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Expanding the Love Takes Courage of the Heart

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Expanding the Love Takes Courage of the Heart

Whenever I start to write these opening pages in our newsletter, I am presented with an empty page—a blank and open space to let my thoughts unfold and my heart be revealed. It takes courage every time I sit in the uncertainty of my life and reveal my vulnerability in sharing my words. David Whyte refers to courage as the measure of our heartfelt participation in life, with another, with community, with work, and with a future.

As I return from my journey through Japan, I am reminded that life always asks us to be willing to go inward even as we journey outward. The true gift of travel is in reflection and being able to digest and absorb the experience of living fully.

Japan is a living example of being in serenity. There is a quality of peacefulness in the beauty of nature, even within the chaotic flow of millions of people living tightly immersed with each other. Traffic flows without any loud horns blaring, voices are kept low, there is respect for the cleanliness of the environment for no one litters, and the streets are spotless. A gentle regard for patience is shared as everyone bows in greetings and in goodbyes. I felt a profound sweetness in the ease of travel, and I have never experienced such trust in my safety.

Traveling in Japan is a joy, having left the angst of our divided country and the profound ripple of anger and fear that is being absorbed in our consciousness. I could sit and meditate with Zen Buddhist monks and appreciate the culture that arose from hundreds of years of violence under the military rule of the Shogun.

Japan was an isolated island until the 1600s, and history is not kind to gaps in lifestyle. Peasant unrest grew, and by the late 18th century, mass protests over taxes and food shortages had become commonplace. Many samurai fell on “hard times” and shifted into wage jobs for merchants. Japan was forced to abandon its seclusion policy as Western intrusions increased in the 19th century.

Laura Jane Mellencamp in Japan

In the aftermath of WWII, we are asked to humbly question our own moral identity as I did, having spent 3 days in Hiroshima. When does war ever allow individuals to cultivate inner peace? As I returned to the US and the current chaos on our college campuses, I believe in reflection and wonder what the future is presenting for the next generation.

It is interesting how history constantly repeats itself as change presents endings and new beginnings. Life is a courageous journey in accepting change so that nothing remains the same. The constant is that we all want the same thing individually, and we are all deeply aware of love. We all want to live in serenity and ease. We all want to cultivate a lifestyle of respect.

I am changing. Travel is offering me a gateway into going deeper into my practice, and it is changing. I accept that I want to achieve less and live more fully in grace.


Today, I am authoring my own healing and creating a story of excitement and adventure in embracing my truth. I am making an effort to reject the social pressures that grind daily as I accept my aging, my health, and my journey. I will claim that my singular soul is at peace with my existence and tasting that freedom in letting go of my outer identity as a business owner. I am putting out to the universe a siren call to expand my torch. I am inviting some new possibilities into my life.

Come October of 2024, I am questioning signing another three-year lease. I have the energy today to continue, and yet, is that the wise choice? I have carried this sweet studio into a new time and feel new energy will only create better outcomes. Life presents more obstacles for me when I run a business at 70, and I want to pass on the legacy of Yoga Among Friends. I want to teach and create new venues to share my years of wisdom, yet my multi-tasking days of keeping my adrenaline state are asking me to let go. I can taste the intrinsic sacred need to go deeper and not be distracted by the multi-tasking of being a business owner.

I desire to carry on the story of community to another inspiring soul who will breathe new life into this amazing home of healing. As a yoga therapist, I want to continue offering my service and teaching, but I want to do less.

When I arrived from California all those years ago, I knew that to teach and have a lifestyle of living my yoga, I needed to create a space. What a miracle life offers when we set those intentions. I am honored to live such a wonderful story and cultivate such soul relationships. I left a life in LA at 40 to arrive in the Midwest, not knowing anyone, and settled into the western suburbs when everyone said, “ You can’t make a living there.” I trusted my inner voice, which refused to follow the voice of doubt. Trusting in something greater, I put down roots.

Laura Jane Mellencamp talks new beginnings

Those roots have produced amazing fruit today, and I am inviting a new gardener to add to the vision. So much possibility awaits; I am trusting the voice again that after raising my beautiful daughter and seeing her launched into the world, I must let my other child expand into something more. Love must expand, and the light will continue.

