“At first, keeping all the different parts of your body in alignment is like herding wild monkeys. Plus, in the beginning, it may hurt, too, so beginners are often afraid to do it. “This leads me to one of the most important lessons America has ever taught me: “No pain, no gain.” In India, we…
“Environment is stronger than will power. If you want to be spiritual, seek good company and don’t mix with those whose bad habits may wrongly influence you. Be always with people who inspire you; surround yourself with people who lift you up.” ~ Paramahansa Yogananda When you need a boost of energy to lift your…
“I am a lover of what is, not because I’m a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality. We can know that reality is good just as it is, because when we argue with it, we experience tension and frustration. We don’t feel natural or balanced. When we stop opposing reality,…
“When you focus upon an unwanted aspect of something in an effort to push it away from you, instead it only comes closer, because you get what you give your attention to whether it is something that you want or not.” ~ Abraham-Hicks Know why you feel so relaxed after a Bikram Yoga class? Because…
“The agony of breaking through personal limitations is the agony of spiritual growth. Art, literature, myth and cult, philosophy, and ascetic disciplines are instruments to help the individual past his limiting horizons into spheres of ever-expanding realization.” ~ Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces That right there, my friend, is why we do…
As often happens in life, one step leads to another, to another and then to another and, before you know it, in looking back it’s hard to see where it all started. We’ve all witnessed tumultuous change in our country’s politics over the last couple of years and I have to say my personal life…
It’s not infrequent that someone calls the studio, asks about hatha yoga and after a few minutes of conversation says, “Oh, I thought hatha yoga means hot yoga.” The words do sound similar but they are from very different languages and mean very different things. Bikram Yoga is both Hatha Yoga and done in the…
July 9th, 2010 was the 40th anniversary of the passing of Bishnu Ghosh, Bikram Choudhury’s guru. We say the word guru means teacher, though a more thorough translation is “one who removes darkness.” Bishnu was the youngest brother of Paramahansa Yogananda, the founder of the Self-Realization Fellowships in the United States and author of the…
Does the notion of a yoga competition upset you? If so, you’re not alone. It’s perfectly understandable. For those of us who have found yoga to be the sanctuary that helps us to find inner peace, relief from the stresses of our everyday life, or as the foundation of our spiritual practice, the thought of…
When was the last time you had absolutely no worries occupying your mind? Do you know what it feels like to have a calm mind, free of worries or concerns, and to truly be at ease and feel peaceful? Peace is not an intellectual concept. Peace is a state of being that comes from deep…