OneSelf-Disclosure

Body Language

2008-05-30T10:51:00.004-04:00

Whoever came up with the notion that the mind and the body could be separate? The very notion is absurd -- even if you define "mind" as "brain function," the brain is in fact an organ of the body. And even if you define "emotions" as something a little less tangible, we experience them with our minds and our bodies. The body is the vehicle that we have come here with to experience this life, so we should be very interested in understanding its language.

Certainly this is not so easy. We say "listen to your body" in terms of knowing if we're hungry or tired, or if we get a "gut" feeling to do or not do something. But understanding how conditioned thought patterns and emotional patterns manifest somatically is another matter. I was convinced that the back pain I've been experiencing for more than a year now has psychological roots. I had some ideas of what it was about but nothing I did or thought seemed to affect it. A year is a long time to go with pain, but then again, remember me and the heat! Recently, as I've been working on moving forward in my life, I've realized there are some deeply emotional issues I haven't dealt with as explicitly and I need to. The other night I was thinking about them and feeling the emotions and at the same time moving around trying to do something about this back pain when -- crack! I felt a big adjustment (somewhere in the upper spine) and I just knew that I'd affected my back. Sure enough, by the next morning, the pain was significantly different, maybe 75 percent gone! It's still there, reminding me that I need to keep listening but the relief is profound. Once again I find myself in awe of the way the mindbody continuum expresses itself. Keep listening!

Everything is Everything

2008-05-12T11:40:00.003-04:00

In some ways, I think I have always been a Yogi. Ever since I was young, I always noticed how people and concepts were the same, rather than how they were different. This fundamental perspective led me into social issues-based college journalism, later into social work and education, and, over the past decade or so, into Yoga. Now, finding myself at one of those junctures in life where you examine the past and meditate on the future, I realize that Yoga is indeed a way of thinking, seeing, being and feeling in the world, rather than any set of practices or techniques (like meditation). In questioning what your purpose is, you discover that you bring your fundmental truth to everything that you do, and the approach defines the quality and result of your efforts much more than the activity itself. This is enormously liberating, especially if you tend to judge yourself critically for not doing something "enough" -- e.g., you don't do enough asana practice or you don't eat enough vegetables. Through Yoga you reside and abide in your fundamental truth, a unified, holistic state of being that is evident in your work, relationships and pasttimes. In this way you realize that everything is everything -- or, Yoga. Om shanti.

If You Think Something, Say Something!

2008-04-08T23:03:00.002-04:00

The OneSelf Yoga web site has been up for nearly a year now (hard to believe) and I can see from my tracking system that there are indeed folks out there who are checking it out. I don't know who most of you are, where you are or what parts of the site you are looking at, but if you happen to check out this blog, I hope you'll consider adding your two cents. I'd love to hear what you think of some of my posts, what your current interests in Yoga are, what you're wanting to know more about, etc. I believe you have to set up a Google account to participate but that is free and easy enough to do. I hope to connect more directly with you in cyberspace!

Peace, Karen

Turning Down the Heat

2008-03-31T20:06:00.002-04:00

My friend Claudia wanted me to write a post about this recent experience I had. Being lucky enough to live in a well-maintained New York City apartment building, my apartment gets a lot of heat in the winter. In particular, my bedroom gets very hot. I try to sleep with the window partially open, but because the winds can be very high and noisy (or because sometimes they cause the door to bump around in its frame, also noisy), I often have to sleep with the window closed, making it even hotter. Ever since I moved here, I've had a small fan attached to my mirror, pointed at the bed,to offset the heat, and I use it every night, even in winter. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it's still too damn hot.

The other night, as the temperature rose outside, it was SO hot I couldn't stand it anymore and I did something I never did before.

I TURNED OFF THE HEAT.

Did I mention I have lived here for FIVE years?

I am indeed the kind of person who can tolerate a lot of things for a very long time without change -- but why the unwillingness to make a simple shift that ultimately makes life a lot more pleasant and bearable?

I wish I could find a great spiritual lesson in this one, but I'm afraid it might just be an example of one of my less attractive eccentricities.

If you do want to take any lesson from what I've said here then I would urge you...if you get too hot...turn off the heat.

Enough said.

A Note on Guidance and Faith

2008-03-25T22:25:00.002-04:00

Today I saw a blind woman carrying a newborn baby navigating her way around the chaos of the Times Square subway station with the help of her seeing eye dog. If that's not an exercise in listening for guidance and having the faith to follow it, nothing is.

