Kirtan Is Like A Can Opener For My Heart

“We never know what’s gonna happen with our emotions.  We try to control them.  We try to suppress them.  But…those old yogis knew that wasn’t really the way – they knew that these emotions were a crucial part of bringing the human being to divine consciousness.”  – Kirtan leader Jai Uttal *  *  * Leading…

Gratitude, Pt. 2: Shiva and the Darkness

I recently found myself apologizing to god. It was the umpteenth time that I’d broken out in sobs while singing along with Jai Uttal’s “Om Namah Shivaya.”  To be exact, it was Monday, October 24th.  I was driving to rehearse with The Shaktis, an all-female Kirtan group with whom I play percussion.  Two days before,…

My Mother is My Guru

Mom’s been on my mind a lot lately. And y’know, it makes sense.  I’ve been singing a lot (my mother taught me to sing).  It’s Autumn (October 2nd would have been her 81st birthday).  Thanksgiving is approaching (my family celebrated our last holiday season with Mom 10 years ago).  And I recently celebrated my 9th…

The Happy Heart Project: Days 1-31

I’ve read that we replace 1% of our cells daily. Every 100 days we have a new body. What that new body consists of is the food we eat, air we breathe, water we drink, exercise we take and thoughts we think.  – A friend Three-plus boxes of incense and 31 days ago, I launched…

Be A Yogi

When I graduated from my Yoga Teacher Training at the Integral Yoga Academy, I heard a lot of advice. Make a list of all the potential places you could teach – not just studios, but other spaces. Market your classes in this way or that way. Remember that not all yoga instructors can make a…

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…

Focus: Gratitude – Inter-Faith & Cultural Fusion

Around Thanksgiving, some might grunt and gripe about family dynamics (me included) This year I want to offer huge gratitude to my parents. Because Mom and Dad motivated my passion for fusing spiritual and cultural influences. Mom (rest her soul) was a blue-eyed Church of Christ farm girl born to Irish settlers near Nashville, TN….

Monthly Focus: November – Gratitude

Today I feel really, really lucky. The amount of joy that I get to experience throughout the days is beyond what I might have imagined years ago, when I was stuck in shadows and pain. I dare say, life IS a bowl of cherries – sweet fruit, crunchy pits and all! And because of this…

100(+1)%

Back on April 8th, I attended a Krishna Das Kirtan concert, where he told an inspiring story about learning to apply himself 100%.  At the time, I was stuck in discernment-process limbo, trying to decide between two career paths.   Should I continue applying for full-time communications jobs, or expand my yoga teaching, music performance/teaching…

This Too Shall Pass

I just floated home after Ximena Gutierrez’s Jivamukti class at Past Tense Studio (one of the places where I teach yoga).  Today’s theme was “This Too Shall Pass” – a phrase with which I am very familiar from a variety of spiritual paths and programs.  The premise is to remain detached from and have faith…