This week was a turning point for me. Maybe for you, too. After learning that we were going to be sheltering in place for at least another month, I had to take a deep breath and a nice long walk. I had to soak in the idea that BYSJ will most likely be a part of Phase Three in re-opening, out of the four phases outlined by California Governor, Gavin Newsom. He states “Phase 3 could be months away” – really?!
Nonetheless, let’s keep doing our part. We will arrange new protocols at the studio when we do open, and we will do so gladly– giving YOU all the assurance so that you (and I) can safely return to a studio practice. Please stay current with our emails (you can sign up on the website here) and social media platforms. As we know more, we will use those to communicate.

For now: here I am, here you are. We have our adapted life going and it’s all okay, truly okay and yet, I’m longing for more. This time is gloriously heavy with podcasts and reading. I read a statement regarding the ‘spirit’ and how that gives life, making things that are dull, dance. Because it’s my birthday month, this statement rang true for me. I have created a routine for myself, and this last week, I have enhanced it even a bit more. I am making each morning a gift in solitude, more of a gift ‘in spirit.’

I don’t know if any of us are ever ready for situations like this to arise. I have come to realize that it doesn’t work that way, anyway. We are never really “ready.” The challenge instead is to ask, in any situation: can we participate in the present moment right now? This virus, and all the circumstances surrounding it, are calling us to adapt to the present. I am grateful to have walked through a little more fear this last week, realizing that we are in this sequestered time longer. I have come out on this side, the side I’m in right NOW, presently steeped in a new place IN me. That can’t be planned. It requires being in the moment and having the courage to stay there.
I want to share two particular podcast recommendations that are worth your time, whenever you might get that chance to listen. I realize that many of you aren’t like me, with more time alone. You have families, continuing work responsibilities, and now navigating school for your kids. I do hope you get the breaks you deserve and create ‘me’ moments, even if just for a few minutes. Listen when you have the time.
“Finding Ease in Aloneness” with Krista Tippett and Stephen Batchelor
This first is an interview from the podcast On Being with Krista Tippett showcasing Stephen Batchelor, a former monk and Buddhist writer. Although the title is “Finding Ease in Aloneness,” this podcast is way more than the title suggests. The interview was done on the brink of COVID-19, and oh how relevant it ALL is! He says:
“Ethics starts within each of us. The moment you have a thought and decide to engage in the thought or not is ethics.”
– Stephen Batchelor
This comment alone is worth unwrapping. Here we are in a worldwide situation, having to make decisions together: decisions with other countries, decisions within our own country, decisions inside our counties and communities, decisions with our friends and families, and decisions with our work and how we navigate our day-to-day living. All of it sifts through the filter of your principles. Or, as Stephen Batchelor is saying, the choice is modeling your moral behavior, the code you stand for.
“A Pandemic of Possibility” with Rich Roll & Zach Bush
This interview with Zach Bush, MD, shows his extreme knowledge in who we are as nature is unparalleled. He so eloquently breaks down how our call to change is NOW, otherwise as species we’ll destroy ourselves. The way out isn’t led externally with more regulations and laws, it has to start from within each of us. Zach isn’t just talking about food, and how we treat our bodies – he’s talking about all the choices that we each make every day.
From his point of view, we’ve lost touch with the soulful satisfaction of baking our own bread free of preservatives and nourishing to our bodies, the fascination and connection to learning about nature that we get from gardening with our kids, and acts of grace we can feel and supply to someone ready to pass from this life. Zach’s cool and serene swag in his delivery is not bitter and only an illustration that this shift in our perspective and how we live isn’t a far reach. Build awareness and responsibility for the choices that you are making. As he points out, it has always been the micro that effects the macro – YES!
My week shifted out of surface layers of awareness living with COVID-19, to deeper layers that disregard how I got here. I have more space to drill down in my being, contemplating the choices I make. I am grateful. For sure our true nature is to grow– we are progressive beings, whether or not we take ownership of that. Nature in it’s messy and beautifully creative orchestration pushes us to be like her: whimsical, rooted, connected, unkempt, resilient and ethical. Abide in a Higher Code.
I bring these podcasts to your attention, but–if you are like me–you may get overwhelmed by these profound ideas. Yes, this is all great but where do I start, how do I start? What does this mean for me in my life? Are these ideas too big, not meant for me? Or do I already think this way? These are some of the thoughts that swirl in my head as I open up to these deep concepts.

