The Healing Power Of Sangha (Like-Minded Community)

I came across a commercial the other day that deeply resonated with me. 

It shows a mother in one country and her grown son in another; they have been separated for years and dearly miss each other. Each is sent an electronic device that they both connect themselves to. This device allows them to feel as though they are hugging each other. The emotions of tears, joy, and laughter are overwhelming. You cannot help but share their love and smile at the reunion. Your heart opens.

That same type of energy – sometimes even stronger – can be shared and felt by those tuned into their energy bodies when gathered together with others, even when it is not in person.

This energy, this connection, is what those who have stayed together in Zoom classes experience, and the group bonds continue to grow stronger each week.

There are thousands of free asana and meditation classes available on the internet. Yet, for the past two years, a small but dedicated group of us have been coming together several times a week to give our bodies and weary spirits the support we so desperately need – and to strengthen the energy of the collective consciousness of pure love.

Asana, while important, is just a small part of living your yoga. 

Deepening your love for yourself and each other is what yoga IS all about because love never fails.

When we are together in our virtual yoga room, many of us can ‘feel’ each other. We can feel the heaviness some students show up with, feel it releasing as we connect with our breath and our gentle movement, and then feel the vastness, the spaciousness that each of us truly is.

We show up for ourselves and each other to release the tension, worry, and fears that our minds and bodies collect. As we do this gentle ‘housekeeping,’ we easily and naturally become a larger and brighter light that can help illuminate the darkness in the world. We are participating in group energetic, worldwide healing.

We end many of our sessions by first giving love and compassion to ourselves and then to one another. Together, we energetically hold someone in pain or fear, gently beaming hope and strength into their body. It’s not uncommon to hear from a student that they are releasing tears of tension from their own bodies and feeling the love from their class.

We then leave our virtual yoga room filled with love for ourselves and others. So often, divine insight has been discovered, guiding us to what we can now go out into the world and contribute.

In yoga, this is known as Sangha – your group, community, or family of choice – the tribe that is always there to help you refill your vessel of life force energy.

Your Sangha may be associated with a particular religion or belief system or not.

A healthy sangha is one that helps you remember how beautiful, capable, and powerful you are and helps provide the tools and support system to build a happy life.

Everyone needs Sangha!

It has now been over two long years since COVID-19 separated many of us from our family of birth, chosen family, work-family, and most importantly, our spiritual family, our tribe. So many have lost loved ones to this disease, while others lost their jobs or businesses.

Then, as we are re-adjusting our lives to isolation, those of us in the United States were forced to face the darkness generated by Trumpism and also began a profound reckoning with the social injustice deeply embedded into our society. Unhappy people perpetuated dangerous, big lies that spread a new disease across our country, dividing our families and communities even more, threatening our freedom to vote, have body autonomy, and to exist in the world as the fullest expression of ourselves.

Now, we are experiencing the emotional impact of a war that is killing thousands of innocent people half a world away yet threatens everyone’s sense of security and safety worldwide.

Even if, like me, you’re a person who tends to see the light at the end of every tunnel, can we all just take a reflective moment here and sit with all that we have been, and currently are living through? Seriously, holy shit.

Can we just take a deep inhale and long open mouth exhale with a sigh here and simply acknowledge the new and ongoing traumas our bodies and minds are carrying?

The sad truth is that everything that has happened over the last two years has divided many of us physically, spiritually, and politically.

The hidden opportunity is that since these have been worldwide traumatic experiences, we are being brought into a deeper experience of group consciousness with millions upon millions of us around the globe sharing in the common suffering.

Every single one of us on the planet has been affected. As much as some of us would like to think that we don’t need Sangha, the truth is that we ALL do.

Yet, one of the biggest obstacles many of us face is accepting support. 

Often, there is an outdated belief system about our past that says: “No one has ever been through what I have. Therefore, no one can really understand my suffering.”

I remember having that belief system at one time, but those of us who did our inner work (before COVID) know that this is simply not true. In our open sharing, we have found others who successfully made it through similar or oftentimes even worse circumstances than our own.

You may be thinking, “How can I heal amidst all this? How do I begin?”

