Where in the world is Laura? SYTAR and the Yoga Therapy Summit

I was honored last month to be able to attend the International Association of Yoga Therapy's annual symposium in Newport, CA.

I was so excited to return to the West Coast as a speaker and presented my story of creating an intention and living a commitment to teaching and working in the holistic healing world of yoga therapy.

I have always called myself a Yoga Therapist and always preferred the heart-to-heart connection of meeting students one-on-one to refine the chatter of misdirected thoughts that no longer serve the well being of the soul.

Having left LA in the 90s, I decided to create a life in the Midwest as a yoga teacher.

People were quite surprised that I would leave sunny and beautiful southern California for what I now call the “Land of Ugly” (from Nov. to April).

Yes, I too question how and why I ended up in Downers Grove, but I headed my inner voice and moved into the great unknown.

Today I am so proud of our profession.

I presented at the Symposium On Yoga Therapy and Research (SYTAR) on how I have witnessed the shift in mental health to return to the somatic tools of experiencing the physical breath to relieve the anxiety in the system, to restore energy in the mind that is exhausted, and to remove the fear of depression with actual yoga practices. 

I also spoke on the valuable way the medical model is now referring their clients and the ways yoga is moving into holistic health as tools for both physical and mental heath.

Yoga Therapists are finding greater opportunities to work along side mainstream health care providers to provide life changing solutions and bill health insurance for their services.

This fall I am helping to produce, The Yoga Therapy Summit, where for the first time, many of the most respected teachers in the Krisnamacharya lineage are coming together to present in one place. 

The event is open to all students, teachers, therapists and any health providers that might want to learn more about how yoga works for life changing health and healing on all layers of the mind, body, and soul. 

The event is being held here in Oak Brook, IL. 

Please consider attending as this is a fantastic opportunity to learn from some of the best in the field of yoga.

 Click for more information on the summit and to register.

Yoga is finally coming back to its true purpose of being a pathway to healing.

It coaxes the body to be as strong and flexible as possible as it removes the tension and pain in the joints and spine as well as alleviates the stresses of the mind. 

I knew in the early 80’s when I started this journey that there was a greater purpose in healing and I am grateful I listened to that inner voice that just said, "DO IT!" 

For me, that meant coming to the Midwest and today, YAF is a center of healing compassion for all that want to claim a better life of feeling the glow of one’s own aliveness!

Enjoy each day with love and light,
Laura Jane

God's Fool

Laura Jane

It's hard to believe that spring has once again come around to greet us. “God’s Fool” is sometimes the message I get when I remember opening Yoga Among Friends on April Fool’s Day in 1998.  I somehow question how our little community has continued thriving and enjoying 19 years of being a steady home of yoga for so many wonderful souls.

The community at YAF is why we are still here in a landscape that keeps changing. With so many alternative places to practice and families moving away. Yet, we are a constant comfort for so many that walk through our door with a sigh and a smile, thanking us for being “authentic” and “real”.  I guess our lack of corporate funding gives us a pleasant throwback to what it feels like to be original.

When our doors opened in 1998, there were no yoga centers anywhere in the suburbs. No one understood that we would be here for “drop-in” classes when there is no guarantee that anyone would actually show up. As a yoga teacher, I always shared that our commitment is to the teachings, not how many students show up to join in. A concept that the standard business model would not encourage! Yes, I always say I am not a business but a service! And teaching yoga is not a career path but a deeper calling of the soul.

Somehow in the last twenty years we have survived the hot yoga centers, the fitness spin centers and the lack of a sign that allows anyone to really know we still exist. We have continued to shine because of you, the students, and of course the amazing teachers that have given their love and energy to inspire and motivate the lifestyle of living with compassion and kindness and what it means to be a friend. To share in conversation, to hug and to be able to listen when silence is needed as a space of comfort.

In 2018, we will celebrating 20 years. In celebration of this milestone, we are putting together a book on the importance of community and how the teachings of yoga inspire to cultivate compassionate kindness in a busy, distracted world. That true commitment is living mindfully with open hearts.  We would love to hear from our students as we collaborate on the joint endeavor in celebrating you and YAF.

We are blessed as move into this new season and hope that you continue to practice with us both on and off the mat. Tell your friends about our sweet home; and if so inspired, please email us with a story or testimonial about how YAF (or about your teacher or a friendship that developed) over the years. Share a story that might have happened on one of our many retreats or venues.

Thank you from all of us as we celebrate this turn around the sun and enjoy each day with love and light,
Laura Jane

Are we disciples of fear or of wholeness and love?

Life is filled with paradox today as I struggle to be a director of a yoga center, a teacher, a spiritual aspirant of the teachings of love while struggling to balance my personal relationships and roles as a wife and a mother.

Modern life today can be ruthless in the tensions it asks us to reconcile in our hearts and in our living. In the last year, I have seen the opposites of bias opinion play out in all sorts of angry confused moods. Friends are losing the ability to communicate by not listening. Listening is a most valuable tool of being human.

In the integration of such tensions, taking time to listen deep in our bodies is the great elixir. Our bodies understand such tensions, if only we don’t live too fast. Slowing down is the key. We need to give our minds a rest, to take time with ourselves to meet the beloved in our hearts. "Slow down" is the great cry coming from our souls.

It takes courage to change the habit of distraction and turn off the Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. The paradox here is not necessarily doing less, but rather it is the place where our doing comes from.

Are we the disciples of fear or of wholeness and love? Finding time for our souls is so precious. If I lose the sense of this inner being in myself, I cannot be the teacher of love in my work or my life. I cannot make a wise choice of the deeper intelligence.

This month delink from the noise in your mind and link into self nourishing by committing to being courageous in silence. Ask yourself, "is this the wisest choice of the highest good or my need to defend an ideology of fear?" Slow down, go inward and remember life is a blessing and love is the highest call.