COURTNEY ROHAN YOGA

How interesting to find ourselves in this most precarious circumstance. I hope you are doing well with it all. I hope that if you found this website for the first time, it is because you are ready to do something special, irregardless of the things that look damning. Truth is, we are not damned. We are just getting started. I know that I am.  Our time is so precious. I feel that more and more each day.  Do you? Each moment that we say NO to is one more moment lost to possibility, to opportunity. I don't mean to suggest that you should say YES to everything, but I do suggest that you say YES to your life! Saying YES to your life means seeing that in each moment there is something you can do, even when the stakes are down. Saying YES means opening to seeing what can be good versus saying NO, which is defeated. From NO, the only option is NO.  So I am inviting you to say YES today to you, to growth, to the possibilities in this moment and the next. It won't hurt. Tr

In Uncertain Times, What is Certain? I have been asking myself this question again since this pandemic became a part of our lives: what is certain? I know what I know about uncertain times. I have had many in my 40 years. I have had to grieve the mortality of my mother, my aunt and best friend, and my grandmothers and grandfathers on both sides of my family. I have had to consider my own mortality on many occasions as I have been challenged with an incurable form of chronic cancer. I know my story is not special, necessarily. I know that many can say they have experienced worse. I share this story of mortality only to shine light on how in each experience this question of certainty emerged and emerges again for me. Considering what is certain is for me a rock in the mucky water of life and death. If we have not practiced feeling the intensities of life or had to feel them to the degree that we are feeling them right now, right now may be even more challenging. If you’ve numbe

Have you been in bliss today? Last week? Most of you would probably answer "NO!" right now. Nothing is perfect right now. I get it. I often find myself saying something is bliss when I think that it feels perfect. But, let's question: is that really the only place that bliss is, in perfection? As I grapple with the term and this time in history, I realize that I have used this term ignorantly. For this, let us consider: What is perfect? Is bliss only when something feels perfect in the moment?  And if so, is bliss something that comes and goes with the rise and fall of experience? Where is the bliss?  Michael Jackson once said that “[o]ut of the bliss comes magic, wonderment and creativity.” Deepak Chopra shares that “[n]othing is more important than reconnecting with your bliss. Nothing is as rich. Nothing is more real.” Bliss does sound perfect in these instances. But, then, I still don’t know what it is. And, how do we reach it? Is it something even to be reached?

“God will sometimes lead you in what appears to you to be a circuitous route. He does it to prepare you for what [H]e is planning to do in your life. Trust that [H]e knows what [H]e is doing! Your plans and God’s plans are not always the same!”  -Bret Avlakeotes The space in between is like this, a subtle unassuming place where we must trust in what is possible and who is in charge. Before the fight, before the response, before the harvest... there is always something that had to happen first. In those moments, before, it is best for us to move slowly and listen carefully. How are you being called, and to do what? The only way to know is to take time to hear. This requires patience. You have never been here before. So patience for the road ahead will be required. If we force, or rush ahead too quickly, we are certain to stub, crack or break under the pressure. The route before us is not like the one that has brought us to here. And yet, here we are. Wherever we are on the path, n

The dark night comes to us all. At some point the darkest night, which I now see will be the lightest, will happen to us all. We will all die. In the meantime, let us live, not expecting anything from the Universe or trying to change It. We can not change the direction that the water will flow. May we live then, expecting nothing, accepting and appreciating what is. May we live without the delusion that things and/or people are supposed to be going in a different direction and that we are the only ones that bear the truth and know the way. Expecting nothing, accepting what is and appreciating what we have is one way to live with our expiration date in mind. When we realize that we will expire, that the dark night will happen to us all at a time and in a place most of us do not know, we can expect nothing as we only know what we know, and only in part. We can accept this fact and we can appreciate what we have right now more expressly. When we expect nothing, accept what is, and appre

It is easy to lose sight of the truth of the holidays. It is fun to spend time with family and celebrate all that has been and will be. Though fun is apart of the experience of living, the beauty of the sense experience. With the Winter Solstice, the beauty in this time of year is naturally more sedentary. It is a time of introspection. Somehow, though, we find ourselves doing more. How do we become still when everyone around us is moving and shaking their bells and mistletoes? Maybe just a little reminder will help.  Try this: Wake up. Sit. Even if just for a moment. Take a deep breath in and out. Acknowledge your breath. Inhale and tell yourself: Let . Exhale, and tell yourself: Go. After you get ready and before you leave your house, sit. Take a deep breath in and out. Acknowledge your breath. Inhale and tell yourself: Let . Exhale, and tell yourself: Go . Before you start a new project, after you finish a project, when you return home, before dinner, after…. At varying segments

Relationships are not easy. Because it can be hard to see ourselves and see others clearly, we lose the boundary between what belongs to us or is someone else's stuff. I have had multiple conversations about this in the past week or so. So I would like to share some insight that I have discovered in my search.  Have you ever walked into a room and immediately your energy changed? You were feeling calm before, but now you are feeling uneasy, listless, or anxious? Though there are a lot of reasons why this might be the case based on the other things happening in the room, something is for sure: What you feel now is not what you felt before you went there. What is happening now, affecting your energy now, is about the place and people within that space now. Good thing you can leave the room! When in relationship, it may not be so easy. Especially in a long term relationship with a lover or with a friend you've known "forever," it can be hard to see past the comfort t