Experience Evan Soroka's renowned class: The Complete Practice. A complete practice is movement, pranayama, meditation AND self-reflection. Not all yoga is yoga unless it is complete. This week's video is the culmination of a 4-week series on PRANA with MANTRA at the HEART. Evan will guide you through a subtle body journey weaving science and tradition into the direct experience of the heart. The heart in tradition is considered the second brain, the seat of all intelligence and knowing. The heart and the mind are separate entities; quiet the mind to access the heart. 

​Join Evan for her next series OJAS - The Life Nectar

I want to show you a simple and effective diabetes recovery strategy to bounce back after any blood glucose swing that no one is talking about at the doctor's office. 

One way to define resilience is by our ability to return baseline whenever there's a deficit. 

When it comes to building diabetes resilience, it is essential to apply recovery strategies to recuperate the energy lost so that you can go back to life feeling more vibrant, present, and capable. 

For instance, if you are running high or just experienced an intense low, there's an invisible after-effect from those extremes. It taxes our neuroendocrine responses, alters perception, performance, and vitality for hours even after numbers have returned to normal. 

Not feeling your best because of the wear-and-tear on our body's adaptive responses can make you depleted and moody. Over the longer duration of diabetes, it can give rise to anxiety and depressive symptoms, negativing impacting quality of life. 

There's no cure for diabetes, so no matter how well you've got it under control, we're all going to have moments like these. 

So it is best to apply strategies during and after these episodes to give our bodies and minds a chance to reset. 

One of the main tools that I use personally and prescribe for my clients is a regular yoga nidra practice. 

Yoga nidra means "yogic sleep," but another way of looking at it is "sleep with a trace of awareness."  The practice helps individuals create a supportive state of deep physical, mental, and emotional relaxation. In the state of yoga nidra, there is simultaneous relaxation and detachment, resulting in a profound reset on all planes of one's being. 

Yoga nidra is scientifically proven to reduce stress and anxiety, lower blood pressure, reduce A1c levels in T2D, decrease depressive symptoms, and improve sleep.  

Studies have also shown that yoga nidra interventions improve feelings of happiness, enthusiasm, being more alert and inspired, active, having clarity of thought, control over anger, and self-confidence (1) 

In the attached link, you can access a free yoga nidra for diabetes.

You'll learn how to:

• tap into your innate healing response
• relax deeply
• look at diabetes objectively
• build back your defenses 

I want to show you how to prepare for meditation and do so successfully. Last week I reached a personal milestone: 1,008 consecutive days of meditation. Although I've meditated regularly for over a decade, I've never fully committed to a daily sadhana (practice).  

It was not for lack of interest; I knew the benefits of meditation. 

But I did not understand exactly how transformative a daily routine would be versus something I "fit in" a few days a week. 

The results of my daily sadhana are not only perceptible on my face, but in every aspect of my life. I've achieved great things over the last 1,008 days, wrote a book for diabetes, brought my A1c levels down consistently under 6.5%, and gracefully navigated through significant challenges and losses.  

​I share my story with you to encourage you to do the same and I want to show you how. 
It is a no-brainer that meditation is beneficial; however, many do not know how to practice, or they have tried only to give up after a few days, weeks, or even months later. 

To those people, I ask, "Are you preparing for meditation"? 

Yes, prepare. 

Most likely they aren't. 
Just as you would warm up before exercise to avoid injury, maximize performance, meditation also requires preparation. 

Otherwise, it can be an uncomfortable and fruitless endeavor. 

Complete meditation practice trains the mind to turn away from worldly distractions, become established subtle aspects of awareness, and eventually transcend all objects to abide in the one, eternal truth. 
On a more practical level, meditation helps us look at ourselves from a different perspective, overcoming obstacles, making better choices, irradicating stress, and receiving more joy from life experience. 

Let's be realistic; we do not always have time to do all the physical and breathwork to prepare to sit. Because of this, people often skip practice altogether. 

I want to show you how to prepare with a quick and easy method to maximize your meditation experience. 



The sages knew that the way to enter the state of meditation was to use the breath to still the mind.

