Beyond Asana Blog

As we near the end of year that has been challenging, uncertain, and even terrifying for so many people, I realize that it may not be so easy to feel thankful.

It’s said that gratitude is the quickest route to the heart. It’s the perfect day to try it out and see if it works. 

Take a few minutes today to look around, to look within, and see what you can feel thankful for. Here's my partial list:
 

• My health and the health of my family
• Nourishing food
• A safe living environment
• My spiritual path
• An astoundingly beautiful planet
• All the wonderful people I get to teach yoga to
• The ability to make a living doing what I love
• My daughter's teachers and school administrators who care
...

I recently had a visceral experience of the effects of ungrounded-ness on the treadmill the other day. Just as I was ramping up my speed and incline, ready to go for it, the machine suddenly hesitated, just a teeny bit.

But this tiny hiccup through me off completely. I went from feeling free and powerful in my stride to cautious, wary, and unsure. My body went from being ready to launch forward full steam ahead to hesitating and holding back so I wouldn’t fall.
 

This little incident made me aware of how even the slightest uncertainty about the ground beneath us can have a big impact on our momentum. It reiterated how important a steady, reliable support is in order to move forward full...

As we lead up to Diwali this week, the Hindu celebration of light, I’m thinking about the triumph of light over darkness. Diwali is a celebration not only of light, but of abundance of all kinds, of the restoration of dharma, or righteousness. 

Of course, this is not the task of one day or even one lifetime, right? It's ongoing.

As yogis, we play an active and deliberate role in this work. We take on the auspicious responsibility of aligning and re-aligning with our inner light. This light is the essential goodness that yoga teaches shines bright within each and every human heart (even though it can be so thoroughly forgotten, or buried beneath such pain, separation, disconnection, and ...

Out beyond ideas of wrong and right there is a field. I'll meet you there.

- Rumi

 
What hasn’t changed?

When everything around you is uncertain, what stays the same?

Things being what they are, the world being what it is, we all have a chance to find out.

Sat is the term in yoga that refers to the unchanging truth. That which is true at all times in all places.

It’s the transcendent field beyond right and wrong, beyond all duality.

It's the spacious, all-embracing awareness of wholeness and goodness that has no opposite.

It’s the abiding and constant presence at the very ground of your being.  

Let’s meet there.

Here’s the funniest thing I read online today:

“I wish I could be the person I thought I was when I bought all this produce.”
 
Ain’t it the truth? 

I could substitute the end of that sentence for…

…When I had that incredibly peaceful meditation
…When I balanced in handstand in the middle of the room longer than ever before
…When I did that deep backbend
…When I had that sublime Savasana.
 
Sure, it’s important to remember our peak experiences in yoga, to strive to bring inner peace, calm, and strength, to all we do.
 
But life has a way of derailing those sublime states, doesn’t it?
 
The truth is, life is full of less-than-perfect conditions. I (dare I say “we”) are full of less-than...

Autumn is nature’s exhale. Can you feel it? The energy of dissolving and releasing is all around us. If you’re feeling called to let go of certain things, whether by choice or by circumstance, it might help to know that not only aren’t you alone, but you’re right on time and in tune.

I’ve always found it apt that the Hindu festival of Navaratri – the nine nights dedicated to honoring the Goddess - coincides with Autumn in the Western hemisphere. The trees themselves reflect the colours of the Goddess in their red, orange, and yellow leaves, don’t they?

After all, like the Fall, so much about honoring the Goddess is also about letting go, about destruction.

There’s the Goddess Kali wear...

We are like migrating birds,
The sadness of our departure
Is mitigated by
The joy of our reunion

- Author Unknown

Consider how your yoga practice offers you a conduit back to yourself. Through breath, attention, kinesthetic and energetic awareness, the practice brings us home to ourselves again and again.
 
As we forge the pathway of return, we might recognize how far we’ve allowed ourselves to depart. Our relationship with ourselves might feel fraught or long forgotten. Our inner being might seem distant and far away since we last took the time to connect within.
 
In those moments, it can be helpful to remind yourself to be present for the reunion that is taking place once again, r...

Do you remember when you first got lit up about yoga as something more than a physical pursuit? Do you recall what it felt like when the tender shoots of self-awareness first sprouted within you? 

It’s mysterious, isn’t it? Somehow the switch gets flicked on and we get interested in our our inner life.
 
The very first “spiritual” book I ever read was Peace is Every Step by the Vietnamese Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh. I’m honouring him today because by all reports, he will soon be leaving his body. At 94, his was the definition of a life well lived in my book.
 
When I picked up that book almost 30 years ago, I wouldn't have called myself a seeker though I was definitely looking for s...

After a recent weekend with a group of bright and thoughtful teachers-in-training, I’m once again blown away by something I've known for 25 years and yet, astonishingly, feels revelatory and thrilling each time I remember it. I mean REALLY remember it, as in sit with it, and consider its implications:
 
Asana as sadhana, the path of the body as an instrument of yoga. Postural practice as a means to explore our inner being and become situated in our souls.
 
Asana as not only a physical endeavor, but as a practice that integrates all the eight limbs and addresses the whole of us: yama, niyama, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi. They can all be right there in our poses:
 
...

Autumn is just about to show us how beautiful it can be to let go.
 
Ugh…
 
If I see this meme one more time, I think I’ll scream.
 
Don't get me wrong, I love being inspired by the beauty of nature.
 
And, yes, the leaves are dying with incredible majesty and grace.
 
Of course, letting go CAN be beautiful. 
 
It can also be really hard and not very pretty at all.
 
Can you relate? After all, the last six months have been a master class for all of us on letting go: individually, collectively, personally, professionally, every which way in fact.  
 
Yoga has a lot to say about the importance of letting go and for good reason. There’s perhaps no more important skill we develop through our ...