February is often the coldest if not the snowiest month of the year. So Valentine’s Day comes at a good time. It’s a day that gives us an opportunity to share the warmth of our heart more generously and extensively. It can even be a day to thaw a cold heart — our own or… Read More Find the Sweetness in Your Heart

Hello and Happy New Year   For certain, 2023 promises to be another interesting year. You are likely to see plenty of challenges and opportunities — individually, nationally and globally. You might think the easy route (and a tempting one) is to escape from the world. But wherever you escape to, you still have your… Read More The New Year Brings Challenges and Opportunities

Walking with the Wind From the memoir of the same title, written by the late civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis     [A]bout fifteen of us children were outside my aunt Seneva’s house, playing in her dirt yard. The sky began clouding over, the wind started picking up, lightning flashed far off in… Read More Walking with the Wind

In mid-August (2022) I sent out an announcement saying something like “I have shingles but our roof is fine.” Some of you mistook my quirky sense of humor and thought we were closed because of problems with our roof. Our roof was fine. My head and face weren’t. I had shingles, an infection caused by… Read More My “Roof” and Shingles

Well, I took on the challenge to slow down this past month – at least when I remembered to! Here’s what I experienced the first time I tried: On a Wednesday in early August, I had an appointment at noon in Florence (east of Northampton) for a treasured monthly cranial-sacral therapy session with Gretchen Jennings. Florence is an… Read More Slowing Down – Haltingly

A story that’s been circulating for a while, with a great lesson for all of us:   “Some years ago, I was stuck on a crosstown bus in New York City during rush hour. Traffic was barely moving. The bus was filled with cold, tired people who were deeply irritated with one another, with the… Read More Get a Lift

  The pessimist sees the glass as half empty. The optimist sees the glass as half full. The engineer sees the glass as twice as large as it needs to be. The Svaroopa® yoga teachings would go even further. The teachings would say the glass is already full and always has been and always will… Read More Raise Your Glasses!

The Fourth of July has come and gone, but what about the independence it celebrates? As a nation: so far so good. From the yogic perspective: the independence of each human being is considered first and foremost. The strength and independence of a nation depends on the strength and independence of its citizens, as well… Read More The Ultimate Independence and Freedom Starts with You

n April 2020, when the pandemic was first gaining momentum, this newsletter addressed the fear and anxiety that was also gaining momentum. In classes, we dedicated the month to standing poses – in specific, warrior poses — to help you stand up to your fears. Now, with mass shootings happening across the country at an… Read More June 2022: Stand and Make YourSelf Count

Now that the weather is gradually turning warmer, I eagerly head out to the yard. I focus on a few things that need to be done first: cleaning up old growth, raking the lawn, spreading compost in the garden. These days, the sun is shining at an angle that seems to feed directly into my energy… Read More Spring into Action, But …

Bring on the Light! We are living in troubling times, no doubt. We see the pain and suffering wrought by racial and economic injustice, political polarization and disinformation. We see the ravages of climate change, the pandemic and now the war in Ukraine. The whole world is on edge, watching and trembling. It’s very easy… Read More You Are the Light of the World

Yoga is not about becoming a pretzel. We don’t need more pretzels today. We need people to become more human. That’s what yoga is really about: becoming more human. Becoming More Human What does it mean to become more human? American Heritage Dictionary’s definition of human is: “a member of the species Homo sapiens, distinguished… Read More What are You Becoming?

What’s to Celebrate This Month?   February is a short month but has a lot to celebrate. Besides the birthdays of two of our greatest presidents, we had the Lunar Chinese New Year to celebrate a few days ago. It’s the year of the Tiger. One of our students, Nancy (Purna) Chang, celebrated by making… Read More What’s To Celebrate This Month?

On the way home from church, a little girl turned to her mother and said, “Mommy, the Preacher’s sermon this morning confused me.” The mother said, “Oh! Why is that?” The girl replied, “Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?” “Yes, that’s true,” the mother replied. “He also said… Read More You Are the One

From this month’s Teaching Article by Swami Nirmalananda (December, 2021), Who or What is God?, an excerpt that includes a story about Ram Dass (1931 – 2019), formerly Richard Alpert, a Harvard professor who travelled to India in 1967 and became a disciple of a Guru. He came back to the states and helped establish… Read More You Are Divine and You Are Not the Only One