#1 -Why chant mantra?

 I began my yoga journey in 2000 and for the first several years I approached my practice from the angle of an athlete. Being raised by active parents and being a dancer, yoga felt complementary to my favorite activities. Although from a young age the world of the meta-physical was so strong that yoga started feeding that part of me as well.

As my yoga exposure and experience evolved I was definitely drawn to the spiritual side of yoga more and more and less about the body’s performance in a pose even though that was still a big part of my practice and teaching. 

In 2007 as I took my next yoga training with an Anusara focus I was finally feeling satiated and gobbled up the deeper dive into philosophy like it was yoga crack candy! Along with that came the practice of reciting chants of ‘Om Namah Shivaya' and my world would never be the same. My body, mind and soul took to chanting as a way for radiating my love for the...

Yoga has taken the world by storm. Yoga is an excellent practice for many reasons. It's a way to release held stress, gain flexibility and tone the body. A recent poll estimates that in 2022 40 million people in the US alone practice yoga. The number of participants grew 50% between 2012-2016 alone, with no signs of stopping. 94% of yoga practitioners say they do yoga for wellness-related reasons.

94%?!.. that's huge....and despite the Buti yogi's and cross trainers. Wellness related reasons are obviously the #1 reason to practice yoga.

But who started all of this? When did yoga become such a powerful force in the modern world? Well, let's get clear on what Y O G A truly is. Yoga means "to yoke", union or integration of all parts of you. It's the science and art of consciousness. Yoga isn't a doing activity, it's a state of being while you are doing or not doing. Yoga is YOU in your pure divine nature. If you have every attended a class, yoga retreat or Yoga Training with...