Aruni Nan Futuronsky

Legacy Faculty

Aruni Nan Futuronsky, a Kripalu Yoga teacher and life coach, has been teaching in a variety of venues for nearly 50 years, and has been on the Kripalu faculty for more than 30 of those. She is author of Recovering My Voice: A Memoir of Chaos, Spirituality, and Hope; Already Home: Stories of a Seeker; and Not Over Yet: Simple Strategies to Struggle Less and Savor More. Aruni developed the Kripalu coaching methodology based in presence and right action. Her experience is rooted in a long-term commitment to a Twelve-Step program and the practice of living yoga.

Learn more about this presenter’s work:

Upcoming Programs

  • September 26–29, 2024

Compassion in Action, from the Inside Out


Resources

  • The Yoga of Change

    Simple yet profound elements from the practice of yoga on the mat can assist us in initiating change, says Aruni Nan Futuronsky.

  • What Buzz the Bird Taught Me About Prayer

    Kripalu Legacy Faculty Aruni Nan Futuronsky reflects on the near loss of her cockatiel companion, and how it shaped her relationship with prayer.

  • How Kripalu’s Core Values Can Guide Us Through Challenging Times

    The teachings we have been given, the lifestyle we have experienced, the compassion we have shared, are exactly what we need to find our way through this wild time of upheaval and re-creation.

  • Finding Home: A Path of the Heart

    Thirty years ago, Aruni Nan Futuronsky was a radical lesbian feminist who believed that matriarchy was the only hope for saving the planet. But something deeper than her political fury drew her to Kripalu.

  • A Christmas Memory

    Aruni Nan Futuronsky reflects on Christmases past, and the creation of new traditions.

  • The Grounding Power of Gratitude

    The meditative anchor of gratitude can ground us effortlessly in the moment. Here are four ways to practice gratitude.

  • The Power of Pause

    Yogic philosophy teaches us that there is inherent balance between the body, the mind, and the spirit. This unity is our birthright. Unfortunately, as we ...

  • Where Yoga and Recovery Meet

    The parallels between these two systems of healing—recovery and yoga—merge and dance, complementing each other, writes Kripalu faculty Aruni Nan Futuronsky.

  • Living from the Inside Out

    I look in the mirror. I meet my gaze. A soft hum of criticism begins in my brain. Then John Lennon’s poignant song, “Look at Me,” comes into my mind: Look at...

  • Summer's End as a Doorway to Transition

    Labor Day opens the door into so much change, and our bodies and nutritional needs change, too, as Ayurveda reminds us.

  • The Balancing Act

    The inherent balance of body, mind, and spirit is our birthright, our natural default, and is always available to us. And what a blessing that is! Consider...

  • Already Home

    Aruni Nan Futuronsky, a Kripalu faculty member for more than 30 years, reflects on the place where finds her most nourishing "flow state."

  • How to Savor the Holidays Mindfully

    Ah, the holidays hover! And inherent in them is the potential for indulgence and imbalance, along with celebration and joy.

  • Outliving Your Cravings

    Aruni Nan Futuronsky reflects on the $64,000 question: “What am I really hungry for?”

  • Five Simple Ways to Open Your Heart

    It’s easy to lose connection with our feelings. In this fast-paced world, with all the responsibilities that we carry, we are often exhausted by the day’s...

  • A Simple Practice to Strengthen Connection

    Here is a simple and elegant system of conscious communication called co-listening.

  • What We Can Do Every Day to Care for Ourselves and Our Planet

    How do we take care of ourselves, our families, and our communities, while working toward the stewardship of our earth? We must begin by taking care of ourselves.

  • Body Image and Self-Acceptance

    For how many years have I wanted my body to be different? As I sit here in the middle of my sixth-and-a-half decade, I look back and remember … Refusing to...

  • To Everything There Is a Season

    Change brings both heartbreak and renewal. The fluidity of the seasons models that change and reflects those transitions.

  • The Gift of Abundance

    Do you find yourself focusing on what isn’t happening in your life? Perhaps you find yourself stressed out about something that hasn’t even taken place yet,...

  • Four Practices for Navigating in Times of Change

    The times truly are a’changin’ once more, and Bob Dylan’s words are as relevant now as they were when he first wrote them.

