As we enter the week of the summer solstice, when we receive the most daylight all year, we are called by nature to presence this moment on the planet as a time of intense heat, activity and growth. The season of summer relates to the element of fire in the indigenous medicine wheel of life. The warmth of the sun is not only helping us to grow food, but spurring activity. It is time when many of us are leveraging the good weather to come together more in community.
Read MoreThe idea of surrender can have a negative connotation in Western culture and can even be synonymous with defeat, failure, or giving up your power. Standard English dictionary definitions of the word surrender reinforce this idea by describing it as something done “by demand” and “under duress.”
Thankfully, yoga philosophy offers a more positive version of surrender, that of trusting in and being of service to something much greater than yourself.
Read MoreAs our yoga practice deepens our hearts open and our awareness expands to more fully feel and understand the burdens of others and awaken to the reality that we are all connected. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said "no one is free until we are all free." This idea, profound in its simplicity, finds company among famous aphorisms in the great religious and spiritual teachings throughout time. The biblical command says to "love your neighbor as yourself.” Sutra 2.25 from The Yoga Sutras says that liberation of the seer is the result of the dis-association of the seer and the seen, with the disappearance of ignorance.
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