It’s so easy to tear something or someone down. It’s harder to show up and do the work of accepting fault, taking responsibility and working for a feasible solution. The temptation to simply burn it all to the ground and watch it go up in flames, whether the “it” is yourself, your job, family, community,…
Read MoreSurrender is not often an easy, casual or comfortable experience. In fact while surrender sounds easy it is downright hard. Most of us fight tooth and nail to hold on to trying to control things, people and situations that were never under our control in the first place. Surrender is not a one and done…
Read MoreJust because I’ve been practicing yoga for over 20 years doesn’t mean that I wake up every day filled with enthusiasm to practice. I think about yoga as one of the foundational relationships of my life. I have a relationship with my practice and just like any longterm committed relationship I go through phases with…
Read MoreI’ve been practicing yoga for over 20 years. That doesn’t make me a saint or a perfect human being. It also doesn’t mean that I never make mistakes or go through periods of feeling down. More than anything else I am a student of yoga and my testimony isn’t a promise of perfection, but it…
Read MoreDuring one of the most productive periods of my life I woke up nearly every day with suicidal ideation. From the outside it looked like I had it all sorted out and that I was living the dream. I had written and published two books, traveled the world, ran a yoga center, went to the…
Read MoreThis week’s Yogi Assignment is as much for me as for you. I usually write about whatever life lesson I’m most present to. As a lifelong yoga practitioner I don’t believe in perfection in the material world, neither in my body, my mind, my actions nor my asana. It’s all a work in progress. My…
Read More“Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking…
Read MoreThere is a fine line between judgmental thinking and healthy boundaries. That line can be both difficult to navigate and too blurry to see clearly. To operate in a world where everything is ok and you have no preference is simply unrealistic. It seems obvious to me that we all have personal preferences, but perhaps…
Read MoreWhen every door feels locked and every street is a dead end, where do you go? When you’re stuck with no viable path forward and all options look terrible, what do you do? Quit. Give up. Concede. Lose. Surrender. Quitting has often has a tinge of bitterness and competition gone awry. Giving up can leave…
Read MoreAhimsa, the first of the moral and ethical principles outlined in the eight limbs of Patanjali, is most often translated as non-violence. There is perhaps no other of the tenets presented in traditional yoga philosophy that has influenced how contemporary yogis take their practice off the mat and into the world than ahimsa. At first…
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