I watched them briefly (she moved fairly swiftly and for me to stand around would have found me swept up in the chaos myself) as the dog narrowly missed the crowds and the columns and she simply held the leash and the sleeping baby in her shoulder pouch and followed. I realized she must have had to practice a lot with that guide, and it was a process of communication -- she had to learn her guide's cues and vice versa and they probably had to do a lot of conscious traveling together in order for her to feel confident enough to trust him with not just her safety but that of her newborn. I love a good metaphor, but really, we're doing the same with Yoga, aren't we? Learning to listen, testing it out in small ways and developing the faith to really let the guidance take us? That's my interpretation anyway, and if I can borrow from her courage (or any of the brave folks I've met lately) then I'll be lucky. Om shanti.

Blessings in Disguise

2008-03-21T08:13:00.002-04:00

If you were diagnosed with a brain tumor, do you think you would say it was the best thing that ever happened to you?

Billy did. Billy took my class at Hope Lodge yesterday, a class I volunteer for cancer patients and caregivers. Afterwards, we spent some time talking and he told me about all the amazing things that have happened in his life since his diagnosis. Meaningful people have come back into his life, including one of his children, who had not been speaking to him for some time. Events have lined up and doors have been opening, and his perspective on what is important now and what he wants in his life once he finishes his treatment (which, thankfully, is going well) has understandably changed. His sense of appreciation is humbling and his attitude is nothing short of remarkable.

We didn't talk about what is enabling this attitude or this course of events. It could be, at least in part, a true sense of surrender to the flow of the universe, combined with a willingness to see the best of everything. Oh yeah, wait a minute -- that's YOGA, right? Hmm. Let me wake up a for a minute and once again acknowledge that teachers and the teachings are everywhere if you just open your eyes, ears and heart. Blessings in disguise. Om shanti.

When You Give, You Get

2008-03-14T08:12:00.004-04:00

I think my favorite thing about teaching Yoga is the amazing people I've gotten to mee, and yesterday is the best example of all. I was teaching my volunteer class at Hope Lodge, a residence for people from out of state who need a place to stay during cancer treatment. Few people come to this class but yesterday I had the privilege of meeting Barbara, a 72-year-old immigrant from Poland who has been battling cancer for 19 years, through five different places in her body -- colon, uterine, both breasts and now lung -- and who is a Holocaust survivor. Since she had surgery a few days ago on both lungs and can't move or breath very well, our Yoga was extremely gentle and she spent most of the time sharing her incredible experiences with me. How a person has the strength to withstand a lifetime of such intense challenge must truly be from a deep, hard-wired instinct. Later on in the session we were joined by her husband of 54 years, Abe, also a Holocaust survivor, who had survival stories of his own to share. Barbara and Abe live in Florida and they go around to high schools there talking about their experiences. They were gentle, sweet and humorous, and it was deeply moving and humbling to have them share themselves with me. It reminded me once again that so often when I give through teaching, I receive so much more. Om shanti.

Listening for Guidance

2008-03-09T11:39:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite teachers, Erich Schiffman, describes Yoga as being about listening for guidance from the universe, and daring to do what you are prompted to do. I agree completely with this, and it corresponds to the thread about "allowing." The difficulty I always have is with understanding what the guidance is and following it -- in as much as I am a body person, I am also very much a head person; that head will take over so quickly it will...well, make your head spin! The thing is, intuition is often subtle and I'll start to analyze it and doubt it and efectively kill it pretty quickly. However, I think the antidote to this is to simply stay clear -- i.e., keep practicing and keep asking and, as Erich says, really WANT to know -- and the guidance will keep coming. And then following becomes a matter of courage and faith. So, meditation -- getting still and quiet and going within -- is indispensable. I've got some big questions out there, and I'm trying to be patient as I wait for the response.

