Squat on: deepen Malasana with straps at your hip creases
Yes, my fascination with hip creases continues, and only grows deeper. I just came back from a short road trip. When I got out of the car after several hours of sitting, I noticed that while I was a little stiff in my hips, I didn’t have the pain I used to get, deep in […]
Arm balance: a love story continued
Hanging out in Victoria: Sukhasana in the ropes.I spent last week at the Iyengar Yoga Centre of Victoria at the Intermediate Teacher Training Intensive. It’s a workshop for Iyengar teachers preparing for the third, fourth and fifth levels of certification. The elf in the photo is Shirley Daventry-French, 78, senior teacher and founder of the […]
Bones for Life: there is something you can do about osteoporosis
Early in 2006, I was diagnosed with osteoporosis. Not osteopenia, which is a weakening of the bones, but full-fledged osteoporosis. At first I felt betrayed. I had been practicing yoga for almost 20 years. Yoga is supposed to be protective, to build bones through weight bearing. Downward dog, headstands, shoulder stands, handstands – I had […]
Can yoga prevent dementia?
B.K.S. Iyengar performing the final stage of Ganda Bherandasana I certainly hope so, since genetics suggest that I’m going to be staring dementia straight in the eye. Except, of course, it doesn’t stare back. Instead it frets, repeatedly asking, “what day is it?” “what time is it?” and “where are we?” One place we are […]
Arm balance, a love story
I first saw someone do full arm balance in a vacant lot in East Vancouver in 1962 when I was earning a Girl Guide badge that required me to build a fire and boil water in a billycan to make tea. Mrs. Jones, the troop leader, was there to witness the fire building and water […]
Can we control how we age?
Look in the mirror and the answer seems to be “yes and no.” We are bound to look older. That’s a non-choice between wrinkles, saggy jaw lines and drooping eyelids, and the wind tunnel effect of skin pulled tight by surgery. But with a nod to genetics and a deep bow to degenerative diseases that […]