This past week has not been easy for me. I hurt my back on Friday morning and was down and out all week long. I hadn't had back pain for years, and there I was on the ground not able to get back up because of a spasm, or a pulled muscle, or something! After a few minutes I gathered my composure and crawled to a nearby railing to help myself stand back up. I wasn't able to do much at all for the first five or six days and then things started to improve over the past few days. I had to cancel classes, reschedule a workshop, and put on hold some upcoming projects because of this injury, which...
I have always been drawn to spending time in nature. Growing up, I loved going to my grandparents cottage. Some of my happiest and most carefree memories are from time spent at the cottage, where I was outside pretty much all day, everyday. I remember waking up, having breakfast and heading down to the beach as fast as I could. I’d only come back to the cottage for lunch and supper and other than that I was busy swimming and building sandcastles. Not much has changed, I still adore spending time in nature, especially the beach, and it’s easy to see the many benefits that come along with getting outside! There’s something about spending time outdoors that feels uplifting and...
A few weeks ago I asked my students, “what is the main reason you practice yoga?” Many of them responded, “to reduce stress”. This actually surprised me at the time, as I had thought that many of these upbeat, energetic yogis practiced with me for the movement component, or even for the fun, social element within many of my classes, not for the relaxation aspect of class. This got me thinking, feeling stressed is a huge part of daily life in our society. Many of us feel overwhelmed, anxious, and stressed on a regular basis, and we aren’t really talking about it. I think there’s a lot of pressure to seem like you have it all figured out, that your...
The Overview Effect is a term used to describe the profound realizations and the shift in awareness reported by some astronauts when they view Earth from space. The term was coined by author Frank White in the 1970’s when he was flying across the country. As he gazed at the earth from the airplane window he thought, “Anyone living in space will always have an overview. They will see things that we know, but that we don't experience, which is that the earth is one system, we're all part of that system, and there is a certain unity and coherence to it all”. Experiencing something so profound as gazing at your home planet from space certainly has the potential to...
