Inner Contentment In our culture our attention is so often pulled up and outside of ourselves. We look for happiness and satisfaction outside of ourselves. Even our self-care practices have an external focus. Contentment requires focus as it is an internal practice. As Sara Avant Stover reminds us, no amount of external pampering can nourish […]

Simplicity This week we arrive at the niyamas, the inner facets of the eight-fold path of yoga. The niyamas allow us to continue our journey inward so that we can uncover our True Nature. We begin with saucha which Nischala Joy Devi translates as simplicity and continual refinement so that you can see your True […]

Awakening Today we will reflect on our journey of awakening through the story of the Phoenix. We will do this because awakening ironically has as much or more to do with the descending journey as it does to do with the ascending journey. The phoenix is a mythical story of rebirth and resurrection. According to […]

Letting Go Throughout this focused living series we have been focused on creating a life of less, but better. This aligns perfectly with the fifth yama of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras aparigraha. Often this yama focuses on letting go of material possessions and that will definitely create space in your life. However with this series we […]

Moderate Energy I hear from you, my students, all the time that staying present, focused, feeling present in the moment, and trying to stay mindful are difficult for you. Many of you have told me that you having difficulty focusing and finding mental clarity. You would like to have more equanimity in your lives, reduce […]

Non-Stealing According to Traditional Chinese Medicine we are born with a fixed amount of energy called, jing chi. As we go through our lives, our jing chi gets used up. Everyday stressors, illness, and substance abuse, use up our jing chi at a more rapid rate. It is incredibly difficult to restore your jing chi, […]

Personal Truth The second yama of the five yamas in Patanjali’s yoga sutras is satya and speaks about truth. In fact, most often this sutra is discussed in terms of right speech and speaking the truth. Today I would like to interpret this sutra as a practice of coming to know your True Self and […]

Nonviolence Welcome to a brand new series on Namaste Yoga. When we asked you what your biggest obstacle to practicing yoga, many of you spoke of interruptions and distractions, putting your yoga time first before other demands. Some of you spoke about how your mind is full of other things, a lot of you talked […]

Sun Salutations Today’s yoga class is designed for the absolute beginner. You can do this class if you have never done a yoga class before in your life. I will give you slow, easy to follow, step-by-step, pose by pose instructions on how to do sun salutations. I will explain to you in detail how […]

Gratitude in Action Over the last couple of weeks in our Yoga for Gratitude series we have reflected on how we can cultivated gratitude in thought and word. In our Gratitude in Thought class we reflected on all the ways that you have cared for your own life and all the elements within your life […]