  • Why Being Mean Doesn’t Work

    Being mean to yourself never works, says Aruni Nan Futuronsky. For sustainable, lasting change, practice self-awareness and self-compassion.

  • Kripalu Life Coaching: The Right Use of Will

    The Kripalu approach to life coaching is based on the idea that sustainable change happens through the alchemy of mindfulness and the right use of will.

  • The Practice of Being Present

    Yoga teaches us how to reestablish the innate balance that exists between body, mind, and spirit. When our minds get out of balance, they overextend,...

  • The Inner Quest Intensive: A Kripalu Journey

    Kripalu’s very first program, the Inner Quest Intensive is rooted in Swami Kripalu’s core teaching of self-observation without judgment as the key to changing the brain, the body, and behavior.

  • The Kripalu Approach: Activating Compassion and Will to Create Small, Powerful Changes

    The Kripalu Approach model has two primary pillars: radical compassion and the right use of will. Practiced together, they can create sustainable life change.

  • Practice: An Excerpt from Already Home: Stories of a Seeker

    In this excerpt from her latest book, Aruni—a life coach and 20-year Kripalu faculty member—explores the idea of practice as a conscious experiment in...

  • Falling Off the Mat: Permission to Practice

    Let me simply say that I didn't just fall off the mat. Recently, confronted with life on life’s terms, I plummeted, plunged, and wildly tumbled, losing all...

  • Occupy Yourself

      I'm beside myself with worry. I can see my mother standing at the kitchen sink in our childhood house, her hands immersed in soapsuds, proclaiming this. It...

  • Lucy, a Love Story

    Aruni Nan Futuronsky reflects on the many lessons she received from her dog Lucy Doodle—about living, about leaving, about dying, and about committing to the moment.

  • One Bite at a Time

    It’s Friday morning and I’m on the scale. I weigh myself on Fridays—more frequently than that potentially feeds my obsession with my weight, but anything...

  • Let Your Inner Child Come Out and Play

    Summer and fun go hand-in-hand. The richness of the season gives us permission to open up and to let go, in body, mind, and spirit. So this is the perfect...

  • Compassion in Action, from the Inside Out

    Kripalu's Aruni Nan Futuronsky describes how compassion in action arises from self-care and connection.

  • Articles of Faith

    In this excerpt from her new book Already Home, Kripalu Life Coach Aruni Nan Futuronsky offers guidance for the unknown, reminding us to remember what was and practice the yoga of faith as we face what is to come.

  • Your Holiday Survival Guide: Five Self-Care Tips for the Season of Giving

    Tips for taking the stress out of celebration.

  • Say No to Good Vibes? The Dangers of Spiritual Bypass

    What should those of us in “wellness” communities do to act responsibly? How do we strike a crucial balance between self-care and community care? Writer Lara Tupper seeks wisdom from Kripalu faculty and presenters.

  • What Is Karma Yoga?

    Five longtime Kripalu teachers share stories about what karma yoga—the practice of selfless service—means to them.

  • On Being Gay at Kripalu: A Personal Recollection

    When Stephen Cope arrived at Kripalu in 1989, he had been out for 20 years. Here's what he discovered about being gay in a community founded on the principles of yoga.

  • How to Heal from the Loss of a Pet

    We conveniently forget that we will most likely outlive our pets as we develop deep bonds with these affectionate, innocent creatures.

  • A Vision for the New Year

    New Year's is a time of transition, when we’re teetering on the verge of new opportunities and possibilities. Simultaneously, we’re experiencing the tail...

  • Riding the Waves

    BRFWA, a foundational technique of Kripalu Yoga, is a powerful way to ride the waves of life’s challenges.

  • Simple Strategies to Struggle Less and Savor More

    Aruni Nan Futuronsky, longtime faculty member and life coach at Kripalu, says that the source of our suffering is our resistance to reality. We struggle because we don’t accept life as it is.

  • No Shame

    Acceptance and appreciation are much more powerful catalysts to making positive shifts than shame and guilt.

  • From Doing to Being

    Portland Helmich sets out to unplug for a few days at Kripalu and revel in quiet, self-care, and inner-world exploration.

