Breathing fast and slow

During the puja celebration to honor the reopening of Pacific Ashtanga Yoga Shala at its new location in Dana Point earlier this month, Director and Lead Instructor Diana Christinson presented each participating member of her ashtanga yoga community with a red thread. This red thread is known as a kalava and is used in Hindu ceremonies (or pujas ) as a symbol of unity for a community--in this case, the community of ashtangis who practice with Diana at her shala. When Diana presented these threads to us, she asked us to set an intention for ourselves and to commit ourselves to manifesting that intention in our lives. When we were ready, we were instructed to return with our kalava and share with her in a simple private ceremony the intention we had set for ourselves. Diana, then, would tie this thread around our wrists where it would remain as a symbol of what we were ready to welcome into our lives. For me, this puja thread is now a reminder of the following vow I have set for m...

For better or worse, change is always happening. So we are told. So I have written previously here. It is dependable in that way. Everything will turn into something else. Guaranteed. This is a comfort, the Buddhists tell us, the natural order of things. Consider for a moment how life constantly reveals this to us. A tree grows. A garden flowers. A child learns to walk. The laws of attraction, like momentum, keep life in motion: push, pull, yin, yang, ebb, flow. Hopes rise and fall. The moon waxes and wanes. And every once in a while, as it did this week, even this celestial body is eclipsed by the shadow of our blue planet. Strange, somehow, that we should think all the more of it then as it passes into shadow. The phenomenon increases our wonder perhaps because it increases our faith in our own transformations. A hummingbird has built her nest among the branches of one of our scraggly rose bushes outside our front door and just inside the front yard gate. I watched her build it for...

The history of ashtanga yoga sounds like the sort of tale J.R.R. Tolkien could have invented. While it is devoid of hobbits and wizards, elves and dwarfs, ashtanga's earliest beginnings include the stuff of legends: the curing of a British Lord; the granting of a wish; training from an old guru living in a cave in Tibet; rites of passage; an ancient unbound text, written in an old language--Sanskrit--on sheets of papyrus, kept in a library in a remote part of Calcutta; and a devoted student who goes in search of the library, visiting it daily to copy the text by hand. In the end, something ancient survives. There is no one ring--gold and precious--that is taken from deep within a mountain cave and out into the world of men where it threatens to wreck havoc. What emerges instead is a different kind of precious element, what the cave-dwelling Tibetan guru called "a jewel of priceless value" that his student, a young Krishnamacharya--the father of modern yoga--was instruct...

Imagine the whole world laughing...or learning to laugh a little more. Find out the secret when you listen to Jeffrey Briar, founder of Laguna Beach Laughter Yoga Club, in conversation with me today on Out on a Limb . Here is a link to this latest episode of the Out on a Limb podcast. It will make your diaphragm feel jolly. Promise. http://kx.onelaguna.com/podcasts Experience laughter yoga for yourself by attending class with Jeffrey and his fellow mirth-making yogis in Laguna Beach, on the beach below Heisler Park, Sunday through Friday at 8 a.m. or Saturday at 10 a.m. Follow this link to his website and share the ananda , the bliss: http://lyinstitute.org/ Time moved too quickly today for the following announcements of upcoming yoga happenings. Sangita Yoga: The yoga of music Open House, Saturday, April 12, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Back Bay Center 2675 Irvine Avenue, Suite 100 Costa Mesa, CA  92727 Enjoy a live presentation of the sacred music of India with Naren K. S...

A word about Out on a Limb : With every new endeavor, I become the earnest student again. I am a pilgrim on a new path, traveling always toward that place of greater awareness. I do believe it is a sacred realm because in that place we discover who we are meant to be. The truth, however, is that beginnings are humbling tasks. I must learn one more time that before awareness expands in a new direction, it first must shatter. What shatters inevitably brings fresh resolve and, not only a renewed focus, but new eyes. Still, it's a process, and the learning curve has its own arc that I must bend with. And so, I would like to thank all of my early supporters of Out on a Limb and all those who continue to agree to join me in weekly conversation as both guests and listeners. Thank you for your willingness to extend to me a little bit of faith in a project that is quickly taking on a life of its own. Last week: Sunday, March 23 If you missed last Sunday's  live broadcast of Out o...

It may be when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.         --Wendell Berry Sometimes, life runs smoothly. I sleep well. I get my work done. I feel good about myself, my family, our life, the dog. Like Goldilocks sitting in baby bear's chair, life is just right. So good, in fact, that I attach myself to those good feelings and that smooth running life. Sometimes, life simply runs, as in it gets away from me. Events don't go as planned. Feelings of helplessness set in, occasionally a sense of hopelessness follows. Finally, I feel foolish for thinking that I ever had any of it under control. Once again I'm like Goldilocks, this time complaining that things are too hot or too cold and not at all exactly right. It's odd, but I get attached to those feelings as well. The truth is, I lose heart as often as I accept a challenge. I feel compassion f...

Andres at rest with his art. If you missed yesterday's live broadcast of Out on a Limb , click on the link below to hear me in conversation with Earth Scape Artist Andres Amador. Our theme today: Impermanence and Sacred Geometry. Here is the link to today's podcast at KX @ One Laguna: http://kx.onelaguna.com/podcasts/ Here is the link to find Andres Amador and learn more about his art: http://www.andresamadorarts.com/ Next week: Sunday, March 23 at 2 p.m. Join me for live conversation with Lobbyist Roger Faubel. We will talk about how yoga and mindfulness have transformed this one lobbyist's approach to doing business with Orange County's political and corporate movers and shakers.