Category: Ask The Yogi

“When someone shoots an arrow at you, don’t be there.”My teacher Baron Baptiste reminded me of this Zen proverb last month standing on a beach in Maya Tulum.

   Psst. The universe is working for you. You don’t have to believe that. You don’t have to believe in good or evil for them to exist. But what’s possible if you believe it? I recently realized that if I pay attention, I can see and feel the universe working for me. You can call it God, Buddha, Allah, or Spirit, but if you pay attention you will find a divine grace in your corner.

As human beings, we are more alike than we are different. No matter what our social or economic status, at our core, human beings all experience the same range of emotions. Yet almost from the womb, we strive to distinguish ourselves from others. In our quest for success and happiness, we risk falling into the trap of comparison.

  Are you grateful?   Do you cultivate an attitude of gratitude? This year, I have noticed a trend on Facebook where my friends are posting something that they are grateful for every single day. Instead of waiting for one appointed day to express gratitude for things large or small, they express gratitude for something every single day. I have seen some amazing posts.

I recently attended goal setting training, and learned a simply yet staggeringly important truth. Everything after “I am” creates.* We create our lives.   Every single aspect comes from us.  What we think, we become.

   Have you ever heard the saying, “We become what we judge?” When we judge someone, our behaviors begin to mirror what we judge.  For example, if you judge someone for a prejudice, you become prejudiced against them.  You may have started from a place of moral righteousness (caution!  warning!) but you eventually become the very thing you resent.

“Preach all the time, sometimes even with words.”  Baron Baptiste said it, and I even have the tee shirt.  The words are easy, but sometimes the practice is more challenging.

Very often when I tell people who do not practice yoga about Africa Yoga Project, I am asked a fair and honest question: “Don’t kids in Africa need food more than they need YOGA?”

Society could learn a lot from the practice of yoga.  Yoga philosophy emphasizes non-judgment, acceptance, and compassion at its very core.  Take the recent comments by Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathie regarding his company’s support of the traditional family unit.   Though his initial comments were not inflammatory, his clarifications were.

(aka “Hey, You’re Sweating All Over My Saucha”)   I get the question all the time – do you really practice yoga in a heated room? The answer is unwaveringly yes, which leads, inevitably, to the question (insert really inquisitive and mildly skeptical voice here), “WHY?”

  The last few years, I have explored a lot of avenues in nutrition and health.  As a yogi, I take my health very seriously, and I have explored many different avenues of diet and nutrition.  In January, I attempted to switch to a totally vegan diet.   It worked with my body for a while, but as I became busier in the new year, I fell into the easy trap of being a junk food vegan.

The first time I read the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, I was struck by the similarity of the sutras and the Beatitudes.  As the nuns taught me growing up, the eight Beatitudes of Jesus provide a way of life that promises salvation, but also provide peace and help us to survive the trials and tribulations we must face here on earth.  Each sutra, or thread, contained a shred of wisdom, that if put into action, could bring the practitioner inner peace and happiness.  

Later this month, Dancing Dogs Yoga will graduate its first batch of yoga teacher trainees. Through our partner MBody Yoga, 20 amazing individuals from the Southeast will complete this rigorous 220-Hour Yoga Alliance approved Teacher Certification Program (TCP). We are unleashing new yoga teachers into the world, and the transformation thus far has been amazing.

I consider myself lucky to be training with some of the greatest and most inspirational yoga teachers in the world. Last week, I returned home from Level Two training with Baron Baptiste, and I am a changed person. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about community lately.   I have watched my small studio grow and grow, and as we prepare to expand into Bluffton, I have been overwhelmed by the sense of unity in my yoga community.  It made me think of a blog written by my dear friend and studio manager Brittney.

I’m writing this column on the first day of Lent, trying my editor’s abundant patience with my deadline once again (sorry, Margaret).  I was raised Catholic, but it has been a long time since I gave up anything for Lent.  In hopes that my mother is not reading this submission, I confess that for many years I quipped that I was giving up church for Lent.

There is something amazing about seeing service in action. I just came back from Jamaica. Before you feel sorry for me, I spent several days with some of the most amazing and selfless people on earth. Under the Caribbean sun, I was reminded once again of the beautiful power of SEVA, or service.

Restoration (noun): 1.the act of restoring; renewal, revival, or reestablishment. 2. a return of something to a former, original, normal, or unimpaired condition. 3. restitution of something taken away or lost.

One of my first yoga teachers told me a long time ago that somewhere along my yoga journey, I would stop eating meat.  I thought that was funny.  As a good Southern girl, chicken was a regular staple in my diet, and nothing made me happier than a thick, juicy steak, rare.  I thought that hell would freeze over before I even considered becoming a vegetarian. The devil must be cold.  On January 1, 2012, I cut out meat and all other animal products from my diet. 

Yogis are always seeking equanimity. We find ourselves looking for peace and inner calm that can only found by becoming our true, authentic selves. But how do we find ourselves?