Part of practicing metta meditation involves working with beings that are “neutral” to us. These beings are neutral in the sense that they do not trigger too strongly within us a sense of aversion or attachment, hate or love, etc.
Since the pandemic, when I work with neutral beings in my metta meditations, many of the people, trees and animals I have encountered on my walks (often along the harbor) have come to mind.
And as we practice sending well wishes and lovingkindness towards them, they become less neutral and we feel more connected to them. They do not do anything; this happens just by thinking of them, visualizing them and sending them love.
A beautiful aspect of this practice is that with time, they may become less neutral. Over time our softened eyes and tender hearts may see less neutrality and more interconnectedness.
Through the practice of metta meditation especially when working with people that challenge us (i.e., “the other,” our enemy, opponent), it can be a practice of working with heartbreak – exposing unhealed wounds or scars.
In my practice, people often come up that have essentially broken my heart – acted in ways that I experience as unkind, harmful, cruel, unjust, etc. Practice asks me to wish them well nonetheless.
Practice can sometimes lead to forgiveness, which is great (bonus!). Practice is the tool to stay broken/mended while at the same time stay open. When life gives us people and situations that break our hearts, we are also given the opportunity to break open.
May all beings be filled with peace🤍
May all beings always love and feel loved
Midweek Metta Meditation
Wednesdays 7:30-8p (ET)
Join me for a weekly guided metta/lovingkindness meditation practice tonight. The offering includes a guided practice and some time for check-in and questions before and after. To join, please message me with the best email address to send the link.
I am grateful for this opportunity to practice in community, and help spread the seeds of metta/lovingkindness.
Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach
This winter feels like the shortest in my life. Maybe this was the first year I more fully lived the energy of the season. I mostly cocooned except for teaching online, taking walks, running errands and visiting parents.
The winds of stir crazy, of change and of starting anew are palpable. This time of hope is balanced by a fear of the unknown. As I read Sarah Ban Breathnach’s words, I can quiet the breath of pessimism and despair by pointing to the sun and the moon. Life’s cyclical trajectory is undeniable – loss and renewal, jobs, students and studios that come and go, and the return of spring’s blooms and blossoms.
I wish you all the best with the start of the spring season. I look forward to developing my wings and to seeing yours.
I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better”. — Abraham Lincoln
This quote has been with me for years as part of my long journey towards developing self-acceptance and the ability to forgive myself and others. It is the essence of metta practice.
Unconditionally accepting ourselves and others can feel impossible, especially in working with those that challenge us; those we do not like, hate, other, or call enemy or opponent.
The “getting to know them better” words of Abraham Lincoln remind me of what Valarie Kaur shares in her powerful and moving TED talk “3 Lessons of Revolutionary Love in a Time of Rage,” in which she encourages us to “wonder” about others:
Papa Ji dried my tears — gave me the words of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith. “I see no stranger,” said Nanak. “I see no enemy.” My grandfather taught me that I could choose to see all the faces I meet and wonder about them. And if I wonder about them, then I will listen to their stories even when it’s hard. I will refuse to hate them even when they hate me. I will even vow to protect them when they are in harm’s way. That’s what it means to be a Sikh: S-i-k-h. To walk the path of a warrior saint.”
I am looking forward to reading her book “See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love” (Bookshop.org, Amazon.com). I am grateful to have come to Valarie Kaur through one of my all-time favorites Ani Difranco whose new album “Revolutionary Love” includes musical expressions of their shared mission.
The choice to love our opponents is moral and pragmatic, and it opens up the previously unimaginable possibility of reconciliation.” – Valarie Kaur
“Humility and gratitude go hand in hand. The feeling of gratitude is an interaction between the mind and the body. Both will benefit from it. Awareness increases so that we become grateful for everything we are given. We have to learn, literally learn, to be grateful for what we receive day by day, simply to balance the criticism that, day by day, we voice because of powerful emotions.” — Swami Sivananda Radha
I appreciate Swami Sivananda Radha’s powerful words given the negative propensity of my internal dialogues. Gratitude coupled with a disciplined yoga and metta meditation practice have helped me “balance the criticism.”
I have returned to an almost-daily gratitude journal, a practice that reminds me how much I have to be grateful for. I am especially grateful to continue teaching daily through classes, private sessions and recordings. It means a lot to have your support and to be a continuing or a new part of your practice and journey. Teaching online and reconnecting with you has been a lifeline back to myself.
As we take the necessary precautions over the next few months, I would like to support your well-being throughout this winter and beyond. Amid the uncertainty of the future (i.e. reopening, teaching opportunities, etc.), I am feeling more certain that I want to continue teaching online. This convenient and accessible teaching mode continues to feel more natural, and it has been a bridge to a more disciplined and persistent practice.
