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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

Many spiritual traditions believe the body and soul are connected to—and even embodied in—the soles of the feet. Devotees around the world touch, wash, or kiss the feet of their teachers as a way of showing love and respect. Vishnu’s footprints are worshipped in temples and holy sites across Asia. And in ancient Egypt, undertakers removed the soles of the deceased during mummification to liberate their souls from the physical plane.

The ancient healing traditions of China, India, and Egypt also recognized that the feet serve as mirrors for our overall wellbeing. Today, the American Podiatric Medical Association echoes this wisdom, stating “Such conditions as arthritis, diabetes, nerve, and circulatory disorders can show their initial symptoms in the feet—so foot ailments can be your first sign of more serious medical problems.”

Whether you have collapsed arches or simply feel sore and tired at the end of a long day, try setting aside five minutes for ayurvedic foot massage, which not only alleviates stress and fatigue, but activates the immune system, eases emotional imbalance, and balances all three doshas. By nurturing and connecting with your soles, you set a foundation for vibrant health of mind, body and soul.

Want More? Check out additional recommendations in the fall issue of Yoga International.

Photo (cc) by OpticalReflex. Some Rights Reserved.

Want an alternative to the allergies, excess mucus, and communicable viruses usually associated with the upcoming holiday season? Take these traditional insights to heart.

Seasonal vata imbalance causes or aggravates many short-term illnesses. Literally translated as “wind,” the subtle energy Ayurvedic physicians call vata is dry, so to balance that, nurture yourself with warm, heated oils. Dosha-specific oil,commonly used for self-massage, soothes inflamed nasal passages. Warm castor oil or ghee can moisten dry eyes; use an eye cup or eye-dropper from your local pharmacy to bathe them.

Other useful tips: give yourself a lymph massage or dry brush to move lymphatic fluid and boost your immunity. Herbal infusions can help relieve colds and allergies. And don’t forget to use your neti pot!

Photo via (cc) Flickr user Kate Reiser  

It’s breast cancer awareness month—and the pink ribbons are out in full force. We’ve walked, run, blogged, and gathered in groups large and small to raise money to eradicate this disease that still appears to grab one in eight women every year. While researchers can’t agree on the cause or the cure, they do agree that certain lifestyle changes can quite possibly keep this disease at bay. Here are five things you can do right away—including yoga, of course—to reduce your risk not only for breast cancer but as it turns out, for most diseases.

1. Clean up your diet. Choose plant-based, fiber-rich foods. Minimize (or give up) red meat and dairy products.
2. Get plenty of sleep. Resist that second wind and try going to bed by 10pm to get the most beneficial shut-eye. That’s what ayurvedic practitioners recommend. Disrupted sleep patterns (including working the night shift; waking up at odd hours of the night) may actually increase breast cancer risk.
3. Exercise. Stay active to keep your weight and stress-levels in check. According to Susan Love, MD, author of The Breast Book, says the more you exercise, the greater the benefit. Go for a brisk walk, ride your bike, do something aerobic for 30 minutes a day, at least 4 times a week.
4. Do yoga. A consistent yoga practice can balance your nervous system, improve your circadian rhythms (our sleep/wake cycle), and reduce inflammation in the body, which plays a critical role in the disease.
5. Take your supplements. Sara Gottfried, MD, shares a list of vitamins and supplements that are essential for preventing breast cancer.

AWAKENING AS WOMEN reminder
Join in on Thursday, October 18 (4pm PST; 7pm EST) for “Getting Real: Conversations with Yoginis” as editor-in-chief Linda Sparrowe discusses body image and aging — does yoga help or hinder our ability to honor our bodies as we age?

Photo (cc) by Fotopedia user  Jacqueline ANSELME “Princesspiedsnus”

The first time you visit the Omega Institute in upstate New York, you might notice a sign on the former youth camp’s pathways asking you to turn off your cell phone. An orientation video for weekend guests makes the same recommendation, and to really nail the message, there is even an animation that shows how to remove an earbud from your ear.

When I saw that, I shamelessly snickered. The New Yorker next to me, and several others throughout the hall, did too.

No matter how pervasively the media covers the dangers of staying plugged in, a big part of me refuses to listen. Even at a retreat center in the Catskill Mountains. For my job and my own sense of mind, I want to be connected. I need it. I love it.

I can’t give it up even after reading studies that describe how technology addiction can cause depression and increase levels of anxiety. I mean, what if you miss a call? Or a significant email? Not to mention all the health problems that come with lack of sleep because you just have to stay up later and later into the night scanning the web.

Simple practices from yoga can teach us to chill out around technology and tune back into our fear-free intuition. But yoga can also help us better appreciate everything that being so technologically connected brings us—with enthusiasm and curiosity rather than anxiety and guilty attachment.

So what practices are we talking about?

A pratyahara practice. This guided relaxation practice helps us get in touch with our buddhi—our innate intelligence. If that sounds overly abstract, try answering these quick questions from yoga teacher Sandy Anderson:

1. Can you feel your sit bones on the chair?

2. Do you hear sounds in the room?

3. Do you hear sounds outside the room?

4. What do you see in your peripheral vision?

“Most likely,” Anderson notes, “you are not aware of any of these things until your buddhi calls your attention to them—even though they stream continuously into your mind.”

A practice like pratyahara can not only help us move our awareness inward, but can also mentally and emotionally recharge us after the countless hours we’ve spent paying attention to every micro development in our external environment. Listen a guided audio practice from Anderson here. 

An unconventionally short yoga nidra practice. If you’re short on time or even patience, this method from Swami Rama—it takes just a couple minutes. You could practice it in a bathroom stall, in the driver’s seat of your car (parked, I might add) or even just with your back to the wall of your office.

