The Magic Mat
“The Original Magic Mat is the innovative, game-changing product your die cutting has been missing. Swap out one of your plastic cutting pads for this sturdy self-healing pad and you'll be amazed by the cleanest cuts you've ever achieved. Try the affordable, long-lasting Magic Mat today.” As someone who enjoys crafting, after experiencing yoga teacher training this advertisement for the Magic Mat suddenly took on an entirely new meaning. I’ve seen this advertisement before, but I’ve never thought about anything more than crafting. The words began to resonate on a cellular level as I read and re-read this advertisement. The words like, innovative, game-changing, sturdy, self-healing, amazed, and cleanest cuts you’ve ever achieved all seemed to speak to how my mat was becoming a key component to my transformation and self awareness……The Magic Mat. Early April 2022, slowly coming out of the pandemic, with frustrations of the new-new normal setting in, I thought to myself, “Now is the...
The Best Comfort is Inside You
This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.—William Shakespeare If you have a poor opinion about yourself certainly it will affect your heart, your mind, your personality. What...
Give Sorrow Words: Creative Writing for Grief and Loss
Giving your sorrow words through creative writing. In grief, loss, and trauma writing helps us express and release feelings that otherwise have no outlet.
More Recent Articles
The Search for Happiness
An excerpt from To Know Yourself, The universe is full of life. You can see the life force constantly. Everything is living: there is no dead matter. What is called inanimate or dead matter is not really dead. This is even well proven by present day science. Although...
Navigate the Holiday Season with Yoga and Ayurveda
The holidays sometimes bring their own brand of stress. We have Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Local Saturday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and New Year’s celebrations, one after the other. A frenzy of activity—eating, shopping and social obligations—puts...
Treating Trauma with Yoga
An Interview with Joann Lutz Can you imagine a future in which someone’s first introduction to Yoga is not in a gym or classroom, but in a therapist’s office? It may be a future that’s not too far off, thanks to Yoga instructors and qualified mental health...
Talking About Tantra: An Interview with Raama Das
An Interview with Raama Das Often misunderstood, Tantra is a branch of Yoga that encompasses many schools and lineages and includes various practices and philosophical threads, much like classical Yoga. Knowledgeable Integral Yoga teacher Raama Das not only has...
Celebrating Integral Yoga Day
An Interview with Rev. Prem Anjali, Ph.D. Each year on October 7th, Integral Yoga International celebrates “Integral Yoga Day”—the day that the first Integral Yoga center was dedicated in New York in 1966. It’s a day we reflect on all the blessings that are a part of...
Sleep Solutions—Yoga Style
How’s Your Sleep? Are you getting enough sleep? Are you tired of being tired? Could you be suffering from sleep deprivation? Well, you're not alone. Most of us aren’t getting enough sleep. I don’t know about you, but it’s just irresistible to stay up late, even when...
Embodying the Dharma: Yoga Practice for Buddhist Teachings
Yoga and Buddhism have much in common; although they are two distinct paths, there are many places of convergence. In the past 50 years many Yoga practitioners in the West have also become followers of Buddhist teachings and practices. Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy,...
When Your Mind Won’t Let You Meditate
As a meditation teacher, people frequently tell me they want to meditate, but their mind won’t let them. When they sit to meditate and try to quiet their mind, they claim the mental chatter only gets worse. The truth is, they are correct. We can’t force our minds to...
Chains: A Poem by Tara (Becky) Eschenroeder
These chains that we create are just an illusion. Yes, that happened… and perhaps this will be. But NOW is reality and it’s all that we have. Every tumble, every fall, every step, every leap has led to our ability to now FLY. I release the heaviness as I open to the...
Self-Compassion During Difficult Times
Excerpted from the book, Yoga for Grief and Loss: Poses, Meditation, Devotion, Self-Reflection, Selfless Acts, Ritual We live in a world overwhelmed with pain and grief. We may not wish to think of that, but sadly it is true. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed at the sheer...
Laugha Sutras
“The best remedy for any illness is laughter.” —Sri Swami Satchidananda “Friends find each other through laughter.” –Bharata Wingham “Levity relieves stress and ends the fear of death.” –Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terminator 3 “Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side...
The Benefits of Obedience
In most monastic traditions, the monks take vows of obedience (along with poverty and celibacy). You obey the rule of your monastic order and the abbot (head monk of your branch of the order). What’s the benefit of obedience? Obedience teaches you to intercept the...