Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. ~ John Lennon Imagine filling your heart so full of love for yourself and others that no space for fear exists! One of the most powerful aspects of yoga is the ability to create openings in your physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies. The heart chakra is the seat of compassion, love, joy, and happiness. This week, our focus is all about opening and nourishing your heart. February 14th is known around the world as the day of love and it’s not just limited to romance. Documented celebrations as long ago as Roman times emphasize that the power of the heart justifies rejoicing. Our heart is the connection point where we are magnetically drawn to others. Love stems from our powerful fourth Chakra, the heart chakra.

Is there a difference between loving your body and being in love with your body? We are presented with this notion that we need to love ourselves-- that our love must exist as this unquestionable force of worship, one that sustains and thus bestows wholeness upon us. This approach has always felt flat to me. As a surface stripped bare of footholds. A richly rough and complicated concept made smooth by the dogmatism of devotion. Love yourself.

I love love... I mean I really love LOVE! I’ve been accused of overusing the word in some of my circles. Regardless of that, I continue to use it because it rolls off my tongue and feels good when I say it.

Thank Goddess for this theme! After all the astrological upheaval that began all the way back with Venus Retrograde, followed by a deep dive into the Sun by Venus, followed by a Solar Eclipse, then Mercury in Retrograde, then a Lunar Eclipse, finishing with the finale of Mercury stationing direct, where else can we go but into balance?

This word, oh this word. Since it came into my awareness over 10 days ago, I feel like I have been rung through the ringer. And I’m not alone either! I’ve been holding space for emails, Facebook messages, texts and phone calls from people going through the same thing … Relationship issues.

It seems like ever since The Secret hit shelves, everyone from housewives to college students to investment bankers are evangelists of the positive thinking movement.

A few years ago I visited a girlfriend in Southern California. I was preparing for my Yogic Lore Flow workshop on the Hindu goddesses and spent the week in her lush backyard garden meditating on Lakshmi, the goddess of abundance, beauty, and grace. I came to understand Lakshmi’s power of bestowing beauty, abundance, and grace is directly attributed to her ability to recognize the exquisiteness of every moment, every flower, every day, and every smile.

Wow … wanna know the truth? This Mercury Retrograde and Full Moon in Sagittarius is kicking my ass! I’ve been tossed into amazing opportunities and yanked back into the past all in one week. I had to face my immobilizing fear of technology and fix every i-apparatus in my home, by myself. I have to buy a new computer, and I lost all my photos of my children from 2002. (yes, I heard that gasp)

The theme courage came flying to me the moment I heard that the New Moon was in Aries and that Pluto had went into retrograde. Huh?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this week’s theme … transmutation. It’s divinely perfect as always. And in meditation all week, I’ve reviewed these last few years. You see transmutation is a change in form, appearance, structure or nature of something. It can be an alchemical shift of who you are and how you show up in the world energetically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. And in that alchemical shift that begins on the inside, we eventually take on a different form on the outside.

“You are ending a recent and significant underground-type of journey but the good news is that it ends with Friday’s solar eclipse/new moon. Above ground you go!

Our theme for this week has been “who are you”. Beneath the labels, the job titles, the busyiness, the ambitious attitude, the resolutions, the sweat on your mat … who the hell are you and what do you stand for?

Love is like breathing. Breath comes in and breath goes out. Love enters the heart and love leaves. The shadow left behind is like the wisdom of time and space itself. Once we sense love, we cannot easily forget and we are changed forever, in fact, love informs the very fabric of our existence.