Conscious Living News

“What is Oneness?

Oneness is more than a beautiful word. Science increasingly shows it is our true nature – that life is a unified whole with multiple dimensions, each complementing the other.

Beyond that, Oneness is the key to peace.”

“Citizen science” isn’t the study of all of us who reside in the U.S., but rather a way of collecting information that has become popular in recent years. The phrase refers to volunteers who work as field assistants for scientific studies. In a time when school and natural resources department budgets are tight, using ordinary folks to gather and record wildlife and environmental observations can stretch research dollars by getting reams of data for no cost.

I love a party. No matter my advancing age, a birthday is cause for celebration. Though I officially celebrate Christmas, count me in for Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa or Chinese New Year or, heck, pretty much anything that involves food and merriment.

The recent New York Times article “When Chakras and Chocolate Collide” triggered a cascade of associations for me around yogis, food and eating disorders. I am a proponent of any diet that makes you feel well in both body and mind, and that one person’s food can literally be another person’s poison. I truly appreciate the dilemma that many folks face when they decide to commit fully to the precepts and teachings of Yoga, but I also think there is another side to the story – that of “rules and restrictions.”

The horrors in Haiti hit me deeply, and I was compelled into action when the call came for doctors, surgeons and medical supplies to treat the hundreds of thousands of wounded.

There are few times in our lives when we can contribute to something larger than ourselves. Now, felt like one of those times for me.

Yoga Tune Up® Teacher Training graduates

We are closing our decade, and it’s time to take a look back at 2009 and the amazing year of growth in our U.S. yoga community. One thing is for certain: Despite the economy and the recession, there was constant growth and expansion in the yoga world!

Have you started to think about what changes you would like to make in 2010? Who do you really want to be? It’s your time; will you take it higher?

Here are some tips on how to make a powerful commitment to becoming who you really want to be.

You may know you want to seek enlightenment, but how exactly do you define it and know what you’re looking for? One astute attendee at the Vancouver Yoga Conference, where Colleen and I were answering questions about our online yoga site the Gaiam Yoga Club, asked us for our insight. “That’s the question we’re asking every day,” says Colleen. “What is enlightenment? What does it feel like? How do I get there?” Get our answer in this video that’s not what you might expect.

If you could attend a workshop with Gandhi, the Dalai Lama or Martin Luther King, Jr., you’d sign up just as fast as you could, wouldn’t you? I felt just as excited when I heard that Thich Nhat Hanh — a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, master meditation teacher and renowned advocate for peace — was offering a day of mindfulness near my home. The day-long program was put on by the Omega Institute at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, meaning all this Brooklynite mom had to do was arrange for childcare and get on the subway. Done.

Dressed top to bottom courtesy of Zobha, I point out trigger points on my assistant Florence's back.

Last weekend I presented three Yoga Tune Up® workshops at the Inner IDEA Conference near Palm Springs, Calif. This yearly gathering brings together the leading innovators of the mind-body fitness world to convene at the serene La Quinta Resort in Palm Desert. As always, the event saw a great turnout. My Yoga Tune Up® workshops were packed, and Gaiam and its SPRI team generously provided a variety of props for my sessions.