I’m excited to be a part of the rebirth of the Yoga for Healthy Aging blog, especially since I’m undergoing a rebirth of my own. After twenty years in Japan, I’ve moved back to the United States—which is a challenge at any time but even more so in the time of Covid. Yoga and mindfulness have helped me be present with all the changes. I also have a Japanese son who just started American high school online. Lots of grounds for practice!I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and was an English major at U.C. Berkeley. I received an M.A. in Creative Writing at San Francisco State. That’s where I first met Nina Zolotow—a fellow student in the program—over 30 years ago. In the intervening years, we’ve stayed good friends. Nina constantly inspires me to renew my commitment to yoga and writing as paths of self-understanding, community, and transformation. I’m looking forward to writing about yoga and creativity, yoga for deeper life connection, and real-life mindful living for the Yoga for Healthy Aging blog.I’ve been studying meditation, yoga, and healing for over 40 years, and teaching for over 20. I opened a yoga studio in Tokyo as an act of SEVA in 2003, and we are still going strong, thanks to our loyal sangha. Sun and Moon Yoga introduced many styles of yoga and mindfulness to Japan, sometimes facing resistance and opposition. I’ve always tried to run the studio as a yoga practice in itself, which has been a deep learning. I never gave up on my vision to offer a community space of healing and love.Yoga studies are ongoing, as you know. My other passion is Tibetan Buddhism and I graduated from a 7-year intensive program in Vajrayana Buddhism in 2013. Also, I am soon completing a 2-year Mindfulness Meditation program with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, certified by the Awareness Training Institute and the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California at Berkeley.My writing is personal, political, and sometimes raw. I’ve written about yoga, self-transformation, mindfulness, and cross-cultural living in the New York Times, Huffington Post, Yoga Journal, Yoga Journal Japan, Origin, Mantra, Asana, Yogini, Yoga International, Elephant Journal, Shambhala Sun, wanderlust.com, Asana, the Manifest-Station, Glomad, and others. I’ve published 20 books, including Yoga Poems: Lines To Unfold By, which received the 2001 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award. A companion book, Yoga Heart: Lines on the Six Perfections, is an exploration of the Buddha’s six gifts for a meaningful life. Other books include In Search of the Sun (a yoga memoir about adapting and adopting in Japan), Up from the Sea, (a YA novel in verse about Japan’s tsunami), and Sacred Sanskrit Words, co-authored with Reema Datta. I look forward to reading everyone’s posts and comments, and to being a part of this warm and supportive community.You can read more about Leza's writing at www.lezalowitz.com and about her yoga studio and classes at www.sunandmoon.jp. Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° To order Yoga for Healthy Aging: A Guide to Lifelong Well-Being, go to Amazon, Shambhala, Indie Boundor your local bookstore.
