Last night, as I prepared for bed, I quietly spoke the word “Goddess”. It was a deliberate choice because today is International Women’s Day. I wanted to contemplate what this word meant to me. I began to repeat it slowly to myself. I found myself reveling in the sound of it. The completeness of its composition enticed me. The firm ‘G’, the open ‘O’, the staccato-like ‘D’. All of it ending with a soft and seductive ‘S’. The word itself is soft and ...
Yoga: How To “Breathe Pretty”
Several years ago, one of my yoga teachers shared a mind blowing thought at the start of class, “It’s not about how deeply you do the posture, but how deeply you breathe while you’re in the posture.” Admittedly, I didn’t get it. At all. My overly competitive mind short circuited at this new concept. What the heck did he mean by saying “how deeply you can breathe while you’re in the posture”? Wasn’t yoga about mastery of the body? Wasn’t this practice about making the best, most pretty ...
How To Deal With Life’s Little Hiccups
I think we can all relate to the hiccups. If you’ve never had them, consider yourself among the blessed. These awkward anomalies come and go as they please. They don’t care about our well planned agendas. I swear they try to appear at the most inconvenient times; during an important speech, on a date, in the middle of a work meeting or when you finally crawl into bed…..hic! They sneak into your life and….hic! It’s hard to plan your words becau….hic! This is ...
Valentine’s Day: You Can’t Schedule My Love
The above phrase rings loud and true for me each year on February 14th. Valentine’s Day is not terrible. I’m not out there shaking my fists at the heavens in frustration when it rolls around. Far from it. However, now that the dust from yesterday has settled, I find myself taking a closer look at the focus of Valentine's Day. What seems to bother me about this day (besides the collective weight of societal pressure to express love for your partner in an overly contrived ...
Capable: Dealing With Uncomfortable Emotions
Capable is an interesting word. It can go in a few directions. Audibly it holds the words “cape” and “able”. To me, the image of a superhero comes to mind. I see them putting on a cape, soaring off into the day with strength and determination. However, this word can be flipped around to mean something different. Yoga tends to redefine what capable really means. Yoga is tricky. If you choose to treat it as a practice of awareness, the end result is not always what you ...
Three Legged Downward Dog – lessons learned from a puppy
I was having a bit of a pity party this morning. Being a gross ball of sick the past month and a half had me feeling bogged down. I let my thoughts get away from me as I walked back from the corner store. I was ruminating on my woes, pouting like a spoiled two year old who can’t have the juice box she so desperately feels she deserves. I was nearing home when I caught a glimpse of a dog and its owner running through the park by my apartment building. They were a bouncing blur. The ...
Sound Is Like Chocolate
Sound to me is like chocolate. I like it in small amounts. When I get to take nibbles of sound bites here and there, it satiates my need for mental activity and brings me to a place where I feel a perfect buzz. Like one square of 70% dark chocolate melting slowly on my tongue. But when sound turns into noise? It’s like my body has been forced to sit down at an “All You Can Eat Chocolate” buffet line. The pleasure is gone. I feel ill and bloated. I can’t think straight ...
