Dear Friends ,

Welcome to Spring! I hope that you have all made it through the Snowpocalypse and are enjoying this new found spring weather. As we continue moving through the Klesa’s I come to Dvesa which is Aversions.When we are controlled by strong desires, we will also develop strong aversions when those desires are not fulfilled, they are essentially two sides of the same coin.

I come to Dvesa because I have been struggling with this myself. The day before snowmageddon landed, I was hit by someone who ran a red light. I was pushed through the intersection, flipped, landed on the passengers side and hung from my seat belt until I managed to get myself out of the seatbelt, it did it’s job very well. Someone busted through the back hatch and guided me out. Both doors were smashed in and could not opened. By the grace of all that is good and kind, God, Buddha, whoever you pray to, I walked away with no cuts, bruises, or anything broken.

In the days and weeks following the accident I find myself having an aversion to being in the car, that leads to a strong desire to just stay inside my home, which leads to anxiety because things are not “getting done” I mean really, what should I be doing besides healing? Which leads to being awake at 3am, and having strong aversions to things that “need to be done”. I imagine the tasks becoming bigger and bigger. Not based in actual fact, but through the idea of aversions, Dvesa. 

Through the help of my teacher, yes, I practice what I preach 🙂 and friends, I am finally able to make my way through Dvesa. The tasks became smaller, all I had to do was step in that direction and it became clear to me that it was in fact an aversion going unchecked becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. Dvesa, is smaller, Fear is smaller, and things are moving into a direction of balance. 

Through these experiences I gain insight. Through insight I gain knowledge, so after 20 plus years of this, I am getting the hang of it 🙂 We can often be our own worst enemy. We need someone to help clean and clear our lens. Because I know and believe this so much, I am available for yoga therapy sessions, private classes and mentoring to help through these type situations. I have many tools in my toolbox and years of experience.

Curious? To learn more check out my website. 
corazonyoga.com

Be well. Be Safe. 
Love. Light.
JennyO

Hi friends,

As we continue our journey through the Klesa’s I think about Abhinidvesa = Fear. This picture reminds a lot about fear, fear that I am still making my way through. When my teaching and financial world fell through, it brought back a LOT of fear. What was I going to do, how was I going to find work. When I allowed my practice to take center stage, I was able to finally change the lens on my patterns and see that as Yoga went away, my job as a Yoga Therapist had not. I still had work at the hospital as a yoga therapist, and guess what there were more hours available to me.

But I had to change my perspective, I had to change my “lens”. I was fortunate to have a wonderful friend that lives in Lake Charles, I joined her on a trip to New Orleans. There I had a change in perspective. As I walked with her through her familiar places and felt the comfort of her words and the random “I love you” from her son, the fear began to leave. I remember running across these bracelets in this charming little store. One says: This too shall pass” the second one says” The best is yet to come.

I remember the moment I put the first one on my wrist, as my dear friend helped me with the clasp. I remember feeling less afraid. This simple act shifted my lens. Well done you say!

HMMM… not so fast. After yoga collapsed, the world was hit by Corona, again more fear, ah, but this time I knew how to deal. I found work, I reconnected with students who were going through the same thing I had just gone through. Work picked up, online teaching started, virtual teacher training, screening shifts, yoga jobs came back. I was making it!! It was different, but I was making it. And Fear raised its head again. I couldn’t bring myself to take off the first bracelet. Even though I knew/know that “the best is still to come” I felt comfortable where I was. So you see, even the idea of succeeding brought in Fear. 

Abhinidvesa comes in all forms. Fear of succeeding, Fear of not succeeding, Fear of being great, Fear of not being great, Fear of becoming someone we always wanted to be, Fear of staying who we are. We have to change our Lens/Perspective our Patterns/Sankalpa’s. And nothing does that better than a practice designed especially for us. This is why I am extending the discounts on my website until the end of February. 

To help you establish this idea of who you are, to not let Fear in, to truly know yourself. 

Practice this So Hum meditation. It’s simple and can be done for as little as 3 minutes or as long as 30 minutes if you like.

The yogic mantra “so hum” is not only a reflection of the sound of the breath but also carries a contemplative meaning: “I am that” (so = “I am” and hum = “that”).

How To Practice “So Hum” Meditation

Step 1
Find a comfortable place for meditation. Place your palms facing up in jnana mudra (forefinger and thumb touching) with your palms facing up to open your awareness or facing down to calm the mind. Scan your body and release any tension.Step 2
Bring your attention to your breath, feeling the rise and fall of your inhalation and exhalation. As your focus settles on your breath, begin to chant the mantra “so hum.” As you inhale, silently say “so” to yourself and as you exhale, say “hum.” Once the “so hum” rhythm has been established, begin to contemplate the meaning of “so hum.” As you inhale with the mantra “so,” say to yourself ” I am,” connecting to your essential self. 

