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Do you love to attend community kirtan, or listen to the devotional music that crops up at festivals from Wanderlust to Tadanasa to even Omega’s Ecstatic Chant? Do you own a harmonium, sitar, guitar, or any kind of synthesizer? Are you guilty of joining at least one drum circle?

If you’ve answered yes to any of the above—even one—you’re in for a treat. Brooklyn-based singer Nina Rao just released a debut, double-album mix of devotional kirtan, bhajan, and Hanuman Chalisa chants called Antarayaami.

If you’re unfamiliar with Rao or the New York-area outlets she regularly performs at (like the donation-based Brooklyn outpost of many Dharma Yoga-trained teachers, the Brooklyn Yoga School), it’s time you got well acquainted. Since 1996, she’s worked as the assistant of chant master Krishna Das, also frequently assisting him with cymbals and vocals on tour.

That kind of dedication has long been mutual: notably, Krishna Das’s unmistakable, deep baritone-voice appears on the album in a duet entitled “Ocean of Ram Hanuman Chalisa.” But that isn’t the only story worth telling.

The album is also a much deeper reflection for Rao, who was initially introduced to devotional music at the age of 9. It was then she first learned traditional chants from her grandfather, in a village in South India. She was re-introduced to chanting and the yoga of devotion, bhakti, through Krishna Das—and currently bands together with seasoned artists like Ambika Cooper, Devadas Labrecque (equal parts kirtan artist, part producer of Antaryaami), and the founders of the Brooklyn Yoga School themselves, as part of the New York-based collective chant community, Vanaras.

Check out some of our favorite tracks, get info on future performances and more here. The album is also available for purchase at the Krisha Das online store, Amazon, and iTunes.

Year-end lists, spontaneous resolutions, and 30-day yoga or meditation challenges are all common ways to test your willpower on—or even weeks after—the New Year. But what now? How can you sustain this mindful resolve the rest of the year?

Cut yourself some slack and really listen to yourself. That’s the first step to cultivating what the yoga tradition calls a sankalpa, or resolve. More than just a desire made public, “a sankalpa practice starts from the radical premise that you already are who you need to be to fulfill your life’s dharma,” says Kelly McGonigal, author of The Willpower Instinct.

If this is your first experience with a sankalpa, try this. Close your eyes and settle in for a few moments. And then ask yourself, “what do you I really want?” The answer to that could be anything: to become a yoga teacher, to stop feeling so angry all the time, to quit smoking, or even just to wake up earlier.

You can also build willpower over time by practicing yoga, according to senior Iyengar yoga teacher Patricia Walden, who says willpower exists in our bodies as well as our minds. She recommends choosing a challenging yoga pose and holding it for 30 seconds; do that every day for at least a week. A practice like this can build your reserves and help you follow through on difficult decisions in the future.

Or make it habit to regularly explore a short, restorative practice like yoga nidra.

No matter what you choose to do, by all means be compassionate. Back off from a challenge if necessary. That might sound like a sign of weakness or even counterintuitive, but according to McGonigal, “If you think that the key to greater willpower is being harder on yourself, you are not alone.” You’re just wrong, she says. According to a growing wealth of research, self-criticism is “consistently associated with less motivation and worse self-control.”

Building your willpower muscle and remaining true-blue to challenging goals—according to the (scientific) writing on the wall—isn’t about taking the high road. It’s actually a lot more about compassion and even, it seems, self-confidence.

Check out the full scoop on the science behind willpower, and explore 5 poses that cultivate resolve from Senior Iyengar teacher Patricia Walden, here.

SHARE YOUR WILLPOWER SECRETS AND WIN!

Tell us in the comments how you keep your resolve and we’ll register you to win a HOME PRACTICE yoga kit from Manduka. Now if that isn’t motivating!

In the December issue of Time magazine, Dr. Mehmet Oz recommended we all give frozen food a chance—even those forlorn glommed-together chunks of spinach that come out of your freezer in one big hunk. In his in-favor-of-it-all feature, he was quick to note, “The rise of foodie culture over the past decade has venerated all things small-batch, local-farm and organic—all with premium price tags. But let’s be clear: you don’t need to eat like the 1% to eat healthily.”

