And so lose ourselves in the process!

These days the palette is needing replenishment. The colours are mixed and gray and needing vitality.

We paint for ourselves a persona that seems acceptable and likable (or not) and somehow lacking.

We learn who we are from others, how they see us, respond to us, and their expectations, praise and judgments and what we find is partial and fragmented.

We are raised in societies that do not encourage authentic self-knowledge, that do not educate an understanding of the nature of mind and how to live as a whole, and compassionate soul.

Our education is geared toward the propaganda of our times to fit into a society that respects a very limited expression of our humanity. Our spiritual development is completely disregarded.

One could see the domains we live in as soulless. Our societal environments are impoverished spaces often without the meaningful purpose of essential values that truly nourish us and our interface with ourselves and each other.

We are offered ways to numb our pain, to subvert our feelings, and very little that truly celebrates and respects potential and delight.

We are left essentially to ourselves to make sense of life, its purpose, and how to evolve ourselves in ways that fulfil an inner yearning or address a confused and hollow emptiness.

It seems our present times exacerbate our feelings of isolation and separateness, as well as uncertainty and fear. And yet what is a society other than a community of souls all seeking the same light and love that heals and nourishes. A community of souls that would give richly and powerfully to each other from their own fullness if we could all but find it. Such fullness is not hidden it is just not schooled or inspired.

Having lived now close to seven decades I would say all times in our materialistically driven era have had these same existential themes that challenge and call us to find our own meaning and answers.

Of all the avenues I embraced to find that meaningful fullness the path of Yoga has without a doubt offered the most complete and sustaining avenue for arriving home within and finding a purpose-centred life. It took stepping out of the suffocating, chaos-driven nature of our material world and into a culture of a timeless nature to find an ancient legacy that renders the ultimate human transformation. It has now been nearly five decades since that fortuitous encounter that changed this life forever, and still, it gives, still, it reveals and inspires. I could not be more grateful to the exceptional teachers who made it possible for this mind to open beyond the prison of a life without light force.

I have tried studying many psycho-therapeutic methods including transpersonal psychologies and therapies, I have dived into the fields of professional dance and art. There was value, learning and discovery in all but nothing complete unto itself.

Extended time spent in the exceptional company of indigenous elders and healers in the red sands of our central deserts was the richest of times in that it opened the heart and mind to cultural experience not dominated by the vacuous strivings of our lost societal values. The ground and the sky were their domains, their hearts their method of communication, and their culture the rich depths of their spirits. Like yoga there was no beginning or end to what they knew and drew upon. They are the keepers of knowledge and a powerful spiritual way of living and knowing. I will forever be so very grateful to those gentle unassuming keepers of the way. Yoga was the thread, the foundational ground that enabled me to sit with them and find a meeting of heart and depth. Yoga informed the other ways of knowing and being our incredible first nations women draw from. They changed my life forever and made the path of yoga more relevant and true in that it facilitates the same subtle knowing that embraces the fullness and purpose that is at the root of human existence.

We love to expose others to the subtle aspects of yogic knowledge and practice. In doing so the potential to reach within and know for oneself how to live and to be is accessed powerfully. It facilitates an opening. The study of yogic practical philosophy and the integration of its subtle practices encourages a radical change in perspective, a release of limiting concepts and beliefs, a cleansing of body and mind, an opening to the potency of the heart, and an awakening of subtle intuitive clear seeing intellect. Most important of all fear, concern, confusion, anxious and depressive states of mind are liberated by the quiet joyous percolating newfound experience of peaceful nature as it comes forward and presents itself as a deep resource from which to navigate through all of life.

Yoga offers an exquisite way of life, one that reconnects us to an essential nature untainted by the ways of our societies, one that connects us meaningfully to each other, one that shines a light that guides our path in life and enables us to make the most of the times we live in no matter how those times may be unfolding. When we can stand in our love and fullness with vitality and courage, we can stand next to our brothers and sisters and work more powerfully to generate a society that lives by life-giving values.