| Beloved Blue Community,
As we head toward the close of the year, I’ve been reflecting on the incredible journey we’ve shared — from fourteen years on N. West Street to five unexpected and beautiful years of practicing, studying and retreating together online and in occasional spaces and places in person. What began as a yoga studio became something much bigger: a home for connection, curiosity, presence, and growth. Over the past year, it’s become clear that blue lotus, as a formal container, has been gently completing itself. The rhythm has changed, teachers and students have stepped into new chapters, and the energy that sustained this space for nearly two decades has naturally evolved into something new. |
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Rewind to May 2024.
I was thick in a season of change and transformation. I was systematically scrutinizing my patterns, habits, choices and desires. I was actively challenging old stories, assumptions and declarations I’d made (and clung to) about who I thought I was, and what I did and didn’t do. Generally speaking, I was getting myself unstuck from much of what had been holding me back from living a happier and fuller version of my Self and my life. I’d finally found a methodology to bridge the gap between all that I’ve studied, practiced and taught for more than twenty five years and making it real in my life in a consistent and practical way.… Read the rest
Last month, I found myself circling around a question that kept surfacing in conversations, in client sessions, and late-night scrolling: What’s the point? When the world feels like it’s unraveling at the seams, it’s easy to wonder what, if anything, matters at all. What emerged from that reflection was the reminder that the point—our purpose—isn’t found in titles, roles, or accomplishments, but in the aliveness of our being. It’s found in our ability to express the fullness of the soul, regardless of external circumstances. “The point” of it all is to become the truest, most authentic version of ourselves, not someday, but now.… Read the rest
There’s heaviness in the air, and I’m paying attention. Why? Because when a theme arrives in my world multiple times— through client sessions, chats with friends, or a random scroll through social media—it feels like a messenger from the universe. One to be met with presence. Lately, one keeps ringing out: It feels like everything is crumbling—what’s the point?
I get it. If you are paying even a little bit of attention, it’s not a huge leap to feel like it’s the end of the world (or at least the end of the world as we know it). This feeling can lead straight to despondency, hopelessness, and a sense of powerlessness.… Read the rest
I’ve had a fraught relationship with time for as long as I can remember. The persistent and heavy feeling that there is never enough time— to get it all done, to finish the task list, to make the impact I feel called to make— lingers, no matter my efforts to shake it. Even when I think I’ve managed to banish the urgency, it never lasts. Right now, it’s about trying (futilely) to fit in all the people, places, work, play, and general life necessities into the 24/7 we are allotted. Sound familiar? Enter dharana (concentration): reminding us to focus on one thing at a time.… Read the rest
We are, in so many ways, creatures of habit and repetition– pattern-seeking beings at both the conscious and unconscious levels. Unless we actively intervene, each of us are (literally) bound to think the same thoughts, feel the same feelings, tell ourselves the same stories, and unconsciously make the same deleterious choices—and then wonder with dismay why things don’t change. We question how it is that we end up in the same place again and again.
In Eastern philosophy, this is called samskara: the grooves or imprints left on the mind by past actions, thoughts, and experiences. Samskaras are the ruts we fall into, usually without realizing it.… Read the rest
Conscious Creation (unwinding the stories we never meant to live)
So much of our lives are shaped by stories we didn’t consciously choose. Stories that were absorbed and internalized before we had the capacity to question them. We took on labels, expectations, and roles without even realizing it. Why? Because at some point, our brain and nervous system decided: this is what I need to do to stay safe, to be loved, to belong.
For me, one of those stories landed in grade school, when I was stamped with the label “gifted and talented.” At the time, I didn’t know whether I should feel proud or embarrassed.… Read the rest
“Where is your Self to be found? Always in the deepest enchantment you have experienced.”
— Hugo Von Hofmannsthal
Things are looking bleak. Not that I needed any confirmation, but when a friend—whose general outlook is one of magical illumination—sent me a text that included the phrase “before the end of the world,” I knew it wasn’t just me feeling this way. With that in mind, I’ve been making choices accordingly. So when the opportunity arose to once again horn in on my brother’s family vacation, I grabbed a friend and jumped at the chance without hesitation. This was my third visit to the tiny island nation of Iceland and there was not a single moment of disappointment: exploring ice caves nestled over active volcanoes, soaking in a geothermal river on the side of a moss and snow-covered mountain, watching wild waves crash onto a black sand beach from my perch on a tall basalt wall.… Read the rest
I haven’t dug into the archives to see just how many times I have written about aparigraha over the years, but this is not the first. Or second. Or fifth. Often translated as “non-greed” or “non-possessiveness,” the Sanskrit word, when broken down, has a prefix that negates what follows: “to take or seize from all sides.” You might think of aparigraha as not taking more than you need, and you would be right. That is a great practice. You might also think of aparigraha as the opposite of “taking from all sides”—or letting go.
As much as we are conditioned to cling at all costs, even a reflective pause reminds us that the nature of life is change.… Read the rest
I’d been pushing it. For too long, and I knew it. Burning the candle at both ends, biting off more than I could chew—whatever the phrase, I was overdoing it with no rest…you get the picture. Despite hearing about Covid, RSV, the flu, and the lingering mystery virus with an unending cough, I kept pushing. I never get sick, right? Until I do. And then it’s so sick. Beat up, can’t sleep, hacking all night, everything hurts, cannot function, clear-your-calendar sick. Yeah, that. Nice work, Jill.
This morning, when I asked a dear friend what I could possibly write about—given that I barely had two brain cells to rub together—he said, “rest.”… Read the rest