Joy List

May we all find joy and pathways to joy through curiosity even as the world seems to be… doing not great things around us. We have to stay energized for the work that needs to be done. We can’t succumb to despair. The people causing the world to be so ugly certainly never give up and so mustn’t we. But to make a world different from the one they want, we also have to work for it differently and that includes staying in and expressing and experiencing joy wherever and whenever we can.

If you have things you would add to this list for yourself, I would love to hear from you!

My most recent big joy was getting to Erie and then getting to the lake. Getting my toes in big water is one of my happy happiest places. Walking on those tiny pebbles is one of my favorite things. Trying to capture the water in photos is something that will forever be a mild (maybe not mild…) obsession.

I need to make it more of a regular practice to get to bigger water, whether Lake Erie or another big body of water.

When I first bought this new bio of Sylvia Plath I wasn’t ready to read it, but now I am and it’s awakening my love of language again. I’m also rereading The Bell Jar.

Gardening is taking off here at our new, very old house. (Built in 1882.) I’m super in love with this new rose we just planted though I’ll have to wait until next year to really appreciate it.

Even if you’re not a huge basketball fan (I’m pretty rabid…), this movie was freaking amazing. And it’s full of hope and good things. It makes you believe in dreams again.

This man is, right now, the joy of music in one body. His new album is downright effervescent. And this video is, well… watch it.

I haven’t written about it much, but we went to see Tears for Fears, and I can’t really do justice with words. First, it was an outdoor venue in Cincinnati and the weather was perfect. But second, MY GOD THE VOICE OF ROLAND. You really have no idea until you hear him live. He can’t be captured in a studio. Not even freaking close. And the woman who backed them up?!?! Again, MY GOD. Here’s my favorite song after their current album (which is fanfreakingtastic and worth a listen).

A huge joy right now for me is that I’m really getting back to some intense and regular movement practices. For a while now, I’ve just been hanging on… and so mostly I’ve been moving and dancing only when I was teaching. (Besides some walks and little things here and there.)

But suddenly something has switched in my brain and I’m back to daily explorations of my own practices, of course, but also pilates and a variety of other things. I just ordered new books about Butoh and general movement for the first time in too long to calculate.

My movement obsession brain has turned back on after years of being off or just slightly buzzing in the background and I am so very happy and relieved.

Again, I’d love to hear from YOU!

My Politics Addiction and Cultivating Good News Habits

I could go pretty deeply into WHY I have this issue with politics triggering such FURY in me (FURY is kinda close to what happens but it’s even worse than that), but it’s multifaceted and quite complicated, and really not the point.

The point is that my response is not healthy for me physically or emotionally or spiritually.

So I’m trying to fast, and it’s really difficult. This is definitely like an addiction.

I find myself — without any thinking whatsoever — clicking over to CNN.

I find myself — without any thinking whatsoever — halfway through writing an angry response to someone. Luckily I do notice eventually and I hit delete.

This is not about hiding my head in the sand either; it’s about being a healthy enough version of myself that I can do what I am good at doing and help the world in the ways that I am able.

It’s about about being a healthy and effectively loving human.

So now I’m looking for sources of good news and I though some of you might like these too. Because what we look for is what we see and what we see is the world we end up inhabiting in all ways.

Some of these are really new to me so I can’t speak to their quality over time, but they are decent to start with:

• Kindling is out of Washington State and has really young staff and board but I like that energy;

• The Good News Network has been around for some time.

• Good Good Good was actually inspired by Mister Rogers!

• Solutions Journalism is just that — a drive toward creating journalism that emphasizes solutions. YES.

• Positive News is out of the UK.

• Reasons to be cheerful was founded by Talking Heads’ David Byrne! (He is so freaking smart.)

• Yes! Media started as a great magazine and is now much more.

• The Happy Broadcast combines stories with art to inspire.

• And there’s Jane Goodall’s Good News for All, no explanation needed.

That’s a great start. Let me know if you have other favorite sources.

Buddhism 101: A Reading List by Request (Copy)

Wat Rong Seur Ten in Chiang Rai Thailand by Alex Azabache

I shared a reading list to help you get a bit deeper into your yoga right here. And now a morning nutbag and some others have requested a reading list for those new/ish to Buddhism.

