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Many people ask me, “Where do they go?”  I do not know where they go, those who have died, but what I do know is that they are not very far away.  I sense their presence in the room at the start of each reading.  It’s a presence that is with the person who is grieving, the person who has experienced great loss; we are the ones who are always close to our loved ones in spirit.  Where do they go?  They go with us; they travel with us; they watch over us.

In the wake of great tragedies – Sandy Hook and the horrific bombing at the Boston Marathon – I feel a great sense of connection to those who have died and those directly touched by this great loss.  It is hard to believe that there can be comfort and peace when someone’s life is taken by a bomb or a gun.  And many ask, “Where do they go?”  They are no longer suffering.  Their bodies, their minds, and their spirit are at peace.  They leave their bodies and they become peace.

Through my work, I know that the loved one who dies in the most terrible way is no longer suffering.  Their bodies do not hurt; their mind is not full of anguish.  They are free.  Although their life may have been short or may have ended too soon, they become our peace.

With loss so sad, tragic, heart-wrenching, and unforeseen it is hard to believe in peace.  But I know that they go with you – they travel with you – to comfort, to protect, to love, and always, always to bring peace.

My yoga practice has opened more doors – physically, mentally, and spiritually – than I ever could have imagined when I stepped into my first class and rolled out my mat over ten years ago.  I took that particular first class because a friend told me it was challenging.  Having run the Boston Marathon twice, I believed in challenging myself when exercising.  Sure enough, thanks to Rolf Gates on that first day, I really was challenged…and exhausted.  The part that was so very unexpected, though, was how it opened my mind and my heart.  It was the first of the many gifts that my yoga practice has brought into my life.

Like many, I fell sway to yoga – the practice, the physical exertion, the heat and, the most wonderful of all, the peace.  I wondered how this could be, this peace.  The peace I felt practicing yoga allowed me to let go, to be free, and it allowed me to feel vulnerable.  The yoga poses were so new and different, I had to let go.  Who knows what I looked like back then but it sure felt good in my body.

I spent many a yoga practice in tears on my mat yet when class was over my heart felt renewed and restored.  I didn’t question all of these emotional moments, I just took them as a good sign.  I learned through my own practice the healing of the body, heart, and mind.  I began to feel more balanced, centered, and aligned – both on and off my mat.

I am trained as a mental health therapist and when I started practicing yoga I was working in the prisons.  Practicing yoga gave me the balance I needed to counsel criminals in the jails day in and day out.  Soon I left my life in corrections and jumped into the yoga world full time, managing yoga studios, and becoming a teacher myself.  It was while teaching my first class at Crunch Fitness in Downtown Crossing that I realized that yoga leads down the path of healing.  It was during my first om that my heart truly opened and I knew I was on the right path: A gift unexpected and unimagined.

My alternative healing business, Powers of Healing, grew out of further gifts that yoga has brought into my life.  I am grateful for this and want to return some of this gratitude as I help you on your own healing path.