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 […]
Five Minute Yoga Challenge: press your outer arches down to lift your inner ankles
Words are important, and what we say when we teach matters. So kudos to yoga teacher and blogger Michelle Myhre, who wrote a thoughtful essay this week in Elephant Journal on cleaning up the language of yoga teaching by getting rid of verbal filler. I’m so much in agreement that I’m considering putting an elastic […]
Five-Minute Yoga Challenge: build your inner strength in half arm balance
Photographer Alan Turkis calls this “Joy in the Cascades” Full arm balance holds a special place in the great yogic enterprise of becoming and remaining conscious in our bodies. In part, that’s because standing on your hands opens your armpits like almost nothing else, and as B.K.S. Iyengar has famously said: “If you keep your […]
Five-Minute Yoga Challenge: disarm practice resistance with small steps – and Viparita Karani
“Building a practice has been impossible for me,” Susan, a new student, wrote in an email. “There is a part of me that is fighting yoga – it’s so weird.” Not weird at all, really. Undertaking a yoga practice will change your life. You can let your practice grow gradually – in fact it seems to […]
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 […]
Why I’m taking a month off teaching
By this time next week I will have taught my last yoga class for 2010. The new session starts on Sunday, January 9, and in between, except for a few private classes, I don’t plan to tell anyone how to move their thighbones, align their feet or activate their shoulder blades. Why take a break? […]