It is a process called prana dharana. 
Prana—the vital force—travels in the body on the wave of the breath. Dharana means concentration in Sanskrit. The breath sensitizes the mind to prana, and thorough attention, allows the mind to perceive what is otherwise invisible. 
When you meditate on the breath, you notice that the breath's jerkiness and strain correspond with mental distractions. 

According to Swami Rama, "Those who do not want to practice pranayama can still practice meditation, but without breathing awareness, a deep state of meditation is impossible."

A Practice to Prepare for Meditation - Prana Dhanana

Steps of meditation prep:

1. Pure breathing - breathe consciously checking-in, presenting your awareness. Resolve tension in the breath. (1-5 minutes)
2. Transition to a natural breath flow. Notice the origin of the inhale just in front of the nostrils. Witness the inhale rise up and into the nasal cavity, link with the joyous sensation. Do not try; simply allow the mind to notice the feeling of the breath in and out. (1-2 minutes)
3. Continue to relax your effort. Surrender mind into the feeling of the breath. As the breath becomes more smooth and subtle, presence develops, and thoughts subside. 
4. Allow awareness to rise from space just below nostrils to the point between the eyebrows on the inhale. On the exhale from eyebrow center to origin just below the nostrils. (1-2 minutes)
5. Then, from the eyebrow center to the midbrain and back to the origin point. (1-2 minutes)
6. Now the mind is sufficiently awakened to a presence in the form of prana. Let go of the origin point just beyond the nose and sense the movement of breath localized in the mid-brain. Like a lighthouse flashing, perceive or feel the presence expand from mid-brain on the inhale and return to mid-brain on the exhale. The more you relax effort, the brighter awareness the presence becomes. (1-5 minutes)
7. Rest in the presence of awareness. (As long as you like)
8. Options to continue to meditation: continue to watch the pulsation of breath if the mind is distracted. Feel mantra arising naturally from the still point. Direct presence to a chakra and meditate on that region. Or rest in undivided transcendent awareness. 

Watch the video now. 

During my many years of study, this simple wisdom was the #1 lesson my teachers aimed to instill within us and me in you. ​

The way you feel is known as your energetic condition. Think about it like this. If you feel tired, the dull-heaviness of lethargy will impact your actions and thoughts. The same if you feel overwhelmed or sad. It's not to say these emotions are incorrect; they are not a permanent state. 


If change is in constant flux, then we have the power to influence its direction. 

​When a person lives this, she is a sva-tantriya—one who is self-mastered. She can live in a chaotic world and be above the turbulence, not by spiritually bypassing, but by being in charge of her energetic condition. 

The power to change how you feel is YOURS. By knowing this wholeheartedly inspires action in all of your decisions and alters the trajectory of your life's purpose. 

The best, most impactful way to change how you feel is through conscious breathing exercises. The breath trains your nervous system to turn on and off on command, purifying the mind from distractions and fear, granting you discernment. It is the chief operating guide linking all neuroendocrine responses, perceptions, and actions. 

I want to give you the tools to influence how you feel on the regular. Let's face it if a glass of wine or a handstand were enough; we'd all be enlightened. 

Check out this simple instruction for nadi shodhana--alternate nostril breath. I most often see people doing it incorrectly, and in this short video, you'll learn how to do it efficiently, maximizing your benefit. 
​
It is one of my absolute favorite breathing practices to create BALANCE. Krishnamacharya would practice 108 rounds of nadi shodhana every day, breaking it up into three practices of 36. 

There's a missing link in diabetes care; it's a strategic rest.
​
"Sure I rest," you may say, but let me assure you I'm not talking about sleep, although it will help you sleep better. Creating a ritual of rest is an essential pillar in upping your diabetes health game.  In this video, I'll go over in more detail why and how!

Here's why it's important:
-Helps to reduce the perception of stress & stress hormones, making you insulin resistant. 
-Improves your discernment, i.e., clarity of mind to adapt to diabetes' changes or rewire your habits. 
-Gives you the power to bounce back. Whether that is recovery from an undesirable BG fluctuation or the ability to build a reserve of extra energy. 

