Maggie Norton Yoga

Maggie Norton Yoga Maggie Norton has studied yoga and meditation for over 30 years. Maggie is also trained in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and iRest Yoga Nidra.

Maggie offers weekly classes in Ukiah in Active and Adaptive Yoga, as well as specialized courses and workshops in Back Care, Stress Reduction, Balance and Mobility, Deep Relaxation, plus Therapeutic Yoga and Yoga Philosophy programs for Yoga teacher She particularly enjoys a body-sensing approach to a mindful and playful yoga practice, seeing the body as a doorway to deep connection and presence. Maggie is Co-Founder and board member of Yoga Mendocino, a non profit community organisation.

Many of our beloved ‘heroes’ have left the earth recently, including Gloria Steinem, Wendell Berry and Dolly Parton. The...
09/08/2026

Many of our beloved ‘heroes’ have left the earth recently, including Gloria Steinem, Wendell Berry and Dolly Parton. They all shared many words of wisdom with us. I'm sure some of them will show up in my future 'epistles'. Today I’m turning to Wendell (novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic and farmer) and some of his words both of, and about, hope.
The chaos and harm that seems to be increasing daily in this country and in other parts of our world can cause many of us a loss of hope, even despair. I've had a number of conversations with friends recently talking about how much the state of the world affects our moods, often giving us a sense of a ‘short fuse’. There may be additional causes of worry in our personal lives but my sense is that smaller concerns in our daily lives can trigger anxiety or anger more easily because we are carrying that burden of existential dread. There is even something called ‘Mean World Syndrome’, caused by chronic exposure to negative news and media, which trains your brain to remain in a constant state of alert regarding global events!
So, perhaps more than ever, we need a sense of hope and encouragement. It seems essential to follow Wendell’s good counsel to take care of ourselves, each other and our world and to notice ‘small human acts of compassion, acts of care, work flowerlike in selfless loveliness.’ May your yoga and meditation practice bring you back to the moment, reconnecting you to ‘the ground under your feet’. May we all be able to find moments of inner peace, to ‘be still and listen’, illuminated by what Wendell Berry calls ‘the light that is within you’. I hope that you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more inspiring quotes and yoga class details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio)

Joanna Macy said, “In times of turmoil and danger, gratitude helps to steady and ground us. It brings us into presence, ...
09/01/2026

Joanna Macy said, “In times of turmoil and danger, gratitude helps to steady and ground us. It brings us into presence, and our full presence is perhaps the best offering we can make to our world.”
In the midst of it all I’m feeling grateful for the first rain of the season here last night.In northern California we don’t expect any rain for a number of months over the summer but in my homeland that means drought. There, and in other parts of the European continent, it’s been a summer of successive heatwaves, scorching temperatures and bone-dry conditions with rain only arriving in many areas at the end of August. This week’s poet reminds us that we can embrace thanksgiving in every season of the year and of life. I cannot be reminded too often to express my appreciation for all that is around me, even and perhaps especially when it may seem that life is too hard to bear. For Ross Gay gratitude contains both the spontaneous joy of being alive and the hovering certainty of death and difficulty. He acknowledges sorrow and distress but guides us toward joy and wonder, choosing gratitude over despair.
The poem echoes the well-known words of Meister Eckhart a 14th century German Catholic priest, philosopher and mystic, “If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough”. May our yoga and meditation practice encourage us to turn to acceptance and even appreciation for all that we experience, the grief and the delight, the garden in summer, and the garden in winter.
I hope that you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more inspiring quotes and yoga class details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio)

On Monday Aug 31, Luang Por Pasanno, Ajahn Karunadhammo and Debbie Stamp will be at Three Jewels in Fort Bragg for the m...
08/29/2026

On Monday Aug 31, Luang Por Pasanno, Ajahn Karunadhammo and Debbie Stamp will be at Three Jewels in Fort Bragg for the meal (11:00 am), tea time (5:30 pm), and the evening program (7:00 pm).
It's unusual for all three to visit from the main monastery, Abhayagiri in Redwood Valley. I'm looking forward to their combined wisdom.

