We now find ourselves halfway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. Earth-based spirituality celebrates the period from February 1st-February 4th by observing a holiday called Candlemas. One of eight fire rituals in the traditional calendar, it marks an important time of purification and passage. It is interesting to note its counterpart in the Christian tradition, in [...]
Tag Archive for ‘kate hallahan’ 
Attention to Alignment: Hip Opening in Standing Postures
Paying attention to alignment in your yoga postures can be confusing. Lift this, drop that; lengthen here, shorten there; soften one side and strengthen the other one. And, in the meantime: don’t forget to breathe.
For many students, looking more closely at alignment can be intimidating. Alleviate that stress by breaking the postures up into sets [...]
Revolutionary Resolution
Many of us have made new year’s resolutions regarding personal qualities that we would like to cultivate in the year ahead. We can relate this practice of intention-setting to the yogic concept of svadhyaya, often translated as self-study.  Honest, intimate self-reflection is seen as integral to almost any spiritual path. But yoga asks: can we engage [...]
Holiday Presence
This is a time of year when it is common to find ourselves feeling a sense of overwhelm. Daylight is dwindling and our energy is on the wane. At the same time, social and familial obligations for many of us are on the rise. Whether we enjoy holiday gatherings or not is beside the point. [...]
Opening to What Is
Now is a time for embracing the Darkness. In a literal sense, the nights have become longer and colder; in a figurative sense, Hallowmas and the days that follow are the time of year when the veil between our world and the underworld is most transient, and when we are best able to shed light [...]
The Soul’s Reflection in a Leaf
I was talking with an old friend recently about the wishes of childhood that we have left behind, the deep desires that were once sent out into the universe with the superstitious blowing of a fallen eyelash, but that have faded with the passage of time. To my surprise, I realized that although countless eyelashes [...]
