After more than 30 years teaching yoga, it is time to create space and time without an agenda. This period of rest and rejuvenation is an exciting opportunity to explore life.

A belated welcome to this New Year. May it be a year of ease, good health, and prosperity for you all. This newsletter may be a little longer than normal, but rest assured there are no products, classes, intensives, or anything else that I’ll be putting before you.

Like so many others who have made discoveries about themselves during this pandemic, I realized in 2022 that the tectonic plates of my psyche were irrevocably shifting. An Ayurvedic doctor once said to me that I had a Sherman tank will living inside an Italian sports car body . . . yet no amount of willpower, discipline or “push” could shift in me this deep inner need to finally, after so many years, take a sabbatical from all teaching and writing commitments.

I have therefore made the decision to pause and rest over the entire year of 2023.

I felt it important to share this news because in the past even a brief absence from teaching has resulted in rumors of illness, or the conclusion that I had retired from teaching altogether. Rest assured I am in fine fettle and stronger and fitter than I’ve ever been at any time in my life. And I believe I have much more to offer in the future. It’s always been deeply important to me to give 100% of myself when I teach, and paradoxically this is one of the reasons for my sabbatical. By replenishing myself I hope to be able to give more fully into the future.

The truth is, over 20 years ago when I took on the stewardship of these 30 acres of bare land, without water, septic, electricity, or home, it was always going to be a full-time job. . . and then some. For 12 years I homesteaded this land alone; building a house, planting trees, laying infrastructure such as water capture and water recycling, and extensive native planting to regenerate habitat for birds and wildlife. The vegetable garden became bigger and bigger. 

This was all happening while I was also simultaneously taking care of and training several horses AND developing new work and sharing my teaching of Yoga during long international teaching tours and many trips to Australia and other New Zealand cities. It was a thrilling, exciting time but also exhausting and overwhelming. I honestly cannot remember a time in the last 20 years when I have not felt pressure from the moment my eyes opened in the morning. Every minute was spoken for.

Now, with the gracious support of my partner and director of online services, Nick Lyttle, as well as our support team Onika South and Ben Lyttle, I am so grateful to take this year to allow other dimensions of myself to regenerate, surface, be met, explored, developed.

People have asked “what I am going to do during my sabbatical?” and the answer is “I’m not sure.” I believe it would be a wasted opportunity to quickly resurrect a containing structure that would likely be as driven as the one that preceded it. I believe that authentic creative evolution must not be constantly bent to recapitulate our past selves and past identities but must allow for the unexpected.

For now, I can feel layers of tension dissolving as I settle into enjoying the harvest of all that hard work: uninterrupted vistas from the house of native corridors and a garden brimming with vibrant vegetables, fruit, and flowers. I am especially enjoying new arrivals on the farm; Lois and Betty, two East Friesian/Lacaune milking sheep, and their lambs, Lolly and Pop, and Lilly and Putt.

Learning to hand milk and produce my own yogurt and sheep’s milk cheese is giving me immense pleasure. And, as an avid cook, I am also taking time to refine and archive many of my recipes. As I feel the impulse, I’ll share some of my favorites with you, but this won’t be on any kind of schedule, so enjoy them when they do arrive in your inbox.

To kick off the year, I’m sharing my Ultimate Chocolate Brownie recipe for those of you who salivate at the idea of a chewy, delectable treat with your tea or coffee.

This is a very adult version; not too sweet but packing a chocolaty punch for those days when a strenuous job awaits you. There’s always lots of those here on the farm!

All this said, we will continue to support your Yoga practice and study in other ways with details forthcoming in our next newsletters. Before I began my sabbatical at the end of 2022, I was already working with senior associates to develop some wonderful new programs for this year. Nick and the team are also curating offerings that will come onstream soon.

Finally, may I express my deep appreciation and gratitude for the support so many of you have offered me over these last two years as I learned to translate my work to an online format. It’s been a wild ride and now it is time to step off the merry-go-round and find the comforting support of this great and giving earth.

Namaste,

Donna