I'm posting this earlier than my usual weekly yoga info so that those of you who are planning to take the live classes k...
08/25/2026

I'm posting this earlier than my usual weekly yoga info so that those of you who are planning to take the live classes know that I will NOT be teaching this week, the last week of August.
This past week I have had some kind of bug that has left me tired as well as not wanting to re-kindle the sore throat! Nothing too serious but probably wise to take a break. Also I will be accompanying a friend to a medical appointment out of the area on Tuesday and possibly back rather late.
AND..of course, there is a poem! It’s a very long poem that I hope you will really enjoy in the midst of 'this unbearable tenderness of being alive', 'all’ve it astonishing that we are here'. Link in the comments.
Do read ‘and then go outside and look at that moon’ and ' keep finding reasons to stay soft'
See you in September for our live streamed classes.♥

Last week as I was getting ready for some 'distinguished guests' visiting at the weekend, my sister and I talked about h...
08/18/2026

Last week as I was getting ready for some 'distinguished guests' visiting at the weekend, my sister and I talked about how easily we can be concerned about our homes being just right for visitors. Perhaps we imagine that they might judge us for all the imperfections and see them as a reflection of who we are! After that conversation, Pam sent me Donna Ashworth's poem. It's one I shared with you a few years ago and hopefully worth repeating. Most of us of course judge our own homes, minds and bodies in a way that is far more critical than what we bring to our friends and family. May the quotes and poem this week remind each of us to ‘be ready’ to notice and welcome any moments of peace, joy or beauty.
I look forward to our yoga time together, inviting joy, such a ‘distinguished guest’, to ’slither through the cracks’ of our yoga practice and our 'imperfect lives'. I hope that you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more inspiring quotes and yoga class details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio)

How do we stay present to this world? How do we both ‘not turn away’ as the poet Rumi wrote, open our hearts more, turn ...
08/11/2026

How do we stay present to this world? How do we both ‘not turn away’ as the poet Rumi wrote, open our hearts more, turn always to love and take care of ourselves? I know this is a question I often ask in some way in these weekly reflections. We each have our own ways of titrating what we take in, our own responses. My heart and mind feel assaulted daily by the news of cruelty, corruption as well as the silencing of many voices of truth. I know I am not alone in this.
Meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg says 'only love is big enough to hold all the pain of this world.' I certainly couldn’t express the invitation “to love as if the world depends on it’ any more clearly than this week's poem. Can you still, “race up to the world as if you were a puppy, adoring and unjaded” ? Certainly my partner’s puppy Button does exactly that, as does her 4-year-old granddaughter. They remain “ridiculously courageous in love”!
May our yoga and meditation practice encourage an open heart in the midst of it all.I hope that you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more inspiring quotes and yoga class details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio)

Meditation teacher Sharon Salzburg says,"Kindness is at the core of what it means to be alive." Would you agree? This i...
08/04/2026

Meditation teacher Sharon Salzburg says,"Kindness is at the core of what it means to be alive." Would you agree? This is perhaps another version of the Dalai Lama’s famous quote, ‘My religion is kindness’.
Sharon Salzberg’s writing reminded me of this week’s poem and I confess to plagiarizing some of her wise words today! Even though it’s a human tendency to almost exclusively remember what we’ve done wrong (as Rick Hanson says,“The mind is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones.”), we can consciously shift our attention to include the good within us. This is not meant to deny what’s wrong or regrettable, but if we only think about our mistakes, we become demoralized, drained and lose resilience. If we can recognize the good, we’re inspired to do more of it.
There is so much difficult news and sadness in our world. Don’t we need even more inner strength as a deep wellspring in the face of it all, ‘a shelter of kindness’? Sharon tells us that it is entirely natural to want to be happy and that this is nothing to be ashamed of; it is not a form of selfishness. The problem is not the urge itself but the confusion about how and where we might find that elusive ‘happiness’, as well as mistakenly perhaps seeing personal joy or contentment as somehow separate from that of the rest of humanity.
May our yoga and meditation practice offer us this more personal ‘welcome’, an inner sanctuary midst all of life’s challenges, ‘a quiet patch’ where we can breathe, rest and refuel, encouraging us to return to kindness towards ourselves and others.I hope that you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more inspiring quotes and yoga class details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio)

