The ability to be still and enjoy life is a sacred, sacred thing, but we spend much of our lives absorbed in the bustling busyness of day-to-day existence. Life flies by while we are busy pursuing goals we think we must meet before we can really begin to enjoy life. As we reach our prime … Continued
Yoga is more popular than ever, but as yoga has become a household word, has it also become a mile wide and an inch deep? Are we missing out on the essence of yoga, even as the practice has become a household word? What can we do to capture the deepest aspects of yoga and … Continued
The yogic action of Jalandhara Bandha, while it is designed for the practice of breath retention during pranayama, contains vital insights into the subtleties of how we hold our head, and how that in turn affects our breathing, muscle tone, and even the functioning of our nervous system. How we hold our head isn’t just … Continued
The original texts of hatha yoga cite the bandhas as being crucial to having a fruitful yoga practice. The bandhas are simple yet powerful muscular actions in the area of the pelvic floor (mula bandha), lower abdominals (uddiyana bandha), head, neck and shoulders (jalandhara bandha). Their original significance centered around pranayama and the movement of … Continued
With 76.4 million boomers entering the last half of their lives, healthy aging is becoming an increasingly popular buzz word. But when we talk about healthy aging and how yoga helps perhaps facilitate a more healthy aging process, we usually only think in terms of about preventing aches and pains and prolonging the years we … Continued
Join Tom Myers, author of Anatomy Trains, for an online course that will give you new insights into the interconnectedness of the body as it relates to your yoga practice. While traditional anatomy is static, Anatomy Trains shows you the body as an interconnected whole. We do not move via individual muscles as traditional anatomy has it, … Continued
Many yoga students have posture imbalances or habitual holding patterns, which affect alignment in their practice of yoga asanas. In this course, yoga teacher and physical therapist Chrys Kub shows how to develop awareness of the common muscle imbalances that create postural dysfunctions and how to harness the power of asana to improve posture over … Continued
Everything in nature is made up of five basic elements: earth, water, fire, air, and space, according to Ayurveda and yoga philosophy. The five elements are viewed not just as external forces, but vital forces of life interweaving with our physical, mental, and emotional being. Knowledge of the five elements, or tattwas, as they pertain … Continued
High blood pressure remains a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure and kidney disease in Western societies. One in three Americans suffers from hypertension, according to the CDC, and only about half of those have it under control. Millions of others, including many who turn up in yoga classes, have dangerously high … Continued
“Death Begins in the Colon” said Dr. Bernard Jensen, D.C., also known as the father of holistic health. The accumulation of toxic debris in the body due to inadequate digestion and elimination, he suggested, produces poisons that slowly, over time can kill us. Interestingly, what Dr. Jensen pointed out some 70 years ago , for … Continued
Why do issues like prostate problems (for men), prolapse (for women), incontinence, and pelvic pain disorders become increasingly common as we get older? And, is there anything we can do to prevent or slow this process? In this course, yoga teacher and yoga therapist Leslie Howard will discuss common male and female pelvic floor disorders … Continued
Kinesiology is the study of human movement. To teach with confidence and efficacy, it’s of course important to know basic kinesiological principles, such as the names, origins and insertions of the skeletal muscles. But this alone is not nearly enough. It is perhaps more important to understand how the muscles work together so that the … Continued