“How is your mom?” asks a face staring through the tiny zoom screen, as one popped up after the next to say hello to each other before the gentle yoga asana class begins. Somehow, on this day, I tried a new answer. “Well it’s hard to say.” “Is her disease…

BY ANJALI SUNITA We’ve all seen it: the deity tattoos, the turbans, self-appointed spiritual names, goddess circles, Yoga business courses, pornographic Yoga pose selfies, events described as “tribal” galore. …

Today as I lay with my leg up in a moon boot after breaking the base of my fibula, I am starting to count the number of times people call upon the Universe to explain the unexplained. This week alone in response to my broken bone, I have heard some…

by Anjali Sunita Many people shy away from Ayurveda because it classifies substances and people into basic categories or bio-energies called the doshas; classification of people in general bares warranted suspicion. As we have seen in Westernized Yoga communities, half-baked information can lead to stereotyping and a diluted understanding of…

Ayurveda is the indigenous medicine system of Ancient India, with texts dating back thousands of years from doctors, surgeons, and specialists, which parallel all branches of modern medicine. The systems are still alive and practiced today both in lineage folk traditions as well as through medical colleges in India. Ayurveda…

If you have found your yoga practice has plateaued or become rote, disconnected from the rest of your world, lacks context, feels rigid, and is relegated to the yoga mat at best, or if you feel lost in a home practice without your teacher giving instructions, there are many reasons…

EMBRACING THE COOL KAPHA SEASON

In 2020–2021, with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Stop Asian Hate, and The Farmer’s Strike in India, commercial yoga outfits ‘woke’ to engage with the communities who’s cultural riches they have sold for centuries. Franchises opened their checkbooks like never before to fund the latest trending organization. …

*Trigger warning, assault, stalking, domestic violence, and rape are briefly mentioned in this piece. Today I walked home alone in the dark, and I felt fine. In a small town of 7,500 people on the North Island of New Zealand, I walked in the dark for more than a mile. …