I am here writing my blog for the very first time, in a tea shop in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York.

The two women at the table across from me are speaking so loud and part of me is getting a little agitated, the same kind of feeling I got an hour ago when a fellow yoga student came in eight minutes late to my first ever mediation class (yes, I know, I know, I checked my watch…).  Then, this same student left loudly, fumbling with all her props, at the beginning of savasana (crazy rude, right?!).  I have to say that the latter transgression left me less annoyed than the former, due to my more relaxed state after a one-hour group meditation.  Which makes me think: how can I internalize that feeling of calm, where small, insignificant actions of others can naturally roll off my shoulders – like the time when I yell at the car not letting me walk at the busy intersection because I had the “right of way,” or when someone ahead of me on the grocery store line takes two seconds longer in their movements than I would have… Even thinking about that I am losing my meditation calm.  For most of my life I have been a Type-A western-educated overachiever New York lawyer.  But, then again, something did bring me to the study and examination of yoga – probably a craving for more of a balance and sense of calm in my everyday actions.  I invite you to join me as I chronicle this journey, as I learn more about yoga, and try to make sense of it and apply it to those of us living and working in the “real world.”

Oh. By the way, once I started writing a few sentences and delved into my thoughts here at this tea shop, I no longer notice those loud people across from me at the tea shop.  Could it be yet another lesson? Stay tuned…