In this dharma talk, I talk about receiving THIS life, living in alignment with the heart. How earth –centered, grounded, integrated — gives us ease in transition and in letting go. I talk about transitioning out of old patterns of beliefs and thoughts that put us in conflict within ourselves. The conflict causes a dissipation of energy… and about coming out of conflict and coming back to living effortlessly… passionately.

Note: Passion and desire are different than each other. Desire is based on conflict and attachment. It’s wanting something that isn’t..it is fighting with what really is. Passion is effortless because it aligns with the heart and is based on what is.

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In this class we explore self-worth and value and our tendency to seek outside of ourselves for affirmation of our “goodness” or “bad-ness.” I share a story about the Buddha, the first 4 yoga sutras, a reading, some self inquiry / a practice, and some sing’in!

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Class on Tuesday April 19! Inspired by Sutra 1.5
We looked at pain and our relationship to it. Then moved through our practice with kindness, the kind of kindness to oneself that comes from an understanding of impermanence, from the pain of losing the things we love, and of deep understanding and knowing that we all suffer and we share in sorrow; that is not ours alone to bear. With that understanding of suffering… the forgiveness and compassion that can shift our relationship to pain… to one with willingness and curiosity instead of judgement and the suffering that comes from resisting it.

In the end, we wrapped ourselves all up inside of blankets, tight ones with a sandbag on the thighs and an eye bag too! Deep sense withdrawal to take us inward with the softness of blankets and being all snuggled in!

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“Whatever you are meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.” – Doris Lessing

In this class we talk about authority, discipline, shame and guilt… and what it’s like to just give yourself what you really want. What is possible if you stop denying yourself what you really want?

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In this class we talk about the obstacles to:
-living aligned with truth
-connected to the heart
-presence

Game on!

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Last public class at Karoun yoga… The perfection of Asana and the discipline of practice are not done so that we may hold on better, but rather so that we may learn to let go better. The purpose of discipline is to liberate ourselves, not to rigidly and exhaustingly grip onto form, structure or belief, but to suddenly find ourselves inhabiting spontaneity and play. The lessons of discipline are in the undisciplined moments. It creates a structure for these elements to arrive. Love Liberates.

youtu.be/cbecKv2xR14 – speech from Maya Angelou – LOVE LIBERATES

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In this class I talk about letting all of life in… creating the conditions for wisdom to arise.

Inspired by Sutras 1.30 – 1.32 in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

“The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.  You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it.  That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand.”  
– J. Krishnamurti

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In this class we talk about the Buddha’s comparison between the banana tree and the ego, comparison to others, perception of reality, and of the ego’s swings from high-and-mighty to low and fermenting. Then we move to just being mystery… meeting mystery to mystery.

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In this class we explore “being,” coming from this place of wanting the life that we have. We look at the feeling of the “grass is greener” somewhere else, wanting a different life, different body, different situation, the fear of missing out, and the belief that happiness could be here if only this “______” wasn’t here. Then we explore the ideas of presence, reality, a new definition of love, and of committing to the life that we have.

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In this class we talk about being grounded and centered. Getting our needs met even when it’s inconvenient for everyone else.
Late Summer 2015

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More on being centered and grounded! Giving and receiving and getting enough nourishment.
Summer 2015

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In this class we talk about getting grounded! Summer 2015

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In classes this week we explore the how getting your needs met makes it easy to let go of attachments that don’t serve your heart as well as looking at ourselves through our hearts and not through judgment and how doing this helps us digest our lives. In class we are doing twists to help the body digest and move through things too!

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In class today we talked about how beliefs change how we see reality… then on conditional love, insecurity, judgements, and THEN on what is most important and aligning with that.

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Check out this episode!

This is an excerpt from classes this week on both the water element, fear, letting go into the unknown, and loneliness, as well as the role of the heart, connection, boundaries, and being held by the universal group heart.

“Your heart has a great connection to the universal group heart, way bigger than the small personal circles of humans. Letting go of the vine does not mean disconnecting from source. Only letting go of that one attachment to the physical connection through the stem. Once free of that, you are in relation to all source, all essence, all heart.” – Nini Melvin

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