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Want to change your habits? Yoga practitioners commonly set a heartfelt intention, or sankalpa, to promote positive change. Want to push your practice further? Take up a purascharana.

For beginners, a purascharana might be a commitment to the practice of mantra meditation every day for a week. Your individual practice might vary; a reasonable goal the first month might be to sit for anywhere between 15 to 30 minutes each time you mediate.

To prepare for any meditation practice, examine your sitting posture and props. Allow yourself the freedom to experiment. Some meditators find it useful to cultivate a sacred space, or use a mala to focus the mind. These practices support healthier habits—and promote well-being—within yourself and the world.

Yoga practitioners share a common bond. It might sometimes seem limited to the brand of chai we drink, the mats we buy, the devotional music we do or don’t like—even the style of yoga pants we insist on wearing. But, at best, a strong sense of community—and a feeling of gratitude for the teachings—inspires and empowers yoga practitioners and teachers throughout the world to come together and make things happen.

This week is typically when family and friends gather together to give thanks and to share their abundance—of love, time, and food—with one another.  So how best to do that? Here are three ways we’ve come up with at Yoga International.

Practice asteya or non-stealing, the third yama from the Yoga Sutra. How does not stealing from someone teach us how to show gratitude? Glad you asked. Irena Petryszak has some thoughts on the subject here.

Practice mindful eating. Before digging into your next big meal, spend 15 seconds doing nothing. Simply pause, close your eyes, and take a few full breaths. This not only helps you overcome the urge to eat everything in sight—it’s Thanksgiving dinner after all—but it also helps connect you to the source of your food—from the seeds in the ground to the farmer who planted them; from the sun and rain and loving care that helped them grow to the folks who harvested the fruits, veggies, and grains on your plate.

Spread the love. Don’t forget those whose lives have been ravaged by the early winter storms this year. Volunteer—by yourself or encourage your yoga community to join you—to serve community meals, gather much needed supplies, or raise money to help these communities and families get back on their feet.

Feel the blessings. To be able to eat, laugh, and spend time in the company of friends new and old—that’s where magic happens. That’s what yoga’s really all about.

So what are you grateful for? How do you express that gratitude? Tell us in the comments, post it to Facebook, or just make a point to tell everyone.

Photo (cc) by Flickr user  pomegranates

In our fall issue, we highlighted Santa Fe yoga teacher Josh Schrei’s plan to raise $25,000 for clean water advocacy by doing 3,000 sun salutes around the sacred Arunachala Mountain in South India. Regardless of how common such a feat like might seem to the locals in India, here in the US, Josh notes, “if you say, ‘I’m going to do 3,000 sun salutes, people think you’re kind of nuts.” We caught up again with Josh to get his insights into advocacy-fueled pilgrimage, how water relates to yoga, and tips for traveling healthier—and happier—anywhere in the world.

Why is something like clean water advocacy close to your heart?
I wanted to work on a cause that is physically and spiritually relevant to all human beings on the planet. Water is fundamental to life. Not just to a certain group over here, or a certain group over there, it’s relevant to everyone. I think of it as a great common denominator for all humanity.

When we really look at the human condition, we see vast inequality. We have people on one end of the spectrum who have everything they need, and they’re dying from diseases related to over-consumption. Then we have people on the other end who are dying from diseases related to lack. Specifically—lack of access to clean water kills more people than conflict or war. In India, millions of people die every year because they don’t have access to clean water.

One way we can make things a little more equal and promote loving kindness is bring clean water into more communities all over the world. Especially in the coming years, we’re going to be facing a lot of shortage so it’s best to start addressing it… yesterday (laughs).

How do you think all this relates to yoga?
There’s a very deep relationship between water and yoga and it relates on all levels from the cosmic to the practical.

When we talk about things we’re holding in our hearts, for example, we often use the analogy of water… that things aren’t flowing quite right. And when we really start to look at the motion of energy and how prana works, it’s very much associated with water.

Why did you choose the Arunachala Mountain out of any number of sacred places in India?
Arunachala, in the Shiva cosmology, is the mountain of fire. Shiva is a transformative fire and has five elemental temples to him in South India; Arunachala is the place where he manifests the element of fire. It’s an incredible place—a place I’d been as a child… I was there when I was 13.

And in the teachings of yoga on tapas, there’s this great relationship between water and fire, which we also find reflected in the energy channels of the human body.