Step 3
As you exhale with “hum,” inwardly say “that” or “all that is.” Feel how your exhalation releases you into the space around you. Visualize your exhalation leaving your body through your nostrils and then merging back into your true self. Finding that place where you can let fear go by simply acknowledging who you are.

Be well. Be Safe. 
Love. Light.
JennyO

Hello Everyone,

So Mabel (my beloved furry friend) is struggling with Raga, she loves her old Faux Fur so much, yet she has this beautiful one that Santa brought her, she is attached to what used to be a beautiful, whole, Faux Fur that we could play tug of war with. BUt that is gone now, but even when given the opportunity, she often choose the old. What is going to help Mabel, well, the fact that I have thumbs and can throw the old one away, but who is going to help you “throw away your old patterns”?

Klesa’s, these are patterns that cloud our heart with a sort of a fog.
There are 5 of them: 

• Avidya – Ignorance
• Asmita – Egoism
• Raga – Attachments
• Dvesa – Aversions
• Abhinidvesa – Fear

Considering the year that we have had, Raga is making a huge appearance for me, attachments to my friends that I cannot see, to the Yoga Community that once was, to all those things that take place in a pandemic. But my practice has been constant with me. As we look to the first of the year, I invite you to look at your Klesa’s. What’s holding you back from finding a practice that embodies YOUR entire body and soul. This is why I want to offer this to you all.

First I want to thank you for supporting me and finding your way along this path with your own practice. Yoga Therapy has helped to shift so much in my own life and I believe we can all benefit from some yoga therapy or a practice or some sort of mentoring. 

Be well. Be Safe. 
Love. Light.
JennyO

As I move into the next phase of my grief cycle, I find that I am overcome with Anger. Anger at all thet was and is no more. I know it is a regular cycle of life that things ebb and flow. We die, we are born and we experience life. Anger has never been so prevalent in my life before, although, being human, I am sure with will come again as I experience loss once more. 

Anger has kept me from my practice and my own true knowing or Sraddha. What keeps you from your true knowing? After spending 5 days in Nashville with my teachers and a lovely community of yogis, I find myself moving back into my practice. I want to thank my ever patient teachers who welcome me back each time I stray. This is after all Yoga. What we feel, how we process and how we move. No matter how hard it is, its all Yoga. The more we experience, the more we can relate to all those around us. For me as a Yoga Therapist this entire experience of Yoga Yoga falling apart has been a huge learning experience. I did not see it as that in the beginning, there was just too much grief, pain, and now anger. 

But I am moving through it with the guidance of those who love me and those who understand and can hold space for me. Its a beautiful thing to be held in space. This is what makes me a better yoga therapist. Its how I can guide you through what you might also be going through. Just like my teachers guide me!!

If you find yourself in a place of anger from grief or loss, come and schedule a session with me. As a Yoga Therapist I can help find that piece of mind for you, get you back to a practice and help you find your true knowing, your Sraddha.

Be well. Be Safe. 
Love. Light.
JennyO

I’m Back!! Yes, I have been gone and dealing with what is known as Life. To put it simply, Life is Difficult, this is what yoga sutra 1.30 tells us “Vyadhi-Styana-Samsaya-Pramada-Alasya-Avirati-Bhrantidarsana-Alabdhabhumikatva-Anavasthitatvani-Cittaviksepah-Te-Antarayah”.  Antarāya= obstacles that keep us from moving forward, these bumps in the road that bring our Practice to a screeching halt. I have suffered from this same dis-ease. My Yoga world was rocked the first of July. The place where I got my Yoga chops fell apart. This place where, since 2006 I had taught, laughed, cried and ultimately become who I am now. To put it mildly, my world fell apart. My income was taken to basically zero, but more than that, my trust was shaken to the ground. Attachment came up, self doubt ran rampant. Who would know me outside the walls of Yoga Yoga?? Who would I be now that my community was gone? My practice started to suffer.

As I met with my teacher and cried more than once, I started to come back to my practice and realized that life is indeed hard but as I come through this I realize that all the self doubt, attachments, lack of trust, these were Antarāyas obstacles that kept me from everything that had made me who I am.

Be well. Be Safe. 
Love. Light.
JennyO

I visited the KYM Mandiram this October for two weeks. This is the lineage of my teacher Mr. Bossart. Never have I learned so much as I did in these two weeks. Being a person that is geographically challenged and not traveling very well alone, I cannot believe I even agreed to this! But I am glad that I did. This country is filled with devotion, ritual, sounds and temples. It is also filled with poverty, pollution and a distinct class separation. I felt grateful to be there, on so many levels. Grateful that I was able to afford the trip, to take from my job and to have support at home to be able to be gone for this amount of time. KYM was an oasis in the heat and the noise outside. Being there on the grounds it felt cooler and quieter than any other place in Chennai. I know it must be because of all the Mantra that takes place there and the genuine caring that everyone there shows to their fellow human. I wish I could have know Mr. Desikachar…but even not knowing him, I can imagine him walking the halls and teaching classes there.  I am also grateful to my teacher for encouraging me to make this trip. This lineage has opened my eyes to how I teach, how I look at Yoga Therapy and how I work with clients. Will I go back again… I might. Which is a far different answer that I would have given you three days into the trip.

