I am accustomed to being busy.  I enjoy being busy.  I enjoy creating a new workshop that will assist participants in improving their well-being. I enjoy tweaking an existing workshop to fit a particular audience.   I enjoy planning lessons for my kid and adult yoga classes.  I enjoy  preparing for my clients.  I enjoy writing blog posts.  I really enjoy my work, for to me, it is play.  But, I enjoy non-work activities too like rearranging and redecorating my home, raking the piles and piles of leaves in the fall (well most of the time), and spending quiet time in sadhana (my personal practice).  I am sure I missed some things but the fact of the matter is I am a busy person, and I enjoy it.

Happy New Year to you!  It’s hard to believe that 2011 has passed and 2012 is now here bringing the promise of all goodness to each of us.  With this new beginning comes an opportunity to commit to what’s important – health, wellness, family, and having a balanced life.  You can reinforce that intention by taking action, by doing the things that have a positive impact on your commitment.  Participating in YogaHub’s Virtual World Yoga Conference,“Yoga, Meditation and the Philosopher’s Stone,” a 5-day event held on February 7-11, 2012, is one way to build momentum for your intention.  Join me.

The holiday season is in full swing again.  Christmas ads are on the TV, the Sunday paper has more sales flyers than news, and children are wound-up, anxiously anticipating Christmas morning and all of the ‘must-have’ gifts they will be receiving from Santa, family, and friends.  Young and old alike are caught-up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.  It’s hard to remain relaxed when the media is pushing ads at us encouraging us to ‘catch the Christmas spirit’ by joining the Christmas rush. This tends to create an inner climate that is on edge, wired just like our outer world is this time of year.  The trick is to stay calm inside even though the world around us is in high gear.

So, you are probably wondering what red wine, chocolate, and popcorn have to do with each other?  It’s a crazy combination for sure but not so when you find yourself in survival mode after the Nor’ Easter that blew through New England dumping a foot of snow in southern New Hampshire where I live on October 29th (Such an event is unheard of this time of year.).   There was absolutely nothing one could do but accept the storm, surrender to it, and sit tight until it finished its blustery visit.  And blustery it was!

Just being, that is just what I am doing right now.  (That is, before I started writing this post.)  Just being . . . . .  Why?   Because I have come down with a nasty cold, and quite honestly, that is all that I can manage to do today.  Just be.

It’s that time of year again.  Teachers are preparing their classrooms for their new students, parents are taking their children shopping for school supplies and back to school clothing (last years jeans have become high waters), and administrators are preparing pre-school meetings for staff and the arrival of their students.  There is excitement, anticipation, and for some, a bit of uneasiness.

Is there really such a thing as a peaceable classroom?  Well, yes, there are peaceable classrooms, and  I think that there can be peaceable classrooms.  So what does it take to create such a place?  It takes a nurturing and supportive environment, teachers who are able to manage their own state-of-being, and children who, with or without adult assistance, are able to manage their state-of-being as well.

OM, OM, OM, OM, OM, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva!  (Click the link below to hear the chant.)

Sandy’s Om chant

I can’t get this chant out of my mind.  Sudha/Carolyn Lundeen and Devarshi/Steven Hartman, my Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training teachers, taught us this chant the first two weeks of our training in April, and I kept chanting it on my way home after the completion of my trainng in June. That was three hours of chanting, and I’m still chanting it!  You might be wondering why?