For some reason, the idea of doing a transformative practice around the mountain of fire in order to bring water to people seemed like a good thing to do (laughs). On very practical terms, I was going to be in South India anyway. I knew I wanted to do a campaign for water.org and it just came to me one day.

I also have tremendous respect for the tradition of parikrama—the tradition of circumambulation.

What were the months of preparation like?
As far as training, I do my yoga practice. I also live in the mountains and spend a lot of time running… I have a yoga instructor/outdoor fitness wizard whom I work with, who is an absolute madman. He’s 50 years old and he still competes in 5 different outdoor sports and comes in the top 10 basically every time he competes. He’s incredible. He designs outdoor training programs that really make use of the principles of yoga, pranayama, and asana.

But I’ll say the number one form of training is to practice ahimsa and surrender. When I got to South India, the whole thing was joyous. It wasn’t “Oh my god I have to do another sun salute” (laughs). Sure, sometimes things were tough, but it was joyous, because I was there to adore the mountain and to bring some water to people who were thirsty.

Was there any uncertainty, unexpected circumstances?
X-factors that I didn’t anticipate? Yeah. There are two roads around Arunachala: the inner path—a nice quiet forest path where I had been intending to do my sun salutes—and the outer path, the main pilgrimage route that’s a lot noisier, with animals and vehicles.

When I got there, the inner path was closed. They had just shut it down the week before. But actually that ended up being a blessing. I had a lot more interaction with people, and the support that I got from them was immense. The culture in India speaks the language of devotion in a way that’s hard to explain over here. When they see someone in an act of devotion, it speaks to their heart and they return that energy with lots of smiles and laughter and love.

I also didn’t anticipate how hot it was going to be. It was at least 10 degrees hotter than I expected—the first day was like 95 degrees. So that was a challenge. I had intended to go all through the day, but I actually ended up staggering morning and evening because the middle of the day was just too hot. The pilgrimage sidewalk was too hot to even put your hands on.

So I adjusted a bit. I ended up doing it over three days total. I did 750 sun salutations the first day, 1200 the second day, and 1050 the third day.

How did you stay healthy?
By praying (laughs). That might not sound practical, but that’s how I stayed healthy. I was doing sun salutes facedown in the dirt, in cow dung, and dodging monkey droppings 3,000 times. I did it barefoot, with ankle bracelets on. But, I didn’t get a single blister or break the skin on my feet or anything. I was totally blessed.

On a practical level, because I do a lot of endurance running up in the mountains, I have a pretty good sense of the line between when I’m right in the zone and where I’m pushing beyond where I should push—something that we all face on our yoga mats every day. That really kept me injury-free.

The first day the risk of heat exhaustion was high, because it was 95 and I was pushing it a little bit. I recognized that and backed off some. That is what we should be doing with our practice all the time.

Do you have other tips for healthier travel?
The number one tool we’re given in this life is our breath. I do a lot of pranayama when I’m traveling on a plane. It helps a lot. I also go in the back and sneak in a couple of triangle poses and uttanasana. Attitude is part of it, too. You have to be open.

In India, if you try to come with a full-on agenda, with no flexibility, you’ll probably encounter a few obstacles and those obstacles can create stressful situations and get you sick.

And then it’s as simple as: just don’t eat salad. (Laughs.) A lot of people go to restaurants that cater to westerners. And that’s the number one way people get sick, by thinking “oh, it’s probably safe.” Be careful.

What’s the first step you’d recommend for a yoga teacher who wants to do the same kind of thing?
Choose a cause very close to your heart—that’s the most important part. That ensures that whatever work you do for it is work you really deeply want to be doing. Sometimes we jump into cause-related stuff because we feel like we should. Or because someone else suggested it. Choosing from our hearts… The rest will flow from there.

That said there are a lot of organizations within the yoga world that help people direct their charity efforts.

What are your plans for the future?
I am definitely going to keep working with (and for) water.org. And keep coming up with ways to include the yoga community. I really love the practice of pilgrimage as a way to raise funds and awareness and to include other people. The only problem? Obviously not everyone can do 3,000 sun salutes!

So I’m kind of looking into a pilgrimage that can be more inclusive, one that other people can participate in. I’ll keep you posted.

Photography by Dev Gogoi

A common thread runs through humanity, whether we practice yoga or not: the experience of self-doubt. This daunting, often daily occurrence more often points to a lack of larger vision than to a lack of innate capacity. In other words, we feel anxious because we don’t have an actual plan for where we’re headed. So we live with this subterranean doubt, which damages our hearts, our minds, our children, our colleagues, our friends and our lovers, and most notably ourselves.

