What’s the difference between movement and action, and why does it matter?
In everyday life, there’s not much call to distinguish between movement and action. Sure, a man of action sounds impressive, and a man of movement not so much. But trust me, you can live a full and happy life without ever giving it another moment’s thought. In yoga, on the other hand, being clear on […]
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 […]
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 […]
Withdraw your eyes, quiet your mind: Five-Minute Yoga Challenge
As a species, we humans are always on the lookout. Sight dominates all of our other senses and is largely responsible for the way we perceive the world – that aggregate of impressions which we tellingly call our “point of view. As long as we’re gathering visual information, our brains are busy. So it stands […]
5 good reasons to let a timer be your practice buddy
My timer, and constant practice companionI love my timer. It’s no longer handsome. I dropped it once, and the face came off and had to be glued back on, and the glue shows. But that’s just the aging face of a friend, who is no less lovable for a few wrinkles. It has the excellent […]
Why Yoga Builds Your Inner Strength
Feeling strong with biceps the size of sparrow’s kneecaps Ever walk out of a chest-opening yoga class feeling like you could take on the world – in the most friendly way possible, of course? You might think that feeling is just an obvious physical result of what you’ve been doing. If you expand your chest, you […]