If that isn’t a statement. He criticizes the ‘foodie culture’ not only for the price tags that regular adorn its fancy produce at boutique organic bodegas and large-scale chains, but also for its insistence that organic is healthier. He cites a recent review by Stanford University of 237 previous scientific studies that finds “little evidence” exists that suggests going organic is a healthier choice.

Harsh. Should we really end all our homegrown, locavore dreams and start buying everything in non-organic, frozen bulk because of findings like these? It’s a personal decision that warrants your own list of pros and cons—but here are some to, ahem, chew on.

Freezing or repeatedly reheating food fundamentally alters its vitality—the actual nutritional benefits you get from eating it, according to ayurvedic physicians. Exceptions to this are pretty rare—like bringing non-organic, homogenized turmeric milk to a boil three times to make the milk easier to digest.

Still skeptical? Notice the difference between eating homemade pesto from fresh basil and the store-bought variety made with the frozen herb. Or how about fresh, handmade pasta vs the dried, packaged variety? Or even marinara sauce made from ripe tomatoes?

‘Organic’ doesn’t always mean expensive. An intrepid, budget-squeezed comrade at food blog The Kitchn recently tested a claim from Whole Foods that you can stock an organic pantry for $99. For a chain of grocery stores once lampooned by the movie Baby Mama and much better known to the 99% as Whole Paycheck, it was a challenge worth looking into.

By choosing goods almost exclusively from bulk bins and the store’s private label 365 Everyday Value brand, The Kitchn succeeded. They bagged 38 different items for the low price of $93.52.

It’s not just about us. Buying all the groceries you can between a grocery store like Whole Foods and your local farmer’s market (or by joining a CSA) can be a way to both support your diet and put compassion into action. Dr. Oz seems to have forgotten that we buy organic not only for our own health, but for the health of the farm workers and the planet. In just one small example of the damage non-organic farming can do, New York Times columnist Mark Bittman reminds us that “The genetically modified soybeans grown in 91 percent of U.S. soybean fields have repeatedly been linked with reproductive and birth defects in animals.”

So if we can find ways to support our own lifestyle with all the small-batch, local-farm, organic goods we can afford, we not only avoid pesticides, we also support the lifestyles (and livelihoods) of other like-minded, mindful individuals. This is the kind of community-building I think yoga practitioners and teachers aspire to and believe in.

So wake up early. Kiss an organic farmer. Take on an organic food challenge of your own. Then tell us about it. Or just share any tips you have for living mindfully, on a budget.

Heard of the Kumbha Mela? It’s quite possibly the largest human gathering on the planet, a 2,000-year old celebration on the Ganges river that draws as many as 100 million spiritual seekers and pilgrims once every 12 years. Those dedicated seekers are a diverse bunch: international travelers, yoga teachers, Hindu leaders, mystic recluses.

Makeshift bridges and tents and medical services have cropped up in the past month to serve or shelter all of them, almost like limited-time, pop-up boutiques.

As these millions will no doubt attest, we all yearn to discover a deeper connection to something spiritual or even just more “authentic” in ourselves. But we don’t necessarily have to travel half way around the world to get there.

As Deborah Willoughby puts it, “The specific destinations—Jerusalem, Mount Kailash, Canterbury, Bodh Gaya, Mecca, Mount Kilimanjaro, Prayaga Raja—vary by culture and spiritual path, but the lure is always the same.” That lure is sometimes just something bigger. Something that seems—from afar—more intimate.

More often than not, a pilgrimage denotes a religious or spiritual quest and involves traveling long distances—like when devotees in India roll, carefully, on the ground surrounding sacred mountains like the Arunachala, or when pilgrims walk the Camino de Santiago trail in Spain. But for many of us, the most important trips we take on any given day are much closer to home.

Every time you walk into a yoga studio, for example, you can set the intention to discover something more authentic in yourself. Before taking a considerable risk, like switching careers—something some of us might call a leap of faith—spend time in self-reflection and exploring possibilities. It’s more of a “close to home” kind of pilgrimage.

