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

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

Spinning at the Pace of Grace

Another spin around the sun and the beginning of a new year. I am never a fan of any resolutions, which is just another “to-do list“ for expectations to disappoint. It’s just another way to set up the mind to try and reach an outcome that implies where I am is “NOT good enough.” This is my little mind’s constant longing and thinking that when I get there, I might love myself.

Starting now, starting at this moment, I am enough. What if, at this moment, all is good and all is right and enough? Well, my little voice will never believe that and answer in its critical way, ”It's horrible out there! Look at all the fighting; look at all the pain, suffering, and grief. How can you just sit and breathe into that mess?”

Yes, the outer world is spinning right now, but it has been spinning for millions of years. My chatter of getting caught up in thinking how terrible life is might not be the best choice of my precious time. What if I find a focus for one moment to just sit in the awkwardness of uncertainty and feel my heartbeat? What if I place my hands on my heart and say thank you?

I’m actually experiencing the present time. In this moment, I can focus on the rhythm of living in what I call “the Pace of Grace.” What if my intention this year is to BE the Pace of Grace and live in a way that I can share this quality of consciousness? To slow down and say “hello” to my true self. To be kinder by simply observing my heart is vulnerable and hurting at times.

I want to share my not knowing with confidence and accept that I am enough at this moment. I am enough in my confusion, in my messiness, in my aging body, in my grief, and at the same time, in my profound sense of joy for being alive through it all. I want to celebrate this life and share whatever wisdom of words will heal another broken heart.

Courage is not the absence of fear; it is embracing the fear. Choosing not to feed it but to inspire the possibility of another way. Anger is my reactive path to defend or protect my need to be safe. What if, this year, I choose to embrace the true protection that is always with me? The light. The love.

Embarking on this new year offers me each day a choice. I choose to practice healing and to speak with kindness to myself. What if I choose not to steal from myself with distractions and noise but to listen and become fit for the right action when it arises from my heart? I am going to practice and continue to live my yoga on and off the mat. I am content in this moment to just be grateful, and once again, I am excited for the journey. Let us all be willing to share our inner light as we celebrate this new beginning. Loving this path and not the destination!

With light and Love,

Laura Jane