"Yoga is a true gift, of body, mind and sprit. And teaching yoga is a gift of joy. I feel honored by having students come to share with me what I love, that is, being in the moment, in sensation, dropping all the "stuff" of modern life. And just "Being".

The "Being" comes by way of the breath and the postures. My desire is to have each student in each class experience a deep opening in the spine, so that the body’s energy can move outward to the rest of the body, and I choose warm-ups and poses with that particular aim in mind. And, since each part of the body is connected to every other part, all postures are appropriate, and all postures energize the whole.

I see each of us as an energy system, living on the Earth (which is an energy system), circulating in a vast Universal Energy System. We get just a glimpse of that by just being in our own energy, breathing it in, pressing it down into the Earth, holding it against gravity, feeling it in our own heartbeat, and on and on.

This is where our Yoga poses take us, into the Energy System which is us, which is, for too much of our lives, a foreign country.

Yoga is a ticket to a wonderful place!

What inspires me is my work and the people who surround me in it. I am blessed to have found in this one lifetime a way that truly opens me to my highest challenges.
Life's challenges have shown me the power of yoga.
It is like riding a bicycle. Sometimes there's a straight path and I get into the rhythm of my breath, the movement of my body just staying in the moment....a meditation in motion. Sometimes there's an uphill and I struggle, downhill I let go, a straight-away which seems endless, a bump, a change. Life is like that. Yet I keep on with my yoga.
Yoga is not about outer physical flexibility, but yoga is an inner flexibility... an attitude about accepting life as it comes to us. The reality is that there is nothing except what is here now, a day at a time with an open heart to each moment.

I recall when I first started yoga. My body was aching and certainly not as flexible as I wanted. One day, I bemoaned the fact that I "used to be able" to move in a certain way. You, Bhumi, simply smiled saying, "There was a time in your life when you crawled around on all fours too! Change is inevitable. The challenge is to love and appreciate your body in this moment."

One day I reversed the "I used to be able" experience. We moved into the eagle posture and I had a quick flashback to my first years in yoga and how impossible that posture was. I never in a million years thought I could ever get my foot hooked around my calf, get my arms crossed and keep my balance at the same time! Well, here I was in the posture --- my fullest expression at that moment and, I'll be darned, "I couldn't used to do that!"

That experience has opened up the door to what I "can do" versus what I "couldn't used to do" and what I am doing in this moment. What an eye opener! I've come to realize that my physical challenges of today pale in comparison to the challenges of years ago.

Thank you for your commitment to yoga. You continue to put one foot in front of the other and move forward when it would be pretty darned tempting not to. You are a "fire starter" yet also a "fire tender" because you not only ignite and inspire interest, but you are also right there to fan the coals when it gets tempting to let the fire go out.

I wish you much happiness and abundance in the new center and am honored to be a part of it.

With love, Jude