When structure brings freedom

Structure creates freedom. I’ve seen this idea show up in several different places this week. It’s something I’ve talked about before, but it seems especially relevant right now. I have a love/hate relationship with structure. I hate to have my time scheduled rigidly by someone else— work, mostly— but at the same time, a day...

Practice makes practice.

I first started yoga and meditation practices regularly when I was in Varanasi, India, the year after high school. I was 18. I know how cliched that sounds, but it's true. It was just days after 9/11. It was bizarre and surreal to be both physically removed from the familiar and to have my very...

this time of year. . .

This time of year, I see a lot of patients who just. . . don't feel good. Do i have mono? they ask, is it my thyroid? is there something wrong with my stomach? and yes, a few folks do have something going on, but most of us (yes, us) don't need a medical diagnosis...

be honest.

Going into a season of giving and consuming, and before we get to the part where we make grand plans about how to better ourselves, I have a mantra to ponder: BE HONEST. I don’t mean destroy the filter in your brain that tells you it might not be a good idea to say something. I...

So I went to a yoga weekend workshop.

This past weekend, I went back to Tucson to go to a yoga workshop with my sister. Yoga, the way most people do it here, is asana, a physical practice— take your body through a series of shapes and poses, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. Pay attention to breath, focus on your body. And now more...

Let’s talk yoga!

I practice yoga pretty much every day. And since I moved to Portland, one of my favorite spots is Woodlawn Yoga, which is in my neighborhood and a short walk away. It gives me a great home base where I can always drop in even if I decide at the last second that I want...