8 November, 2015 This week marks the Indian holiday of Diwali, which is generally known as the Indian Festival Of Lights. Yet, it signifies so much more. Most markedly, the 5-day festival celebrates the triumph of Light over Darkness by recalling the many battles won by virtuous warriors over evil demons. On a social level,…
Tag: Gratitude
Yoga Class Focus: Gratitude Trumps Adversity
Sometimes, gratitude does not come overnight. Sometimes days, weeks and months can pass before thankfulness finds its way into a broken heart. But from experience (and lots of it), I know there will be a silver lining to every story of challenge, hardship and adversity. If you’ve read my blog before, you are familiar with…
Gratitude, Samtosha and Pratipaksha Bhavana (From The UYD Archives)
This post was originally part of my “Ahimsa Now” series regarding Peace Tools – everyday yogic actions that can create peace in our inner and outer worlds. Today I post it as a NOTE TO SELF: reminding Holly to put these tools into action, particularly during this difficult time of transition, responsibility, instability and sadness….
Love: The Privilege of Teaching Yoga
LOVE: Brief (and maybe not so brief) explorations for our February class focus. * * * It is a privilege to teach yoga. It is a great responsibility to hold space for others. For those who so courageously walk through the door, enter the room, step onto on the mat. Who surrender themselves to be…
Peace Tools: Pratipaksha Bhavana, Samtosha & Gratitude
For the final quarter of my 100-day exploration of Ahimsa (for a brief background, see “The Roots of ‘Ahimsa Now: 100 Days of Intention’” at the bottom of this page), I am compiling my favorite Peace Tools – fail-safe practices for cultivating a reliable inner peace, which leads to a serene life and accountability to…
Gratitude, Pt. 1: Contentment, or, Samtosha
I’ve gained 10 pounds over the past 3 months. There are some very tangible reasons why. My summer camp gig – during which, over a period of six weeks, I teach 90 Asana classes and 120 percussion lessons, and, run up and down the school’s stairs 100s of times – ended the first week in…
Falling Off The Yoga Wagon
Why does it take a sick day for me to realize I have totally abandoned my yoga practice? For the past two days, I’ve been battling a sinus infection. This morning, after sleeping 11 hours, I woke up, chanted mantras, said prayers, wrote in my journal, practiced breathing exercises and sat to meditate. All of…
Focus: Abundance – Love & Light
I have long believed that people are beautiful beings, inside and out. Our humanness, our perfect imperfection, our state of constant growth gives me faith in the beauty of life as a whole. Tonight a street drunk and I watched a meteor fireball together. I was walking to yoga class when a huge white comet-looking…
December Focus: Abundance
Snowflakes are falling on the homepage of WordPress. I’m listening to Arcade Fire’s “Neighborhood #1” in which young lovers dig a tunnel from house to house after the neighborhood is buried in snow. And outside, for real, it’s finally Winter cold. I’m fasting today. Liquids only.* There’s nothing like an empty body for writing about…
Focus Wrap Up: Gratitude
Thank god for Facebook! I NEVER, EVER thought I’d hear myself say those words. Yet indeed, I am grateful for the social media connector that I ignored for years. Why? Because my Facebook community brims with love-filled, purpose-driven, truth-telling, soul-baring, mistake-making, frustration-sharing, poetically-waxing, wisdom-seeking yogis and other beautiful humans who strive to live an intentional…
The Urban Yoga Den 