Practice Time #3: Let’s Take A Sitting Break! (A Kiss My Asana offering) April 22, 2025
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 7-Day Challenge, Abhyasa, Baha'i, Changing Perspectives, Donate, Fitness, Healing Stories, Hope, Karma Yoga, Lent / Great Lent, Life, One Hoop, Pain, Passover, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Religion, Riḍván, Suffering, Vairagya, Volunteer, Wisdom, Yoga.Tags: 988, Abhyasa, KISS MY ASANA, Mind Body Solutions, movement, yoga, yoga practice, Yoga Sutra 2.46, YouTube
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“Happy Riḍván!” to those getting ready to celebrate “the Most Great Festival.” Many blessings to anyone Counting the Omer or celebrating/observing Eastertide / the Octave of Easter / Bright Week!
Peace and many blessings to everyone!! Happy Poetry Month!!
Yoga Sūtra 3.16: sthirasukham āsanam
— “By samyama [focus-concentration-meditation] on the three-fold changes in form, time, and characteristics, there comes knowledge of the past and future.”
How long does it take you to notice that you’ve been sitting too long?
Ideally you would notice that you’ve been sitting a long time — as opposed to too long — and you take a break… a sitting break.
The video above is part of my 2025 offering for the 12th annual Kiss My Asana yogathon, which benefits Mind Body Solutions (MBS), has begun and I am super excited to dedicate this week (April 19th — 25th) to raising awareness and resources for MBS’ life-affirming work “to help people live better in the body they have.”
Mind Body Solutions provides live, online resources to people with disabilities worldwide. Through daily adaptive yoga classes, special programming, a comprehensive video library, and an online space exclusively for students, Mind Body Solutions is helping people make vital connections within and with others. You can help by joining me as we practice with purpose, by sharing this page, and/or by making a donation that creates opportunities for more people to practice yoga.
Each year, in addition to hosting my fundraising page and making my own personal donation, I offer a blog post and/or a YouTube post — sometimes even a whole practice. This year, I combined an idea I have had for a while with the suggestion/challenge of my yoga buddy Meghan and am offering a series of practice videos. These YouTube videos (of various lengths) underscore the fact that participating in the Kiss My Asana yogathon is just a tangible way to do what we do in every practice: set an intention and dedicate the merits of the practice to someone other than ourselves. Finally, I wanted to offer something that meets the moment and where you may be in this moment: “Swaying between joy and sorrow” (and all the other emotions).
You can click here to Kiss My Asana Now! (Or, you can also click here to join my team and get people to kiss [your] asana!)
If you’re interested in my previous KMA offerings, check out the following (some links only take you to the beginning of a series and/or to YouTube):
- 30 Poses in 30 Days
- A Musical Preview
- 5-Minute Practices (the playlist)
- 5 Questions Answered by Yogis
- Answers to Yogis Questions
- A Poetry Practice
- A Preview of the April 1st Practice
- Some Stories
- Prāņāyāma
- The Body/Chakra offerings
- A Series of Poses (scroll down to see the first KMA Community Page post)
- The Series of Shorts Series
Remember, if you subscribe to my YouTube channel, you can be notified as soon as the videos are posted.
### ARE KISS[ING] MY ASANA! ###
Looking Up… & Down (w/excerpts) April 22, 2025
Posted by ajoyfulpractice in 9-Day Challenge, Baha'i, Changing Perspectives, Donate, Faith, Healing Stories, Hope, Karma Yoga, Life, Loss, Meditation, Music, Mysticism, One Hoop, Peace, Philosophy, Religion, Riḍván, Suffering, Volunteer, Wisdom, Yoga.Tags: 988, Bright Tuesday, Counting the Omer, Earth Day, Easter Tuesday, Eastertide, KISS MY ASANA, Octave of Easter, Pope Francis, Rachel Carson, Riḍván, Ridvan
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“Happy Riḍván!” to those getting ready to celebrate “the Most Great Festival.” Many blessings to anyone Counting the Omer or celebrating/observing Eastertide / the Octave of Easter / Bright Week!
Peace and many blessings to everyone!! Happy Poetry Month!!
“In these troubled times it is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility. There is modern truth to the ancient wisdom of the psalmist: `I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.’”
— quoted from Rachel Carson’s original submission to “Words to Live By” for This Week Magazine (1951)
Today is Earth Day. It is also the third day of Riḍván (“the Most Great Festival” in the Bahá’i Faith); Easter Tuesday or Bright Tuesday (in Western and Orthodox Christian communities); and “one week and two days” (for people who are Counting the Omer).
Additionally, Roman Catholics around the world have started praying a novena in memory of Pope Francis, who encouraged us to “keep looking up”. Today, I encourage you to look up… and down… and all around you.
Notice what you notice. Notice how you the world affects you and how you affect the world. Notice how just noticing is the beginning of change.
“We often make do with looking at the ground: it’s enough to have our health, a little money and a bit of entertainment. I wonder if we still know how to look up at the sky. Do we know how to dream, to long for God, to expect the newness he brings, or do we let ourselves be swept along by life, like dry branches before the wind? The Magi were not content with just getting by, with keeping afloat. They understood that to truly live, we need a lofty goal and we need to keep looking up.”
— quoted from “Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord,” Papal Mass, Homily of Pope Francis (Vatican Basilica, Saturday, 6, January 2018)
CLICK ON THE EXCERPT TITLE BELOW FOR MORE ABOUT EARTH DAY!
CLICK HERE and scroll down to the “ENTERING THE GARDEN” section for information about Riḍván.
Please join me today (Tuesday, April 22nd) at 12:00 PM or 7:15 PM for a yoga practice on Zoom. You can use the link from the “Class Schedules” calendar if you run into any problems checking into the class. You can request an audio recording of this practice via a comment below or by emailing myra (at) ajoyfulpractice.com.
Tuesday’s playlist is available on YouTube and Spotify. [Look for “04222020 Earth Day”]
If you are thinking about suicide, worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, you can dial 988 (in the US) or call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call this TALK line if you are struggling with addiction or involved in an abusive relationship. The Lifeline network is free, confidential, and available to all 24/7. YOU CAN TALK ABOUT ANYTHING.
White Flag is a new app, which I have not yet researched, but which may be helpful if you need peer-to-peer (non-professional) support.
If you are a young person in crisis, feeling suicidal, or in need of a safe and judgement-free place to talk, you can also click here to contact the TrevorLifeline (which is staffed 24/7 with trained counselors).
In the spirit of generosity (“dana”), the Zoom classes, recordings, and blog posts are freely given and freely received. If you are able to support these teachings, please do so as your heart moves you. (NOTE: You can donate even if you are “attending” a practice that is not designated as a “Common Ground Meditation Center” practice, or you can purchase class(es). Donations are tax deductible; class purchases are not necessarily deductible.)
You can click here to Kiss My Asana Now! (Or, you can also click here to join my team and get people to kiss [your] asana!)
A Joyful Practice 