​This is the first week of my new “Yoga and Ayurveda Summer Series.” 

Most of us are familiar with Yoga, but Ayurveda may be unfamiliar and mysterious. Yoga and Ayurveda grew together in India and have both been around for at least 8000 years, maybe more. Yoga focuses on physical movement, breathing and meditation while Ayurveda is concerned with diet, plant-based medicine and overall healthy lifestyle. Each week we’ll cover a different topic related to this season that Yoga and Ayurveda calls “pitta.”

In Ayurveda, Pitta is made up of water and fire elements, so its qualities are hot, oily, spreading and smelly. Sounds like a hot, humid Oklahoma day to me! Summer is here and we’re all feeling the heat.

Pitta affects us physically and mentally. Physically, we feel hot and sweaty, ready to hop in a pool or enjoy cool watermelon. Due to the heat of pitta, though, we may also have skin inflammations, sensitive eyes and loose stools.  Mentally, we can become very focused and determined, as when we’re having a sports competition with friends. The overheating of pitta, however, can lead to frustration, even anger, making it difficult to keep a lid on our emotions.

Ayurveda teaches that like increases like and opposites heal. We can INCREASE Pitta and its unpleasant symptoms by eating spicy food, getting overheated, and bottling up our negative emotions until they boil over. We can DECREASE Pitta by eating cooling foods, slowing down a little bit, being outside in Nature at dusk and dawn, and facing our emotions with maturity and clarity.

By far, the best lesson Pitta teaches us is to LET GO. 

Let go of one thing on your schedule this week so you can sit under a tree.

Let go of hard workouts so you can balance heat and cool in your body.

Let go of regrets from the past and fears about the future so you can be fully alive in the present moment.

Let go of repeating thoughts and emotions so you are free to act skillfully and with wisdom.

As a new year begins, we often think about letting go of the past year and embracing a new year. It’s a process as old as time and one that is deeply engrained in our physiology too:

When we breathe out, we release; when we breathe in, we fill up again. 

Here is an effective yogic breathing sequence you can do to activate both the physical and psychological benefits of this releasing/re-filling cycle.

Pranayama is best practiced in a seated position, on the floor or in a chair. Let the pelvis tilt slightly forward so you’re sitting at the front of your sitting bones. This brings the spine into a long position and creates space for breath to move.

Bellows, or bhastrika, is a warming breath, perfect for cooler winter days. Place your hands on your thighs with elbows open to the sides. Remember to relax your shoulders and neck. As you exhale, begin to round your spine, bow your head, and let your elbows swing slightly forward. As you inhale, slowly straighten your spine, lift your head, and bring your elbows back to the starting point. Practice for a minute at a pace that is comfortable for your body and breath. Rest at the end. If you have the time and inclination, practice for another minute.

Downward-releasing, or apana, breath is grounding and settling, perfect for the fast-moving energies that want us to go, go, go at the beginning of a new year. Rest the backs of your hands on your thighs with elbows slightly bent. Remember to relax your arms, shoulders and neck. Begin by breathing naturally and feeling your body connect to the earth through your feet or your seat. Inhale, feel the breath enter through the nose and flow into the lungs; exhale, imagine the breath could continue down through the feet or seat and into the earth. Continue to breathe like this for a minute or two, gradually increasing to 5, 10 even 20 minutes. 

As you rise from your seat, experience balance and ease, feeling confident and settled. Take this into the rest of your day, and the rest of the year!

Check out the previous two posts about letting go. It’s just as essential for our mind as it is for our body.

​It’s time for another installment of our series “Your Body on Yoga.” We’ve been looking at the many different systems of the body and considering how yoga keeps these systems healthy throughout a lifetime of use. One thing that jumps out for me is the realization that Yoga truly is a holistic system for our overall wellbeing; EVERY system of the body is nurtured by our yoga practices. 

This is the last post for 2025 and what a fitting time to discuss the elimination system since we typically vow to let go of the old year in order to bring in what the new year has to offer. Our body does the same thing through the elimination system. It’s actually a three-part process: assimilate, release and let go.

1) Assimilate: Take in and absorb what is useful. Put it to good use wherever it is most needed.

2) Release: Stop holding on to whatever is stuck in the body, mind or spirit.

3) Let go: Remove what’s weighing you down because you don’t need it anymore. Flush it away and don’t think about it anymore.

Yoga aids this process by providing us with 

√ Postures that bend the body in all directions to stimulate the organs of elimination—kidneys, bladder and all parts of the colon (large intestine). In your practice focus on forward bending, back bending and twisting.

√ Pranayama breathing practices and Chakra balancing to move energy downward, whether that’s literally into the toilet or symbolically into the earth. We eliminate rather than hold onto things we no longer need.

√ Meditation sessions to help us make peace with the letting go. We become more adept at choosing what is for our highest good.

In case you haven’t noticed, let me point out that the three steps of assimilation, releasing and letting go are not just confined to what we experience in our physical body, but also our mental, emotional and spiritual bodies too. Every time we practice Yoga we have the opportunity to begin again, and “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” (“Closing Time” by Dan Wilson)

What is ending and beginning for you at this turning of the calendar? Happy New Year!

I had two fascinating conversations in the past week—one with my sister and another with a young friend. Two very different stories, but both provocative examples of the value of letting go and letting be.

My sister recently fell down the stairs and broke her arm. She had surgery to insert hardware and now she is waiting to heal. It’s a tough break because it is her dominant hand, which means she is quite limited in what she can do. This is doubly frustrating for her because she is an active person who takes on all responsibility for the house, inside and outside. Her ability to clean, cook, work in the yard and do household projects has been seriously curtailed. When I asked her how she was handling the abrupt change, she said “Honey, I do what I can do and ask for help.” Letting go and letting be.

My young friend is at a crossroads in his life. Presented with two options, he is frustrated, scared, angry and stuck, unable to take the next step. As I talk with him, it sounds to me that he is unhappy with the options he sees and wants things to be different than they actually are. He doesn’t quite have the imagination for the practice of letting go and letting be, but I wonder what could unfold for him if he could step into the future with the confidence that the road would rise up to meet him? Letting go and letting be.

I first heard this phrase from one of my yoga nidra teachers. When we move into that deep rest and hypnagogic state which is the gift of practicing yoga nidra, we enter the realm of letting go and letting be, where there is nothing to do and no one to be.

You are accepted completely as you are.

There is nothing to do to prove your worthiness.

You inherit the same gifts which are freely given to all.

You might enjoy reflecting today on what “letting go and letting be” means to you. Where do you practice it more easily (like giving in to a pleasurable experience, no guilt allowed)? Where do you struggle to do it (resistance of any kind, especially the need to have things go your own way)? Perhaps you’ll be able to take a leap of faith and let the arms of love catch you today.