So here we go (and I will be linking to Amazon not to encourage you to buy from there but simply because it is easy. I actually encourage you to use your library or a local bookstore, both of which I am lucky enough to have access to but never assume the same about anyone else… sometimes Amazon is actually necessary for more rural areas):

Anything Lama Surya Das is highly recommended, especially Awakening the Buddha Within, but here’s his whole Amazon page.

And anything by Uma Thurman’s dad (yep), Robert Thurman should be on your list too. Infinite Bliss was a fave or mine but again here’s his whole Amazon page.

Currently I’m rereading The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and it has helped me so much with my grief.

This book is about Tantra in both yoga and Buddhism by one of the most respected yoga scholars ever (who has passed away but his wife has taken over his teachings and she is wonderful).

Here’s one of my favorites by Thich Nhat Hanh that is a bit deeper in the teachings than some of his more popular stuff.

This book of “prayers” to the Bodhisattva is so beautiful. It is a practice in and of itself just to randomly select something every day.

Tara Brach writes some stuff that veers into psychology meets Buddhism, which some days works for me and some days doesn’t but she’s well respected and one of the rare women’s voices out there that has a large platform.

Most of what I’ve shared here comes from Tibetan buddhism lineages. There’s a whole other world out there if you want to explore Zen Buddhism, which would include things like the philosophy of tea ceremony and haiku, which I also have on my shelf, but I think the basics are well covered with all I’ve shared above.

I would love to hear from you as you explore!

December Joy List in the Context of Grief

For many of us, this month is filled with twinkle lights and good food and special movies and anticipation that reminds us of being children — or the anticipation of actual children if you have some around you — and there’s so much beauty to be found in all the different stories of all the different holy days that fall at this time of year.

And then there’s sadness. Deep sadness. Most of us have lost someone at some point in our lives — whether recently or in the far past — for whom we especially mourn this time of year.

Lately I am thinking about how much, especially as we age, that we are in a permanent state of always evolving grief, and if that is the case — if grief is able to be constantly present even as we go about our daily lives, even as we laugh — then isn’t the converse true? That JOY can be constantly present regardless of our life circumstances?

Yin and Yang. Dark and light. Grief and joy, living conjoined in our hearts. Perhaps that is what eventually moves us to deeper levels of compassion and patience and love. It does. Or it doesn’t. And that is where choice comes in, right?

We can decide that this grief/joy existence is an untenable and unbearable position. We decide that we just can’t. This path that is littered with self pity and anger, eventually, leads to something worse than grief… despair. And despair, left to grow and rot, leads inevitably to violence, whether toward ourselves (internally or otherwise) or toward others (the whole range of violence from judging people for who they are to physical harm).

The other choice is to allow all of this to soften our hearts and make more space for more of the good stuff.

I’m trying, since Peony’s death, to choose the softening, of course. And it’s not easy. I would never say it was. But it’s the better choice and it’s more honoring of the love I have had and have in my life.

Having said all of this, I’ll share some things that have been helping me lately and that I count as definite sources of joy.

• This Reiki practitioner is just WHOA! I found her accidentally on a live TikTok and I thought, NO WAY! REIKI CAN’T BE GOOD LIKE THIS! HA! As if. She is freaking amazing. I’ve used her work, in particular, to help with my sleep. Here’s her YouTube.

• My Morning Nutbags. Do you not know what I’m talking about!?!? GO HERE. But seriously, this morning group of women and the space we share has changed my freaking life. (You can still join. It’s free. And there’s no pressure to be there every single day.)

• Speaking of the Morning Nutbags, one of the things I’m doing during that time is reading this book of Buddhist Prayer to the Bodhisattva of Compassion. I’m changing the references to specific Buddhist deities to Our Lady of Guadalupe, which any Buddhist would tell me is totally cool… all forms are legit. Anyway, I am loving the simplicity and beauty of how Buddhism approaches this. You could say all of these “prayers” quite simply to your inner self.

• During this time of grief, I’ve found my way back to studying Buddhism in general. I studied it pretty seriously for many years long ago, but I was still struggling with deep depression and resisting anything that helped. So now I’m back and it’s really the thing that has helped me the most when it comes to trying to make sense out of this whole shitty death thing. Here’s my current favorite text.

• Simultaneously, of course, I’m studying Mother Mary. And this book about the origins of the rosary and how it can be used so differently from what most people think is a favorite.

• Crystals. Just looking at them. Discovering new ones. Reading about them. Craig loves to tease me about my rocks, my precious… but anything that brings us an ounce of joy is worth its weight in gold. Here’s a small start if you’ve never really looked into their uses.

