Month: January 2023

I was a little late in the game, but like many others, I discovered the art of making bread (well, working with dough if I were to be precise) sometime during the big pause that was the pandemic. Whilst I haven’t fallen into the rabbit hole known as tending to a sourdough starter, working with dough has been such a perspective shifting, mindful, present moment experience. In many ways, it feels very similar to how my yoga practice is – a place where I can drop my guard, just breathe, and allow myself to find my flow.

From the alchemy of water, flour, yeast, and salt, I’ve found myself learning about myself and life in quite interesting ways. Here are a few of those life lessons I’ve learned from dough: Continue reading “All I Really Needed to Know in Adult Life, I Learned on the Mat. And Through Dough.” →

To say 2023 cane barreling in is an understatement. Are you feeling that too, or is it just me? Don’t get me wrong: it hasn’t been bad at all, it just feels like I was thrown into the deep end and I can’t catch a breath. Or is it can’t get my momentum going? I’m not really sure! Chalk it up to Mercury in retrograde, or coincidence, or even the cycles of the moon, or maybe even my own moon cycle. Either way, it’s been a big start to the year, so much so that I’ve found myself on edge quite a bit, and admittedly, teetering over it every now and then. Even the bread I was baking seemed to have felt the waves of emotion in me that my soft, fluffy loaf ended up like a brick! (okay, okay, I know there’s a logical explanation for it but still!).

Over the past few days, however, with the start of the latest installment of Yoga for Humankind’s programs, me finally being able to dive in to the Mental Health Aware Yoga course with Dr. Lauren Tober, and catching up finally with my dear friend E, it feels like my feet are finally landing onto solid ground, my heart is spacious, and a felt sense of ease and calm is settling in.

As I reflected and sensed into that untetheredness and the reactivity that came with it, the reminder of the power of the pause and how crucial it is to use that space to listen and be are. I am reminded that when I don’t slow down and listen to what my body wants, feels or needs, it finds a way to. get my attention – and often not in the best way.

And so I come back, once again, to the pause.

And just be.

Nursing a bit of a sore back, I stepped onto the mat, not just because I had to lead a class, but also because I felt something stirring inside of me. Then I remembered: today I mark 12 years of coming to this practice. What a journey it has been. I still am filled with awe, wonder and gratitude for this path, and the people I have met along the way. It felt quite auspicious to practice in this newly repainted, refurnished and reimagined space on such an occasion.

In honor and recognition of that very nervous and unsure girl that stepped onto the mat in a little home shala in her neighborhood, I come home to where it all started: on the mat, in a little home shala. It may be a little different now, as I step into my own space instead of someone else’s. In the same way, however, that feels quite magical. In this space, I embrace my power for transformation, change and possibility.

As I do that, I hope to use this little corner of the world wide web to connect with you more. I did say this two years ago, but as the pandemic continued to impact myself and the world around me, I felt I didn’t have the capacity to do so yet then. This time, however, maybe it would be different. So in celebration of that first discovery of my practice, and in honor of the courage it took to explore a new beginning, I come back to a part of me that actually led to finding my way to the mat: writing in my blog.

And so as I head back into my sacred space, I pause here and truly embody what my words and intentions for 2023 are: Wonder. Awe. Presence.

Here’s to showing up.

Here’s to being in awe.

Here’s to wide-eyed wonder.