Month: June 2021

On this last day of Covid restrictions, I want to congratulate each one of you for making it through this most challenging time. Thank you for your willingness to read my words. thank you for the way in which you have made use of the words in your own life.

Many of you have found your way to our Hatha Yoga Center live streaming group for yoga at home. A few have returned to us in person. Soon, you may find your way back to us. I look forward to serving our community this weekend at our Grand Reopening celebration. I’ll be serving Vegan treats from my new cookbook, Whomp!

How do you feel about the end of Covid restrictions? How will it impact your yoga practice? Ki to Happiness feels festive and wants to give your practice a hug.

The Pacific Northwest’s fever has broken. The heat dome that led to the highest temperatures ever recorded has moved onward. Nighttime temperatures in the 70s felt delicious.

A combination of the 15 month pandemic, fire season last year, and then the heat dome have been a trifecta of challenge. As we release Covid restrictions, let’s also release trauma stored within.

Are you cooling off yet? What will help you release this most recent trauma of record breaking climate change temperatures? Ki to Happiness soaks in the safety of this present coolness.

I’m thinking about the earth worms. I’m aware that they dig deeper into the earth when they need healing. They also dig deeper for coolness. On this day that promises sweltering heat, we might do well to similarly lay low.

Yoga offers us the awareness that we contain within us all of the other evolutionary stages we have moved through to become human beings. Tracking all the way back to our earth worm stage may be a good use of our big heavy brains today. Get close to the good cool mother earth and heal.

Where can you find some cool earth today? What might you be able to heal as you allow yourself to lay low? Ki to Happiness digs deep.

During this heat wave in the Pacific Northwest I like to use some tricks I learned in the tropics for staying cool. I also learned plenty growing up in steamy St. Louis. My young adulthood as a Deadhead also contributes to my use of my own personal fan club.

Having a cool bath, my hair still wet and pulled back, I lie down in the fan. Sipping cool jasmine green tea with a splash of limeade, pleasant refreshment brings down my core temperature. Yoga practices easily adjust to incorporate these tricks.

What are your favorite tricks to stay cool? What can you adjust so that you can continue your yoga practice? Ki to Happiness hangs out in her fan club.

Today the strawberry moon starts to lose a bit of its fullness. This occurs as a heat warning is on our area. We are fortunate that the moon phase which is called waning Gibbous moon will let some of the emotional heat out.

It’s time to chill. Cooling yoga practices and visualizations help us align with that need. When I first started teaching yoga regularly in the hot tropics, of necessity I gravitated toward the cooling breath. Decades later it serves me and those I instruct. Inhale through your mouth and smile! Exhale through either your mouth or your nose.

How can you chill? What practices best serve your need? Ki to Happiness chills with yogic breathing and starfish meditation!

Warm welcome reunites me with Seattle. My good friend picked me up at the airport. All three cats came out to greet me. My husband and business partner updated me about the changes and progress here.

I left behind my dad, sleeping in his nest. My mom dropped me off and went on her way to her ritual self-care. My brother withstood the second surgery on his eye. Each of us rests now into healing deep places within ourselves having been supported by our time together.

How warm is your welcome when you return home? What deep healing continues underneath surface activities? Ki to Happiness warmly welcomes all to reunite with deepest healing.

I’m preparing to return to Seattle. There has been much healing during my time attending to my family. I’ve done what I came here to do. Now it’s time to let that rest.

Healing takes time. And right conditions. From the middle of the country I see evidence that there’s bigger healing going on in our nation. I love it when the inner and the outer mirror one another. I see that happening now.

How is your healing? Can you see it reflected in the outer realm? Ki to Happiness supports right conditions.

On my way out of town I had a brief visit with an old friend. We met in a parking lot in front of the local food co-op. Over 30 years ago I was its store manager. One job in that capacity was the making of tofu- for the whole community!

Now it is a fully functioning modern grocery store. I entered in out of curiosity after our farewell hug and discovered a Disney land of choices. Dazzled, I became aware of my own growth paralleled in the growth of this community establishment.

What is growing along with you? Do you have some thing by which you can measure yourself? Ki to Happiness measures growth in increments of peace.

As this successful trip comes to an end, it is time for me to relax. it takes a lot of energy to travel, to meet the need that required the trip, and now to release the effort. T

That energy will be used for something else very soon. Like getting back home. And getting ready to reopen! So this little moment of downtime is more important than it may look on the surface.

How readily can you shift from active focus to passive restoration? And back to active focus? Ki to Happiness practices these transitions with yoga.

Sitting out in the hissing of evening, the heat of the day exhaled. in the thick woods and dense grasses shimmering began. As my eyes focused, I saw the Midwestern insect delight. Fire flies turning on their love light dazzled these eyes, weary from travel.

It’s as if they come from dust. From nothing. Out from under leaves, hidden under bush, they suddenly burst forth. Signaling with their own Morse code language of light to one another. What are they saying? “I’m here!”

How was your longest night? What simple pleasures of summer enjoy? Ki to Happiness lights up!