We celebrated 26 years of the day-in and day-out commitment to living with these healing tools. I am inviting any ideas, thoughts, and dreams to be shared as we move into a new beginning. Courage to grow takes the willingness to let go and allow the trust to unfold. I only know that there is cause and effect to everything. My decision is not to close but to expand; hopefully, this siren call will be heard. May is blooming with new life (see the wonderful workshops, series classes, and the return of our community class), and I feel excited about our possibilities.

Many blessings,

Laura Jane

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Renewing and Restoring

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Renewing and Restoring

April comes around too quickly. How can another year have passed, and now we are completing 26 years? I am not sure how a practice of commitment started, but as I move forward this month and begin another lap around the sun, I am asking for help. The community needs students and teachers to sustain the foundation of these teachings. Cultivating when the world is hurting has been difficult, and attention to daily living has become challenging.

I know that I need to take a rest and restore. As much as I adore creating venues for teachings, travel, and training, I long to step back and soak in the experience of being present. I am taking a sabbatical this month and letting my identity as a teacher, business owner, mother, and wife not be my daily commitment. Sometimes, I feel getting our new puppy this past summer pushed me over to a new level of surrender. I want to step back, be invisible, and be the observer. As the witness, I long to soak in the gifts of the past 26 years.

I am going to embark on my adventure to Japan. The month of April will be the month I unplug from my daily duties, and I can be a tourist and follow whoever is holding the flag! Let someone take over the details. I will follow wherever and whatever as I explore the country without having to organize anything. I am fortunate and strong enough to travel in a time of chaos and despair. I am thankful for this gift as I approach 70.

The last time I traveled for this long was to complete my internship in yoga therapy in Chennai, India. I spent a month there in 2011 and 2012. The community supported this endeavor, and I was able to enjoy the last 12 years enjoying my role as a yoga therapist, offering the tools of yoga one-on-one. I’m grateful for the work, and now I am giving myself the gift of time and space to let life unfold as I nourish my soul.

This month, we have wonderful workshops and classes as we continue to inspire the deeper practices of yoga. Please continue to support us, and I’ll be back in May. Please take this month to honor Mother Earth and feel the pulse of change as a restructure of our collective humanity. Community-based in the heart of healing.

Much love,

Laura Jane

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Spring, the Season of Awakening

Spring, the Season of Awakening

The greatest work you can do in this world begins inside you.
Do you wish to change the world? Then change the inner condition inside yourself.
Do you wish to change the culture? Change your ways.
Want a healthier society? Change your mind.
World peace? Peace your inner world. Action arising from right thought.
If you want more kindness, practice being kind to yourself.

The path of yoga is a journey inward. If you pause, listen to the sounds around you, not the noise in your head, but the actual living sounds around you. Take in a breath, inhale, pause, exhale, pause. Observe the effects of just being aware of the breath. Notice the sounds and the sensations that are your actual aliveness.

It’s not so easy to let go of fixing or doing. Witness the awkward experience of being present. Life is movement, and the mind roams, looking for itself to be seen. It will never find itself until it moves inwards and rests in the space of the heart. Feel the willingness to let go of tension in gripping onto identity. Be invisible and trust the expanded feeling of aliveness just to be enough. This commitment to life is different than the desire to get life.

How can you get love, do love when you are love? The little mind will never let us feel this thought. It is not the intellect that knows this sacred path to actually being loved. Our intrinsic nature is this love, compassion and kindness. It is not until the mind can rest in its nature and let go of the need to attach to its identity. In a space of profound protection, we fall in love with our soul’s divine light of love. This must be experienced, and each of us will experience it in our own unique way of expression. We are all originals, unique souls within the ocean of humanity.

My passion arises in being the inspiration for healing the pain of being hostage to the wrong thought. The thought of self-loathing is taught so well. The coping mechanism to numb and distract only adds to the frustration of loneliness from the separation of listening to the inner voice. Hate is so easy to learn.

Purify the waters of your inner landscape and drink in the pure sweetness of this flowing river. This path is the way to the heart of loving. Clear the ocean that is your soul and allow the beauty of living in the world to be your legacy. If just for today, choose to come inward and breathe into your heart and exhale the light of love through the heart. If you want to change the world, as Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world”.

March is the month of great change as we move into the season of Spring. The light changes, nature blooms, and the animal kingdom awakens. I am being inspired to listen deeply, and my invisible work is to continue to go deeper into my soul. Life presents new opportunities to learn. Celebrating new beginnings as the spring opens to possibilities.

Let us continue our commitment to the journey inward and shine brightly as collective humanity demands our peaceful contribution.

In light and love,

Laura Jane