Here are a few loving suggestions:

First, acknowledge that you are a spiritual being having a human experience. You cannot ignore the suffering of others and the fears your body and mind may hold. The body knows and keeps score. It will manifest your trauma somehow, in some way, even if you keep trying to ignore or escape it.

Second, recognize that physical touch and deep connection with ourselves and others are essential parts of our earthly well-being. When we are resting in a place of deep love for ourselves, each other, and our precious planet, healing is constantly in motion.

Abiding in deep love for ourselves and others, there can be no harm. 

Third, find your Sangha and be with your tribe in whatever ways are available to you.

It may be more than one group. Just make sure they are groups that fill your soul and do not leave you feeling overwhelmed.

Fourth, set an appointment with YOURSELF each day for a little time to connect deeply with yourself first, enabling you to send a pure signal of hope and light out to others. Set the appointment, and show up for it, no matter what.

Consider:

If you are living in fear, struggling with your meditation practice, feeling in need of a good long hug, or are not able to connect physically with those that love you, here are some ways we can help:

• Join our dedicated Sangha at A Gentle Way. Schedule yourself for five consecutive classes with the same group, same teacher, and experience how it feels to show up for yourself and others consistently. Pop into class 15 minutes before start time and experience Sangha – community. Allow your teacher to get to know you!

            Email us for this special rate: $49 for 5-consecutive classes with the same teacher.

• Book private mentoring with Yoga Therapist & Life Coach Lanita Varshell.

            Introductory Session: Just $49 for a 45-minute session.

• Join Lanita’s IN-PERSON events.
  Our first 1/2 Retreat back into the world was held this past Saturday, and it was amazing to be together again, Her next event is May 14th at the Handlery Hotel in San Diego.

            Email us at www.agentleway.com to request a space.

• Give yourself a big gift of 6 nights and days of true letting go.
  Join Diane and Lanita in September for an amazing 6-Night Retreat in Helena, Montana. September 3-9, 2022 Let this retreat melt years of tension away.

          Sign up at www.agentleway.com or www.featheredpipe.com

Celebrating 26 years of teaching yoga

This month I celebrate 26-years of teaching yoga and joyful movement full time.
Yoga has not been a hobby or a part-time business: it is my life. Its gentle ethics, principles, and philosophy live in every fiber of my soul.

I did not begin teaching yoga in 1996 to become a famous yoga teacher Even to this day, I shy away from publicity. But I do have a desire to leave a record when I am gone of what I have found so effective for others. So, as with most mornings now, I wake up, sit up, thank the universe for another day in this body, on this remarkable planet, and I write down the things that I wish to pass on to others; the things my students say: “Please write that down for us before you forget!” Then we laugh together and talk about how the universe seems to use me as a vessel for life-force energy to come to each person in class who is ready to receive.

The most common comment from students after the end of a class is: “Wow! That wasn’t what my brain thought it wanted, but it was exactly what my body and heart needed. I’m so glad I showed up today and let go!”

I began teaching yoga as a way to save my own life. When yoga found me, I immediately knew that the type of yoga I was practicing could be as popular as the craze of ‘power yoga’ was back then in the 1990s. I knew that so many women and men of all sizes and ages needed this slower, safer, softer method of yoga and movement to learn a new way to honor and take care of their bodies and awaken their inner souls.

As I reflect on those times, I avoided most publicity because of the negative comments from critics who were more than happy to declare that fat people like me should not be teaching any form of exercise. Yet, this style of yoga was saving my life and changing the lives of others like me. Many fitness experts and yoga teachers could not understand how something so gentle could be so effective, but for us, it was. It was doable and enjoyable. It made us feel good about ourselves. It gave us hope.

Over these many years, I would occasionally be asked to teach outside my comfort zone, at someone else’s Yoga or Retreat Center, and I would heed the call. Unfortunately, some of the attendees just did not “get it.” Usually, they were thinner and more “fit” yoga teachers. But I knew that if only one student could walk away from our classes or workshops with more hope for their body, or with more understanding of why yoga poses might need to be modified and deconstructed, I had made an impact and was serving my life purpose.

On my journey, I focused on building a local community, centered in a sweet little San Diego studio, A Gentle Way, where not only I felt safe, but where others who had experienced a yoga class that didn’t feel like a good “fit” to them could find a space and a practice that felt safe and welcoming.

