The cultivation and expansion of needs is the antithesis of wisdom.
It is also the antithesis of freedom and peace.
Every increase in needs tends to increase one's dependence
on outside forces over which one cannot have control,
and therefore increases existential fear.
Only by a reduction of needs can one promote
a genuine reduction in those tensions which
are the ultimate causes of strife and war.
—E.F. Schumacher
This from a British economist
full of revolutionary ideas back
in the seventies. Prescient words
for us to consider in this,
our technological age of more.
Schumacher had a philosophical
bent towards small, simple, and
sustainable. The older I grow,
the wiser these ideas feel. Not
only to my mind, but to my body.
Yoga is a practice you can do
your life long, no matter your
physical state. Requires no
fancy equipment or attire. (It was
only in the 1980's that the sticky mat was born.)
As long as you have breath and
awareness, that is enough.
Simple and sustainable.
It's absolutely true that
the less we need, the less we
seek to control, and the less
tension in our nervous systems.
Ah, sweet exhale.
Keep it simple, yogi.
However you can.
On and off the mat.
love in my East Nashville hood
I was walking home from the grocery store
weighed down with a bag on either shoulder
trying to build bone strength with my
prosaic form of neighborhood rucking,
worrying over the countless people in
the Middle East in jeopardy and chaos.
I sent out some wishes for peace and
some sort of comfort or steadiness to
those who have no idea what may be
about to rain down on their heads.
I felt grateful for the safety I felt and saw
around me, a cheery dude in a Bjorn
Borg headband and braids walking
barefoot down the 14th Avenue sidewalk,
pride flags flying from porches, hobbled
together forts for messy kids in front yards.
There's a house on Shelby Street that
chalks up words of support every month
or so. Sometimes it feels like those
messages keep us going until the next
rain shower washes them away. But a
new message will appear soon.
It always does.
We need to keep showing up for each
other just like this. Not taking for granted
the safety and privilege we have: bright
chalk colors, space and freedom to
exhort and support each other. Maybe
the best we can do is to be fully present
and grateful in our own small worlds,
generate as much light as we possibly
can far outwards with fervent wishes
and prayers for others to be safe.
I really believe good heart work
like this can be done in a full bodied
way on your own yoga mat.
The Amish love the Sunshine and Shadow quilt pattern. It shows two sides--the dark and light, spirit and form--and the challenge of bringing the two into a larger unity. It's not a choice between extremes: conformity or freedom, discipline or imagination, acceptance or doubt, humility or a raging ego. It's a balancing act that includes opposites. — Sue Bender
I learned that the sunshine & shadow
pattern is an arrangement of small
squares forming circular rings of
diamonds with bright colors on dark
backgrounds to represent the Amish
belief in balance and harmony.
Yet another quality of the Amish lifestyle
we would do well to imitate methinks.
I've never wanted to live a middling sort
of existence without feeling into the outer
edges. But when I find myself marooned
too far towards the dark or the light,
my system seems to always draw
me back towards a balance.
It's an interesting exercise to observe
your life experience in a week as it edges
towards one end of the dial or the other.
Not so much to judge but to notice.
Doing so may slow you down into greater
awareness, and ultimately appreciation.
Try it, yogi.
See you on the mat.
"If you’re not doing regular muscular contractions,
these metabolic switches switch off. That’s when
we get higher levels of glucose in the blood,
higher cholesterol in the blood, and our blood
pressure isn’t as well regulated."
-Dr. Bailey from the National Health Service in the U.K.
You know that sitting all day long
is a wretched idea. Your joints and
spine complain, no? Understanding
the above physiological truths only
bolsters the onus to move.
We need muscles to contract
in order for our metabolism
to get moving and keep all our
systems functioning properly.
But what to do if you're tethered
to a computer for work?
Get up every hour or so to walk
around, fetch a glass of water,
or even do a little yoga in your
chair. Better yet, stand up, open
your front body expanding your
chest, ladder reach to the sky,
catch a tabletop with your
fingertips and walk back into
a tractioned forward fold.
There, that's better.
Come to yoga practice
for a full dose of good
movement medicine!
Fearlessness is expressed
in the timeless gesture of
the upheld naked palm
indicating the absence
of weapons and a readiness
to meet all that arises.
