Warrior I Pose: The Peaceful Warrior
In yoga, the Warrior poses are some of the practice’s foundational poses. The foundation of the Eight Limbs of Yoga is ahimsa (non-violence), or as Alistair Shearer translates it, “dynamic peacefulness.” We might well interpret “warrior” differently from our usual
Does Yoga Help You Adapt Better to Stress? Charting Yoga's Effects on Heart Rate Variability
Heart rate variability is increasingly acknowledged as a health variable that can offer insights into how healthy you are and how well you deal with stress. Learn more about this important biomarker and preliminary studies on how it is affected by yoga
Air Element: Balance Your Prana
My last post on the five great elements explored fire. In this post, we’ll explore the air element and how it can help us enlighten up. What is air? It’s mostly gas. It’s Earth’s atmosphere, and it’s all around us. Air
Misalignment in Yoga Postures: Understanding the Five Movements of the Spine
Olga Kabel is a certified yoga therapist and prolific writer on all things yoga. She is the founder and managing director of SequenceWiz.org, a web-based yoga sequence builder that assists yoga teachers and yoga therapists in creating and organizing yoga
Mudra: The Power in Your Hands
In September of 2014, my wife and I toured the Asian Hall at the British Museum in London. The presence of nearly every statue exhibiting one or more mudras confirmed my suspicion: We in the West have overlooked a powerful
Book Review: How To Teach Yoga To Military Veterans
The United States has engaged in military conflict for most of the 21st century. As a result, an increasing number of male and female armed service members have faced considerable stress. For some, this has resulted in trauma, and mental,
Judith Hanson Lasater: The Greatest Gift of Yoga Asana
All I remember of my first asana (posture) class is the ceiling. Between movements, we would be instructed to lie down on our mat and rest. I do not remember very much about what we did, but I do remember
Yoga for Women's Health - Restoring Hormonal Balance
Lynn Jensen is a renowned author and yoga teacher, specializing in Yoga for Fertility, and Yoga for Healthy Hormones. She is the founder of the Seattle-based Yoga for Fertility program and she has helped more than two thousand women and
Donna Farhi: Healing the Great Mind-Body Disconnect of Modern Times
I’ve been working with people in the context of Yoga practice for more than thirty years, and what I’m noticing is that there seems to be an even greater disconnection from the body than when I began practicing. This may
4 Ways Yoga Helps Your Immune System
One of the effective ways you can foster healthy aging is to use yoga to support your immune system. An immune system that is functioning well prevents illness and promotes healing by fighting off common infections, healing wounds, and scavenging early
Yoga Anatomy: Release Your Tight Psoas Muscles with Clinical Somatics
The psoas muscle, formally called the psoas major, is a very important core muscle. The psoas attaches the lumbar vertebrae to the lesser trochanter, near the head of the femur. These muscles are often grouped together with the iliacus muscles,
Dr. Ray Long: Stabilizing the Shoulders in Downward Dog and Upward Hands Poses
Today’s post will look at the scapular motion on the ribcage and the role of the lower third of the trapezius in drawing the shoulders away from the neck. This motion is called scapular depression, and it is frequently used in yoga,
Got Foot Pain? Try These Yoga Practices
The feet are an incredibly complex part of the body. There are 52 bones in the feet, each with approximately 33 joints, each of which can move in multiple directions. The possible number of distortions of the foot is enormous,
A New Look at Alignment in Yoga: Finding Continuity to Balance Effort & Ease
World-renowned yoga teacher, B.K.S. Iyengar, who is often credited for this work bringing yoga to the West is particularly well known in the yoga world for his emphasis on alignment. The purpose of asana practice, he noted, is to create
Healthy Heart: How Yoga Can Help Prevent Heart Disease
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in both men and women in the United States. It is an all-encompassing term for heart and blood vessel disease, including heart attack, stroke, and high blood pressure. But the good news