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Namaste friends,

Geez. Full moon for sure! Lots going on these days. We came home from our yoga retreat in Spain to find our country in another government shut down.

Whenever our leadership is in disharmony it shakes the timbers of the whole establishment. As Abe Lincoln so eloquently stated a couple hundred years ago, “A house divided, can not stand”.

The ripple effect moves quickly, not just economically but also psychologically.
People get fearful and scared; they become irritable and anxious, and act from a place of scarcity and lack rather than from a place of generosity and servitude.

Our Spain retreat had a theme called “ The 8 Paths to the Heart”. We wanted to offer our attendees some inroads to their true Selves, or to their spiritual heart, called the Hridyam in Sanskrit. Our spiritual heart is different than our emotional heart or our physical heart. This “heart” is our eternal spirit that has always been and will always be long after we leave our bodies; it connects us to everything in creation, and is the divine intelligence or God-head energy that we all have. It is this “inner sun” that holds all the guidance and wisdom we need in order to access the infinite joy and bliss of our existence.

The yogis call it the “unnameable” because words can’t really describe its essence. Its energy, consciousness, and power are beyond our basic human comprehension. If we are to understand it, we must merge with it. We must trust that there is something greater than our little human ego selves moving through us, and for us. And even harder than trusting this unknown, unseen omnipotent essence, we must train our often times belligerent egos that feed on fear and doubt to be in service to our High Self

Namaste Friends,

OH this eclipse! It snuck in all subtle like and then Boom!-it knocks you sideways.
At least over here in my little world that is how it feels.

Our landlord walked into the studio in a busy moment and handed us an envelope and said “Just a little rent increase” and then walked out. The “little” rent increase is astronomically unaffordable relative to the volume of business we do.
Boom!-sideways.
What to do?
First, yoga.
Breath
Get clear
Stay calm
Listen within
Choose Love
Trust Spirit

Now let me tell you a little story about a conversation I recently had with my dad. This man is arguably one of the most interesting humans I know-and not because he is my Dad, whom I adore, but because few people have bios with as much diversity, breadth and depth as my father.

We were talking on the phone-we have these epic hour and a half conversations about once a month-and he was telling about a big project he is working on that is almost to completion-but now he has to deal with all the final details- which has presented some stressful complications.

What if we are taught to trust and rely on each other for support. And we learn how to be trustworthy and reliable ourselves. Through inter-dependence we are taught the art of conversation and sharing our feelings, and at the same time we learn to be a good listener, and how to hold space for people. We learn not to shy away from uncomfortable feelings or communication, but rather to participate in co-creating a solution for life’s inevitable difficulties. We learn that we can lean into the support of our community for guidance and assistance and that we don’t have to do everything alone. Inter-dependence could teach us that its not a sign of weakness to ask for help, but rather it is a strength and a good fortune that we can and do have a support network. And that there is great value in helping others out. The intrinsic reward is a sense of purpose. And the external reward is that people are connected.

From the time we are born, our consciousness is being shaped by external forces.Our parents tell us what is right and wrong, our religions, our social systems, our governments all set the rules of how to live in this life experience. These handed down beliefs become quickly ingrained and we don’t even think to check in with our own divine consciousness to discern if the teachings are truth. Hence, we adopt the mainstream narrative of what is right or wrong because it is all we have been told. These external authorities begin to override the divine intelligence of our spiritual heart. Often we aren’t even taught that we have a divine intelligence that is connected to everything in creation. That we have a wellspring of cosmic knowledge dwelling right in our hridyam heart.

Summer is officially almost here and joyfully we are right at the high points of the long days of light. And strangely, on June 20th-the Summer Solstice, the days will begin to shorten as we hit the swing back toward fall and winter. Fortunately, the pendulum moves slow so we can enjoy some longer summer evenings and rise early in the morning to our glorious Sun.

Michael and I have an early morning sadhana practice that we have been doing consistently for a couple of years now. We rise with the sun, have our morning wellness shot, which is warm water, tumeric, ginger powder, lemon juice, ashwaganda, and honey…

We have returned from India and feel inspired by all we took in over our two week visit to Kerala. We covered a lot of territory on this trip, and saw a variety of landscapes and cultural experiences. My top 3 highlights were walking among the lush tea hills of Munnar, witnessing a sacred agnihotra (fire ceremony) at the temple of Sri Narayana GuruDev, and the delightful 2hour shirodhara (warm oil drip to the forehead) and abhyanga (herb infused oil massage) that we received in the beach town of Kovalam. But the entire trip was incredible and it is hard to pick just 3 favs! We hope to share this experience with everyone by leading a group retreat to India in 2026.

I feel now, more than ever in our existence as human beings, we need to

re-member who we truly are, what we are made of, and why we are here. It is imperative for our collective well-being and for the continued existence of our species. We don’t want to share the same fate as the Atlanteans or the Lemurians. Their epic collapses, independently of each other, were due to their inability to use their power in right way. You would think we would try harder to avoid a similar demise. Both of these civilizations sunk. Literally-and figuratively. And looking at the conditions of things right now on Mother Earth, we could easily do that again.

This newsletter lands on top of a full moon Lunar Eclipse-Kapow! We are in eclipse season. The next one will happen on the new moon in two weeks. Eclipse means to clip or cut-so it seems the Universe is teeing us up to cut out the unnecessary aspects of our existence. What thoughts, words, actions, people, places or things are no longer serving us? Over the next two weeks gather up and purge the unneeded, unwanted, and unserving energies in your life. Offer it all up to the portal that naturally opens when these large celestial bodies align with each other.

Michael and I have been enjoying some winter walks along the Platte River these past couple months. We found a new little trail that gets right along the water’s edge and it is good distance off the beaten path, so we rarely encounter other people.  February is the heart of winter and it tends to make me want to isolate a little more than I normally do; I am a fairly social creature, but something about bone-chillin’ cold snaps and the sunless, dreary days makes me want to retreat away from the noise of it all.  

I hope you all have landed back on your feet from all the holiday hullabaloo. Hopefully you were able to find some peace and quiet during the break and do some nesting and self-reflection as well.

For the record, I feel the real New Year begins when new baby sprouts push up from the earth, and the trees start to bud out with some green, and the ice breaks and the thaw begins. That feels like new beginnings much more so than the cold, stark darkness of winter.