by Michelle Ryan, Senior Teacher and Founder, Ashtanga Yoga Northampton I started Ashtanga 23 years ago, four months after the birth of my third child, my son. He was a big baby, as all of my babies were, close to 9lbs, with a big head, 95th percentile! I was in perhaps the worst shape of my life when I started the practice. But, I loved it, and became a fairly consistent practitioner, considering that I had three children under six when I started, beginning with one day a week in the studio (it was all I could afford and had time for, with three little ones!) and working up to six days of pr ..read more

by Michelle Ryan, Senior Teacher and Founder, Ashtanga Yoga Northampton I started Ashtanga 23 years ago, four months after the birth of my third child, my son. He was a big baby, as all of my babies were, close to 9lbs, with a big head, 95th percentile! I was in perhaps the worst shape of my life when I started the practice. But, I loved it, and became a fairly consistent practitioner, considering that I had three children under six when I started, beginning with one day a week in the studio (it was all I could afford and had time for, with three little ones!) and working up to six days of p ..read more

Film still from the movie "Annihilation" 2018. I've often speculated about the "after" - about the end times - with fear and curiosity. The fear and curiosity are still there, and I think we sense the "after" is almost upon us, far sooner than we anticipated. We also are sensing that there might be something we can do individually and collectively to save ourselves, too, "if only our leaders would guide us, make the right choices, do something!!" For most of the world's leaders, though, their desire for power blinded them to what's happening in the first place. And blind people can't lead ..read more

I spent the first ten years of my life as the only girl amongst a group of a half dozen or so boys, my older brother, his friends - boys who accepted my presence amongst them with a shrug. Corn and tobacco farm country, with houses spread out along the roads - not quite suburbia, but most definitely not the city. Our days were spent running in the cornfield next to my house, or in the woods, tobacco fields and turf farms beyond. Mostly, we played at “War” - which consisted of breaking up into teams, then separating for a tenth of a mile or so, with toy rifles (or just a long wooden st ..read more

Just as many of us enjoy opening the windows, washing the floors, and shaking out the winter dirt that has gathered into our homes over the winter, now is a great time to consider doing a personal Spring Cleanse, to clean up our bodily “temple.” The universal desire to “Spring Clean” is an intuitive feeling arising from the need for rejuvenation and renewal of our stagnant “winter” bodies. Even if you exercise daily and “eat healthy” during the winter, most of us feel an ebbing of energy and vitality during the dark winter months. Our bodies tend to accumulate and store fat during the w ..read more

Anger that has long been simmering inside me (erupting this year more times than I am proud of) has been replaced in the past few weeks with a weary yet calm clarity. I learned long ago that this world was filled with men who were sexually aggressive and violent, men who did terrible things to (mostly) women, and I knew they did these horrible things sometimes for years to many women, and that they got away with it, too - enabled and abetted and sometimes even celebrated by those around them. Because, Me, Too.  It is deeply disturbing and discouraging for all of us to finally bear witne ..read more

I keep coming back to this image throughout this past year of turmoil - she is the Hindu Goddess, Kaali. She is generally portrayed wielding a scimitar, with which she cuts off the delusional heads of demons, drinking their blood, burning them to ashes at a glance, and using the decapitated skulls as a macabre necklace. Her form is black. (And lest you be deeply disturbed by her as a "foreign" idol, consider that her darkness has a direct corollary in the Black Madonna, much revered in Europe still.) While her methods may seem to be quite violent and terrifying, in the Hindu mythology, she g ..read more

The Asuras (demons) and the Devas (the demigods) churning the Kshir Sagar, the Ocean of Milk to extract the Amrit (nectar) of immortality. I ran a yoga studio from 2009-2014 much like many folks run yoga studios nowadays: I held the lease, paid the rent and overhead, taught most of the classes to keep that overhead down, did most, if not all, of the administration, balanced the books, and basically was a control freak about all of it. Several other teachers taught on the roster, a few classes each, and I did my best to pay them fairly ($5 per student with no maximum, and $25 minimum even ..read more

I walk into my studio most mornings each week, and the first thing I do after taking off my coat and shoes is to greet and honor a statue of the Hindu deity, Ganesha, that resides in the practice room - usually with a short Ganapati chant that I sing while lighting candles and incense. If I have time, I anoint him with fresh water or essential oil while ringing a small brass bell as I chant. He’s a massive, modern bronze representation of Ganesha - beautiful, elaborate and stylized. One of his four hands holds a bowl of prasad, another an axe, and the third a goad. His fourth, one of th ..read more

Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want you to die for profit they will let you know. So, friends, every day do something that won't compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve i ..read more