Full Circle Yoga & Healing Arts 

When I first decided to start taking this meditation thing seriously 10 years ago, I wanted to find out what I was thinking that prevented me from having a clear mind. I knew from my study of Buddhist teachings that a cluttered mind was an obstacle to spiritual progress. I also knew from Western success-coaching that setting up the proper space and equipment is necessary to ensure follow-through. My plan was to start a regular meditation practice. So, the night before my fir

You've spent a long day at the office. Eight or more hours hunched over your computer only to find yourself stuck in traffic on the commute home. Here you are, hunched over again, only this time over your steering wheel as you navigate the craziness to get yourself home safely. You pull in the driveway. Home at last! You grab something quick to eat and settle in on the couch with your iPad or laptop to catch up on the latest social media, news, or sports. And once again, you

Yoga is not like shopping. When you go to the store, are you hoping to have a “shopping experience,” or isn’t there something you went there to buy? When students walk into your yoga class, they are not there to just have a yoga-like experience; they probably have some specific reason why they came, whether or not they can articulate what that is. They could, of course, go to different centers to “shop” for the right yoga teacher, but what brought them there in the first pl

Struggling Morning Meditation 5am. The house is dark. I light a candle and find my seat. My ankles itch. I’m cold. I get a blanket and wrap up inside it. I pull it like a cloak around me and over my head. I cannot disappear from myself. I watch my thoughts wander around. I point one out, See! A thought! What's it doing? I make it sit down and be quiet. Then comes another. Then another. Mental space gets thinner and opens up like a predawn sky I see light. The light has no inn

The kind of care you choose to receive is as invidual as you are. Outgoing or extroverted people like friends, hugs, and verbal encouragement. They go to public conferences, support groups, and seek reassurrance from others that they are not alone in their struggles. Community and group support is very important to extroverts. If you are shy or introverted, you may be drawn to reading self-help books, journaling, poetry, or meditation. Introverts may be drawn to the solit

Ashtanga, vinyasa, yin, restorative. How wonderful that so many styles of asana are available to us to arrive at the ultimate goal of samadhi: perfect conscious bliss. Each style has a different effect on the body depending on the depth of breathing, the pace of the sequence, and the level of effort applied to the practice. One thing these classes have in common is savasana, or corpse pose. The purpose of this resting pose is to allow ourselves the quiet time to do some deep

You can manage your stress with a little help and encouragement. Stress is usually a reaction to something that is based on a future event, an unknown. It may be a concern about a reaction from someone else to a situation you are involved in. This uncertainty results in your internal dialogue saying "what if this, or what if that happens". Maybe these thoughts are concerns such as, what if I can’t handle the demands on my time and energy, what if I lose my job, what it my r

Yours is a highly personal yoga practice, even when we practice in a group. The positive energy we get from a group can motivate and bolster our spirits, but when life gets in the way, we need to remember what we've learned to practice on our own. The only way to get the benefits of doing yoga is to DO the yoga, and sometimes that means getting a professional to design a sequence and support you in your efforts to practice it. Private sessions are a good option when a g

Let's get one thing straight. Not one single thing will ever stay exactly the same. Not a mountain. Not your spouse. Not your job. Not your face. Not even your memory of life itself. Everything is changing, degenerating, and evolving. This is a fact of life in a human body with a human mind. How fast it all appears and disappears is a matter of perspective. We say, "Of course! Everybody knows that!" So, why is it so painful to allow a change that is happening with or without

We opened our new location on Bastanchury Rd. in Yorba Linda last week and I feel so fortunate to see many new people mingling with our students who made the transition to the new space. Some new and returning teachers are also adding a lively flavor to our class schedule! This is the community of Full Circle Yoga. I did some mingling myself. I was warmly welcomed by the tenants as I made my rounds of the center last week to introduce myself, but none better than Alma of Sh

Thank you for checking out our blog. Some wonderful changes are happening at Full Circle Yoga this season, so I want to formally introduce our mission to serve you as a yoga and wellness center! As always, our classes focus on healing and strengthening the whole person, and we will soon be adding a host of natural therapies in bodywork and energywork called healing sessions. So whatever classes or services you explore at Full Circle Yoga to maintain or enhance your health,