How can I help you?
Through teaching I aim to offer options that support you in strengthening your self-awareness and that empower you to take more informed actions. I offer a practice that incorporates and encourages functional movements (i.e., strength, stability, stretching, balance), conscious awareness and breath, and a challenge to your comfort on some level, which some days may simply be a challenge to your patience.
My yin and restorative Yoga offerings aim to facilitate a bit more stillness, patience and relaxation. These practices support calming the nervous system and downregulation, as well as balancing the doing/yang parts of ourselves (i.e., more be less do).
I also offer a free weekly guided metta meditation practice, dedicated to making friends with ourselves and others unconditionally.
Ultimately, I am here to connect, and to facilitate our connection to each other, and the deeper part of ourselves that is resilient beyond our adversities, perceptions and physical abilities.
Yoga at the Wall Workshop – Sunday December 13th 9:30-11:30a
I have missed teaching Yoga at the wall, and am excited to offer at least a monthly class starting next Sunday. In this practice we use the wall as a prop to support and inform practice. To register for the Wall Workshop please pay $13-31 via Venmo or PayPal and confirm your email to receive the Zoom link.
2. After paying, dm or email me with the best email to send the link on the day of practice
3. I will send the Zoom link one hour before class (please check spam folder)
* For the Mid-week Metta Meditation, skip step 1, and email me your interest in receiving the link.
I am offering each class on a pay-what-you-can basis from $4-$18.
Payment options: I do not currently offer any memberships, per se. However, you can make advanced payments for classes you intend to take over a monthly/bi-weekly or weekly basis.
Recordings
Please continue to reach out for recordings when you are going to miss or missed a class, so you can best fit it into your schedule. Recordings are available for a few days after the class time.
Mid-week Metta Meditation Wednesdays 7:30-8p ET
I am continuing to offer a free guided metta meditation. The offering will include a guided metta meditation practice and some time for check-in and questions before and after. To join, please message me for the link and I will send it before the session begins.
I wish you much peace, health, strength, and joy through the holidays, and hope to support you with some degree of stability, strength, and the courage to be you.
I will leave you with these words of Swami Vivekananda that support our resilience:
“We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in the future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.” – Swami Vivekananda
The following wisdom of Donna Farhi that I shared in class this week (from her book Bringing Yoga to Life) deeply resonates with my metta meditation and Yoga practices:
“What we discipline, then, is this movement of awareness, training ourselves to stay with rather than run from all that we experience. When we choose to stay with our practice despite the inevitable highs and lows in our lives, we are actively choosing to focus our awareness on the part of us that is unchanging. With each practice session, we start to identify with this steady part of ourselves. When we’re feeling sad, we practice anyway. When we’re happy and excited, we practice anyway. When we’re in the depths of grief, we practice anyway. When we have a thousand things to do, we practice anyway. We do not practice to rid ourselves of these feelings or to suppress them. Neither do we practice out of stoic denial. When we practice through thick and thin, happy and unhappy times, we are saying: “Sadness is moving through me, but sadness is not who I am; excitement is moving through me, but excitement is not who I am; grief is moving through me, but grief is not who I am.” When we practice anyway, we make room to fully experience all our feelings while at the same time not allowing those feelings to paralyze or solidify into our identity.”
Mad River Metta in Waterville Valley, NH
I was also reminded of my experience practicing metta meditation by the Mad River in Waterville Valley a couple of months ago. The river supported a deeper and more palpable connection to an infinite ‘force of kindness.’ This loving force persists beneath our mad world of attachments, ignorance, and fluctuations of thoughts and emotional states.
This abiding force is easily forgotten, however, readily available. The discipline of practicing yoga and meditation helps to illuminate this connection. Simply grounding my awareness in my breath, and consciously breathing can also center me in the present moment.
Specifically practicing Metta meditation throughout the day can readily anchor me when I catch myself adrift in separation, anxiety, shame and/or self-loathing.
Midweek Metta
I am happy to offer a free guided Midweek Metta Meditation practice on Wednesday nights from 7:30-8p. The offering will include a quick check-in, guided metta meditation practice and some time for check-in and questions after. To join, please message me for the link with your email address and I will send it before the session begins.
May you be safe and healthy and filled with much love, peace and courage.
I wanted to thank you for your support over the years, and over the last couple of months of teaching online. I am so grateful to those of you who have made the time to practice with me.
