The following is my true account of a relationship with a celebrity. I have never before disclosed these details.

I met her in September of 1996 in an LA yoga studio. Go figure.

She was not yet famous but one dose of her energy and I knew she was gonna be big. It was only a matter of time.

I will never, ever forget our first encounter. I was just lying there, half naked, short of breath, in a state of emotional, spiritual, and physical rapture.

I followed her around the world…Cuba, Italy, Mexico, Hawaii, Belize, Costa Rica.

When she got excited, she spoke in her native tongue. She was foreign. I couldn’t think of anything sexier than her barking out orders in an exotic language.

She taught me so much about life…and touched my soul in ways and places I didn’t know possible.

She went to another level of stardom after she graced the cover of Time Magazine in the early 2000s. I remember saying under my breath, “This will change everything.”

And then she was on Oprah and it only added fuel to the fire.

Could it last?

The romance somehow endured the stardom right up until 2006, when the love died, seemingly overnight.

From 2006 up until very recently, I suffered greatly and missed her love. I have never told anyone before about this pain.

Who is this celebrity?

Cher?

No.

Diane Cannon?

No.

Kathy Bates?

No.

Her name..yoga. The above account details my falling in and out of love, not with a person, but with the ancient practice.

Crash and burn.

When I first started in 1996, yoga was just getting big.

She became a full blown celeb in the early 2000’s spawning yoga fashion trends, big league prices and varying effects on our attitude.

Maybe you yogis can relate? So many of us fall hard and heavy into a deeply sensual relationship with yoga.

We take a training, go on a retreat, buy all the stuff, tell everyone we know about yoga.

Until that one friend or relative gets annoyed: “If you freakin’ say one more thing about goshdarn freakin’ yoga, I’ll light your freakin’ mat on fire!”

And then, over time, many of us burn out on yoga.

It used to be that any pose, any adjustment, any spiritual teaching would be like the first raindrop on parched desert soil.

But then, like an addict, I needed more poses, more adjustments, more spiritual teachings. I wasn’t getting the yoga high I used to get.

And I became bored, lazy, it was a job.

To be perfectly honest with you, I’ve been running on fumes for years. How many times can you do down dog before you just wanna explode your mula-freakin-bandha?

A startling revelation.

But then last week I awoke in the middle of the night (those 5pm espresso shots are never a good idea) and I picked up a classic spiritual book, The Power of Intention, and turned to just the right page (so it goes when we are willing to listen).

The author Wayne Dyer writes, “Every time I see a coin on the street, I stop, pick it up, put it into my pocket, and say out loud, ‘Thank you, God, for this symbol of abundance that keeps flowing into my life.’ Never once have I asked, ‘Why only a penny, God? You know I need a lot more than that.’ “

There was a yoga class I took in New York City a few weeks ago.

It was a new teacher, in her early 20s. The asana was basic, as I’m sure many of you would say is the best possible way to describe my less-than-thrilling asana teaching.

But this new teacher’s energy, passion, and old soul wisdom were off-the-charts fresh and invigorating.

In a city (NYC) of Dharma Mittras and Dayna Flynns (Amazing), it was a newbie teaching basic sequences, counting breaths and lovin’ every freakin’ second of it. That lit my yoga soul on fire all over again.

I think it’s fair to say this Law of the Penny applies not just to yoga but to anything with a delicate alchemy—from marriage to parenting to writing:

>>When we’ve lost the juice, look not to the fruit, but to the seed.

>>Keep an open mind when that brand new yoga teacher is subbing for your favorite superstar. Their fresh energy has a way of seeping past a sheath of doubt and injecting new love right into your heart.

>>Embrace your spouse in a way you haven’t touched her for many moons. If doctors would only write scripts: “A strong, long, deep hug, twice a day—morning and night.”

>>Catch yourself next time you are walking and you see a glittering penny on the sidewalk.

As a wise one said, “As we become curators of our own contentment on the path to abundance, we learn to savor the small with a grateful heart.”

Like elephant yoga on Facebook.