Join us in the coming weeks as we pair hand mudras to the weekly themes of the Advent wreath in the Christian tradition of this season. The Advent wreath uses a weekly candle lighting along with a theme. This year we are suggesting adding specific mudras which align with the theme of each week in the Advent season. We will shed light on Love, Hope, Peace and Joy. In the coming weeks, join us as we incorporate the following mudras into our daily meditation practice. The beauty of what might unfold from the positive energy of these hand gestures can be understood with study of mudras, chakras, marmas, pranayama, and of course, your own practice. 

Welcome to November where we will explore how the practice of yoga is for the sake of seva, or service. This is very thought-provoking and the ideals of this notion are rooted in the spiritual side of the practice. When we think of how to prioritize our daily tasks, we can see the bigger picture which points us to asking “why am I here?”

Our ability to choose is what ultimately creates our lives. Small choices fill moments, moments fill hours, hours fill days, days fill weeks, weeks fill months, months fill years and so on. And interestingly, you can also look at the results you are currently experiencing in your life and trace those back to individual choices you've made in the past.

So far this month we’ve talked about boosting our kids’ immune systems, helping our kids sleep well during the night and increase their ability to focus and concentrate during the day, and some simple tips and strategies for handling the everyday pressures of life. As we wrap up our ‘Back to School’ series, let’s talk about encouraging and teaching good communication on three levels: with parents, with teachers, and with peers.

It’s time to infuse some peace, calm and ability to handle life stress by teaching our children some basic yoga poses and breathing techniques that can help them all their lives.

Epigenetics is a fascinating topic. Scientific discoveries are ever-expanding, and it is now known that our environment can change the expression of our DNA. Epigenomes, the chemical markers that lie along the length of our DNA, can be as important to our development as the genes we inherit. And the epigenome can be altered by various lifestyle choices we make. Think about the implications of this: We inherit certain genes that impact how we think, react and feel in certain situations. If we change our diet, our exercise regimen, use pure and potent essential oils, create authentic and loving relationships, and/or experience a paradigm change in how we view the world -- all these factors can influence and even completely change the expression of our DNA because these lifestyle changes affect our epigenomes.

As we celebrate Spring and Earth Day this week, we contemplate the connections of being in nature with the practice of yoga.

As humans, we experience an undeniable pull to nature. When we are outdoors, our body and our mind automatically feel lighter and life seems simpler. Nature immediately takes us to a place of being that can sometimes take years of dedicated yoga practice to achieve.  There are many ways that nature and yoga parallel significant lessons. To intertwine them is a harmonious  practice.

In the wintertime we are encouraged to practice back-bending poses, since they build heat and provide the nervous system an opportunity to ground, to be centered and to allow us to be open to the future while we conserve our energy for the coming spring. We constantly recognize that our asanas practice has many lessons for application “off the mat,” and into our daily life.

Sankalpa, a Sanskrit word which refers to intention, is typically the beginning of each practice, whether you give attention to it deliberately, anmng the intention specifically or whether you arrive at your practice with an unconscious intention. Seasoned students come to understand that all yogic practices are preceded by a Sankalpa and the reason behind this has great depth as each practice is an opportunity to honor the intention and to grow in our understanding of our place in this world.

Each part of yoga practice is just that, a practice. In coming to the beginning of your yoga practice, whether it is meditation, pranayama, asana,…. traditionally there is attention to the breath, for many reasons. Focus on the breath calms the nervous system, since a “watched breath” tends to slow and become full and deep. Where your attention goes, your awareness grows.