Fast forward to today, When COVID-19 forced the closure of our studio A Gentle Way in 2020, it took me time to adjust to not having our physical location. It was more ‘home’ to me than anywhere I have lived for over 20 years. I allowed myself time to grieve, rest, and reset my own intentions and directions.

A well-loved San Diego yoga teacher recently wrote me:
“Dear Lanita,
Out of all the Studios that were forced to close their doors due to COVID, yours is the one I mourn for the most. Although I am the type of body that can practice yoga easily with almost any teacher, of any style or tradition, and have taken lots of training with many ‘famous’ yogis, your Teacher Training taught me the most about myself and understanding others.

Your Studio was where I would always send students who did not feel they would ‘fit in’ anywhere else, and it was the place I would come back to over and over again for the deep nurturing that your classes and your intuitive heart would give me.”

So here we are my dearest, and yes, the physical location of A Gentle Way is gone, but the energy in a LIVE ZOOM class remains and is strong. Our online classes are still small and customized for whoever shows up each week, but now students from all over the country and even Canada are joining me weekly in classes and workshops. When one door closes, (literally), another opens!

I hope as I write this, if you are new to, or returning to taking care of yourself, and your body cannot keep up with traditional exercise or yoga, that my classes will be a great start for you and offer you a welcome change.

Likewise, if you are an experienced teacher, for you, these classes may be an important missing piece of yoga. They are what I have named MIMSY – Meditation in Movement Soft Yoga, my trademarked style. The movements are slow, the breath and inner connection are deep, and the lasting effects will surprise and carry beyond the simple hour that you’re on your mat. As so many students and yoga teachers have told me, you just may find these classes to be the most challenging practice you have ever done!

If you are a fellow Intuitive Healer, Empath, Light-giver, Reiki Master, or Personal Lifecoach, my classes will offer you a quiet place of refuge to refuel your soul, reset and reflect, so that you are able to remain open to the emotional connections of those you serve.

As with all our classes, you are welcomed with an open mind and open accepting heart, and no sincere seeker of health, peace and wellness is ever turned away.

I was led to yoga 27 years by a consciousness higher than mine. This powerful force from above is still guiding my work. For this, I am very grateful.

To all the students who have found hope, healing, and health in my classes: Thank you for honoring me with your presence. Your beautiful bodies teach me so much more than anatomy classes, a famous teacher, or the most popular yoga or energy book ever could.

My soul continues to be filled in each LIVE ZOOM class and workshop. I will continue to support you with a huge heart, open arms, and a place to call your yoga home.

With my deepest gratitude, love, and blessings,

Lanita Varshell
A Gentle Way Yoga

Sometimes We Just Need A Little Butter

As a long-time studio owner and teacher, I’ve seen many students and yoga teachers come through our doors who desperately need to slow down.

For the sake of their health, their sanity, and that of others around them who work with them and love them, they need to practice the art of doing less, instead of doing more. Their energy is so intense that it is hard to be in their presence. I can intuitively feel their central nervous systems getting ready to crash – like a gas pedal in a car stuck – steamrolling toward a big physical crash, emotional breakdown, or revving up to lash out at others.

One student who was like this whom I will never forget walked into our Center and began taking class after class, thinking she had to learn it all right now. She hated the slower classes, and although those were the ones she desperately needed, she simply could not slow down that much. She asked for private sessions to make sure she was getting all of the poses “right.”

I assigned her to Tammy, a wonderful teacher who also had very high energy, but was embracing the principles of SOFT YOGA that she was learning at our studio, A Gentle Way. After several sessions, I asked Tammy how our student was progressing. She replied, shaking her head: “I told her, ‘Girl, you need to eat some butter!’”

Over the years, I have seen so many women taking and teaching yoga who cut out everything in their life that is rich, yummy and comforting, thinking that this is the path that will lead them to the perfect body, perfect health, or the approval they are seeking. But many of them are so unhappy! And creating unhappiness for those around them!

The path of Yoga for householders (those of us who work in the everyday world and do everyday sorts of things) is not about denying ourselves anything. It is about balance and moderation in all things. It is not a destination, but a practice.