I am sure we all feel deeply troubled with concern and compassion for all those suffering in our world today. It may be ...
07/28/2026

I am sure we all feel deeply troubled with concern and compassion for all those suffering in our world today. It may be more important than ever to bring kindness and compassion to ourselves as well as towards others.
Can we include ourselves in the message of Miller Williams' short poem? Do we truly understand that, without a deep sense of our own worthiness, accepting ourselves with all our human flaws, we cannot be fully present and engaged in (and for) the world with an open heart? Thomas Merton said that the whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another. So that includes you…and I guess me too!
What and who encourages you to recognise your own self-worth and reteaches you your loveliness (see poem below)? May our yoga and meditation practice offer us rest and breathing space as a kind of ‘self-blessing’, encouraging us to return to kindness towards ourselves.I hope that you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more inspiring quotes and yoga class details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio)

In the culture that I grew up in, as well as the one where I now live, it can be rare to find comforting and life-affirm...
07/21/2026

In the culture that I grew up in, as well as the one where I now live, it can be rare to find comforting and life-affirming ways of thinking and talking about the unavoidable challenges and the impermanent nature of our lives. The Buddhist monk Ajahn Karunadhammo gave a talk here last week about the natural ‘laws’ of life and the inevitability of aging, sickness and death. It was far from a gloomy perspective, strangely uplifting in its honest acceptance of how things are. At one point he quoted Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, “I am not OK, you are not OK, and that’s OK!”
Ah, how important to remember that and perhaps especially in challenging and heart breaking times. As I age I have many friends who are unwell, and we are all witnessing so much injustice, aggression and divisiveness in addition to the ordinary ups and downs of human existence. Learning to find peace, growth and even joy and gratitude midst our most painful moments can be an incredible and worthwhile act of courage and resilience. Pema Chodron suggest that we ‘come back to square one, just the minimum bare bones. Relaxing with the present moment, relaxing with hopelessness, relaxing with death, not resisting the fact that things end, that things pass, that things have no lasting substance that everything is changing all the time.”
May we open to moments of ease and of gratitude in our yoga and meditation practices and midst whatever we may find challenging in our lives and may we all sense ‘the music in our bones’. I hope that you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30am pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email with more inspiring quotes and yoga class details (links and passwords are also in my IG bio)
#

Last week I wrote about being a part of the whole in a spiritual sense of belonging to the grand communion, the dust th...
07/14/2026

Last week I wrote about being a part of the whole in a spiritual sense of belonging to the grand communion, the dust that dances in the light with all other dust. My reflections continue with thoughts about how we belong to each other. As john a. powell says,“Belongingness entails an unwavering commitment to not simply tolerating and respecting difference, but to ensuring that all people are welcome and feel that they belong.”
We are each our own galaxy in a world of galaxies, interlocking, experiencing life together. Your kindness doesn't end with who receives it. It works its way into their orbit through their hands, their words, their work.
Belonging also comes from feeling part of a community, connected to others, feeling accepted and recognized. Yet it seems that throughout history there has been a human tendency to believe that belonging requires us to separate our own kind in some way, to protect our own family, tribe, community against those that we see as different or that don't quite fit our views. There is certainly so much ‘othering’ and divisiveness in our world these days. We can feel a sense of truly belonging whatever the circumstances but I think that most of us thrive where there is a sense of welcome and recognition. I’m sure we all long for a society that acknowledges the inherent dignity, humanity, and equal worth of all people."Today, if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” Mother Teresa
I searched for a poem that speaks about belonging to each other but did not find one that really fits here! This week’s poem instead considers the importance of our sense of belonging moving with us throughout the inevitable flow of changes that life brings, ‘for you are the motion of your journey’. May our yoga and meditation practices encourage a sense of belonging as a rising flame in the mysterious river of life’s journey. I hope that you can join us for this week's virtual live-stream yoga classes on Zoom,Tuesday 4:30pm pst and Wednesday 9:30 pst. Let me know if you wish to receive my weekly email .(links and passwords are also in my IG bio)

Address

Ukiah, CA

Opening Hours

Tuesday 4:30pm - 5:30pm
Wednesday 9:30pm - 10:30pm

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Maggie Norton Yoga posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category