Yoga Loka

08/24/2026

Join Lisa on September 27th to re-write your story and have it heard.

Join in person or via zoom!

08/23/2026

Need a professional to help you get comfy? Restorative poses need proper placement of props for you to be able to relax down and feel held. That's how we let go of the essential tensions that occur each and every day.

Restore and Renew is coming up soon at Yoga Loka! Register today, space is limited. September 11th. 5:30 pm.

08/21/2026

After a little hiatus the Divine Feminine is back with Denise! Don't miss this opportunity to come together with other women, check in with your life, acknowledge your ancestry, be seen and heard, and see others in hear others.

All in all it is a very healing experience.

08/19/2026

Ok, the class is actually called Yoga for Strong Bones and Muscles, but it works out to be the same because as you strengthen one, the other comes along.

Here is an insight to this new and very popular class. Come give it a try! You can of course join via zoom as well.

08/19/2026

I learned something really interesting about my mother during her funeral.

When my mothers brother spoke at the funeral, he revealed that my mother had been unable to walk while she was a young girl. After several surgeries and a great deal of physical therapy, she eventually became ambulatory. My sisters and I had absolutely no idea. She must have been about 7 or 8, or older, when she left behind her chair because my uncle remembers that remarkable transition.

My mother was understandably fearful about the possibility of ending up in a wheelchair later in life. Now I understand why. She had already worked so hard to overcome one. Unfortunately she ended up back in one when she was in her late 60’s.
My father also ended up in a wheelchair later in life after breaking his hip. He had spent much of his younger life being very active—he was, as my mother used to say, “not much of a sitter.” He had even been very interested in fitness for a time. But after his hip fracture, complications from anesthesia and a prolonged period of being bedridden made it increasingly difficult for him to regain his mobility, and eventually he became a “sitter.”

We can all look back at our lives and see the things that have shaped who we are. I can certainly say that one of the reasons I am so focused on helping people's bodies work better is because of my parents.

During the week, I receive newsletters from various organizations, and I often bookmark articles that I think I might share here. Lately, many of them have been about “superagers”—people who maintain remarkable physical function as they grow older—and about how important movement is to longevity.

Science continues to show us how important it is to pay attention to our muscles as we move them. (There was just a study that showed they will work better and faster when you do, as we in the yoga world already knew! That is one of the many reasons you are asked to focus on what you are doing in an asana). Science, and experience, also tells us we need to keep moving, eat well, and continue challenging our bodies. There are people who, through consistent effort, have maintained physical abilities far beyond what was once thought possible.

I was going to share one of those articles.

But then I remembered what I had just learned about my mother.
And I thought perhaps this story was more valuable.

My mother was unable to walk by the time others her age were running and jumping, yet through surgeries, physical therapy, determination, and hard work, she became a walker. And yet, as I watched both of my parents age, I saw them become less inclined to remain active and mobile. Their bodies became harder to move, and eventually the uphill battle to stay mobile was lost.

I don't think a lot of able-bodied people realize what a blessing it is to have an able body.
You would think with my parents, and the years I worked at the United Cerebral Palsy camp (with disabled children) I would have figured that out a long time ago. But I don't think it was until I learned about my mothers early challenge that I really got it.

As we age, we are going to witness our physical abilities gradually change. Strength, balance, flexibility, hearing, vision, skin tone—all of it changes. These changes are a part of being human.

And this is one of the many places a full yoga practice offers us something incredibly valuable.

Yoga teaches us to be content with what is. As our physical abilities change we learn to meet ourselves where we are rather than constantly fighting against what our bodies can no longer do and wishing for something to be other than what it is.

But yoga also teaches us right action.

If we are still able to move, we should move. We should do it intelligently and safely, in ways that support the body rather than harm it.

So no, you are not doing crazy acrobatic asanas in your 60s and 70s. (Maybe just a few... if they were something you did in your younger years.)

If you still have some range of motion, you may be able to improve it. Or you can keep using it so you don't lose what you have. Same with strength. If you have some, use it. You can improve it, or just not lose it (which is big by the way!).

I meet many older people who come into the store and talk to me about yoga. They have physical limitations and who would really like to begin practicing yoga, but they keep putting it off. They worry that they can't do it, that they might fail, or that they might hurt themselves.
Fair—but it's not going to get easier if you wait longer.

Those of you who know me and have come to classes know that you are going to be okay. You won't be asked to do something you can't do. You will put your toe in the water, and when you are ready, you can go in deeper. And the things that hurt are going to feel better.

