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Namaste!

I’m lying on a chaise lounge situated in about five inches of cool water. The sound of the sea is not quite ominous, but the surf is crashing, exploding in a way that I can feel in my bones. She has my full attention. The cloudless sky above is painted in a variety of blues from our familiar Carolina blue to the softest, barely baby blue. The rooster in charge of the farm nearby crows round the clock, all day every day and this afternoon is no exception. I’m guessing he takes his rest from about 12-4am, because other than that, he’s making his presence known.… Read the rest

Namaste!

I’ve spent the past couple of months navigating a veritable host of minor maladies and tribulations with my personal spaceship, this human body. I’m trying to hold an even perspective on the matter as I have a couple of friends who are living with major diagnoses carrying unknown trajectories into the future. In comparison, I’ve got the sniffles. At the same time, this is my reality, my story and I’m working on acknowledging that it’s valid without making a compare/contrast study if I am or am not worthy to have the struggle I’m having. My friend Mimi’s grandfather once said that if everyone you know got together and put their problems in a bag in the center of the room and you could choose to leave with any bag you wanted, you’d walk out with your own.… Read the rest

Namaste!

Today’s message requires some participation on your part. Are you willing? Then try this. Stop whatever you are doing right now and make a list of your priorities. I don’t mean the list of tasks you want to get done today, I’m talking about the things that are most important to you as a human being on the planet. Who are your very favorite people? Where are the places you love the most? What activities feed your soul and spark joy in your heart? Go on. You’re bothering to read this. Take a moment to pause and write a quick list.… Read the rest

Namaste!

Perhaps by the time you are reading this it finally feels like spring outside. I’m writing early in the last week of March, and it’s still decidedly winter-like. There’s no snow, sleet or hail today, but when I went out this morning for my walk with Padma, I was again in full winter kit, complete with hat and gloves. The calendar says Spring. Heading into April means spring. All of my senses are saying NO, this is not the season for furry caps, wool gloves, tall socks and occasional snow flakes. This is the season for mild breezes, beautiful blossoms, the shedding of layers, the coming of new life!… Read the rest

Namaste!

If you scroll down a bit, you’ll see that we are featuring self care in the months ahead. This wasn’t something that we planned out in a big yogic strategy session; it just happened. But when I saw it all put together, it struck me as a message from the Universe. Yes. Self care. Pay attention, please.

Maybe it’s just the age we are in, or perhaps it’s the Yoga World I inhabit, but there’s a whole lot of chatter (and that’s all a lot of it is) about self care. In our broader culture the topic seems to circle around massages and pedicures and the occasional nap.… Read the rest

Blueversary 11. Our 11th anniversary. The advent of our 12th year on N. West Street. I can’t really even get my head around it. That’s about a quarter of my life. More than 20,000 classes. 10 immersion and teacher training programs. Over $60,000 donated to charities. Support systems, transformations, breakthroughs, friendships, and an entire community grown in that big little room. It makes my head spin and my heart burst.

Unless you are tuning into this channel for the very first time, you know already that I believe we are each here for a reason. The divine spark of life that we are – that we came into this body with – has a blueprint.… Read the rest

by Jill Sockman

At the end of the year, I like to pause and look back at what transpired during the last journey around the sun. I want to review what I have learned – both what I need to take with me into the new year and what I should definitely leave behind. Self-reflection is always important, but somehow seems more pressing as the calendar turns over yet again.

1. I am wrong. A lot. It’s taken a while to come to this as I have spent a good part of my life suffering from “I-really-am-right-itis” which apparently I got from my father.… Read the rest

by: Jill Sockman

Tuesday night was the first night of a four-week series that I’m offering during this holiday season. When the message came through to put it on the calendar, I wasn’t clear on why, if anyone would be interested, or in what way it might be of service. But what I knew for sure was that this time of year can be chaotic, frantic, overly busy. It can elicit feelings of happiness and excitement and, just as much, feelings of loneliness, separation, and frustrated confusion at the state of our world and its priorities. The best medicine I know of for all of that is community.… Read the rest

by Jill Sockman

As is always the case, I’m under the wire to finish my outline for this weekend’s training. I always have the best intention to get these things done well in advance, but the truth is that it never, ever happens. Not ever. Like not even one time. There’s some part of it that is related to a busy schedule, and a constitution that needs to focus on just one event at a time. But there’s also the Procrastination Factor. And it’s very real. So this week is round-the-clock writing, planning, thinking, pondering, meditating on the idea of holding space.… Read the rest

by Jill Sockman

I’ve spent the past couple of weeks preparing for a corporate presentation on the practical application of mindfulness. It’s work I know and love, that lives under the surface of my skin every waking moment. It’s  sometimes applied, sometimes ignored. There’s one particular practice that has stood out for me as I’ve been endlessly writing, reviewing, revising, and rehearsing. And as I have been in head down, uber focus, must produce, on-a-deadline mode, I was reminded at a critical moment in my work about the power of the pause. It happened once and then it happened over and over again throughout this process.… Read the rest