The moderator called us a “dynamic duo.” I kind of smiled inside. Certainly my brother and I had illusions of animated cartoon grandeur when we were growing up; we were going to “take over the world!” But to be introduced that way in our first on-stage event of our lives was a bucket list moment.
(From Thanksgiving 2018) Gratitude is more than feeling fortunate. Feeling fortunate has been aligned with luck. Reveling in personal luck and abundance over others’ suffering and lack implies a right to an unearned privilege. I cannot celebrate my unearned privilege of fortune and be grateful I wasn’t in a wildfire, earthquake, volcano, typhoon, war, genocide
“How do I turn my brain off?” This is a frequent question. “Will yoga teach me to turn off my mind?” The pace and pressure of modern American life is squeezing people into a corner where there’s nowhere to hide from the mind chatter. And most of the solace we take is in stuff that
When I got a report that one of my teen yoga students had started an extreme starvation diet because she hated her body I knew it was time to jump into the deep end of the pool of body positivity with this group. I pulled out some Jessamyn Stanley videos. This beautiful, curvy woman
There is a Lavender Farm in Lansing, just north of Old Town. It’s called Sixteen Sprigs. It’s off Cesar Chavez on Clifton. It’s amazing how beauty is right in front of all. We just have to open our eyes. Or change our patterns. Or walk a different route. Or turn a
Recently, while at a protest against the separation of children from their parents at the southern border, I found myself surrounded by friends. It seemed every few moments someone came up to give me an embrace. I was touched at how many people I know from different walks of life, some attached to Just B
My first experience with Buddhism was at a monastery in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. in the late 1990s. I took a fellow journalist to an introduction to meditation. It was in a listing in the alternative newspaper and it was free. It was led by Lama Norlha, the abbot there. My friend was itching
Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Nancy Candea, director of Yoga Impact and the International Yoga Therapy Institute. She had heard of the work Just B Yoga does with accessibility and inclusion and wanted me to share the concept with her teacher trainees in New Jersey via web cam. (see video below) It
Just B Yoga founder, Belinda Thurston, has been contracted to work with the Ingham County Health Department to revise its Health Equity and Social Justice Workshop. The workshop has been doing groundbreaking work for nearly a decade, training employees and the public about how privilege and oppression affect access to public health. Belinda is being
I led a group of about 7 people on a walking meditation recently. It was one of my workplace clients and our room had been changed to a conference room. I removed as many distractions from the room as I could. We cleared the white board of the project work that was scribbled there. We
We started a new contract offering midday meditation twice a week for employees at the Board of Water & Light this year. The first session, at the old depot station, started with just a handful of people, seated on the floor with essential oils diffusing. But a steady stream of late-comers tip-toeing in reflected the
What is yoga? Is it a religion? What’s the OM? I’m not flexible. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m not advanced enough. Yoga. So ancient and yet so foreign to many of us. We are bombarded with images online or in magazines of perfectly sculpted bodies in seemingly impossible contorted grace. We are
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