Our next Osteoporosis and Yoga Workshop is on Saturday, September 12! Whether you’re living with osteoporosis or want to learn how to protect an aging spine, this experiential workshop will offer valuable insights for both students and teachers alike. We’ll explore safe and empowering ways to practice and teach yoga for osteoporosis, focusing on strength, resilience, and mindful movement. In-person space is limited, sign up now to reserve your spot, or join us online via Zoom. A recording of the workshop will be available for 14 days for all who register!

Yoga teaches us that our practice doesn't end when we leave the mat. In fact, some of the most meaningful aspects of yoga have little to do with what how we move our bodies and everything to do with how we move through the world. Seva, or selfless service, asks us to consider how we can use what we have to benefit others. Ahimsa, often translated as non-harming, invites us to move through life with compassion, kindness and care. Dolly Parton offered a remarkable example of both, not by preaching about them, but by putting them into practice. Her generosity has taken countless forms: from creating the Imagination Library, which has provided hundreds of millions of free books to children, to supporting education, disaster relief, children's healthcare and medical research. What began as a deeply personal response to her father's inability to read became a global effort to help children dream, learn and imagine a bigger life.

But perhaps what makes Dolly's example of seva so powerful is that she didn't wait until she had everything figured out, or everything to give, before she started giving. She used what was already in her hands: her music, her influence, her humor, and her ability to make people feel seen. She recognized a need and asked, “what can I do?” And then she did something. That spirit of service was not limited to the causes that made headlines. It was imbedded into the way she spoke about her upbringing, her family, her community and the people who helped her along the way. There is something deeply yogic in the idea that our gifts aren't meant only for our own benefit. We can receive what life has given us and allow it to move us toward a path of service.

Dolly's particular brand of kindness was never timid or self-serious. She used her enormous personality to make people feel welcome. Dolly showed us that kindness doesn't have to be quiet. Maybe it can wear rhinestones, tell a dirty joke, sing at the top of its lungs and still be a spiritual practice. In a world that can sometimes make compassion feel like a performance of seriousness, Dolly reminds us that kindness can be joyful. It can be funny. It can be extravagant.

Perhaps that is one of the gifts Dolly leaves us with: a reminder that living our yoga is less about looking the part and more about how we show up. To notice what is already in our hands and ask how we might use it for good. Maybe our practice is a kind word. Maybe it is making space for someone else. Maybe it is giving our time, our resources, our attention, or our laughter. Maybe living our yoga means bringing a little more kindness into the world and having the courage to do it in our own wonderfully imperfect, way.