Sometimes, a little butter (softness, richness) is needed in life, just as a little butter can take toast from dry and hard to soft and delicious. Many doctors have even come back around this decade to explain how a little butter helps your body, not hurts it as we once were told. There is a saying I always use while helping my students through relaxation: “

Imagine your body is butter melting into the floor.” If you take a square of cold butter and just stick it on that toast, it just sits there, doing nothing. You get way too much of it as you bite into the toast, and too much cold butter just tastes like cold fat. But butter that is warmed, even slightly, spreads evenly across the toast. It soaks perfectly into the bread, adding moisture and bringing out the best flavor in both the bread and the butter. The breathing and relaxation techniques we teach in Soft Yoga first warm the body, then spread that warmth evenly throughout the body, like butter, balancing the body and the mind. The more we learn to relax and let go before a stretch or an asana (pose), the safer the pose will be, and the deeper it will integrate into our energy bodies.

When we are balanced in body and mind, we do not give off chaotic energy. Rather, we are in a place where we enjoy life more, and our friends and loved ones enjoy us more. From a scientific perspective, it is very important to learn how to “switch” our-selves from the sympathetic (“fight or flight”) nervous system, the one that’s al-ways going or doing, to the parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) nervous system, the one that allows us to heal, restore, and renew.

If we do not learn how to con-sciously do this, our bodies and minds will burn out well before their time, like a vehicle that has been run way too long, too hard, and never given time to cool or replenish its important fluids. If you are a high-energy type of person who has a hard time slowing down, my suggestion for you today is to play with finding the softest, slowest style yoga you can, and practice this style several times a week.

Think of these classes as your “meditation-in-movement,” not as exercise or stretch sessions, although they may include deep stretches. Focus on your breath and on integrating your mind into each inhale, each exhale, each precious moment and slow movement. For you, this just may be the hardest yoga you will ever do, but the rewards will be great. Your body, your mind, and your friends and family will thank you.

Footnote:Although our Center is known for slower and softer yoga, the slowest or physically “easiest” classes may not always be the right classes for you. It took me twenty years of practicing yoga and working with many different types of bodies and personalities to realize that, for some people, practicing Sun Salutation (which is a series of faster movements practiced in our more physically dynamic classes) is a way for them to slow down for them, where it would be a big cardio workout for me.

This is why we offer a variety of yoga styles where everyone can learn to gear down at their own pace. So if you are new to our Center, or new to yoga, please email me for a free 15-consultation, or book a private session with one of our senior staff so that we can help you find the very best teacher and class style to help you slow down and add a little butter to your practice. If you do not live in San Diego, I invite you to join us at our next Retreat or teacher training offering. Go to our website for details.

Why We Take Our Shoes Off

There are many different styles of yoga, and many different types of yoga centers.
A Gentle Way (AGW) Yoga & Joyful Movement Center is a “health and healing place.”
An important ritual for us is walking into our Center, slowing down, and not only taking off our shoes, but also washing our feet. This foot-washing ceremony helps us leave the energy of the world behind, and creates a sacred, clean, healing space.

We come to AGW to let go, relax, renew, restore, release, and rebuild. We are here to strengthen and to soften. We come to our yoga home to balance tightness and flexibility, body and mind, breath and spirit.

In many cultures, washing someone’s feet is a sign of respect and reverence toward that person. So when students take the time to wash their OWN feet, it allows them to give to THEMSELVES the type of honor and respect they would like from others.

I added the instruction of washing our feet before stepping into our yoga room for several reasons. I saw students rushing into the studio, many times late, so frantic they would often even forget to take off their shoes or turn off their cell phones, bringing a trail of chaos and uncleanliness into our sacred healing space.

Now, however, knowing that they need to slow down and wash their feet before setting up for class, most of our long-time students arrive early, not rushing – even taking time to get to know each other before class, creating a wonderful yoga community of friends who look forward to seeing each other each week.

This slowing down and cleansing practice took some students a while to get used to, but almost everyone loves it now. It keeps our center and its props much cleaner, and it is much more enjoyable in our Gentle yoga classes to massage CLEAN feet!
If slowing down is an ADVANCED practice for you, then please keep practicing!

I promise it will get easier and easier, and you will soon begin to understand and embrace the many physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits that slowing down in your life and yoga practice can provide. It can all begin with slowing down to clean your feet!

