Yoga4All Tucson

02/01/2026

February's Monthly Theme: Gaining Traction

Traction is such an interesting thing to gain! It implies contact between ourselves and the very “thing” across which we are trying to move. Not just contact, but friction. It requires that the condition (person, place, situation) across which we seek to move resists us in some way. This friction gives us traction.

In order to move across old patterns and structures, we must face and interface with them. We use these sticky points of contact to move forward and transform. We must find a way to both momentarily adhere (face) and move. Otherwise, we just slip off, or slip away, and nothing is gained.

Traction also refers to a gentle, controlled pulling—usually to create more space between vertebrae. Here, too, we make use of a resisting force to create openings in a structure.

Let’s take advantage of this still wintry month of February to gain traction across those situations, environments, and structures we want to leave behind come spring.

https://yoga4alltucson.org/

01/06/2026

Recipe of the Month:
Grandma Whalen–Jenn K. Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Veggie Lasagna
My Grandma Whalen started making vegetarian lasagna to accompany the traditional prime rib at Christmas dinner once Auntie Rae became a vegetarian in the mid-1980s. She followed the Jane Brody cookbook and used ricotta cheese and wheat noodles. I used Grandma’s vegetarian lasagna recipe whenever I hosted Christmas dinner up until 2020. That year, I invited my new friend, Jenn, who followed a gluten- and dairy-free diet. When I told her about my vegetarian lasagna tradition, she suggested sweet potato and eggplant “noodles” and cashew “cheese” to make the recipe match her dietary needs. The much-loved family favorite became even better with Jenn’s changes, and now I make it year-round. –Sparkleblaster
https://yoga4alltucson.org/grandma-whalen-jenn-k-gluten-dairy-free-vegetarian-lasagna/

A beloved family vegetarian lasagna reinvented with sweet potato, eggplant noodles, and cashew cheese—naturally gluten-free, dairy-free, and deeply nostalgic.

01/03/2026

The Yoga4All Sangha honored Winter Solstice 2025 through ritual, movement, sound, and sacred relationship.
Seven days of releasing, remembering, and returning to the light we carry—together.
✨🌑✨
Bless.ed Be to Yoga4All.
https://yoga4alltucson.org/yoga4all-winter-solstice-2025/

A heart-centered reflection on Yoga4All’s Winter Solstice 2025, exploring sacred relationship, embodied practice, ritual, and Sangha.

12/06/2025

Autumn Anointment 🍁✨

Those of us familiar with Yoga4All’s KYo Kamp Retreats are used to leaving wrapped in a fulfilling love fest…
But this Fall’s Organ Pipe Resilience Retreat touched something deeper—an unmistakable sense of being guided by something far greater than ourselves.

Was it our collective longing to be anointed by the magical resilience of the Pitaya Dulce forest?
Was it the presence of “the Gone Before” and the weighty prayer intentions we called in during our opening ceremony?
Or was it simply the divine kismet of this perfect constellation of souls gathered in sacred space and time?

I can’t say.
What I can say is this: gratitude overflowed.

For Gaia’s benevolent gifts—
🌈 the double rainbow
🌠 the falling stars
🌬 the perfect weather
🌱 the discovery of the Limberbush plant

And for each open-hearted camper whose presence expanded the field—setting the stage for us to dance our hoofies off each night and renew our ability to move gracefully through the unwieldy game of life.

Above all, it revealed the Blessed Web of Relations—
Teacher and Student
Listener and Speaker
Giver and Taker
An ever-shifting reciprocity that models the very world we are trying to build.

This is how resilience grows.
This is how lighthouses are born. 💛

https://yoga4alltucson.org/autumn-annointment/

A luminous reflection on Yoga4All’s Organ Pipe Resilience Retreat—where awe, reciprocity, falling stars, and Gaia’s grace renewed our capacity to thrive.

12/01/2025

December Monthly Theme: Relationships
“All real living is meeting.” — Martin Buber

In every moment between us lives a powerful choice: to see each other as sacred… or as a means to an end. In that space, we can create or destroy, love or turn away, forgive or harden our hearts.

December invites us back to the holy work of meeting—laying down our armor, making peace with ourselves and one another, and remembering that every life is precious.

Like that moment in WWI when soldiers laid down their weapons to share gifts and play soccer across enemy lines—proof that the human heart still longs for peace.

