With or without the Great Yoga Wall, we’ve all been there.

I’m talking about finding ourselves in the City of Regret after having pushed ourselves too hard in a posture practice.

Every time I teach a Great Yoga Wall course or intensive, at least one of the participants mentions to me how sore they are.

Usually, it’s harmless, normal delayed onset muscle soreness that comes from working the muscles and opening up the body in different ways.

Sometimes, though, they’ve overdone it.

Like any force, the power of your practice depends on how you wield it, and that is especially true when you practice with the Great Yoga Wall.

Here’s what NOT to do and what to do instead.

You sit on your mat with your eyes closed, trying to focus on your breath. You can’t stop thinking about that cranky client, how much your car insurance went up, or how you’re going to take your dog to the vet at the same time you’re supposed to pick up your kid from softball practice on Friday.

When it’s time for Vrksasana (Tree Pose), you almost break your leg as you fall out of the posture and stumble over your blocks and blankets. You brush it off (everyone falls out of Tree every now and again, right?), but when it happens again with both feet on the ground in Utthita Parsvakonasana (Extended Side Angle), you wonder what alien snatched your body and traded it for this one.

Never fear, my friend. We’ve all been there. Sometimes life just feels a bit more teeter-tottery than at other times.

Though these common yoga phrases—like “plant roots,” “root down through the feet,” “get rooted through the feet,” and “root to rise”—might seem only metaphorical, science demonstrates these actions have real benefits.

Your practice and life offer so many opportunities to reap the benefits of rooting down through your foundation, and it doesn’t have to be super complicated or take a long time.

If you’re a busy wellness professional, you know how challenging it can be to find time to take care of your own wellbeing, especially if you run your own business. You might see client after client or patient after patient all day with barely enough time to use the restroom let alone eat. Or perhaps you aren’t fully booked, so you spend your time running around and stressing about finding more clients.

Whether you’re a yoga teacher, massage therapist, chiropractor, physician, mental health provider, or another kind of caregiver, you taking care of you is the key to you taking care of your people, and it doesn’t have to be hard or steal hours away from your day.

As I stared at the blinking cursor, I felt like I was crossing a desert with mirages of topic ideas appearing on the horizon, only to disappear as I started to walk towards them on my keyboard.

It was time to set up camp and rest.

I had been on a trek these first few months of the year.

• I’d summited the heights of producing and running a 5-week transformative Great Yoga Wall course.

• I’d plunged into the lake of starting a membership for those who took the course to continue their studies.

• I’d whitewater rafted along the bumpy rapids of filming another multi-week course.

• I’d rock-climbed the face of launching and teaching a 3-day live Great Yoga Wall intensive.

I’d “traveled” further in the first 10 weeks of this year than the first 8 months of last year. No wonder my creativity tank was as dry as the Sahara.

That is, until I started to rest and catch up with myself.

I’m not sharing my adventures to brag at all. Many people are facing much tougher journeys.

I know you’re in the middle of your own expeditions too, whether you’re exploring the rough terrain of things like raising kids, taking care of aging parents, dealing with relationship challenges, tackling health concerns, managing multiple projects at work, taming wild employees, dealing with inequities, figuring out what to put in your belly for dinner, or even finding time and space for your next yoga practice.

Here's what I know to be true:

I had no idea what I was doing.

I sat in the LA sun a few weeks after I had taken a leap of faith and left my job doing national security research and analysis for the federal government. Despite the joy I felt at being back in my home state of California, a low-level panic started to settle into my stomach.

I had 2 job offers related to my work in Washington, D.C. I could tell that both would interfere with my plans to finish yoga teacher training and keep me from beginning the work I felt called to do after a big career success in DC.

But I didn’t have the slightest idea of how to start a business, especially with little-to-no background in the wellness industry other than my own practices, interests, and personal research.

What did I do?

When I was no bigger than a lime inside my mom’s belly, my maternal grandfather passed away at age 45 after a doctor misdiagnosed his chest pain as indigestion instead of the massive heart attack he was having.

A high school friend in his early 40s and my brother-in-law on his 60th birthday went for runs and didn’t come home.

When my handsome hubs had chest, neck, and jaw pain walking home from work one day several years ago, thankfully, we caught it in time.

Chances are heart disease has touched your life in some way too, whether it has affected you or someone you love.

More and more clinical studies are showing the potential benefits yoga has for heart health.

My annual holiday illnesses had become as dependable as the New Year’s Eve ball dropping in Times Square, and my body was saying, “Enough!”

Though my heart ended up being fine that morning, I knew I needed to make some changes. I had to face the fact that I neglected my self-care in favor of trying to do alllllll the holiday things, from the Christmas market to the shopping, wrapping, and shipping, to the work parties and the seasonal dinners with friends.

I decided then and there I was going to do the holidays differently.

Life over the past 3 months has been more intense than eating a Carolina Reaper pepper.

