – is the backdrop for my practice today.

Physically located at the level of the throat, vishuddi chakra represents a gateway between body and mind, through which the energy of this chakra can be suppressed or expressed. As an energetic center for communication, creativity, and expression, this chakra is not just about speaking. It’s also about feeling heard.

Instead of beginning with the beeja mantra ham, I explore the concept of toning, where body and breath invite a sound vibration to form, whatever that sound may be. The tones I create symbolize speaking my truth, as opposed to regurgitating truths I’ve been taught by others.

I begin on my exhale breath with a guttural groan. As I refrain from judging or perfecting it, I watch it transition through numerous auditory forms, eventually settling on a cathedral-like ahhhhh.

From the seat of an observer I acknowledge the things I have heard in my lifetime: from my inner dialogue, my conversations with others and what I’ve been taught to be true by people in authority.

And I sense the times I’ve refrained from speaking my truth over the years, whether out of fear of being punished, disapproved of or not understood.

With the intention of freeing my voice both physically and energetically, I begin ujjayi pranayam. I place a finger at the front of my throat, the glottis, and visualize the breath entering there, at the front-body location of vishuddi chakra, known as the chakra kshetram. I place another finger on my cervical spine at the back of my neck, visualizing the breath exiting through the spine, the back-body location of vishuddi chakra. Then I reverse the cycle so it begins at the back of the neck and travels forward. This practice focuses my awareness, breath and entire being on the physical and energetic center of vishuddi.

Vishuddi is often translated as “purification,” but I think of it more as refinement. As a pause between body and mind where I begin to distinguish the chatter of my unconscious mind from a higher level of knowledge. An energetic space where I can observe the way things have been and choose to create a new song for my life.

I sit a little longer listening to the sound of my breath. Before opening my eyes I speak out loud my vision of how my voice contributes to the chorus of life. I hear that truth with my ears and I seal it by bowing my head to my heart.

Part 6 of a 7 part series. You can find part 5 here: Anahata, The Heart.

Monique Minahan
Contributing Writer

Mo is a writer and yoga teacher who believes in peace over happiness and love over fear. She likes to set her sights high and then take small steps to get there. You’ll find her walking the dirt path behind her house with her little fluffy dog, practicing walking her talk by keeping her head high and her heart open. Contact: moniqueminahan.com

by Olivia Cecchettini

I turn on the news and all I hear is violence and it stuns my heart
because I have cultivated a life of peace.

It’s astounding to me that we are still killing each other
over race, sexuality, religion, and so on…

The human race has advanced so far
in technology, in space exploration, in medicine,
but what have we learned about our treatment of other humans?

What have we learned about connecting to one’s own spirit?
What is it worth, your spiritual survival?

We are so far removed from our neighbors
from our rainforest
from our compassion
from our hearts
that we are numb to the world around us
and we have lost touch with the world within us.

Every day I see people who suffer physical and emotional pain,
these two are intertwined with little separation.

The body speaks. Listen.

This is yoga – more than physical postures –
yoga connects the physical, mental, emotional selves
into one spiritual Self.

We look outside ourselves,
never thinking that everything lies within.

But the world is changing day by day,
I believe there is a wave of passionate, intelligent people creating change,

The kind of change that starts within –
within our reactions,
within our suffering,
within our humanity,
within our hope for the next generation.

Olivia Cecchettini
Contributing Writer

Olivia’s yoga journey began in 2003. She is certified in Vinyasa, Hatha, and Aerial Yoga and holds a Masters degree in Spiritual Psychology. She believes the mind, body, soul connection is sacred and encourages her students explore and expand within their own bodies and consciousnesses.

by Monique Minahan

I place my left hand on my heart and on top of that layer my right.

I don’t move until I feel that familiar thump-thump beating under my hands, as subtle or as strong as it may be. I don’t move until I connect with the aliveness within me.

Anahata, the heart chakra, reminds me of my need for love and my true capacity to love. It asks me to stretch my heart open not just for my friends or family but for every human being on this planet – a major paradigm shift from the more prominent fear-thy-neighbor mentality that threatens to tear our world apart.

This is why I must connect with myself first. I cannot find compassion for anyone else until I find compassion for myself. I cannot welcome another’s pain until I have welcomed my own.

Onto the physical connection of hands to heart, I layer sound. A soft reverberation of anahata’s seed sound yam starts at the middle point of my sternum, this chakra’s kshetram, or front-body location. It travels through my body, piercing the spine, emerging on my back at the actual chakra point, a deep blue flowering like a tattoo over my upper back.

I repeat that cycle until it feels complete, letting the sound shape-shift, becoming a groan or a song or a wail until it naturally tapers into the quietest, softest syllable, matching the beat of my heart.

Alone with my heart I ask her what she has to say. Then I step back to allow her to answer:

Love bigger, she says. You know you can.

She is right but I stay silent. I listen as she questions why I don’t. I give her all my reasons and tell her that the world makes it hard to love sometimes. She reminds me that when I block love from exiting, I also block love from entering. Like breathing out and breathing in.

I begin bhramari pranayama, the humming bee breath. The gentle buzzing sound allows me to listen to my heart without my head thinking of a reply, a response, a defense.

This practice draws me out into the deep waters of vulnerability, the only state of being where I can receive and offer love fully.

As my humming drifts into silence I become aware of akasha, the heart space, and how it shrinks and expands proportionate to my level of fear or love.

I choose love. Not the small love I only offer to those who love me back. The Big Love that does not require reciprocity. The love that is enlarged by our differences instead of threatened by them. The love which the world needs so desperately.

Part 5 of a 7 part series. You can find part 4 here: Manipura, The Navel.

Monique Minahan
Contributing Writer

Mo is a writer and yoga teacher who believes in peace over happiness and love over fear. She likes to set her sights high and then take small steps to get there. You’ll find her walking the dirt path behind her house with her little fluffy dog, practicing walking her talk by keeping her head high and her heart open. Contact: moniqueminahan.com

by Monique Minahan

I invite my body into some gentle asana next to a dwindling fire. Only after movement do I find the stillness necessary to enter the city of jewels, manipura chakra; mani meaning jewel and pura meaning city. Now focused, I contemplate the literal flames before me then look to my internal place of fire, manipura chakra.

While its frontal location is at the navel, the chakra itself is said to reside at the level of the spine. I guide my attention horizontally there, to the inner wall of the spinal column and whisper the beeja mantra ram until it settles in my bones like the hum of my breath.

I let my inner vision focus around the space of my solar plexus, literally a complex of nerves in the abdomen that delivers the intuitive “gut feeling” or sinking sensation in the pit of our stomach. The fact that there are no bones in front of the solar plexus seems fitting as this chakra embodies willpower and action; an ability to hold one’s self up. It is the center of heat and strength physically and energetically. The Japanese refer to this area of the body as the hara, or “sea of energy.”

Discerning what’s at the heart of this chakra for me requires patience. Below this chakra is the energy that creates me as an individual. Swadhisthana chakra: my ego, self-esteem, my individuality. Above manipura lies anahata chakra, the energy to channel my unique offering to the world. But here is where those two energies meet. Here is where I find empowerment, authenticity and responsibility. Here is where I transition my individuality to universality. Here is where I struggle with holding on and letting go.

I choose the unifying pranayama of breath retention for this chakra; one that balances both prana-vayu (upward and inward energy) and apana-vayu (downward and outward energy).

I visualize the two forces traveling to the navel simultaneously on the inhale. Only when I feel that they have arrived at the same time do I then perform a gentle breath retention before the exhale. I repeat this for a few minutes before letting my breath return to normal.

When I open my eyes, the fire has dwindled to hot embers. I acknowledge the times in my life when I’ve barely had an ember of light to guide me through the darkness. And I acknowledge the times when a full flame has burned through limitations and freed me to be more authentic, empowered and alive.

I bow my head to that.

Part 4 of a 7 part series. You can find part 3 here: Swadhisthana, The Sacrum.

Monique Minahan
Contributing Writer

Mo is a writer and yoga teacher who believes in peace over happiness and love over fear. She likes to set her sights high and then take small steps to get there. You’ll find her walking the dirt path behind her house with her little fluffy dog, practicing walking her talk by keeping her head high and her heart open. Contact: moniqueminahan.com

Celebrate Earth Day by embracing Saucha (cleanliness and purity) in your thoughts, your home and the whole world.

by Laura McCorry

Spring is a time fo new beginnings and for cleaning out the old cobwebbed spaces to bring in fresh air and light. Sometimes these spaces are in the depths of closets and sometimes they can be found in the depths of our thoughts and habits.

Saucha is one of the five moral observances, or Niyamas, of yoga and it refers to cleanliness and purity of body, thoughts and deeds. At first glance, saucha seems rather straight-forward. It’s easy to remember to bathe and to cut your finger nails. Your body won’t feel comfortable or function properly if you stop doing these items of daily maintenance.

But widen the perspective just a bit and you can see how saucha applies to your home as well. If you were to allow trash, papers and other items to accumulate in your home, it would soon be uninhabitable. A clean living space is good for both your health and your mental clarity.

