At The Crossroads: Pt 2 Magic At The Crossroads

After my Riviera retreat, my family and I headed to one of the European cities we love the most, Florence, Italy where I’m sitting now, processing and writing as I look out the window listening to songbirds flit through a dusty Tuscan sunset as it glows upon the gardens and statuary of this stately, old growth neighborhood just outside of the Porta Romana. 

My journey to both France and Italy has taught me about different angles of the pilgrim’s journey to the crossroads so I’m going to share both angles both in this message and my next. 

In my last message, I wrote about the magic that comes at the crossroads of giving and receiving heart-felt service. Today, I want to explore how retreats are more than just nice things to do—they are transformational when you're on a pilgrim’s journey at a crossroads of life.

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Disruption At The Junction

Over the course of many years, the themes of crossroads and pilgrims have woven their way into my personal spiritual evolution. Naturally, the theme of the crossroads has found their way into my writing and teaching, including my most recent retreat to the French Riviera.

And let’s get real—we are all at a crossroads in one way or another, be that a transition of stage of life, of our spiritual practice, of relationships, work, or myriad other things. At a crossroads, we are often not sure where to go next, what direction to turn, or even how we got to where we are in the first place. Often, it’s hard to be at a crossroads because it means change, transformation, metamorphosis. 

And generally, people don’t like change. 

Yes, when life is changing, it can often feel disruptive but I believe that’s exactly the point. Being at a crossroads is a catalyst for transformation precisely because it means stepping away from what’s familiar—familiar yet often broken. The process of being at a crossroads launches us headlong into the unknown, setting off on a pilgrim’s journey with a head full of questions and a heart full of faith. 

Magic At The Crossroads

Though being at a transition point in life is often uncomfortable, both life and yoga have taught me something indispensable—magic always happens at the crossroads. 

A truly beautiful way of engaging with whatever magic is at whatever turning point you might be at, is to come on a retreat.

What Is A Pilgrim?

It’s true, yoga retreats are a lot of fun, but they are also a lot more than that.

“You’re not tourists, you’re pilgrims,” Nórín said.

Last year while hosting a yoga retreat in Ireland (I know, rough life) we were treated to a day with poet, author, singer and storyteller, Nórín Ní Riain and her son, singer, poet, and performer Moley Ó Súilleabháin. Her declaration about being pilgrims rather than tourists articulated something I’d been chewing on for a while, something essential: I’ve been leading retreats for over 2 decades and know how transformational they can be—more than just a vacation with yoga sprinkled in. 

With her words, it finally dawned on me that these retreats are pilgrimages. 

A pilgrim is often someone who finds themselves at a transition—sometimes chosen, sometimes not—and is either willing or compelled to leave the comfort of their routine to find some illumination on a journey that becomes holy.

A pilgrim is willing to search, to search with a question, one that may start the journey or perhaps a question that is illuminated or clarified en route. 

A Pilgrim has faith in the unknown and wields weapon-grade curiosity and humility to greet whatever comes around the next corner. 

A pilgrim evolves from a state of searching to one of constant arriving, often within the same foot step. 

To the pilgrim, every stone is sacred along the path.

Why Retreat?

Perspective 

So why must a pilgrim retreat? Can’t transformation be done at home? I mean it would save a helluva lot of time and energy and money.

Quite simply, one of the biggest things a retreat does for you is to help you get out of your routine. Getting out of your routine is essential for discovery and transformation because, like Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same state of mind that created it.”

To change your circumstances, you must first change your state of mind and one of the most effective ways of doing that is to get outta Dodge. 

Getting away gives us perspective. I’m not alone here—Hemingway understood this. Get this: Hemingway couldn’t write A Moveable Feast his book about living in Paris while in Paris. He needed to retreat to Cuba (so Hemingway) and Ketchum, Idaho (random, love it!, and also so Hemingway) in order to gain both clarity and perspective about what to write.

Do you resonate with this? Have you ever found clarity on an issue by simply getting some space from your routine?

I mean, I’m currently working on a piece that I’ve been trying to write for about, oh … 15 years! As I started to write it, I just kept getting blocked over and over until I had to leave it alone until just recently.

Now I understand that at the time, I just didn’t have enough space from and perspective of the events I was trying to write about. How can you write about something that hasn’t finished yet—you don’t know the ending, what it all means, or even when to pause, take a breath, and say, “Yo, can you even believe how crazy this is?!” 

A retreat gives us clarity by helping us get out of our old routine precisely to gain perspective. It’s almost like sitting in the airplane and looking out the window gives us the perspective to see our life from 10,000 feet.

Presence

Another thing that a yoga or meditation retreat does so well is to anchor you to presence, the part of yourself that has all the answers. You gain presence not only through the many yoga and meditation practices, but also, and perhaps especially, because being out of your comfort zone—in a different country, language, cultures, climate, etc.,—stimulates your senses and activates the wisdom of your presence.

And speaking of accessing our most vital sense, in classic novella, The Little Prince, the wise fox drops this truth bomb when he says: “One only sees well with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eyes.” 

At a retreat, when we are no longer anesthetized by the every-day, our senses and hearts tend to open causing our vision to dilate with a keen presence and take in what’s really essential. 

So, being on a retreat stimulates presence, a crossroads where past and future meet. And like I said, there’s magic at the crossroads. 

Body, Mind, And Spirit

Another magical crossroads you can find at a retreat is that of body, mind, and spirit. For millennia, yogis have understood the power of this crossroads as an effective driver for our spiritual evolution as well as a reliable resource to keep us healthy, manage life’s curveballs, and navigate the predictable shit-show of the every-day. 

A retreat is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself at the nexus of body, mind, and spirit, perspective, and presence. 

As all the magic of these divergent elements converge, it illuminates the truth of your hero’s journey: the answers you were looking for were already inside of you but sometimes you need to go halfway around the world to discover them.

Stepping Off The Mat

Each morning at the retreat we met at the ocean’s edge to greet the dawn with sun salutations, to breathe and meditate. One morning, as the sun lifted out of the ocean, coloring the landscape with warm hues of peach and gold, we discussed how the practice of yoga isn’t limited to what happens on our yoga mats. 

One retreat attendee chimed in and admitted that now, she finally understood what one of her yoga teachers said about how the practice begins the moment you step off the mat. She said her off-the-mat practice began the moment she said yes to this retreat. 

She discovered my Riviera retreat literally on the day it began. I was sitting at the airport waiting for my guests and our drivers to arrive when I got her email telling me that she lived in Belgium and that this retreat sounded so perfect, exactly what she needed, but I wished she would have discovered it a week ago. “I fear I’m too late!” 

I invited her to do something bold—jump on the next train, take a leap of faith, and join us!

And she did. 

This retreat became a veritable pilgrim’s journey for her. It was a journey of faith, having never met me before, yes, but more importantly it was a journey of reconciling and encountering many crossroads she was experiencing at that moment in her life. 

She came to the Riviera to get on her mat so that she could perform all of the yoga that needed to happen off the mat. 

Poet, author, and speaker David Whyte is a master of speaking to the pilgrim’s journey. In his poem “The True Love” he speaks to that catalytic moment when all the bullshit is burned away and there’s nothing left but to say “YES!” in the face of what you know you need to do. 

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Check out this excerpt from his poem “The True Love”: 

. . . we are all

preparing for that

abrupt waking,

and that calling,

and that moment

we have to say yes

A yoga retreat reminds us that we don’t live on our yoga mat or meditation cushion and that the true practice begins when we connect to our heart and step off the mat and into the world, one where we must keep our center, find our balance, and breathe through both life’s joys and discomforts. 

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Bringing It Home

In a retreat setting we will undoubtedly have a chance to practice responding rather than reacting to life's events, like collecting ourselves the first time we are addressed in a language we don’t understand, get lost, or encounter a new custom. 

A great way of learning to do this is with a very simple yet profound practice is what I call the WRW(R) model: Welcome, Recognize, and Witness (Respond optional). 

For example, when leading a Yoga Nidra practice, I invite students to relax while practicing the following: 

• Welcoming simple and benign objects (anything you can be aware of)—like the sound of my voice or the sensation of body—into their awareness 

• Recognizing it objectively for exactly what it is—no more, no less

• Witnessing the object, just observing it.

• Responding. Sometimes, a person may choose to then respond to the object like respond the object of body discomfort by changing positions of their body or scratching an itch or something but responding is fundamentally different than reacting. Responding is mindful. Reacting is mindless.

By practicing the WRW(R) method with relatively benign objects in the controlled environment of a Yoga Nidra practice, we prepare to do this with the circumstances of every-day life. Even and especially when those objects feel much less benign—like almost getting run over by a cyclist or missing your flight. No matter the object, we can also practice welcoming, recognizing, and witnessing—sometimes responding to— that object. Note that responding to an object is light years away from reacting to it. 

By learning to WRW(R) both the objects in Yoga Nidra and life, it wakes us up to two great truths. First, that we are not defined by the events that happen to us. And second, we may learn to respond to them from the foundation of our innate abundance and compassion rather than react to them from the loose sands of scarcity and fear. Learning to be the witness and therefore respond to life helps us wake up from the dream of identifying as life’s victims and wake up to the truth of being agents—truly the Divine itself, living a human life full of passion, perspective, and purpose. 

After all, the greatest practice is life itself. 

Like Louis Armstrong said, “What we play is life.”

Perhaps the greatest magic that happens along the pilgrim’s journey through the crossroads is that you come back home to your own self with expanded self knowledge (swadhyaya is the yogic term). 

A Remembering Not An Escape

Therefore, the point of a retreat is not to escape. It’s to retreat a while, regroup and remember ourselves—our True Selves—so that we can bring this all with us back home and apply it to our families, our work, and community. We come home from retreats with stories, new lifelong friendships, and a deeper perspective of life. 

We come back home feeling more like ourselves. 

Our family and colleagues will be so happy with the rejuvenated person that comes home from the retreat that they’ll start a fund so that they can send you away EVERY year.

May we all find the magic at whatever crossroads we may be facing in life. May you take the opportunity to retreat on your own pilgrim’s journey to find the wise inner teacher inside that distance, perspective, and presence offers. And as the airplane hits terra firma, having gained that 10,000-foot view, may we see home with new eyes, clear in the truth that the answers already lay inside of us but that sometimes we need the journey to illuminate them. 

