All The Single Ladies (and Fellas)
I’d like to speak to my single friends out there.
I know single life. Despite being in a long-term relationship, I remember all too well what being single was like. People shocked at why I was single, trying to fix me up with who they considered like-minded suitors, and occasionally eyeing me up with a look that insinuated that perhaps there was something about me that they didn’t know about that was at the root of my “single” status, a built-in personality quirk, a relationship-assassin, if you will.
Human Being Human
We fuck up.
This little nugget of insight might seem childishly obvious, but for some reason it’s also the little nugget that instigates the most destructive thought patterns and behaviours in us mere mortals.
Musings
On the eve of my 41st birthday, I find myself reflecting on how simple it would be to move from the chaos that seems to be sweeping the globe to perspective, peace and purpose. Based solely on my own experience and observations, here are some reminders to help maintain clarity and meaning, especially in the moments that would ordinarily send us into a downwards spiral:
Dealbreaker
In recent asana and iRest® Yoga Nidra classes I have been very focused on the role that our core beliefs play in the paths our lives travel down and how we show up in our own lives and the world around us. In my quest to awaken students to their greatest potential through the examination […]
Unteachable
What I do as a teacher is try to steer students towards the unteachable.
Absoluteless
I remember having a discussion with a friend of mine whose daughter was less than 2 years old and asking him what the best part of being a father was. He told me that he loved seeing his daughter evolve, day by day, bit by bit, and seeing what morsel of character or personality she would display. Every day was a new discovery, and with every discovery he got to know who his daughter was turning out to be. Her talents, likes, dislikes, and sense of humour slowly unfolded, and he never knew when it would happen or how it would manifest. All he knew was that every day was a new opportunity to see his daughter’s personality emerge that much more.
Weekend of Workshops in Montreal
I have been intermittently traveling for over a year now to bring my teaching, workshops and book (www.theexaminedlifebook.com) all over the country and the world, so when a student asked me when I would be giving workshops in Montreal, I realized that by bringing my gig all over the globe, I was essentially ignoring my home town. The workshops I typically give in Montreal are either associated to teacher training programs or festivals, available exclusively to those who have enrolled in whatever event I’m on the faculty of. And so I began thinking about creating a full weekend of workshops available to everyone and anyone, here in Montreal. And once I started thinking about it, as one would expect, more and more students started approaching me asking me for exactly what I had started planning.
A Drop of Kindness
“By cultivating attitudes of friendliness towards the happy, gratitude towards the friendly/kind, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind stuff retains its undisturbed calmness.” – Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras 1.33.
Don’t Give Up
You know what keeps on popping up in my mentoring sessions and in my own personal development? Clinging to what we hoped could have been, to what we planned for, to what we dreamed might actually push the boundary of what we believed possible into the realm of the sublime. The outcomes of these spirit-crushing […]
…Then We Took Berlin
I’m lying on the bed in the hotel room in Berlin that’s been home for the last 9 days, sun streaming through the window pane, bathing me in a sunbeam that only my pup Willow could truly appreciate as much as I’m doing right now. I’m feeling reflective, as I always am at the tail end of the yoga trips I hold. The last of our bunch left this morning, and as everyone slowly trickled onward to wherever their next destination was, I started to feel that pang again. I feel it every time a retreat ends, but the sensation is not solely relegated to these specific trips we take.