According to Rolf Sovik, this practice will allow you to rest while remaining alert—almost as if you were awake and napping at the same time. Learn this abbreviated version—or get the full practice here—for anytime you need to rest, renew, and in this case, unplug.

Photo (cc) Flickr user Scott Beale

I invite you to join me and Awakening as Women co-founders Anne Cushman and Janice Gates in a series of live, interactive conversations with some of the world’s most wonderful women yoga and meditation teachers! Eleven pioneering yoginis will talk from their own life experience about some of the hot-button issues that matter most to women–including relationships, money, creativity, body image, and changing the world. Call in with your comments and questions as we share our own personal strategies for transformation. This is an opportunity to become part of a world-wide conversation and community of women on the path of awakening. In addition to my talk on body image, you’ll hear wisdom from Leslie Booker, Mariana Caplan, Nischala Devi, Angela Farmer, Konda Mason, Sarah Powers, and Jill Satterfield.

Click here for more information or to register—it’s free!

There will be five one-hour interactive tele-conversations across 10 days in October. You can participate online and by phone, and all conversations will be recorded in case you miss a couple. Just enter your email to get the dates and times and more information about how to join.

Want more? You can also check out my feature on body image before the event. Looking forward to having you as part of the conversation!

If you’re sweating it out in an asana class, find yourself in the midst of a heated argument, or have an impossible deadline you’re struggling to make, a concept like lila (Sanskrit for “play”) is probably the last thing on your mind. Lila, often defined as the ability to joyfully embrace life, is according to Acroyoga founder Jenny Sauer-Klein, “our natural state of being” and yet, she notes, “it’s a choice we have to make every day, on our yoga mat, at home, or at work.”

I recently met Circus yoga teacher Kelly Curtis, and talked to her about how the playfulness of yoga styles like Acroyoga and Circus yoga can teach any of us, to lighten up and not take ourselves so seriously.

 What makes a circus yoga class unique?
Circus yoga classes have a lot of the same elements as Acroyoga—yoga poses, flying partner yoga, thai massage—but in a different way. There’s a lot of play and co-creation and collaboration. Those are the underlying principles—multiple people working together in multi-generational groups.

We also play a lot of games, do juggling, poi, and tightrope walking.

Do you think activities like that really promote creativity, for kids and adults?
Definitely. Some of the activities that we do ask you to literally create new things in a short amount of time. We set up the environment in such a way that it just seems like a perfect garden for creativity, for things to blossom out of no matter what.

What are some skills someone could develop using Circus yoga?
Trust is huge. We do a lot of things that are scary—not just up-in-the-air scary, but scary because you have to get up in front of everyone else and show them things that you just came up with.

When you’re flying, in flying partner yoga, you have to trust the person who is facing you. For some people that’s scary—some people cry. It tends to bring up any insecurities you have.

Circus yoga gives you an outlet. I think there’s a lot of therapy that happens.

Wow. Can you give me another example?
We play this game called the “Yes” game. The idea behind it is that we all say “Yes” to everyone’s ideas by literally shouting YES at the top of our lungs.

Somebody comes up with an idea like, “Let’s ride our bikes downhill” and then everyone has to go “YES! Let’s ride our bikes downhill!” and then everybody pretends to ride a bike downhill.

It’s kind of a cool way to get people to say yes to things.

Has anyone ever asked you what makes a class with juggling, tightrope walking, and games like the “Yes” game actually yoga?
One of the common definitions that Erin, who is a founder of Circus yoga, has given is that we are bringing the consciousness of yoga and the creative celebration [of circus arts] together.

It’s not like while juggling you’re doing yoga at the same time, but there’s an aspect of concentration that yoga embodies, [dharana], that is also there when you’re juggling. The moment your mind wanders while you’re juggling, you’re going to drop a ball or a club.

We also do practice yoga within the circus yoga workshop—actual yoga poses and partner yoga and flying partner yoga.

What effect, if any, has teaching circus yoga had on the way you teach traditional forms of yoga?
Circus yoga has helped me personally see [hatha yoga] in a slightly different way. It has given me more freedom.

I come from such a serious yoga background and it’s hard to break free from that, especially when you only have 50 minutes with people, which is what I have most of the time. [But] I now tend to be funnier when I’m teaching my yoga classes. Getting people to just laugh and open up—”this pose is the windmill pose, also known as the wind relieving pose—hahaha”

Has it also affected your life, in any way, off the mat?
Yes. I think it’s helped me in a lot of ways to think about how I communicate with people in relationships. That can be a challenging thing sometimes (laughs).

How can a teacher apply circus yoga to their teaching style?
Try to add in some fun. Keep it light. There’s so much depth to yoga, but you can still keep it light, so the students can understand it and they’re not taking it too seriously.

—It’s not a bad thing to take your practice seriously. But it depends on how seriously you take it and how that’s affecting you.

No kidding. Any other tips?
Practice lion pose before you teach—practice it a couple times. It can help you express yourself more clearly.

I’d also recommend that teachers try sharing their personal experiences—I think that relating something you’ve experienced to whatever you’re teaching is something that people appreciate.

What about advice for beginners—what would you tell someone before their first class?
Explore yoga with creativity and an open mind. We have a little song in Circus yoga that goes, “you can’t get it wrong, you can’t get it wrong…” There is no exact right or wrong. [A pose] doesn’t have to be perfect in any way, so we say that practice is perfect in Circus yoga, instead of saying that practice makes perfect.

Photo (cc) Flickr user ClickFlashPhotos / Nicki Varkevisser