Do you want to feel strong? Do you want to feel vital?

In middle school, during our studies of various microorganisms, my biology teacher once told us:…

Are you a Velcro-kind of person or a nonstick kind?

Are you feeling stressed? Are you worried that stress would compromise your health? According to…

Breathe to Live: Yoga for Energy and Vitality

When something unexpected or challenging happens in your life, you might feel as if you…

What kind of rest do you need? Part 2

In viniyoga, we often say that the remedy we choose should match the type of…

What kind of rest do you need? Part 1

What kind of tired are you? ­– asks Saundra Dalton-Smith in her book Sacred Rest: Recover…

Keeping your “body budget” balanced: How to avoid depleting your resources

I love it when Eastern and Western approaches to health and wellness overlap, even if…

Morning Rituals: Four steps to creating a morning you love

How do you start your morning? In a given week, do you create space to…

The three-pronged approach to healing: Befriending the sensations in our bodies

I used to have a student who would quickly bounce his knee up and down…

Breath control options in yoga

There are many ways to control breath in our yoga practice. I put them into…

Fundamentals of working with breath

If you want to learn to play Mozart on a piano, you need to learn…

The magic powers of Kapalbhati: Are they real?

Kapalbhati (Skull Shining) is one of those interesting techniques that can either help you or…

Purify your body: Six yogic cleansing practices (shat kriyas)

I did my first 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training course at Mt Madonna Center in Santa…

Three yoga models that describe different aspects of prana flow

The Western medical tradition has adopted a “zoom-in” approach to our health and wellness. It…

What is prana and why we need to harness it

In yoga, breathing is closely linked with the concept of prana, or life force. Prana…

Hum your way to health: How to naturally increase nitric oxide in your body

With COVID-19 still wreaking havoc around the world, the race for treatment is on. Different…

To hold or not to hold? Is breath holding detrimental or beneficial to your body?

Do you hold your breath while typing, emailing, or texting? Apparently, this is such a…

How to combine breath and movement in your yoga practice

Time and again, I see new yoga students being confused about whether to do a…

The mechanics of exhalation and the preferred way to exhale in yoga

Normal unconscious exhalation is a passive process, as one simply relaxes the muscles that were…

What is your optimal breathing rate and why it matters

Many of your body’s physiological processes have a rhythmic nature: your heartbeat, blood pressure, digestive…

Gas exchange within the body: Don’t rush to get rid of carbon dioxide

Two years ago, my family and I went to the beautiful San Juan Islands. The…