Squeeze a Brick for Strength and Clarity in Your Legs: Five-Minute Yoga Challenge
Every once in a while I read a description of Iyengar yoga that says something on the lines of: “This style of yoga uses props to make the poses easier and more accessible.” Oh no, dear hearts. Indeed, there are times when a cushy bolster, a stack of blankets or a well-placed chip foam block […]
Five-Minute Yoga Challenge: Kitchen Counter Series, part one
This week’s Five-Minute Yoga Challenge is spinal stretch at the kitchen counter. It’s an easy one to tuck into your day – come into the kitchen, put the kettle on, and while the water boils, put your hands down on the counter and step back into spinal stretch. It has a special meaning for me, […]
Lose Your Counterbalance: Five-Minute Yoga Challenge
All of the standing balance poses have a counterbalance – a spot where it’s easy to stay upright because you’ve fallen away from the centre line. Most often it involves the standing leg thighbone, high in the hip socket. Let it drop out to the side, and the balance is easier. The problem is, you’re […]
Find your working place in hamstring Stretches: Five Minute Yoga Challenge
The Five-Minute Yoga Challenge started as a response to two of Gretchen Rubin’s Secrets of Adulthood: “What you do EVERY DAY matters more than what you do ONCE IN A WHILE,” and “By doing a little bit each day, you can get a lot accomplished.” That, in a nutshell, is the philosophy of My Five […]
Sadhana Day Four: forward bends, take two
Sunrise at Devil’s Tower National Monument, Wyoming – not as steep a climb as getting up some morningsOne thing I wanted to accomplish during this sadhana was to reconnect with the joy of early morning practice – and joy it is. For one thing, the nagging little voice that says: “It’s time for practice, better […]
First day of the Sadhana: forward bends
Tomorrow is officially the beginning of summer. It’s also the beginning of the second annual 10-day Summer Sadhana at Yoga on 7th. At 6:15 tomorrow morning, 18 of us will meet at the studio and begin to practice together. We’ll repeat a sequence of forward bends (days 1, 4 and 7), back bends (days 2, […]