COURTNEY ROHAN YOGA

We have many layers to our lives in the body. We have skin, facia, tissue, muscles, bones, organs, networks, systems, channels, physical and subtle levels too. We have sides, front and back, left and right. We are round and dense in places and yet light. Always pulsing and changing, dropping and picking up. Becoming. We are energy, possess energy and live due to the amount of energy we can kindle. How can we be doing all of this at once? For most of this occurs without our thought. When it does become a thought of what we should do next, what is it that has transpired? So much happens without our direct attention or control, until it doesn't. We can do something when our layers “break down.”  There is hope in every situation. But I know, that thought is not always easy to find, and often when we think it, it can be maddening, if we are not in the right heart/head space. If we can bring the right and the left together for clarity, we can follow the intuitive bread crumbs to th

Before you read anymore, I have a couple questions to ask you.  1. Do you feel like you are always moving and doing and never fully resting and relaxing? 2. Do you feel like you don't have enough time? Are you more often than not running late or running out of time? The culture that we are within is one of many go getters. We live in a nonstop culture, which tells us: "go get" or "have not." It's no wonder, for centuries masculine energy of fast and furious has been the guide to "success." The people who appear successful are the ones who go after the cookie and get the job done, right? However, many of these same people get the cookie and before they can enjoy it, crash and burn, fast and furiously. Having worked so hard to get what they've fought for, they've train themselves to keep going even when the cookie is in their possession. This is the rat race. "After THIS, then I'll eat the cookie," they say. They could sit down

This past week I have been talking to my students about the importance of opening your heart before you give unto others. If we give from a stagnant or restrained heart, we offer from a place of expectation and obligationWe give things we do not really intend to give. From there, we expect things back, give because we feel that we should, and breed resentment. I've been teaching, on the other hand, that when the heart is open and receptive, we receive abundantly and can give from that abundance. On the mat this can translate to the placement of our arms, and thus our hands, in relation to our hearts. If you reach into places where the heart is not ready to go, this can cause pain or discomfort. We lose the connection with our breath and our awareness. Tikonasan (variation) More specifically in a heart opening posture, like Trikonasan (triangle pose), we can reach forward as we hinge at the hips and reach down for the shin, block or floor. We can extend the top arm, and at t

A ritual of learning and living with intention, a guide to samadhi, but first and foremost, a practice in yoga that taps one into themselves is called a Sadhana. This can be many things based on many definitions and personal views, culture and religious affiliations. Truth, we are always practicing something, creating something, becoming something. We are ever expanding and growing. How consciously we practice is determined by many factors, but I agree, one's morning ritual is high at the top of the list. I'd like to distinguish here between a morning Sadhana and the Sadhana that happens as we are ready or have time to address. What we drag our attention to bright and early will most likely inform the rest of the day until we can reset into the afternoon-evening. This does not mean that we are screwed if we miss this activity. This means if we miss this activity, we feel less like ourselves. You may discover, here in this blog, a couple ways that help you wake up and jump i

Sometimes, we get caught up in how/what other people are feeling, so deeply, that we lose ourselves. We see the expression on their faces and get caught in assumptions about what the expression might mean. Sometimes we ask, never to really know. We may even think this to be an indication of who we are or what we are doing. They don’t like it. They do like it. We don’t like or do like as result. I grew up trying to please people, so for me, these looks, the good and the not so good, were important. Over the years, I have had to come back to a mantra that has served me well. NO ONE can judge me. Even when they do, we don’t have to battle their thoughts/ feelings. We have our own. Here are 3 ways to Honor your Power and the Source, from whence it flows.  1. Take your power back! Recognize that you are in control of the things that you focus on. Rather than focusing on someone else’s assumed thought/feeling, we can focus on our own. We can most often know what our personal though

Everything has its good time. Every dog has her good day. When this can inform the way you interact in the world, with yourself and others, you tap into something I am calling the Order Of Operations (O3). Like trioxygen, that protect us from the toxins in the atmosphere, this might sound familiar. In Math class, Order of Operations is one of the first things you learn after mastering single-step equations. The Order of Operations is how you organize what to do first within a multi-step equation so that the sequence allows for the right answer, in layman's terms. Exponents, Roots, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction is the order in math. This happens with programming and language too. When you tap into the fact that everything happens at the right time, and that you can sequence some of this to your advantage, you open to your influence on HOW things unfold. You take the steps in the order that takes some of the ambiguity out of life. Some, I said. Some. Let’s ma