Stay tuned because in my next message I want to talk about how the seemingly impossible challenges life throws at us can help act as a renaissance to do the impossible. 

P.S. And if you’re itching to book your next adventure, please join me for my next retreat!

At The Crossroads: Pt 1 The Spiritual Practice of Giving And Receiving

I recently finished a magical retreat in the French Riviera. 

Loved it! Couldn’t be happier with it. 

The yoga—transformational. 

Our group—was close, adventurous, and flexible both on and off the mat. 

Weather—flawless.

Beaches—pristine. We rented some beach chairs and spent the day soaking up the sun, swimming in the azure waters, and relaxed and laughed together. 

Food—Don’t even get me started with the food. 

I had the sometimes daunting task of making reservations at restaurants for 17 people for this retreat. This required that I often met the owners and/or head waiter and chef of many of the restaurants. To a person, they were kind, gracious, and passionate, not only about food they made, but also about the care and grace with which they served it. 

They even printed special menus for us, almost always in English and French, treating us like Riviera royalty so that we would experience their restaurant, food, and ambiance to the fullest for a truly exquisite and unique experience. 

The food and care we received on the retreat was no small detail. In fact, it’s exactly what I want to talk about today: the spiritual practice of giving and receiving service. 

The Art of Service

Tourists often complain about the rude service in France yet I say “Mais, non! Ou contraire!” I became aware of France’s superpower of service for the first time more than 12 years ago. When Seneca and I were dating, we traveled to Paris together and fell deeper in love with each other while also falling in love with this city. It was the perfect ménage à trois.

Paris was just so charming. Each little café or bistro we visited was staffed by a small elite team of the waiters and bartenders, dressed elegantly in their starched white shirts, pressed black pants, and crisp aprons. Also, perfectly groomed and coiffed. 

Truly they made service into an art.The server would memorize our order as if our choice for food was so interesting that it consumed their complete attention. No notebook needed. A few minutes later they would present our cafés and omelets with the most keen attention to detail—placing a napkin, refreshing the bread in the basket, graciously replacing a fallen fork as if it never occurred.

Once, as one waiter stretch his arm in to place our meal before us, I noticed a mostly-concealed tattoo receding up his sleeve that said, “w8er,” the 8 turned sideways to make an infinity sign suggesting that he was both identified with and took great pride and dignity in this work of being a server and planned on doing it for the rest of days. 

At my recent Riviera retreat, even as large of a group as we were, we were nonetheless still treated to absolutely exquisite service from everyone from our hotel concierge, to restaurant and wine tasting staff and owners, and our drivers were. 

At The Intersection of Service and Love

Some of these people and places I had met and discovered when our family lived in the French Riviera. Part of the advantage of leading a retreat somewhere that has become a second home to me is that I had a few years to discover a collection of great restaurants and wine caves and the great people who own them.

Others I met on this trip. 

But our principal driver, Farida, I met a few years ago when we were living in France. One cold, drizzly morning, Elio and I were trudging through the elements on our way to school. As the ice-cold wind and rain whipped at our faces and bent our umbrellas into unholy shapes, we arrived at the bus stop only to realize that the buses were on strike. 

Ok, so maybe there’s an exception to excellent French service once in a while but usually that’s when it involves sticking it to The Man. And really, there’s truly nothing more French than a good old workers strike. You just gotta roll with it. 

Either way, on this gray morning, we were wet and cold and miserable and getting more so by the second. So I called an Uber. 

A few minutes pass and who shows up but Farida, our Uber driver. She was courteous and professional, her car was warm and immaculate, and from the second my dripping butt landed on those pristine seats, I knew I was going to like this woman. 

Sorry about the wet seats. 

As she drove us to school, I began making polite conversation and learned that she used to work for Air France in customer service but was laid off during Covid. 

Worst mistake Air France ever made. 

Farida only wanted to continue to serve people so she bought a stately brand new Renault and started to Uber. She delivered us safe and warm to school and before leaving her car I got her number and from that moment forward, I never called Uber again. I only called Farida.

If you ever meet her, and I hope you do, you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say that from the second you meet her, it’s clear that her mission is to offer not just good service but truly supreme service. 

The Art of Receiving

Have you ever known anyone like that? Have you ever been that for other people?

So, as I planned my Riviera retreat, I wanted to spoil my attendees so naturally, I called Farida to arrange personal and professional transportation for my guests to and from the airport. 

Farida and another driver met us at the airport, dressed in suits and on time—early, actually. My guests arrived on time or early so not wanting to stick around at the airport, I called and asked if there was any way that she and the other driver could come early. “No problem, Scott. We are on our way.” God bless you, Farida!

Once at the airport, she greeted me with a warm hug and kisses on both cheeks. On the ride from the airport to our hotel, I made a point to sit next to her in the passenger seat so we could catch up. As we drove along the idyllic coastline of the French Riviera, immediately comfortable in her presence, I commented again on how much I recognize and appreciate her truly excellent service toward me and my group and thanked her. She said that in truth, it gives her great pleasure to offer service, especially when it is received with such warmth.

We began to discuss how we both work in domains where we get immense pleasure from offering what we hope is top-notch service and what a joy it is to serve people, especially when it’s received so warmly. 

As we rolled past the Riviera villas, I was also very happy to learn that her dedication to excellent service has rewarded her well. Since her early days with Uber, now she has a small fleet of elegant, expensive, black cars and a retinue of sharply-dressed drivers to transport everyone from ambassadors to the kings and queens of my yoga retreat guests. Truly she treats each person as royalty.

When the retreat was over, she met our group at the hotel to take them back to the airport. After loading everyone’s luggage and escorted them into their seats, she closed the doors and gave me hugs, kisses on both cheeks, and a very nice bottle of Bordeaux (Médoc 2018, a very good year for this wine). 

If you’re ever heading to the Riviera, please let me know and I’ll connect you with Farida so you too can receive the excellent service of Farida. Nothing would give me greater pleasure. Or Frida. And you, I hope. 

I can’t promise you that she’ll send you off with kisses and a bottle of wine, but I can promise you that you’ll be treated to service that you won’t forget.

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Now, giving excellent service is only half of the equation. The other half is learning how to be on the receiving end of service. 

Do you know anyone like this—they absolutely LIVE to serve and give but have the most difficult time receiving? 

Come on, are YOU like this sometimes? 

I know I am, though I’m getting much better at receiving.

Remember that receiving is the other half of the magic of great service. 

Receiving and giving. Giving and receiving. It’s the reciprocity that makes the world go round. It’s the alchemy that allows us to transform our gifts, talents, as well as our needs, into a catalyst that helps both giver and receiver evolve in love into their highest being. 

It’s true. 

The benefit is much more than the money exchanged, the service rendered. The benefit is magic.

There’s always magic at the crossroads and this is true of the intersection of giving and receiving. When heart-felt giving is met with heart-felt receiving it conjures a magic that creates a new, third thing. 

What is it: Is it love? Growth? Happiness?

Larger Than The Sum Of Their Parts

I’ve experienced this my entire career. Whether I’m teaching a yoga class or working with a mentor on building their business, I often feel like I’m the one who is receiving all the benefits, the love, the insight, the energy. 

But in truth we are both receiving the maximum benefit and that’s why it feels so good. It’s a true collaboration. And that’s why the benefits go so much deeper than flexible hips or a functional web site and a mission statement. 

Both are giving. Both are receiving. Both are growing.

Fruits At The Crossroads

I recently finished a mentor package with a fellow Yoga Nidra teacher. Together, we figured out first who she is in this domain of Yoga Nidra, exactly who her clients are, and then crafted her message, look, and products to marry her skills and passions to her clients needs. It was a beautiful collaboration and I’m really proud of all the work she did. It was an honor to add my 25+ years of expertise to apply to her business but more than that, to be a guiding light of encouragement and to remind her that the most important answers are always inside of her. 

As we were building the mechanism for her to create the giving and receiving magic with her own clients, we were simultaneously experiencing that same mentor/student magic ourselves. 

Always a beautiful thing and I will NEVER tire of working on this deeply personal and direct level with clients. 

So, in the spirit of giving and receiving, it’s with the utmost pleasure that I introduce you to the wonder that is Amy DiSanto and Nidra Babes. You gotta check out her website. It’s a work of art and she deserves all the credit for it. You can sign up to become a Nidra Babe and find the rest and resources for you to be your best in this busy world. 

She recently sent me a letter of appreciate which I would love to share with you:

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A Letter of Reverence: Rest, Mentorship, and the Birth of Nidra Babes

by Amy DiSanto

There are people who shape your life so deeply, words never seem quite enough.

This is a letter of reverence for one of those people: Scott Moore—poet, jazz lover, Yoga Nidra teacher, and heart-led mentor. Scott didn’t just teach me how to rest. He held space for me to become. To unravel. To rebuild. To create something extraordinary from the raw material of my own authenticity.

When I joined his mentorship program, I was a woman on the edge of massive transition. I had ideas—lots of them—and also doubts. I worried about being too much. Too emotional. Too nonlinear. Too sensitive. Too "off-task." But Scott? He never flinched.

Instead, he welcomed all of me. Every session felt like a nourishing exhale. His presence wasn’t performative—it was permission-giving. He didn’t coach from a pedestal. He mentored from beside me. Gently. Steadily. With unwavering belief in my gifts. He saw my “mad skills,” as he put it. He made me feel celebrated, not just tolerated.

And somehow, he made business strategy feel sacred. Every recap email he sent after our sessions? Not your average follow-up. They read like poetic jam sessions—filled with insights, encouragement, humor, and clarity. Honestly, they were like sacred scrolls.

Scott Moore didn’t give me confidence. He gave me something better: a mirror. A reminder. A remembering. The gift of seeing myself clearly—unfiltered, real, whole. And that changed everything.

There are some experiences that shift the entire trajectory of your life—not through force or formulas, but through presence. Through poetry. Through being seen.

Working one-on-one with Scott Moore was one of those experiences.

