Last month, I was taking a walk through my local park in Brooklyn with a clear intention of doing nothing else but observing. Given that walking is my primary mode of transportation, to undergo a “purposeless” walk such as this felt both strange and liberating.read more

Bore: (verb): 1. to weary by dullness, tedious repetition, unwelcome attentions, etc.; 2. To move forward slowly and persistently, as a hole-boring tool does; 3. To carry or support (past tense); 4. To be called by (past tense). Tao (noun): (in Chinese philosophy) the absoluteread more

This meditation is geared toward honing your intuition (Sixth Chakra, or Third Eye) by combining internal focus with external expansion, like a bumble bee on its flight to collect nectar.   Begin with a few rounds of Bhramari, or buzzing bee, Pranayama. To practice, takeread more

“Why should you want to exclude any anxiety, any grief, any melancholy from your life, since you do not know what it is that these conditions are accomplishing in you?” —Rainer Maria Rilke The memory of waking up on summer mornings as a kid hasread more

My yoga teacher has arranged our arms in Gomukhasana, Cow Face Pose, with a small looped strap around our wrists. It feels like a straight jacket in reverse, but she starts drawing circles with her elbows in a pattern that makes me miss my childhoodread more

In his book Being Peace, Buddhist monk Thich Nhat-Hanh describes the right way of perceiving in the classical mediation manual for Buddhists: “The practitioner will have to contemplate body in the body, feelings in the feelings, mind in the mind, objects of mind in objects of mind.”read more

Before and during the holiday shopping rush this year, I must have read a hundred different round-ups of best gifts for personalities A-Z—well intentioned and mostly helpful suggestions for how to please those picky friends and family, or just alleviate decision-making from a fatigued brain. Asread more

Normally I’m not a frequent visitor of Twitter, but I happened to be on the morning of October 24 when the following popped up in my newsfeed: Compassion brings inner peace and whatever else is going on, that peace of mind allows us to seeread more

 This essay was originally published in a slightly different form in America Magazine Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu…. I sit on my yoga mat, ankles crossed in a Half Lotus pose, eyes closed and struggling to form the shape of these foreign sounds in my mouth. Hornsread more

Leggings, kombucha, Game of Thrones: Just a few cultural touchstones that I’ve been ridiculously late to pick up on. The latter has recently consumed me, and for the past several weeks I’ve treated catching up to this generation-defining book-to-screen mega hit like an assignment. (As soonread more