One of the many benefits of yoga is that over time, your awareness will expand in every direction. If you stick with the practice, you’ll find what is good for the body, is also good for the mind and soul. The lessons learned on your mat will follow you into every corner of your experience.

So my hope is that one day, as a species, we will all recognize that the earth, too, needs to be cleaned and maintained.

We learned disposable habits of living from the adults who came before us. It’s easy to fall into the habits of convenience and sticking with the status quo. But there was a time not so long ago before plastics. When things worth having cost a bit more, or took a bit longer, or we knew how to do without them.

You don’t have to revolutionize your life overnight, but I invite you to take a first step. Here are some of the changes I’ve made in my personal life and some that are on my list of what to do next:

• Consider the “end of life” of each object and avoid the use of all plastics wherever possible
• Choose reusable grocery bags and produce bags
• Shop grocery products sold in cardboard boxes or glass jars
• Refuse single use to-go cutlery
• Use cloth placemats and napkins at home
• Extensive use of kitchen towels to avoid using paper towels
• Bring my own tumbler to the coffee shop
• Replace my toothbrush with a bamboo alternative
• Use a glass water bottle for travel
• Cook my own food and eat the leftovers
• Buy less – bring fewer new items into my home
• Invest in a small space/balcony composter

What’s on your list? Share with us in the comments. Here is a great resource with tons of ideas to go even further: plastic free guide

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com

by Monique Minahan

The womb. Love is made here. Life is made here.

Swadhisthana is the seat of our right to feel and represents the duality (and sometimes dueling nature) of separation versus attachment, two concepts I became intimately familiar with while carrying and birthing my son.

A chakra often characterized for its sexuality, I find its watery dimensions to be layered with both humanity and divinity. Growing up in a society that exploits sex and a religion that denied it, I observed it too often reduced to one or the other. The sexual energy this chakra represents spans desire, sensation, pleasure, need and emotion. Much like water changes form to become ice or snow, this chakra’s energy can shrink or expand commensurate to our awareness of it.

As the life inside me grew from hiranyagarbha, the universal womb where all is in its potential state, into my baby, I began to tune in to this chakra on a physical level like never before. The process of creating and carrying life plunged me down into my fears, opened up new depths of emotion, and baptized me more fully into my humanity. It didn’t wash away the ugly or the shameful or the unacceptable – but they were revealed to me without the lens of judgement. I could feel it all, be it all, allow it all.

The space of the womb expands greatly in weight and size during pregnancy. Once baby is born the energetic space is still expansive, but the weight is gone. For weeks I stacked heavy blankets on top of my pelvis to physically weight down swadisthana chakra. The sudden weightlessness felt ungrounding to me, as if the watery energy was struggling to find its boundaries after the enormous experience of childbirth.

I choose a simple mantra for my practice today, the beeja mantra vam.

Pressing on the chakra’s front-body location with one finger, the pubic symphysis, and with another on its back-body mirror image, at the level of the sacrum, I recall that during labor the downward pressure in this space was enormous, an oceanic surge of power I didn’t know I possessed. I release the memory but keep the feeling of intensity in my body as I repeat the mantra.

I free my hands but not my attention. Emotions, memories and judgments surface and I practice allowing them instead of trying to repress them. Some days my mind is as wild as the ocean and all I can do is cling to the anchor of the breath while it swirls me around and around. Today my thoughts feel peacefully contained, like a river flowing downstream content within its banks.

As I end my meditation I return to hiranyagarbha. Some call it god, others universal consciousness. While I cannot grasp its mystery, I can understand it on a level that does not require words. Just presence.

Part 3 of a 7 part series. You can find part 2 here: Mooladhara, The Root.

Monique Minahan
Contributing Writer

Mo is a writer and yoga teacher who believes in peace over happiness and love over fear. She likes to set her sights high and then take small steps to get there. You’ll find her walking the dirt path behind her house with her little fluffy dog, practicing walking her talk by keeping her head high and her heart open. Contact: moniqueminahan.com

by Amy Caldwell

Meditation

What is the point of all this if not to be here now?
How can I remember sooner when lost?
Remember more often?

Portals into knowing slip away
separation, loneliness, depression, anxiety
sometimes accompany the loss

Running doing running doing

I want to remain in being
in peace
in oneness

I want to trust, completely
to learn how to dance gracefully with fear

To love with abandon
this moment
everything
right now
always

 

Head Yoga Teacher and Co-Founder of Yoga One, Amy Caldwell has dedicated herself to the practice, study and teaching of yoga since discovering its joys and benefits in 1997.

by Monique Minahan

I sit on the Earth herself and hold a smooth rock in the palm of each hand. I dug them up when we moved into our house and I use them when I need extra grounding, like today.

Mooladhara chakra is rooted in survival and threatened by fear. It’s located at the literal “root” of our bodies; the Sanskrit word moola meaning “root” or “foundation.” Its location differs for men and women. For me, I visualize it deep in the cervix. 

“Lammmmmmm. Lammmmmm.”

I start with the beeja mantra Lam because sound has always calmed and focused me on a deep level very quickly. The mantra lets me start low. From there I travel within. Deeper than I want to go. 

I allow my thoughts to keep running, and for the moment I descend into the breath. It changes from a natural breath to ujjayi pranayam, and I focus on it like my life depends on it. Because in so many ways it does. 

Once I feel grounded here, the rocks heavy in my hands and my breath steady and full, I feel safe to explore. 

Now I can dance with fear. Now I can speak with fear directly. Now I can feel my fear without being swept away. I’ve been running from her ever since she showed her face during a recent illness.

Sitting with my fear is uncomfortable. It is sticky. It is all mud and no lotus. I want to run but I stay put. I stay present. I keep breathing, I keep observing, I keep listening.

Eventually I open my eyes for nasikagra drishti, nose-tip gazing. This is one of the traditional meditations for mooladhara and inviting my attention to hover just above the skin anchors my vision, which helps steady my mind.

Before emerging, I come back into my breath.

I visualize each successive exhale traveling down through the root of my body, into the ground beneath me, winding its way through layers of earth and liquid until it reaches the intensely hot inner core of our planet.

Then I imagine my inhale drawing all that earth energy back up, through layers of earth and liquid, up through the ground beneath me and into my root chakra.

Nothing outside me has changed, but something inside has shifted. Like the rocks I dug from the earth, I sense my fear has been unearthed, acknowledged and respected. In the pause before I move, I savor this moment of feeling both connected and free, grounded and lightened, human and being.

Part 2 of a 7 part series. You can find Part 1 here: Ajna, The Third Eye.

Monique Minahan
Contributing Writer

Mo is a writer and yoga teacher who believes in peace over happiness and love over fear. She likes to set her sights high and then take small steps to get there. You’ll find her walking the dirt path behind her house with her little fluffy dog, practicing walking her talk by keeping her head high and her heart open. Contact: moniqueminahan.com

 

by Laura McCorry

Don’t do yoga. Step onto your mat with your bare feet. Breathe. Pick a yoga pose, any pose. But don’t do it; at least not the way in which you’re accustomed. Arrange your arms and legs and body to take up the outer form of the pose, then wait.

Breathe. Feel the yoga pose spread from your center and push out into the edges of your body, refining. Don’t move so much as expand by millimeters wherever it tells you to make space.

Start on the outside. Soften skin, then muscle. Then ligaments and tendons and bones. Let go everywhere except those isolated muscles needed to hold you steady.

Then go inside. Soften your thoughts, your feelings. Can you let go of your fears? Allow a thin mist to drape over your dreams and ambition.

Still don’t practice the yoga pose. Allow the yoga pose to practice you, to work on you and through you.

You’ll know when it’s finished. You’ll feel the weight of your body humming the same low tones as the rooted trees in the forest. You’ll become aware of your own absolute stillness. This is what comes after.

When Yoga becomes subject and you become the object acted upon, what comes after is the real fruit of your practice. After exertion, the deep peace of stillness. After the rough seas of life, the wide, clear expanse of your own soul.

 

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com

by Monique Minahan

I start with ajna, the third eye chakra. It might seem like any chakra practice should proceed from bottom-up, but working with the lower chakras can dig up some dirt… so to speak. Connecting with ajna first helps me step back and observe the meditation process as it unfolds.

“Ommmmm,” I chant it slowly, visualizing the sound vibrating at the center of my eyebrows, waiting until it fades completely to begin the next one.

Each chakra has what’s called a beeja mantra or ‘seed sound.’ Om is the seed sound for ajna chakra.

This practice is settling and slow. Questions about my vision begin to float to the surface. Literally my vision (I started wearing glasses at 7 years old); metaphorically my vision (where do I see myself in five years); and spiritually my vision (who do I think I am and who am I really?)

Instead of reaching for the answers with my mind… I just sit with the questions, letting the om soothe my need to know, my need to define myself.

Each chakra has a color associated with it. Ajna is a two-petalled silver-grey lotus flower. I imagine silver beginning as a small dot of color in my belly and watch as it expands through organs and limbs until my whole body is filled with silver, until I am radiating silver. Until the sound of om and my silver being fill all my senses.