2008-02-25T16:23:00.003-05:00

Wow, it's been three months since my last post...and I guess that long since I've felt really inspired. Periods of dormant creativity can be difficult, and those are good times to take a vacation! I'm just back from a week in the Bahamas and it was a great week, but it's showing me just how difficult transitions can be. As happy as I was to be on a beautiful, sunny beach in the middle of winter, I had a hard time getting into the flow. I was by myself and two days after I got there I even thought that I wanted to leave! I didn't see how I was going to start meeting people and having a good time, even though I was trying. But as I taught a Yoga class one afternoon, I heard myself telling the group that Yoga is less about effort and doing and more about allowing -- it's very much about getting out of the way and letting the flow happen. Maybe I was telling myself as well because the next day I managed to let go of all ideas of what I thought should be happening and just "was" -- and it all started to happen. I began to have a great time and even though there were some valleys, even they seemed like a natural part of the process. Now I'm having an equally hard time transitioning back into "reality," and I need to remind myself that it's all part of the process. I think that's an important and perhaps often overlooked understanding of what Yoga is really all about -- tuning into the flow of the universe that is always there and not resisting it. Challenges are inevitable -- just like tight spots in the body or seemingly impossible poses -- but the key is to keep relaxing and allowing whatever is ready to come through to actually come through.

Now, to maintain this mindset outside of the vacation! :-)

That's Why it's Called Practice

2007-11-30T08:36:00.000-05:00

If you're newer to Yoga, you might notice that sessions or classes are often referred to as "practice" -- we speak of "practicing Yoga,' "doing my practice," "I practiced with so-and-so," etc. There's a good reason for this. Yoga works with our bodies, minds and souls to restore our sense of unity, both within and without ourselves. One of the primary obstacles to this sense of unity are the "samskaras" under which we each operate. Samskaras are habitual patterns of thinking, relating and behaving -- traditional Yoga says we even bring our samskaras in from past lives. Whether or not you're a believer in the residue of past lives, if you've had any life experience at all, you probably know that certain samskaras run deep. Have you ever had trouble with dieting, quitting smoking, changing your mental attitude, relating differently with family members? That's right -- it takes practice.

Not only does it take practice, but once you've "got it," you can lose it! In other words, for most of us, our struggles continue to be our struggles. We keep working on ourselves and must remain diligent in our self-awareness. Recently it's been tough for me -- I've been watching my attitude slip, my weight rise, my old habits gaining some new momentum. The samskaras (in this case, family stuff) have been reasserting themselves. Sometimes it's like an archaeological dig -- you dig for a while, clear some layers of rock and sediment, take a rest, breathe freely, marvel at some of your findings -- and then there's the next layer. And so, my challenge is to return to the practice, realizing once again that while I may never be completely free of some of this residue (though always hoping that someday I might be), I have the tools with which to keep digging until the diamond underneath can again shine through.

True Karma Can't be Taught

2007-11-25T13:34:00.001-05:00

While there are many meanings assigned to the word "Karma," one of them is selfless service, which is recognized as one of the four main paths of Yoga. When we study classical Yoga, we are taught that service to others leads us closer to realization of the Truth via transcendence of the individual ego. There are myriad opportunities for selflessness, whether it is through formal volunteerism, donations to charity, or just helping a woman take her baby stroller up the subway steps. While I have practiced all of these approaches, none of them has taken me to a state of mind equal to that of Jorge Munoz.

Mr. Munoz, "The Chicken and Rice Man," was profiled in this weekend's NY Times. He is a Colombian immigrant who lives with his mother and sister in Queens, driving a bus during the day and spending each night, as he has for the past three years, feeding dozens of homeless and/or unemployed immigrant workers in Jackson Heights with food he and his family prepare. EVERY NIGHT. He also provides Saturday breakfasts for 200 at seven locations, and 40 ham-and-cheese sandwich dinners on Sunday, his "day off." He does little else -- few friends, no hobbies. This kind of devotion to service can't be taught. I don't know what the majority of his life has been like, or what his relationship to his friends and family has been over the years, but somehow, Mr. Munoz came into this life with an intrinsic need to serve. Is he closer to the Truth? That I can't say. But as far as karma is concerned, I think I'd call him a Yogi.

Lying (around) in Wait

2007-11-13T10:22:00.000-05:00

So I've had back pain for about 8 months now -- I am reasonably sure it's the result of a jammed or torqued sacroiliac joint and some exceptionally tight muscles around it but I'm about at the point where I want to get it looked at because it's annoying the hell out of me, and it's unmotivating and debilitating. There are days and times when it feels worse than others but overall it's always there. It makes me not want to practice Yoga because it hurts! It makes me not want to exercise, dance or otherwise move because it hurts! And it sucks! True, I have empathy for those with chronic pain and physical limitations but frankly, I thought I had a good enough amount of empathy before. I don't really believe it's not going to resolve itself, but it's a curiosity to me. My personal orientation is that physical problems have psychological roots so I'm wondering what might lie beneath. Stay tuned.

