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
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,
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
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,
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,
Book Review-Empowered Aging: Everyday Yoga Practices for Bone Health, Strength, and Balance
Ellen Saltonstall’s latest offering, Empowered Aging: Everyday Yoga Practices for Bone Health, Strength, and Balance, is an invaluable resource for those seeking to cultivate strength, maintain balance, and enjoy overall well-being as they navigate the aging process. This comprehensive guide
4 Ways Yoga Helps with Medical Conditions: Adjunct to Western Medicine
In our posts How Yoga Helps with Medical Conditions: Prevention and How Yoga Helps Medical Conditions: Symptom Improvement, we described yoga’s powerful role in preventing medical conditions, and for improving symptoms and sometimes even curing conditions. Today, we will look at an equally
Change Your Perspective of Pelvic Tilting: How the Transversus Abdominis Can Help
"Tuck your tailbone under" or "lengthen your tailbone" have long been among the most common alignment instructions in yoga. But lately, this instruction has taken a lot of flak, because the instruction can result in people flattening their lumbar curve,
Breathe Like a Starfish: A Practice for Navel Radiation
Our limbs include our arms, legs, tailbones, and heads. Way back at a time few of us remember—in utero—all our nutrients came to us through our navels and then radiated out to all our limbs. Through the umbilical cord, we
Warrior I Pose: 5 Strengthening Variations
Warrior I Pose (Virabhadrasana I) is an excellent pose for strengthening your whole back body, from the base of your skull all the way to the heel of your back leg. Plus, your front leg gets a different kind of