The oms naturally begin to wane. The silver color dims and fades completely.

The silence that follows is so crisp, so clear. As if I can hear the everything in the nothingness.

I blink my eyes open slowly, pausing as I take in my surroundings with my actual eyes, grateful for the ability to see where I’ve been, where I am now, and to discern my next step clearly.

This is the first of a 7-part series on the chakras. Check back soon for the next installment!

Monique Minahan
Contributing Writer

Mo is a writer and yoga teacher who believes in peace over happiness and love over fear. She likes to set her sights high and then take small steps to get there. You’ll find her walking the dirt path behind her house with her little fluffy dog, practicing walking her talk by keeping her head high and her heart open. Contact: moniqueminahan.com

guest post by Arati Lane

Om
Yoga was back then, in my youth, the stuff you did with the body
Bending, stretching and breathing
And I knew how to do that and shine and be happy
So easy, like playing

And the depths and wisdom yoga has to offer,
The philosophy and psychology of it and how to apply all that…
Came very slowly. With maturity, with time.
With the need of it.

The longing and struggle that turns oneself inward
Away from the illusions of the world.
Yoga for the feeling, yoga for the thinking…
I need it to go through life.

Transformation into motherhood without yoga would have been so
isolating.
I learned relationships can have a foundation in yoga.
My yoga teachers support me in every way even though they have no
physical body anymore.

It’s very profound to have my life immersed in yoga on every level:

When I am sick or hurt, yoga heals me
When I am afraid, yoga soothes me
When I am lost, yoga is my guide
When it is dark, yoga gives light
Where there is ignorance, yoga gives love.

by Laura McCorry

Anti-resolutions for the modern yogi

It’s good to reflect on where you’ve been and where you’d like to go – to identify the areas of your life where you’d like to see change. But too strong a focus on these things draws us into regret/shame about the past or anxiety/pressure about the future. 

Here are five things I don’t want to do in the coming year. The only way I can avoid them is by not doing them this very moment. There is only here. There is only now. The stroke of midnight will come and go, but the present moment is always with us and always extends the promise of change and of living life more abundantly. 

May you find balance and harmony, right where you are, right now.

1. Dream about things I want instead of doing them.

If you never take the risk, you can never be disappointed. It’s easy to talk or think about the big, incredible things you want to do or experience in life but not take steps towards accomplishing them. Almost any goal can be broken down into concrete small steps that will set you on the course to accomplishing it. Even if your goal is an experience like traveling, you can consciously save a little bit of money each week to work towards this goal.

2. Put off until tomorrow something that can be accomplished today.

On a related note – there’s almost no task more onerous than the repeated experience of thinking about and dreading it. The more you practice embracing the present moment for action, you practice cutting off anxiety at its source. Do your chores. Have the hard conversation. Make an appointment with the dentist. There’s no time like the present moment – in fact, yogis know that’s all there is.

3. Blame someone else for not doing the thing I expect or would like them to do. 

This one sounds ridiculous when you put it in words but it’s very common. Your partner didn’t do something the way you would have done it. Your friend hasn’t called to check on you and you’re feeling lonely. The weight of all these hidden disappointments is too much to carry around embittering your own heart. In the now-immortal words of Elsa, Let it go, let it goooo…

4. Try to adhere to a strict new schedule of eating/exercising/meditation/reading/etc. 

There’s a reason most people fail to keep up with their New Years resolutions by February – it’s because habits are so very strong. Do I want to eat healthy, delicious food, do more yoga and make a bigger dent in my reading list? Hell yeah! But trying to use January to force myself into compliance just isn’t going to work. There are other ways to bring about positive change in your life and all of them require attention throughout the year and not just on January 1st. Marianne Williamson captured the yogic philosophy by stating, “You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be.”

5. Continue to think and operate on the scarcity mindset. 

All too often, we confuse abundance with scarcity. For example, scarcity thinks: I won’t invite my friend over because my house is messy. But focusing on abundance thinks: I have friends, a house, and everything I need and want for daily living. Each day you’re presented with the opportunity to view your life as a scarce commodity or an abundant one. You can guard, protect, and parcel out the best moments or you can celebrate, share, and be fully present for them. I know which one I need more of in this new year.

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com

by Monique Minahan

Where is your sacred space? How does it receive you from the world? How does it release you back into the world?

I’ve come to understand sacred space as anywhere we offer or receive love, listening, beauty or life. Sometimes that space has walls that hold us and sometimes it has arms.

The word sacred shares the same root as the word sacrifice. Sacrifice, as in making an offering, not as in being a martyr. In our sacred spaces sometimes we offer up and sometimes we receive.

Sacred space is wherever I feel held; by the earth, by another human, by the walls, by the trees, by open sky, by open minds.

It’s wherever I hold; the earth in my hands, my baby in my arms, the polarities of life in my heart.

It’s wherever I feel listened to, validated, encouraged, seen.

It’s where reality is respected, fear is faced and the impossible becomes possible.

It’s where grief is practiced, vulnerability is nourished and love is planted.

It’s bigger than a church, a mosque, a synagogue, a yoga class or a cluster of crystals and talismans.

It receives me however I am, wherever I am. It releases me back to the world equal parts human and being, with my own unique offering alive and beating in my heart.

This piece originally published on The Huffington Post.

Monique Minahan
Contributing Writer

Mo is a writer and yoga teacher who believes in peace over happiness and love over fear. She likes to set her sights high and then take small steps to get there. You’ll find her walking the dirt path behind her house with her little fluffy dog, practicing walking her talk by keeping her head high and her heart open. Contact: moniqueminahan.com

guest post by Missy DiDonato

During this month of November, we’re reminded to give thanks. I count myself lucky that I’m grateful for my family, friends, my body and breath. These things are so important, but also obvious in a way.

I was taught to look for the good in everything. This year, I’m trying to find the positives in the unpleasant and downright annoying experiences of life. Here’s my top three unexpected situations I’m grateful for this season:

TRAFFIC: The sound of the word alone probably sparks an ugly feeling inside you, as it does me. Like many other San Diegans, I drive a lot, so being stuck in traffic happens often. I use traffic and driving in general to practice patience and compassion. I’ve come to the realization that no one wants to be in traffic – we all have destinations and other places we’d rather be. So instead of complaining and yelling (which is my first instinct) I simply put on some mood music and try to enjoy just being. I am grateful for the time to relax and listen to good music.

JERKS ON YELP: We recently got a yelp review that rocked my world! The guy was a pretentious asshole who didn’t have any traction for his opinion of the teacher whose class he almost attended. My first response was to be defensive, angry and sad. After I calmed down, I asked myself why a rude comment on the internet upset me so much. I realized it was because I have created a life filled with people who are supportive and non-judgmental. I am grateful for my family, friends and colleagues who show me their love on a daily basis.

DIVORCE: Now this one is pretty unique to my experience. Divorce may have had a different impact on your life. The divorce in my life happened to both of my parents before I was born. They were both married and divorced before they met each other, so I wouldn’t be here without it! They both had children with their previous partners, which helped create the large family that I have today. I embraced their exes as parents, so I got double the love. My second mom has taken me around the world which has been a huge influence on who I am today. My dad’s ex-wife remarried a man who was also divorced and had two sons whom I now consider my brothers. We are lucky because there is a mutual respect for all the ex and current spouses. As hard as it can be for families to separate and recombine, I am grateful for divorce because it has given me the loving family that I have today.

Missy DiDonato
Guest Writer

Missy began practicing yoga at home when she was fourteen, following along to a DVD in her living room. She has since completed two separate 200 hour Yoga Teacher Trainings with UCSD and Yoga One. Missy loves helping others find their own yogic path and students of all levels appreciate her warm and friendly teaching style.

by Laura McCorry

As a new yoga teacher, I was in love with everything yoga. I wanted to soak it all in and learn as much as I possibly could so that when my training was over, I could go out into the world and help people move and feel better in their bodies.

I diligently memorized all the Sanskrit names and their English translations. I practiced saying both names whenever I taught a class (and I’m a bit embarrassed to think how many Sanskrit names I’ve now forgotten). But there was one pose, one name, for which I always used the Sanskrit: savasana.

After yoga and namaste, it’s probably the most-recognized Sanskrit word, so you can get away with not saying its translation. I’ve used “final relaxation” to explain savasana in many classes. But here are the words I’ve avoided saying for so many years:

Corpse Pose.

I was reminded of the proper translation this week. I had just finished leading a restorative yoga class and everyone in the room was lying down on their mats, not moving. This is the most relaxing part of yoga, the culmination of the previous hour and the time when the body receives the greatest benefit from the practice.

And I remembered that savasana meant corpse pose and I felt a chill go up my spine to see a room full of people, essentially “practicing” death. In that moment, I realized how much easier it was for me to be the teacher, to sit on my mat and stay “awake” so I could guide them out of savasana when the time was right.