I shared these words from Sharon Salzberg in class last night. This is a simple and hopeful reminder that we are never stuck:
“Nothing is static or fixed. The world is continually being reborn, including ourselves. We can thus envision, aspire and transform.” – Sharon Salzberg
These words have been a support as I begin adding more classes to my teaching schedule. Your participation in the Doodle poll really helped me to clarify your preferences, and to discern my next steps. I am excited to accommodate as many requests as I can with additional classes. I hope the schedule changes are helpful, as it means so much to have you there, benefiting from the opportunities for self-care and connection that class provides. My new schedule starts Sunday Nov. 1st:
2. After paying, dm or email me with the best email to send the link on the day of practice
3. I will send the Zoom link one hour before class (please check spam folder)
* For the Mid-week Metta Meditation, skip step 1, and email me your interest in receiving the link.
I am offering each class on a pay-what-you-can basis from $4-$18.
(Please feel free to adjust your rate to meet the frequency of attendance.)
Note: you can make advanced payment for a few classes a week or for a month if it is more convenient.
Recordings are available for a few days if you cannot make the scheduled time.
Mid-week Metta Meditation Class
One of the joys of our experience of this life is that we are presented, moment-by-moment, the opportunity to shut down or stay open. There is freedom in this choice. It has been so meaningful to include mini metta or lovingkindness meditation practices at the end of each class. People have shared that the opportunities metta practice provides to strengthen their self-love, -acceptance, -compassion and -worth muscles, as well as deepen their connection to others are priceless. The seeds of this practice have provided my life with much opening and fulfillment.
Starting in November I am happy to be offering a free guided Mid-week Metta Meditation practice on Wednesday nights from 7:30-8p. The offering will include a quick check-in, guided metta meditation practice and some time for check-in and questions after. To join, please message me for the link and I will send it before the session begins.
Halloween Class
I will be guest teaching virtually through the Yoga Loft of Marblehead this coming Saturday October 31st from 8:15-9:30a. Click here to join: https://www.theyogaloftmarblehead.com/sign-up
Thanksgiving Class
I am planning to teach my new Thursday morning 9a class on Thanksgiving, so please join me if you like.
Workshop or Specialty Offerings
Please share your thoughts on a one-time pop-up or more regular workshop (monthly)?: Workshop ideas include: chair-as-prop yoga, couch/easy chair yoga, wall yoga, sliding yoga practice (towels or blankets on floor, paper plates on carpet?), handstand prep, upward facing bow/wheel prep, extended ball rolling and stretch, etc.
I want to thank Ram Dass for his thoughtful inspiration:
“I would like to play the part of someone who has worked on my consciousness sufficiently so that if things get tough, in terms of the environment, issues with social structures, oppression, protecting minority groups, whatever the thing is — I would like to be able to be in the scene without getting caught in my own reactivity to it, without getting so caught in my own fear that I become part of the problem instead of part of the solution.”
I wish you much peace, health, strength, and courage through the coming months, and hope to support you with some degree of stability, strength and openness.
Autumn offers a beautiful opportunity for us to reflect on transitions and impermanence. This may feel especially relevant and challenging now given COVID-19 and all that is going on in the world. The closing of studios including Yang’s in Andover where I began teaching, is a reminder that transitions can sometimes be difficult. I am grateful for the opportunities and community connections these spaces have given me: Yang’s, Yogaworks, Samara, etc.
I have been surprised at how much I appreciate and value the transition to teaching online. It was difficult at first, as I faced anxiety and feelings of unworthiness similar to what I felt when I first started teaching in 2007. These are examples of how things that initially make me want to curl-up and hide, are often the very things I need to do. Staying under the covers is not a long-term growth strategy. This is a reminder of the value of working with resistance and doing the hard things. Steven Pressfield nicely describes this in his book The War of Art:
“Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do.
Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.
Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That’s why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no Resistance.”
I am starting to feel another level of ease teaching with this format. Teaching online is even feeding the introvert aspects of my personality. I feel more purposeful in my teaching, and sharing metta meditation with each class is especially meaningful. (See my recent post: Finding My Way and Joy with Teaching Online)
I am grateful that the logistical conveniences of teaching online have allowed me to connect and reconnect with people from all over, regardless of our respective physical locations. This gave me the special opportunity to spend time in nature during the autumnal equinox and continue to teach for a week at my sister’s timeshare in Waterville Valley, NH.
Thank you all for the kind messages in support of my anxiety about teaching online and being in front of the camera. I am excited to offer two more weekly Zoom sessions on Thursdays and Saturdays (see schedule below). I am also continuing to offer private personal and group classes online, so please let me know if you would like more information on those.