If you’re having a hard time keeping your nose above the storm surge of life’s hurricanes right now you’re not alone. Many people I’ve been talking to have their own lump-in-the-throat version of this list too. 

I’m not bragging, trying to get sympathy, or taking away from the suffering of others who have bombs raining over their heads or not enough food to eat.  I acknowledge the privilege that’s inherent in my list.

Here’s the thing.

Stress and suffering in one form or another are universal.  Although there’s no one-size-fits-all magic potion to eliminate stress, you have a choice how you respond to life’s rough seas.  Your yoga practice—on and off the mat—can help you navigate those shark-infested waters.

These steps from the yogic path have been helping me cope.

She sat on the ground a few feet away from us with a taupe shawl cocooned around her entire tiny being while my (now) husband and I moved through the rituals of our Bengali Hindu wedding.

When I saw her hunched over like that I worried that she was unhappy with her son’s choice to marry someone from another culture. My husband later explained that she was praying (we were in a temple, afterall). Over time, I came to understand just how deep her faith ran, and whether she held dismay or concern in that moment or not, our relationship quickly blossomed in a way that’s difficult to put into words.

Meeting her wish not to be a burden and to serve God until her final day, my mother-in-law left her body on August 5, 2023.

I’ve been reflecting on her life, her strength (you can read my tribute below to learn more about what a resilient woman she was), and what made our relationship so special, despite language and cultural barriers. In our case, it comes down to 4 main factors.

A strong Sankalpa (Intention), mutual purpose, commitment through actions, and mutual respect are key factors to communicating and forming a strong bond, especially across perceived differences.

I LOVE funny animal videos.

Whether they show a cat that meows like it’s saying “hi y’all” or a dog “singing” with its owner, these videos are the one thing that will get me stuck in a social media scroll.

Until…

I realize I’ve lost precious time that I could have used sleeping, practicing postures, meditating, writing, reaching out to a friend, or doing something else for my self-care and Dharma (Purpose).

Whatever lures you away from your highest priorities, know that you’re not alone in the struggle to stay focused on what matters most in this busy, over-stimulating, increasingly neurodiverse and demanding world. When I survey my clients, they respond that time management and staying focused are the biggest blocks they have to living a happier, healthier, more inspired life and to taking better care of themselves.

Staying focused on what matters most is an ongoing, integral practice that involves more than mental concentration alone. Your Dharma (Purpose) provides a north star, and the 8 Limbs of Yoga are the navigation system to help you eliminate distractions (beyond silencing your phone notifications) and keep moving towards that guiding light while still taking good care of yourself.

The number one question people ask me about the Great Yoga Wall is some variation of “how do I use the Great Yoga Wall safely?”

Feeling safe doing something new is a very subjective, individual thing. We all have different definitions and versions of safety, and different things that help us create and feel it. Though finding a sense of inner safety is up to each of us individually, several external factors can help, including practical tips and knowledge.

In no particular order, here are my top 9 keys to practicing with the Great Yoga Wall safely.

My spine lengthened as if a chiropractor or massage therapist was pulling my upper body away from my lower body.

But no one was in the room.

As my head and shoulders spilled along the floor, my chin and sternum moved towards each other, like 2 friends coming together to share a secret.

On a hot summer day, a breeze of calm washed over me, and my body became cooler.

The sounds around me got quieter as if the rest of the world had become a bit muted. In a good way.

In a way that allowed me to ignore distractions like that last pile of laundry, forget about my to-do list, and reconnect to my true self for a few minutes.

With my eyes closed, I looked inward and took a refreshing soak in supported Setu Bandha (Bridge Pose) on a bolster.

She felt so lost.

Less than 2 years into a PhD program, she realized she was on the wrong path.  She looked everywhere for the answers—different cities, jobs, people—but none of it seemed right.

She had dug herself into a hole and had no idea how to get out of it.

Until…

Last night my husband showed me a video of a fawn stuck in a soccer (or football, for my overseas friends) net and a kind Samaritan who freed it. Though Bambi and his mother initially fled into the forest, at the end of the video, they stopped the man on the road and came up to him as if to thank him for his kindness.

Mark Twain said, “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”

And apparently it's the one that can transcend even species at times too.

PRACTICE STARTS WITH KINDNESS

With this sort of impact, it’s no wonder that the very first principle in yoga is Ahimsa, which often is translated as Non-Violence, Peace, or Kindness.

On the outset it seems simple—don’t kill or hurt others. It has so many more nuances, though, which makes it so darn difficult to master.

The most common and obvious interpretations of Ahimsa define it as not harming others. Some people choose to practice by becoming vegetarian. Others commit not to kill wasps or other critters that accidently wander inside their homes. More and more, folks are speaking out and mobilizing for social justice causes too.

For me, the practice of Ahimsa means not only abstaining from obvious violence. It also encompasses learning how you might unintentionally cause harm and going out of your way to be kind as well.