My level of comfort with death ranges from “not very” to “nope, this is not even a little bit okay.” And I know I’m not alone. Our culture pushes death outside the realm of public discourse. We cover it up in medical jargon and leave death in the hands of hospice and the funeral home – anything to create some distance between us, the living, and the-thing-we-fear-above-all- fears.

So there’s something profoundly radical about the practice of yoga ending each session with the practice of death.

It flies in the face of popular culture which would rather pay attention to the youngest, newest, brightest thing under the sun. Which helps explain why savasana at some of the trendier, more corporate-feeling yoga studios can be so short – sometimes no more than two minutes.

How long savasana should last is a matter of debate in the yoga world, but the goal is long enough for you (your essence/spirit/soul) to surrender you (the body/mind). To truly practice corpse pose, you must recognize your Self as separate from your body. This acknowledgement can take years to manifest because we are very attached to our bodies in both a literal and psychological sense.

One of yoga’s primary tenets is the yama of non-attachment, aparigraha. It is natural for us to cling to things, to hold on tight to the people we love and the experiences of our body. But yoga teaches that You are not your body. In order to be free, to experience samadhi, or union with the divine, you must let go. Surrender. And yes, even practice death.

I believe that fear and discomfort can only ever hold us back from the fullness of life. We are meant to be alive. We are meant to fully enjoy this beautiful world and to live abundantly. I hope that over time, this practice of yoga continues to mold me, body, mind and spirit until I can one day acknowledge death without fear. Until the practices of living and dying can peacefully coexist that I might move with greater ease through this experience of life. And I wish the same for you.

**This post was partly inspired by Contributing Writer, Monique Minahan’s piece When I’m Gone Please Don’t Have a Funeral on Huffington Post. Thank you Monique for always writing from your heart!

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com

by Laura McCorry

One of my teachers used to begin class with two simple questions: Where are you?

At work, at home, at the grocery store. At yoga, waiting for class to begin. So many thoughts and plans running through my head. My body carried me to class, through the motions of walking, driving, talking, sitting, without any special notice or conscious direction.

Where are you?

His voice was clear and strong. The entire class answers back with one voice:

Here.

Then the next question: What time is it?

Morning, afternoon, after work. I’m in the middle of something, still working it out, making plans. Thinking about someone, wishing, worrying. Early with nothing to do then running late and feeling anxious. The day slips away hour by hour until I rush to make it before they close the door and hastily sit down on my mat.

What time is it?

The room has grown quiet and still. I’m aware of everyone in the room and how our disparate thoughts and experiences have all been submerged into this one experience, together. We answer:

Now.

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com

There are so many messages that our society sends women about their bodies and how they should look and perhaps one of the most vulnerable times to hear these messages is when you’ve just had a baby. Case in point, just recently a reviewer on Yoga One’s yelp page wrote about leaving class because the teacher was out of shape and therefore couldn’t be an experienced teacher. The reviewer had never been to the studio before. That teacher happens to have over a decade of experience and a beautiful six month old.

Help us share real stories like this one and support all individuals in their journey to lead happier and healthier lives. We want to hear your experiences with body image and/or postpartum recovery in the comments or by email (info@yogaonesandiego.com). If you’ve taken class at Yoga One, please consider posting your feedback online, Facebook, Yelp, Google, etc., we’d love to hear your thoughts! 

Part three in a series of reflections on pregnancy, childbirth and yoga from Missy DiDonato. Be sure to read her prenatal article and a just-after postpartum article.

guest post by Missy DiDonato

One year later (damn, already?!) I can say this about postpartum recovery and overall wellness – it’s not for sissies! 

Before giving birth, I had expected that my body would go back to what I still considered “normal.” I wouldn’t have the aches and pains I’d experienced during pregnancy and I assumed that with some time and effort, I would eventually be the same size and weight as before. But I was naïve to how long it would actually take and I had to adjust my expectations.

I had a cesarean and they cut my stomach muscles to deliver my baby. Abrupt, I know, but I needed to say those words to myself in order to process the experience. The initial weeks of recovery and healing from the c-section were easier than I anticipated and I was able to get back on my mat practicing yoga after just six weeks. I took it slow and thought that by allowing myself enough time to heal, my body would go back to the way it was pre-baby. But a year later, I’m still struggling with both the expectation and physical experience of “getting my body back.”

My biggest setback physically is the ongoing work of mending and strengthening my abdominal muscles. Their lack of stability often causes acute low back pain. I’m constantly reminding myself to get up after sitting for too long (an epidemic really, among anyone who sits too long at their desk or in a car.) I’ve had a couple of debilitating moments where I had to seek medical treatment with acupuncture and massage. This, coupled with proper yoga asanas to strengthen my ab muscles and stretch my hips and hamstrings, has kept the pain at bay. But sometimes I feel as though this pain will be a consistent reminder of what my body miraculously performed.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel bad about my body. It’s given me a healthy baby girl and for that, I am forever grateful. I do get bummed when I realize my belly is no longer the adorable object of affection.

Just as my body had to make space for the experience of carrying a life, my postprtum body needed time to adjust to a new version of life with different activities, patterns and eating habits. It’s been a challenge to fit healthy eating into a much busier day to day life. Making time for workouts and time for me often falls by the wayside simply because I miss her. So we take more walks and do yoga in the park. 

My priority is Olive and I remind myself that I have to be physically and spiritually strong to care for her like she deserves. My physical appearance is no longer my top concern, but the health of my body matters.

If I could say one thing to new moms, it’s that adjusting to your new schedule will be difficult, but remember that you gave birth, and that’s not for sissies! You got this!

 

Missy DiDonato
Guest Writer

Missy began practicing yoga at home when she was fourteen, following along to a DVD in her living room. She has since completed two separate 200 hour Yoga Teacher Trainings with UCSD and Yoga One. Missy loves helping others find their own yogic path and students of all levels appreciate her warm and friendly teaching style.

by Laura McCorry

What’s weighing you down? That idea pushed to the back of your mind that hasn’t left. Maybe it’s been days or months. Maybe you’ve been thinking about this thing you’d like to change for years.

Sometimes we let ourselves be defined by conditions and labels that have grown up over the years like weeds. They come from family, co-workers or friends – sometimes they have even been planted by our own hand in the night. The weeds grow up around the bloom of your true self and cut off the light.

You are the gardener of your soul. Approach your inner landscape fearlessly and take stock of everything growing there.

Keep the healthy growth: the relationships still in bloom that bring you joy, those habits and ideas that feed your passions with their abundant produce.

Prune back anything that doesn’t fit your true self, the person you’d like to be. Clear away doubt, anger, resentment and guilt. Let go of old sorrows that have ripened and fallen to the ground. Dig down into the earth of your being and rake away the last remnants of any bad seed.

These things weigh on your heart because they are not rightfully a part of you. A gardener’s work is never done. Each day you must go out and pull up small intrusions. Each day you must show up and begin again.

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com

by Monique Minahan

We all wear our stories in some way or another, don’t we? They make us who we are (and sometimes keep us from becoming who we can be if we let them define us too narrowly.)

I started making what I call “Life Malas” because each marker is placed for a life event. I used yellow jade for manipura chakra (solar plexus), green jade for anahata chakra (heart), green ruby zoisite for sahasrara chakra (crown), and a spiral shell I found on the beach because it feels like home.

I made this one for me, so I placed the green jade marker beads at the times when my life and heart were busted open. Marker 1 is at 25, the age I was when Nathan died. Marker 2 is at 37, when my baby was born. Marker 3 is at 98, the age of my great-grandmother, born in 1917, who is breathing her last breaths this year.

Stringing the beads under the darkness of a new moon, it occurred to me that at one of these beads I will pass away myself (and that this life is not a dress rehearsal, so I’ve got to live it right the first time.)

There are 108 beads in a mala, and if I get to see bead 98 like my grandma, I’ll count myself very lucky. I’ll still count myself lucky to see 39 this month.

I made this mala necklace to remind me that both loss and life are part of the same cycle. They coexist beautifully if I let them, and if I practice embracing both rather than inviting one and rejecting the other, I get to experience the full depth of being human instead of just skimming the surface.

My life mala is an outward representation of the integrity, cohesiveness and beauty that emerges when I allow every experience to support the next one. Broken or fragmented as they appear at times, when I view them all together they form this fragile but beautiful thing called life.

Monique Minahan
Contributing Writer

Mo is a writer and yoga teacher who believes in peace over happiness and love over fear. She likes to set her sights high and then take small steps to get there. You’ll find her walking the dirt path behind her house with her little fluffy dog, practicing walking her talk by keeping her head high and her heart open. 

Read more from Monique on her blog, mindfulmo.com

 

When Mantra Mag asked Yoga One studio owners Amy and Michael Caldwell to define love, they didn’t disappoint!

“Love is cheering for and chaperoning a newly hatched sea turtle along its perilous journey to the sea, swatting away the horde of predatory birds while conscious that I am depriving them of breakfast. Love is doing what feels right in the moment with an awareness and appreciation that there are other equally valid, often opposing, viewpoints.” – Michael Caldwell

“A friend said, ‘Love is an action of deeply paying attention to your life.’ For me, conscientious love also means continually opening our hearts when life is easily flowing and amidst challenging circumstances. Love in the context of close personal relationships allows us to practice. Through our experiences of connection, hopefully we remember love is our true nature.” – Amy Caldwell
Thank you Mantra Mag for the feature!

