“Failure is an experience unavoidable in order to grow.”  – my beautiful friend, A. Edger, in a text this am   Well, the honeymoon is over.    I have been riding a wave of wonder and excitement for the first couple of months in Israel while managing to set up an apt., buy a car, […]

Today was my first day of Ulpan (hebrew language lessons).  It is the beginning of a 5 month 4 and a half hour daily class for all new Israeli immigrants.  I am infinitely humbled once again.  And I have a headache.   In my class alone, we have individuals ranging from ages 21 to 80, […]

Hello my dear friends back in SD (and elsewhere…)   Shana Tova! (translation: happy new year) from Israel.  I am writing on this day where the whole country is on vacation and celebrating the onset of a new jewish calendar year….a time for transformation and renewal.  I am visiting with my sister in her Moshav […]

Do you ever notice that when things in your life calm down or when you go on vacation that you tend to get sick?  It’s ironic because you finally have time to enjoy life and find yourself run down and/or fighting a cold?   This is what I have been dealing with this past week. […]

“Blaming the past makes us disapprove of the present.  It’s our past that has brought us our present.  If you want to change your future recognize your present and work on it.”  Prasad Rangnekar    Hello from Israel!  I spent last weekend in Jerusalem at an old friend’s house and had some time to walk around the […]

 I am now in Philadelphia visiting with family and friends before heading off to Israel on Monday.  It is the beginning of a series of smaller journeys to the ultimate destination.  My first disappointment was having to leave my Yoga blocks and bolster at the airport as my bags were too heavy.  Luckily, one man […]

When I quit my job as manager of a physical therapy clinic in the fall of 2002 to combine Yoga with physical therapy, I felt like a fish out of water.  It seemed that I was quite possibly the only person in the world doing this work and wasn’t even sure if there was a […]

Change is inevitable.     Intellectually, we know this, but our bodies and our nervous system do not respond well to change.  We perceive it as a stress, even if the change is positive.  We are wired for survival and the moment our safety and security is on shaky ground, the fight or flight response […]

Coming back from a retreat is always tricky.     For a short time, there is the high of being in the mountains of Northern Cal breathing in the fresh air, eating delicious vegetarian food, starting each day with a Yoga practice and meditation all the while gazing at passing wild turkeys and deer in […]

It is ironic, but as soon as I start writing a book on Yoga Therapy for Back Pain, I’m experiencing significant pain in my own lower back.  It’s been about 9 years since I herniated a disc at L5-S1 and have had only a few bouts of recurring pain in the past few years.  My […]