It wasn’t a business coaching program. It was a portal—into expansion, authenticity, and ease. A sacred container for who I was becoming. And a mirror for the self I hadn’t yet fully met.

Scott isn’t just a mentor. He’s a poet. A jazz lover. A Yoga Nidra teacher with soul-deep wisdom. He brings his entire heart into mentorship—his reverence, rhythm, and radical capacity to hold space without agenda.

One of the things Scott says often is: “Everything is yes and everything is love.”

And he lives it. Every emotion I brought to our sessions—fear, grief, brilliance, joy, doubt, divine downloads—was met with exactly that energy. Yes, and love.

He didn’t fix or redirect me. He invited me to feel into the moment without succumbing to people-pleasing, pressure, or performance. He modeled how to pause without apology.

And just when I thought I was spiraling, he’d deliver a jaw-dropping truth bomb—poetic, precise, and with cosmic humor.

That’s why I call him Mic Drop Scott. Because working with him is a mic drop every time. 

We quickly created a bond built on trust and shared reverence for Yoga Nidra. It was a connection that felt ancient, familiar, and sometimes otherworldly.

His guidance wasn’t just cerebral—it came from a deeper knowing, stirred by presence, that allowed doubt to dissolve and clarity to blossom.

He celebrated my “mad skills” (his words) and never let me forget them—even when I did.

One of the greatest gifts I revisit again and again is what comes after our sessions: The follow-up emails. Not average check-ins, but poetic recaps, energetic integrations, and loving nudges infused with insight and celebration.

They captured our session’s essence with clarity, humor, and that signature Scott cadence that made the impossible feel inevitable: They made me feel capable. They reminded me I didn’t have to do it alone. And even when the next steps felt daunting, the message was always: you’ve got this, and I see you.

Those emails alone could’ve been a masterclass in mentorship.

It’s that blend—deep listening, real business strategy, spiritual presence, poetic impact—that makes Scott more than a mentor.

And at one point—(in what I imagined would be our last call) without hesitation or condition—he said:

“You have a biz wingman for life.”

That gift was everything. It wasn’t just the mentorship—it was the certainty I wasn’t walking this path alone. That someone with wisdom, humility, and real tools was in my corner. That kind of steady belief rewires your nervous system. It reconfigures self-trust. It grounded everything I’ve built since.

In those six months (and beyond, because yes—Scott is my “biz wingman for life”), something else was quietly, powerfully being born: Nidra Babes & Lil’ Nidra Babes.

This mentorship journey cracked open a new rhythm in me. A rhythm of rest. Of alignment. Of deeply trusting that what I’m here to do begins with slowing down, not speeding up.

Nidra Babes isn’t simply a business. It’s the embodiment of everything I learned through rest, through witnessing, through the beautiful discomfort of growing in sacred space. It's the invitation I now extend to other women who lead—moms, CEOs, healers, educators, creators—to pause, recalibrate, and reconnect with their inner knowing.

And Lil’ Nidra Babes? That’s the extension of this sacred rest into the next generation. A playful, heart-centered way to introduce school-aged children to the power of stillness, imagination, and nervous system regulation—through Yoga Nidra audio bundles and Creative Calm fill-in-the-blank stories. (You can find those here, if you’re curious.)

Scott taught me that when you mentor from a place of “everything is yes and everything is love,” you unlock more than potential—you unlock power. Real, gentle, unstoppable power.

He always reminded me that my authenticity was my secret sauce—that showing up as me is the wind in the sails of my business. That simple truth, offered with such reverence, became the foundation for all I now share through Nidra Babes.

So here’s to the people who remind us who we are. Here’s to rest as a strategy. Here’s to choosing alignment over urgency. Here’s to the mentors who don’t just teach us how to build—but how to be.

And if you’ve ever wondered what’s possible when you pause long enough to hear your soul whisper… Come rest with me.

Visit NidraBabes.com—a space born from rest, rooted in authenticity.

And Scott—thank you. For modeling soulful strategy. For honoring emotions as messengers. For proving that mentorship can feel like music.

Thank you for whispering truth in moments I wanted to run. For walking with me through the birth of this vision. And for reminding me that the path of rest, creativity, and authenticity is not just valid—it’s visionary.

— Amy DiSanto

Mille-Feuille: The Truest French Pastry

Free Yoga Nidra for Stress Recording and Script

12 years ago, Seneca and I were newly in love and visiting Paris for the first time together. 

We stayed in an apartment that was so tiny that the bed was suspended on the ceiling above the coffee table and when it was time to sleep, a system of pulleys lowered the bed down which engulfed the entire living room. 

One day we strolled about on an errand to buy some fruit. We stopped at a produce shop where you stand at the entrance to tell the grocer—the Pelé of produce, really—what you want. He might ask you for clarification about exactly when you plan on eating this fruit, immediately, this afternoon, or tomorrow, before carefully selecting the absolute PERFECT piece of fruit to sell to you.

He does not allow amateurs to squeeze his fruits or choose something that isn’t ripe, non, non!

Photo by Seneca Moore

We told him we wanted strawberries—to eat immediately. He returned with a basket of strawberries that were so beautiful, so idyllic, so bursting with color that I was hesitant to eat them.

When I popped one in my mouth, I almost wept. I was overcome with how delicious they were. 

But then it made me angry.  

For the previous 37 years of my life I’d been eating sour, pale, and crunchy strawberry— imposters—when I could have been eating these!

In addition to the best strawberries ever grown on God's green earth, while in Paris we also found the greatest crêpe stand in all of Paris. Like the produce guy, this dude’s genius was making crêpes. It was an art just to watch him do his thing, pouring the batter, turning the crêpe at the perfect moment, dressing it with Nutella or sugar and lemon or whipped cream.

Also on that same trip, one evening we sat down for an organ concert in Notre Dame cathedral and as the organist leaned into the keyboard, the entire building shook to its foundation.

Neither of us are catholic but both of us appreciate the beautiful spirit that often can be found in all religions and especially in a cathedral. But on this day, for some reason, the spirit hanging in the air was very heavy for Seneca. She said it felt like generational guilt, oppression, stiflement. We left for lighter air. 

A few years later, we were back in Paris, but this time, Sen and I were married and pushing our 3-year-old around the sidewalks and cobblestone streets in the stroller we had bought in Paris.

I have a pic of Seneca from this trip standing in the crisp early spring air, bundled up with a scarf with Notre Dame looming behind her. Little did we know that only weeks later the cathedral would catch fire and nearly be reduced to rubble. 

Mille-feuille: The Finest French Pastry

We are in Paris again as a prelude to my French Riviera retreat and so Seneca could attend a conference. We are enjoying perhaps our favorite city in the world, revisiting some of our favorite haunts and also discovering new ones. 

We ate strawberries—just as good. 

We saw the renovated Notre Dame and oh, what a revelation! Mon dieu, they’ve done such a beautiful job cleaning and restoring it. Truly a feat of human tenacity and ingenuity. Bravo!

Sen didn’t feel any heaviness in Notre Dame. Quite the opposite. We had the pleasure of visiting as they were offering Sunday mass and as we strolled around the holy structure, now the color of crème pâtissière (the stuff inside cream puffs and eclairs), Seneca had tears in her eyes as a feeling of lightness and spirit filled her soul. She’s a very sensitive soul.

I felt it too, though perhaps slightly less because our kid, now almost 10, was less enthused to be visiting a cathedral so I agreed to wrangle him. Nonetheless the feeling of beauty, purity, and spirit permeated everything. Truly magical.

Seneca even went back again for another visit a few days later. 

Sadly, our crêpe guy is no longer there with no clue as to where he is.

Paris has layers. Same Paris but it’s different every time we come, different layers. 

There’s even a french pastry called mille-feuille which means a thousand layers. Fitting.

I believe that many things in life occur in layers. Not linearly. We’ve been to Paris dozens of times now—I mean, we lived in Nice, France for 3 years and zipping up to Paris on a train was no big deal—but each time we come to Paris, it feels different.

I do suppose it’s a practice to experience something like Paris over and over again but try to see it anew each time. Even though we have our Paris favorites, each time we come we try to search for something new—like a new crêpe stand! 

It’s serious but happy work. 

I’m up for the task.

But regarding layers, I think that life works like this. So often it feels like we come back over and over to the same damn thing—the same feelings, the same situations, the same kinds of relationships—and yet it’s not the same. We are different. The event, feeling, or person has changed. 

Same Damn Apartment

I love to tell the story about one of my guy friends who fell in love with another friend of mine and so he moved out of his apartment to move into her house with her. After 3 years, they broke up. He needed a new place to stay so moved back into his old apartment building—same floor, same apartment layout, just across the hall. 

He called me up one day, lamenting, “Dude! I’m in the same damn apartment, just across the hall.” 

“But don’t you see (young padawan) … you’re across the hall.”

Yes, it was the same apartment but also completely different. He was different, his situation was different. He was now experiencing the bookend of his previous relationship and where he was at that moment was leagues apart than where he began.

Of course, this takes perspective to see life like this and again, it’s a daily practice to learn to see something like stages of your life or events with a level of newness and even to learn to appreciate the many layers of life. 

Live Yoga Nidra Class: Layers

This week, I’ve decided to explore the theme of layers in my online Yoga Nidra class. I’ll be hosting my yoga retreat in the French Riviera so I’ve pre-recorded this session. You can register for this class like normal except at the time of class you will get the recordings. Same thing except you won’t see the other participants. Oh, the layers! Brilliant!

Class will be live the following week, but I’ll be Zooming in from Florence, Italy. Mama mia!

This week’s practice on Layers is a relaxing and illuminating practice that allows us the chance to practice seeing the many layers of life. You don’t need to know anything about yoga or meditation or Yoga Nidra to do this class. I share a few excellent poems that speak to our theme, we do some gentle poses (optional but nice), we breathe together. Then I invite you to get super relaxed and lie down as we settle into a long and relaxing Yoga Nidra practice. In this practice you’ll have the chance to explore having “first sight” and noticing the layers of the events and circumstances of our lives.

Please join me!

I’d love to hear about the layers of your life. How have you noticed life’s many layers?

Respond with a comment and let me know. 

