Yoga is a State of Balance

The summer days bring in a blanket of thick, moist, warm air. We are experiencing humidity and heat, and yet, the loud vibration of the cicadas has passed as they return to the moist soil for another 17 years of sleep. We have arrived at the heart of summer, welcoming the month of July as the world keeps spinning with noise and distraction and the constant fluctuation of extremes.

Staying in a state of balance is mandatory now, as the mind’s habit is to wander into a summer haze of confusion. Our nervous systems will react quickly to bite. Being overheated physically can burn us out emotionally. We know that health is a state of mind; the mind’s nature is to roam, and we need a practice of focusing to slow down and stay present. In a world of rushing and doing, how do we cool the mind down and feel the ease of just being?  

 YAF is a place to come inward and share within a community the practice of feeling at ease. To cool the agitation of our outer distractions filled with our inner stories of constant struggle. Life is beautiful, and we need to experience the peaceful sanctuary of feeling safe. Our minds must be able to come inward to heal our physical and emotional bodies, and health is our abundance.  

We have to create space and time to practice. Coming into YAF offers us a safe harbor to get on the floor and breathe. Let the tensions of overthinking shift to an experience of feeling relaxed. Feel the calm that can wash over us as the physical body releases the tension. It takes practice, but this is what yoga offers us—a way to feel the experience of relaxation in being present.

We are not an exercise studio offering only a “workout in heat.” We are a healing studio that uses the practice of yoga to feel the sweet ease of letting the body become stronger as the mind releases its grip on the tensions in the body. The effect is a quality of peaceful coolness. I always say that until one experiences the words I say, they mean nothing. Yoga is all experiential.

How can I explain the feeling of riding a bicycle? I can describe it in terms that only make sense to the intellect, but actually taking that first moment of balance and ride is an individual moment, which is the intelligence feeling the effort. A teacher who inspires and nourishes the effect of feeling balanced is the magic.

Come and enjoy our wonderful teachers as they guide you inward through the brilliance that all yoga is restoring our balance. Yoga is a state of balance as our nervous systems are restored, and our hearts can open to the beauty of being alive. Healing is a state of balance.

View our class schedule and book your spot.

Love and light,

Laura Jane

Collective Healing Begins with the Retreat Inward

We’ve just returned from another wonderful journey, hosting our retreat in the incredible Dordogne region of France. During these turbulent times on Mother Earth, nothing is better for the soul than having an opportunity to practice going inward as we travel outward. Our mind is the only vehicle we have to make the discerning choices of how we perceive the outer world. This is a heightened opportunity for the community to unite with the highest intentions to heal hearts.

The entire practice for our retreat in France revolved around the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. A year ago, after his death, I decided we all needed to be at Plum Village, his created haven of loving-kindness. We spent the months prior to our arrival studying his words and creating for ourselves a place of inner smiles in the midst of the outer chaos.

As we traveled to the Dordogne region, we enjoyed staying in a lovely Chateau, enjoying our practices for sustaining our own inner peace as we realized the turmoil going on throughout the world. With the community of living from the inside out, we were the peace and love in the world. We were the love we wanted to see in the world.

We walked together in silence as we spent time sharing the beauty of Plum Village, which was twenty minutes away from our retreat center. Together, our full intention was to raise the consciousness of how we can serve when our inner loving hearts are not spinning in the external noise. The silence brought our attention to our hearts; we were able to smile and share the beauty of our souls.

Collectively, we must raise our vibration to be the love. We all want humanity to be safe, and together, we can be the living consciousness of divine intelligence. Our best transformational state is to serve the healing of all mankind.

I am so grateful for the grace unfolding and our joy to be able to be the light in the midst of these darker days and nights. Let us keep the light shining from our inner space. As a beacon of light around the world, we can build energy to transform anger into a more compassionate world. Despite the loud horrors of wars inflicting all the pain, we can hold the opposite as we are seeding new beginnings within collective practices. Please do not lose the joy of being alive now, and do not collude with doubt and fear. Beam out the smile. Breathe in and out of the heart and experience the gentle peace within. The bigger picture is to be the warrior of love; creating a better world begins within.

