Maggie Norton Yoga

07/22/2025

As You Practice Yoga, Think of Others.
Many people struggle to balance caring for themselves and for others. If we always place others ahead of ourselves, we may find ourselves burnt out, exhausted, even resentful. It is wise to take care of ourselves but not to the extent that ‘it’s all about me’! I think that can be a tendency we may need to counter in this individualistic first world culture. The yogic principle that we are all one and that the experience of being separate from others is a trick of the mind, is an ancient wisdom with real-world applications as an antidote to the self-interest, apathy, indifference, and even hostility toward others that seem all too common today.
Karma Yoga is a yoga of acting selflessly in the service of others, offering kindness and compassion without an expectation of gain. Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981) taught, “The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love.” Interestingly, according to Mental Health America, “research shows that those who consistently help other people experience better mood, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. They may even live longer.” As this and the quotes above remind us, there are many benefits to being a kind and caring soul!
This week’s poem focuses on empathy in small and big ways, looking after nature and other people around the world. Mahmoud Darwish was an award-winning Palestinian author and poet. He urges us not only to be grateful for what we have, but also to help those who are less fortunate. It is a powerful plea to ‘be the candle in the dark’ and to help those are who in need; both near and far.
May our yoga practice encourage us to think of and take care of others as well as to take sweet care of ourselves. I will be donating 50% of fees for this week’s classes to World Central Kitchen who most certainly follow Mahmoud’s appeal. I do hope that you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio).

World Central Kitchen

07/15/2025

This past week I have coincidentally read a Japanese novel (Days At The Morisaki Bookshop), watched a movie set in Toyko (Perfect Days) and chosen a short Japanese poem for our weekly yoga (see below).
There is perhaps one theme that runs through each of these; appreciating value (with all the imperfections) over superficial perfection. The Japanese have a term for it: Wabi-sabi. This worldview celebrates the imperfect, the impermanent, and the incomplete, finding beauty in the natural cycles of growth, decay, and renewal. It is a way of life that emphasizes simplicity, authenticity, and mindfulness. The word ‘wabi’ refers to the beauty of things that are imperfect, humble, and understated. The word ‘sabi’ refers to the beauty of things that are old, weathered, and have a history (like my body!?).
In this week’s poem the wind's relentless force evokes a feeling of vulnerability, while the contrasting moonlight suggests a glimmer of hope amidst the ruin. In these challenging times, so many lives have been lost and many more devastated by floods, fires, wars, terrible winds, injustice, loss of protection, lack of shelter. Some may be able to find light even amid such loss and destruction, the moonlight leaking in, but perhaps it is more about our human hearts being capable of holding it all, the loss and the light, the grief and the resilience, the moonlight and the ruins?
This is another aspect to seeing that the cracks allow the light to get in; letting it all in. That means allowing in all the feelings; the good, bad, scary and beautiful rather than defending our hearts against ‘the flaws’ of life, including our own. Brene Brown writes, “so many of us run around spackling all of the cracks, trying to make everything look just right."
So may we keep our hearts as open as we can and let's not chase unattainable perfection in our yoga practice or anywhere else!I do hope that you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio).
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07/08/2025

Toni Morrison

07/08/2025

This week two inspiring spiritual teachers have been in my news feed, the Dalai Lama who just celebrated his 90th birthday and Joanna Macy who is in hospice care at the end of her life. These deeply compassionate human beings encourage us to cherish the sacred ordinary, ‘the lattice of a world where nothing turns or stands outside the whole’ (see this week’s poem).
No matter how accomplished we are, how wise or successful, there will always be mundane things we have to do because they are part of life. There is a well known Zen Koan, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” Rather than ‘chop wood, carry water’, your list might sound more like feed the cat, fold the laundry, w**d the garden, make dinner…and, of course, practice yoga! These tasks can be an inconvenience in our days, or they can be moment-to-moment meditations. If we embrace life's simple tasks, like carrying water and chopping wood or washing the dishes and making our bed, we discover the extraordinary in the mundane and can find joy in the ordinary. When we focus on presence rather than on productivity, we sense the beauty of simply living.
Additionally, I find that ordinary tasks like household chores can be downright therapeutic on difficult days. Perhaps it is their very mundanity and repetitiveness that can give us a rhythm and create a kind of structure in challenging times?
We can also choose gratitude for the small things like our often repetitive and seemingly ordinary yoga practice, that we have hands, strength, and health to perform everyday actions, or as Joanna says, 'to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it -- is a wonder beyond words.”. I do hope that you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio).

07/01/2025

There can be so much that gets in the way of appreciating the beauty and wonder of everyday life. This is perhaps especially so when our attention is caught up in fear, worry or anxiety. There is so much in our world these days that may trigger our angst, let alone just being in a body, and an aging one! This week’s poem suggests a perspective where the sacred is not limited to specific places, objects, or times, but is present and accessible in all aspects of life. Do you consider the ‘spiritual‘ as separate from the mundane or as interwoven with it? Do you too see the holy even in the bugs trapped in light fixtures?
This is yet another poet reminding us to pay attention to the seemingly inconsequential things in life and to recognise ‘the sacred’ even when our cheeks are tear stained or our bodies tighten with fear. I love that Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer reminds us that fear and praise can arise in us at the very same time. All is holy ground. The human heart can hold it all. We do not have to sacrifice our joy and our sense of wonder when times are tough. Of course reading poems and practicing yoga doesn’t make the bad news go away, but perhaps remind us that, as John O'Donohue says, "so much depends on the frame of vision, the window through which you look.” I do hope that you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on ZOOM,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio).