Many blessings,
Lanita Varshell
(written August 2018)

Please slow down and wash your feet!
Yoga Niyama: Saucha
Purity: Cleaning your inner and outer houses to make yourself clear and powerful.
Stop rushing, and feel the difference that respecting yourself and others will

Vacations-A Necessity, not a luxury

This journey of yoga: union with ourselves, each other, and the divine; is not about depriving yourself of anything, but rather looking deep within ourselves and recognizing where we are out of balance, and then taking the steps needed to bring ourselves back to center.

Do not deny yourself time off for the summer! Plan a wonderful vacation for yourself, where you spend time with nature, and with those you love.

Vacations – A Necessity – Not a Luxury

A real vacation. A true retreat.

What is that? What would that feel like?

Do you wonder?

 Nice dream, but not in my world!

You may say.

A retreat or real vacation is time spent away from your normal routine, from your daily responsibilities. It is time to rest, relax, and play.

Yoga Philosophy reminds us that it is our birthright to be happy; that we are here to enjoy life, despite the suffering that being human creates. So, an important question to gently ask ourselves is: Am I living to work – or working to live?  If the answer is that you are working to live – make sure you take time to truly live, not just survive, no matter what your financial circumstances.

A vacation is time to remember who you are, to enjoy the things you love, those you love, and the fruits of your labor.

Learning to take time to retreat from my daily duties and take a real vacation has not been easy for me. I was a single mom for so many years, and an underpaid, over-worked yoga studio owner. The thought of a real vacation was always a far-off dream for me. But I am a dreamer, so I just kept, (and keep on), working towards achieving one dream at time. With persistence one day there it is – my dream, right in front of me.

It is never truly about having the money to achieve this kind of dream for ourselves, (although we think it is), it is however, about the desire and the efforts put behind those dreams. It is being able to say to the universe:

“This is my birthright, and I am going to do this, no matter what, so show me the way. This, or something better, please!”

The first “real vacation” I ever took after having children was when my daughter Katie graduated from high school in 2006. While it was important, taking us on a vacation felt almost selfish to me, because the survival of my yoga studio was always my first priority, and there was never enough money coming in. Leaving town felt like the impossible, but I wanted to create at least one pleasant play-time, vacation-time memory with my children. So I took a huge leap of faith and put a 7-day cruise on a credit card and off we went. It something we really couldn’t “afford” financially, but something we desperately needed to do.

And it was so wonderful! I rested. I got to read novels. I could not be contacted about work. I was fully present with and for my children if they wanted to hang out with me, without interruption. My children and I bonded; we laughed, and we played. We created lovely memories. (The vacation got paid for eventually.) And yes, the business survived without me.

In 2012, thanks to the exceptional teachers and volunteers at AGW, I was able to take my first two weeks away from work – ever! Once again, it was not something I could easily afford, but rather something I knew I had to do to save my soul. Exhaustion had set in on the highest level, and there was absolutely nothing left in my cup to give. I knew if I did not take time off to rest and have fun, I was going to get sick and be forced to take time off to recover; so I chose a vacation.

My daughter and her husband, an Air Force helicopter pilot, were living in Alabama at the time. I met her for a few days in Panama Beach, Florida. I got to walk the beach, and spend precious time with my beautiful daughter. I got to play tourist and play with my 1st grand-puppy – Tahoe, a beautiful 9-month old Husky. Katie then drove me to her temporary home in Enterprise, Alabama. At her apartment I checked into the guest bedroom, and caught up on sleep, walked every day, and read three delicious novels.

Probably the most important part of the trip was being able to “feel” the differences in my body, without the daily responsibility of having to juggle all the many different responsibilities I have in my hometown. Life and my business went on without me, even though when I am in San Diego it sometime feels like there is no way it can!

The loving yoga principles of “taking care of myself from the inside out,” that I have been practicing for the last 22 years were truly felt on that vacation. I had no desire to indulge in food or activities that did not serve my highest self. I ate well. I sleep well. I exercised because I wanted to, because my body was not too exhausted to move. I realized that the pattern of late night un-healthy eating, my biggest nemesis that I was never able to control at home, was non-existent while away. I had time to remember who I really was – away from the daily pressures of everyday living, away from everyone’s expectations of me, and my expectations of myself. I had 10 beautiful days with my daughter, her husband and puppy, and gave myself two days back at my home in San Diego to re-adjust before re-entering my busy world again.

