Dana Gornall is the co-founder of The Tattooed Buddha and mom of three crazy kids and a dog.She has been writing stories since she could put words into sentences, writing books and poems from early on and is still completely in love with language of all kinds. The desire to connect with people on a deeper level has always been the catalyst for writing and still is every single time she sits down at the computer to bleed her heart onto the page. A sign language interpreter and lover of language, she finds bits of enlightenment in all of those connections. When not working or writing, you can find her lying outside in the dark night gazing up at the millions of stars or dancing in the kitchen with her children. She has written for elephant journal, Yoga International, Rebelle Society and Meet Mindful and Be You Media.
The Time I Walked on Fire.
By Dana Gornall I have been a fan of "The Office" for a couple of years now. Yes, I realize I am late to the game---thank Netflix. One character I identify with is Pam. She's quiet yet dependable, has an unexpected sense of humor, is...
The Reason I Can Totally Relate to the Buddha’s Parents
By Dana Gornall I have often said that being a parent is one of the hardest things I do. My kids are 15, 17 and 21, and it sill holds true. For some reason you think it gets easier as they get older and in some ways it does. You don't need to take them to the...
I Have Many Books, Mala Bracelets and a Yoga Mat, but Does that Make Me More Spiritual?
By Dana Gornall I have a love affair with office supplies. I'm not sure when it all began, really, but for quite a long time now I have felt my heart skip a beat every time I find myself in any store aisle containing Post-it notes, pens, file folders,...
I’m Losing My Namaste So Maybe It’s Time to Kill the Buddha
By Dana Gornall Scaling the pale, gold-flecked linoleum covered steps to my basement, I walk partially on tiptoe. The floor is cold against my bare feet, and I tend to walk on tiptoe anyway---a habit I've retained from my ballet days, eons ago. I'm...
Looking for Dharma in the Weeds
By Dana Gornall I'm not very skilled in growing things. I've been known to neglect houseplants, leaving them anorexic and straggly; bowing over dry soil, reaching to get a patch of sunlight as its leaves slowly curl and the tips turn brown. It's not on purpose....
The Balance of Practicing Hygge & Buddhism: Drops of Enlightenment in the Purple Rain
By Dana Gornall I recently came across a term that seems to be trending in the U.S., hygge. Hygge is a Danish word that is used to describe those delicate sensations we feel while watching the sun set, or when we sit down with an almost too warm, yet...
Vegan in the Middle
By Dana Gornall Becoming vegan was pretty easy for me. I wouldn't have thought so. If someone had asked me before I made that choice---a year earlier or perhaps five years earlier---I would have said I couldn't do it. Growing up as picky eater whose main...
An Ordinary Mortal: Trying to be Wonder Mom while Raising Teens
By Dana Gornall It's no secret. Anyone who knows me knows I am a bit of a Wonder Woman fan. As a kid growing up in the late 70s and early 80s, I would sit on my family's brown, cracked vinyl couch in my nightgown, donning the blue plastic Wonder Woman bracelets with a...
The Day this Yogi Mom Lost Her Sh*t
By Dana Gornall I am not the type of person to lose my temper. Ask anyone who knows me. I am fairly easy-going, somewhat free-spirited to the point of being a little flighty, and I rarely yell at or punish my kids unless they do something pretty major. I let...
What Yoga Isn’t (& What it Is)
By Dana Gornall It was a typical Monday morning. I was running around taking care of the last minute things I need to be ready for work: some sort of food to eat, check; water bottle/coffee mug, check; book, check; key card for entry into work, check; phone, check. I...
The Problem with Magical Thinking
By Dana Gornall As a kid, I was mildly effected by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). My family jokes about this now at holidays when we are gathered around, telling funny stories about when my brothers and I were kids. Growing up in the late 70s and early...
The Protester’s Guide to the Eightfold Path
By Dana Gornall Voices seem to be growing more heated everyday. Millions of women (and men) are preparing to march all over the United States in solidarity, and it's right now that taking a moment before we speak, write, comment or act can make all the...
Not a Crunchy Yoga Girl
By Dana Gornall I was talking with a friend recently and he described someone as being a crunchy yoga girl. The term rolled around in my brain a little and images of lean, tan women dressed in spaghetti strap tanks with OM signs or a lotus tattooed on the back of...
The Christmas Eve that was Different.
By Dana Gornall It is Christmas Eve. Most years we take the kids to the children's mass at 4:00. As tradition, we always climb the balcony in our coats, sit up above the rest of the parishioners and peer down below at all the goings on. The choir sits to our...
The Somewhat Vegan, Semi-Practicing, Occasionally Meditating Yogi.
By Dana Gornall I have been vegan for almost four years. January 1st is my vegananniversary and I have never been happier that I chose this lifestyle. There was just something that felt right about it. I can still clearly remember driving down the highway after...