Five-Minute Yoga Challenge: find a time of day to watch your breath
I’ve come to believe that forming good habits would be a cinch if “first thing in the morning” could happen more than once a day. Nothing lets us start a daily practice more easily than resolving to do it first thing. We’re fresh from sleep. The world has yet to place legitimate demands on us. […]
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 […]
Practice Buddies: my secret weapon against sloth
Since last Thursday, when I announced my holiday break, I’ve learned that some readers thought it was time off from yoga in general. Oh dear, no! I’m only taking time away from teaching. We all go on practicing, don’t we? Perhaps we’re a little less diligent when the parties and holiday errands come on full […]
Five-Minute Yoga Challenge: Kitchen Counter, part two
Last week’s Five-Minute Yoga Challenge could actually be accomplished in 90 seconds. This week’s challenge adds the remaining three minutes, in the shape of Utthita Trikonasana, (triangle pose). Triangle pose at the counter is a wonderful variation in several ways: • It entirely removes the possibility of touching the floor by your front leg with […]
Rooting: a yoga lesson from the garden
Like a gardener I believe what goes down must come up. –Lynwood L. Giacomini A gardener may believe that what goes down must come up, but a yogi believes that what goes down, and how decisively it goes down, determines what comes up, and how high. Connections between gardening and yoga are, it seems, as […]
Are you prepared for a Yoga Emergency?
If you’ve ever wanted an inside look at a yoga teacher’s practice, you won’t want to miss Sandy Blaine’s account, titled How Last Week Went. Sandy has been teaching for 20 years in the Bay area. She studies with Donald Moyer and has had two books published by Rodmell Press, one on Yoga for Computer […]