COURTNEY ROHAN YOGA

Hildegard von Bingen, says “The Pine tree is more warm than cold and contains many energies and powers. The tree is the symbol of strength.” Over the last couple years, I have struggled to buy a real tree. I kept thinking, why am I doing this? What does this symbolize? What I'd come up with that made this OK for me was: its for the kids, well, in my case, the kid.  Last year, our son was gone for the holiday, so the choice was easy: No kid, no tree. I bought a cute glittery turquoise tree at Target and called it a Christmas day. But the year before that and this year, we decided to get a real tree.  This year, it was a last minute decision. I thought we'd go to Home Depot and find an artificial tree, but when we got there, the ones we wanted were either too expensive or sold out. We settled on a Douglas Fir. It was 39 dollars and 6 ft. tall, which was more than I was going to get in a artificial tree. Perfect. And the one thing that I really wanted that I was going to

“How do you keep going when you want to stop?” I asked my high school yoga students. We just started a Kundalini unit and though Kundalini can be relaxing, mostly one pushes through the knots or the thresholds to reach it. A timed practice, where movement and breath are repeated, leave the doer a lot of time to become defeated if they do not have a proper focus. So my question, how do you keep going… was an opportunity for them to think about what they were going to do when they hit that wall. We all hit it. You may not see this so avidly in your yoga practice, depending on the yoga you practice, but walls are definitely a part of living life. We all hit them, and what we say to ourselves when we do, makes all the difference. What we do in those moments of struggle can make or break us. Think for a moment back to one of those time when you were challenged to keep going but wanted to stop. What did you say, think, or do? Now, don’t tell yourself what you want to believe you

Working on a cure for CLL (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia) has kept me busy the last couple months. If you did not know that I have leukemia, now you do. I want to get that out of the way. There is not time for tears here, not now. (Prayers, I like those.) You can read more about my journey here in this blog Cancer Free and Yoga from 2012. This does not mean I am dying. Well, not in the traditional sense of one gets an aggressive form of cancer that spreads quickly and possibly gives them a short time to live. No, I was diagnosed with leukemia 7 years ago. I went through chemotherapy for six months and came out the otherside. My dad would say that is why I should just do chemo again. It worked. It shrunk my lymph nodes, and I was able to resume my “normal” lifestyle, until now. The disease is chronic. So that means, it comes back. When my lymph nodes grow big enough, unmoving in certain regions of the body, pushing into things and causing ruckus, I become again a candidat

I just started reading a book called Evolutions Rainbow by Joan Roughgarden. I also just agreed to teach a gender studies class. Though I am excited about this new enterprise, I have a lot to learn. This book has already helped me see some things that I did not know.  Darwin's theory of sexual selection believes that males and females, both, follow a template: the passionate male and the coy female. Roughgarden acknowledges that this may be true, but how now, we must move forward from this idea. We are not just one way. We are diverse. Our understanding should be as well. As we become more diverse, our opportunities, our thoughts, our lives, and our selections do too. The grooves that used to hold us in one category are being sanded down, phased out. What is left is fluid and colorful. More choice is created. This can be confusing. Sometimes it feels easier to have just two outfits or a uniform in the closet. Yet, when we have it, we want so badly to have our individuality,

What are you doing this summer? Do you have plans for fun, for growth, and/or travel? I do. Recently while in South Carolina, where most of my family now resides, I realized how much fun it can be to feel one’s growth, and how travel, even short day trips, can help one to rekindle possibility, creativity and fun, and open the heart and mind to what is available. I have not always liked the feeling of growth. It’s not always been fun. When pregnant with my son, the feeling of growing bigger as he got bigger challenged me. At 25, I did not want to feel big, be unable to touch my toes, or tie my shoes. At the end of my pregnancy after growing 85 pounds!, getting out of bed was a problem, and I was not having fun, though I was growing . When traveling at various times in my life, things were not always fun then either. I may not have been in a warm climate or with those that I love, so things felt harder to appreciate. Though I could not help but

Where is YOUR B.L.I.S.S.? After a good day, after things fall in line, after making love, we feel in bliss, often only feeling bliss in conjunction with an act. If the experience ends in peace, calm, exhilaration or joy, we would say that we are blissed out. And yes, this may be true. Still, bliss is more than something to be induced. Bliss is one of your bodies. Bliss is a pure state of being. Bliss (Anandamaya) is identified as one of the lightest sheaths surrounding the atman, the true self. It must be noted that we have five koshas, energetic lampshades, surrounding the self all of which must be peeled back to experience the bliss body. You can read more about the koshas here . What you will find is that the anadamaya kosha is not about experiences making us feel good. Though good experiences can help us to glimpse this feeling temporarily, the anadamaya kosha is about opening to and remembering your birthright state of being. With awareness to our authentic open heart an

My adopted dogs, Maddie and Archie are really the best adopted dogs I could have asked for. When I see them and their excitement to see me, (probably because I am hands-for-treats) I am instantly reminded that I can relax. I can be myself. They love me without reserve. Everyone needs this experience, a knowing that you matter beyond anything you could do or say, dogs or not. Without my beautiful doggy reminders, I still need to mean something to myself. Though we all would probably agree, we are, as individuals, important on some level. Even if we don’t know it to our cores, most people see that they are relevant, if not in the best of themselves, then in their revenge or victimhood. I would also beg to believe that no matter how deep this understanding goes for us, some of us are looking for validation, for where we are important, still. We want to know that someone sees us, that we are heard. No matter what you mean to others, I can bet at varying intervals, you’ve had to prove wh