It’s a smaller list than usual, but again, I’m just glad that anything at all can give me some joy right now as I make my way through this life without Peony. I’m still trying to just get my bearings.

And a big joy right now that I forgot about is just having some time off from teaching to settle into this new reality.

OH! And of course, all of YOU bring me so much joy. You ground me and I am so grateful for you.

Joy List

This selfie photo series about rebirth in that Phoenix way is freaking AH.MAZING. Taken at the perfect spot… an active volcano in Iceland. (Done safely as is pointed out.)

This habit tracker app is my favorite I’ve ever used. SO SIMPLE and clean. It’s really upped my movement and meditation. And though I just purchased premium for super cheap, the free was working just fine.

One of my greatest joys this year has been my renewed obsession with great novels, and wow… I just keep reading one amazing work after another. I’m focusing mostly on works by women of color to fill in the hole in my literacy created by undergrad/grad work that, of course, focused on the traditional white man canon. ((Extreme rolling of eyes.)) My most recent fave was this (though it’s hard to pick).

I’m starting to obsess over paint colors to redo some of the spaces in our new to us very old Victorian home. And I’m especially loving this green for the kitchen. I mean… even just the name!

While I’m walking, I usually — or lately — listen to happy happy music, but I’ve started inserting a bit of Sadhguru here and there for the first part of my work to work on some mindset issues I’m having and this is extra good.

When I go to a cafe to think and write, I’ve started listening again to this Max Richter. It makes my brain work at a higher level, I swear!

Roses. I keep finding more roses that I want in front of our house. Here are two frontrunners: this and this.

And finally these silly little messenger figures… so silly but they bring me so much delight to even just look at them. Which one would you love to have on your desk?

I would love to hear from you! What books/movies/music are you really geeking out over right now?

Books to Deepen Your Yoga (Plus some bonus, classic yoga videos that still hold up)

Yoga is more than poses, of course. If you read here or have been around me long, I know you get that already, but I think we can still forget it…or lose track of it.

The practice of postures — hatha yoga — is just one form of yoga intended for people who learn through being physical.

It always blows my mind how wise the early creators of yoga systems were about human personality. They understood early on that there are so many different kinds of learning styles and so they accommodated them.

For example, there’s physical yoga but also the yoga of intellectual study, the yoga of devotional practices, and on and on.

The point being that the path was not and is not the destination. The destination is self knowledge that creates connection to the whole (and of course, there are so many ideas of what that “whole” is — whether it be a form of God/Goddess that is transcendent or immanent or just your best self or or or… no two lineages totally agree on this and thus so many lineages).

I am grounded in Kundalini yoga for the most part which is grounded in/from tantra yoga. Tantra is the system that makes the most sense to me on all levels. When I was about 11, I told my mother that I believe we are energy and that when we die, we return to the larger energy. Period. And that’s pretty much tantra in a nutshell. (Though, of course, it’s way more complicated than that.)

The books I’ll share are NOT just from the tantra tradition but lately I find myself getting more and more specialized in that area.

The books I’m sharing range from much easier to digest to more complicated. And yes, the tantra texts/books would be way complicated if that’s your first real deep yoga reading. They aren’t necessarily a great starting point.

I will link to them on Goodreads (and you can find me at Goodreads right here, though I’m mostly sharing fiction).

BOOKS

Anything by Stephen Cope is a great place to start, particularly the first three books on this list. He’s easy to read. His style is conversational and he’s just so… real.

Written in 1996, this is a classic. My first yoga TAPE was with Erich Schiffmann and it too holds. (HERE IT IS on YouTube. This video DEFINED yoga video aesthetics.) He’s a wonderful human (and I’ve been lucky enough to meet him and study a wee bit with him).

Most interpretations of Pantanjali’s Yoga Sutras are by men and wow… you can tell. So this translation with commentary especially for women is a breath of fresh air. It was so needed. Before this book, I was pretty much NO THANKS when it came to these particular sutras.

Sadhguru is a teacher of tantra based yoga. He’s the real deal and his first book has so much to offer. Even if you just skip his personal story stuff at the beginning, there’s so much depth.

Every yogi needs to read the Bhagavad Gita and there is no translation/commentary out there that comes close to this. (I had to link to amazon on that one to find it, but I would read ANYTHING by this man.)

