In a sea of yoga styles, I continuously return to Hatha yoga. The poses are a decades long narrative that becomes evermore nuanced as time hurries my body onward. Sometimes I see my reflection. My alignment feels blissfully internalized, and I can feel life force flooding my limbs. Other times I am adrift with frustration disrupted only occasionally by surprising fractals of awe.

I’ve been reflecting on the Crown Chakra—the symbolism, the idealism, and my love/hate relationship with notions of spiritual attainment.

We have this wish when we enter into a period of hardship that our life should right itself without any kind of loss or sacrifice — that good times should resume with no scars to show for it. Or if we must have scars, they can, at the very least, have the decency to be resolved with botox. But nature is not like this. So much has to die and decay and desiccate before the floods of spring runoff coax the dormant seedlings to renew.

When things go wrong in our body it is completely natural to want to know why. Our mind tells us that if we know what is causing the pain we can fix it and move on. But the more clients I work with, the more their bodies reveal the tenuous connection between structure and pain….

Whether deep in private sessions, or in intimate small group classes, healing happens when we are present with one another.