Summer insists languidness (as in “lacking quickness of movement”), which may be cause for concern for many of us multi-fast-track accelerating to the finish line types. Especially being an independent with a laptop! Not getting official time-off, I have to remind myself to take a whole day off every once in a while. Having out of town guests helps, as it gives me more incentive to explore some off the freeway place with an intriguing name – like Bodega Bay. (more…)

To lift my spirits, I sing. And this month – with mercury in retrograde and the fire season in California and a summer of strange and wobbly changes that have affected my bank account, my health and my confidence – I’ve been singing a lot! (more…)

Another friend just said it in conversation. That there’s a “yoga boom.” And I suppose if Vanity Fair does a 20-page glam yoga spread on it (Planet Yoga, June 2007) it’s for real! (more…)

Many years ago, as a long time yoga student with the Sivananda organization under the direction of Swami Vishnu Devananda, I listened to a discussion about how Swami Vishnu Devananda had been criticized for making teachers’ training too available to everyone. (more…)

New York City, that is. In the middle of NYC, as a matter of fact! Yesterday was Summer Solstice when we experience the most number of daylight hours of the year, and some New Yorker yogis and yoginis celebrated by doing their sun salutes in the middle of 42nd Street! (more…)

Having just watched an very good public television special called Menopause and Beyond with Dr. Christiane Northrup made me reflect on one of the most common questions asked by female yoga students: can doing yoga help with menopause? (more…)

Two recent news articles made me realize how widely accepted meditations techniques may become. (more…)

While we’re on the subject of our menfolk–the most common complaint I heard from middle-aged male students coming in to try yoga was lower back pain. (more…)

The focus of my work, in yoga, creatively and academically, has been with women. Having grown up in a household of 5 females, I have always been most acutely aware of the circumstances that girls and women have to contend with in order to survive and thrive.

I can only hope that my work as a teacher, writer and theater artist has helped to alleviate some of the emotional, mental and physical turmoil that still cripples women in our life’s work. (more…)

The way I learned it, “maya” was the veil of illusions that keep us from the Real. “Real” meaning the knowledge that all is divine and therefore we are divine and because all the “stuff” of the physical, material world, like our houses, our relationships and even our dreams fluctuate, we become distracted away from this deeper knowing.

But maya has many more dimensions. In a sense, we need maya to function and fulfill our lives in this world. (more…)