 

by Monique Minahan

I don’t teach you yoga.
You are yoga.

You are that sweet exhale,
that expansive inhale
that pause in between.

You are that unified breath,
that connected mind and body,
the observer and the observed.

What I teach you is how to remember
because we forget.

I forget.

So I invite you back to your breath
back to your body
back to you.

You accept my invitation
but it’s not me you are saying yes to.

It’s you.

You say yes to you.

Yes to your inhale,
Yes to your exhale,
Yes to your tight hamstrings,
Yes to your aching heart.

Yes to your wobbles,
Yes to your strength,
Yes to your past,
Yes to your Now.

Yes to your failures,
Yes to your triumphs,
Yes to your hopes,
Yes to your dreams.

Yes to your anger,
Yes to your peace,
Yes to your fear,
Yes to your courage.

Yes to you.

You say yes to you. I see that happen before my eyes and that is why I bow to you.

It is my privilege to witness your return every time

to your mat
to your heart
to you.

Namaste.

Monique Minahan
Contributing Writer

Mo is a writer and yoga teacher who believes in peace over happiness and love over fear. She likes to set her sights high and then take small steps to get there. You’ll find her walking the dirt path behind her house with her little fluffy dog, practicing walking her talk by keeping her head high and her heart open. 

Read more from Monique on her blog, mindfulmo.com

by Monique Minahan

Early on in my yoga practice I would often experience an emotional reaction during corpse pose (savasana). Lying still, I would get a lump in my throat and suddenly find tears quietly rolling down my cheeks. I didn’t know it at the time, but my yoga practice was releasing long-held grief from my body.

When grief and recovery from trauma have been processed by the mind, life may begin to seem approachable again and many people feel they can move forward; but the same processes of recovery and healing are essential to the body as well.

Feeling a strong emotional release in a yoga pose or during final relaxation is far from uncommon. One of yoga’s most powerful side effects is its ability to release and heal the BodyMind. Not just the body. Not just the mind. The combined, interconnected, undivided BodyMind.

BodyMind is a term coined by Dr. Candace Pert, a neuropharmacologist who pioneered scientific research into the field of Mind-Body Medicine, advancing our understanding of what are called neuropeptides, or messenger molecules that carry information from the mind to the body and back again through body fluids. These neuropeptides are found throughout our bodies in the heart, sexual organs, and the limbic system, to name a few.

Dr. Pert breaks this concept down with an example of the gut. The entire lining of our intestines is lined with these particular transmitters. She posits, “It seems entirely possible to me that the richness of the receptors may be why a lot of people feel their emotions in their gut – why they have a ‘gut feeling.’”

She further comments: “I think unexpressed emotions are literally lodged in the body. The real true emotions that need to be expressed are in the body, trying to move up and be expressed and thereby integrated, made whole, and healed.”

When we move our bodies through yoga, our BodyMind is allowed expression. It can begin to release emotion and tension that’s been stuck in our bodies for a long period of time, perhaps even years after we think we’ve mentally processed the event.

Exploring these heavy emotions in our yoga practice, whether intentionally or accidentally, might feel intimidating. Resourcing is a technique that helps us stay present during uncomfortable or overwhelming sensations by finding and connecting to a resource, such as the breath or one of the five senses. This connection works like an anchor for a boat and we can begin to observe sensations safely, without fear of getting lost in the sea of our experience.

Join me this Mother’s Day at Yoga One for a special commemorative practice where we will explore three ways to use resourcing with yoga, as well as learn how to identify where emotions reside in our individual bodies. We will focus specifically on how to apply these tools when dealing with loss and grief.

This practice is for anyone interested in learning how to use yoga as a supportive healing modality, but especially for anyone who has lost their mother and would welcome a supportive, safe, non-judgemental environment to honor their mother on Mother’s Day.

Loss is something we will all experience in our lifetime. It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when. Our yoga practice will not show us a way out of grief, but it can show us a way through and support us through every stage of healing.

Note: If this is something you’re interested in, but find the cost prohibitive or cannot attend for some other reason, please contact Yoga One to arrange a way for you to receive the information: 619-294-7461 or email info@yogaonesandiego.com

Monique Minahan
Contributing Writer

Mo is a writer and yoga teacher who believes in peace over happiness and love over fear. She likes to set her sights high and then take small steps to get there. You’ll find her walking the dirt path behind her house with her little fluffy dog, practicing walking her talk by keeping her head high and her heart open. 

Read more from Monique on her blog, mindfulmo.com

by Sarah Clark

I’ve come to think of my eight-limbed yoga practice a lot like the image of the bodhisattva Avalokite?vara from the Buddhist tradition. This figure, said to embody compassion, is often depicted with many, sometimes innumerable arms. Each one of these arms and subsequent hands holds a different kind of tool – the tool that will be just right for the task; and that right tool depends on the circumstance.

Like many westerners, I was introduced to yoga through asana, or the practice of yoga postures. Asana is the third limb of yoga in the eight-limbed path. For a long while, my practice was characterized solely by the time I spent on my yoga mat, sweating, moving and breathing (working with the energy of breathing is the fourth limb, by the way: pranayama). It was glorious.

But after awhile, I felt other seeds starting to grow. My posture and breathing practices were effecting other aspects of my life. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I felt as though I was becoming more patient and calm. I could feel these seeds sprouting tendrils that were reaching down into deeper parts of me that earnestly valued compassion, kindness and peace. I was hungry to understand more about what was happening.

I found teachers, or maybe they found me, that were eager to foster my deeper growth. I started learning about the eight-limbed path and I started to ask myself hard questions and take on new practices. I wanted to know: what is this practice for? Why bother? Why, exactly, am I dedicating all this time in my life to practice? Where is it leading? What are my truest, deepest values?

The beauty of the eight-limbed path is that it dealt with the whole of me. The first limb, the yamas, profoundly changed my life. The yamas are comprised of five ethical practices that help us navigate the sticky world of relationships. We activate these yamas in our actions and speech, in how we listen, and how we work with our thoughts. We wrestle with the intention to cause no harm (ahimsa), to be honest (satya), and to let go of our tendencies for greed (aparigraha).

I discovered that the other limbs were equally potent. I learned how to cultivate patience when yoga postures and everyday life was high in intensity (practice of tapas) and how to find contentment in my being regardless of circumstance (santo?a). These are part of the second limb, called the niyamas.

I learned to harness the subtly of my breath, and how to savor its energetic effects with more nuance as I dove deeper into the fourth limb of pranayama.

I learned how to work with my sensory experiences and to let go of them through the fifth limb of pratyahara so that I was able to psychologically settle down. This paved the way to being able to mentally stop running around and running away in my mind: that’s the sixth limb, dharana.

I began a quiet, seated meditation practice, limb number seven, dhyana. I took a deeper look at how I constructed my reality. Now, I sit every day. And samadhi, the eighth limb, opens up in moments. This is the limb of being fully integrated in my life, just how it is. It circles me back around to the first limb again, begging that I use these deeper insights and growing wisdom in the actions I take in my life.

The eight-limbed path has not led me to some constant state of bliss or ended world hunger. But its richness is a scaffolding through which I stay more steadily connected with what is most meaningful in my life. It keeps my eye on the target of living a life of kindness, compassion, steadiness, and love. And it is whole. It addresses my entire, interwoven body-energy-mind-heart.

As a practitioner, and especially as a yoga teacher, I owe it to myself and to the world to take on a more whole practice; it’s critical I encourage my practice to mature. We live in a complex, interconnected world, and so we need a wide range of tools in our tool belt! I hope to see us as a wider yoga community embrace the fullness of yoga through all eight limbs, so that this path can more meaningfully address the real needs of this particular culture at this particular time. The way that actually shows up in our life is entirely dependent on each of our unique circumstances! And, allowing a whole practice to shake up our world honors the precious opportunity that is being alive.

If you want to learn more about the eight limbs of yoga and how they can enhance your life and your practice, join me on Sunday, May 3rd at noon at Yoga One for an in-depth workshop, 8 Limbs for a Whole Being. For more details and to register, go here.

Sarah Clark has been teaching yoga since 2006. She currently offers Teacher Training, workshops, private instruction, and group classes throughout San Diego, CA. Her primary teachers include Michael Stone, Joe Miller, Christie Clark, Judith Lasater & Cyndi Lee. 

by Laura McCorry

What does it mean to practice yoga when your physical practice is greatly diminished or taken away entirely from illness or injury? 

Yoga grew out of a tradition that includes eight limbs (or tenets) for a complete practice. Asana, or the physical postures of yoga, is just one of those eight limbs. The others show up during yoga practice as well and contain the philosophical groundwork of the ancient practice. (You can do your own search to learn more or come to our upcoming 8 Limbs for a Whole Being workshop on May 3rd.)

