The Practice of Radical Joy: What Yoga (and Puppies) Keep Teaching Me

I welcome April as my month to choose “Radical Joy.” I heard the expression from my teacher, who reminded me that I had to make this my daily commitment. I have been riding exhaustion trying to navigate my frustrations with the world today. She is the person who has been my witness all these years of being a yoga practitioner.

I’m invited into my neighbor’s home only to see they are passionate voters for my least favorite man. Why are they so kind as to ask about my daughter and appreciate my unruly dog? Why can’t they be nasty and irritable? I find that human beings are a contrast of opposites, and my judgements only make me miserable. I practice holding the balance and realizing that every behavior and thought is learned. Habits of attachment are so hard to let go of. So I can explore the possibility of finding the good in everyone even if I disagree with their opinions on the world.

This past weekend, my niece Sara organized the most fun, outrageous unifier for all human beings—puppy chaos! The room was filled for two days with yoga students actually following Kim Eisengrath’s wonderful led Gentle Yoga with Puppies fundraiser class with the cutest mayhem of puppy energy everywhere. It was giggles and laughter with all ages enjoying an afternoon where love was the only experience. Just enjoying the sweetness of these innocent babies and “want a be dog owners.” We even had some successful adoptions! As a passionate practitioner and teacher of the tools of yoga, I forgot that being in the experience of joyous fun is more important than my rigid idea of what a yoga experience should be. I am grateful to be humbled by this delightful weekend mayhem—a shout out to Sara, Kim, and the puppy rescue crew.

We celebrate our 28th year of creating Yoga Among Friends this week. I’m reminded why I wanted to establish community and share in the gift of loving as kindred souls of living life fully. I am so grateful for all of the students and teachers who hold this vision of a shared yogic lifestyle and living fully with joy even as we witness sadness and sorrow. I am always practicing what I need to hear and feel. Renewed energy is returned as my cortisol levels lower, and I stay away from my little mind’s need to be in control. I never imagined that we would become a studio offering puppy yoga!! But no better way to embrace the radical joy. Let’s all choose better as we enjoy the month of April.

This month, we’re embracing Radical Joy in every way—through breath, movement, stillness, and community. Browse our April offerings and find the experiences that speak to you. There’s a place for you here.

If any part of this reflection spoke to your heart—whether it was the idea of Radical Joy, the practice of releasing judgment, or the playful magic of puppy chaos—I’d love to hear what it stirred in you. Feel free to leave a comment.

With love and light,

Laura Jane

Yoga as a Journey: Healing, Community, and the Soul’s Path

Many of you know the story of Yoga Among Friends, which began with the pure intention of developing a community where people could gather and share a common commitment to a practice of healing physically, emotionally, and most of all, spiritually. Yoga was and never has been purely an exercise program. I opened with the understanding that yoga is a “healing modality for the soul.” What a lofty phrase!

I watched the world embrace yoga as a glorified way to improve body image, wear wonderful yoga clothes, and enjoy being physically challenged. There is nothing wrong with meeting yoga as a fitness workout. It brought many of our students into the studio for the first time and allowed them a safe place to begin the journey inward.

Life is confusing, and yoga offers a deeper place of reflection. Yoga Among Friends is a welcoming place. In our world today, we are all struggling with the uncertainty of life. I opened the studio to embrace each person as a human being, not an object to identify skin tone, body shape, gender, or skill of yoga poses.

I struggled in my youth, always feeling like an outsider to the popular world. When yoga came into my life, I began to embrace my whole self, my greater self. I found a way to quiet my thoughts and listen to a deeper place. I felt a doorway into something greater. Today, as the world struggles with the loss of human nature to listen and trust, we are seeing more anger and fear arise, which only hurts humanity.

Yoga Among Friends is a safe haven to fall apart, breathe life into a fragile body, and begin to feel whole again. Community is the key, and everyone is welcome. There are only beginners on the journey of the soul. Healing is our mission, not perfection. Healing can be messy, yet I feel we are all ready for the light inside us all to be revealed. We welcome this time as a beginning and how exciting it is to have a place to share.

Have you experienced yoga as more than just a workout? Has it helped you find healing, connection, or self-discovery? I’d love to hear your thoughts—share in the comments below!

And if you’re looking for a space to explore yoga beyond the physical, I invite you to join us at Yoga Among Friends. Come as you are, and let’s journey together. Check out our new student special to try us and find a class that speaks to you!

Love and light,

Laura Jane

2025 Embraces Uncertainty

This opening of a new page is blank. I can choose now to fill it with thoughts and words, offering a beginning. I am sharing a glimpse of possibility into the knowing that the light is revealing the way. The path does not concern my past, nor does it condition my way forward. It is rising precisely from a flow of consciousness inside me now. The answers lie, as always, within me, at this moment, just as I am. The answers are not my future; they’re not in the past; they’re here, now, and the moment I choose to embrace and connect to them is found within my greater self. I am choosing to live from this space of awareness in the NOW, transforming my future as my past is finished.

As we move into 2025, please do not carry all the worries and doubts of the future. We cling to the past because we know it, and the future offers uncertainty. The little self wants certainty. It is addicted to a desire to control and organize to cling to an idea of certainty. We only know what we know. But LIFE is uncertain. To experience any chance of peace and contentment, we have to embrace uncertainty. The only way is to let go of the little mind’s addiction to the habits that keep us stuck in the familiar. To experience this quality of peace, there must be a desire to connect to the union of what is happening now.

Take a breath, take two more breaths..now just feel. Feel the effect of these breaths..they are happening now..you are alive now. Unfortunately, our minds are looking for some payoff. Some outcomes are more significant than just being enough now. Sit and experience whatever is being revealed. Stay present. It might not be pleasant. The chatter might get louder. Stay and feel the awareness that we are constantly feeding the mind and fixing the unpleasant. Just surrender into the moment, let go through the breath, and first relax into the body. Take a few more breaths and link the focus to your belly, whether pleasant or unpleasant. Inhale, feel it expand, and then exhale, feeling it contract. It’s happening..your aliveness is being observed. Please do not look for or seek an outcome. No goals, no need to fix but experience this moment. Invite yourself into your life, exhale, and say, “Thank you.”

Let us commit to a year of not reacting to issues; act instead from a state of surrender in which mind and emotions are released. Liberate yourself from your defensive routines and absorb information to have a greater capacity to serve the interest of the whole. We are part of the collective of humanity. We are each a spoon of water that is dropped into the ocean of water.  Create a new beginning of not fixing nor flighting your past with the need to control the future. It all comes down to the simple path of coming inward. Keep your mind and heart open and focus daily on your inner work and its expression. Let us participate in this practice in love. We know what truly nourishes and sustains us is a state of peace. The world around us might not reflect this, but something pure dwells within all of us. No amount of striving in the world will make this experience a truth. I’m embracing infinite uncertainty from what the mind thinks is a scary place to an experience of completeness and beauty in feeling this profound protection. This trust rests in us. Forget everything except what is possible NOW within you. May you live and thrive this year, knowing something greater is guiding us home. 2025 offers a crack for the light to come through. Let us crack open and let the old fall away to be present in the inner peace. No setting New Year’s resolutions nor creating goals for the future. Love this moment and share the smile of loving-kindness.  Within this space, more will be revealed!

Love and light,

Laura Jane