It's not a secret. You know you should be doing it, but for many reasons, you're not. 

-time- we have less and less of it
-prioritization - there are so many things to check off your to-do box. It's the last on the list. 
-lack of direction - you know that breathing, meditation, and relaxation are essential, but you do not know how to do it. 
​
 If you've been living long enough with type 1 diabetes, you know that it's simply not enough to exercise your body, eat nutrient-dense foods, and take the proper amount of insulin. 

It is my mission to help as many people with diabetes as possible learn how to not only PRIORITIZE self-care but also CREATE it for themselves. 

Want to learn more + experience it for yourself? Join me on September 29th at 5pm MST for a free masterclass + mini practice: The Diabetes Rest Ritual. 

Can't make it live? No problem. We'll send you the recorded practice if you sign up. 

I travel with my husband to spend time with his family for Thanksgiving. It is a multi-day celebration that is joyful, yet without self-care strategies, it can be a diabetes disaster. 
 
The holidays get a bad rap as a difficult time for blood glucose levels, but they don’t have to be. There is nothing inherently unhealthy about the food we eat during Thanksgiving.

What is problematic are the cultural behavioral norms which support all-day snacking, larger meals and sedentarism. Couple this with the added stress of being in close quarters with beloved family members and suddenly Thanksgiving is taking you for a wild diabetes ride. 

It does not have to be this way. In this video I will address my top behavioral and self-awareness recommendations for diabetes management during Thanksgiving.
 
A core component of yoga therapy and diabetes care is self-awareness. Self-awareness with diabetes is our ability to discern how certain behaviors, whether it is over-indulging, lack of exercise, or stress from a family dynamic, affect how we feel, think and act. When we are aware of what causes us to feel negative, we can implement new and positive behaviors to improve our quality of life. 
 
The formula for a healthy and joyful holiday season is unique for everyone with diabetes. In this video, I will go over my top strategies for improving self-awareness and implementing healthier behaviors during the holidays. These tips will allow you to flow through the season without the typical BG rollercoaster and emotional upheaval that can occur when we are in close quarters with the people we love most.

When I switched to a new Medtronic 670g a few years ago, I hated it. It was so unfamiliar, and my old pump I knew like the back of my hand. I was overwhelmed by every nuance from its fancy features, to its size and weight. There were many times when I wanted to give it up, go back on my old pump, but a part of me persisted and gave it a chance. 

Now, nearly two years later, I love my Medtronic pump and would not change it for the world. 

It is funny how attached we become to our devices. They are, after all, a relationship. When we change that relationship, it is reasonable to mourn what you used to have rather than looking forward to what you will have; in my case, a much-improved HbA1c.

Yoga talks about change as a cause of suffering. We suffer because we think everything is going to stay exactly the same. Cognitively we know that a new pump or cgm will be of benefit, but because it is so new, we resist embracing the changes wholeheartedly. We may in fact reject the new pump as faulty because it is not the same as the old one. 

The resistance to change with diabetes technology is a source of overwhelm and distress. In this quick yoga therapy inspired video, I will go over my top tips and strategies for overcoming the transitional woes, so you can LOVE the pump (or CGM) that you are in and move forward with your life. 

Today is a day of celebration. It’s world diabetes day but also it’s my mom’s 70th birthday. I want to invite everyone who has diabetes, at least for today, to celebrate diabetes. Think about how a diagnosis has molded and shaped you into the incredible being that you are!

It’s true, diabetes is no picnic but that does not mean that it all has to be negative. 

If it weren’t for diabetes I would not be:

• Half as strong as I am
• As aware and in-tune with myself
• As Compassionate as I am to other people’s pain
• A Yogi and teacher

Thank you diabetes for offering me an opportunity to see you in a positive or negative light.

My gift you you is a yoga therapy practice for the heart and circulation. Heart disease is the number one killer of people with diabetes. It is of the utmost importance that we not only take care of our heart with diet and exercise but also through therapeutic practices like this one. 

Please leave your comments below! How has diabetes made you the person you are today? What can you celebrate?