I’ve experienced long withdrawals from my physical practice due to long-term injury and more recently, a period of several weeks wherein I’ve caught one virus after another. Neither condition is any fun because you’d much rather be well and able to move your body freely.

So what does it mean to be a yogi who cannot practice asana?

I started out feeling very sorry for myself and disconnected from most forms of yoga displayed on the internet. I didn’t want to see photos of handstands on the beach or “inspirational” videos of complicated pose transitions. But this is the showy side of yoga and if you dig deeper, there’s so much more.

Physical limitations give you many opportunities to practice non-attachment, or aparigraha. You must let go of what you used to be able to do. You learn to guard your heart against jealousy when others do what you cannot. There is always a choice in how and whether you respond to any given circumstance. Non-attachment means letting go of feeling bitter and lost and broken.

Yoga becomes a more internal experience. During asana practice, teachers often tell you to listen to your body. Without asana, you must listen to your state of mind. (tweet that) The lessons learned on your mat become even more important when you cannot use the gross tool of your body to process them. The mind is slipperier and harder to control.

I found new ways to measure my yoga practice. I could no longer count the number of sun salutations I did in class, but I could ask myself if I spent some time sitting in silence. Did I make the most loving decisions I could make? How long was I able to forget about myself while being present for another? Sometimes yoga meant doing something just because it brought joy into the world.

If you really practice yoga outside the studio and off your mat, you realize that you always have your breath. I learned to make time just to breathe consciously. This was my practice – to be aware of my breath moving in and out of the body, sustaining my life. To allow myself to be carried away by the sensation of breath until the mind gives up listing its grievances and to-do lists. Then you move beyond the awareness of breathing and for an unknowable space of time, you simply are. This is the good stuff. This is samadhi, or oneness with the universe, that all yoga practice seeks to achieve.

Asana is wonderful. It can help transform both body and mind. But it’s not the only path. If you must take a break from asana, do not mourn it for too long. The real work of becoming who you are meant to be is internal and the other limbs of yoga can reveal the process. Stay connected to yourself and to the experience of each moment. This is how yoga moves with you and carries you through times of adversity.

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com

interview with Yoga One Teacher Trainee, Hannah Faulkner

What do you hope to gain from Yoga One Teacher Training?

Personally and in my teaching, I hope to improve on being in the moment and making mindful, compassionate decisions. Likewise, I would like to improve my knowledge of preventing injuries for my students in yoga. Physically, I’d like to improve my alignment and strength to successfully balance in handstand and forearm stand.

What’s one thing you’ve learned already that’s changed your perspective on yoga and/or life?

As a woman who is constantly busy and in a hurry, I am learning to stay in the moment and be present. As humans, we have the freedom to decide how to react in any situation, I can react according to my emotions and thoughts or be mindful of everyone and everything around me as well as being conscious of the effects of my choices.

Physically, I have learned that my body needs to be aligned in five ways (foundation, muscle energy, inner rotation, outer rotation, and finding length in my torso and limbs), not only in each pose, but in my daily life: standing, sitting, and sleeping. Since I’ve been working on these adjustments, I’ve been able to sleep on my back in comfort throughout the night. This is something that I haven’t been able to do for years.

If you could describe Yoga One Teacher Training in three words, they would be: Mindfulness, Balance, Alignment

by Monique Minahan

If walking down the street was a yoga pose, how would we do it? Would we walk more mindfully, consciously, and with attention to how our breath informs our every step?

by Olivia Cecchettini

Recently my mom gave me a stack of O Magazines she had finished reading. They sat in a pile on my floor until one day I picked them up and started flipping through them for inspiration. Oprah interviewed some of the world’s most powerful and influential women, yet I noticed that they all admitted to a common struggle: not owning their own strength and accomplishments.

Women who were doing great, important work in the world were shying away from praise and recognition by choosing to remain small. Worried about how they would be received. Feeling embarrassed. Or afraid of shouting their voice into the world.

I used to be like that. In college, I changed majors from Communications to Psychology because I was scared to give a speech in front of my class. The feeling of getting up in front of people made me tremble inside. I was literally sweating, nervous with stomach ache – I just couldn’t do it.

I thought maybe I wouldn’t have to face that particular fear of mine, but life keeps bringing you the same lesson until you face it head on. If I wanted to become a yoga teacher (and I very much wanted to share my love of yoga!), I needed to be able to speak in front of a group of people.

Everything that makes life worth living happens outside the comfortable little space you’ve carved out for yourself, so I chose to step outside.

I was terrified during the first “practice” yoga class I taught. As I practiced more and taught more classes, I came to see that yoga is about co-creation. Knowing I wasn’t alone, that everyone present contributes their own energy, brought me peace. It was incredibly hard to allow myself to be seen, but I believe it’s the only way to show my authentic self and create connection.

There are many messages the world sends out every day. Messages designed to put us in our place, to make us feel less than capable, or to silence our voices. Those challenges are real, but I also know that we all have a little whisper of guidance inside. As we open our bodies, minds and hearts through yoga, the connection to that whisper is strengthened. We begin to strengthen the muscle of confidence and trust within as well.

What challenges are facing you this new year? My hope is that whatever they are, you look for the lesson, a way forward, the path which leads to growth. Get to know yourself and accept what you find. Be gentle. Be bold. Who knows what we can co-create when we own our power? I’m excited to find out.

Olivia Cecchettini
Contributing Writer

Olivia’s yoga journey began in 2003. She is certified in Vinyasa, Hatha, and Aerial Yoga and holds a Masters degree in Spiritual Psychology. She believes the mind, body, soul connection is sacred and encourages her students explore and expand within their own bodies and consciousnesses.

guest post by Missy DiDonato

Remember this beautiful prenatal yoga reflection written by Missy back in June? Well her baby, Olive, is now five months old. Missy shares how her practice has evolved yet again after the birth of her daughter!

by Laura McCorry

Everyone knows the holidays can be a stressful time of year. Combining multiple social engagements, the expectation of gift giving, and seeing your relatives is enough to set most people’s nerves on edge. But it doesn’t have to be that way!

Yoga encourages us to continually check in with the present moment. “What is happening right now?” Yoga One head teacher Amy Caldwell likes to ask. It’s easy to become unsatisfied thinking about the past or anxious thinking about the future. Present moment awareness uses meditation and pranayama (breath control) to bring our emotional selves back into balance.

To encourage balance in all things, even our giving, here’s a non-traditional holiday gift guide for the yogi in all of us:

1. Spend quality time with the ones you love. It doesn’t get any simpler or better than this. Love can’t be bought or wrapped – it can only be shared. Sit down to a meal, play on the floor with the kids or the dog, go for a long walk. In this age of increasing digital connection, it’s good to remember the joy of being present in person. Your presence is the gift.

2. Create or purchase an experience gift. After basic needs are met, more material things do not necessarily increase happiness. When you provide an experience, you can still have the pleasure of gift giving without adding to your loved one’s possessions. This can be anything from tickets to a play or concert, a good old fashioned coupon book, or the even the gift of yoga (our favorite!)

3. Encourage minimalism, give chocolate. Consumable gifts are enjoyable but won’t take up space on a closet shelf for years to come (though eaten in excess, they may land on the thighs). Good examples include a gift certificate for dinner at a favorite restaurant, a subscription to a CSA or DIY meal service like Blue Apron, a bottle of wine or a favorite beer, the list goes on! (You can find award-winning Beardsman Brewery local beer at Yoga One on December 12th)

4. Write a letter of support. It’s important to tell someone how you feel, yet writing it down can sometimes be even more powerful. Thank them for taking the time to listen. Congratulate them on achieving a goal, having a baby, being an awesome person. Support their personal development. Encourage the yogis you know to deepen their practice by participating in the Yoga One Teacher Training.

5. Give Back. Many charitable organizations rely on end of year donations to fund their services and programs throughout the year. Seva Yoga is the practice of selfless service without the expectation of reward. You can volunteer your time, add a charity to your wish list, buy some extra groceries for your local food pantry, or donate yourself. You can even select a charity to benefit from your web browsing and shopping through Amazon Smile or Goodsearch.

It’s the thought, grounded in present moment awareness which is then consciously acted upon, that counts! Whatever you decide to give this holiday season, let it spring from a place of balance and love. From all of us at Yoga One, to all of you, wishing you good health and much happiness!

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com

by Monique Minahan

At yoga recently the teacher suggested this intention for our practice:

I will not take things personally.

This didn’t really resonate with me, so I chose an intention that rang more true to me:

I will take things personally.

As in, I will get up close and personal with my dreams, my loves, my life and my fears. I will smell their sweat and place their sticky cheek next to mine and breathe in their outbreath. I will inhabit every ounce of this human body as I rest in the hammock of being and awareness that holds it up.

I sometimes get the sense in the yoga world we’re all trying to detach and be perfectly balanced, enlightened beings. I’m all for enlightenment, but in striving for that perfect state we can miss a lot of wonderful imperfection along the way because we consider it “in the way.”