In the meantime, here’s a poem about layers that is as delicious as real Parisian strawberries. 

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The Layers

BY STANLEY KUNITZ

I have walked through many lives,

some of them my own,

and I am not who I was,

though some principle of being

abides, from which I struggle

not to stray.

When I look behind,

as I am compelled to look

before I can gather strength

to proceed on my journey,

I see the milestones dwindling

toward the horizon

and the slow fires trailing

from the abandoned camp-sites,

over which scavenger angels

wheel on heavy wings.

Oh, I have made myself a tribe

out of my true affections,

and my tribe is scattered!

How shall the heart be reconciled

to its feast of losses?

In a rising wind

the manic dust of my friends,

those who fell along the way,

bitterly stings my face.

Yet I turn, I turn,

exulting somewhat,

with my will intact to go

wherever I need to go,

and every stone on the road

precious to me.

In my darkest night,

when the moon was covered

and I roamed through wreckage,

a nimbus-clouded voice

directed me:

“Live in the layers,

not on the litter.”

Though I lack the art

to decipher it,

no doubt the next chapter

in my book of transformations

is already written.

I am not done with my changes.

Yoga Nidra on Podcast: The Rebel Clinicians

I hope you're having a beautiful week. I know I am.

The yard is looking lovely—still some blossoms on the trees and bushes, everything's green, garlic is growing in the garden. 

Like John O'Donohue says in his poem, For Presence:
 

"Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that
seek no attention."

Today, I want to introduce you to Yoga Nidra on Podcast: Rebel Clinicians.

My good friend and fellow yoga teacher at Mosaic Yoga, John Cottrell is an amazing human being and recently hosted me on one of his podcasts.

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John gets up about the time that most of us go to sleep which gives him the time he needs to do amazing things in the world. In addition to being a very gifted and engaging yoga teacher John also:

• Has a Ph.D.

• Is an award-winning body builder

• Leads mens groups and retreats

• Is an incredible baker and sells his delights at his online business, One Cake Wonder—ships anywhere

• Is a trained actor and dancer

• Loves to DJ

• Has his own mens active clothing line M-Body 

• So much more! I'm just scratching the surface

As if this were not enough, John also hosts at least 3 podcasts (that I know of). 

I had the great honor to be interviewed on his fantastic Podcast, Rebel Clinicians, with his pod-parter Alex. 

We had the BEST conversation and I can't wait for you to hear it.

We discussed all things Yoga Nidra but also so much more …

We talked about discovering and working from our own special magic. 
We talked about the importance of finding YOUR thing and understanding that as a pointer to all things through presence.
We talk about how clinicians like therapists and the like can use practices like Yoga Nidra to help them ground and rejuvenate after long hours of helping others.

Please check it out below, it's a great listen.

Then after, buy one of his hoodies, attend his yoga classes, and eat 3 dozen or so of his latest delights.

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SALT LAKE CITY YOGA
CLASSES UPDATES

So, every 6 months the space that Mosaic Yoga rents from hosts a craft market over the weekend.

The next craft market is happening at the Mosaic Yoga Space Saturday, May 17th and Sunday, May 18th.

This means that Yoga For Stiff Bods will only be hosted on Zoom on the Saturday, May 17th. 

I've got some travel coming up—my French Riviera retreat and other European travel—so I want to make you aware of some classes I'll be getting subbed. See my updated class schedule on my website.

We have AMAZING teachers at Mosaic so you'll be in good hands while I'm away.

I'll still be available for private sessions, mentor sessions, and my weekly online Yoga Nidra class, all via Zoom while I'm gone. I'll be working while I'm in Europe so reach out if you'd like to join or book an online class.

Clearly, the best solution is to join me in my French Riviera yoga retreat, June 7–13, 2025. I've got two spots left. 

Find Your Authentic Voice: Transform Your Yoga Nidra Teaching & Your Life

From Script Follower to Master Facilitator: My Journey to Teaching Authenticity in Yoga Nidra

I'm passionate about Yoga Nidra. Since 2008, I've facilitated thousands of hours of sessions and taught hundreds of teachers. Through this journey of practicing and teaching Yoga Nidra as well as developing my Yoga Nidra teacher training program, I've discovered what truly works, what doesn't, and most importantly—why.

What makes my approach revolutionary? While other training programs want to "own" the practice and insist you teach like them, I empower you to find your own authentic voice and create transformative experiences that are uniquely yours.

My Yoga Nidra Journey: From Frustrated Teacher to Global Educator

In full honesty, I initially sought Yoga Nidra training mostly to expand my teaching toolkit. Nothing wrong with that. I just never imagined how it would completely transform my life and career.

Early in my journey, I experienced profound emotional and spiritual healing through Yoga Nidra. It gave me insights about myself and the universe unlike any other practice. But here’s the deal: when I tried to teach using my training's scripts, it felt wrong. Even my students could sense it. The problem was that I was being a rote version of my teacher and not an authentic version of  myself.

This realization changed everything.

So, I took a year off from teaching Yoga Nidra to dismantle Yoga Nidra facilitation and rebuild my own system from the ground up. This time away from facilitating helped me to discover the essence and diversity of the practice. Plus, I discovered tools for facilitating Yoga Nidra in a way that enabled me to meet my student’s diverse needs and do it in a way that was completely authentic to me.

The results were immediate:

• My classes became the most popular at my studio, often with 50+ students

• Other teachers constantly asked for my secrets

• What began as simple workshops evolved into comprehensive trainings

• My online programs attracted students from Iceland to Ireland, Mecca to Montana

What was the difference? 

Authenticity. 

Instead of relying on rote scripts only, I gave people tools to find their own voice—a crucial element missing from most programs.

What Makes My Yoga Nidra Teacher Training Different

1. Tools for Authentic Facilitation, Not Just Scripts

Most programs give you scripts to memorize. I give you the many principles and tools to create your own powerful Yoga Nidra experiences such as:

• The Yoga Nidra Roadmap: A flexible formula you can adapt to any situation or client need

• Welcoming/Recognizing/Witnessing: Techniques to create psychological safety

• Radical Permissions: Methods to disarm resistance and deepen practice

• Kosha Navigation: Learn to use these consciousness layers strategically, not mechanically

With these tools and many, many more, you'll never be limited by someone else's script again.

2. Personal Practice Development

Something else I discovered is that your most profound insights will come from your own practice, not from my teachings. That's why the first half of my training focuses on deepening your personal relationship with Yoga Nidra through multiple lenses:

• History and philosophy

• Psychology and neuroscience

• Myth and storytelling

• Practical application and experimentation

When you teach from authentic experience rather than memorized concepts, you will truly share something of you with your students and they will feel the difference.

3. The Adopt, Adapt, Innovate Methodology

My training follows a natural progression that honors where you are while building toward mastery:

• Adopt: Begin with over 100 pages of specialized scripts demonstrating effective tools and principles of Yoga Nidra facilitation

• Adapt: Learn to modify these approaches to reflect your unique voice and style

• Innovate: Develop the confidence to create your own scripts or facilitate completely improvisationally

This approach makes it so you'll sound 100% like YOU while meeting the unique and specific needs of your clients.

What Students Experience in My Level 1 Training

Beyond the core frameworks mentioned above, you'll learn essential facilitation skills such as:

• Creating an effective teaching container through mindful set and setting

• Honoring each person's unique experience without forcing outcomes

• Finding your authentic facilitation voice that resonates with your specific audience

• Building specialized practices for diverse client needs

Ready to transform your teaching? [LINK TO LEVEL 1 PROGRAM]

Advanced Skills: Level 2 Training

Once you've mastered the fundamentals, my advanced training takes you deeper:

Yoga Nidra Dyads

Learn the art of facilitating awareness-based conversations where practitioners verbalize their experience while in deep relaxation—invaluable for therapeutic settings.

Expanded Facilitation Toolkit

Master advanced techniques including:

• Voice modulation for deeper impact

• Strategic use of music and sound

• Anchoring and layering koshas

• Visualization and positive programming techniques for maximum efficacy

Recording and Sharing Professional-Quality Sessions

Learn to create studio-quality recordings using equipment you already own and build your global audience through platforms like Insight Timer and YouTube.

Creating Specialized Classes

Develop customized practices for specific populations or purposes—from trauma healing to performance enhancement.

Ready to become a master facilitator?

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What My Students Are Saying

“Scott’s Yoga Nidra Teacher Training was exceptional! I had been hoping to expand my yoga teaching practice and was looking for just the right thing. The program which Scott has carefully crafted far exceeded my expectations and has left me with a passion for Yoga Nidra. I also walk away with a wealth of resources and some newfound confidence in leading this powerful type of yoga. Scott exhibits mastery of the art and conveys a lot of good information with richness and ease. Participating in the program was itself transformative; well worth it”

— Ian Napper, RYT 200, Mindful Outdoor Guide

“Yoga Nidra teacher training with Scott Moore was like looking behind the curtain of a magic show and discovering that the magic is real - no tricks, no illusions!  When I started the course, I could not envision myself as a Nidra facilitator, and in fact found the practice quite intimidating. Little by little, as Scott’s training progressed, I was not only able to experience the magic of the Yoga of Sleep, but discover my own power. Scott does an amazing job breaking down the spiritual and practical aspects of Yoga Nidra, while also relating them to common experiences like trail running or music. A word of warning, this training requires a lot of introspection, which isn’t easy. It kept me humble, sometimes made me vulnerable, inquisitive, emotional - but ultimately, it was a source of comfort and empowerment.”

— Cat Gavriusova

“I recently completed Scott’s 4-day Yoga Nidra Immersion and Teacher Training held in Salt Lake City, Utah. I found the training personally and professionally valuable and definitely worth my time and money. I was impressed not only with the training but also with the teacher, Scott Moore. He was well-prepared and effective in his delivery. The training included both complex ideas as well as practical tools that I can use in my coaching and therapy practice. The practice of Yoga Nidra helps me be more present amidst the stress in today’s world and with my clients. The training gave me deep and rich tools that I started using in my coaching and therapy practice Immediately following the training. My clients have reported feeling centered and calm after I have facilitated a short Yoga Nidra practice. I have known Scott for many years as we were both part of the yoga community in Salt Lake City. I have great respect for him. He is an exceptional human being with the purpose of helping humans heal and grow!”

