6 Yoga Poses to Expand Your Heart
Have you ever been in a yoga class when someone (maybe you) experienced a spontaneous emotional event? Sometimes, especially in intensive workshop situations, a new physical opening may trigger an emotional opening. Certain yoga poses can create a sense of
Discovering the Living Body: A Yoga Teacher's Revolutionary Insight on Fascia
What if everything you thought you knew about your body was too static? In a thought-provoking conversation, renowned yoga teacher Paul Grilley challenges one of yoga's most persistent misconceptions: that certain styles of yoga are uniquely suited to working with
Yoga Practice Tips: Why Listening to Your Body Might Not Be Enough
If you practice yoga, you’ve probably heard the entreaty, “Listen to your body.” It’s good, sound advice. When you embark on any physical practice, it’s important to know and respect your body’s limits. Those limits can change over time, of
Teaching Yoga: The Wisdom of Not Knowing
This morning a student asked me what should have been a simple question: What should I be feeling in this position? A minute or so later, I’d given her the best non-answer I could. Why a non-answer? First, I’m not
Pranayama: Expand Your Life Energy
Breathing is the process of moving air into and out of the lungs to facilitate gas exchange with the internal environment, mostly by bringing in oxygen and flushing out carbon dioxide. Pranayama in yoga is the regulation of the breath
Nyasas: Turn Your Body into a Temple
Mudras are specific hand gestures that have symbolic, energetic, and healing qualities. Most mudras are static gestures. But you can also make them dynamic when the actual act of moving into a mudra is infused with symbolism. How to Practice Yoga’s
The Benefits of Twists: 5 Great Twisting Yoga Postures for a More Resilient Low Back
Twists don’t have to tie you up in knots! In this blog post, we review the anatomy of twisting yoga postures and discuss the dangers that people fear from twists (and the scientific literature around that danger). We also suggest
Yoga for Back Pain: Are Your Tech Devices Ruining Your Posture?
Tech devices are a great blessing of modern life, but increasing evidence shows they can also wreak havoc on your body and lead to serious back pain issues. Physical therapist and yoga teacher Stefanie Foster offers insights into the damaging
The Fascia Connection: Tom Myers on How Postural Habits Get Locked into Our Fascial System
Can our postural habits damage our wellbeing and even health over the long term? In this article, Anatomy Trains author Tom Myers charts how postural habits slowly become lodged in our fascial system and structure. Once this happens, we get
Icicles and Gratitude
"There is a knowing that by purely being, I know how to become." ~ Lana Reed The last day I was at my self-initiated (not so silent) retreat at Springwater Center, I awoke in time to practice yoga in the
Eight Practical Tips to Make Yoga Home Practice Really Happen
In researching my book Evolving Your Yoga: Ten Principles for Enlightened Practice several years ago, I interviewed 25 longtime teachers to find out how their yoga practice has evolved and deepened over time. While the specifics of their answers differed, they
Axial Extension for Better Posture- Learning to Lengthen the Torso in Forward Bends
One of the keys to maintaining an upright posture is not just to "stand up straight" or doing reps to strengthen your back extensors and stretches for tight pecs. Fundamentally, improving posture is something that happens from the inside out.
Judith Hanson Lasater: Keys to Enriching Your Yoga Practice - Understanding the Five Kleshas
Our home yoga practice is the most valuable form for practice says renowned yoga teacher and author Judith Hanson Lasater in this interview. To enrich our practice, it is important to understand the five common obstacles to practice, or the
Restorative Yoga: A Sequence to Build and Maintain Resilience
Life is hard. Each day work, family, finances, and so much more can take a toll on both our physical and mental well-being. That's where rejuvenating and restorative yoga poses come in. Yet during these most trying times, we need
Struggle with Tight Hamstrings? Take This 60 Second Hamstring Test to See How You Stack Up
Struggling with tight hammies? You are not alone. Tight hamstrings affect a surprising number of people - as many as 7 out of 10 by some research estimates. And unless we regularly stretch our hamstrings, the problem only tends to