Sadhana starts tomorrow: here’s the first day’s practice
I’ll be laying out my clothes tonight, hanging them on the hook in the bathroom in reverse order of putting them on. I’ll set my alarm clock, and then, if tradition holds, wake myself up three or four times during the night. It’s Sadhana preparation. Wouldn’t have it any other way. This year’s practice is […]
Morning yoga practice: if it’s so important, why is it so hard to do?
Google “images for important and urgent” and you will be rewarded with an unbelievable 3,200,000 results, many of them featuring the four quadrants made famous by Stephen Covey in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. On the off chance that you’ve been living under a rock, or shun self-improvement books on principle, here are […]
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 […]
When it comes to yoga practice, how much is enough?
First let’s agree that the day will never come when you’ve spent enough time practicing friendliness, compassion, joy and equanimity, and can just put them aside until tomorrow. For that part of a yoga practice, “never enough” is a given. But even in asana practice, there’s no possibility of doing it all. You can’t practice […]
Cat Yoga, Chair News, and Yes, a new Five-Minute Yoga Challenge
In truth, the kitten in Cat Yoga isn’t doing yoga at all. Unlike Santra, the Finnish yoga bear, Shorty the cat is just being a kitten, and someone with a good grasp of yoga-speak, (and a less firm grip on Sanskrit spelling), has put his antics into a video. I pass it on in part […]
Seven Strategies to Loosen Tight Hips
As far as I know, it’s entirely accidental that this collection of strategies for gaining greater range of movement in your hips turns out to be seven in number. I didn’t plan to use the most potent magical number after three, or to subtly allude to the seven heavenly virtues, the seven deadly sins, the […]