— Evelyn Skon, MBA, MA, LMFT Psychotherapist and Coach

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Your Invitation to Transformation

Over nearly 20 years of practicing, facilitating, and teaching Yoga Nidra, I've discovered that this practice is as transformational as it is accessible. The key to being an effective facilitator lies in skillful authenticity—and it's my passion to help you find your unique voice.

You owe it to yourself and your students to become the best Yoga Nidra facilitator you can be. Join me on this journey.

Level 1 Training: 

Enroll now with my my self-paced online Yoga Nidra teacher Training (50 hours)

Enroll in my next live in-person training: Salt Lake City, Utah July 31–August 3, 2025 (30 hour)

Advanced Yoga Nidra Teacher Training:

Advanced Yoga Nidra Teacher Training: April 26–27, May 3–4, 2025 (once a year only 30 hours)

Both Trainings

If you’re interested in both the level 1 and advanced trainings, reach out for a package deal.

P.S. Interested in learning how to create successful online courses like mine? Book a free discovery Zoom call regarding my mentorship program.

Yoga Nidra Class Near Me: Free Yoga Nidra Class Sunday + Updates

Happy Friday to you!

I hope your week has been great—full of self-awareness, optimism, and doing things for your wellbeing. 

PSA

I invite you to make it a habit that each day you do something healthy for your body, mind, and spirit. 

Personally, I wake up early to do yoga and work out, I plan out what I’m going to eat, and I listen to or read something every day that nourishes my spirit. 

What are your body, mind, spirit habits?

As we step into the weekend, I wanted to give you a few tid-bits.

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Free Yoga Nidra Class This Sunday

Every Sunday I teach a live online Yoga Nidra class 9–10:15 am MT. 

This is the 5th Sunday of the month so this week my live online Yoga Nidra class is FREE. Click here to register and instead of payment, click “It’s the 5th Sunday of the month, this one’s free” button on the registration form. Then, you’ll get an email with the Zoom link and information about class. 

Even if you can’t join live, register anyway because everyone gets the replay so you can listen to and/or watch the entire class as well as just the Yoga Nidra practice. 

This week we’ll explore how love and joy are both portals to experience our ultimate being.

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Yoga For Stiffer Bodies

Saturdays 7:30–8:30 am MT

Live via Zoom or in person at Mosaic Yoga

By donation 

I absolutely love this class. It’s a great opportunity to join a fantastic community of practitioners and do an intelligent, therapeutic, and active yoga practice but totally on your terms.

Class is 60 minutes and consists of a generous warm up, familiar and new poses, and a nourishing cooldown and stretchy poses. It’s the perfect way to start your weekend.

Join me for Yoga for Stiffer Bods live, either via Zoom or in person at Mosaic Yoga in Salt Lake City, Utah. For Zoomers, click here and see the Zoom button at the top of the page (same link for all of my classes).

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Advanced Yoga Nidra Training

Also, I noticed that I’d originally scheduled my Advanced Yoga Nidra teacher training to overlap with Easter so I’ve changed the dates a bit. Now, the Advanced Yoga Nidra teacher training will be over two weekends: April 26–27; May 3–4.

I’m really excited about this training. I only offer it once a year and it’s a chance to really go deep into the absolutely transformational practice of Yoga Nidra. 

We are going to do a deep dive into topics like:

• Purpose: Self-discovery, sacred sleep, and waking from the dream

• Tools: Expanding your toolbox—Drawing a bigger map, Speaking your voice, and wielding weapon-grade love

• Practice Makes Progress: Mastering Yoga Nidra dyads, discovering and building YOUR classes, and developing personal projects

• Direction Frequency and Resonance: advanced recording techniques, sharing platforms, and finding your voice to reveal your students

If you haven’t done the first training, reach out to me and I can arrange a special price for both the level 1 and the advanced training. You’ll have just enough time to do both!

Join us!

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Yoga Retreat France

I have only 3 spots left in my French Riviera yoga retreat happening June 7–13, 2025. This will be a retreat of a lifetime and I don’t want you to miss out. Please grab your bestie and make it happen.

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Yoga Business and Teaching Mentorships

Lastly, I love mentoring other conscious entrepreneurs how to start or boost their business. I recently had a few mentors graduate which opens up a few spots.

If you're interested in a free discovery Zoom call where we can discuss how to get your mad skills out into the world and make a positive impact while also making a great living doing what you love, please book an appointment below. 

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You're a beautiful person. You matter, you're good enough, and pretty kick-ass.

Please share your incredible gifts with the world. 

Part 2 Sacred Intersections: Where Realms Meet

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! 

Today I wanted to share the second of two installments about pilgrims and pilgrimages. 

In Part 1, I wrote about the pilgrim's journey, specifically that magical transformation from searching to arriving. 

And today, being Saint Patrick’s Day, I want to invite you to join me at Tobar Phádraig—Saint Patrick's well—where together we can discover those magical intersections between realms that define true pilgrimage.

The Intersection of Realms (Connecting to Pilgrim)

If you recall from my last message, during my retreat to Ireland last year, we visited the home and art studio of Richard Hearns who showed us many paintings, two of which made a distinct impression on Seneca and me. 

Seneca was enthralled by Idyll but I was immediately taken by the painting Pilgrim. 

So much moves me about this painting, especially the image of the pilgrim and the illumination behind the figure. To me, this image feels like an arrival. 

But what moves me the most about this painting is the intersecting lines, something that’s become a major pillar of my personal spiritual understanding and my teachings. 

The idea of intersecting lines could be summarized like this: The Universe exists as a balanced paradox—seemingly opposite things all belonging to one large Singularity or Oneness. 

Since we all belong to the Oneness, because Oneness is our True Nature and opposites are anathema to this core Oneness, whenever there is perceived opposition, it’s an opportunity to step into the fullness of our being and begin to explore that situation in a Both/And way. Whether it’s about politics or relationships, career or education decisions, even getting along with our neighbors, there is a magic in exploring the place where seemingly opposing lines intersect. Responding rather than reacting to the human experience of opposition in a way that mirrors our greatest intelligence, the Beingness of our Oneness, is the most beautiful representation of intersecting lines. When two seemingly opposite things come together, they can create a new third thing, something magical and larger than the sum of its parts. 

There’s always magic at the crossroads. 

My work, especially with Yoga Nidra, explores that fascinating crossroads between our humanness and our beingness in our birthright and majesty of what it truly means to be a human being. It explores the intersections of waking and dreaming, spiritual and physical, self and Self, and self and other. 

One of the things I teach in my Personal Renaissance retreats and walking tours in Tuscany is the Leonardo DaVinci illustration of the Vitruvian Man, the human being as the perfect example of intersection of realms e.g., the circle and the square. 

It’s often at these intersections, at these crossroads, that magic happens. Sacred wells are potent examples of this kind of magic.

Sacred Wells as Intersections

Asking permission to enter Tobar Phádraig

Both times that I’ve made my own pilgrimage to Tobar Phádraig, I’ve been accompanied by spiritual giants—Norín and Moley—mother and son duo of poets, writers, and singers—and none other than poet, author, and speaker David Whyte himself. 

Both times we were led along this stony pathway that overlooked the barren landscape with a view of the Atlantic ocean off to our right. We followed seemingly endless lines of fences made from the natural flagstones so replete in this landscape. 

After about 30 minutes of walking, there’s a break in the wall off to the left. Norín invited us to stand at the threshold between the road and the pathway leading to the well, and in our hearts ask the land and spirits permission to enter. Doing so, then taking a step onto the short path that leads to the holy well, it felt like stepping onto holy ground. 

Saint Patrick

At the well, it is lush, verdant. Quiet. There are ribbons hanging in the trees with names on them, people who are sick, dying or dead. Generations from time out of mind built a stone basin in which there’s a scattering of coins. Statues of saints and plaques with pictures of family members, living and dead, watch quietly from alcoves. 

Standing at the well, we were invited to make our own prayers and supplications, tie our own ribbons to the trees,  and toss coins into the well. Then song and poetry sealed our prayers to rest in that holy place like bright coins scintillating in the well.

Intersecting Saints, Sinners, and Leprechauns 

While standing at the holy well, David Whyte recited his poem, Tobar Phádraig, and prefaced the poem with both a story and history about the well including the spiritual and mystical landscape of Ireland.

David Whyte explained to us a little about the original people who lived in Ireland. Before the current people conquered Ireland, the original inhabitants had been living there for thousands of years. There are sacred burial sites and dolmans in the area that are at least five thousand years old. He explained that what is now Tobar Phádraig has been a sacred site for millennia and long predates Saint Patrick and the Catholic church. 

The original people of Ireland had reached such a high level of harmony between themselves and nature, that they were truly enlightened beings. When the people who currently live in Ireland came to take over the land by force, the original inhabitants were in such a completely different place consciously and spiritually that it’s said that when they saw the conquerors coming, they simply turned sideways into the light and chose to live in a different realm. 

Patrick McCormack

It’s said that those original people still inhabit the land but make up the mythical and mystical landscape of Ireland in the form of elementals, spirits, leprechaun, and the like. I can tell you with a straight face that having been there it’s very easy to sense these beings in that landscape.

I’m not alone. When we were in Ireland, we were also treated to a beautiful walk around the Burren with farmer, rancher, and environmental activist Patrick McCormack (check out this beautiful documentary about him). Patrick is a very practical man who has a beautiful and profound relationship with the land. He also told us frankly that the spirits and elementals of that area have rules that must be followed if you want your work on the land to go well. He explained that even the farmers and ranchers who don’t believe in these spirits still abide by these spirits’ rules … you know, just in case. 

I’ve since learned a little more about Saint Patrick, that when he was preaching at what’s now Saint Patrick’s well and admonishing the non-Christians to join his johnny-come-lately church—we are talking 433 CE. Well the non-christians weren’t having it and started throwing rocks at Saint Patrick. Having been there, I can attest to the preponderance of hand-sized stones in the area and it's clear that they would make effective and easy ammunition. Well, it’s said that Saint Patrick threw his staff down on the ground and it turned into many serpents who drove all the non-believers away and that’s how christianity came to stay in Ireland.

