I recently got to spend some time around one of my life's greatest teachers. Anand Mehrotra is a Himalayan Master, and the most powerful and authentic yoga teacher I've ever come across. I first came upon a young Anand in 2009 when intuition led me to sign up for all of his classes at a new yoga festival in Boulder. The second year he came to the Hanuman Festival from India, I was once again in all of his classes. Nine years later, my daughter in her teens, I had more free time and found myself at a retreat with Anand (and Kia Miller and Tommy Rosen) in Costa Rica. This gathering re-ignited my passion for this unique practice. Later, after Covid hit, I received my online 200-hour teacher training with Sattva Yoga Academy, and am finishing up my 300-hour training soon. My life has been profoundly and most positively influenced by Anand and these ancient teachings.
In this teacher, now world-renowned, I found someone who brings us Yog-Vedantic philosophy in a clear sincere manner, mixing it up with fierce and gentle postures, movement, and sound, all with humor and intensity. His integrated practice, Sattva Yoga, helps people to release old stories, tensions in the body and mind AND to create a state of calm, balance, more inner peace and perhaps even a sense of reasonless joy.
What is reasonless joy? It's the feeling you get 'for no good reason' that life is beautiful. Even with the sorrows and losses and hardships that we humans get to experience, there is a childlike part of us that knows joy.
I just had a delicious and hearty laugh on the phone with my dear friend Andrea. In that moment of continuous giggles, I knew and experienced only joy. A playful silliness that felt really good in my 61-year old body. Also, gratitude for the ability to truly laugh at ourselves, to not take it all SO dang SERIOUSLY.
Where and when do you feel bursts of joy? I feel reasonlesss joy always at the sea, and in the mountains. In regular every day life (not at the beach or in the backcountry) we can CHOOSE to pay attention. Consciously look for the moments throughout the day that give us a smile, a little lift, a moment of gratitude. Even while doing the laundry, emptying the dishwasher or picking up the dog poop.
Invoke a feeling of joy for no good reason at all.
Sharing a laugh at a September 2024 retreat at Moon Rising Retreat Center in North Carolina.
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