Yet, I go back to our yoga. I truly don’t know anything else other than this practice that gives YOU and ME the ability to mentally exercise new ideas by doing simple physical movements. Our simple postures, by simply breathing, and by simply being still.
Your ability to change from within isn’t something you just declare. Yes, that’s good but punctuate that with stretching, postures, that wake up a hard-wired nervous system and worn-out neural pathways and then you’ll easily shift into these higher areas that your soul, that your nature wants you to take on.
Stephen Batchelor reminded me that I can lay in savasana, become aware of my thoughts, and choose to or choose not to. Right there, I have exercised my ethical behavior. Zach Bush, with all his expertise and experience, tells me that what I do IN me ensures our collective shift in consciousness more than anything that can be done outside of me. My yoga counts as it greatly benefits my inner well-being.
I miss you all immensely and couldn’t be more proud to have this time to learn more and recognize even more the power of a practice. It counts.
Thanks for your insights Michele! I have been listening to Rich Roll’s podcasts for a while now. The Zach Bush podcast was excellent! He recently did one with his wife, Julie Piatt when the pandemic started in March. Another good listen.
Stay safe!❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for your weekly insights! We are in this together ❤️
God bless you michele, the pandemic will end. And you critters wil get back together.. .. in the late 60s and early 70s my teacher, a a Himalayan monk came to the u.s. his master had instructed him to. He traveled about and gave some talks . Then some scientists asked if they could run some tests on him? He abliged.. they hooked up heat probes to the palm of his hand and asked him to create one temperature at one probe and another temp at the other probe as designated.. he did so several times. Then they asked him to move an object with his mind, this he also did.. they measured his brain waves in deep sleep and when he awoke they asked him what they had said during that time.. he told them verbatim.. he then created a tumor in his arm at will.. they took a byopsy, it was malignant.. he then dissolved the tumor at will. . He did this several times.. then they placed monitors in his heart and recorded his heart flat line as he stopped it from beating.. he was dead.. then he restarted his heart got up and gave a talk in the next room., from all this biofeedback research really took off. I knew him before that time.. he was instrumental in my search for enlightenment.. none of what he did for those scientists had anything to do with awakening actually.. the sages they say master breath control, this is not true.. they master control of the life force ( Holy Spirit) which creates and sustains the universe.. the sage drops their body at will and my teacher did just that in. 1996 .. it is good to discipline the body / mind. Good to do what you do.. such kind souls.. awakening is not a mistery..the whole key is letting go of the i.. there is no i there.. the body/ mind are the actors clothing. You are the origin of love.. timless, formless and never born., the egoic mind must come to understand it is mortal.. in the deepest recesses of meditation one eventually comes to this abyss.. no thingness. The i is still present. A meditator may come to this point many times and fear to let go.. the sages say ‘ one cries out to god and leaps into the void’ . The i then vanishes.. you are no more. You are no more an I, you are the eternal. You are the origin of love and yet you no longer know you exist..
Michele my point is this, even if a person stays locked within mind their potential within this universe is boundless.. this is the absolute truth. Nothing wrong with this.. nothing wrong with children believing in magical beings who watch over them and help them. This is a beautiful thing. And if someone is weeping due to great sorrow then weep with them. But understand the greatest potential within you is beyond the mind. .. if the mind can move a mountain and yet be part of creation then how much greater you truly are..
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet leaves on the heal of the one who crushes it..
Wisdom is knowing you are nothingness and love is knowing you are everything and between these two your life moves..
There is a yoga teacher using inflatable small domes within which each student does their yoga in the class
In hot yoga an inflatable dome may or may not work but a clear plastic structure with two sides a back and a back would work.. each person would enter the room and exit one at a time enter their own clear yoga area.. a possibility
Almost there Michele, vaccines on the way. Hang in there yoga’s.
Hi Michelle. I am so glad i came to this site and visited you this morning because like you i am so frustrated with this stupid shut down propaganda that it turns me mean. i was so cranky till i noticed your frustration too. Thank you for being a significant role model for me. Since first glance on the first day of my Bikram class i was so inspired to be like you when i saw you in class and i didn’t even know you are actually the leader. it’s also important for me that you are like me with no husband, kids, and a thirst for Christ. I love you. Thank you for your pain because it just made me hang on because i am in pain as well.