Doing yoga with Francisco Kaiut is doing yoga from the inside out. In fact, to say the word "doing" is already too active, too aggressive, as it's more of an un-doing.

How do we balance our parental instinct to protect and nurture with the tendency to become overprotective, fear-based parents who raise fearful, reticent children?

Though our extended family would send Christmas gifts and I knew about Santa and his reindeer, the real magic for me came during the Winter Solstice.

Thanksgiving is a joyous occasion, full of laughter and cranberry sauce...once we get there. The getting-there part is usually not so fun, full of stress and traffic, which can put a damper in the joy of the holiday.

I'd sleep on planes and on airport benches, in the back of taxis and rickshaws and twice I've slept like a baby at Mt. Everest Base Camp, regardless of the 17,000 ft. altitude.

Last Friday I went to hear a keynote address from Iran's only Nobel Peace Laureate, Dr. Shirin Ebadi. I was blown away.

Although I have made friends with fear, I have not conquered it. Fear arises as an instinct. But the more we work with it, the less it controls our actions.

Instead of just obsessing about what we need for ourselves, we can take the yoga teachings that have helped us and use them to alleviate the suffering of others.

If we can't trust ourselves, if we don't hone our ears to hear our inner warnings, then we can end up acting out of social responsibility or just rote memorization, trapped in a routine that is not serving us

Wouldn't it be great if we looked at each others' spare-tires as signs of abundance and joy and, along the same vein, recognize that our friends who appear too thin may actually need extra moral support?