April comes around too quickly. How can another year have passed, and now we are completing 26 years? I am not sure how a practice of commitment started, but as I move forward this month and begin another lap around the sun, I am asking for help. The community needs students and teachers to sustain the foundation of these teachings. Cultivating when the world is hurting has been difficult, and attention to daily living has become challenging. I know that I need to take a rest and restore. As much as I adore creating venues for teachings, travel, and training, I long to step back and soak in th ..read more

The greatest work you can do in this world begins inside you. Do you wish to change the world? Then change the inner condition inside yourself. Do you wish to change the culture? Change your ways. Want a healthier society? Change your mind. World peace? Peace your inner world. Action arising from right thought. If you want more kindness, practice being kind to yourself. The path of yoga is a journey inward. If you pause, listen to the sounds around you, not the noise in your head, but the actual living sounds around you. Take in a breath, inhale, pause, exhale, pause. Observe the effects of ..read more

Another spin around the sun and the beginning of a new year. I am never a fan of any resolutions, which is just another “to-do list“ for expectations to disappoint. It’s just another way to set up the mind to try and reach an outcome that implies where I am is “NOT good enough.” This is my little mind’s constant longing and thinking that when I get there, I might love myself. Starting now, starting at this moment, I am enough. What if, at this moment, all is good and all is right and enough? Well, my little voice will never believe that and answer in its critical way, ”It's horrible out there ..read more

Sometimes I feel so much doubt. I catch myself swimming in a mind of confusion questioning my choices and fearing that I’m wasting my energy on running a small business and maintaining a space where so few people enter. After Covid, we have struggled to maintain our existence and there has been so much loss. Students have gone, teachers have left with health issues, and I miss my sweet Michael as the first anniversary of his passing is coming up on Dec. 6. It’s been a challenging year for so many and inspiring new students to enter has been nothing short of frustration. Am I wasting my vital e ..read more

We’ve just returned from another wonderful journey, hosting our retreat in the incredible Dordogne region of France. During these turbulent times on Mother Earth, nothing is better for the soul than having an opportunity to practice going inward as we travel outward. Our mind is the only vehicle we have to make the discerning choices of how we perceive the outer world. This is a heightened opportunity for the community to unite with the highest intentions to heal hearts. The entire practice for our retreat in France revolved around the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. A year ago, after his death ..read more

Welcome to the autumn season in the Western Hemisphere. No matter where you live, it’s the time when all is in supreme balance. This brief moment of time offers us the opportunity for the celestial blessings of oneness. Inspiring all of our experience with the divine intelligence behind all of life. This merging between the endings and beginnings, between the light and the dark, between the heat and the cool. This oneness is not separate from us and the actual feeling of being present as a state of balance. When we feel at peace in this quality of stillness, the welcoming of this shift of pers ..read more

Life is messy, especially when we let go of being perfect.  I am always reminding myself that I am a work in progress. It’s a gift to be willing to enjoy the uncertainty of living. I can set intentions and let go of striving to reach a goal. I may be able to create venues of learning and let go of who might answer the inner invitation to join. My identity is always changing with my various roles.  My true purpose is to create safe havens for the mind to rest and for the soul to be nourished. Yoga is a lifestyle of living in mindful awareness that to bully me is to feed the wrong mind ..read more

On Season 1, Episode 37 of the Strongoo Podcast, Laura Jane is a guest and sits down to chat with Joe Donar. Calling her one of his most amazing teachers, they discuss how we can activate more vitality in our lives by listening to that kinder voice inside us. And how painful it is to accept all of who we are so we can heal by building the tools we need to put our pieces back together again. Listen on Apple Podcasts here. RSS Feed Joe Donar’s intention for the Strongoo podcast is to help individuals to create action by opening up, being vulnerable, getting uncomfortable, and having hard conver ..read more

Waking today and lighting my pilot light. The inner fire of passion becomes the illuminated light of the soul shining. I have been asked why there is so much anger in the world now. We are wired for self-preservation, our mind is always roaming, looking out for our survival. Fear of NOT having is the motivator for life which turns on the fire for survival, doing, getting, striving, and it never turns off. Anger keeps people alive, but it never allows for resting and cultivating a quality of peace or ease. Living in a wildfire of anger blinds the mind from seeing clearly. Exhaustion follows, an ..read more

Welcoming summer is a celebration of the light. Oh, how I love taking all those layers off and walking freely outside, feeling the warmth of the summer sun on my skin! The Midwest is not my first choice for ideal living conditions, but no one does summer better than us. Celebrating the long days and the glory of those sweet nights on my front porch. Feeling the ease of life’s pace slowing down and enjoying the outdoors. Living my yoga off the mat but always coming back to my mat as a reminder that everything of gratitude starts with my yoga practice. Starting this Sunday, June 4, we will be ho ..read more