For a long time I approached my practice and my life as if it were in the way of where I was going. I wanted to get “there” because getting there seemed to mean I wouldn’t have to suffer anymore. I envisioned a state of being where stress wouldn’t sway me, family wouldn’t bother me, loss wouldn’t shake me, and life wouldn’t hurt me.

What I was doing was detaching from my reality and skipping out on my own life. I was missing the point Peter Rhodes makes when he says:

“We make a mistake when we wait for heaven, wait for enlightenment, wait for change. It is not going to happen in the future. It is happening. It is within our experience. Now is the time.”

Yoga and meditation are tools that help us distinguish the two and bring a quality of awareness to our lives so that we don’t suffer unnecessarily. It is just so easy to use these valuable tools to bypass what’s happening right now, what’s living and thriving in our bones and bodies and lives right now; the good, the bad, and the ugly. Life is not always love and light. Sometimes it’s pain and darkness. They are the two poles of life that together light up our lives as the full experience it is.

It’s easy to fall into a practice of seeking enlightenment on a mountain top while the everyday enlightenment passes us by. Lorin Roche reminds us of this in The Radiance Sutras:

Wherever, whenever you feel carried away,
Rejoicing in every breath,
There, there is your meditation hall.
Cherish those times of absorption—
Rocking the baby in the silence of the night
Pouring water into a crystal glass
Tending the logs in the crackling fire
Sharing a meal with a circle of friends.
Embrace these pleasures and know,
This is my true body.
Nowhere is more holy than this.
Right here is the sacred pilgrimage.

I’m so grateful to that yoga teacher for her offering and for sharing an intention that was relevant in her life. It helped shed light on my own process and revealed to me an intention that has been marinating in me all year.

I will take things personally. I will live life fully. I will love more than ever before.

Monique Minahan
Contributing Writer

Mo is a writer and yoga teacher who believes in peace over happiness and love over fear. She likes to set her sights high and then take small steps to get there. You’ll find her walking the dirt path behind her house with her little fluffy dog, practicing walking her talk by keeping her head high and her heart open. 

Read more from Monique on her blog, mindfulmo.com

guest post by Dina Weldin

“Your husband is in the military?!”

I hear this question all the time. I get it. You think, yoga teacher and military man, how does that work?

The truth is that yoga and the military go together quite serendipitously.

I’d been practicing yoga for about five years when I met my husband. We met, we dated, he went off to training, we got married, and before I knew it, he was leaving for deployment. Along with the pride, love, and honor I feel being a military spouse, there is also the worry, uncertainty, and fear.

Is he alright? When will I hear from him again? How long will it take the mail to deliver his package this time?

As month three of deployment arrived, I took a giant leap of faith and did something I’d always wanted to do but had never “found the time or the money” before – I enrolled in Yoga Teacher Training at Yoga One.

I learned so many things during the weeks of teacher training but what I didn’t expect to learn was something I will treasure beyond time. I learned I am so much stronger than I knew. Not a physical strength, but an emotional, mental, and spiritual strength I didn’t know I possessed. The challenges of deployment, though always looming, were not insurmountable. My yoga practice and the beautiful community of yogis in teacher training were always there to support me.

Here is what I found to be true:

Breath is life and life is breath. We don’t often get a chance to just listen to ourselves breathe. When was the last time you stopped, felt your heart beat, and actually listened to yourself inhale and exhale? This is such a powerful tool when going through worry and stress of any kind, especially in the military world. On the days I felt my world was collapsing, all I had to do was stop and listen to my breath. It was always there for me, every single time. Calm your breath to calm your mind.

Life is about right now. I felt victim to living in a constant state of “what if?” What if I can’t do this alone? What if something happens to him? Instead of “what if?” try “what is?” What is happening right now? What is true is what is in front of us in this very moment. Yoga teaches us present moment awareness which creates gratitude for what is right now: Life, Breath, Connection.

Community is everything. The last five letters in that word – unity – this is the literal definition of the word yoga. To be united with our breath, with our community, with our friends, and with our family, whomever you choose to call your family, this is truly what yoga is all about at its very core. Whether I am alone on my mat in my home, or in a class full of 100 yogis I have never met, we are united. And having my fellow trainees, Yoga One family, my amazing sets of parents, my beautiful friends, military community—that is where I find strength as a military spouse.

When I think about the military-yogi connection, it all makes perfect sense. Feel present in your life. Live it for what it is, not what it should have been or what it could be. Draw energy from your community on days you don’t have any of your own. And finally, find your breath every single day. It can be as simple as that, just breathe. You are exactly where you need to be. 

Are you a service member or military spouse interested in yoga? 

Yoga for Vets offers a listing of classes around the country for free or reduced rates for current service members. 

MyCAA is an excellent resource for military spouses looking to gain portable career training, one option is to become a yoga teacher! Yoga One Teacher Training proudly accepts MyCAA candidates.

Dina Weldin
Guest Writer

Dina fell in love with yoga ten years ago on the east coast and currently teaches all over San Diego in many unique environments. She has a diverse yoga background and incorporates attention to mindfulness, breath and alignment in her teachings. When not practicing yoga, she can be found on doggie beach with her husband Will and dog Mar.

Yoga One Family Member, Frank Richardson, has been sharing his practice with our community since October of 2011. We love his positive energy, easy smile and kindness. He writes about how his yoga practice has supported him while traveling in Italy.

For me, Yoga is closely linked with meditation. One has more movement than the other, though both come from the physical mechanics underlying the act of breathing.

Being still in meditation causes us to open up from the rhythm and flow of breath, the expansion and contraction of the diaphragm and lungs starting at the root and progressing up through all the chakras, pausing at the crown, then flowing down again.

Focusing on this flow and letting thoughts go without locking on to them allows us to be aware of the continuing presence underlying the static paths of thoughts.

Yoga builds on this breathing practice by extending the movements created by breathing into practiced cycles that bring the flow throughout the body. Yoga brings Prana, or breath, wherever there is constriction or “stuck-ness” or even pain.

Flow, I am coming to realize, is essential to joy. Yoga opens my body and mind to being joyful by connecting to the flow of life that is happening from moment to moment.

The yoga I am doing now while traveling is not formal. There are no classes defining “practice.” I watch my breathing and my quality of alertness or presence.

How I am standing or sitting? Am I leading with my heart? Is my head up or am I looking down? What’s the level of anxiety I am experiencing right now? Can I breathe through it to get to the other side?

I most likely won’t be able to practice either yoga or meditation formally again until I get home; but the moment to moment check-ins keep me in balance and moving with the flow while traveling through this wonderful and sometimes daunting place called Italy.

by Laura McCorry

You are not fixed. 

Sometimes change is so slow as to be imperceptible. Your cells are always dying and new ones are born to take their place. Every day your hair grows a bit longer. Every day some small new part is incorporated into the whole of you.

All it takes to change your direction in life is one new thought. One different action. One word of love. All that came before brought you to this moment, right now. But the past shouldn’t be given a seat at the table of today.

Have the small acts and thoughts of this hour brought you into alignment with what you know to be true about yourself? If you have strayed from your path, this is when you need to have the most compassion for yourself and the most courage to forget what came before and begin again.

Never be afraid to speak your truth. People will try to hold onto the old idea of you because it is familiar. Don’t be tempted to go along with them.

Listen to the voice inside that speaks your dreams. Give yourself permission to shout who you are to the world. Consistent acts in the same direction add up over time. Small steps matter. You are not fixed – you are free.

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com

Yoga One teacher Jennifer Tipton wrote a beautiful reflection on the life and practice of one of her yoga mentors, B.K.S. Iyengar for YogiTimes. Read the whole article here.

Jennifer teaches Yoga for Backs on Tuesdays at 7:30pm and Rooftop Mixed Level Flow at Hotel Solamar on Sundays at 9am. See our full schedule here.

The Iyengar style of yoga is known for its extensive use of props (blocks, blankets, straps, and more) and a focus on precise physical alignment.

Jennifer writes, “Through the longer holds in our yoga postures we can learn how to experience a calmer mental state and therefore allow energy to effectively channel throughout the entire body. Yoga practice has evolved through the years and as a society we have come to enjoy faster paced and more rigorous styles to match our fast-paced and hectic lives.

“Iyengar yoga teaches us to slow down and live in the present moment. Even if we only incorporate a few poses with longer holds and perhaps the use of props we can go deeper and experience the benefits that are so present in Iyengar’s teachings.

“Every Tuesday night I teach my “Yoga for Backs” class and more often than not I will incorporate a restorative bridge posture into the practice. It really is one of my favorite yoga poses and always has been.”

by Laura McCorry

On the surface, yoga and the military may not seem to have much in common. Yoga is sometimes stereotyped as the domain of liberal, vegan, nouveau hippies and the military as gun-toting, meat-eating conservatives.

But the truth of any community lies beneath the surface.

As a yogi and military spouse, I feel like I’m always discovering new ways these two communities have similar perspectives on life.

• You must live in the present moment.

The military lifestyle is inherently full of uncertainty and change. Schedules are outlines at best and your service member could leave for training or deployment at any time. Depending on the service member’s job, the time of day they go to work and come home could change on a daily basis. There is often no such thing as routine.

