Becoming conscious of how we move, hold, and express our bodies is an essential step in lifelong health, and in workplace safety. Observing the tendencies in your body to tighten, tense, or hold awkward positions is an exercise that takes minimal time and energy, but has a maximum payoff. To improve your posture, enhance your performance, and decrease your stress level at work,..read more
The most natural purification is one that is done with respect for the bodies' natural processes. Colonics, intense cleansing/fasting, nasal irrigations and other powerful cleansing tools are best used with the help of a trained professional. Ayurvedic doctors, naturopaths and Chinese medical practitioners can be helpful allies in your quest for detoxification and cleansing..read more
I have received a few emails in the past few months from students and teachers on the subject of the feet, and thought we might begin a discussion of this important part of our anatomy. The feet are the most distant part of our anatomy to where we usually "reside" in our minds, and thus they can often be relegated to a position of little importance. That is, until they begi..read more
Students have occasionally wondered, in making the transition from a more restorative Hatha Yoga practice to a more dynamic Vinyasa Flow practice, why do we have to do so many Downward Dogs and Chaturangas and Upward Dogs…why is the practice so physically challenging and how is that form of Yoga valuable over a more relaxing and “stretch-focused” practice? The answer i..read more
I regularly field questions from students and Core Yoga instructors about the causes of that uncomfortable bulk around the waist, and the abdominal bloating that most of us experience from time to time, and wanted to address in a few points here.
Firstly, excess abdominal fat and abdominal bloating are two different things. When we carry excess ab..read more
The majority of students and teachers that I work with report that they spend at least a few hours a day on a computer. The result of frequent and long-term computer use is that the body begins to form itself around the task of typing. This means that your shoulders hunch forward, your chin pokes out, and your upper back begins to round. This kind of posture can cause a lot ..read more
Following our discussion last month about the current conversation in the yoga industry (and in the broader community) about the incidence of Yoga injuries, I have done a bit of research on whether or not there truly is an increase in Yoga injuries and, if so, how we can be safer teachers and students in our practice.
Are Yoga Injuries on t..read more
This month I have read several articles about how more and more athletes are practicing Yoga, not just to relax and unwind after a tough training session, but also for the many fitness and sport-specific training benefits. Athletes of all levels and from a wide variety of sports are using both group and private yoga sessions to increase flexibility, strength, endurance and agil..read more
Ayurveda – Yoga’s ‘sister science’ of holistic health care – recommends several self-care techniques that not only bring great health, vitality and purification to the body, but also offer an opportunity for compassionate self-care that can bring healing and connection to body, mind and spirit. In a series of Self Care articles, I will share a few of these simpl..read more
Ayurveda – Yoga’s ‘sister science’ of holistic medicine and preventative health care describes three Doshas or three constitutional types that each of us have in some combination. The Doshas are a system of classification that help us to understand our essential makeup which greatly influences our physical body, the function of our mind, our behav..read more
Ayurveda – Yoga’s ‘sister science’ of holistic medicine and preventative health care describes three Doshas or three constitutional types that each of us have in some combination. The Doshas are a system of classification that help us to understand our essential makeup which greatly influences our physical body, the function of our mind, our beha..read more
Continuing on our discussion of Ayurveda – Yoga’s ‘sister science’ of holistic medicine and preventative health care this month we will discuss the Kapha Dosha. Kapha is the Dosha (constitution) made up of the elements of Earth and Water. We all have Kapha within us to certain degrees. Kapha gives us stability, security and groundedness. It lubricates the joints, s..read more