withdrawing the senses…

One of the primary tools that Yoga offers for cultivating more discernment is the 8 limbs.  The 5th of those limbs is pratyahara, or withdrawal of the senses. Yoga at its best is experiential. We can read and understand a teaching or idea but it is through having a direct experience of something that creates the most comprehension.  I certainly had a profound experience of pratyahara the past 11 days while on a cleanse.  I became hyper-aware of my tendency to reach for things on auto-pilot.  I would then stop and remember that what I was reaching for was not Read the full article…

It’s all about balance

Having ended up in urgent care this past weekend due to a crazy knee infection from a cut got me thinking about Eastern and Western medicine and the idea of balance.  I was raised in a world where doctors knew best and I was a powerless victim of life’s inevitable disease and injuries.  Because of what I was taught, I felt I wasn’t educated or capable enough to take my health into my own hands.  Combine that with years of bad habits and being told just how weak my immune system was, I consistently turned my power over to other Read the full article…

Adapting to life as it unfolds

I hope your month is off to a great start.  I started the month off with an injury that totally got in the way of the plans I had for several days of hiking which got me thinking as life often does 🙂 So much of life is about making plans and moving toward them but then what if it doesn’t turn out the way we intended? It is easy to fall into feeling as if these disappointments along the way are personal or maybe a sign.  Who knows why things turn out the way they do.  We can make Read the full article…

Open Your Heart

Hello and happy middle-ish of the month! I meant to send this out last week for Valentine’s Day but, well…life happened.  So I am sending now as I figured it is always a good time to talk about love and the heart! With all that is happening in the world, it can be easy to drift away from love into despair; away from love into fear, judgement, criticism, anger, etc.  There are many things that hurt us and make us want to close our hearts, both emotionally and physically. As we know, what happens in our emotions affects our physical Read the full article…

The Power of Your Attention

I hope you are doing well and focusing on the things that bring you joy. As I look back on the past year and look forward to the one ahead, I have been thinking a lot about the value of my attention and what I want to create. One of the greatest things we can give is the power of our attention.  I have always heard the phrase, ‘where our attention goes, energy flows’ and have totally seen how this plays out in my life and the lives of others. Just last week, I read a re-phrasing of this concept Read the full article…

Visualize to become…

Hello and Happy New Year! I hope your 2019 is off to a great start! The beginning of a new year is a great time to envision what it is we want for our lives, set intentions and take actions in order to move towards that vision.   Visualization in Yoga is the ability to see what it is that we want to call into existence.  It is also a feeling, an attitude, a way of being.  It is not about putting off happiness into the future when all the circumstances are different, but rather seeing a future we love so Read the full article…

Look inside…

I hope you are doing well and able to give attention to the things that are going good in the world, the things that are working, especially at time when there seems to be so much that is not. Recently, I was talking with a friend and we were talking about how easy it is to pass judgment, criticize or be upset at everything that is not going well outside of ourselves, even down to the people we are closest to or the most simple of things, like driving in LA. Well, maybe that is not so simple but regardless, Read the full article…

Expressing your truth

I hope you are having a great month so far! As Bekah and I prepare for our Chakra Yoga Retreat next month and a weekly Chakra Yoga class we are adding in November, the Chakras have been ever present in my mind and as such, I have been reflecting on when I first learned about the Chakras and just how important this work has been in my life. Over 16 years ago when I was dealing with an extremely overactive thyroid and was really sick, I discovered the subtle anatomy of the Chakra System. I was sitting in my office Read the full article…

Conscious Rituals

I hope you had a great Labor Day weekend and are settling into the flow of Fall.    As the energy shifts away from the more carefree vibe of Summer with its pervasive lightness and moves toward the more structured darkness of Fall, establishing a daily routine can really help with the transition and ground us in the present moment.   Ritual has been around since the beginning of time. We are ritualistic beings by nature. You are likely doing rituals every day and may or may not realize it.  Waking up every morning and going for a walk, having Read the full article…

Focus on what you love…

Hello! I hope you are doing wonderful and enjoying the last few weeks of summer. Over the past few weeks I have been really thinking about the things I love the most and how to focus most of my energy on those things. It is easy to get caught in the cycle of worrying about or dealing with all the things that are challenging and difficult; the things that are not going well; the things we don’t like.  When instead, we would be much better off putting more energy and time into the things we are really good at, the Read the full article…

It’s all about balance!

I love summer.  It has always been the time of year when I feel most alive, excited and full of inspiration and creativity.  The downside to this is that I tend to over schedule myself, saying yes way too often and as a result find myself no longer feeling excited but overwhelmed and burned out instead. I am learning that just because I can do something and want to do it, doesn’t always mean I should.  The lesson is not an easy one. We are drawn to what we are like. There is nothing inherently wrong with that.  That is, Read the full article…

Freedom through practice

During this time of year around the 4th of July, I always reflect on what freedom means to me.  I think back to when I first started yoga and how much I was controlled by the negative, worrisome thoughts of my mind.  Even after finding yoga, my journey was quite a tumultuous one, but the practice was like a road map guiding me in the right direction.  According to the philosophy of yoga, consistent practice over time with dedication, enthusiasm and conviction will ultimately lead us to freedom from suffering.  It doesn’t mean we don’t experience hardship or pain but Read the full article…

The reason we do asana or yoga poses…

I hope are having a great month so far!  Summer is upon us and the heat is rising! Next week is the Summer Solstice, when day and night are equal and the earth will sit in perfect balance. A yoga practice is designed to help us create balance in the ever changing tides of life.   In the Yoga Sutras of Patanajali, which is the manual for the philosophy of yoga and is comprised of 195 sutras, there are only 3 dedicated to asana (or the poses) and why and how they should be done.  It all comes down to Read the full article…