When I came back to the “daily grind”, my workload had not changed, but something definitely had changed in me because of the vacation. I was able to bring a piece of that self-care back home with me, even while continuing to work a 60-70 hour week. I was able leave work in time to take my walk before dark with no guilt. I joined a support group outside my yoga world to meet my personal needs, a place where people do not expect perfection out of me. I was able to go to sleep without a full stomach. I lost 9 pounds in 30-days, despite all the daily stresses of life!

After those oh so important days away, I found that I bounced back a little more easily from people telling me that I was not doing enough, or not doing things right enough for their needs. During those two weeks off I was able to review just how much I have accomplished in my life, and it is in that place of gratitude and appreciation that I am trying to live everyday!

I realized that if I left this planet tomorrow, I could be very proud of myself today, and all that I have done. My life situation had not changed, but I did, just a bit, in a very important way.

Retreats and vacations are not luxuries.

They are a necessary component to re-balancing our lives, to clearing our heads, and to giving us the energy and desire to keep going.

This is the reason why, for the past 20 years, I have been leading retreats for others and reminding us all (myself included) how important it is to retreat even for just a couple of days at a time, if a week or two is not possible. This is why I am carving out more time each year to leave my work and live my dreams.

If you feel like you cannot afford to get away, learn to take 2-3 day vacations right in your home-town. Turn off the TVs and the phones. Get out and explore your world. For those of us living in San Diego, we are so blessed with the beach and the mountains just minutes away. But everyone can find a place of peace no matter where you are located.

One way to do this is to turn your own home into a vacation retreat for a weekend: Spend an hour in the tub, lie down and read a great book or sleep as long as you can. Your body and spirit will thank you. You will be a nicer person inside and out!

Choose to be happy.

Choose to take vacations.

Choose to retreat.

Put forth what you want, and then ask the universe to show you the way.

There are so many wonderful universal forces you cannot see, just waiting to help you. You must be willing to ask. Then get quiet and listen to what they have to say.

Shouldering A Burden: Blending Metaphor With Hindsight

Way back in my Yoga training days, and since, I’ve heard Yoga instructors espouse the notion that any illness or injury we’re presented with in this life should be considered a blessing in disguise.

Now, there aren’t many yogic ideals I fully disagree with, but this philosophical notion? I respectfully call BS! Perhaps it’s just semantics, however, in my book (and Webster’s too), a blessing is something that brings about happiness and well-being.

Last October, my right shoulder began to progressively lose functionality, for no apparent reason. In some sort of twisted homeostasis, for each degree of motion my joint lost, I gained an uptick on the pain scale. It got to the point where I was unable to dress or undress without excruciating pain (or help), and the dysfunction progressed to not being able to do much of anything purposeful: not even sleeping.

This situation obviously created quite a problem for me, not only as a Yoga instructor, but also as a human being.

While questions swirled — Was there a tear? An impingement? Frozen joint? — and focused therapeutic modalities were explored — acupuncture, MRI, cortisone injection, it became necessary to mitigate the pain by X-ing out a wide swath of activities, most profoundly, my physical Yoga practice.

Now, I’d love to say that because I am a longtime student of Yoga, the extreme decrease in my moving practice significantly upped my meditation game and I was able to blithely move through my experience with bemused detachment. Really, I would! However, that would be a four-alarm lie.

As I said, frozen shoulder, cancer, sciatica, depression and the like, stray pretty far afield from the encyclopedic definition of a blessing. And FYI, I don’t equate the inconvenience of a frozen shoulder as anything nearing the blessing category of cancer! No. Dysfunctions and maladies rarely (if even that) bring contentment to anyone who has not reached some level of spiritual enlightenment.

And since I’ve not (… yet?) reached that auspicious state of being, this immobilized shoulder hasn’t brought anything close to bliss to my table, IMHO.

Thankfully, the time and energy I’ve spent in Yoga study over the years has not been for naught. I am cognizant that my downtime has provided a trail marker toward deeper self-examination and awareness. Each morning I remind myself that every one of us has real and/or perceived limitations (which often manifest as real) in myriad aspects of our lives.