This November, I have been called to action to share these beautiful teachings of meditation as we all hold the vigil for the coming Solstice. I will be hosting evening practices into the soul as we share community for inner peace. These will not be asana-based classes, but the classes will include gentle movement as we begin the practice of coming inward with the mind linked to the breath. The intention is to turn the fire of anger and fear into the grace of light. It must be experienced as a collective intention to heal the outer world.

Please join me for each Wednesday night, Nov 22-Dec 20, from 6:15-7:30pm for Meditation Healing Circle. This five-week series will offer a deeper understanding of how to live our yoga. Developing compassion for all humanity starts with being kind to ourselves. Nourishing the soul is the key to living in peace.

“Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.”

— Thich Nahn Hahn

Love and light,

Laura Jane

Tears to Laughter: May We Embrace All of Life

Practicing being human starts each day as I accept my limits and then try to expand my horizons with compassion and forgiveness for my struggles.  My soul is fully alive as I embrace all the emotions of living large.

I was brought to my knees as I grieved with the world for the loss of 157 lives exploding into a fire in Iran and the tragic death of Kobe Bryant, his sweet young daughter, and nine other special beings. And my deep sadness wallowed over the passing of Ram Dass, my personal inspiration for 40 years.  

Life and death are constant, and yet we avoid the persistent fear that exists whenever we are reminded that our physical life is so uncertain. I am confronted with the fragile space between each breath as the conscious acceptance that death breaks our hearts open again and again. Being fully alive, I accept all of it and to offer up the deep moan, the bitter cry, and anger for the depth revealed in this empty space.

While collectively we embrace all the families, friends, communities, nations, and the entire world with loving empathy for the profound losses, each of us becomes greatly aware of our own mortality. Heartbreak is the gateway for initiation to the soul and to inspire a desire for greater effort into the journey of the heart. To become mindful in the present moment as this pain arises, as a purely human experience, is honoring the gift of being alive. Allowing the soul to cultivate deep compassion for all humanity is awakened through grief. To block, avoid, to push back on this sacred doorway only creates the mind to suffer more pain.

To inhabit the ease of releasing resistance is my daily practice. Falling into the grief allows for a profound unfolding of love to be revealed. I am fully in love when I embrace the impermanence of my life in this physical body. I’m only here for a short while in the grand picture of humanity and yet I have been blessed to live in this time and space with great self-love and to embrace it by nourishing my soul daily.

Death is also a part of living. I know this is not the conversation we invite nor is it a comfortable topic for the average day as we play our various, daily roles of identity and function. The mind resists any idea that brings up the shadow of our being. Stress will keep presenting itself in the moods of depression or anxiety and then the habits of hiding begin to form. All my additive behaviors flourish in secrets and tend to hide the light of my soul from shining.

However, I am choosing today and every day to embrace and celebrate the possibilities of miracles that are available in the presence of living fully in the NOW. I am waking to gratitude for this day and appreciate the sweet fragile spaces between each breath. I choose to live fully with each opportunity to tell someone that I care, I see you, and I am listening to your heart.

I must practice to remember that perfection is a curse of my need for love and not the ability to be the love. As I accept all of myself with all the faulty parts, I can embrace the wholeness for life. Only from this perspective can I see how to navigate the mystery with all its hardships and blessings. I choose to be in love with life with all the messy pieces. I practice forgiveness that I am human while knowing I have the ability to choose my thoughts, my words, and my actions.

Yoga is living in the presence of the mind’s attention to focus inward. It takes continuous practice to learn the tools that allow for the activities of one’s mind to become stable and focused in order to see clearly in navigating the various choices and challenges of daily life. Our many classes offer wonderful opportunities to continue thriving as the teachings must be experienced as a living transformation. Please check out all the upcoming workshops and classes we are proud to present!

May you be led forward for the highest good of all as you go about your crazy day filled with great joy!

With love and light,

Laura Jane