In an autobiographical essay on yoga and meditation, Silvia Boorstein looks back on her decades-long work as an activist and yoga practitioner, saying, “I am more zealous than ever about social activism. I see my activism as an aspect of spiritual practice, the natural result of being less frightened, as well as a sign of [...]
It’s the eleventh day of a thirteen-day yoga retreat on the island of Lesvos in Greece at Angela Farmer and Victor van Kooten’s yoga studio. I wake up wondering how we could already be at day eleven, the days and evenings running faster than sun-warmed honey. This is a trip of a lifetime for me, [...]
Stop Four on this journey was the Yoga, Meditation and Recovery Conference at Kripalu in May, the fifth annual five-day event bringing together yoga and meditation to support recovery from addictions. Envisioned by nationally recognized yoga leaders Rolf Gates and Nikki Myers, this spring conference (and its sister conference in the fall at Esalen on [...]
Once in a while, an experience comes your direction that promises to stick with you, a lesson dressed in a purple coat. Since teaching at the Healing Hands Intensive in Boston in May, I have been wearing that coat, warmed by the process. This conference was envisioned by Brecken Chinn Swartz, a professor who many [...]
Stop two brought me to an extraordinary conference at Southern Connecticut State University, envisioned by Yi-Chun Tricia Lin, a Women’s Studies professor and the president of the National Women’s Studies Association who has been nurturing the leadership of feminist scholars of color for years. This meant that, unlike many academic conferences, this one was multiracial, [...]
On a recent trip to Thailand, Crystal and I had the lucky opportunity to meet with U.S.-born feminist activist Ginger Norwood and Thai Buddhist feminist Ouyporn Khuankaew, who co-founded in 2002 a retreat center for activists from the region who are seeking rejuvenation. In clay earth adobe buildings that the women and friends from the [...]
