Can you do flow yoga while sitting still?
On the face of it, this is a dumb question. Flow yoga, as generally defined, covers a wide range of forms all of which link poses in close to continuous movement. Some, like Ashtanga, follow a set sequence of poses, with a sun salutation between each pose. Others have no set sequence, and may or […]
You Don’t Miss Your Water Til the Tap Runs Dry
While I was away on holidays, I had an elemental experience, not with yoga, but with an actual element: water. We go, most years, to a cabin, beside a lake, on an island. There’s a comfortable bed, cold running water, a propane fridge and a propane stove, with an oven. The toilet is an outhouse. […]
Where Do You Find Your Inner Teacher?
I went to Saskatoon at the end of May, to the Iyengar Yoga Association of Canada’s conference and AGM. What I found there, along with the aforementioned magpies, gophers and lilacs, was friendly people, good conversation, and something more: another piece of the Inner Teacher puzzle. The Inner Teacher is the innate intelligence that, among […]
Miscalculations: no post this week, but I did see a magpie
I’m writing this from the green and leafy University of Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon, where the student union pub is called the Louis, for Louis Riel, and you can stay in residences called Athabasca Hall, and Qu’Appelle Hall. I’m here for the Iyengar Yoga Association of Canada’s annual conference and AGM, which begins Thursday. So far […]
Resolve to be Content: Five-Minute Yoga Challenge
It’s a new year. The clean, precise energy of January has replaced December’s animal urge to fight the darkness by drinking sparkling things and eating After Eight mints. Now we’re in the season of setting goals. For years, my yoga goals went like this: I will practice every day. I will do headstand in the […]
Why a skeleton could make a good yogic Christmas present, not that I’m hinting
As a yogi I practice, as best I can, non-grasping (aparigraha) and contentment (santosha), neither of which is helpful come late November and early December when we begin the first stage of our family Christmas, which is to make a wish list. It’s been years since I’ve known what I wanted with anything like the […]