THE BLOG
STORY, SAUCE & SASS
Intuition: Learning to Pay Attention to my Second Brain
As a child I had strong intuition. I felt things intensely. I was open to the idea that there was more to us than just what we can label and see. As an 8 or 9-year-old, I remember standing in the airport bathroom en route to ski in France. I was wearing a yellow...
Iyengar Yoga Gives me Presents: Presence of Mind & A Capable Body!
As I delve more deeply into Iyengar Yoga, I’m struck by the fierce commitment to presence of mind. I spent a weekend in November, 2014 at a workshop with Manouso Manos in Chicago, with my friend Amy. Manouso studied almost annually with BKS Iyengar for almost 40...
What Music Teaches me About Life (it’s not what you think!)
I grew up playing the drums & piano. My first mixed tape was called Tammy’s Music 1, which was made for me by my dad, from his extensive LP collection and included Bob Marley, Blondie, Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Police. My Dad and I...
Get Tasty: Leave Behind the Food Pyramid & Explore the 6 Tastes!
I used to parse my foods into the food pyramid groups: fats, sugars, proteins, dairy, grains and so on. Then I discovered a different way of eating, as a result of food allergies and a deep-dive into the world of Ayurveda (literally “the science of life”). I start...
Love is not a Monolith
As I navigate this brave new world as a newly-single-mother-of-three-under-the-age-of-40, aware of the fact that I have failed at one of the biggest relationships that any of us humans can commit to, I am thinking deeply about what love means. I feel that this...
Becalmed: How Breathing Reminds us That we are Human Beings, Not Human Doings!
In the time when vessels were blown across the seven seas, a boat was said to be becalmed if it was deprived of the wind needed to move it. Without the wind, the boat had to just be. This experience of just being, not doing, occasionally happens in yoga or...
Meditation is a Cultural Habit… Which Culture?
I teach people habit science. I teach people how to replace the habits that are no longer beneficial, with the new habits that they want to cultivate. I also teach people how to create a new habit. A habit that I focus on is meditation. The goal of meditation is to...
Reflections on Psyche, Soma & the Self: East, West – Which Do You Like Best?
Yoga is a journey of self discovery. We explore the relationship between our body and breath on the mat. We notice where our mind goes in certain poses, where our mind goes when we meditate (How to Meditate, one-minute video; three-minute audio for adults or kids) or...
Your Deeds are your Monuments: The Power of the Precept & Why 5th Grade Novels Rock!
My firstborn reads some really interesting books at school. I often find myself reading them and thinking that I wish I had had the chance to read, discuss and make sense of books like these at his age. They all focus around that oft-mis-quoted saying: What you think,...
Abhyanga – The Ultimate Act of Self Love, or How I Learned How to Love My Thighs!
Self love - I know your mind is probably sinking below the waist, but that’s not what this is about! This practice is about the act of nourishing your body, with your hands & your mind with oils that smell & feel good. Abhyanga has been defined as the “anointing of...
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