Two years ago I stopped closing my yoga classes with namaste. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. In fact, I probably spent six months sitting with the idea and doing test-runs to see how groups would respond before fully committing. Responses fell somewhere between confusion and oblivion. Some students waited a beat, then said “namaste” anyway,… read more…
In conversations about cultural appropriation in yoga, the most common way of dismissing the issue is by saying “yoga is for everyone”. Recently, it occurred to me that saying “yoga is for everyone” to avoid looking at the historical context of white people taking what they want from brown people is akin to saying “all… read more…
In December of last year, my friend Kathryn Anne Flynn invited me on her podcast. It’s always lovely to chat with Kathryn! Listen here. Episode Notes Erin Bidlake found relief from the symptoms of Lyme disease through yoga, and now shares her passion for not just coping, but thriving, with chronic pain. A community deathcare… read more…
Do you have a practice? I suspect you do. We all have little practices, even if we don’t think of them that way. Since I began to study yoga, and particularly since I began to study the dharma, I’ve picked up more practices than I can fit into a day. At their core, the practices… read more…
In this series of blog posts, I discuss yogic practices that relate to death and dying. In a previous post, I looked at corpse pose (savasana). Mala, japa, samskara Have you noticed those strings of beads that yogis sometimes wear around their necks or looped around their wrists and wondered what they’re for? Those are… read more…
A student pokes her head through the door to ask, “When does yoga start?” So many responses come to mind: “On the inhale” “When you were born” “Your last class never ended” But I know what she means, so I reply, “12:15, you’ve got 10 minutes.” (Another student recently reminded me of the time she… read more…
I teach a meditation class at a busy fitness centre. The room is bright, well-equipped with blocks and cushions, and located immediately next to the area designated for weight-lifting. As we practice, the room sometimes vibrates with the impact of weights hitting the floor. The steady beat of pop music and the sounds of metal… read more…
The legacy of late-stage chronic Lyme disease in my life is fear. It’s a low-level fear that informs so many of the decisions I make for myself and my family. I’ve become so used to obeying this fear, that I often forget it’s even there. And I forget that the reason it’s low-level and not… read more…