Some of life’s circumstances obviously hold more density than others, yet if we are able to bring our full, unadulterated attention to any situation we’re served, no matter how seemingly trivial they appear, oftentimes these episodes hyper-illustrate the “condition our condition is in.”*

As the dust-up related to my shoulder continues to settle, the parting haze has revealed some pretty deep-seated spirals of self-judgment I’ve cycled through for a very long time. In the quietude of passive stretching, my habit of unconsciously schlepping around personal burdens that, well, just don’t personally belong to me, has also been on display.

And, blending metaphor with some hindsight, it almost seems like a no-brainer in stating that perhaps the weight of my judginess and self-induced martyrdom, among other things, finally became too much burden for my shoulder to bear.

Although I haven’t fully reclaimed full shoulder range of motion yet, I recently practiced Downward Facing Dog for the first time in almost six months. From an outside viewpoint, it wasn’t pretty, necessarily aligned, or particularly relaxed. From my viewpoint, however, once I shifted from judgment to observation, it was delicious! It felt, I suppose, like a gift of sorts. Like, maybe even a blessing?

Peace of Mind comes Piece by Piece

I’m sitting in a little cabin in Mt. Shasta, California looking out at beautiful Lake Siskiyou, a place I never knew existed until someone told me that this is where I must be. At the cabin, with a view of a crystal clear lake, I sit and breathe in a whole new part of my state that I had never seen.

I breathe slowly in, and slowly out, so grateful for this opportunity to be sent to this special place to teach yoga teachers. So grateful to be invited. So grateful I accepted.

As I take time to sip my warm tea, I notice that the tag of the tea bag has a message for me. It says:

Peace of mind comes piece by piece.

And there it is, attached to my tea bag. So simple, and so true. I did not go searching for the secret of life, as I did when I was younger. I was invited to experience something new. A new location, and a new type of tea, and I accepted. I was given a simple bag of soothing herbal tea, and the message found me.

As I look back over two decades of teaching yoga, primarily to those who are new to the yoga world, afraid of the yoga world, or have been injured in yoga classes or other physical modalities, these students are usually brought into my class by a relative or friend who told them that this is where they must be. So, they somehow moved through their apprehension or outright fear of trying something new, of getting hurt or embarrassed, and they showed up. Piece #1

Upon arriving at any of my classes, students are told that all they have to do is lie down, get comfortable, and focus on their breathing. Most are puzzled and confused, but as they try it, listening to their bodies always above my guiding words, they began to fill a “shifting down”, dropping into a state of present moment, of relaxation, a state that many had never felt before. Piece #2

The more they stay with their breath and trusted the process, the safer they  start to feel, and the more tightness or pain begins to move out of their body and melt into the floor. They begin to trust truth behind my words: that it is more important to focus on the breath than on the asana. They start to believe that the breath will lead them into poses when and if they are ready. Piece #3

By being willing to walk into our Center, lie down, and breathe their stresses, pains, or emotional strains into our yoga room floor, students create a beautiful healing energy, not only for themselves, but for the next class that comes into the room. This is a gift to themselves, which they then pass to others in return. Piece #4

From this deeply relaxed state, these students begin to unravel their worries, their fears, surrendering them away. Physical disturbances have even been said to have melted away off the body, which in turn, relaxes the psyche. Piece #5

In yoga, often, the simplest poses are the most effective. It may feel as though nothing is happening at any given time, but the longer one stays with the pose and focuses on attending to specific parts of the body, the more space opens to allow for healing and renewing. Piece #6

Peace of mind comes piece by piece.

 I’ve seen firsthand, with myself and with my students, that the many puzzle pieces of life start to come together when we begin to practice the language of letting go.

Some of the most common comments I hear from students as they leave my classes are:

– I came in with pain in my back, and it is no longer there.

– I feel like I just got a full body massage.

– I can’t believe how fast time went by!

– Can I just sleep here?

When they return to class their comments are frequently:

• I can’t believe how well I sleep at night after a MIMSY-Meditation in Movement Style Yoga class.

• We moved so little – why are my abdominals talking to me?

– I feel muscles I have never felt in any other type of exercise!

Then comes the next piece of the puzzle as they ask:

How often should I practice gentle yoga?

Well, how good do you want to feel?

Remember – Peace of mind comes piece by piece.