For inspiration for your not-quite-a-pilgrimage, take a look at online startups like Codecademy, Coursera and Udacity. These are online education-focused communities that allow you to study with top-tier teachers for free, in your pajamas. These services might not offer classes in Sanskrit or yoga philosophy (yet!) but they can help you gain confidence exploring sometimes entirely foreign career paths (and gain real-world experience) in a structured, yet social environment without quitting your day job.

According to Codecademy’s co-founder and CEO, Zachary Sims, a student in Kenya did just that. She was in the middle of a medical internship when she began learning online how to code, excited by just how much the internet empowers others to create. Her curiosity paid off. Two weeks into her internship, she quit. The internship, that is. And she eventually landed a paying job as a Ruby developer.

Arguably, her success depended on cultivating qualities that Deborah Willoughby believes are necessary for any pilgrimage: “steady attention centered in the present, the ability to drop preconceived notions, and—above all—a willingness to open ourselves, patiently and reverently, to what we don’t yet know how to see.”

What about you? My own pilgrimage in the next year might or might not involve travel, javascript, or the internet. But take your own cues. What are you going to do?

For more, check out Deborah Willoughby’s contemplative essay on how pilgrimage transforms from a once-in-a-lifetime-journey-to-your-deepest-self-in-a-foreign-land to an ongoing spiritual practice.

Photo courtesy Kumbha Mela 2013

If you needed to pack for a trip tomorrow, what would you take? When faced with imminent travel plans like these, many of us choose possessions we know will definitely provide us comfort. A lot of them. There are an infinite number of things you might need, for every possible instance of bad weather or sickness or good times (or bad times).

And yet, ironically, it’s the time and energy we spend carting around all this stuff that always seems to cause the most stress. It can also make us stick out, uncomfortably, from the rest of our surroundings: like a couple of backpackers in Europe with massive packs, eager to see the world while carrying a kitchen sink from America.

Longtime travel writer Rolf Potts ventures overseas with a slightly lighter hand; he only carries a small daypack. He also challenged himself to take this minimalist philosophy further in 2010 by venturing on a 6-week world tour through 12 countries on 5 continents with no baggage at all, his only possessions stuffed into carefully-placed pockets hidden in his clothes. Sound unreasonable? He thinks he packed too much.

Keep reading for his insights into the benefits of minimalist travel and how to apply its principles to living simply, mindfully, and more happily—at home.

What do you take with you when you travel?
I take a few clothes and a few toiletries, plus a smartphone and a charger. If traveling on business I’ll also take a laptop, but everything can be fit into a daypack that fits in an airplane overhead bin. The benefits are huge—I have little to slow me down, little that I have to pack or unpack or store or keep watch over. I am extremely mobile, and I can focus on the people and experiences I find in my travels; I break the ties with all the “stuff” that binds me to home and immerse myself in my new environment. The challenge with the smartphone is balance—using it enough to inform my trip without using it so much that it distracts from my trip.

How can someone relate habits like that to the way they live at home?
The heart of my travel philosophy—and, really, my life philosophy—is that time is your truest form of wealth in life. Too often we tally our wealth in terms of money or possessions, when in fact time and experience is a far more valuable commodity. Abiding by the principles of simplicity can help you live in a more deliberate and time-rich way:

How much of what you own really improves the quality of your life?
Are you buying new things out of necessity or compulsion?
Do the things you own enable you to live more vividly, or do they merely clutter up your life?

Scientific studies have determined that new experiences satisfy our higher-order needs in a way that new possessions cannot—that taking a friend to dinner, for example, brings more lasting happiness than spending that money on a new shirt.

How do you apply philosophy like that to your own home life?
I try to slow down, to seek experiences over possessions, to keep things simple and to not set limits on what can be experienced in a day. Home is a place where habits and routines can make life more efficient, but I try not to let those habits and routines take over my life.

What do you try to improve on?
Balancing my desire to be in the moment with my various professional ambitions. I like work, and it brings me a lot of satisfaction, but it can begin to wear on me if I’m not taking the time to enjoy my day (or parts of my day) in a non-goal oriented manner.

