The hours before sunrise are known as the ambrosial hours. They are quiet, dark, and laden with potential. They are sweet with the promise of intimacy with the infinite. While there are benefits to practice at any and all times of day, yogis consider this time particularly potent. Perhaps because it is difficult to find such stillness elsewhere; perhaps because there is power in attuning yourself to the frequency of each dawning day.

The reality of COVID-19 has changed the way we live, work, and interact with each other. So many of us are experiencing an entirely new way of being as we adjust to completing our daily routines at home. But that doesn’t mean we have to forgo the practices that preserve our happiness, productivity, or sanity. In fact, we need them now more than ever.

The city of Seoul is, at first glance, a bewildering composite of extremes. Once experienced, however, it is apparent that Asia’s most eccentric city is truly defined by its dualities. Here in Korea’s capital, a city of over 10 million, the ancient is contrasted with the contemporary in a burst of neon and steel, paper and wood.

In an age of overconsumption, many artists are using the products of our excess to make powerful statements about waste. Others simply find poetry in transforming the discarded into something beautiful. Whatever the motivation, the results of their work are often breathtaking and always thought-provoking.