Towards the end of my first 200 hr of IYT at Kripalu Center, 2000) we were asked to choose a topic that we wanted to study using the techniques and practices we were learning. I struggled to find a topic. Specialization was contrary to my personal philosophy of Yoga. I wanted to be skilled in ways to help everyone. But choose I did and I narrowed it down to stress…
Category: <span>Blogging</span>
I’m now in my seventh decade of life here, this time around, and find myself still firmly rooted in the same vicinity of my birthplace, Neptune………… New Jersey, that is. The fact that planet Neptune is located near the nadir of my horoscope is a constant source of amusement. Synchronicity, you know? During High School I was on the staff of The Megaphone, the APHS newspaper. At one time I…
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Feeling kinda beat up, exhausted, and emptied out. The adjectives attached to (Hurricane) Ida were quite negative and unpleasant to hear/read/see. Verbal abuse from every quarter with no regard to my feelings. As a facilitator for mind/body experiences it’s been a fruitful time to practice what I preach. I watched myself talk back to the newscasters and explain why it could be a good thing to be: relentless, forceful, and…
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I’ve been hearing and seeing my name on every type of media for days. Here’s an excerpt from my upcoming memoir: Becoming Grandma. Becoming Ida…………………. I’ve had a rocky relationship thru the years with my birth name, hating it, loving it, wanting to change it somehow, spell it different. It’s such a simple name. I’m anything but simple. I was named after both Grandmothers. Ida, was…
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Our one-day retreat during the Summer Solstice at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ was a wonderful way to be together with my sangha after such a long, stressful separation. We found a wonderful nearly-private space under a grove of Apple Trees and reconnected to nature, to those we know and love, and to strangers passing by. We sat on the ground, picked at the grass, rolled around and…
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During the winter months I took a writing class with Ann Randolph and the prompt was Think about a time that you were wild and green in the ways of the world…the whole world was before you, green a newness, a novice, sense of adventure, anything was possible…a curiousity, maybe stumbling and fumbling during this time too…excitement, anticipation, or maybe the wild and green in the ways of the…
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It was midnight of the third day when the chanting ended. Jan 1, 2008. We’d been at it, 2 hours on and 4 hours off, around the clock. After the first 24 hours I felt myself slipping into an altered state that felt amazing. For the entire 3 days, the chant never left my mind…there was no room for discursive thinking, worrying, obsessing, analyzing, wondering,. There was no past, no…
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Back to the drawing board….. that’s a phrase that comes to mind whenever I have to start something…again…from scratch… That’s what it feels like these days..like I have to re-create my *life-plan* again. Who knew a global pandemic would upend life and country in such a way? Surely not I, even with the decades and hours of study and practice of ancient wisdom traditions. Oh well. One breath at a…
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So, we’re in the middle of two eclipses and five planets are retrograde. You don’t really need to know much about astrology to get a sense of the epic time cycle we’re living in. It really doesn’t matter where you look there’s change, upheaval, and fluctuating conditions mostly everywhere. You can try to block it out using whatever methods/medicine/magic you have at your disposal. But relief is temporary. There really…
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2019, SYTAR conference was inspiring, validating, and rejuvenating. I was inspired to be part of this international community of yoga professionals bridging the gap between Western medicine & Yoga. There were 500 of us. Many who attended had completed research projects with hospitals, universities, governmental agencies, non-profits, and large corporations. The results easily confirm, without a shadow of doubt, what all of us who’ve practiced already know, and that is…
