What will you find if you turn within? Yogic approach to meditation
One of the things I missed the most during the past year was travel. I really enjoy a complete change of scenery that puts distance between you and your usual[…]
One of the things I missed the most during the past year was travel. I really enjoy a complete change of scenery that puts distance between you and your usual[…]
A yoga student said to me once: “I have all the tools I need to deal with my current issue, but I don’t use them. I know the kinds of[…]
According to the yoga tradition, there are three qualities, or three energetic forces, that are always present (to various degrees) in all things and beings in the world. Those qualities[…]
I love it when Eastern and Western approaches to health and wellness overlap, even if they speak entirely different languages. For example, the Ayurvedic tradition is based on the concept[…]
I recently read an article about some major employers closing down their operations for weeks at a time to make sure that all their employees could get a break. The[…]
How’s your yoga practice going this summer? Do you have an opportunity to luxuriate in your practice, or does it fall by the wayside of other activities? If it’s the[…]
Last week we discussed how to set long-term goals for your work with yoga students. Once the student (with the teacher’s help) gains clarity on what they wish to accomplish[…]
When we work with yoga students one-on-one, we always begin by identifying each student’s unique needs. The first question we always ask our new yoga students is, “What do you[…]
Yoga teachers and therapists often handle student information that is considered private and therefore bear certain responsibilities under the HIPAA. It is the personal responsibility of every yoga teacher and[…]
About ten years ago, I ran a wellness center that housed different types of practitioners, including yoga teachers, massage therapists, acupuncturists, and movement therapists. One day a laptop belonging to[…]
After a year of keeping our interaction circles and our travel routes intentionally small, we are now starting to venture out into the world, only to discover that our bodies[…]
We live in a busy world. The householder stage of life is weighted with responsibilities at work and home and being a citizen of the world. Wonderful, but complicating, is[…]
I will never forget the description of the experience my yoga teacher Gary Kraftsow shared with us about his recovery from brain surgery many years ago. As I remember it,[…]
Our digestive systems are in charge of breaking down food into its basic components, which are then absorbed into the blood and transported throughout the entire body. Food is the[…]
How do you start your morning? In a given week, do you create space to begin your day with intention, peace of mind and a connection to something bigger? Or[…]
Humans have used body movements and hand gestures to tell stories and facilitate particular psychological states since the beginning of time. For example, Hawaiian hula dance was meant to promote[…]
Nyasa is a symbolic gesture of placing the mantra onto one’s body so that the body becomes the seat or temple of the Deity. One of the most potent and[…]
Mudras are specific hand gestures that are meant to have symbolic, energetic and healing qualities. Most mudras are static gestures, but you can also make them dynamic when the actual[…]
In our home yoga practice and in our work with our students, we always seek to make the yoga practice personal and relevant to the practitioner. This can only happen[…]
Last week we discussed how you can organize an entire practice around a mudra, if you give your mudra a leading role in your yoga practice. A mudra can also[…]