Greetings Reader - “Not ‘move the foot; move your foot.’ Not ‘move the hand; move your hand.’.” Given the centrality of personalism in bhakti-yoga philosophy, it should have been obvious that personalizing my cueing would be the better way to teach an asana sequence. And yet, there I was, a novice yoga teacher, impersonally cueing poses as if my student’s bodies were pieces of furniture. It may sound like a little thing, but little things can make a big difference. For example, saying “move...
6 days ago • 3 min read
Greetings Reader - Just a quick reminder the registration for my January Wisdom Workshop closes tonight: The Three Pillars of Yoga Live via Zoom on Sunday, January 12, 2025 @ 12:00 pm Eastern Time Tuition: $37 CLICK HERE TO ENROLL This class will be recorded and available for replay This course is registered with Yoga Alliance and offers 1.5 hours of CE credit. I hope to see you there, Wishing you all good fortune, Hari-k
7 days ago • 1 min read
Greetings Reader - Are you ready to re-discover the timeless wisdom of the Yoga Sutras and how their core practices of austerity, study, and devotion can transform your yoga practice and your life? If the answer is "yes!" then you'll want to sign up for my LIVE online workshop: The Three Pillars of Yoga. I created this 90-minute session for yoga teachers and enthusiasts who want to learn more about the three primary practices of yoga described in Chapter II, sutra 1 of Patanjali's...
10 days ago • 1 min read
Greetings Reader - I discovered Jivamukti Yoga in 2004. I hadn't even completed my first class before I thought, "I need to learn how to teach this!" The reason I wanted to teach rather than just practice was because I was looking for a way to share my experience of yoga as a spiritual practice and I immediately recognized that the format and style of a Jivamukti class lent itself to teaching yoga as a philosophy and lifestyle rather than just as a system of physical postures. I already had...
13 days ago • 4 min read
Greetings Reader - Our free monthly series, Community Conversations, continues next week with a discussion about "Positive Freedom." For our first CC of 2025, we'll explore the meaning of freedom, how we think about freedom, why removing obstacles to freedom—and yoga—is only half the battle, the social structures and personal relationships we need in order to experience freedom, the role that values and morality play in achieving freedom, the relationship between political freedom and...
15 days ago • 1 min read
Greetings Reader - It’s time once again to celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another. And the first way I want to celebrate is by celebrating you: thank you for being here, for being who you are, for reading my emails, for being a part of this community, and for sharing your journey with me. The second way is by sharing a bit of inspiration I got from a podcast I listening to recently (The Gray Area—episode date November 25). It was an interview with marine biologist Ayana...
20 days ago • 3 min read
Greetings Reader - I'm doing something a little different for me this holiday season: I'm hibernating. Or at least relatively hibernating. For me, that means sleeping late and working at half-speed instead of my usual get-up-and-get-it-done-yesterday mode of moving through life. I love what I do so "working" doesn't really feel like work. And everything I do is more or less self-directed so, other than having a responsibility to be a contributing member of my household, the amount of effort I...
27 days ago • 4 min read
Greetings Reader - ‘Tis the season to be singing. Have you ever noticed how singing—even just for yourself—can lift your mood? It’s true. And it’s not just a superficial quick fix; in addition to its immediate uplifting effect, singing, especially singing sacred songs or mantras, has profound benefits for our health and well-being. Across cultures, sacred songs have long been celebrated as tools for healing and connection: In Europe, medieval Gregorian chants calmed minds and spirits in...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Greetings Reader - Our free monthly series, Community Conversations, continues next week with "Year's End Reflections." For our last CC of 2024, we'll reflect on our experience of the last twelve months and do our best to look at the year's events through the lens of yoga wisdom. This is a time for introspection, allowing us to acknowledge our experiences and growth over the past year. We’ll discuss how to cultivate moods of gratitude and resilience that will help us move forward into the new...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Greetings Reader - The holiday season has arrived and, with it, traditions of giving, accepting, sharing, and connecting. These moments of togetherness hold immense potential—not just to nurture relationships, but to elevate them to new spiritual heights. In a book called Upadeśāmṛta (The Nectar of Instruction), Rūpa Goswami, a 16th century saint who wrote extensively about the philosophy and practice of bhakti-yoga, describes six loving exchanges that form the foundation of spiritual...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read