-Wendy Johnson
Don't you notice the energetic
difference in yoga when we have
hands facing downwards in
our laps and when we place
upturned palms quite specifically?
It's a somatic signal to the body.
I'm here, defenseless, open,
receptive. I found myself using
this gesture the other day when
in a heated discussion. I could
feel myself hardening up,
closing down, turning away, and
I wanted to stop myself in my
habitual track. It worked. Two
subtly upturned palms in my lap
served as a signal to my nervous
system. I was able to turn the dial
down and with it my protective
defenses. I impressed myself.
Man, I love when yoga shows
up in my normal life.
That's kind of the whole point,
isn't it? Our yoga practice helping
us live more purposefully off the mat.
Always learning. . . . .
you too, I hope.
See you on the yoga mat this week.
[an excerpt from David Whyte's poem Start Close In]
Often what I think is purely
my own bright expectation for
how my body should work or
what my life should look like,
is unconsciously based upon
what I see around me.
What I'd like to match or
even exceed in others.
Am I keeping up?
How am I aging?
And even then, ugh,
judging the fact I'm judging.
Whyte's pungent phrase
"someone else's heroics"
was a wakeup call for me.
No one else has my genetic
makeup, my particular priorities,
my emotional woundings,
my crazy life experience
that c r e a t e d my present
physiological state. A state that
is thankfully never fixed in time
but longing to shift and morph
as I commune with it.
Phew. That small detail is
important to remember.
So, start close in.
With your own inner knowing.
Wherever, whatever you're beginning.
Most especially at the start
of your yoga practice,
which I hope you'll share
with me this week.
Robert Frost has a way
-simple, suggestive, clear.
Many of us are presently
covered by snow,
vexed by ice,
and some without power.
Life can feel real hard, real fast.
Sometimes a poem can help.
Or the flash of a red cardinal.
Or allowing the bright beauty
of the cruel ice encasing
every branch or leaf.
Sending warmth and love
to everyone who needs it
just now.
I hope to see you for yoga
this week, somehow.
It's a yoga quiz.
Which is the best cobra?
hint:
One is extending her lower back
by grounding through strong legs
with smart arm alignment.
The other is collapsing into her
shoulders and crunching her
lower back while thinking about
a new color of lip gloss.
Low backs do NOT
appreciate a lazy cobra.
Be smart & purposeful in your pose.
Here are some tips:
- elbows draw back by sides
-shoulder blades draw down the back
- neck long and free
- breastbone draws towards chin
- thighs engage strongly
- tailbone lengthens towards back of knees
-tops of feet press down firmly,
especially pinky side because this
internally rotates legs which opens
the sacrum creating so much
happy space in your lower back
Come make like a (smart) snake
on the yoga mat this week.
-list from the inestimable Kate Bowler
Here's an idea.
Grab a pencil (remember those?)
and a scrap piece of paper.
Make your own tiny list.
Stick it up somewhere for awhile
so you can see & remember.
A small conversation with
your own witty, wise self.
I hope yoga proves to be
an IN for your January.
I'll be looking for you on the mat.
Carmen (1884) Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Perhaps our purpose has less to do with becoming someone new, and more to do with inhabiting this life more fully—with an open, sensitive heart, rooted in presence, and willing to meet both beauty and sorrow without turning away.
-Matt Licata
Maybe the "new year-new you!"
fury has already ebbed for you.
Or maybe you never fall for it anyway.
I benefit from being reminded:
there's no need to recreate myself.
What's wise and worthy about myself
has been there all along. Sometimes
it just gets lost under all my incessant,
rather impressive efforting.
Like piles of coats on top of a little gem.
You know, ticking off tasks, aspirations,
and the hard noise of living my best life.
This innate wisdom and worth waits inside
for me to get quiet and open enough
to hear it, learn from it, work with it,
nurture it into bloom.
So I can stand steady, interested, able
to meet what comes, whether I fall or rise,
whether the world around me feels safe or
at the edge of chaos, loose from my influence.
A steady yoga practice helps, yogis.
Heck, this is yoga.
Open, sensitive, and rooted.
We're ready for you, 2026.