Not Just "The Way Things Are"

2007-10-10T11:01:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I had one of the most wonderful gifts a teacher can get from a student. Jerry, who appears to be in his mid-50s, began taking a corporate class with me several weeks ago. Despite having no Yoga experience, not being naturally flexible and finding the practice quite challenging, Jerry puts himself completely into the class, asks a lot of questions and, as I found out yesterday, has been doing some Yoga every day at home. He doesn't remember everything or find it any easier on his own, but he says his knees feel better than they have in years and that things "aren't hurting. I got used to things always hurting and now they're not." It is an amazing gift when a student really takes in what you are offering and begins to receive the benefits, and I'm grateful to him for sharing it.

What is most striking to me, however, is his reference to getting used to the way things were -- in this case, physical aches and pains -- and how that has changed. How many of us get used to things just being a particular way? We age, so we hurt, or gain weight, or slow down. We have difficulty with conflict, or with intimacy, or with reaching out, and we say that is just "how we are." But is it? Does it have to be? Psychology assumes that we can work with our challenges and learn new behaviors, resposnes and coping skills. Yoga assumes that with practice and persistence, we can change and surpass our limitations. No one says this is easy; ironically, it's a lot easier to acquiesce and accept a relationship, a job, even a life that is less fulfilling than you want it to be. But when you get a taste of how it could be different, well... Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said "a mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions." Try a little practice and begin to feel differently, feel what is possible. Then remember that feeling! It will help you keep going when you feel like giving up and giving in because, after all, that's just "the way you are."

Letting Go

2007-09-24T22:06:00.000-04:00

This weekend I was putting together a big pile of clothing to sell at a flea market -- you know, those clothes that haven't been worn in years but somehow you keep thinking that you will. As I took them out of the closet and later watched them hanging up at the market, I realized some of those clothes were 10, 15, even 20 years old! The psychic significance of letting go of these concrete connections to different phases of my past was undeniable. I've been struggling for a while now to move forward in my life in a variety of ways. As I looked at this big pile of clothing, I suddenly felt ready to take my past and put it behind me, having worn it well but needing now to don an updated persona, one with past memories intact but reflecting evolution and growth. Hanging onto physical items for sentimental reasons, or with the idea that perhaps one day they will be useful again, very often represents an unconscious unwillingness to let go of the past. We feel that when we find the new thing we seek, we'll be ready to let go of the old but it works in just the opposite way -- we must have the courage to let go of what is old and allow ourselves to be suspended in that in-between space, with faith that the new will indeed appear. That in-between space can feel scary, but also light, exciting and energizing. If you are thinking about new things that you want in your life and perhaps feel frustrated that they have not yet manifest, try going through your closets and drawers and finding any and all items you can part with. Think of the times you bought or used them, acknowledging that those times will always be a part of your history and remember what you've learned and how you've grown since then. Be thankful -- then sell them or donate them to charity. Notice what kinds of physical and mental changes begin to take shape, and how soon new things begin to happen in your life!

What is Yoga Therapy?

2007-08-23T15:44:00.000-04:00

In brainstorming recently with a social worker colleague on how to develop our private therapy practices, we were both charged with the question of how to explain what we do in the course of lan elevator ride -- in other words, short, sweet and to the point! In reviewing my web site, I realize that the answer is right there, though it may not stand out right now. Yoga therapy seeks to find the places where energy is either trapped or depleted and uses breath, movement, sound, visualization, meditation and thought power to restore balance.

That's it! What makes it so interesting, in my opinion, is that each of us is such a complex web of mind, body and spirit that starting in one area often leads to another. Working to free up some energy in chronically tight muscles may eventually result in the release of stored-up emotions and thoughts that keep us psychologically bound. I will offer a personal example: for months I was suffering from lower back pain and restriction on the ride side (which I have been told relates to moving forward with our life). I've kept at it with Yoga, breath, awareness, everything I could think of, as well as staying on top of my own psychological process. It was getting worse and worse -- which made it really hard to be a good Yoga teacher! Finally, a the breakup of a recent relationship, including the recognition of my own patterns that helped to ruin things, simply flattened me. I spent plenty of time crying over the loss. One day the crying got out of control and suddenly it felt like deep grief related to something else -- I had enough self-awareness to realize it was grief long held but never expressed over the death of my mother, which was 20 years ago last month. After the crying that day ran its course, I suddenly experienced a freedom in my back that I had not felt in a very long time. Now the challenge is to integrate this awareness and use it to truly move forward.