Then, David Whyte told us another story about when christianity was more established in Ireland. St. Kevin, a hermit and founder of Glendalough monastery was known for his deep connection to nature and animals. It’s said that one day he was praying with his hands outstretched, supplicating the divine, and a blackbird came and rested there. So St. Kevin prayed longer to allow this bird a little rest. Well, the blackbird felt so comfortable there that she nested and laid an egg there. Kevin then remained in that position until the fledgling was raised and both birds flew away. 

So now knowing more about the history and intersection of saints, sinners, and leprechauns, here’s David Whyte’s poem, Tobar Phádraig. Listen to how David Whyte masterfully intersects all of these intersecting elements: past, present, and future, christian and pre-christian traditions, inner and outer landscape, body and spirit, as well as the author and reader. Plus I hope that you’ll understand the references a bit better after the stories he shared.

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Tobar Phádraig

By David Whyte

Turn sideways into the light as they say

the old ones did and disappear

into the originality of it all.

Be impatient with easy explanations

and teach, that part of the mind

that wants to know everything,

not to begin questions it cannot answer.

Walk the green road above the bay

and the low glinting fields

toward the evening sun, let that Atlantic

gleam be ahead of you and the gray light

of the bay below you, until you catch,

down on your left, the break in the wall,

for just above in the shadows

you’ll find it hidden, a curved arm

of rock holding the water close to the mountain,

a just-lit surface smoothing a scattering of coins,

and in the niche above, notes to the dead

and supplications for those who still live.

But for now, you are alone with the transfiguration

and ask no healing for your own

but look down as if looking through time,

as if through a rent veil from the other

side of the question you’ve refused to ask.

And you remember now, that clear stream

of generosity from which you drank,

how as a child your arms could rise and your palms

turn out to take the blessing of the world.

The Alchemy of Presence

I recently returned from a personal pilgrimage to Colombia. Having visited this retreat 6 years previous, an experience that afforded me with both the most difficult and the spiritual experiences of my life up to that point, I returned because I felt called to. I craved the further light, spirit, and wisdom that this sacred healer facilitates so ably. 

In short, I craved a solid dose of the divine. I went into this recent pilgrimage with some trepidation because I know that often such encounters are as much of a violation as they are revelation, that just like Richard Hearns’ paintings suggest, there’s a journey through the darkness to arrive at the greater light. 

Even though I prayed to be spared from the darkness—hoping that I had somehow paid that price at the previous retreat six years ago and that this one could be all rainbows—the darkness came nonetheless. Something needed to be born from within me and it was not gentle. Nonetheless, as anyone who has experienced giving birth in any form may attest, this kind of genesis is the pilgrim’s journey—the pain leading to the beauty or the light.

Many things came through me during the ceremonies in Colombia but one of my deepest insights was about the alchemy of presence. Past and future, myself and other—all merged into my being at this moment. I felt as if I was humanity giving birth to itself, healing itself, and strengthening itself. It was one of the most spiritual, affirming, and beautiful experiences I may ever have in my life, an experience that opened my eyes more fully to the Oneness that exists in all of us. 

Like I mentioned previously, it dawned on me that there’s a sacredness to the pilgrim’s hunger and searching for something over the next horizon but that eventually there will come a time along the pilgrim’s journey when the pilgrim arrives “at the ground at their feet and learns to be at home.” I believe that this often, this kind of arrival happens when we encounter intersecting lines, the paradox of vertical and horizontal, physical and spiritual, you and me, or frankly any other apparent opposite. 

It happens when we realize that this very moment—even as you read these words—is the moment you’ve been waiting for. 

This is it. You’ve arrived. 

Invitation

I invite you to join me for a pilgrimage on my next yoga retreat to the French Riviera, June 7–13, 2025 where we will explore that intersection of humanness and beingness, of ocean and land, spirit and culture.

I only have a few spots left so please jump on this today.

You’ll love:

• Daily all-levels yoga and meditation by the ocean

• World class beaches

• Immersing yourself into the culture of Nice and Monaco

• Wine tasting and food tours

• Chill days at the beach

• Amazing new friends

• Beautiful personal discovery

Follow the rainbow over to my website and register today to save $200 with this one day only discount code: POTOGOLD. No tricks from leprechauns but the deal goes away tomorrow.

May we all, for the love of saints and sinners alike, “turn sideways into the light” and “turn our palms out and take the blessings of the world.”

You are a blessing in my world. 

Namaste,

PS In the spirit of Saint Patrick’s Day, below are links to two different Irish musical groups, both of whom I’ve had the pleasure of encountering while in Ireland. Enjoy!

Yoga Nidra Teacher Training: Fix The Crazy Don't Add To It

Man, there’s a LOT going on in the world right now: fires, war, climate, calamity, political doo-doo … you name it.

The world needs qualified Yoga Nidra teachers more than ever to help respond to rather than react from all what’s going on and help make the world a better place. 

Do you want to help the crazy rather than add to it?

Let me teach you how to facilitate Yoga Nidra!

Join My Next Live Yoga Nidra Teacher Training

I’m offering my next Yoga Nidra teacher training January 24–27 and I’d love to have you join. 

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How Can Yoga Nidra Help?

Yoga Nidra can help you and others to calm stress, achieve a feeling of meaning and purpose in the world, and live their life in a spirit of compassionate responsiveness.

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Can I Teach Yoga Nidra if I’m Not A Yoga or Mediation Teacher?

This training is not limited to only yoga or meditation teachers. It’s also perfect if you’re a school teacher, coach, therapist, or parent. 

I’ve spent years developing and teaching my Yoga Nidra teacher training: Facilitating Transformation with the Yoga of Sleep which is one of the best Yoga Nidra teacher trainings in the world and lauded by websites such as Mind is the Master and Yogi Times.  Many people from other disciplines and modalities take this training to help them with the people in their world—clients, students, kids, etc.

This is my best Yoga Nidra training yet and I’d LOVE to share it with you!

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When’s The Next Live Yoga Nidra Teacher Training?

January 24–27, 2025. 

Live: in-person in Tucson, AZ or via Zoom from wherever you are.

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You’ll get:

• Over 100 pages of Yoga Nidra scripts so you can start teaching Yoga Nidra today

• 150 pages of a very detailed manual so to accommodate different learning styles

• 30 hours of expert instruction—cuz you can’t learn this stuff in an afternoon. 

• Specialized Yoga Nidra practices that actually support you to learn how to teach Yoga Nidra

• In person or Zoom so you can join from wherever you are or in-person if you learn best that way

• Lifetime access to all audio/Video replay of all the sessions so you can watch any session you have to miss or so you can rewatch the material as often as you need

• Personalized attention to meet your individual interests and needs for this practice

• Yoga Alliance continuing ed credit if you need it to keep your YA membership active

• Personal 1:1 consultation so you can learn how to personally thrive in this practice

Most of all, you’ll leave feeling prepared to teach varied and specialized Yoga Nidra practices to benefit your students using the power of your own voice rather than being a parrot of your teacher. 

Please reach out with any questions!

Please join me!

Making Waves Great Salt Lake & Live Yoga Nidra Teacher Training

Yeah, today I’m excited to share about a collective poem I contributed to about saving Great Salt Lake as well as my next live Yoga Nidra teacher training.

A Word To Save The Waves

My very good friend,Nan Seymour—a dear friend/sister with whom I’ve been co-leading nature + yoga + writing retreats for the past 9 years—has been doing an incredible job, tirelessly raising awareness about the endangered Great Salt Lake. 

I love this lake and love Nan and so when she asked if I would write a poem about this majestic but imperiled lake, I jumped at the chance. 

Many people contributed and the results were a collective poem. I was thrilled to see that it was recently published as a book called Irreplaceable, A Collective Praise Poem For Great Salt Lake.

Tonight, you’re invited to a FREE event, a collective reading of this poem and I’ll be privileged to read my humble poem.

I’ll also get to blow my sax a little bit. 

At this free event, we will be honored with opening remarks from Lisa Bickmore, Poet Laureate of Utah as well as a screening of the short film Irreplaceable, directed by John Meier. 

Can’t wait!

When: Wednesday, November 20th from 6–7:30 pm 
Where: Natural History Museum of Utah located at 301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108
Cost: FREE

Please come!

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Live Yoga Nidra Teacher Training

Also, I am excited to let you know about my next LIVE Yoga Nidra teacher training, January 24–27, 2025

I’m excited to be hosted by Rianne Maldonado of Wrae Aesthetics in Tucson, Arizona. 

Training available via Zoom or in person, Tucson, Arizona. 

 
Stand Out As a Teacher, Coach, or Therapist

Let’s face it—there are a billion yoga teachers, coaches, and therapists. This Yoga Nidra teacher training will help you become a Yoga Nidra expert and will help you stand out from the rest in your industry.

Yoga Nidra is SO more than just guided visualizations. Explore how this powerful but gentle medium facilitates massive and lasting transformation from anything to confidence, addiction, stress, sleep, and even spiritual awakening.

This engaging and nourishing training empowers you to become an effective teacher to meet the unique needs of your students and clients, to help them make important transformations in their own lives.

People are waiting to experience Yoga Nidra in only the way YOU can deliver it!

Stand out as a teacher and to facilitate lasting transformation for your students and clients.

What’s Unique About This Training:

• Superb quality—Organized, easy to follow, flexible for your schedule, dynamic as per your learning style.

• In-depth study—you’ll learn from a Yoga Nidra master and graduate a Yoga Nidra expert.

• Highly effective—this training is ranked the top Yoga Nidra trainings in the world by Mind Is the Master.

• Be Original! Most trainings teach you to be a rote version of your teacher. This training teaches you the larger principles, roadmaps, and concepts that allow you to tap into the wise teacher inside of you to be a truly effective teacher by teaching from the power of your own voice

• Yoga Alliance Continuing Education credit.

We Are All Tied For First Place In The Human Race

There’s Something Going Around

I’m getting over a cold. 

It’s been no fun.

