#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...

Have you ever just hard a horrible day, feeling like everyone wants something from you and if you have one more person demand this or that you might explode? 

Well I am having one if those days and ended up going for things that comfort me. Food, a certain friend, crawling back into bed are only a few ways to cope with a rough day. What makes a day hard? I have had demands on me before and haven't cracked. I have had slip ups and seems to weather that storm ok. 

What we have to realize first is it isn't a simple answer to these inquiries. The human species is more than a body and mind. We as homo sapiens have a 'sensitive sense' that supersedes the mundane of everyday living. Emotions get stirred up from our thoughts, electromagnetic frequencies, old traumas, conditioning/programing, ancestral patterns, and energetic wavelengths from other people. When we don't allow ourselves to feel them and experience the hurt, pain, patterns, sadness etc. then they become lodged...

Can you believe what we have endured over the last 20+ months?! What a stirring of the pot and upheaval on a major scale. Many of us are feeling shifts within our consciousness and within our bodies as well as in the world around us. How you perceive experiences and situations will determine the level of trauma or liberation you feel. No one is exempt from cleansing, purifying, and releasing in a time like this. PTSD, anxiety, depression, divorce, relocating and other challenges are felt by all, one way or another, but in a different way. 

Yoga invites us to go inside of your heart and mind to rewire the unproductive ways of seeing the world. Spring is an excellent time to clear out the resurfaced toxins and debris of mind and body. Spring is Kapha season and a time for letting go and rebuilding with nurturing activities, whole food, pure water and air, movement and attitudes. 

Ayurveda is the complementary science to yoga that looks deeper into what hinders your practice,...