When Lao Tsu says “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving,” he is not saying the good traveler has no plans at all. He is not suggesting the spiritual traveler wander around directionless. All animals are guided by the Earth’s magnetic poles; Hooved animals position themselves by them, birds…
There is a universal stream. We know we are riding the current when things fall into place. We know we are swimming upstream when our effort begins to cost us – when we are tight, rigid, and weary to the bone. When we feel like we’re fighting just to keep our heads above water. This…
We’ve all had people who’ve walked away from us. Sometimes the leaving was painful, sometimes a relief, and sometimes, both. How we digest that Outer World experiences into our Inner World experience can be the difference between growth and stagnation. The Greater Something, ultimately, always works towards our greater good. Sometimes, it is only through…
I have been practicing yoga for about 20 years, some years with more consistency than others. And I have been a yoga teacher for over ten years, again, some years teaching more than others. The way I practice at 48 is very different from how I practiced at 28. At 28, my yoga practice was…
When Mary Oliver says, “Someone I loved gave me a box of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift,” she is not suggesting that we not rage against the darkness, that we do not own our suffering, that we stand by and passively say, ‘oh thank you so much…
We all know what it is like to be ungrounded. To feel out of sorts and out of control of some aspect of our lives or of other people. We all know the suffering of having our emotions throw us into a state of chaos, or to be so shut down and be so separate…
In order for a body to be at its best, it needs healthy food full of vital nutrients. When we feed our bodies unhealthful food, they will function, but not as well; And the long-term harm begins to pile up. When we eat and breathe toxic chemicals, those toxic chemicals can cause cancers and other…
The flip side to comparing ourselves to others and finding ourselves ‘less than,’ is comparing ourselves to others so we can feel superior. Again, here, the process to work with our egoistic comparing states is not through judgement, but compassion. It is not simply our righteousness and pompousness that motivates an ‘I’m better than you’…
I woke up this morning, got online, and discovered a peer of mine was running a workshop that is well-received enough that others are flying in to take it. I could have been joyful for her success, but instead, in about 5 seconds I spiraled into an old pattern of comparison that shifted my happy…
In the too busy, too much to do world that most of us are currently living in, it is very, very easy to feel overwhelmed and to believe that the task ahead of us is impossible to complete. We have to learn to take small bites and baby steps and ask ourselves, “okay, what’s next?”…
