I also am a mat and Chair yoga insrtuctor as well as a Reiki Master. I met Lakshmi last October at Kripalu when I attended her Chair Yoga certification. I was interested in her course because so many mat yoga practitioners I met were struggling. I also attended this passed May when Lakshmi offered a recertification reunion for Chair Yoga teachers. Each session with Lakshmi provides more and more ideas to further my personal and professional practice. My kids laugh at me and tell me, “Mom, you think everyone needs yoga!” Its true and I can bring it to them in one form or another. So go ahead. Get fit where you sit!

Very well put, I totally agree. I dislike to listen to those litanies of activities. Extremely boring. Sometimes I even interrupt it. I know, it is very rude

We fly across the country for a meeting and fly right back; airplanes burn so much fuel that each passenger could have driven the same distance, alone, in a car. Amtrak would use a tiny fraction of the fuel, but that’s slow.

We hop in the car to run a nearby errand instead of walking or riding a bicycle; we “save” five or 10 minutes.

We gobble down a hamburger from a fast food drive-thru; not only does this harm health and spirit, its 1) a petrochemical disaster on the factory farms that grow the corn, 2) an animal cruelty disaster in the feedlots, which are in themselves pollution disasters, and 3) a disaster of human exploitation in meat packing plants. (Read “Fast Food Nation” — it’s a masterpiece.)

Sadly, this list could go on and on.

I clicked through to The Slow Movement website (and bookmarked it — very helpful) but on the home page and a couple of others I searched I found no mention of the environment whatsoever. This strikes me as an important omission: It’s crucial to take care of our bodies and our spirits, but I think we do this better if we understand that by slowing down we’re also helping our horribly wounded planet and atmosphere. Widening our perspective helps get us out of our egos, and thus frees our souls.

Back in 2006, I was certain my life was over. I was in a dark night of the soul and there seemed to be no ‘up’ for me. I decreased my work to care for my ill mother, and ultimately quit work to care for her full time after she went into full renal failrue and was put on dialysis three days a week. Not long after her kidneys failed, I was diagnosed with cancer.

Following the cancer and while still caring for my mother, the next four years brought fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, CSF, adrenal collapse, high BP, hypothyroidism, well…you get the idea. Not long after my mom passed, I ended up needing a wheelchair to get around outside and canes and walkers indoors.

By the end of 2006, I had fallen to my knees and exclaimed a deep prayer, that if I had to stay on the planet, then I would find meaningful work. I had no idea how this would happen. I had gained a lot of weight after the cancer, I had severe vitamin deficiences, I could barely walk, I couldn’t stand and was told by a doctor that fibromyalgia was a ‘made up’ disease, the CDC not withstandiing. Teaching was entirely out of the question as i couldn’t stand for more that a few minutes, and I didn’t feel I had the energy to help people with coaching and counseling.

A dear friend of mine told me about some amazing work, something extremely compatible with all the work that had gone before in my life, from counseling psychology to teaching at university, to volunteer work. It literally changed my life. No more wheelchair, no more despair over whether or not there was a future for me, a true reason to Be.

So, bottom-line, to quote Churchill, Never, never, never, never give up! There is always a tomorrow and this moment is the begining of that possibility.

In gratitude, Katie Lynne