Immediacy

Yoga Blend, Burbank, Christy Marsden

Happy May! I hope your month is off to a great start. This week I found myself getting lost in all the things I have to do and feeling like I will never get caught up. Noticing my anxiousness around the overwhelm, I paused to take a few deep breaths and decided to focus on what I could do right now rather than than what I couldn’t get to. There is a principle in the Burning Man culture of immediacy that I have been incorporating into my daily life. How many times have you found yourself saying…”one day I will Read the full article…

Yoga Gives Us Time

Happy middle-ish of the month! With the longer days and higher energy of spring, I find myself getting caught up in the quickening of the season. I am scheduling more, moving faster and taking less and less time for myself and for turning in. Oops. I have noticed that I seem to be moving from one thing to the next with practically no down time. As a result, I find myself unable to fully focus on what I am doing and I end up feeling fatigued and anxious at the end of the day. I am reminded of this quote Read the full article…

Self-Care

Yoga Blend, Burbank, Christy Marsden

Hello and Happy April! I hope this email finds you thriving and enjoying the surging energy of spring! One of the greatest things we can do for ourselves in order to handle all the roles and responsibilities of our very demanding lives is to take care of ourselves….first. Some of us were taught that serving others first is the most important. We were taught it is righteous to sacrifice our time, energy, and sometimes even our own happiness in order to help or do for another. At least I was taught that. Now, don’t get me wrong. Helping others is Read the full article…

Comparison

I hope your month is going well! As I consider all the things I want to create and look to others for inspiration, the following quote keeps ringing in my head: Comparison is the thief of joy. With the neurosis and suffering that comes from comparing ourselves to others, especially on the internet, I’ve been putting my attention toward respecting, appreciating and celebrating others for their unique gifts. One of the surest ways to increase suffering and stop our dreams in their path is to constantly look outside of ourselves in comparison to others. When we are always comparing, it Read the full article…

13 Years

Happy March! I hope you are doing well and enjoying the winter we are having here in SoCal 🙂 This weekend on March 4th, Yoga Blend will celebrate 13 years. WHAT?! On one hand it seems like we just opened a few years ago and on the other, it feels like Yoga Blend has always been there. It definitely seems that it has always been in my heart. From the time I was a little girl, I felt Yoga Blend. Now, I had no idea what Yoga was or that I would ever even try Yoga and certainly didn’t know Read the full article…

Yoga is a Practice of Action

Happy middle of the month! I hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day filled with love and laughter. I am behind on just about everything because things don’t always turn out as planned. And this is why practicing the art of surrender can be super helpful 🙂 Yoga is a practice of action. If we don’t like what are getting, then we have to do something different. We cannot just know, understand, or desire something in our mind. We have to actually do something about it. However, knowing what action to take can be a challenge. So we practice yoga Read the full article…

Awareness

Happy February! I hope you are having a great start to your year and if you set them, that your intentions, goals and/or resolutions are going well and bringing you greater health and happiness. When I first started yoga, I was pretty frustrated with how far I felt I had to go in my life with regards to where I wanted to be physically, emotionally, in my work, diet, relationships, behaviors, health, etc. I remember expressing this to a teacher and her saying to me that at first, the awareness alone is enough. She said to start by simply observing Read the full article…

Envision a Bright Future

I hope your month and year is off to a great start. I was talking to someone I met last weekend who was asking me questions about what feels like to me a previous life. It was a time when I knew deep down that I was a good person but for some reason my life and the people around me didn’t reflect the deep longing of my heart. I drank and smoked too much. I woke up with anxiety attacks on the regular. I wasn’t doing what I loved. I was surrounded by negative people who I didn’t trust. Read the full article…

Detachment

Happy New Year! I hope you had an amazing holiday doing things you love with people you love! It has been an interesting couple of weeks for me. First, my computer hard drive crashed and I lost a lot of data. I am hoping some of my information can be recovered but only time will tell. Thank goodness for my phone…that is until it was stolen…the day before I had to travel. It was so interesting to feel anger move into panic into frustration and finally, into complete surrender. All within a matter of 10 minutes. I have the Yoga Read the full article…

2018 Immersion Scholarship

Annoucing Yoga Blend’s FIRST scholarship to our 2018 Immersion! This year we will be offering 1 full scholarship to our Immersion, a $750 value! Do you know someone that loves yoga but can’t afford to pay for the Immersion? Or maybe you would love to participate yourself and were wondering if this was your year? We want to hear from you! How to Participate: You can nominate someone close to you such as a friend or family member or you can nominate yourself! To nominate yourself or someone else, please share a short essay with us on: ~What impact yoga Read the full article…

Sustained Focus

Happy December! I hope your month is off to a great start so far! The Yoga Sutras defines Yoga as the ability to direct the mind toward one chosen object (can be anything) and maintain that direction without distraction for a sustained amount of time. When we are in a state of Yoga (i.e. mind focused, therefore relaxed and settled), we experience our true nature. Ahhhh. When we are not in the state of Yoga (distracted and agitated), what we experience is the activities of our mind instead. Oh dear! With everything that is happening in the world right now, Read the full article…

3 Great Yoga Deals

Thank you for being a part of Yoga Blend. All of us here appreciate you and are grateful for your support, your presence, your practice, your awesome-ness…all of it! The best way to deepen your yoga practice is through consistency. A consistent practice helps us to fine tune the body, relax the mind and create positive changes in our loves. And when we practice in a studio environment, it fosters community, encourages connection and offers inspiration and support. As much as you may want come to the studio to practice regularly, sometimes life or finances can get in the way Read the full article…