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 […]
How to keep going when you’re practicing on a plateau
When you first take up yoga, progress is swift. Downward dog moves from shockingly hard to challenging, and then to perceptibly less so. Hamstrings begin to stretch, standing poses start to feel familiar, and, with each class, there are new poses to try, and new sensations to experience. Progress comes by leaps and bounds. But […]
Why Hitting the Wall is a Good Idea
Among beginning yoga students, one of the most difficult props to acquire is a yoga wall, wide enough to spread your arms out wide without hitting anything, and blank. Most walls are already in use. Couches rest against them, pictures hang from them. And if your living space is small, the need to sit down […]
Drop a Block To Tune Your Triangle Pose
It’s a happy coincidence that just as the triangle is the first figure of plane geometry, Utthita Trikonasana (extended triangle pose) is often the first place where many of us feel the inner geometry of yoga – the understanding that as we align ourselves physically, we also somehow bring our minds and emotions into alignment […]
10 tips for building a home yoga practice
If I could write a letter to myself at 39, I’d probably make it anonymous, so as not to freak myself out by revealing a rupture in the space/time continuum. But what would I say to that brand new yogi with her faltering home practice? After 23 years of practice and 10 years of teaching, […]