This was my first winter/spring in eight years not spent in Los Angeles, or the land of eternal spring as I like to call it. What I had forgotten is how bleak and dreary winter can be. In Texas, we did have an especially rough winter, with five or six ice days which the city was not prepared for. For all of January and February everything is brown – no leaves on trees, brown grass and even the sky was gray most of the winter. Continue reading “GRACEFUL WARRIOR: Spring is in the Air” »

I love shopping at flea markets. Luckily for me, there are flea markets almost every weekend around Los Angeles. What I love most, I realized while shopping the John Muir flea market this weekend is the element of surprise. You can’t plan for what you want to shop for at the flea market, so it provides me a place and time to be open and see what catches my attention and resonates with me in that moment… Continue reading “Graceful Warrior: Life, Flea Markets and the Element of Surprise” »

Just about everyone suffers from insomnia every once in a while, whether it is from too much going on at work, or excitement about a trip or other big plans happening the next day. I myself had several months where I had multiple nights in a row of insomnia. I don’t know if mine is part of my grieving process for my sweet dog I lost last October or the stress of striving for a work/lifestyle change or vata (air) imbalance since fall/early winter is vata season in Ayurveda (ancient Indian medicine). At first I got really frustrated, but I got better at just trying to relax and breath no matter how much my mind is racing. After following some of these methods regularly, my insomnia has been gone for the last couple of months. Continue reading “Graceful Warrior: Good Night, John Boy! Sleep Well” »

This post is dedicated to several of my friends who have recently had babies!

I am in the Sherry Brourman Yoga Therapy mentorship program, in which we have been reading the book The Thinking Body by Mabel E. Todd. It is fascinating, if you are into how and why the body moves and have quite a large vocabulary. You see, it was written in 1937, so I need a dictionary for both the anatomy terms and strange words that are no longer in use today. Continue reading “Graceful Warrior: A Case for Crying: Baby’s Developing Spine” »

Ever watch an intense scene in a movie and feel your gut tensing up and wrenching due to the stress? This happens to me in most action and horror flicks. That feeling is most likely your psoas muscle contracting. The psoas is the harborer of fear and is what propels you in the fight or flight stress response syndrome. The psoas is a cool muscle as far as muscles go… Continue reading “Graceful Warrior: Psoas Your Are, Psoas You Shall Be” »

Lately, I am loving Bob Dylan’s song “Oh the Times, They Are Changing,” featured Oliver Stone’s The Doors from 1991. I watched the movie since it had scenes shot in the Venice Canals. Other than the scenery, the movie is a big downer and I don’t recommend it, but the closing credits Bob Dylan song really spoke to me. Continue reading “Graceful Warrior: Keep Breathing and Enjoy the Whirlwind!” »

In the last century or two we have come to believe that all of our intelligence resides in the mind. While much of the higher thinking, reasoning and theorizing comes from our mind, it is not our only intelligence center. Actually ever part of the body has intelligence, specifically as to how and when to function.

We have three core intelligence centers: brain, heart and stomach /intestines (gut). Continue reading “Graceful Warrior: Learning to Trust Your Gut Feelings” »

I spent the afternoon yesterday at Big Heart Ranch volunteering in the garden. I hadn’t been out there since last summer, and it was so wonderful to have my hands in the earth again. While planting some seeds (gotta love California, where seeds will grow and bear fruit even when planted in late July!), I learned that the cantaloupe running along the back of the garden was planted from seeds from last year’s cantaloupe crop. Continue reading “Graceful Warrior: The Potential in a Seed Can Harvest a Bountiful Life” »

You’ve been thinking about and talking about starting a yoga practice for a while, now here is your chance. September is National Yoga Month, meaning lots of studios around the U.S. offer a free week of classes to new students. If you listen to the media and/or any (progressive) doctor, you’d think that yoga was a cure-all for with injuries, stress, disease and relationships… Continue reading “Graceful Warrior: It’s National Yoga Month” »

I’ve had several friends get hula hoops in the last few weeks and then ask for a few pointers. Since I just picked up my hoop for possibly the first time this year (shame all over my face), I thought it would be fun to post on the basics and joy of hooping. I was able to hoop as a child, but that’s about it. I’ve learned all I know now about hooping from Rayna who founded Hoopnotica. Hooping takes you right back to the fun, carefree days of your youth, but being able to do really cool tricks plants you firmly in the joy of here and now. Continue reading “Graceful Warrior: Take a Spin With This Hoop-eriffic Workout” »