This month, may we practice yoga in its purest form: yoking ourselves back to the Divine.
May we choose truce over tension.
And if it feels good… maybe not pick the weapons back up again. 🤍

As you move through the holidays, try one small act of softening—an apology, a blessing, a listening ear, or a moment of grace. If this message speaks to you, share it with someone who might need a little peace this season.

11/01/2025

November Monthly Theme: Renewed Resilience: Finding Peace in Tumultuous Times
How do we Yoginis and Yogis maintain our peace and equanimity through tumultuous times? What tools bolster our harmony and strength that create lighthouses of hope for ourselves and others? It is by utilizing our disciplined practice and the support of our community that we harness emotional endurance. Super-Power Resilience is activated by: Embracing the Oneness of All Creation, Trusting our Connection to Spirit, and Cultivating Practices of Gratitude, Empowerment, and Serenity. Anointed by these transformative practices, our inner reservoir is replenished with the flow of divine love. In that space of pure love, layers of ego that separate and limit us drop awa,y and we behold the stark beauty of our soul's light and the sweet kiss of life, even when shadows and struggles appear. Therein lies our renewed resilience! As individuals and as a community, we breathe in and breathe out. Basking in awareness of surrounding support, we can tap wells of inner equilibrium, strength, and inspiration. We experience a heightened awareness of deep connection to Self and to Gaia. Such shared awareness within our sangha propels our steady, intentional path towards the highest well-being and the greatest universal good, regardless of anything that transpires around us.
This excerpt from a song entitled “A Benediction” by The Arcadian Wild speaks to the process of renewed resilience:

When it seems you're all but drowning
May the water quench your thirsting.
When the sun is nearly blinding,
May you, by it, see everything.
When your worry leaves you weary,
May your sleep be sound and healing.
When the burden's beyond bearing,
May you know it's not yours only.

By J Ram Krishnan
https://yoga4alltucson.org/

10/14/2025

Aquarian Sadhana
Offering by Yoga4AllTucson
Saturday, October 18th
Yoga4AllTucson Studio, St Andrew’s, 545 S 5th Ave
Time: 5:00 am to 7:30 am MST
In person, or on Zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81326697802

10/01/2025

Space - October Theme
Out of the five elements that make up our existence (earth, water, fire, air, and space), it is space that pervades all the others. In yogic philosophy, space (ākāśa) is considered the most prevalent element, forming the ground in which all others arise. It is said that we are made of 99% space. Quantum physicists echo this, noting that if all the empty space were removed from our body, the entire human race could fit inside a sugar cube.

It’s easy to associate space with disconnection, with being “spacey,” ungrounded, or lost in thoughts. When unbalanced, space can feel like emptiness, isolation, or disorientation. When this happens, our nervous system and our skeleton get impacted. Too much space and we cannot ground, or have a voice, too little and we live in constant reactivity.

Yet, space can also be the land of potential, where presence, creativity, and love can emerge. At the core of love, there is space to listen, to feel, and to become.

The universe is expanding, so can we. Can we do it consciously? Can we create space and stay centered? Can we embrace space not to escape but to deepen our connections with self and everything else?

https://yoga4alltucson.org/

09/16/2025

Aquarian Sadhana
Offering by Yoga4AllTucson
Saturday, Sept 20th
Yoga4AllTucson Studio, St Andrew’s, 545 S 5th Ave
Time: 5:00 am to 7:30 am MST
In person, or on Zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81326697802

09/01/2025

September Theme of the Month.
Our human bodies exist in a constant state of tension between the front of the body and the back. This dynamic tension allows us to stand upright, to fold forward, and to bend backward.
Tension, in this case, applies to the forces of muscles acting in opposition to each other.
Dynamic refers to the constant change that is stimulated by these oppositional forces. When we experience tension, opposition, and changing forces in our emotional, mental, and energetic bodies, we tend to want to make them go away. We want to quickly resolve the conflicting feelings, thoughts, and frequencies within us, rather than invite them to create internal change.
Conflict is uncomfortable. It needs to be so that we can shift, sometimes unrecognizably so. If it isn’t hunky-dory “out there,” it isn’t hunky-dory “in here”. We are all too connected for that. Mahatma Gandhi said, “All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change.” Working compassionately, but determinedly, with these pesky, liberating internal conflicts of ours is imperative to support and engage change in the outer world.
If you haven’t treated yourself to David Bowie’s “Changes” (from his Hunky Dory album) in a while, here is a link for the lyrics and video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BgF7Y3q-as