When we dive deep, our yoga practice teaches us how to be of service.  Swami Satchidananda taught us that service-surrender (or non-attachment to the result of your service) is the way to live a peaceful, easeful, and useful life.

Act in a way that benefits someone, harms no one, and is performed without attachment to the result.

A tall order, for sure, but that is what yogic philosophy regards as a perfect act. So we are always returning to this idea when providing classes or finding ways to welcome you to the studio, even if that visit is virtual. 

How can we be of service to you? This includes how all of our teachers serve our students and also how Rita and I serve our teachers. 

What can we provide that will allow you to connect more deeply with your practice of yoga?  Not just poses, but your outlook on the world and yourself as well.

In the last year or so, I have been exploring yogic philosophy on this blog as a way to make connections for myself about how my yoga sadhana (daily routine) and the way I conduct the rest of my life interact.

I have tried to be open about how my own life has been transformed through my sadhana.  In being vulnerable, I hope to give courage to anyone who might be struggling with the vulnerabilities that we are learning to face this year (and realistically, all the time). 

I am not attached to this goal because just by writing, I have helped give courage to myself. The act of writing is done for its own sake.

Rita and I have been brainstorming in the background for several months now, trying to figure out ways to serve you even better next year.  This has been greatly helped by the addition of our fantastic social media manager, Lauren, who has lots of fun tricks up her sleeves.

And of course, our teachers just continue to take our ideas and run with them!  It's so fantastic to see their perspectives, toolkits, and styles getting richer and more specific, as we all work on this common goal of serving our lovely students.

Next year, I plan to re-calibrate the focus of this blog onto the practice of yoga, rather than the philosophy.  After all, as our beloved teacher, Sonia Sumar says, "too much theory intoxicates."

In yoga, we have to practice to learn.  With our whole heart, consistently, and for a long time, if we want to be firmly grounded in it (Yoga Sutras, I.14).  Luckily, to those of us who are eager, the attainment of yoga comes faster (Yoga Sutras, I.21).

So as we commit to new visions for 2021, let's hold our yoga sadhana as one of our highest priorities, whether that looks like classes in the studio, outdoors, live-streamed, pre-recorded, or self-led.

But if you are looking for extra special ways to commit to your practice, do we have some goodies for you!  Rita will lead a special Chakra themed  Restorative Yoga class in honor of the Winter Solstice.  I am leading a pajama party yoga class on the morning of Christmas Eve, and we'll team up with Kim to provide our third annual Reflect & Restore Workshop on New Year’s Eve, which is the perfect time to release the last year, create a vision for the next, and be guided toward bliss by the restorative yoga poses and heavenly essential oils.  I will also teach a four-week Yoga for Beginners class on Saturdays in January, just in case you know anyone with yoga resolutions.

Whatever your plans this holiday season, we hope that they are filled with the ease and flow of giving and receiving freely.  And may your yoga practice become even more firmly grounded in 2021.

It’s hard to count all the moments I might feel grateful for.  Even in the midst of deep turmoil and pain, there are things to appreciate.  Of course, our human brains are evolved to avoid threats and guard opportunities.  But every spiritual master I have heard or read has said that avoiding losses and preserving boons doesn't give a person true, lasting happiness.  That inevitably, life is a dance of gaining and losing, pleasure and pain.  True happiness, they say, is to feel content with profit and loss in equal measure.  Enjoy when it comes, enjoy when it goes.  Karma yoga then, is to act for the benefit of humanity without regard for the reward of your actions.

I have thought about this a lot since opening our studio.  There are busy days when it feels like every little thing has a hitch and needs my attention.  There are slow days when I feel worried that opening a studio was naïve without an MBA.  These thoughts, which Dr. Daniel G. Amen calls “ANTs” or automatic negative thoughts, obscure the reality of the situation I face.  When I really sit down to think about it, I see there is a thread of gratitude that runs through all of these challenges.  I can choose to direct my thoughts to that thread whenever I wish.  That is pratipaksha bhavana, which means to cultivate the opposite (positive thought).  It is easy for me to direct my thoughts towards positivity when I think about all the people I know through this studio.

At the risk of sounding like an Academy Award winner on Oscar night, I really feel that the studio would not be possible without everyone involved.  It starts with the students.  Without students, we are not teachers.  I know that all of the teachers at 5KY are incredibly grateful to you for sharing your practice with us.  Practicing yoga can be a time of deep intimacy and vulnerability (first of all, with one’s own self).  Your trust in us to navigate with you through it is something we do not take lightly.

No less important are the wonderful teachers and workshop leaders who choose to hold space here for that vulnerability.  They have many gifts and it touches me to see the flow between them and their students.  It inspires me to do my best work and create a space that nurtures personal transformation on every level.  I feel a deep commitment to the symbiotic growth between this community, our teachers, and our students.