One of my favorite yoga teachers would start class by asking, “Where are you?” The entire class would answer in chorus, “Here.” Then the teacher would ask, “What time is it?” The answer: “Now.” Here and now. It was a revelation.

Living in the present moment doesn’t happen over night, just like you can’t walk into your first ever yoga class and pop up into headstand. “Be here now” is a mindfulness skill you can practice over the course of a lifetime, but you get to enjoy the benefits of peacefulness the same moment you begin.

• True alignment demands honest communication.

Separation is a fact of life for military families and deployments can range from four months to over a year depending on the branch of service. This can be one of the hardest trials for the military family and one the civilian world understands so little, mostly through lack of exposure and not a want of sympathy. If you want your relationship to survive thrive during a long separation with limited communication opportunities, you need to make sure the communication you do have is honest and of high quality.

Alignment in yoga can have both a physical and a spiritual or emotional meaning. You are aligned physically when muscle groups and joints are positioned to provide a strong structural support for a posture. In order to experience this in class, you must be very honest when asking your body whether it is working hard and knowing when you are tired and should rest.

Beyond the physical, alignment is experienced when what you think, what you say and what you do are the same. The communication you have with yourself must be honest and of high quality, checking in frequently. This kind of deep alignment with the core of yourself brings serenity to chaotic or stressful life circumstances.

• Deep roots grow in communities.

Military families move more frequently than most civilians, often to a city or town they’ve never been to before. They know what it’s like to be the new kid, to start over with a new job and to go through the awkward stage of friend-dating. Consequently, the military community is usually very welcoming and helpful to new-to-the-area families because they know how important it is to build ties and feel connected.

Yoga practitioners know that you can’t “fly” in an inversion until your core and support system is fully grounded. And yoga is all about connection, not just to the inner self but to a wider community. Both yoga studios and military communities are known for their hospitality and welcoming spirit – because they understand that families and individuals in strong communities are happier and healthier.

Are you a service member or military spouse interested in yoga?

Yoga for Vets offers a listing of classes around the country for free or reduced rates for current service members.

MyCAA is an excellent resource for military spouses looking to gain portable career training, one option is to become a yoga teacher! Yoga One Teacher Training proudly accepts MyCAA candidates.

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com

by Laura McCorry

I wasn’t exactly friendly and outgoing when I was a kid. That was my sister. I was the kid who would rather sit in a corner and read a book than socialize with people, even people I liked. So it took me a long time to figure out how to make good friends and how to resolve conflict in relationships.

When faced with a difficult problem, I would go to Mom and she would ask me one question: “What’s the most loving decision you could make?”

There’s almost always a clear answer to that question. It could be apologize for being rude to an uncle. Or forgive your sister for breaking your toy. Sometimes it meant stick up for a friend at school even though it won’t score you points with the popular kids.

My mother is the type of woman who does everything. She worked a full time job, helped us with homework and made dinner every night, plus a bajillion other things I was too young to pay attention to. She takes care of her dogs and kids and husband – sometimes everyone except herself.

And I know she’s not alone. Our culture tells us that being busy is the highest measure of success. People brag about how little free time they have to show how well their job is going or how much they’re involved in their children’s lives. And these are good things!

But having a full schedule isn’t the same thing as being fulfilled.

Emily Dickinson wrote, “Forever is composed of Nows.” In other words, we are what we habitually do and feel. Yoga teaches us to be present with what is. Not what we want our lives to be like or how we think they should be. Stress begets stress and love begets love.

I didn’t realize until I was an adult and had been practicing yoga for several years that sometimes, the most loving decision is to take care of yourself first. 

When we learn to habitually create inner peace, then all of our outward efforts will be filled with peace as well. Go to yoga. Have a cup of tea. Dance in the kitchen. Take a deep breath. Take five deep breaths. Repeat one of my favorite mantras:

I have enough.
I do enough.
I am enough.

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com

To me, the meaning of Yoga is the meaning of Love!

It can take a lifetime of practice and I will still have so much to learn.

I am continually drawn to Yoga and all the yogic principals, striving to gain more openness, strength and stability, purpose, knowledge, acceptance and awareness.

With a focus on what is really important in life I can calm my entire being.

This is what matters: love, inner peace, being present, non-attachment, non-judgement, the ability to still the mind to relieve stress and anxiety.

With Yoga I open my heart to grace as I also strengthen my Spirit, Mind and Body, preparing me for the world and filling me with love and gratitude for all life has to offer, good and bad.

Bringing balance to my life, yoga helps me flow through all that comes my way.

Yoga’s true definition is “union” and it helps me feel more united with all I do and everyone I meet.

Yoga helps me spread the Love!

Take Robin’s class on Tuesday mornings at 6:30am, see our full schedule here.

guest post by Missy DiDonato

Yoga has always been a source of connection for me. I feel connected to the earth when I practice in nature. I am better connected to my family, friends and strangers through the shared experience of group asana. Most of all, yoga connects me to my body and this has been never been more true or important now that I’m pregnant.

Pregnancy has brought dramatic changes to my body in a relatively short period of time. During the first trimester (1-3 months), I barely practiced yoga. My body was working over-time to grow my baby and prepare for the rest of pregnancy and I was physically exhausted. I honored this natural process and kept my practice really mellow. Some days all I did was legs up the wall!

The second trimester (3-6 months) I was able to get back to my regular practice with modifications. I kept my feet hip-distance apart for better balance and to allow space for baby to grow. I omitted any deep twists and began to use blocks under my hands in uttanasana (forward fold.) I began to get light-headed more easily, so I rarely came into a full fold and often used a block underneath my forehead in down dog which eased the sensation of blood rushing to my head.

Now into my third trimester (6-9 months), I’m using these modifications along with lying on my left side for savasana. I never thought this would be as comfortable or relaxing as traditional savasana but IT IS! The most unexpected and wonderful part has been discovering how comfortable pregnancy modifications are simply because they were designed for my new body.

I’ve discovered how much I enjoy having my little buddy with me wherever I go. She hears my voice when I teach and is soothed by my yoga playlists. More importantly, she is encircled by the peace, calm and focus from the class as a whole. I feel great in my body, but it’s no longer mine completely. This is a wonderful part of being pregnant, but it’s also taken some adjustment.

Practicing yoga a few times a week has kept me in shape physically and eased the aches and pains of stretching ligaments and muscles – but it has also sealed the bond between us. I’m not only practicing for myself, I’m practicing for her. We are two bodies contained within my own and I try to tune in to how my position feels to her. I move through asanas to strengthen and restore my body, but also to create space for her to be comfortable and to grow.

* Please consult your doctor before beginning yoga or any other exercise program. If you are pregnant and new to yoga, we recommend you attend dedicated Prenatal Yoga classes.

Missy DiDonato
Guest Writer

Missy began practicing yoga at home when she was fourteen, following along to a DVD in her living room. She has since completed two separate 200 hour Yoga Teacher Trainings with UCSD and Yoga One. Missy loves helping others find their own yogic path and students of all levels appreciate her warm and friendly teaching style.

That first stretch of the day sitting on the edge of my bed

by Laura McCorry

“As for the complex ways of living, I love them not, however much I practice them. In as many places as possible, I will get my feet down to the earth.” – Henry David Thoreau

Minimalist living has been a guiding light of mine for many years but I don’t consider myself a minimalist. More like an aspiring minimalist – my goal is to shed excess consumerism and live in closer harmony with life’s basic necessities.

I recently came across the story of a man living in the wilds of Canada in my facebook newsfeed. It’s fascinating to think about a person completely renouncing civilization and thriving, not just surviving, in the wild. Like a true regression to primitive man and perhaps the ultimate conclusion if we were to follow the paleo diet adherents down the rabbit hole.

Is it good to get away? Definitely. Go on a retreat, take a walk barefoot in the park, practice yoga outside. For most of us, going off the grid permanently isn’t an option or even a goal. The more time I spend in communion with my yoga practice, the more I desire simplicity.

There was the first great plunge into a regular, established practice. I saw how much more I had to learn and often pushed myself to try the hardest variation offered by the instructor. Many poses that had eluded me suddenly became possible in my body and there was the rush of what some call “collecting poses.” It was exciting and great for parties and certainly has its own place for celebration.

Then there was a subtle shift. I still pursued those complicated poses – like mountaintops I aspired to climb their peaks but I also wanted to linger on the slopes. The grounding postures, the simplest poses you first learn in yoga – these became new and difficult in their own right. It was enough to hold warrior two and breathe, appreciating the challenge that presented itself not right away but with the joint forces of time and staying present.

If you’re ready to really explore your yoga practice: Simplify. Feel your feet (and hands) on the ground. Linger in the transitions. Go back to basics and see what changes.

Namaste!

Laura McCorry
Contributing Writer

Yoga and Laura had an on-again-off-again relationship from 2004 until 2009 when they decided to move in together and there’s been no looking back since. Passionate about both yoga and writing, Laura loves to introduce others to the joys and benefits of yoga and healthy living.

Contact: laura@yogaonesandiego.com