  • Why Failing Is Good for You

    Whether it’s falling out of a headstand in yoga class, or trying a new recipe that ends up in the garbage, failure is inevitable—and it’s how we learn.

  • The Yoga of Politics

    While we can’t necessarily change others’ perspective, we can work for the causes we support—and then, whatever happens, accept the outcome.

  • Practicing Progress, Not Perfection

    The journey of healthy weight management is one of rebalancing and recommitting to what we’re really hungry for.

  • Karma Yoga: What We Practice, We Become

    Strung together, acts of kindness, particularly selfless acts, can dramatically change us.

  • Resolution Recovery

    Consider reframing resolutions as a mindful experiment: gathering data about our commitments without any judgment of right or wrong, and making realistic change.

  • Stop and Smell the Roses

    In the age of over-busy, what does it mean to make every minute count? A recent op-ed in the New York Times entitled “The ‘Busy’ Trap”—in which writer Tim...

  • Eight Tips for Self-Care During the Holiday Season

    Practicing self-care is particularly important during the holiday season so we can show up at our best.

  • Observing Weight through Witness Consciousness

    Often, a client comes to me wanting to lose weight, plops down in my office, and says, “When I’m good, I eat this, and when I’m bad, I eat that.” This report...

  • How to Get Unstuck and Get Back to Your Practice

    What’s the best way to maintain a new practice or jump-start an old one? “Both mindfulness and right action are essential,” says Kripalu faculty Aruni Nan Futuronsky.

  • Can Having Friends Help Ease Physical Pain?

    Research on the impact of friendship is a powerful reminder that during tough times, it’s important not to go it alone—even if you think you can.

  • Life as a Mandala

    What if life is like a mandala, a circular adventure designed to invite alignment in a larger context and connect us back to center?

  • Five Healthy Living Tips for Achieving Balance

    When it comes to healthy living, self-care is the first step, says Kripalu faculty Aruni Nan Futuronsky.

  • Yoga and Mindfulness for Healthy Weight

    Yoga and mindfulness are powerful tools for weight management, because they cultivate body awareness.

  • Break the Cycle: How Yoga and Meditation Can Help Heal Addiction

    While there are a range of ways that people break the cycle of addiction, the complementary relationship between the Twelve Steps and yoga is a perfect marriage for healing.

  • What, Us Worry? Better than Anyone

    In his new memoir,Monkey Mind, Daniel Smith describes a life spent in near- constant panic. He’d have recurring nightmares about premature death. He’d...

  • Making Critical Conversations More Compassionate

    Wrapping messy but critical conversations in a compassionate approach makes them larger, and offers the opportunity for greater openness and impact.

  • Living in a Shame-Free Body

    This kind of mindful shift in perspective can be a powerful first step in the journey toward a healthy, shame-free body awareness.

  • Stories of Yoga and Recovery

    Research shows that yoga, meditation, and mindfulness are powerful tools for recovery in healing from addiction.

  • Navigating the Darkness: Self-Care and Connection in the Wake of Tragedy

    How can we, as mindful people, make our way through senseless and unimaginable loss?

  • Finding Fellow Travelers on the Journey

    Your fellow travelers are often people you would never know in your actual life, but you meet them on the journey and form strong connections.

  • Five Steps for Taking Yoga Off the Mat

    If you’re human, you’ve probably had this experience: You leave the sanctity of yoga class, and life starts throwing you stressors.

  • Tools for Taking Yoga Off the Mat

    In this Q&A, Aruni Nan Futuronsky, life coach and Kripalu Yoga teacher, answers questions about using yoga philosophy to address the challenges of everyday life.

  • Organic—and Ornery

    A recent study conducted by researchers at Loyola University New Orleans looked at how food related to morality: how and...

  • When to Trust the Still, Small Voice of Intuition

    How do we recognize the voice of intuition? The trick is discerning it from that of our calculating mind.

  • Trusting in Moderation

    Having a self-connecting practice is essential to developing self-acceptance, which can help apply healthy moderation.

  • The Truth About Weight Loss

    Weight loss isn’t just about what to eat and what not to eat. It’s about paying attention to how and why we make our choices.

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