Chop Wood, Carry Water

Sit quietly.
Refuse the rush, the hectic pace that distracts your heart’s desire.
The desire to come home.
Breathe into THIS, this space that is your True Self.
Light illuminating from the heart. Shine bright the star, the moral compass of love.
Present in this.
Alive with vibrant joy in the midst of sadness. Grateful clarity guides me inward and gives me the courage to slip into the space that awaits my sound. The voice is yours.
The essence of touch supports me forward. Leap into the new beginnings and just say, “YES”.

I found this in one of my many journals. If someone asks me what twenty-five years of living looks like for me, this is it. It’s a constant reminder of daily practice to connect to the source. I am forever humbled by living a path of yoga teachings. I cannot claim to get it perfect, only that I followed a deeper calling, my dharma.

The Buddha is asked what life is before enlightenment, and the reply is, “Chop wood, carry water.” He is asked what life is after enlightenment, and the reply is, “Chop wood, carry water.” It means the day in and day out of simply living the routine tasks of life. The everyday moments that lead us forward. The daily making of the bed, cleaning the dishes, watering the plants. Each day brushing our teeth.

Within the daily task, the awareness of my attitude is the commitment to finding joy in the ordinary. How I walk up those stairs of the yoga center, how I use the many hours of carting the toilet paper from Costco with an attitude of gratitude, and how schlepping yoga mats from one place to another and teaching all these years is just my blessing. Life becomes a constant ritual of motion that one day marks a crazy number of years.

Maintaining a yoga center is not something my ego would have leaped into without the greater desire to host a community and share the depth of the yoga teachings. The love and support of our teachers and our students forever humbles me. Thank you. This is our beginning as we move into the next phase of our existence.

The event held last week was a tribute to so many. We introduced our nonprofit, Sanga Space, and all the funds raised from the auction will go to offering programs for those in need and creating scholarships for future teacher training programs. The need for mental health is greater than ever. We are committed to serving a population in need and hope to ease the financial obstacles.

As we move into this beginning, yoga therapy tools are needed more than ever to help with the merging acceptance that science is finally catching up to the spiritual. We need healing of the entire system. We are offering new classes this month with some amazing teachers willing to drive from distant areas to be a part of our community. We encourage you to leap into your passion to thrive and continue going deeper into the practice by exploring one or more of these.

We are collectively healing the greater world of humanity. It is a daily acceptance that in order to see the world shift, we must be able to shift our perspectives. Pain is real and yet it is a gateway to asking for help. Let us at Yoga Among Friends be a safe place to heal.

Learn more about our new classes and sign up here.

Love and light,

Laura Jane

25 Years of Joy Hunting

“No creature can live without joy, and every single moment of life is an active-seeking of a greater joy. If this motive force is removed from life, the entire existence tumbles down and permanently comes to a halt. The movement of life is continued and kept up by the dynamism of this joy-hunting “.

—THE TAITTRIRYA, UPANISHAD

As my teacher would share, “none can breathe on the face of the globe and continue to live if the source of all joy was not there in his heart." That all joys we gain in the world are flashes of the brilliance of the True Self. When the mental agitations are calmed through the fleeting enjoyment of the sense objects.

When the activities of the mind can come into a stable state of balance, these experiences open the container to the inner qualities of calm, peacefulness, and contentment. This pure essence of our nature is revealed in the experience, which allows for the possibility. A living experience of feeling the expansion in our collective hearts. Humanity is kind, gentle, and forgiving. Accept being human with the vulnerability of loving the divine within us so deeply.

I am not speaking of the attachment to the ego mind’s need for pleasure nor the resistance to what it does not like. I am not speaking of the need to get, strive, or grasp at “happiness” but the profound falling in love with that which is not tangible nor visible. The depth of this all-pervasive quality of love is the stable support of being able to rest that roaming mind in that which is greater than any material-changing world.

It takes great effort to move into a consistent practice and experience the effortless ease of being present to the Self. To be fearless in shifting the patterns of doubt, worry and anger and bring light into the heart of this truth. We are this sweetness of loving, compassionate kindness in our intrinsic nature. How wonderful to desire this truth which is healing and sustaining!

My favorite teacher, Joseph Campbell, whom I have embraced for years, would say that “life is the joyful participation in the sorrows of the world:”

• To be able to sustain a loving mind in the midst of perpetual obstacles where fear and anger are so prevalent.

• To be able to sit in my own sadness and grief and sustain my contentment to be alive.

• To be grateful that I am able to willing be of service in love.

• To share the tools of my years of practice, not for my need to be seen, but in the co-creation with the Great Source.

• To understand that I am more than my little mind’s need to control the constant thoughts.

• To release the tension of gripping and resisting the constant fluctuation of my mind.

• To maintain the stillness as I allow the witness to just observe the flow of this panic sensitivity.

• To desire to live fully in the trust that humanity is healing as we witness the destruction of the old patterns and move forward through the heart.