But today, I want to talk about something else that’s going around and that is even more nasty and lugubrious than a cold. It’s uber-contagious and gross and it’s making a lot of us very, very sick. 

I’m not talking about sniffles and coughs, but something that is far more pernicious, something that is clouding our minds and hearts. 

It’s an election year and what’s running rampant is a scourge of fear, negativity, and division. 

I see it in my friends, my neighbors, and community. 

I feel it trying to creep into myself. 

It’s strange how we so willingly pass along the virus of negativity and fear to each other.

But yoga and meditation can help.

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My Precccioussss …

I know people, and so do you, whose health is truly suffering because of this political “news” binging. They are losing sleep, experiencing anxiety, looking at the world increasingly in fear and paranoia.

The reason that all this negativity is so pernicious, so vile, so harmful,  is that in truth … there's a part of us that loves it.

Outwardly, we might vociferously complain about our supposed political enemy but, if we are really and truly honest with ourselves, we cherish that displeasure. We’re like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings who holds onto the malevolent ring of power, the object of his deepest desire that is simultaneously eclipsing his heart and poisoning his mind so completely that he is utterly unable to release it. It’s like evil Sauron has given us all a golden ring of political negativity that is slowly poisoning us all. 

This negativity conjured by this political season is as addicting as any drug, because it is a drug. 

There’s a part of us that gets a massive emotional reward from all of this negativity—a heroic dose of dopamine that keeps us glued to our screens and refreshing our social media feeds for more and more of it. We become veritable “news” junkies, addicted to this bitter poison, lost in the continuous “pleasure” of the pain, and deafened by the echo chamber of our fears and one-sided opinions. 

Like a pusher on the corner, politicians and sensationalist media alike understand exactly how addicting all this negativity is and are purposefully serving us an overdose of this junk for the simple and sinister purpose of power and profit.

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The Peace Chant

One antidote to this suffering is The Peace Chant Om Sahana Vavatu, an ancient chant which I love, one that has been a sacred guide along my own spiritual journey. One of my favorite translations of this chant has a few lines that are so poignant, so right on. 

It says:

May we not cherish hatred, anger, and displeasure. 

May our hearts be full of love and may perfect friendship reign between us. 

This prayer beseeches us to draw near to the best and most honorable parts of our hearts and to turn away from our natural propensity for negativity. In not so many words, it’s admonishing us to “Just say no to the drug of hatred, anger, and displeasure.” It’s a reminder of our innate True nature, that of love, friendship, and inclusion.

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“But I Saw It On The News!”

We have to be discerning about both where we get our news and how much exposure we will allow ourselves to it. Sensationalist news sources are no different than “reality TV” that feed us selected and curated sound bites or scenes of an event, information that’s been edited with an agenda and designed to feed us an emotion and a story, one that often puts us lightyears from the entire truth. 

This political “reality forming,” this fear mongering, these sensationalist soundbites, are not about informing us. They are designed to tie us in knots while simultaneously un-tie us as a people.

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So What News Should I Consume?

We must be discerning enough to inform ourselves as best we can about the facts without abusing ourselves with sensationalist media. In your heart you know the difference. 

We must search for balanced sources for the news. 

My father-in-law is a prof of journalism and gave me some very helpful recommendations for exploring balanced news sources. I encourage you to check these out in a blog post I wrote called The News Is Consuming You.

No matter what news source we listen to or watch, we must always think critically, avoid extremes, use common sense, and above all, remain connected to our hearts. 

Then we must turn off the talking heads, close social media, roll out our yoga mat or go on a fucking walk, to clear your head and ground yourself in your breath and body. 

“Perhaps / The truth depends on a walk
around a lake”

— Wallace Stevens, Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction

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Draw Inward But Not In A Cave

Don’t get me wrong. What we should NOT do is hide in a cave, close our eyes to the world, and sit self righteously as we meditate in our own personal campaign of spiritual bypassing. On the contrary, I believe it’s a distinct privilege to be part of a democratic process and get to vote, to act to help make the world a better place. 

But outward actions must be informed by our inward attention. Practices such as yoga, meditation, and Yoga Nidra are essential because they remind us of that part of us that is already whole, that is part of the Oneness, the part that is fundamentally tied to inclusion and compassion. Once we are “yoked” to our highest self, then we must go out into the world and respond compassionately to the needs of our world, doing the work that helps us all to unite in a spirit of friendship as together we build a brighter future. 

Oh, and I might suggest meditating BEFORE looking at the news. 

Compassionate responsiveness is anathema to fearful reactivity. 

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MLK, Gandhi, and Buddha Walk Into A Bar …

Nonviolence to others and ourselves is surely at the heart of our yoga practice, our practice as human beings, and another antidote to this nefarious negativity. The first observance of yoga is Ahimsa, or non-violence. 

The world’s middle-weight champion of nonviolent social revolution, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood how essential nonviolence was to the lasting effect of social revolution. Many of his views on nonviolence came from studying the works and words of Mahatma Gandhi, the world's light-weight champion of nonviolence. Dr. King even traveled to India, in part as a pilgrimage to Gandhi's homeland. Ghandi understood very well the yogic texts along with their primary tenant of nonviolence as the genesis for revolution, both for individuals and peoples. Expounding on the principles of nonviolence taught by Gandhi, Dr. King said, “The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate [them].” This malcontent, this hate for another person, people, or political affiliation is “the poison we ingest,” like the Buddha says—the world’s heavy-weight champion of nonviolence—“hoping that another will die.”

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Violence Is Making Ourselves and Others Wrong

Violence is more than harming someone with force. It’s also violent to make someone else wrong or to vilify them. We don’t have to agree with other people’s opinions but, we must cultivate a clear enough vision not to also vilify them, to still see them as family. In truth, opposing opinions can be a marvelous illuminator for those things that are important to us, things which may have been dormant in our hearts until someone voiced a different opinion. Then, fueled with the fire of determination, we can practice compassionate responsiveness to act upon those desires. 

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What We Say Matters

I’m very proud to live in the shadow of the University that created something called The Dignity Index which scores speech with an eight-point scale, ranging from contempt to dignity. The creators assert that it’s not our disagreements that causes division between us, but rather the language we use to voice those disagreements. Their mission is to prevent violence, ease divisions, and solve problems. By drawing attention away from the speaker and more to their speech, they wish to negate the biases of partisan politics. They want to emphasize the power that each person has to heal our country and each by using dignified language. 

My kid’s school district is even using the Dignity Index with a goal to teach our children how to use dignified language from a young age as well as to minimize things like bullying at school. 

The Dignity Index recently scored the presidential and VP debates. You may or may not be surprised by the results. 

No Matter What You Say …

And until we can all start to use language that promotes dignity, even within a disagreement, how might we respond when someone uses contemptuous language toward us?

The truth is, nobody can make you feel any particular emotion, regardless of whether or not it was intended to hurt you.

Sticks and stones, my friends. Sticks and stones. 

Marshall Rosenberg, (author and founder of Nonviolent Communication, Ph. D. in clinical psychology and awarded Diplomate status in clinical psychology for his international work in personal, corporate, and international conflict resolution and peace talks) also teaches this essential yogic principle of nonviolence. He says that before we can practice nonviolence outwardly, we must first practice it inwardly by doing the work to eradicate negative self-talk and shame. This is yet another reason to practice yoga, meditation, and Yoga Nidra.

He says that in every circumstance, when we feel an emotion as the result of what someone did or said, it’s an invitation to lean into our heart, to understand what we feel, and to explore what needs that emotion expresses. 

Here’s an example, “When _____ said ______, I felt [emotions: anger, sadness, fear, resentment, jealousy, disrespect, confusion , etc.]. I felt that emotion because it didn’t meet my need for [needs: justice, fairness, kindness, compassion, inclusion, listening, understanding, etc.]. 

Accepting personal responsibility for our emotions coupled with strong intrinsic practices of nonviolence (gentle yoga and meditation like loving kindness) help us to gain the vidya (clear seeing) that we are responsible for each of our emotions. Even more, that each emotion is a pointer to something else far greater than our emotions, something that is tied to the immutable and fundamental compassion of our being. While it often feels easier to blame someone else for our emotions, to truly be responsible for our own emotions is both humbling and immensely empowering. 

With this consciousness toward nonviolence and taking responsibility for our own emotions, we are more capable to see that someone who pushes our buttons can actually be a gift, someone who illuminates what’s important for us and inspires us to compassionately respond to those important issues. 

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I DO Need To Have An Opinion About That

If you’ve been reading my writing for a while, you might be familiar with my beloved mantra, “I don’t need to have an opinion about that.” It’s truly been a game-changer. This mantra has helped me to recognize and release those things about which I truly don’t need to have an opinion—truly stupid stuff that truly doesn’t matter, like whether or not my dad listens to soft rock (two compound 4-letter words, deplorable doubled down). 

Introspective practices like yoga and meditation also empower us to own our feelings and opinions, to see them as such. They teach us to listen to our hearts and discern between those things that truly matter and those that truly don’t. 

“One only sees correctly with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eyes.”

—The Wise Fox in The Little Prince

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By letting go of the stupid shit, that detritus that’s not worth the cognitive calories, by simply choosing not to engage with it, we save the energy and bandwidth necessary to go out and respond compassionately to the urgent needs of our world. And because our practices root us to the compassion that is fundamental to our being, when we do go out and act, we do so from a place of love, not from fear, or worse, hate. 

Compassion Takes Courage

This kind of compassionate engagement with the world takes courage. The word courage comes from the latin root, cor, which means of the heart. We must stay connected to our hearts and courageously respond to the world’s needs. 

We must be courageous, not just because it feels like the world is burning and we need to do something—it is and we do—but because the world’s problems are not going to be solved with another sign in the yard and another rant to our friends who only commiserate and confirm our complaining.

What Do We Do?

Voting is essential but isn’t enough. We must also walk across to the other side of the political street, knock on our neighbor’s door armed with warm hearts, warm cookies, and weapon-grade love. We must be willing to discuss the hard issues in between bites of chocolate chips and learn about our neighbor’s values, their hopes, and their fears. 

We can learn to listen. Mark Nepo, poet, spiritual adviser, and author of The Book Of Awakening said,

“To listen is to lean in softly with the willingness to be changed by what you hear.”

