How do the biologist, the physicist, and the yogin explain what energy is? They explain it with the same words.

The first Law of Thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed; it simply transforms.

Breathe.

Reflect on that for a moment before you read on.

We shake with joy,
we shake with grief.
What a time they have, these two
housed as they are in the same body.

—Mary Oliver

When an enormous glacier breaks away and falls into the ocean due to the warming of our earth, many of us feel this is a tragic, violent act. When we see the deforestation of the keepers of our air, we can become overwhelmed by human greed. Now, we juxtapose this with watching war, devastation, nations picking up arms to invade under the perception of being a savior, people picking up arms to defend and being willing to kill. How are we to find resolution in this world? It may be pithy to invite meditation, sound, and gentle movement as a solution. But it is the solution I am offering today.

Sensual aliveness is deeply connected to our ability to experience beauty and to express love with beauty. Our sensory connection to nature is the most essential gateway. From this experience, expression is only natural.

Over the years, through my studies, practices, and sharing, I have reflected on what’s been most impactful in supporting me to remain grounded and clear. It’s not a specific tool I learned from Yoga—not a special mantra or chant, doing nadi shodhana multiple times a day, nor eating a special diet. My greatest support has been the relationship which I’ve cultivated to my heart, my hrdaya.

This article offers an expansive lens on pregnancy, the COVID era, and yoga therapy.

Both ayurveda and yoga view that we as humans share universal building blocks: We are all made of the same elements. Yet our nature is expressed in unique ways. This recognition is essential when it comes to creating self-care plans that address the whole person.

One of the most exciting aspects of my book, Care of the Whole Self: Yoga Inspired Practices to Befriend the Self, is seeing how it has been adaptable to anyone, no matter what stage they are in their life. In my work as a Yoga Therapist, I have been able to adapt this framework to support teens, individuals on the journey with cancer, new parents, and the individual who is simply trying to find their way back to peace and self-compassion during these challenging times.

I have been reflecting on the impact of the Covid Era on the prenatal journey for moms and families. When we started our in-person classes a few months ago, a pregnant mother attended my vinyasa class. She shared how she needed a space to step away and reconnect to herself and her little one inside.

In most spiritual traditions, fire has been used as an agent of purification for eons. It is one of the major elements that helped create our own Earth. At the center of our home planet is a deep well of molten rock, the source of land creation on our planet.

The teachings and stories that fill Yoga and Ayurvedic philosophy often include fire as a transformative energy. In the epic tale of the Ramayana, the solidification of friendship between the protagonist Rama and his loyal comrade Hanuman occurs in a walk around the sacred fire three times.

The term for fire in Sanskrit is agni. It is known as an element, a mythological deity, and an energetic force of transmutation. In Ayurveda, there are dozens of forms of agni in the body and mind. In the Yoga Sutras, tapas is the fire that is the guiding principle for our inner work, the first niyama (guiding principles for the journey inwards).

Many years ago, my teachers A.G. Mohan & Indra Mohan shared with me that we don't need to practice Yoga for hours to begin the work to quiet the mind and experience inner peace. They said it can start with a daily 15 minute practice. This statement surprised me and I began an 8-year study to see if this is indeed true.

Yoga is a therapeutic tool that can address secondary trauma, such as that brought on by our collective experience with COVID‐19.

We have already seen that once pandemic stay‐at‐home orders began to be implemented within the United States, alcohol sales went up by 55 percent, according to the market research firm Nielsen (Bremner, 2020). There has also been a global rise in domestic violence (Taub, 2020).

We are entering election season…counting down 52 days. When I think about the tense times in which we find ourselves, I think about my sangha, especially the teachers. How will we navigate the minefield of division and conflict that permeates our world? How do we stay clear and not fall prey to this lethal game? How can we wage peace when everyone around us is waging war? 

What will I lean on? My sadhana.

When my editor/writing mentor, Nirmala Nataraj, suggested that I consider running a course alongside the launch of my new book, Care of the Whole Self: Yoga-Inspired Tools for Befriending the Self, I said, “A course? Isn’t the book enough?”

After contemplating, I came to the conclusion that the study of ourselves—our deepest motivations and the most essential aspects of who we are—never ends. Perhaps my book opened the door for some to further excavate their daily rituals. It may have also affirmed for readers their own inner wisdom and ability to take care of all dimensions of themselves. And as I’ve heard from some of my readers, it opened a window of curiosity onto the question of how to live one’s life in such a way that honors the whole self at every moment.

I have always harbored a deep trust in how things emerge. I never get angry that truth wasn’t revealed to me earlier. I never hold on to or have internal dialogues with myself centered around “if only this happened earlier…” I have something that can only be summed up in a Sanskrit word, sraddha, which you will find in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

Each day, I see more and more how the macro and micro continuously reflect one another. We hardly need to strain our minds to conjure up the metaphor—it is so clear.

The young people of our country are helping us all remember that this struggle is real, and it continues. Equality is a beautiful word written into the United States Constitution, and it is evident that it hasn’t been fully realized.

The only reason we can lift the words of George Floyd, “I can’t breathe,” and embrace them as part of our human story is because they are so real. We have been slowly suffocating. Something that we feel is the fundamental right of a human being—to breathe—has been taken with unjustifiable violence.

There was a point in art history when European artists began to paint everyday life. In the 19th and 20th centuries, this birthed a genre of portraits that showed people lingering, couples lounging…a celebration of the mundane.

One of my favorites, pictured at the top of this post, is Nonchaloir (Repose) by John Singer Sargent, painted in 1911. I think of this as the ultimate lingering. The vagueness of the woman’s emotional state alludes to one aspect of lingering: being neutral in wakeful rest.

Some people journey through life attaching no meaning to their existence. Life is just a series of happenings, one after another. However, I believe at some point, we all stop and say: “Hmm, isn’t this interesting? I wonder why this is happening,” or maybe even, “What the hell is going on?!”

The planet faces a challenge that is urging all of us to take notice: COVID-19.