Honoring the Yin Season Dear Yogis/Yoginis , We're in the heart of winter now—the yin season, when nature whispers to us: slow down, go inward, rest. I've been watching one of my cats lately, and she's the perfect teacher for this time of year. Without any struggle or self-judgment, she curls up more, purrs longer, eats with satisfaction, and yes, gets lovingly plump. Come summer, she'll naturally shed those extra pounds, moving with ease once again. She trusts her rhythms

A Softer Path Forward: New Year Reflections Dear Yogis/Yoginis , As we step into the new year, I want to offer something different from the usual resolutions and rigid goal-setting. Instead, let’s embrace reflection and renewal—not as pressure, but as an invitation to return to what matters most.   We’re living in chaotic times. The noise around us is loud, the divisions feel deep, and it’s easy to retreat into self-protection or self-righteousness. But perhaps the way throu

Looking for the Good: Continuing Our Journey with Grief Dear Yogis/Yoginis , Following up on last month's email on grief,  I wanted to continue our conversation about navigating these challenging times.. As grief continues to accompany us in our lives, let's keep finding tools that help us accept the present instead of searching for quick solutions. Grief doesn't disappear overnight. It evolves—pain morphing into different expressions of sorrow, gradually transforming into p

Sitting with Grief: The Sacred Practice of Presence Dear Yogis/Yoginis , Grief usually arrives like an unexpected ocean wave—sudden, overwhelming, pulling us under. Our instinct is to swim away, to escape to shore, to find any distraction that keeps us from drowning in its depths. But what if we could learn to float? The Invitation to Be Still On our mats, we can practice something radical: to learn to be present with discomfort. To hold a difficult pose and discover that

The Fall of the Leaf: Autumn’s Invitation to Let Go Dear Yoga Shala Community , As the leaves begin their graceful descent, painting our world in amber and gold, we’re reminded of an old English phrase: “the fall of the leaf.” This poetic expression, which gave us the American term “fall,” captures something profound about this season—it’s not just about change, but about the art of letting go. Nature’s Perfect Teacher Watch a tree in autumn. It doesn’t resist the changing

Finding Light in Life's Tests: How Our Practice Builds Unshakeable Resilience Dear Yogis/Yoginis ,   Do you sometimes feel like life is testing you at every turn? That you're being pulled, probed, challenged in ways that bring up resistance, doubts, sadness, fears? There's a beautiful Sanskrit term for this: Diksha —the testing that occurs on your spiritual path.   You're not being punished. You're being invited to grow.   The Alchemy of Transformation   We find ourselves in