Breath, by James Nestor I just finished reading a book called Breath by James Nestor, which tells the informative story of one man’s years long process of understanding breathing. Let me tell you, if you’re a mouth breather the book will feel shockingly grim. Nestor’s well researched......
23 May, 2022
Dear Friends, I got nothing today. I’m uninspired. Let me open a Yoga book and see what pops up. From my notes in the margins:*Yoga as a reaction to the practice of manipulating the physical environment for sense gratification e.g. sacrificial offerings for boons A boon is a......
16 May, 2022
111 Weeks With the fanfare of the last of the bathwater swirling down the drain, we say goodbye to the first ever Open Awareness Yoga free online yoga class, Tuesday Active Class. It lasted from March 17, 2020 through May 3, 2022. 111 weeks, from......
09 May, 2022
Dear Friends, I got nothing today. I’m uninspired. Let me open a Yoga book and see what pops up. From my notes in the margins:*Yoga as a reaction to the practice of manipulating the physical environment for sense gratification e.g. sacrificial offerings for boons A boon is a......
16 May, 2022
New to gardening Adam and I bought our first house last fall and inherited a beautiful garden from the previous owner. Seeing as how this is my very first garden to tend, I’m working on the advice of neighbors who point out weeds, a whispered......
28 March, 2022
“To understand what follows the reader must…allow himself to be in a proper state of mind. “You are asked – temporarily, of course – to lay aside all your philosophical, religious, and political opinions, and to become almost like an infant, knowing nothing. Nothing, that......
14 March, 2022
Make it stop Raise your hand if each passing year of your life brings you more awareness of the world that generally, well, hurts to be aware of. ::raises hand:: Young people know what’s up I was listening to a couple youths on the radio (first audio......
07 March, 2022
“The chief element of happiness is this: to want to be what you are.” -Erasmus A quote made more poignant when a quick Wikipedia study on Erasmus reveals he was most likely a gay man serving loosely as a Catholic priest who, to distance himself......
14 February, 2022
My Yoga studies are evolving I’ve gotten tired of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, to be incredibly honest, and I’m looking to other paths to the practice to reinspire me, and fill out what I’ve learned in the last couple years of Sutra studies. Don’t get me wrong,......
24 January, 2022Get updates on class times, special events, and other news.
This week I want to highlight Yin Yoga poses for beginners. On Wednesdays we practice together for 45 minutes on Zoom, but I know not everyone can make class live and besides, some of you might be wondering what Yin Yoga is in the first......
21 June, 2021
Wondering if Yin Yoga builds strength? The short answer is yes – just not in the way you might be thinking. Yin Yoga is an exercise for your connective tissues, not muscles. When you build muscular strength, you’re exercising in familiar ways: working up a sweat,......
28 December, 2020
The adjectives “yin” and “yang” must always be used in context. Nothing is inherently yin, nothing inherently yang. Something might be yin compared from one perspective, but yang from another. For example, dense and stable connective tissue is yin compared to more elastic and flexible......
04 April, 2019
January I tried something different with online OAY classes and went with the theme of “Anatomy Month.” Over the last three weeks, we split the body into three parts – hips on week one, shoulders week two, and spine week three. This week, we put......
25 January, 2021
Stress and Relaxation When teaching people about their stress and relaxation responses I try to be careful not to demonize the stress side of things. It seems to me that in the “wellness world,” we overemphasize the rest/digest response without touching into the importance of......
11 April, 2022
First of all, with that title up there is anyone else picturing a bare butt sticking up out of a convertible? No, just me? ???? Ok, on that note let’s get down to business… What parts of you lie beneath your consciousness? Do you think about......
22 February, 2021
Polyvagal Theory Last time I posted I wrote about your autonomic nervous system – your fight/flight and rest/digest response. In this post I want to introduce you to a bit more nuance in understanding how we as humans deal with threat and trauma, using Polyvagal......
25 April, 2022
Think of the thermostat in your home or on a space heater. You set a certain temperature and when the sensor senses the room reach that temp, the heat cuts off. What if something was wrong with the sensor and the heat didn’t turn off?......
08 February, 2021
Cartoon from the animal cartoonist named Jimmy over at theycantalk.com Have you ever been in conflict with somebody who just checks out? Maybe you’re trying to explain yourself, make a point, or get them to understand something, but they aren’t responding. It’s like they aren’t......
15 February, 2021
Did you know that yoga is much more than a physical practice? The asana, or postures, we practice in a typical yoga class is the third of a total of eight limbs of yoga. The first two limbs of yoga are yama and niyama, or......
29 December, 2018
The yamas can be understood as ways in which we interact with the world around us. Things we must observe to be good, solid people. It’s no surprise that telling the truth makes the list. We now arrive at our second core discipline, satya. Satya:......
28 December, 2018
There are five yamas and five niyamas, for a total of ten moral and ethical precepts to help guide one’s life. Here is the third precept, asteya. Asteya: Non-Stealing Resisting desire for that which does not belong to us. This one, like the others,......
27 December, 2018
The eight limbs of yoga, including the yamas and niyamas that we are working through, are not meant to be completed in a linear fashion. It’s not that you master all five yamas, then move on to all five niyamas, and only after that you’re......
26 December, 2018
The language of yoga is Sanskrit, and Sanskrit words mean so much more than a simple and direct translation can do justice. We do our best to express the concepts in English. The next and final yama is one that feels to me to go......
25 December, 2018
The yamas are external observances, ways we strive to show up in our community and our household. Conversely, the niyamas are internal disciplines, ways to aim to be on the inside, personal rules to follow for a spiritual life. The first niyama is sauca. Sauca: Cleanliness, Purity Recognizing the......
24 December, 2018
Yogas citta vrtti nirodhah (Sutra 1.2) states that yoga is the calming of the fluctuations of the mind. It’s a move away from the myriad distractions of knowledge, misconception, imagination, memory, and even sleep into a place of centered presence unaffected by these states of......
23 December, 2018
Yoga is both the goal and the steps you take to get there. That is, one practices yoga in an effort to achieve yoga. The word yoga has many definitions. It means to yoke or to unify, to become one with the object of concentration.......
22 December, 2018
Yoga is a robust philosophy full of advice and practices based on thousands of years of experience. Yoga has evolved with its master practitioners, who are themselves connected to a lineage of teachers through the history of time, to suit the changing needs of the......
21 December, 2018
Yoga is not a hard and fast dogma. It’s flexible. It’s open. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali themselves recommend six techniques for concentration before simply saying “or practice anything that is uplifting.” (1.32-39) Even as a non-yogi who has no interest in the practice, you’ll......
20 December, 2018