If you're reading this, I'm guessing there is some part of you that wants to remain physically engaged with your life—to continue walking, gardening, traveling, playing with your grandchildren, getting up and down from the floor, or simply being able to move through your day with greater ease.

It's not too late.

You don't have to start where someone else is. You don't have to be flexible. You don't have to be strong. You simply have to begin where you are.

Yoga is meant to be adapted to our lifetime—from beginning to end. Our practice changes as we change.

And perhaps one of the greatest practices is learning to recognize the blessings we have right now.

My mother taught me that without ever saying a word about it.

She knew what it was like to fight for the ability to walk.
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Maybe we can learn from her to appreciate the ability to move while we have it—and to take good care of this remarkable body that carries us through our lives.

08/18/2026

08/11/2026

I had the opportunity to spend some time with one of my childhood mentors during my mother’s funeral. This woman was a single mother with a young son whom I watched for many years after school and often overnight, for about seven years.

Not only did this woman provide me with my spending money as a teenager by allowing me to watch her son, but she also coached me in some of the ways of the world.

I also have her to thank for introducing me to Motown and, believe it or not, yoga.

She had an extensive record collection that I would peruse while my charge was asleep. She also had one thin little book about yoga in her library called The Sivananda Companion to Yoga, which I read over and over again. I not only enjoyed the beautiful color photos of incredibly flexible and strong people doing asanas, but I was also fascinated by the sections on kriyas, pranayama, and meditation, and by the possibilities that might arise from a full yoga practice.

Some of you know that I went on to take classes at the Sivananda Ashram, by coincidence (or was it?), when I studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1985.

I’ve been practicing yoga for a very long time. (You can do the math!) I can definitely credit this practice with helping me maintain a healthy body, stable energy, and perhaps a more expansive mind. But who really can tell what would have happened otherwise? I can only know where my mind started and where I recognize it is now.
After almost 40 years of practice, I feel like I have something to offer—and I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to do so each and every day. Never in my wildest imagination did I think I would teach yoga. I certainly never imagined I would be teaching at 60 years old. But here I am, and here you are.

I want to share with you what’s going to be happening in the upcoming Yoga Immersion and what I will be sharing from my almost 40-year journey.

We had a short meeting yesterday (which was recorded of course), and it comes in two parts. The first part is a guided experience into close self-observation, pranayama, and relaxation, designed to help you connect with your energetic body. All you need is someplace to sit and someplace to lie down if you are going to follow it—nothing fancy. Anyone is welcome to have a listen.

The second part of the recording is me explaining how this year’s immersion is going to work and what it’s going to focus on.

Truthfully, you can go to almost any yoga studio and learn more about asana and how to do the poses. However, it may not be with the same depth of information that might come from a yoga therapist who has been studying anatomy and physiology and studying bodies and how they work—or don’t work. (Thanks, Mom and Dad!)

If you are interested in knowing more about how your body works, this immersion will offer a little bit from a usual 200-hour training that teaches you where to put your foot, where to put your hand, and where to put your hip so the pose looks like it does in the books.

I may not know—or even want to know—what happens when I push the accelerator in my car and what makes it go. Many people do know that and understand it quite well. In the same way, some people don’t really care what is activated when you are in Triangle Pose, or how to say "triangle pose" in Sanskrit, or what the energetic components of the pose are.

Personally, I do, and that’s why I focus on these details in the ways that I do. Everybody has their interests, and this happens to be mine. And if it is yours, you are in the right place.

You may know that I still study with my teacher who I took my first teacher training with back in 1999. She has shifted pretty far from teaching asana. (In fact, now when she does an asana, she’ll say something like, “Huh. This feels good! Who knew?”) All those years of study with her, along with all my years of study with Mukunda, as well as my own practice and life experience have given me what I feel is a good insight into the energetics and the structures that underlie the physical and the mental.

I personally don’t feel yoga is practiced efficiently without understanding those structures. They are the forces that drive your experiences here in the waking, conscious state. So why not pay attention to them? A lot of benefits come from giving attention here, and a lot is missed when you don't.

If you’ve been to my classes, you’ve probably heard me say at some point that practicing an asana without awareness is the same as practicing aerobics or gymnastics. Not that there’s anything wrong with that—I love aerobics, and I enjoy watching good gymnastics. And I do believe that gymnasts are involved in the same process as yoga, but of most likely that aspect isn’t emphasized when you’re casually engaging in those activities.