On a personal but also, practical level is the gratitude I feel for the people behind the scenes.  Gratitude for the people who keep things running when I am away from the studio, the people working on our online presence in the wee hours of the night, the people offering support and guidance when I need it, as well as the people inspiring our mission.

And that is the definition of a sangha.  It is a collective of like-minded individuals, who remind one another of the mutual goal (no less than self-realization) and support each other in this bold pursuit.  Individuals who believe that by benefiting the sangha, we are benefited ourselves many times over.  It is a collective of people who are optimistic that humanity can be a force for good.  People who know that to create the intimacy and vulnerability we seem to lack today, we must focus on creating it within our own selves first.

There is so much that I have to feel grateful for this year.  I thank you for being a part of our sangha.  Happy Thanksgiving to you.

With Mother’s Day around the corner, we think it’s time for all of us to be good mothers to ourselves.  Yoga, meditation, eating right, getting good sleep; they’re all a part of nurturing our physical body. 

But what about when we need some nurturance for our emotions?  Bhakti Yoga or the path of devotion is one of the ways we can nurture our emotional side.  This devotion might take the form of formal religious devotion, chanting mantras, serving other members of humanity, or just appreciating beauty all around us.

One of the ways to build devotion is to create a personal altar.  Altars can ground us in our connection to our guru (teacher), to our sangha (community), to our own higher nature, and further, to all things. 

Having an altar to tend is like tending to our own emotional experience.  It is a place to come to in times of great joy or sadness, in fear and in calmness, so we can get in touch with the greater purpose of life – which is love.  When we connect to love, we more easily weather the changes/challenges that are inherent in living a life.

How should I create an altar? is a question that only the altar creator can answer.  It is a personal expression of your love.  However, there are a few general principles that a practitioner can follow to feel that their altar is aligning with tradition.  But as is expressed in the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 13, sloka 35, ​ 

So use your heart to guide you toward what inspires you.
 
    First, create a special space that will be used only for your altar.

• Ensure the space is in an area that will not be disturbed and where you can practice yoga and meditation peacefully.  When you approach your altar with reverence, your mind will get the message that this is a place of peace and associate your altar with calm feelings.
• Keep the space clean.  Think of your altar as an extension of your emotional self.  If it’s dusty, so are your emotions.  Cleaning your altar can become a way of taking care of your emotions.
• Put a nice cloth on the altar.  This will elevate the items you place on it.

 
    Place a few pictures of loved ones on your altar.

• The guru is the center of the altar.  Guru means dispeller of the darkness of ignorance.  It does not have to be a yogic guru, but pick someone whose messages are uplifting and meaningful.  When you practice yoga in front of an altar dedicated to a teacher who you feel connected to, you feel surrounded by the wisdom and inspiration of true presence.
• Pictures of your family or close friends bring your sangha into your home at all times and at any time you need.

 
    Candles, flowers, incense and statues of deities are classic additions to altars.

• Candles remind us of the inner light within us and within all things, connecting us to humanity and the wider world.
• Incense inspires our sense of smell, a sense so intimately connected to memory and emotion.
• Flowers and statues are expressions of beauty.  And beauty inspires feelings of love.

  Add things you find beautiful and inspiring.  Engage as many senses as possible.  On my personal altars, I also have -

• Bells and chimes
• Sea glass, sea shells, pretty crystals and rocks
• Quotes I find inspiring

​
An altar is truly a personal expression of the curator of that altar.  Like a prism, all love enters as a beam of pure light, but passed through the crystal, devotional practices spread across the spectrum. I truly hope you nurture your emotions through some devotion to love this month.  That is what motherhood is all about.

 I'm going to be honest, I'm not a natural at self-care.  Oh sure, I'm pretty good about meditating, doing yoga regularly, and eating relatively healthfully; but all of those things I can easily justify as "business-care".  I can't be a good teacher if I don't maintain my own practice.  It's only recently that I've noticed how essential self-care is within my practice, as both a person and a business-owner.
As you'd probably expect, I'm a pretty bendy person.  This has always been the case. But this flexibility comes with a dark side, as I easily injure my ligaments and tendons, and have a recurring thing where my knee cap pops over to one side.  Once, a doctor even cautioned me to wear orthotics to prevent the collapse of the arches of

I found an old article in Yoga Chicago about Sonia Sumar, who trained Jennie and I in the Yoga for the Special Child (YSC) method.  Sonia is the "guru" of teaching yoga to children with special needs.  She developed YSC after her daughter was born with Down Syndrome in 1972.

This article shows her working in her center in Evanston - where she taught for many years - though she now lives in Florida.  At Five Keys Yoga, we aim to continue her legacy in Chicagoland by providing the Yoga for the Special Child method and classes that welcome adults with special needs.  We are honored to serve the special needs population in Chicago.

Are you interested in Yoga for the Special Child?  Check out information about our kids classes here.