Thus is the power and beauty of Yoga therapy -- a process that works holistically, honoring the unique entity that is each one of us, and which can have profound, lasting results.

"Law" of Attraction?

2007-08-18T08:24:00.001-04:00

Years before I was introduced to Yoga, I was introduced to the "new age" movement and the principles of metaphysics. These include the concept that your thoughts and vibrations create the realities of your life and that, by controlling them, you have the power to manifest the reality that you want. Norman Vincent Peale in "The Power of Positive Thinking" was one of the early pioneers of this movement. It's a vastly appealing concept and one that, once you start practicing with it, can have exciting and inspiring results. Like any other "law," however, once you start probing a little more deeply, you start to encounter some very tricky edges. For instance, any doubt or any "negative" thought or vibration can be seen as the obstacle towards achieving what you want. This puts a tremendous amount of pressure on us to maintain a "perfect" energy field, as well as putting the blame squarely on our own shoulders when things don't go as we wish. It can be empowering to realize that positive thinking tends to create positive outcomes, especially if you are someone who has never really been conscious of your thought patterns and how they affect you. But positive thinking does not control everything that happens to you and around you -- rather, it helps you maintain a positive attitude that changes your experience of what happens to you. The clearer you are on what you want, and the more focused and persistent, the more likely you are to get it. But other people have their own agendas and their own processes and we're all working together wihtin the same web -- so do your best, but don't blame yourself if it doesn't all go according to your plan. If you see where you can do something differently, then adjust -- but realize also that a huge part of learning to live with the flow of energy in this world is to let go. Practice having faith that you can get through it; cultivate a mindset that "this or something better" is manifesting for you. This way, you will truly feel that you are attracting the best things for your life, while knowing that part of the swimming is always going to be upstream. On shanti.

The Yoga of Relationship

2007-08-11T16:30:00.000-04:00

This is it, folks, as far as I'm concerned -- the burning ground for growth and awareness in our lives (and NOT mentioned in the ubiquitously quoted Yoga Sutras). Coming just off the rails of yet another broken relationship, I am forced to look deeply, once again, at the aspects of relationship that work, those that don't work, those that hook us and those that throw us so far off course. Nowhere is the notion of samskara -- conditioning -- more relevant than here, as we see again and again our patterns of communication, emotional response and our ability (or lack thereof) to reprogram ourselves so that we can have fuller, richer, deeper, more satisfying connections. For years I have been trying to find a way to reconcile the parts of myself that I split off at a very early age as a sort of survival mechanism -- in fact, the name OneSelf Yoga is born of that very quest. Years of self-study (svadhiyaya to those interested in the classical connections) and practice and I seem to inch closer and closer and yet still I find myself ultimately doing the same things and getting the same result. This time I even saw it happening, but felt unable to stop it! And so I am left with the usual tumult of anger, hurt, shame and sadness that accompany each "failed" attempt. There is no easy answer to this one, I'm afraid, and the wisdom of Yoga is to simply keep studying, keep practicing and to have faith -- to find the place inside where you can go in order to feel that it will get better. Yoga and meditation are not about getting it "right," or "perfect" or getting to any place in particular -- but they are about learning to ride the waves with greater skills so you can stay on top longer, enjoy it more, and realize that both the good and the bad feelings all come from the same place, so all have their place. Not easy, I repeat! But I'm doing my best. The good news is that I am more than ready for the next one. Let's see where it leads me.

Notes on Freedom

2007-07-04T16:46:00.000-04:00

On Independence Day, I'm thinking about freedom, and the courage and perseverance it takes to find it. To me, Yoga is essentially about freedom -- in order to really know that we are all expressions of One Source, we must learn to transcend any and all conditioning that keeps us from that realization, that keeps us bound in our thinking, feeling and self-identification. In physical practice, we experience the muscles that just don't want to let go or the balancing pose that feels way beyond our reach -- even as our teachers tell us that if we persevere, all things are possible. In my world it often feels equally overwhelming, as I struggle to overcome the samskaras, or deep conditioned grooves that come from family patterns and socialization. Yet I do persevere, because as I continue down the path, my spirit keeps calling. Each time I allow it to come through the sense of freedom is exhilarating and inspiring. We always have choices about how much we can handle, and there is no time frame -- this is our life's journey. Have faith, have courage. Find the freedom to be You.

