About marja

Marja is a certified eRYT 500 yoga instructor. For over twenty years, her experience, passion, and sense of humor keeps her approach to teaching yoga and mindfulness light and entertaining. As an educator and freelance writer, her background in health science and community nutrition combined with her studies in India serve to enrich her understanding of the mind/body connection. Since retiring as a performing songwriter a.k.a. Marge Calhoun, Marja and her husband, John, live part time in Colorado and Australia. While in the US, she is an instructor in Summit County, Colorado.
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Be Your Own Internal Pharmacist

Most people live as passive recipients within their mental states. Feeling good when good things happen, bad when bad things happen and the gap in-between is a waiting game of luck or fate. New studies show how mood, motivation, and meaning, have biological levers that can be easily influenced by you. With your own prescribed dose of lifestyle changes, you can shift your baseline levels of brain chemistry and wire better synaptic connections. This discovery is not only practical, but transformative. The Greek philosopher, Epictetus, taught that the only thing truly yours, is your response to the world. Neuroscience has carved a [Read More]

2026-08-01T08:09:04+00:00August 1st, 2026|Health, Mindfulness, Well Being|
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Reversing Media Fatigue

Constant exposure to the mental turbulence of screen time is exhausting. Triggering stress responses as invasive as realtime scenarios, the environment of modern information is nothing short of toxic. The flood of incessant notifications, divisive content, and doom scrolling drives the senses to their limit. Yoga offers a clear way out of that loop. Inside Screen Stress Screens, especially shock algorithms, tax a part of the brain called the amygdala. The brain’s primary alarm system scans your environment (as well as your thoughts) for threats. It's responsible for enlisting the fight-or-flight response when danger lurks and fires chemical impulses before it even [Read More]

2026-05-24T19:31:12+00:00May 24th, 2026|Health, Mindfulness, Well Being, yoga|
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Your Karmic A1c

"Your Karmic A1c" is a light comparative metaphor for accumulated patterns over time revealing unintentional habits and their outcomes. Just as the A1c test measures the accumulative average of your blood glucose levels over a few months, your karmic accountability can also be observed in actions over time. Call it your Karmic A1c. A1c or hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is a popular in-office blood test to monitor your blood sugar usually over three months. Widely used to detect possible diabetic trends, it's not about what you ate yesterday, but the cumulative effect of your glucose control. This medical framework is useful because it [Read More]

2026-04-19T17:53:05+00:00April 10th, 2026|Healing, Mindfulness, Philosophy, Well Being|
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The Hidden Power of Friendliness (four positive attitudes to try)

The nature of consciousness to know itself is the subject of the Yoga Sutras. How this formless, untraceable entity is capable of perceiving itself and its own ability is phenomenal. Studies in physics, neurobiology and psychology affirm the unique dynamics of consciousness as a causal influence. According to Patanjali, author of the Yoga Sutras, consciousness and its earth-moving potential is uncomplicated. Simply light up your grin and feel “the hidden power of friendliness.” Good Vibrations Friendliness from the heart is transformative. Patanjali extracted this revelation from earlier Vedic texts around 200 BCE. Like a universal tuner, dialing into a smiling channel becomes immediately apparent. [Read More]

2025-10-11T00:57:01+00:00October 11th, 2025|Uncategorized|
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The Happy Pee: Real Talk on Urinary Incontinence and Pelvic Floor Health

Have you ever been greeted by a wagging puppy only to notice a sprinkle of “happy pee” by your shoes? A common term for dogs that I used to gleefully warn my sister that she was making me laugh so hard it could spring a leak of good cheer.  Innocent enough and hardly a worry, who knew as a teenager the happy pee would turn into a little monster later in life? To my surprise, I had no idea what the happy pee really meant. My female elders kept the leaky secret to themselves. In retrospect the signs were there. The frequent [Read More]

2025-04-25T17:32:31+00:00April 23rd, 2025|Health, Well Being|
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Mobilize the Lymphatic System with Yoga and Massage 

Yoga’s influence in the function of the lymphatic system may be one of the least known and under appreciated benefits of a regular asana practice. Healthy lymph flow is a key component to healing as well as building a strong immune system. Gentle twists and bends can encourage lymphatic networks to flush stagnant material from the body. Known as a lymphatic drain in the field of massage, both depend on gravity to move fluid through lymph vessels for cleansing. Assisting this part of the immune system with gentle yoga or simple techniques in self-massage protects the body from the challenges of the [Read More]

2025-02-03T16:16:30+00:00December 30th, 2024|Health, Well Being|
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Lessons in the Language of Energy

The proverbial underpinnings of an Eastern saying like, “When the student is ready the teacher appears,” suggests a catalyst for change. A beckoning of sorts to finally act on something not entirely potentiated. As a student of yoga, the rich ontological practice and philosophy of the Yoga Sutras has been my introspective springboard if not a neurological adventure I’ve yet to fully comprehend. So when an opportunity avails, guidance is appreciated. I keep my finger on pulse of such things because as a teacher in my own right, I have a responsibility for the sake of reporting. From getting on my mat [Read More]

2025-10-10T06:02:54+00:00July 17th, 2024|Mindfulness, Philosophy|
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Find Wholeness by Intensionally Welcoming Opposites

Life, the beautiful dichotomy. No matter where you are, who you’re with or what you experience, there is a simple inner resource to help cope with the changing nature of reality. Taking the time to explore the opposite of what we’re feeling can be the difference between obsessing and the restoration of ease and grace. Divisiveness is unnerving. Hostility, within ourselves and between others has its costs. The price we pay is with our health and well-being. Sensing that pulse within us, we are sometimes caught by those feelings, emotions and thoughts. The mind can paint our inner landscapes with the contentment of [Read More]

2023-08-05T03:24:45+00:00August 1st, 2023|Mindfulness|
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Coming Home to Yourself: How to Walk the Path of Your True Nature

Life is a process of change. The human spirit has a natural inclination for growth and renewal while the mind has a tendency to resist. The mystery of what life presents and what one is to become seems threatening at times, driving us further away from who we actually are. Conscious awareness, intension and engagement are paths to get back on track and home to our true nature. Pathways to Transformation Marilyn Schlitz, PhD, vice president of research and education at the Institute of Noetic Sciences states in her book, Living Deeply, “Where there is resistance there is stress and disease.” Not [Read More]

2023-08-05T03:21:36+00:00July 28th, 2023|Healing, Mindfulness, Yoga Philosophy|
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Learning to Live with Arthritis

In Western countries yoga is increasingly practiced lacking the context which serves to enhance a myriad of life enhancing health benefits. Hatha yoga often thought of as the physical component of yoga, includes breathing practices, relaxation, and meditation. These features are indispensable for people suffering from inflammation to due arthritis. As certain medical communities question whether yoga is appropriate for people with vulnerable joints, studies at John’s Hopkins University provided critical evidence showing that patients with arthritis advocate yoga as safe, feasible, and enjoyable. Focusing on rheumatoid arthritis, (RA) osteoarthritis, (OA) and metabolic arthritis known as gout, participants in the study practiced [Read More]

2023-04-19T00:40:28+00:00March 8th, 2023|Healing, Health, yoga|
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