Plant some seeds this Spring

We can all feel it. Spring has arrived on our doorsteps, is floating in through our windows, and completely swallowing us up in its beauty. It's the season to be reborn, to begin again, to give ourselves second (or third, or fourth) chances. All things that grow must be planted, and with time and patience, the seed will germinate and blossom. What better time of year to plant new seeds in your life, to enrich the soil of your inner self, than spring? Every year I find my yoga practice re-invigorated, and I take the up the opportunity the spring offers by enriching my practice. I find that a long and toilsome winter can drain the energy from my yoga, leaving me lethargic and less inclined to practice on my own.

But even seeds need to be buried in soil, kept in the darkness while they germinate. And when the first warm rays of sun shine down, urging it up out of the ground, the seed will sprout and eventually become a beautiful plant. I spent the last days of winter nurturing my needs: drinking warm tea, taking hot baths, soaking in the steam room at the Y. Now that the air is warmer and the days are longer, it's easier to make time to re-begin my practice.

Since moving to New York, my yoga practice has grown and fallen and then blossomed again in many ways. The seed I am planting in my practice this spring is reaching out to the community through teaching. Yoga is not a privileged practice, I tend to believe we all have some innate sense of yoga, even if it's that we like to stretch our arms in the air when we wake up in the morning. Yet yoga can be costly--it takes time out of one's day and it is monetarily expensive. But the return is unending. That is why I want to share my practice with the people who surround me--to spread the seeds of a practice that may always enrich the self. I am sharing my practice through community-style classes: On Tuesdays I will lead a barter-style class at 1 pm in Brooklyn near the Navy Yard, and I hope to be offering a second completely free class in Crown Heights very soon.