Strong body. Strong mind. It's the same thing. Whether we'd like to build the strength to stand our ground, create new opportunities, build more meaningful relationships, lose weight, or be a kinder person, building strength starts with a desire.

Science is catching up now in its ability to explain...

Whether it's family, work, relationships, or friends, we all deal with difficult people in different ways. Holidays often extract the most trying characteristics out of everyone. I recently became "adopted" by my new "yoga/God parents" Ed and Deb Shapiro. (Don't worry paternal family, I still love you guys....

Living, breathing, and being present, is the practice that can lead us to having a full and authentic in-the-body experience. If we can shift our perspective from being separate to being part of it all, psychological hang-ups, insecurities, fears, and disorders dissolve. We are left with self-realization and the ability...

Everything we need is already there. The challenge is letting go of all our stuff in the way.

Whether it is the perfect relationship, adorable family, successful career, financial stability, radiant health, all of the above, or something entirely different, getting what we want drives a lot of us. Even...

Wouldn't it be nice to fully relax the body and mind. Reserving some time for ourselves around the holidays seems so far away from the reality of forced spending, emotional exhaustion, and general frustration. What ever happened to peace, love and harmony? There still is hope. No matter how robbed...

Should government pay for preventive care? Should insurance companies? This topic has been coming up lately around the studio. We encourage people to come to class frequently to give them the best possible benefits. The once a week Strala class is fine for relaxation, or a fun social activity, but...

I've been hooked on Netflix streaming for the past few weeks. It's served me as a useful post-book revision wind down, but not so useful in granting a good night's sleep. I've plowed through loads of my queue and started exploring indie documentaries. My latest obsession is the BBC special,...

Our minds are occupied with so many useless thoughts that cause tension. When we try to relax we aren't even aware of how to go about releasing the tension that we are gripping, because we don't fully understand why it is there. It happens to all of us. Stress and...

A cool girl that comes to the yoga studio had been buried in a gigantic book for a few weeks right up until class time. It was one of those books that you knew had to suck you in because it's a commitment just to lug the thing around. I...

I hitched a ride back to my hotel tonight from the car rental place and learned a few very important lessons from the driver. He asked if I was in town for work or fun, and happily I got to reply "both." My work is fun. I told him a...

I'm sprawled in a Nashville hotel room contemplating the physical and psychological relationship between hip and mental tension. By hip I mean the upper thigh, booty, pelvis, region of the body. Not as in "hip to be square," although it should be hip to have tension-free hips. Ah ha, get...

"All the great scientists say that whenever they discovered something, they discovered it not by thinking but when the thinking had stopped and there was an interval, a gap. Into that gap came the insight - the intuitive flash, like lightning." - Osho

In yoga, or any path of living...

Changing of the seasons is fun when it comes to getting to wear forgotten favorite fall clothes and enjoying homemade treats. Snuggling up in my mom's awesome sweaters from the 70s and enjoying fresh apple pie from the farmers market (reheated in my oven so I can pretend I made...

I high-fived my computer screen reading Bill Maher's article New Rule: You Can't Complain About Health Care Reform If You're Not Willing to Reform Your Own Health. Mr. Maher says,

"Unlike most liberals, I'm glad all those teabaggers marched on Washington last week. Because judging from the photos,...

How long would you last resisting the marshmallow? That is the question asked in the "kid torture" video, a recreation of the study done in the 1960s at Stanford analyzing behavior, willpower, and success. Kids were sat down in a room, presented with a marshmallow, and told they could eat...

How many topics can a blogger write about yoga? When it comes to the physical benefits of the practice there seems to be only one category that sums it up. Looking better naked. Somehow that became the goal. Now, who are we aiming to look better than? Are we striving...

I was talking with a friend about what we were going to have for dinner, and out of nowhere a "deep" conversation about happiness showed up at the table. Someone brought up pizza, which of course led straight to the subject of happiness. More philosophical hunger-induced contemplations piled on from...

We all want the secrets to health and vitality. We can buy bottles, creams, and whatever else is advertised to us, but ultimately anything sustainable comes from self-awareness and choices.

I recently read the New York Times piece, The Economics of Doing What You Love, by Justin...

Dear Rachel Maddow,

Thank you for bringing us the news in a fun and entertaining way. Your smarts and sensibilities have lured me and many others into keeping up with policy, even when it's not election season! You've also inspired me to customize a few emergency health interventions...

Yoga Bear is throwing a Karma party Wednesday night and everyone is invited! Halle Tecco, founder of Yoga Bear, a national non-profit dedicated to providing cancer survivors with more opportunities for wellness and healing though the practice of yoga, saw an opportunity while practicing in an almost but...