Holiday Contemplations

I feel like Winter Solstice is the ultimate Yogi's Holiday. It's a deep respect and honoring of the pause, of the inner exploration, of the magic of the depths.

Yoga invites us to explore not just our body's movements, but our interiority as well. As we close our eyes at the beginning and end of a class, we move into relationship with that which is within. Our eyes close to the exterior light, and yet even behind our eyelids, there is the shimmer of consciousness: tejase. Our eyes temporarily close to that which is outside of us, so as to be more connected to that which moves, sustains, and flows within us.

The winter solstice is the shortest day, and longest night. It is nature's invitation for us to notice the natural pull to move into deeper intimacy with the darkness, the night, the mystical, and the fertile richness of the cave of the heart.

Our yoga helps us access our wholeness, which includes the personality we share with the world, but that also includes our subtle body, our mind, our energy and our breath, our inner wisdom and intuition, and the bliss of our essence.

At this time of the year, we honor the treasures unseen by the eye, but known by the heart. Have a very blessed holiday.