A Little Bit of Something...

2007-06-26T07:21:00.000-04:00

I've been taking acting classes for a while now, and my wonderful teacher, who is also a life coach, has offered us several sage phrases that I have found to be relevant to my life as a whole. One that came up for me this week is, "The difference between doing a little bit of something and doing nothing is everything." In acting, it's about preparing for a scene, but I find it to be true in Yoga practice as well. As a teacher (and I know this is true for many students as well), I am often torn between practicing what feels right for me in the moment and what I think I "should" be practicing. As such, there is often a temptation to postpone practicing at all till I have enough time to do it "right." This is especially true before my early morning classes, where I rarely have the time to devote to a long practice. But I noticed recently that even a few minutes of conscious breathing and movement before class makes me many times more effective as a teacher. It helps me tune in and connect to my deeper self, and coming from that place I connect more authentically to my students. So it really is true, as I have often taught, that practicing even a few minutes a day can be more effective than two hours once or twice a week. Try it for yourself and see what happens.

No Courage Without Fear

2007-06-14T15:56:00.000-04:00

At the most basic level, Yoga is all about energy -- it's about allowing energy to flow freely within us and around us, while recognizing that there is an anchor to which we can connect that will enable us to feel safe no matter how intense the energy gets. In Yoga,the "union" with the source is the anchor. As we practice removing blockages to the steady flow of energy, that union is a source of courage because, let's face it, that energy can get pretty intense. I'm not just talking about holding a difficult pose or attempting a handstand in the middle of the room, though those metaphors are real and very rich opportunities to viscerally counter fear with courage. Far more difficult can be letting yourself feel the depth of your grief, your anger, even your creativity -- the real authentic movement of energy through you. Most of us learn to "manage" this energy in many ways -- through habitual thoughts, behavior, unconscious conditioning and addiction. For those of us who have learned such control, surrendering to the energy and having faith is the most frightening challenge of all. As we come face to face with our fear -- which we will do, over and over -- we would do well to remind ourselves that there can be no courage without fear. Your most terrifying times, those which might make you feel small, vulnerable, somehow "less" than you wish to be, also offer the opportunities for your utmost courage. Embrace them. The anchor is there.

Role Reversal

2007-05-26T11:21:00.001-04:00

Recently I had the pleasure of being profiled for my neighborhood blog as an interesting person in the community. Having a background in journalism myself, it was a new experience to be on the other side of the interview seat. I realized I was concerned about sounding sufficiently interesting, being accurately quoted, and about whether the interviewer would actually highlight the points I wanted to make. I was pleased and relieved to find my story well represented and that no negative comments were posted! I am only now familiarizing myself with the blogosphere and beginning to appreciate its impact on the world of multimedia, and am again struck by the power of the printed word. While blogs often seem to be a place where people rant and rave without any accountability, they also offer a potent opportunity to give voice to members of the population who might not otherwise have one. I hope that blogs, like this one, stimulate lively (but respectful) dialogues and encourage freer thinking and openmindedness -- one of the most important aspects of Yoga practice. You can check out the interview at www.clintonhillblog.com

2007-05-15T16:42:00.000-04:00

Namaste! Welcome to OneSelf Disclosure, my web log, intended as a forum to discuss life from a Yoga point of view.

If you're reading this, you've likely linked to it from my new web site, OneSelf Yoga. The site will give you a good idea of who I am and my perspective on Yoga, which I see as a living, evolving process (as are we). For this first post, I thought I would tell you a little about my logo. The lotus flower pays homage to the teachers with whom I trained primarily, Ganga White and Tracey Rich of the White Lotus Foundation, from whom I constantly find new inspiration and the encouragement to find my own freedom. The caduceus, a symbol of opposing but balanced and connecting energies, represents my own struggle to integrate the different aspects of myself into a unified whole. Finally, the world is both the backdrop and the anchor for the journey, on which we unique individuals are all part of One Self.

I welcome your questions and musings on life and Yoga, and wish you peace. Om shanti.