My first Kundalini Yoga TAPE (yep… tape, yet again) was with Gurmukh. She’s a wonderfual wacky wise human and this little book about the chakras is always a good first place to explore these concepts. I still go back to this book now and then. (And again, here she is on YouTube.)

My first actual tantra book on the list is by the great scholar Georg Feuerstein. Seriously, you cannot go wrong when you read him. Except sometimes he can be a bit…dry. But this particular book is a great intro to tantra. Again, ready anything by him, for sure, but have coffee at hand.

There are SO MANY MORE texts but that’s enough for now.

AND please feel free to ask me for books that relate to specific areas you’d like to explore — whether those be physical, emotional, or spiritual, I’m guessing I have some idea where to point you!

Joy List

One of my greatest current joys is READING NOVELS. One after another. At the speed I used to read when I was much younger or in college and graduate school. A speed that leaves my husband pretty mystified actually. If you want to see WHAT I’ve been reading, the easiest thing is to check out my goodreads.

I can’t say enough about the writing and the acting in this show, but my niece kept telling me to watch it and I kept being like, Whatever, and then I did and she was right. It’s really weird to say this but Killing Eve is actually, in a long and roundabout way, about the love, obsession, and the possibility of redemption. It’s also fucking HILARIOUS.

This local candle, soap, scent shop is really rockin’ it. You can order online, of course.

Here’s the best coffee I’ve had in Ohio, and they’re doing every freaking thing RIGHT, from how they treat farmers to the diverse staff in their stores… just everything. So if you’re looking for new beans, give them a try.

Our new bikes.

The possibility of our backyard.

The people in Columbus (why are they so DAMN FRIENDLY!?).

The fact that dance is starting to feel fresh again.

Fruit. I am a fruit bat in human form so this time of year is my favorite eating time.

Our wee neighborhood park. (And by getting you that link, I just learned that it’s the oldest part in Columbus and one of the oldest parks in the COUNTRY.)

Our amazingly openhearted neighborhood that is so full of art. Have you seen all the public art I’ve been sharing on my instagram?

My greatest music joy right now is him.

My greatest movement joy at the moment is this. Seriously, don’t you want to do that in a workshop?

Where are you finding joy?

#DailyJoy: Skin Care

I don’t get anything from anyone when I write about stuff like this. If that changes, you know I’ll be transparent about it.

I’ve always taken decent care of my skin, and before I start talking about product, a little reminder that the best skin care is an inside job.

My skin looks freaking AMAZING when I drink ALL the splish splash (or water…whatever…I prefer this name given by Donnie Quinn one day in a class), when I eat massive amounts of fruits and veggies, when I sleep well, when I move well, when I laugh a TON.

That said… I love me some good skin care and the picture to the right is a small sample of my current favorites.

My routine is to switch things up a lot. Your skin doesn’t want the same shit put on it every single day from here to eternity… just like your muscles don’t want to be doing the same freaking yoga or whatever routine. Change is good and healthy.

I do this changey thing on a macro level — always looking for new products — and a micro level — daily cycling through different products.

Every morning, I do a gentle scrub with one of a few scrubs at hand. Every evening, I do a toner with one of a few toners at hand. And I am constantly using different day and night creams.

Onto the goods… these are my current OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING favorites:

(Note: I have skin that rarely gets a pimple and it’s normal to dry…never oily. Just so you know that these things are geared toward that.)

I got this Glazen Face Glow from Butter of London as a sample when I ordered some nail stuff (LOVE them for nails) and WOW. Like, I cannot say enough about this stuff. Makes my skin feel baby butt soft and then it also makes me look like I bothered with makeup. HA! It comes in different shades.

I love LUSH (and so does my husband, if you have a man in your life who likes good smelling stuff). Right now I’m obsessed with their Cup O’Coffee face mask. I do it once or twice a week and it always looks like I got an expensive facial, especially if I follow it with Magical Moringa Beauty Balm. I also smell so good, you might want to eat my face.

Speaking of baby butt soft faces, this one is new to me this week and again, OB.SESSED. Vitamin C Skin Boost Instant Smoother is everything its name says and more. I really can’t describe it.

I am also loving the Body Shop’s Petal Soft GEL Toner. (For some reason I couldn’t find it on their site but I just bought it at their store.)

And finally, I happened upon this last one by pure luck at a local organic grocer. Acure Radically Rejuvenating Facial Scrub with rose oil is just gentle enough to use every day. Or every other, as is my case.

I could go on forever but would love to hear what you’re loving lately.