MANILA, Philippines?After 24 years of tending to an import business and raising two children, I have opted to spend the rest of my life in simple abundance.

It all came together quite naturally?my intense training in yoga asanas for more than two decades, and the inherent love I have for the natural world.

This meant leaving Boston, Massachusetts, and moving to a remote little town in New Hampshire, to a cottage which has been my weekend home of 19 years.

Long Pond, Lempster, is a bit of paradise on earth. Here I am surrounded by crystal-clear waters of a spring-fed lake, ancient granite boulders, 500 acres of protected old forests, magnificent sunrises and sunsets and clear blue skies that light up with the galaxies at night.

Spaces and silences

Long walks in the woods keep my senses stimulated. And even as I go about my house chores?digging in the gardens, moving rocks for walkways and borders, feeding logs to my wood stove when the weather gets chilly?I am in constant focus on the rhythm of my breath: inhaling softly as I give in to gravity, and exhaling vigorously, defying gravity, to move with grace and conserve my energy.

In my daily yoga, I explore the spaces and silences in and around me, to find the strength and balance in my yoga asanas, without using any muscular effort. It is a method I learned from Angela Farmer in Greece back in the early ?80s. Now my teachers are the animals, especially my black panther-like cat Tyson. I am in constant awe of his many beautiful movements?agile and light, yet so powerfully grounded.

Island haven

From January to April, I conduct annual yoga workshops in El Nido, Palawan, Philippines, where I live four months in a year. I have built a yoga home overlooking the sea. My cousin and co-owner Lory Tangonan and I dream of hosting an island haven for artists in need of rejuvenation.

?Talikwas? (Filipino for ?spilling out?), as we have come to call our home, embodies the philosophy behind my lifetime process of integrated healing: it is only in emptying out, in releasing old habits of physical and mental patterns, that we can begin to be renewed.

This is what yoga is all about?not so much about learning the asanas (poses) but more about learning who we really are. And once again, the natural beauty of nature is the setting for inner healing.

Osmosis

The rhythms and sensations find their way by osmosis to my yoga classes. In the organic airy yoga hall, the sultry winds come swooping down from the limestone cliffs. All around are bird sounds, monkeys bickering, squirrels running up the trees with their bushy tails, and the incessant soul-stirring tu-koooo from the neighborly gecko.

?Lie on your backs, with your eyes closed.? I start off the emptying-out process.

?Feel the caress of the ocean breeze on your skin and let that relax you. You are floating in the warm waters. Drop every muscle, every bone and every cell of your back body to the ocean floor. With your next slow and easy exhalation, you will feel a floating rising sensation in your chest, filling up like the wind. Feel the connection between your back belly dropping, and your chest rising like the morning mist. Soften the back of the heart and, from this strong point, spread open your wings like the great eagle. Awaken the back body, and feel the tingling in your spine as it swirls around in all directions...?

I look forward to the weeklong workshops in El Nido this coming March 2008. By the time I am settled in Palawan, away from New Hampshire, I fervently welcome the shift from lake to ocean, from winter to tropical heat.

The raw beauty and wildness of El Nido ground the soft yet powerful yoga I practice. Undoing comes easily. The mind gets quiet and becomes receptive to self-healing.

E-mail the author at talikwas@gmail.com or visit www.talikwas.com