Personal Connection Versus Public Consumption
/ GL Admins(Adapted from Yoga Expression Spirit: Tools for Authentic Living, by Elizabeth Cabalka)
“When the turbulence of our mental busyness subsides and our mind becomes still, a deep happiness naturally arises within.” - Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Introduction to Buddhism
The evening was perfect. I put on my hiking shoes, and the dog danced eagerly as I fastened her collar. We headed out for our evening walk to enjoy what promised to be a glorious sunset. It was seventy-eight degrees, and the breeze was warm and gentle. The only sounds were the evening settling chatter of the birds and the crunch of my shoes on the trail. Our closest neighbor was more than one mile away. What a heavenly evening in the Sonoran Desert.
The first impulse to grab my phone arrived two minutes into our walk. I paused with my hand on my back pocket.
“No need to capture. Just enjoy,” my inner wisdom whispered.
We walked on. Shortly I found myself reaching for my phone again as I remembered I had neglected to return a friend’s call a few hours earlier.
“Nope, it can wait,” I assured myself and wrestled my hand away from my back pocket. We climbed the last few steps to the crest of a small mesa that afforded a spectacular 360-degree view of three mountain ranges, the setting sun, and the 21,000-acre park I called home in the winter for several years. I sat down on a rock and took in the vista, breathing deeply and slowly in an effort to calm my heart rate after the rocky climb.
The evening light brushed the mountains with a changing palette — first coral, then pink, then purple, then blue. What a gift, this moment, this view, this life!
And there went my hand again, reaching for my phone, this time to text two friends with whom I studied meditation, certain that it was imperative to share this moment with them. Right then. Had to!
“No, no, no! This is madness,” I gently chastised.
I took a breath and with a slow exhalation whispered, “Be here now, Elizabeth. Be. Here. Now.”
As I really began to look around me, I became acutely aware that this moment was a gift. Its value would not be determined by the number of Facebook ‘Likes’ or the fact that I shared a photo with a friend across the country. This moment needed no outside validation. Nor did I, despite my habitual need to somehow capture it all and offer it up for public consumption.
I took a breath, feeling the breath fill my lungs, the wave reaching for the heart and cresting there. The wave slowly receded and washed in again. With each breath I came back to myself and settled further into the moment.
The minutes that followed will not soon be forgotten, both supremely simple and exquisitely textured. Breath. Light. Body. Color. Breeze. Mountains. Quiet. Creatures. Expansive. Stillness. Contentedness.
I waded deeply into my experience until the last light of day, feeling gently woven into everything with each breath. A far different experience than simply waiting for the best photo angle and plotting a caption.
Elizabeth Bayer is a graduate of Green Lotus’s 200-hour and 300-hour yoga teacher-training programs. She is a noted lecturer, workshop leader, and author of two non-fiction books dealing with self-discovery – her 2003 memoir Wednesdays at the Fluff 'n' Fold and 2016's Yoga Expression Spirit in which she chronicles the three pillars of her life. In 2020, Elizabeth and her husband founded the Annandale Art and Textile Center, the non-profit home of the Heart of the Lakes Weavers, a vocational-weaving program employing individuals with social and developmental disabilities.
Teacher Laura Adams is familiar with the struggles of cold and flu season, especially with a toddler in the house. How does she combat the sniffled? Join her for some familiar and some new approaches to staying healthy this winter.
The clock may have changed, but our bodies haven’t caught up. As we stumble through the time warp into the holidays, it’s the perfect moment to pause, breathe, and remember: wellness isn’t seasonal — it’s essential.
Tapas remains our spiritual kick in the rear to get it together because our true nature knows we are capable. In fact, our true nature depends on us to break through the pains to grow. Can we handle our own flames? Of course we can….
Who am I? Why am I here? These are questions most of us ask ourselves at some point. There are ancient teachings that we can use to guide our modern lives and help us to answer these questions.
What do you share in common with a squirrel? How is an acorn like a habit? Autumn is the time of harvest. Laura contemplates this lesson in nature and through the eyes of her son, Miles.
What are the ingredients of a brave, peaceful, and meaningful life? Marcia explores a lesson from her most recent retreat to Greece, along with sharing beautiful images from the trip.
What if…? In this moving reflection, Marcia explores the powerful idea that our rejected paths hold as much weight as the ones we walk. She invites us to look at our own life stories not with longing for what might have been, but with deep gratitude for what is.
