Category:

resilience

March 24, 2022 in Blog

Grief and resilience live together. -Michelle Obama

Our theme for April is resilience. It’s the central topic in our Immersion program, the subject for April’s Best of Blue video collection and the theme for my Thursday Movement + Rest series. It feels appropriate to talk about, cultivate and practice resilience after a time of so much grief— as they do, indeed, live together. Sometimes when we are faced with grief, we find we are more resilient than we could have imagined. Other times, we recognize our resilience has waned and we are without the resources to cope. 

So, what is resilience?… Read the rest

who am I, really?

February 28, 2022 in Blog

A few times each year, I offer a multi-week series on foundational philosophical tenets of yoga. It’s work that I love. It feels like sharing the truth of what yoga really is, and though I’ve taught it all before many times, it bears teaching— and learning— over and over and over again. Some of these teachings I return to for the reminders that are always needed and others because they help us push through another layer of the question, “who am I, really?” A question that each of us will (hopefully) never be done with until we take our last breath.… Read the rest

BVXV

January 28, 2022 in Blog

February is not the month for ponderings, questions or notions. February is the month for celebration, reflection and gratitude. Because February is Blueversary, and this month we celebrate fifteen years of yoga and community.

It’s been quite a ride, and for every bit that I never imagined having a yoga studio, I definitely never conceived of a virtual yoga school. It’s kind of crazy. And, also, pretty amazing.

Those of you who didn’t find your way back to us on screen, we miss you, and we are always here. We send blessings to you wherever you are and hope you are doing the practice, in the way that feels meaningful to you.… Read the rest

Sustenance Over Maintenance

December 29, 2021 in Blog

We have, most all of us, been in survival mode for a long time and this way of being has exacted tolls I’m not sure we will ever fully grasp. We have learned to live in new ways and work in new ways. We’ve made changes, course corrections and sacrifices. We’ve gotten creative even when our patience has been taxed to the max. We have figured out how to endure because there’s not much of an alternative. One of many questions that’s been growing and tumbling around inside me on multiple fronts over these past two years is what is sustainable?Read the rest

Themes, truths and lessons

December 6, 2021 in Blog

As I sit down to write this, I’ve just emerged from guiding a silent retreat. Couple that with preparing to share the teachings on right speech on Tuesday evening, and I feel the need to be especially succinct. Since I like to do a little recap at the end of each year with themes, truths, lessons and bits of wisdom gathered as a means of chronicling the territory through which I’ve traveled in the past twelve months, I thought I’d share the first draft of my 2021 summary. Perhaps you’ll start one for yourself, as well.

— I said it in the beginning of the pandemic and it’s still just as true: grit and grace.… Read the rest

Innovate

November 1, 2021 in Blog

In March 2020, we made a huge pivot after thirteen years of in-person classes to an all-virtual classroom. It was as much a choice as a necessity in the beginning, but that decision was solidified a couple of months later when it became apparent that we weren’t going to be getting out of this Covid situation as quickly and easily as we’d hoped. When we let go of our brick and mortar space we made a commitment to you to continue on, fully online, for the foreseeable future. 20 months later, it is time to innovate again.

None of this has been easy.… Read the rest

Life of Practice

October 5, 2021 in Blog

If I know a single thing about yoga, it’s that no matter the state of the world or the state of one’s inner landscape, finding any semblance of okayness begins and ends with daily practice. Feeling great? Get on your mat. Feeling sad? Get on your mat. Feeling steady and centered? Take a seat. Feeling distracted or lost? Take a seat. While any one practice taken in isolation may not be especially interesting, provocative, inspirational, calming, steadying, or anything else, there’s a special magic when you add up the cumulative benefits of all of the practices day after day after day.… Read the rest

this is what love feels like

September 1, 2021 in Blog

Today marks day 7 of the rest of life without Padma. I feel like I’m wearing someone else’s skin, in someone else’s life. 17 years- more than half my adult life- is a long time to have a constant companion. I’m grateful for it all, and lucky, I realize that. At the same time, everything feels quite sideways and probably will for a while. I’m sharing this with you because much in the same way that blue lotus was never really mine, it was the same with the Boo. Even before blue, she was the yoga dog: visiting, welcoming and ignoring in equal measure.… Read the rest

decisions

July 30, 2021 in Blog

 

Redirect to the September 2021 post This is What Love Feels Like here.

I need to set the tone by telling you that I was going to name this post “hard decisions” but quickly recognized that would be pretty redundant at this time in history. Perhaps we can just categorize them all into hard decisions and impossible decisions. We’ve been faced with so many- personally and collectively- in the past year that most of us have become accustomed to a level of inner reeling that might be the “new normal” to which we are adjusting. Freedom of choice is a whole lot more complicated than we once believed it to be.… Read the rest

the life you want

July 4, 2021 in Blog

I am preparing to lead my first in-person retreat since the Before Times. The focus of our time away is around the practice of vichara, or self-inquiry. It’s a combination of unwinding the story of your past and keys to unfolding the life you want. I always hesitate to call it a retreat, because that word conjures up lazy days of rest, exotic locations, and a vacation from work of all kinds. It is decidedly not that. Training is also not the right word, as that implies I’ll be imparting information that can be learned and studied. I suppose what I am preparing to do is guide a vigil, an inner journey, a pilgrimage of sorts where the destination is the Self.Read the rest