This time a year ago, I was in a really tough place. Every part of my life personally and professionally was in the process of completely falling apart, and I was having a very hard time finding much reason to keep going. Everything seemed hopeless, and I was feeling incredibly stuck. On a whim, I [...]
When I was a child, my favorite name for giving to a daughter was Sarenda. The name came from a song we’d sing at church: “Hi, Sarenda old!” I remember making up long stories about this old woman named Sarenda—stories that I would tell myself in song (as I often did those days) as I [...]
The ancient yogis used meditation as a route to samadhi, the state of oneness with all things which is the yogic version of enlightenment. In fact, of the eight limbs of yoga according to Patanjali, four of them are steps along this route: pratyahara (withdrawing the senses from distractions around us), dharana (concentration on one [...]
I just returned home from speaking at the 2011 Indiana Music Teachers Association (IMTA) Conference in Bloomington, IN, where I co-presented a session on Mindfulness in motion: connecting the musician’s mind and body with Julianne M. Miranda to a really wonderful group of music teachers. I haven’t seen such an engaged and enthusiastic audience in [...]
Continue reading about Mindfulness, meditation, and the breath
I was talking to someone yesterday who is trying to find a good exercise program that fits her life so that she will practice it consistently. Knowing that I am a yoga teacher, she was asking me about yoga. As we talking, she asked me whether yoga could be used to build strength. The answer, [...]