Feeling stuck in today’s chaos? Carrie shares how ancient Zen teachings, yoga, and creative practices can help you rediscover flow — that energizing, present state when creativity and peace take over. Join us to explore how simply showing up — on the mat, with a pen, or through the breath — can become your path forward.
There are so many ways to fall... This month, Marcia explores the crucial importance of falling in love with life, as the season of fall approaches…
What does community really mean? When individuals come together, they share a collective energy that breathes nourishment in and fears and doubts out. Laura Adam's explores this gift through the lens of mother as well as yoga teacher.
July finds beach life in full swing in Minnesota, and nothing says summer more than a book on the beach. Check out seven of Marcia’s top recommendations for your beach reading list this summer.
What should we do when the bad stuff in our lives piles up? Is there are way to get out of the continuous loop of stress and rumination? One way is to recognize abundance in our lives.
Travel changes you. When you travel, you grow. You learn to listen. You become a citizen of the world. Join Marcia as she recounts her travels, both personal and with Green Lotus, and extends an invitation to you to travel with us
In today’s fast-paced world, children are more overstimulated than ever before. Yoga offers them a path to stillness and self-regulation. Learn more about the powerful benefits of yoga for kids, and sign them up for a yoga-centered summer camp!
As a healer and an empath, I have found that allowing oneself compassion, silence, and grace heals both the physical body and the spiritual being. I’m honored to share these gentle practices for connection with your Soul.
Teacher Laura Adams loves to write, both prose and poetry. In this poem, she contemplates the conundrum between spring as a time of renewal and a time of letting go of the past.
The storm clouds blew in with so little warning that there was no time to run, no time to hide. They gathered, small at first, in a corner of my mind, unnoticed and therefore unattended to. As I sought a safe space internally, none could be found, and I took refuge in family and friends.
We hold so tightly to the word “resolute” and its direct descendant, “resolution”. We took this lovely word with its Latin footprints, held it hostage, and morphed it into something that tends toward a kind of rigidity and judgment that often results in disappointment and feelings of failure.
Teacher Laura Adams loves to write, both prose and poetry. In this poem, she finds the peace of presence in the winter storm.
When times become troubled, when loneliness descends, when weariness seeps into the bones, when the load feels too heavy, even when we wish to have fun and adventure, the comfort and joy of community beckons…
Every time I walk through the studio doors, preparing to hold the seat of the teacher, I whisper two things to myself: May my words flow meaningfully, and may my presence be felt as the safe space I intend for it to be.
Teacher Laura Adams loves to write, both prose and poetry. Read her wonderment about the transformations of autumn.
Teacher Laura Adams loves to write, both prose and poetry. Here, she shares a poem for summer…
The month of May brings to mind, for me, many wonderful things – May Day and Mother’s Day, planting seeds in freshly tilled dirt, the scent of lilacs blooming, the return of the hummingbirds to my feeders, and the absolute joy of our herd of Scottish Highland cattle when we send them out to graze on pastures of bright green grass for the first time after a winter of dry hay. All of these things speak to me of beginnings - full of hope, possibilities, and potential.
Chakras help illuminate profound truths about whether we are more than just a physical body…
Spring is the time when we see what the seeds planted in the past bring forth. Will the tulips come up, or did the squirrels get them? Will the work that I put into my business, my relationship, or my garden reap rewards or will self-surrender guide me as I realize not all I wished for has come to pass in this present moment?
The gentle breeze carries fragrant whispers of soil and fertility, and soon there will be lilac perfume wafting through the air. I sit on my stoop, enjoying a sunbeam shining on my face, watching the world burst into color and sound and aroma, feeling the qi of spring. I feel the world opening up to new beginnings, reconnections, and vast possibility.
Newness paints the skies again
A rainbow makes her mark
The proof that fresh beginnings lie
Just beyond the dark.
You’ve heard the saying, “One cannot truly love another until they truly love themselves.” Yet, we often find it much easier to feel love for others than we do for ourselves. You may be asking: What does it even really mean to love ourselves?
Today, I pay tribute to a man who learned to live in “the world of and”, who embraced change, a meaningful space in the philosophy of yoga, particularly in the therapeutic approach of Yoga Nidra, and in Buddhist psychology.