Weekly Live Yoga Classes on Zoom
Mondays 7:20-8:30p EST Yin/Restorative Yoga + Metta Meditation
Wednesdays 5:20-6:40p EST Alignment-based Yoga + Metta Meditation
Thursdays 6:30-7:30p EST Ball Rolling + Stretch Class (starts October 8) NEW!
Saturdays 9-10:30a EST Alignment-based Yoga + Metta Meditation (starts October 3) NEW!
The ball rolling class will serve as a self-massage and stretch class. It is a great opportunity for self-care and downregulation of the nervous system. The ball rolling class will primarily use two rubber balls, in addition to blocks, a blanket and a strap or band. I use and teach with the following types of Yoga Tune Up Balls: Apple Green: https://amzn.to/3fId2wN Acqua Blue: https://amzn.to/2F3akpf
Guest Teaching at the Yoga Loft of Marblehead on Halloween
Saturday October 31 @ 8:15-9:30a -Alignment-based flow class online through the Yoga Loft of Marblehead: Click to join!
Metta/Lovingkindness Meditation
Metta meditation has been a powerful tool towards cultivating self-acceptance, love, worthiness, forgiveness, and compassion. I am continuing to share an abbreviated metta meditation practice at the end of each class. Previously, I have led metta meditation practices in workshops/trainings and retreats. Sharing this lovingkindness meditation is very meaningful, and has become such a gift.
I have recently shared a 15-minute guided metta meditation practice on YouTube:
I created a vitoyoga channel and started offering some initial instructional videos of practices I find useful, especially as a tighter yogi. Please subscribe and like them if they are useful, and if you would like updates.
La Vita Bella: Yoga in Italia Retreats Postponed to Fall 2021
Fortunately, the International Yoga team was able to postpone this year’s retreats to Fall 2021. If you are interested or have questions, please let me know. The new dates and details:
“Sometimes I go about with pity for myself and all the while Great Winds are carrying me across the sky.” Ojibway Saying from Mark Nepo’s The Book of Awakening
I have been sharing abbreviated metta or lovingkindness meditation practices with each Yoga class on Zoom. Here is a longer 15 minute guided meditation practice to cultivate and strengthen love, compassion, worthiness and acceptance towards ourselves and ALL beings.
Find a comfortable seated position or lie down – whatever serves you best. Repeat the following well-wishes silently to yourself aiming to feel the words as you say them:
May I/you/all be filled with peace
May I/you/all be healthy and strong
May I/you/all be safe and protected
May I/you/all always feel loved
Please note that this practice can be challenging, and evolves over time. You may experience strong emotions, which is ok. However, if any part of the practice (i.e., the person you are focusing on, etc.) is overwhelming or does not serve you in your current practice, allow yourself to change the object of focus.
Personally, metta meditation has been a powerful practice that has helped me to manifest and strengthen feelings of self-love, self-worth, self-forgiveness, self-compassion, and resilience.
One year ago I was leading a life-changing Yoga + Metta retreat and journey to Peru. It was an intimate group of special souls in a sacred land, that is made even more so by the practices of the indigenous people and shamanic ceremonies.
Now in this time of COVID-19, I was given a time of “retreat” from the seemingly endless cycle of pre-COVID days of teaching and commuting – luckily my cycle includes special people and places…and the ability to bicycle to class!! I have been able to experience the precious changing landscape of flowers and trees along the greenway and harborwalk of Boston throughout the days and weeks, in a way I never have.
A few weeks ago, I wasn’t looking at mountains or valleys, but sitting by the water watching the dance of the waves, the reflections of the effects of light and sky, the endless palette of blue, sunset and cloudy. Reflecting on the continued lessons of interconnectedness, and inequality – I remembered, Peru was already a year ago!!!
I don’t believe I could capture in words the experiences we shared, as I was regularly awed and speechless. I am so grateful for each on the trip — for making it possible, and for sharing their presence.
I am grateful to the International Yoga team of Stephanie, Merrisa and Michelle for not only making this possible, but also coordinating and connecting us to this journey. I am grateful to the warm hosts of Sacha Munay, the natural connected architecture, the paradise of exotic flowers, and the bounty of local food, their kind and generous cooking team – the teas!, the beauty of the yoga temple, the ever more expansive sense of place offered by Tony’s astronomy lesson, the breathe work with Jesse, Garth’s welcome, guidance and care, our grounding Shaman Vilma, our teacher and leader Valentin, and his BEST team including Nilton! and our safe travels with Daniel on our bus-filled adventures…I could go on and on.
My deep gratitude for the trip, a true exposure to the beauty and sacredness of nature and our surroundings – the mountains, water, earth, astronomy, history and our interconnectedness. I am grateful for the puma, snake and condor, the sacred timing and circumstances that brought us all together.
