Namaste!

If you scroll down a bit, you’ll see that we are featuring self care in the months ahead. This wasn’t something that we planned out in a big yogic strategy session; it just happened. But when I saw it all put together, it struck me as a message from the Universe. Yes. Self care. Pay attention, please.

Maybe it’s just the age we are in, or perhaps it’s the Yoga World I inhabit, but there’s a whole lot of chatter (and that’s all a lot of it is) about self care. In our broader culture the topic seems to circle around massages and pedicures and the occasional nap.… Read the rest

Blueversary 11. Our 11th anniversary. The advent of our 12th year on N. West Street. I can’t really even get my head around it. That’s about a quarter of my life. More than 20,000 classes. 10 immersion and teacher training programs. Over $60,000 donated to charities. Support systems, transformations, breakthroughs, friendships, and an entire community grown in that big little room. It makes my head spin and my heart burst.

Unless you are tuning into this channel for the very first time, you know already that I believe we are each here for a reason. The divine spark of life that we are – that we came into this body with – has a blueprint.… Read the rest

by Jill Sockman

At the end of the year, I like to pause and look back at what transpired during the last journey around the sun. I want to review what I have learned – both what I need to take with me into the new year and what I should definitely leave behind. Self-reflection is always important, but somehow seems more pressing as the calendar turns over yet again.

1. I am wrong. A lot. It’s taken a while to come to this as I have spent a good part of my life suffering from “I-really-am-right-itis” which apparently I got from my father.… Read the rest

by: Jill Sockman

Tuesday night was the first night of a four-week series that I’m offering during this holiday season. When the message came through to put it on the calendar, I wasn’t clear on why, if anyone would be interested, or in what way it might be of service. But what I knew for sure was that this time of year can be chaotic, frantic, overly busy. It can elicit feelings of happiness and excitement and, just as much, feelings of loneliness, separation, and frustrated confusion at the state of our world and its priorities. The best medicine I know of for all of that is community.… Read the rest

by Jill Sockman

As is always the case, I’m under the wire to finish my outline for this weekend’s training. I always have the best intention to get these things done well in advance, but the truth is that it never, ever happens. Not ever. Like not even one time. There’s some part of it that is related to a busy schedule, and a constitution that needs to focus on just one event at a time. But there’s also the Procrastination Factor. And it’s very real. So this week is round-the-clock writing, planning, thinking, pondering, meditating on the idea of holding space.… Read the rest

by Jill Sockman

I’ve spent the past couple of weeks preparing for a corporate presentation on the practical application of mindfulness. It’s work I know and love, that lives under the surface of my skin every waking moment. It’s  sometimes applied, sometimes ignored. There’s one particular practice that has stood out for me as I’ve been endlessly writing, reviewing, revising, and rehearsing. And as I have been in head down, uber focus, must produce, on-a-deadline mode, I was reminded at a critical moment in my work about the power of the pause. It happened once and then it happened over and over again throughout this process.… Read the rest

by Jill Sockman

I love the word for discomfort in Sanskrit. I especially love that as I am preparing to write about it, my neighbors across the street have turned up their outdoor sound system from “PARTY” to “CLUB” and are totally rocking it out as I attempt to focus my little mind to write. How entirely appropriate.

Dukha. It’s like onomatopoeia – where a word phonetically imitates the sound it describes, for example “meow” or “ping”- only for feelings. Dukha is what dukha sounds like – a feeling of unsatisfactoriness about how things are. Life, in the moment, not going your way.… Read the rest

by Jill Sockman

Last month, Kristina and I took 20 people to Peru on one of the most amazing retreats I’ve ever had the privilege to lead. Everyone unplugged – whether a little or a lot – and it was amazing to watch what happened as they did. Even all these yogis who know well the value of space with nothing in it got a glimpse of how much busyness was missing in our remote location. We watched insights and inspirations arise, we witnessed openings and breakthroughs that were nothing short of life-changing. We talked about the power of the pause, the gift and offering that is the breath, and the choice that we have in every moment of every day to remember the sacredness of life, of nature, of connecting in real ways to the people around us.… Read the rest

by Jill Sockman

I’ve been wanting to write about this topic for awhile now. I’ve even started the entry a few times, but have never gotten much further than “Hey! Do you think we can all just give each other a break?” and left it at that. About a month ago, Carrington and I were having a little brainstorming session on my living room floor and when this topic came up she said, “that would be a good newsletter idea!” at which point I committed myself that this would be the month. So, thick is the irony, and so very appropriate that I was on the receiving end of this advice just this morning…

We’ve all been there.… Read the rest

A More Potent Practice

by Jill Sockman

I’m working with a student currently in the midst of some big life transitions who is using her meditation practice to help manage the anxiety that so often accompanies major change. She opened a recent session with “Am I doing enough?” That question resonated with me so deeply, as I’ve heard it many times before from others and have asked the same question myself. Once you have experienced the truth that every visit to the mat, every minute in meditation, every prayer uttered is a step in the direction of clarity and peace, it’s not surprising we question what else we can do in times of overwhelm and struggle.… Read the rest