Baseline doubt has infected many of my choices. If I don’t have a super clear aim, for example, to experience peace in the context of my family, or to have strong communication among my employees, I’ll react negatively or falsely when I feel confronted. With a clear aim in front of me, I’ll more likely remember that it’s my responsibility to respond effectively and with kindness. Having this vision or dream for each aspect of my life, I’ve learned that doubt doesn’t need to play a role anymore.

With a clear aim, I’ve learned that I’m always free to choose the environment of my mind.

Creating a specific aim, or a “dream” for every area of my life, seemed at first, to take the fun out of just living my life. And since the DOUBT that I couldn’t change was always at the forefront (rather then the dream for who I wanted to be), I was always scared. And that fear that I’d be as temperamental as my relatives kept the behavior close to me, and for the last few years (as my kid, my Man, my parents and my sister can tell you), I subconsciously adopted that very temper as my very own.

My yoga teachers taught me how to see the doubt, feel the fear, acknowledge the anger, breathe through it and witness it, which worked beautifully—on my mat. One of the luminaries of our time, Richard Rosen, believes that the entire world is moving in the direction of self-realization, and that yoga is a means of helping the universe along toward this goal. Agreed. Yet for me yoga had a finite reach; my behavior wasn’t changing, even though I could see it taking up space in my mind and my reactions.

Then I discovered the Handel Group, a groundbreaking, life-coaching method that has shifted my relationships to myself, my family, and my work in the world. Under the tutelage of my Handel coaches, the precise actions I take toward changing my reactivity are now my option in the most challenging situations—not just on my yoga mat. And now that I know who and how I can be, my yoga mat feels like more of an affirmation of that, rather than the place I go to escape my unsavory and embarrassing behavior.

At the behest of my coaches, I wrote my “dream” down for how I wanted to behave in any context and then I spent weeks researching myself. Every time I experienced doubt, either internally or in my outward behavior, I would note it in a memo on my phone. Specifically writing down the incidents of doubt in the moment still helps me witness damaging behavior as it happens, so that I may design ways to behave otherwise. When I pretend all is well and subjugate my fear, it turns into rage, which causes the worst sort of trouble in my most valued relationships. Pretending I’m not afraid slays all sweetness, and I become angry at myself and everyone nearby, which leads to that familiar sinking feeling: if I’m like this, I’m a fake; I can’t accomplish anything of value; I am worthless in this world. That narcissistic, overly dramatic lack of confidence is felt, by my kid, my parents, my Man, my students.

And it has to disappear from my life, because I don’t want to teach doubt to my students or to my child.

There are 18 areas for which I have “dreams” written (to be super clear, they’re really visions that we set out for ourselves, rather than dreams we have when we sleep). The areas are: Body, Career/School, Money, Relationships, Romance, Sex, Community, Character Traits, Family, Relationship to Time, Relationship to Self, Bad Habits, Home, Personal Space, Learning, Fun + Adventure, Spirituality, Health (physical, mental and emotional). Each dream has its own flavor and direction and is to be written and revised (that is, designed) several times during the year. And I’m designing not just the results I aim to achieve, but my state of being in each of the areas. I’m learning what trust in myself feels like, within each of these areas, without drama or fanfare. Perhaps most importantly, my son is watching me find that self-trust, and is finding his own as well. Here’s my dream for my “Character Traits.”

I am a calm, centered, elegant woman; listening, steady and clear. I trust, respect and love myself. I am deeply connected to my heart and proud of my strength and my softness. My family, friends, students, teachers and employees consistently experience my kindness and attentiveness.

Since writing and refining this dream, when I’m presented with the option of sweetness or thinking/behaving like a judgmental lunatic, I see my elegant options (and choose them more of the time). And as simplistic as this exercise of noting doubt may seem, I’m certain that this is what the yogis meant when they spoke about self-study, or svadhyaya, one of the eight limbs of yoga. If I can witness my mind in postures, I can witness and consciously refine my thinking anywhere. Now whenever I feel like I’m selling myself short in any aspect of my life, I go back and rewrite that area. With the dream as my beacon, rather than unleashing my temper and then turning my bad behavior into an attention grab, I can inhabit my heart and be a calm, centered, elegant woman.

Elena is a Mama, internationally respected yoga teacher and coach in collaboration with the Handel Group. She is the founder and co-owner of Virayoga NYC, and co-author of Art of Attention.

Photo by Dominic Neitz