Sage Advice

This morning, I woke with the sun, its bright rays streaming into our bedroom and shining a light on the warren of dust bunnies we've apparently been raising. A whipping tempest creates a bright but bleak new year as it howls through the city, taking the midwinter temperatures into the single digits despite the blue skies.

After breakfast, I attended a yoga class which was one of the best I've been a part of during my seven year practice. The instructor took advantage of the new year to focus the class on new beginnings and acceptance and I found his suggestions to be particularly applicable to life outside the studio. He spoke to the idea that every inhalation is a chance for renewal and, conversely, every exhalation, an opportunity to release and let go. He stressed that instead of forcing the body past its comfort level, if we accept what we are capable of in the pose today, the focus can return, as it should, to our breath. We can then look honestly and openly at who we are in this moment, and without judgment, force or competition.

"Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are."

                                                                   --Jason Crandell, Yoga Instructor

“So as long as a person is capable of self-renewal, they are a living being.”

                                             --Henri Frederic Amiel, Swiss philosopher