How to disrupt your schedule:

• Set aside your practice now and then to participate in year-end holiday events
• Have kids that come home for the holidays
• Visit out-of-state friends between Christmas and the New Year
• Get Covid.

I followed this recipe exactly! And boy did it disrupt my practice. The few months between the time of my silent retreat and the holidays I was wonderfully consistent and plugged in both physically and spiritually.  I thought there was no way I would ever want to drop any of what I was doing, I was so dedicated and interested and excited! And then, bang! Almost everything fell apart.
I was surprised to find how hard it was to stay with my practice with all of the distractions this year (once again!). I did start to get a bit nervous after listening to a podcast where a man described his three-month retreat and the challenge he faced staying with his practice when he returned to society. Even after three months of nonstop introspection and gaining amazing insights, his most valuable insight turned out to be how the distractions of the world are strong and will pull you away from what your practice has shown you.
It turns out that the timing of my falling into the end-of-year, and-oh-now-I-have-covid ditch was perfect, of course. My two physical injuries last year really taught me about chronic pain and restricted range of motion, something I spoke about often but had never lived. (Thanks a lot 2023!) I imagine I will be a better therapist and teacher now that I am living with those things. And now having fallen into a practice-challenging ditch? Well, let's see how it plays out.
One thing that I have always pointed to is my “good karma" for practicing.  I have managed to keep on the road of spiritual practice for 30 years – no matter what. But last week I understood how people can walk away. “I will never be able to stick with it after all, It’s easier this way. Once you stop it’s too hard to start again. Etc”
Fortunately, in spite of enjoying my new found lethargy, my “good” karma kicked in again, and I am able to tell you that you CAN get back into it. Yes, it is easier to not sit for meditation and do nothing, but don’t trust it. That “easier” is only temporary – like it was easier for me not to do any physical exercise last week and just lay around watching reruns of Columbo. But boy, did my back hurt! Every morning I had to sit with a heating pad. I was stiff. I was walking like a very, very, old person who just sits around and watches reruns of old shows – and I was cranky because of it. And then reality hit after teaching two classes Sunday morning? Oy! At 57, things can go south really quickly after a week.
I meet so many people at Eco Loka who tell me all the (very good) reasons they had to leave their yoga practice, and I can see there is a good deal of trepidation about starting up again. It makes sense, right? It is hard not to grieve all the things you used to be able to do, who you did them with and how good you looked – and felt – doing them. But knowing that your yoga practice brings you joy and equanimity, contentment, good health and positivity, are you willing to forgo the comparison to what it once was so you can get back to a practice?
Ok, so you fell off. But now it’s time to get back and reconnect, whether it is your physical practice or your meditation practice, even just reading and self- inquiry! The important part is to just start!
Don’t fret about where you have been and what you can no longer do. And certainly, don’t let those feelings stop you from picking up where you left off (or even starting a few steps back.) Your future practice does not care. It will always open its arms to you and embrace you where you are.
Let me help you rekindle your spiritual goals, address your physical needs and explore whatever it is you're most curious about.
See the workshops listed here, and maybe consider the Spiritual Mentoring program. You get one-on-one guidance for you spiritual enhancement. More info below.

My message for these first days of 2024 is – wait for it, wait for it – Keep On Keeping On!
As some of you know, I endured a pair of impact injuries during 2023 (broken wrist July, bruised knee September) and my body’s response led to some medical research and a bit of personal introspection as well.
First, an update on my wrist: It is feeling good, but I still don’t have full range of motion, and it’s pretty weak compared to my left… which happens to be my nondominant side.
As I’ve shared in my fascia workshop, when an area of the body is immobilized (as when in a cast to help heal a broken bone), the fascia begins to tighten into a kind of internal cast as well. This internal cast tends to persist after the external cast is taken off, and restoring the fascia’s natural flexibility can take as much as two or three times as long as you were in the external cast.
A study I found in the National Library of Medicine reported that restoring range of motion after two weeks of immobility can take a bit of work but doing so after four weeks becomes more challenging. It turns out that not only does the fascia stiffen into that internal cast, but the chemical makeup of muscles that help the joints move also change to limit motion. That’s probably intended to protect the break as it heals. But it just becomes another factor impeding a swift return to full range of motion.
The same study reported that joints that were regularly exercised prior to being immobilized were quicker to regain their range of motion than joints that hadn’t been exercised regularly prior to the injury. Umm. Think couch potato joints.
But wait, there’s more. At my annual physical my doctor mentioned that the immobilization of a joint also contributes to bone loss. Ugh. That had me looking up something the medical community terms Disuse Osteoporosis. Sure enough, it turns out that when a joint is immobilized, bone density begins to decline – and almost immediately! The good news is, the same phenomenon provides a pathway to repair: “Indeed,” claimed the researchers, “the most natural treatment for disuse osteoporosis is physical exercise or remobilization (loading) of the affected bones…”
All this research supports something most of us learn as we age: Just a little time away from your practice makes a big difference. That’s become abundantly clear to me as I sprint toward my 60s. And if I didn’t already know it, the recent injury to my left knee helped remind me. Believe me, it didn’t take long before I could really feel a difference in strength between my left and right leg.  Bad enough, but add in a bout of Covid (relatively mild, but still set me back), and I can really feel the effect of being a couch potato. 
Here’s the thing. We are all going to get injured, and while the inclination is to bring your practice to a halt while you heal, it turns out that’s probably the wrong response. Most injuries should not keep you from your practice because when they do, your whole body will suffer – and it may not actually help your injury heal any faster.
With patience, intelligence, and a little bit of professional guidance (that’s my role!), you can maintain a practice that will serve you well, even if it’s not what you “usually do.”
Keeping my doctor’s caveats in mind, I maintained as much of my regular practice as I could when my cast was on, relying on my one good wrist, trying to keep my shoulder mobile, my upper arm muscles strong and my fingers moving.  I’m using a similar approach to my current knee injury. Once I figured out the movements that were not possible for me right now (flexion and external hip rotation, for example), I modified or found alternatives for those movements.  I am keeping my glutes, quads and lower leg muscles strong, and I maintain external hip rotation in a way that does not compromise my knee.
Nothing’s perfect. I will admit my “flow” has gotten a bit awkward, and the yoga class I took up in the Berkshires last week challenged me right out of the gate (“Let’s all come into child’s pose”- noooooo!).  During COVID I practiced the Joint Freeing Series and TRE (both felt awesome!  A little bit of movement in a very lethargic state goes a heck of a long way.)
So, my message for 2024? Don’t let an injury bring your practice to a standstill.  It may be challenging and frustrating, but don’t stop, because it won’t get any easier if you do. (It may get harder! – see above.) And if you did stop, it’s ok, just know that it’s time to start up again. Whatever range of motion, suppleness and bone density you recapture is going to serve you. The instructors at Yoga Loka are here to help you find the right substitute pose for whatever the limitation.  For every pose you can’t do, there are probably 10 or more that can take its place. Just ask. That’s what we’re here for.
We all have important work to do in this world.  You may already be doing it, you may not yet know what it is, but know for sure you have something etched into your karmic stream that is needing to be fulfilled.  We all have something we are here to do.  And to do it we need a healthy, mobile body, a clear mind, and a contented soul.  We are not here to satisfy our monkey minds, especially when it says “Nah, never mind, I’ll just sit here in the dark.”  
If your New Year’s resolution is to do more yoga for your body and your mind, please take advantage of this month’s sale on class blocks and workshops to get you going. That’s what they’re there for, literally.

Click here to go to the workshop page: 
​Use discount code 2024workshops for a 10% discount when checking out

​