AN INTEGRAL APPROACH TO THE YOGIC PRACTICE OF AHIMSA (KINDNESS)

More integrally, Ahimsa includes being compassionate and non-violent to your body, your mind, and your environment, as well as towards other people and creatures.

My handsome hubs and I went for a walk on a windy, sunny, dogwood blossom-kissed Sunday morning here in Charlotte. We walk throughout the year here, and this day was one of those especially nice spring ones, after the cooler days of winter and before the humidity of summer.

When we got home, I immediately started sneezing, not like a time or two, but like 15 times in a row! And so began a day of allergies that signaled to me spring was officially here.

Though the sneezing started literally on the spring equinox, it wasn’t the first sign that my body had given me. For the last couple of weeks prior to the equinox, my digestive system had been undergoing its annual March pivot.

Pretty much every year around this time…

I sat on small metal bleachers set up on a patch of grass at the fairgrounds, completely mesmerized as I watched Bob Baker’s marionette puppets on the “stage” a few rows below me.

At 5 years old or so, I guess I didn’t see the strings, because I seriously thought these puppets were magical and real. After all, they were moving, they could talk, and they were having the most fun adventures.

For a few years it was the one thing I really wanted to do at the fair, even before the midway rides and games. We planned our visits around the showtimes, and it was usually the first stop.

At some age I realized there were strings, with people holding them and making them move. Though the puppets weren’t alive and “real,” that flutter of excitement I felt watching them as a child was.

I remember longing to go with them on their adventures. Little did I know that many years later I’d be having a kind of puppet adventure of my own.

You see, the Sanskrit term for doing yoga with the yoga wall is yoga kurunta. Though kurunta has a few definitions, a common meaning when put together with yoga is a wooden doll or puppet. Yoga kurunta refers to using suspended ropes in a yoga practice, like aerial yoga or yoga on the Great Yoga Wall.

As we draw closer to switching the clocks for daylight savings time this year, I’m feeling less dread.

Most years it’s a pretty rough transition. We only lose one hour of sleep on the weekend, but it throws off my sleep schedule for most of the next week.

When I don’t sleep enough, my body rebels. My digestive system can get so inflamed that it hurts to drink cold water. My head can sometimes feel like it’s in a vice. My brain can get so foggy that I spend the whole day feeling like I haven’t quite woken up yet. Sometimes I can even feel my lymph nodes and gums swelling, even though I’m not sick.

Rather than going into an explanation of how losing sleep can cause inflammation and instead of giving you a bunch of tips for how to make it through the spring forward transition (I did that last year in this post), I want to tell you why I’m not dreading it quite so much this year, even though I know I’ll probably feel like a zombie for several days.

Sure, I’ll be doing some restorative yoga and meditation to help me shake the brain fog and adjust my sleep schedule. On top of my go-to spring forward tips, this year, instead of dreading the clock change, I’m using an old piece of wisdom from my mom along with a little trick I learned from coaching. Perhaps it will help you through a transition too.

I lost a few hours of work as I sat glued to CNN and watched the unfolding of the early hours of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

You might not know this about me, but one of my two undergraduate majors was Russian Regional Studies. I learned the language, history, politics, and culture before going on to earn my graduate degree in International Policy Studies.

I also worked in the nonprofit sector for 6 years to help stem the spread of nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union. You can bet that the rhetoric around nuclear weapons and attacks on nuclear power plants caught my attention.

I’ve been out of that field long enough not to have my fingers on the pulse of the situation like I would have in the past, and I found myself spending more time than usual in the news feeds.

I know that my purpose has shifted beyond that particular work, yet I found myself wondering for a moment or two if I made the right call to leave it.

After losing half a day, which is nothing compared to what Ukrainians are sacrificing, I realized something.

After a point, I wasn’t helping anyone by sitting there nonstop, taking in more and more of the same and different people offering the same and different information with the same and different traumatic video footage rolling beside them.

If you know me from yoga and coaching, you might be wondering what any of this has to do with yoga, breathwork, meditation, your purpose, and feeling more rested, focused, and inspired. Well, let me tell you.

When my handsome hubs told me he was feeling really tired and out of breath after walking the few blocks home from our neighborhood “L” station in Chicago, I thought something was off. After he said he also had pain in his chest, neck, and jaw, I knew we had to go to the hospital.

He resisted. I insisted.

When we got there all the tests came back fine. He didn’t have a heart attack.

His primary care doctor asked the hospital to keep him until they could do a cardiac stress test the next day.

It’s a good thing they did, because he had critical blockages in 2 out of 4 arteries in his heart that could have caused a massive heart attack within weeks.

Everyone was stunned. He was way too young to have a heart problem, practiced hot yoga 5 times a week, walked a lot, went salsa dancing relatively regularly, and did all kinds of sports off and on throughout his life.

I’ll never forget what his cardiologist said. He told us that my hubby’s family history of high cholesterol and high blood pressure probably would have caused a problem eventually, but…