We must practice seeing the human on the other side and see that at their core, they are not so very different from us. 

We are all tied for first place in this human race. 

We must refuse to be manipulated by sensational media who would encourage us as people to fight one another, like animals pit against each other in a cage for sport or profit. 

By practicing yoga and meditation, compassionate action, balanced doses actual news, and a commitment to heart-centered discourse is what will change us from being the un-tied states of America to the United States of America.

(And if you’re dyslexic like me, you might have to read that last sentence like 4 times).

May we all learn to become united in the politik of the heart so that when this election is over, no matter who wins, we can look around at the aftermath and count our friends on both sides of the street. 

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To end, I’d like to offer the Peace Chant:

Om Saha Naav[au]-Avatu |
Saha Nau Bhunaktu |
Saha Viiryam Karavaavahai |
Tejas vi na vadhi tamastu
Ma vid ve sa va hai
Om shanti shanti shanti

Translation: 

May the divine protect us while we are together

May all obstacles be removed which stand in the way of our understanding the truth that all is one and that there is no division or separation between us.

May we grasp this understanding with full comprehension and without doubt so that all misunderstanding will be dissolved within us. 

May we not cherish hatred, anger, or displeasure

May our hearts be full of love and and may perfect friendship reign between us.

May the space around us be free of fear.

May the north and south, east and west be free of fear.

May the earth be free of fear

May the past and future be free of fear.

May we have no foes

May we all be friends.

And may the entire human race unite in one fearless friendship.

Om. Peace, peace, peace.

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A Yoga Nidra Recording For You

I’ve made a Yoga Nidra recording that is designed to help you stay grounded during an election year as we practice compassionate inclusion.

Namaste,

Live Yoga Nidra Training: What Do You Love?

Everybody’s got their thing. 

Julia loved to cook. 

Picasso loved to paint

source: https://blog.zoneswimwear.com/post/houdinis-water-torture-cell-explained

Houdini loved to submerge himself in water upside down, locked by his ankles with padlocks to see if he could get out alive. 

Whatever. 

We all gotta lean into whatever we love, right. 

Me? I love teaching Yoga Nidra. I feel I was BORN for it, you know?

I love helping people not only find massive benefits in their life through practicing better rest, better sleep, and managing stress, but also with other important things. Things like aligning personal and global perspectives, about sourcing a sea of creativity within, and relaxing deep enough to finally turn off the chatter in the incessant hamster wheel of the mind. With Yoga Nidra a person can tap the part of themselves that already knows the solution to life’s biggest and smallest problems and allows those solutions to rise to the surface. 

I love that you don’t need any prior experience of yoga or meditation to do Yoga Nidra and that a person can get massive benefits even from their first session. I love that it offers even the newest of practitioners—often people who roll into class in cuz their wife told them that unless they learn to chill the $%^& out they would need to find a new place to call home—an easy way to experience effortless and lasting rest. 

And when you’ve spent as much time as I have practicing, teaching, thinking and writing about Yoga Nidra, the topic gets really expansive. So I love exploring the nitty-gritty of not only what Yoga Nidra is—its history, its method, its purpose—but alo why it works, the neuroscience and psychology of it. 

For me, I love to connect the dots between Yoga Nidra and myths, storytelling, poetry, and my own personal life stories—YOUR life stories—to see how it’s such a powerful and available pointer that reminds us of who we truly are and how we are all truly connected. 

Who knew you could get all of this from a guided nap?

In addition to teaching Yoga Nidra I also love, love, LOVE teaching OTHERS how to teach Yoga Nidra. I think what I love most about it is training other people how to facilitate massive and positive benefits in the lives of the people who are in their particular niche, those they encounter regularly whether they are clients, students, family, or members of a particular community. I love teaching about how Yoga Nidra is more than just guided meditation, more than another guided visualization. So much more. It’s more than checking out and dreaming yourself into bliss. It’s also a pathway to awakening to the truth of who you are. That’s why I call my method, Waking Up with the Yoga of Sleep.

What do you love to do?

Do you love to make a difference in people’s lives? 

Maybe you’re a teacher, a therapist, a coach.

Maybe you teach yoga or meditation. 

Maybe you’re a school teacher.

Could Yoga Nidra be one of the tools you use regularly to help you do whatever you love to do? Could it help you stand out in your field? Could it help those you’re in contact with every day?

This weekend begins my next live Yoga Nidra training where together we will dive deep into the art and science of Yoga Nidra and explore how it can help you to facilitate positive transformation for your clients, students, family, and especially for yourself. 

What is the particular niche of people you hang with regularly, whether through your job, history or situation in life? Could they benefit from Yoga Nidra offered in only the way that you can offer it?

So, whether you’re connecting with others through coq au vin, cubism, or conjuring an escape, Yoga Nidra can help you help others in massive ways.

Now’s the time for you to learn to teach Yoga Nidra for yourself and for others. 

Check out the details below. 

Live and In-Person
and via Zoom

Salt Lake City, Utah

An in-depth Yoga Nidra training
for teachers, coaches, and therapists
interested in facilitating powerful transformation
for self and others.

May 11th & 12; 18th & 19th

Lament Over Daylight Saving Time

Today I want to discuss some of the benefits of Yoga Nidra, how rest and napping help rejuvenate you, and how crazy Daylight Saving Time is.

It’s Daylight Saving Time.

You know what’s weird? Time. 

Yes, time. 

What’s also weird is that a helpful student chimed in to let me know that it’s not “Daylight Savings Time” but rather Daylight Saving (no s) Time. Good to know. Thanks!

Today is one of the worst “time events” that happens twice a year. 

That’s right. Today the U.S. switches to Daylight Saving Time. Well, everyone but Arizona and Hawaii. It’s nice to know that some states have kept their sanity. 

Why Daylight Saving Time?! 

Every organism on this planet has some sort of a rhythm and sleep cycle that is dependent upon the circadian rhythm, the natural rhythm of the daylight hours as dictated by the seasons. This rhythm directs cycles from when to sleep, when to eat, when to migrate, etc. It makes sense. 

What doesn’t make sense to me is the fact that as humans we are advanced enough to send Gobots to Mars 203 MILLION miles away and have them send pics back to us in real time as it rolls around collecting specimens and amusing itself yet we don’t have the smarts to keep to the natural rhythm that all organisms on this planet have been following since, oh, the beginning of life on this planet. Instead humans create a rhythm of life based not on the seasons or the natural impulses of our bodies, impulses that have been ingrained into our very DNA, but rather an artificial rhythm set to a clock that is designed to make us more productive and earn more money. 

If that were not bad enough, then every 6 months we have to mess it up with adding or taking away Daylight Saving Time. 

I don’t need to have an opinion about it … but apparently I do. 

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Putting Daylight Saving To Rest

Luckily I’m not alone here. Thankfully some really smart people like Kenneth P. Wright Jr. Ph.D at the Sleep and Chronobiology lab at the University of Colorado Boulder thinks that for optimal physical, mental, and emotional health we should do away with Daylight Saving Time and stick with one standard time, for crying out loud. (If you care about a reference for Write’s work, whether or not I’m not making this up, you can click here.)

But until we all come to our senses and ditch Daylight Saving, those of us who are in the US are waking up an hour earlier today (except Arizona and Hawaii—starkly different places but who at least share a modicum of sanity). 

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Solutions For Fatigue

So, here’s what I propose. 

More napping. 

Yes, more napping. I mean, I’m about a third the way into Scott Carney’s book about Dreams and I love how he is exploring the fact that throughout history and cultures, before the industrial revolution and electricity (light bulbs meant people could work longer), people would follow a more natural pattern of sleeping and sleep about 9 hours a night and would also take a siesta in the afternoon which follows the natural rhythms of a person’s body. 

This is both sane and healthy. 

You know, sleeping a solid 7–9 hours is normal and healthy. Then, it’s natural to start to wane mentally and energetically after about 8 hours of being awake, after lunch time, usually. This is the PERFECT time to take a bit of a nap. It’s not being lazy. It’s being healthy. 

You don’t need to nap for long. In fact, 20–30 minutes will do absolute wonders for your overall wellness. Plus, you don’t even have to fall all the way asleep. You can just rest. It’s a revolution!

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More Productive with Yoga Nidra

But what about being productive and all that? 

Well, turns out that when you follow this more natural cycle of sleep and allow yourself a sanctioned nap in the middle of the day, your brain functions even better, your emotions are more regulated and for those who care … YOU’RE EVEN MORE PRODUCTIVE.  

To boot, you have better ideas, tend to think out of the box more often, and are generally more creative and able to learn. In fact, many of the outliers of art and industry— math and science geniuses, tech gurus, writers and artists—are ardent nappers. 

Yep.

And guess what? Listening to a Yoga Nidra recording serves this need for a mid-day nap PERFECTLY. 

So as a way of compassionately responding to this insane biannual change to/from Daylight Savings, I’m offering you a free Yoga Nidra for deep relaxation. 

You’re welcome. 

And if you’d like to make this resting and napping a regular part of your life, please join me for my weekly live, online Yoga Nidra class, happening at 9 am MDT. You can participate from the comfort of your own home (hell, your own bed). We’ll breath, move, talk a little, but then the main event will be me leading you through a luxurious Yoga Nidra practice where you get practice waking up to your True Being through the process of engineering that liminal state between waking and sleeping. That’s the Nidra state. 

Truly we are waking up with the yoga of sleep. 

Even if you can’t make it live, by registering, you’ll get the replay so you can do this Yoga Nidra practice any time you want, as often as you want. 

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So next week, as your dragging your butt around the office, sluggish and tired from the time change, tell your boss that at about 2 pm every day, you’ll have to excuse yourself, that you have an urgent 30 minute appointment which involves you lying down, closing your eyes, and napping your way to enlightenment. 

Your boss will thank you later. 

If you need a note from your yoga teacher for permission, let me know.  

I’ll send one. Or better yet, just print this one =>

Hope to see you at the Live Online Yoga Nidra class and enjoy this free Yoga Nidra recording for Deep Relaxation. 

Together, we can get through this nightmare that is Daylight Saving!