Most of us have an internal “To Do” list. We tell ourselves when we have enough money, when we lose the 10 pounds, when the kids are squared away, when the big project is done, then we will relax.

The “when” strategy for happiness depends on time. We tell ourselves one day we will arrive at relaxation for good, but the truth is, after a short respite, our internal to do list spontaneously re-populates and we find ourselves off to the races again, running and running, but never seeming to arrive for very long.

Think of your favorite food.  Where is the only place you can actually enjoy it?  NOW.  We can work in the sphere of time, but the only place we will ever get the fulfillment and enjoyment is by showing up in the moment...

Ancient Yogis tell us that the source of health lies in the balance between tension and relaxation. Modern science calls this imbalance stress. Most of us live at chronic high levels of excess tension in the body which eventually causes it to burn out. Day after day, week after week, we don’t even know that we are overtaxing the nervous system. Finally, after the body has depleted its reserves, we are left in an exhausted physical, mental and emotional state that cannot accept the slightest demand. This we call burnout. The Center for Disease Control estimates that 85 percent of doctor’s visits are stress related. Burnout is at epidemic proportions. According to the Huffington Post, burnout costs more than cancer, smoking, diabe...

This article was originally published in  Conscious Lifestyle Magazine.

The koshas are a series of energetic sheaths (similar to energy bodies) that encase the physical human form and regulate health, consciousness, awareness and many other things, according to yogic philosophy.

A Guide to The 5 Koshas

The 5 koshas or sheaths (Pancha kosha) were first outlined in the Taittiriya Upanishad. The koshas, literally translated as “house” or “sheath”, map the process of embodiment from unmanifest, undifferentiated potential (the ocean) into the physical form of the body (the wave). Each of the 5 koshas is named as follows: Ananda (Bliss), Vijnana (Wisdom), Mana (Mental), Prana (Energy) and Ana (Physical) bodies respectively. Each body nam...

By Excellence Reporter on March 18, 2016

Nicolae Tanase: Dr. Desai, what is the meaning of life?

Kamini Desai: The body is like the wave of an ocean. It is one of the many millions of shapes the ocean of undifferentiated potential can morph into. Anything that lives and dies in time; whether a tree, an animal or a thought, is an expression of this potentiality. This ocean of potentiality is Source.  It is the place from which all creation comes into existence, just as a wave does, and into which all creation will once again dissolve. Though we are embodied, we all hold a spark of the Source from which we came, just as a wave holds the essence of the ocean within it.

Most of us have become so attached to and identified with the...

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​This article emphasizes the role of thoughts in health and how yoga therapy can be used to affect not only the physical body, but the subtler levels from which illness can arise.

Mis-identification Leads to Limitation

As stated in the Bhagavad Gita, while the body lives and dies, the consciousness from which the body arises and into which it dissolves does not. Yoga and Ayurveda tell us this unmanifest, eternal consciousness is our true nature. But, according to Patanajli’s Yoga Sutras, we mis-identify with the body and mind and call it “me,” forgetting our essential unchanging and eternal nature. In the absence of experiential knowing of our true nature, we interact with the world through an accumulation of impressions and expe...

The body is like the wave of an ocean. It is one of the many millions of shapes the ocean of undifferentiated potential can morph into. Anything that lives and dies in time; whether a tree, an animal or a thought, is an expression of this potentiality.

This ocean of potentiality is Source. It is the place from which all creation comes into existence, just as a wave does, and into which all creation will once again dissolve. Though we are embodied, we all hold a spark of the Source from which we came, just as a wave holds the essence of the ocean within it.

Most of us have become so attached to and identified with the “human” aspect of existence, we have forgotten our “being”. We have moved away from the Source, not knowing tha...

What if disease wasn’t just disease? What if depression wasn’t just depression? What if stress wasn’t just stress? What if so many of the problems we experience physically, mentally and emotionally are just the visible manifestation of a variety of deeper causes?

Thinking: the unseen factor
As science and natural healing have progressed, we are finding that the very nature of our thoughts and attitudes influence the body’s health and its ability to heal and recover. A study done by the Massachusetts health department shows that the greatest risk factor for death from coronary heart disease can be determined in the answer to two questions: “Are you happy?” and “Do you enjoy your job?” This remarkable study and numerous others li...

Many of us simultaneously desire and fear change. We want to grow and develop in ways that only change can bring, yet we are anxious and uncertain when that time comes. This can show up in varying ways and in different aspects of our lives—like having to find a new way to a destination because of roadwork, or starting a new job. And it can be present in even more profound ways, such as fear and uncertainty of the final change we must all experience—death itself.

Freud said that our deepest fear is the fear of death. If the fear of dying is intimately intertwined with our fear of change, we are actually facing that fear each time we approach change. Every time something new comes into our lives, something dies. That is simply th...

The modern single woman represents empowerment and self-expression. Yet when it comes to sex, the weakest parts of us often rule the show. Here are some ways to interrupt disempowering patterns and put yourself back in the driver’s seat of your own life.

Make sure you feel your best

Many women use getting attention and even sex as a form of self-validation; “If someone wants to have sex with me, it must mean I’m good enough.” In essence this means we are allowing the most insecure part of us to guide our choices. Instead, focus on the opposite. Are you feeling good about yourself? If not, don’t look to sex to make you feel better. Go to the gym. Take a walk. Get a massage. Take time to make yourself feel beautiful not for them...

We all know the saying “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” I believe this common ideology is actually a deep insight into the strengths and pitfalls of human nature. Most of us have goals and use the “grass is greener” mentality to achieve them. We decide what “greener pastures” look like, and we devote our resources to bringing that image to fruition. Goals are a necessary and important part of fulfilling one’s potential in life, and in this way, looking to greener pastures to determine those aims is healthy and useful. But sometimes, we become so focused on the other side of the fence, we dismiss where we are now. In comparison to the picture we have created of greener pastures to come, we become unha...