Author: jillelkin

If you are newer to yoga philosophy, you may not yet be familiar with the principle of ahimsa. To me, this is the most important one. Ahimsa is at the surface about nonviolence. So, what does that mean for you? Nonviolence can be a tricky concept. Certainly it means that we choose to not directly harm another person. What about other living things? To many yogis and buddhists, this also means not to harm animals to the extent of not eating meat or animal based products, as well as not wearing or using animal products or products tested on animals. What about the environment? What about fair trade, fair wages? Carbon footprint? The ways to extend this principle out into the world are endless!

Let’s start with an intention- I choose to make one step toward nonviolence this week. Perhaps it is an interpersonal form of nonviolence, such as apologizing for a wrongdoing. Perhaps it is an environmental ahimsa such as walking to the grocery store. Start small, because the small things can grow if you do them with intention.

As you begin on your own path of ahimsa, don’t forget that this concept also applies to how you treat yourself. How you interact with stress in your life can produce violent effects for your body and mind. The choices that you make in your work, relationships, and leisure time can also move you toward ahimsa or away from this principle. Treat your body and mind with kindness and watch how this kindness spreads in nonviolence.

Join me at Sweet Tea Yoga, as we Let Go and Be Still.

During this two hour experience, you will be guided through restorative postures to invite your nervous system to calm, your body to soften, and your mind to become quieter. During the last portion of the practice you will be guided through a yoga nidra- a meditation designed to bring you towards your own natural state of calm contentment.

Give yourself the gift of peaceful relaxation this holiday season. Discover how restorative yoga and yoga nidra can help you find your truer self.

Having trouble finding your center? Although this is a cute cartoon, there are many people out there who feel like the donut- people who have experienced trauma, those in physical pain, and others who are experiencing disconnect. Being present in our own bodies and becoming aware of the sensations that rise and fall may be easy for some people, but not for everyone.

Today, I am sending love to all those in pain, disconnected, or otherwise uncentered. May you find the ground under your feet, may your breath flow through you with awareness, and may you allow yourself to be ENOUGH- just for today.

After the first night of yoga teacher training, I had a very vivid dream. I can still see it in my mind:

In this dream I woke up in the middle of the night and went to the bathroom sink to wash my hands. I watched the water wash down the drain, but the sound it made seemed strange. It was deep. A trickling that seemed to drip down much deeper than expected. I bent down to pull aside the curtain that I assumed covered the pipes and such under the sink but what I discovered was a whole new world. The water in the sink was dripping down into a succession of bowls- beautiful, earthy, thick stone bowls of various sizes were magically suspended in a seemingly haphazard way, but perfectly designed. The water dripped from one bowl into the next. Down and down it dripped, from bowl to bowl, further and further down until the light faded and I could no longer see the bowls- I only knew that they were there by the hollow dripping sound echoing back to me from the abyss.

I awoke feeling like my whole world just shifted. And it did. The deeper I go into my yoga training, the more I think back to that dream- that first understanding that I am now embarking on new territory.

Greeting the world with the spirit of openness, every new experience brings new understanding, a new shift of perspective. But these shifts can only come when we invite them in.

Want to invite your own shift? The next time you go to your yoga class, instead of moving through the postures in the same way you always do, try something different: Don’t focus on the physical shape of the form so much, focus on the feeling of the shape. Let your mind move away from judgement of “what this should look like” and let it move toward how the posture makes you feel, what thoughts it brings to the surface. Be aware how you are using your yoga practice…. is it just for physical movement, or is it to move you deeper?