I know for many, this sounds so “Pollyanna” and naive. It takes a great desire to move away from all the habits of the mind wanting just to fix the outer world. Changing the attention of the mind from the sensory to bringing the intention with attention inwards becomes the path of yoga. It takes courage to shift the habits of a learned mind.

I always say, “I go kicking and screaming into my life.” I would never be teaching if my little mind was the boss! I am always humbled by the ardent effort of being at Yoga Among Friends daily for the past 25 years. I am always the student as I share these words.

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We are celebrating the journey.

For 25 years, it has been a path of joy and at times deep sorrow. The roots need to be watered everyday, and we must share the fruit. We are grateful to be partnering (and sharing the fruit) with Sangha Space, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit volunteer-run organization which supports mental health initiatives through community enrichment programs. Sangha Space develops, implements, and provides community-based art and yoga programming while giving opportunities for equal access to these programs that enrich the mind + body connection.

Earth Day seems like a great day to throw a party and bring the Yoga Among Friends community together to celebrate our 25 YEARS of YOGA AMONG FRIENDS IN DOWNERS GROVE!

Join us Saturday, April 22nd, from 6-9pm. At this family-friendly event, there will be live music by the Chicken Dolphin band, a community potluck, and raffle/auction items to bid on, sponsored by Sangha Space. 

In addition, I’ll be teaching 2 special community classes in celebration of our anniversary:

• Friday, April 21, 9:30-10:45am, 25th Anniversary Community Class–Studio & Zoom. This is my regular Friday Vinyasa Flow class that I am gifting.

• Sunday, April 23, 11am-12:15pm, 25th Anniversary Community Class–Studio & Zoom. This class will be a gentle asana practice leading into meditation.

These classes are free to the public, but you must register online in advance; no drop-ins. With our limited studio space, we kindly ask that you only register for one class so that others can attend.

These special events are our way of saying “thank you” and showing appreciation for the vast community that has helped sustain our commitment to healing and thriving over the past 25 years. In a world struggling to seek balance, we are forever grateful for the loving community we have created. Joy is an inside job, and nature sustains the entire system in purifying the patterns of worry, doubt, and fear. Let us continue moving forward and welcome in the love of living our yoga, JOYOUSLY.

Read more about our 25th Anniversary Weekend Celebration

With love and light,

Laura Jane

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*All proceeds from the raffle, auction and 50/50 split-the-pot will benefit Sangha Space’s community scholarships for programming at Yoga Among Friends

*Sangha Space, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit volunteer-run organization, develops and implements community-based art and yoga programming while giving opportunities for equal access to programs that enrich the mind + body connection. They are committed to nourishing and integrating into the communities in which they serve and to providing programming free to all participants. Sangha Space believes these opportunities provide an alternative path for children & families to learn, care & nurture themselves for a lifetime. Sangha Space is currently housed out of two locations (Chicago, IL and Downers Grove, IL) with planned expansion in 2024.

Restful Birthing of Spring

If you want to heal the world, slow down. I call it living in the “Pace of Grace.”

In the frenetic daily rushing, you outrun your own spirit. Our poor heartbeats cannot catch up to the pace of a thirsty mind lost in survival. The world is spinning even faster, and technology has moved us into overwhelming fear. The fear of not being enough, not having enough, and not being able to catch a breath.

Our infrastructures are breaking apart, busyness is a cultural disease, and we believe the voice that says, “you don’t have time to rest”. If you lose your health, you will find more than enough time.

Everything in our life is a matter of care and priority. We choose what to find time for. Closing your eyes and going inside with a long exhale breath will release tension, even for a few seconds.

Can you imagine living a life of sustained ease and being able to rest that chattering, abusive mind? It takes a commitment to the practice of asking yourself, “What nourishes me?” To be willing to drop the armor of our learned habits of distraction and create a sacred ceremony birthing your new life. Not physically, if your mind still struggles to rest. Your nerves are still frayed. Your spirit is still weary with worry.

It’s honoring renewal, letting go of the guilt and shame of how vital rest is for gathering your soul. Make these things your lifestyle: retreat, respite, solitude, and contemplation. Let your mind fall in love with the ease of the breath as you delink from all the adrenaline tasks of striving, doing, and getting.

Our constant task master creates an existence that is harming our health. Embrace doing less as a human right; exhaustion is not a joyous way to live your miraculous life. We are human beings, and nourishing the soul sustains all life.

The world is suffering from the breakdown of our physical bodies, and millions struggle to rest. Let us gather the integrity of a new foundation, and maybe our best life will be restful. Feel the sweet pace of our gentle kinder voice, which says, “I am enough. I do more than enough as my light, love, and existence are valuable.” I rest in this truth and feel the beauty of an open nourished heart.

If we want to heal the world, stay still, and listen to the birds this Spring. Notice the buds, the small plant growth pushing through the earth, the longer daylight, and the sweet scent of birth. March is the month of Spring and a time to celebrate all life. Please honor your sweet soul.

with love and light,

Laura Jane