Do you have any other insights into how travel has taught you how to simplify your life?
I think that fear is one of the things that gets in the way of living simply. We think that the comfort and happiness we desire is tied up on owning more, seeking more, desiring more—when in fact the opposite is often the case. Travel is a good way to confront these fears—to strip down your possessions, get away from home habits and realize how simple it is to live fully.

You can only take so many things with you on the road, and you put yourself in a situation where you can experience the world in a transient, non-habitual way. If you travel long enough, this rhythm becomes ritual, and you can incorporate this new attitude into your life at home.

I might add that this kind of simplicity involves cutting back on your addiction to gadgets and online diversions. Often what is cluttering our psychic world at home is our addiction to constant information online and through our smartphones. Knowing how to unplug from all this on the road can remind you how pleasurable it can be to get your information and enjoyment from your immediate surroundings and experiences.

Photo (cc) by Flickr user Alex E. Proimos

Does this scenario sound familiar? Your skin’s completely dried out, your lips are chapped, your whole system’s dehydrated, and your brain is fuzzy and barely functioning. To top it all off, you can’t even seem to fall asleep even though you’re bone tired. According to ayurvedic expert Kathryn Templeton, you’re suffering from holidaze, a common malady this time of year when we all feel a little out of whack. We can blame our condition on a combination of holiday chaos (or cheer), travel, and the dry, windy environment we live in.

If you think the only way to combat dry, hectic conditions like these is to slather on the cold cream and hibernate until spring, you’re wrong. Put the bottle down and try these ayurvedic remedies instead. Templeton relies on them anytime she travels during the holiday season, but they work just as well from the comforts of home.

For Dehydration—and Digestion
According to ayurveda the best way to stay hydrated during the winter is by drinking lots of warming, hot liquids. A cup of your favorite herbal tea works, but if your system is a little sluggish make some CCF tea instead: a simple infusion of cumin, coriander, and fennel (in equal parts) will warm your belly and promote better digestion. To prepare the tea, just add hot water to your herbs and let it all steep for at least 3 minutes.

On the road a lot? Carry a sealed, plastic baggy of the herbs with you, and add hot water as available.

For the Airplane
If you’re flying, says Templeton, and you know you’ll be held captive by the dry, stale air of the airplane cabin, pack a small bottle of nasya oil in your carry-on. Once you’re in the air, you can dab a pinky of the oil inside both nostrils, saturate a couple cotton-balls and stuff them into your ears as well. “At the end of a flight, my neighbors are usually my new best friends, or—they’ve moved,” Templeton says, laughing.

For Bedtime
Before crawling into bed, give yourself an abhyanga (a self-massage). You can go for the full monty—dry-brushing combined with a head-to-toe massage with sesame or triphala oil. Or, if you’re pressed for time, just go for the feet—you’ll get many of the same rejuvenating benefits as a full massage.

One of the best side effects? A good night’s sleep.

Bonus: For dry eyes, Templeton recommends dabbing a little castor oil at the corner of your eyelids.

Get more of Templeton’s ayurvedic tips for every season here. Or curb your holiday stress with an in-depth lesson in the healing practices of pranayama from Rolf Sovik.

Photo (cc) by Flickr user thisisbossi

The winter travel season can bring us closer to our family—or drive us further apart. As spiritual teacher Ram Dass once said, “If you think you’re enlightened, go spend a weekend with your parents.” Rediscover your compassionate heart with the following tips.

The holidays are an opportune time to practice vairagya, or non-attachment. Parents (and our reactions to them) often serve as a mirror for where we are spiritually and emotionally.

During any length of travel, try to designate a physical space for practice. Use it as a reminder to utilize spare moments for yoga. Even if you only think you have time for a single sun salutation, one nadi shodhanam cycle, or 10 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing, each of these practices promotes clear-headed understanding and balance.

And remember—as the writer Hermann Hesse wrote inSiddhartha, “Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.”
Photo via (cc) Flickr user Christina Rutzi

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.