Whereas in a yoga class, it is—or at least it should be.

Part of my desire to continue teaching is to help people get back to the roots of the yoga practice—without watering it down, without making it culturally palatable for the comfort of Westerners, but really putting it out there as authentically and completely as I know it to be.

It’s my intention to continue doing that in this next segment of the Yoga Immersion.

This segment will be about awareness of the physical, the energetic, and the mental.

Maybe you feel you’ve already gotten that in class or in an immersion. And maybe you have. But the truth is, as we mature and as we age, we hear things so much differently.

No material is ever really repeated.

I know I’m in a much different place now, so how the material comes out of my mouth is different. And you are in a different place too, as we all are, so how you receive that information is also much different.

We go through all of that in the recording, so I don’t need to repeat it here. If you’re interested in watching the recording, you’ll hear it for yourself.

If you’d like a copy of the recording, just DM me and I’ll send you the links. It will be in two parts: the first part is the experience, and the second part is the information.

So, if yoga is calling you in some way, like it did me when I was 12 or 13 back in that apartment in the Bronx, just consider:
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When are you going to answer that call?

08/07/2026

It's yoga here guys, 24/7. If the practices aren't changing the "off-the-mat" parts of your life, what's going on? A great backbend doesn't mean you are a great yoga practitioner. Too much of what you see related to yoga these days only relates to poses, or asanas. It is so much more than that. I love when a student tells me their practice helped move them forward with something, changed their perspective, or kept them calm during a difficult time.

I have been living yoga for 40 years now. This isn't a business, this is my life. Want to know how you can invite yoga into your life and see what evolves? Join me Sunday for an info meeting for the upcoming yoga immersion. Sure, your backbend might get better, but don't limit the power of the practice! Be on the lookout for a transformation! This 50 hours is a good place to start, or continue.

The good news is, you are never finished.

07/30/2026

I know that after a retreat, I should be paying attention to my dreams. They often seem to carry the teachings forward in a way my waking mind cannot. After this past retreat in Italy, I had a number of beautiful dreams, but one in particular has stayed with me, and I'd like to share it.
In the dream, my younger sister and I had returned to the apartment where I grew up. As was usual, the place was a mess. My first reaction was disappointment and annoyance.

I found a large cardboard box and began cleaning the kitchen as I wanted to show my little sister how to take care of the mess. I started filling it with things to throw away. As I cleaned, I noticed something surprising.

It wasn't that bad.

The stuff around me was just objects.

Over and over in the dream, one simple phrase came to me:
"It's simple."

The words stayed with me when I woke up, and even now they are still here.

It's simple.

Just do it.

As I kept cleaning, I realized I didn't need to get emotional about the mess. I simply needed to throw things away or put them where they belonged.

My mood changed.
My frustration changed.
My entire relationship to the situation changed.

That message has stayed with me.

Whenever I come home from a retreat or have a deeply meaningful experience, I always wonder, What will remain? What teaching will continue to live inside me?

For me, this was a big one.

It's simple.

Whatever needs to be done, simply begin.

Without adding stories or emotional weight to every task, life becomes surprisingly lighter.
That lesson proved itself almost immediately when I returned home to a house that needed far more attention than I had expected—thanks to both the dog and my son. There were messes to clean, weeds that had taken over the garden, and a long list of tasks waiting for me.

Normally, I might have felt overwhelmed.
Instead, I remembered the dream.

It's simple.

Just start.

Everything was finished more quickly than I imagined.

Today, facing another full schedule, I find myself returning to that same teaching. Do what is in front of you. Whatever gets done, gets done. Whatever doesn't, surrender it.
Trust that what was completed is exactly what was meant to be completed.

After all, "getting it done" is never just up to us. There are other people involved, other circumstances, and other unseen forces that either support or delay what unfolds. We are not doing life alone.

Our job is to show up wholeheartedly.
The rest is not entirely ours to control.

When we surrender to that reality, we may not accomplish more, but we almost always suffer less.

07/24/2026

I made a new friend, who also happens to be my neighbor, in Portugal at yoga class. We don't completely understand each other, but we still have a good time laughing and stretching together. We managed to understand we both like to sew, we are both in a second marriage, we both love the beach, and of course we both like to do yoga. The women I have met at yoga in Costa have been so kind!

Who have you met at yoga that became a dear friend?