06/24/2025

Marge Piercy tells us that ’the discipline of blessings is to taste each moment’. I love that she recognises the wonder of the simple things, a ripe peach, a fresh garden tomato as well as the importance of celebrating any political victory (even those that 'half the time fall back down'!). Yes, may we pay attention to the seemingly inconsequential things in life and ’let's not relinquish dancing’!
Do you continue to ‘bless whatever you can with eyes and hands and tongue’? I do hope that yoga is one of many blessings in your life and that you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio).

06/17/2025

As I have just returned from 5 weeks of travels in England and France, I have certainly had many opportunities to say hello, bonjour and namaste to a delightful variety of people, places and experiences! ‘Namaste’ can be translated as ‘The divine in me bows to the divine inside you’. As you know, I tend to prefer the simple ‘from my heart to yours’ interpretation. It’s really the same thing if you sense that everything and everyone is pretty darn miraculous simply by existing (and no, I don’t think that means that we have to like it all!).
What seemingly ordinary things might you bow to today? It may be unrealistic to go around bowing to everyone and everything we encounter, even the car keys, the envelopes and the garbage cans! However perhaps it is possible to practice an ‘inner bow’ toward the people and things around us, to remind ourselves that even the nameless strangers and the seemingly inconsequential objects are each an essential part of the tapestry of our lives.
May our yoga practice remind us to attend more intimately to our experience, and of course to these precious bodies.
I hope you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio).

05/01/2025

05/01/2025

You might recognize sukha from sukhasana, often referred to as “easy pose.” Or from the well-known teaching in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 2.46: sthira-sukham asanam—commonly translated as “Posture should be steady (sthira) and comfortable (sukha).”

But sukha is more than just physical ease. This Sanskrit word—often interpreted as “ease,” “comfort,” or “joy”—comes from the roots su (good) and kha (space). Literally it means “a good space.”

Sukha reminds us that asana isn’t just about shape—it’s about the quality of our experience within that shape.

Here’s how that “good space” expresses itself throughout the practice:

➡ Physically, sukha invites softness, receptivity, and freedom from strain.
➡ ️Energetically, it’s a state where breath flows easily and prana circulates freely.
➡ Mentally and emotionally, it’s the felt sense of contentment, clarity, and gentle spaciousness.

One of our favorite interpretations of sukha is simply: sweetness. And when you take all of this in—doesn’t it sound sweet?

To explore more about sthira and sukha, read Dr. Robert Svoboda’s insightful article, “Sthira and Sukha: Steadiness and Ease,” on Yoga International: yogainternational.com/article/view/sthira-and-sukha-steadiness-and-ease/

04/22/2025

Spring has most definitely and gloriously sprung where I live and it makes me think of that old phrase, ‘hope springs eternal’. The very nature of ‘hope’ itself is perhaps that it keeps on coming back in the human heart like a spring in the ground or as the spring returns every year.
It does seem that hope can have a bad rap these days when we might need hope the most! I have even heard it said that “hope is a four letter word”, because of how it can keep us from actually facing the reality of our situation. However I love what Jane Goodall says, 'Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive, wishful thinking: I hope something will happen but I’m not going to do anything about it. This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement.'
Our Russian poet this week lived and wrote under Stalinism yet sensed ‘the miraculous….‘wild in our breast for centuries’. So may we give our attention, at least a little each day if we possibly can, to notice the beauty of this season with its glorious greens, brilliant blossoms and bountiful birdsong or to whatever else offers you some joy and moments of grace. Perhaps one of those things is yoga!? I hope you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio).

04/15/2025

I've been thinking about the Buddhist concept of the 'second arrow' recently and noticing how, when things occur that are not to my liking or even disturbing, the mind can all too easily pile on extra layers of angst. Before psychologists started talking about primary and secondary emotional responses, the Buddha noticed this human tendency, which he talked about in terms of arrows. The first arrow hits us when a painful event occurs and it hurts. The second arrow, which is our reaction to the event, only adds to our pain.
When this happens it is difficult to see clearly and it becomes more challenging to act wisely. Most of us these days probably would use the terms ‘response’ as opposed to ‘reaction’, but the Buddha's image of arrows is so graphic and clear.
It seems worth reflecting on this when many of us feel so distressed by the world around us. A sense of stepping back internally, even just by taking a breath followed by a long exhale, can be just enough to allow us to separate the secondary layer of feelings and judgments about problems, from our primary layer of experience. Over time, we may see this second arrow as an added source of suffering over which we have some control. That can go a long way to increasing peace and reducing distress in difficult times.
In order to be conscious of what’s happening, to have any sense that there even is a choice as to how we react, we need to slow down and make space for thoughtful responding to first arrow issues, to allow for self-compassion and a non-judgmental stance as much as possible.
Our yoga practice can be of great assistance here, reminding us ‘to stop, to breathe, and be (see this week’s poem).I hope you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio).

04/08/2025

My yoga invitation this week is for us to enjoy taking the time to attend to the breath and a slightly slower practice, perhaps even sensing that we are inhaling and exhaling light! Even just slightly slowing down your breath and movements can create a calming effect on body and mind as you take the time to physically and mentally engage with the posture and actually feel what is going on in the body.
May your yoga and meditation practice connect us to ‘the astonishing light of (y)our own being’.
I hope you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio).