This clear, nicely written introduction to Ayurveda originally appeared here in Elephant Journal on January 27, 2012. It is written by Emily Alp, who studied ayurveda with Balance co-owner Jessica Blanchard. When I start describing them, so many people become instantly intrigued about Doshas. Yet there is always a moment where I just trail off and can’t […]
This post is written as a response and commentary on an article that appeared here last week in Vanity Fair. Skim the Vanity Fair article first, or this won’t make much sense. Many of us are wondering why Vanity Fair published a long and detailed article, “Whose Yoga Is It Anyway?” about the politics and […]
If a cobra and a dog got into a fight who would win? According to Thai legend (where there are many cobras), dogs can kill snakes. It is good to have a dog around for this reason. Growing up in south Louisiana, I remember our dog CoCo picking up a non-poisonous garden snake and run […]
Each moment we have the possibility of being fresh and new, but very often we live of our lives from a habit pattern established in the past. Once these patterns are established the flow of human consciousness gets organized into certain repetitive patterns. The Sanskrit word for these repetitive patterns is a samskara. These are […]
Each year when I travel to Koh Samui, Thailand to teach at Yoga Thailand, my first stop is at About Art Cafe, owned by the lovely June. She has two of the best items on Samui – muffins and chocolate cake. Unfortunately the chocolate cake is made by her friend and she won’t share. I […]
Today marks day 74 of practicing 62 minutes/day of Sodarshan Chakra Kriya, a powerful meditation in the Kundalini Yoga tradition. Practicing this meditation has completely transformed my life! How? Well, here are some of the results: I feel better overall, more energetic, happier, less prone to depression; I am more able to follow through on […]
Ten days is a short time when we spend 24 hours traveling each way, however it was long enough to remind me of some fundamental aspects of yoga. In the United States yoga is a booming billion dollar industry. In America for most people the word yoga invokes images of young athletic women wearing Lululemon […]
Assuming Strength I read an excerpt earlier this year from a book called “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” by Amy Chua. It ruffled some feathers in online communities, specifically those about parenting. The author proposes that her Chinese mother’s style of parenting influenced her to push her own daughter towards success. She went on […]
‘Tis the Season This is my favorite time of year. I love the cloak of the early-descending darkness which invites a turning inward as nature is moving into a state of dormancy where so much is happening under the surface. In the Christian calendar, the Sunday after Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the season of […]
Floating Through the Holidays – Restorative Yoga Workshops with Tamar Starck I don’t know about you, but for me, the holidays bring up a range of feelings from joy and excitement to challenge and, sometimes, downright dread. And then there’s both the physical exhilaration and exhaustion that comes with holiday preparations and celebrations. Wouldn’t it […]