Be well. love. light.

I was in a coffee shop (cafe Creme) on east Oltorf in Austin and saw this picture, it brought to  mind my friend Steph.  Steph has a peacock feather tattooed on her foot. I started to think about her and how I missed her, she and Cody had moved back to Jersey to be closer to family.

My curiosity for the peacock lead me to some fascinating discoveries: the peacock is a symbol of immortality, the ancients believed that the peacock had flesh that did not decay after death. Early Christian paintings and mosaics use peacock imagery, and peacock feathers can be used during Easter, as a symbol of immortality. The peacock also replaces their feathers annually, so some see the peacock as a symbol of renewal as well.

I remember my grandmother always had peacock feathers around. Growing up on the farm, my mom insisted that we have peacocks, I was fascinated by the feathers! They seemed to be alive, with their vibrant colors and texture of the feathers always felt really comforting in my hands.

My dear Steph, I miss not having you here in Austin with me, but each and every time I see a peacock or peacock feather I will always think of you!!

In spanish this roughly means “lets see what comes out of this”… this was my thought as I approached Mehtab about speaking to the track of Kundalini teachers. I was teaching Meditation to the staff at Christopher House, its a Hospice facility on the east side of Austin. My life was busy with teacher training, regular classes, home, Kevin, Izzie and Mabel and reaching out for help has never really been my strong point, I am however learning!!

I could see that the Meditation was doing wonders for the staff, and that if I did not find some sort of alternative, I would have to stop teaching at Christopher House. This is what brought me to the Kundalini teacher training class that day. I had asked if I could address the group to see if anyone had an interest in teaching Meditation. Only 30 minutes, that was going to be my selling point! Everyone has time for 30 minutes. To this date I cannot really remember exactly what I said, but 5 students were moved to contact me.

Little did I know that this would be the beginning of CarryOM.org. My “passion project” I love the work we do and I am so grateful to the teachers that give so freely of their time and energy!! We provide so much good in just those 30 minutes, I am constantly amazed at the stories I hear from staff about how those 30 minutes are the best part of their day.

A ver que Sale.. see where it takes you!

I started this journey to College Station some months ago, there was all the background work that went into starting this track and the first day of class. What was I going to teach, how was I going to teach? No one told me that all my thoughts and fears from teaching my very first class would come back into play, I had stepped into my very first Yoga class again. I was taking deep breaths, asking students to close their eyes while I scoured over my notes. All that came rushing back that first night of class….

Then, as I began to teach that first class,  things were a little easier. I looked at my notes less, I started to look at the students, their breath, their movements. A dear friend told me “teach like you” sounds so simple, but there it was! Why indeed would I try to teach like someone else? I knew I had all the knowledge and if I did not there are so many brilliant teachers around me to help me find my way. Once I began to teach like “me” it fell into place.

Same thing begin to happen on the 2hr drive into College Station. I began to notice things on the drive, the lovely farm house in Dime Box, the beautiful rock house right outside Bastrop and the little antique store in Caldwell. I began to find comfort in these things, as I also began to find comfort in the 8 ladies that I was starting to know. They began to grow! Both in their body and their mind!

We had an amazing weekend of Meditation and on the way home I saw all these beautiful bluebonnets, they were everywhere! Just so lovely, I could not resist.. I had to pull over and take a picture. I also took a moment to be grateful … of what I had learned about my teaching, in turn making me a better teacher for my students. 

January 31 is a day that will never be quite the same for me. It will be a date that will be celebrated much like my birthday or the day I graduated from college. It was the first day of Teacher Training, and I was at the head of the class! I am teaching teachers.

Never have I felt quite so nervous, excited, weepy, scared and challenged until 6pm on that Friday. I knew I had all the knowledge, I had prepared and had so many sleepless nights I was not sure I was going to make it. But I DID!! It was wonderful. Such beautiful smiling faces looking up at me all little sponges ready to dive in and learn! I had taken the first step and I knew it was an important step. To make a Kula out of these 7 individuals.

It started to come together. I started to see excitement in their eyes, to see the “beginner mind” where everything is new and shiny. The excitement contented as we learned about Asana, Yamas and the Niyamas, and practiced for 1.5 together and concluded with a Gong Relaxation. It blew them away. Some woke with awe, others with sweet smiles of surrender and others with feelings they could not quite pin down. But it brought us all together! “Practice and all is coming”

Like Sharon said “we make a good soup”