Explore one yoga instructor and anthropologist’s suggestions for breath practices that connect us with animal wisdom. ♠ Practice #1: Fish Wisdom—Breath Retention You don’t need to breathe like a fish or keep an aquarium to connect with a fish. Become a fish. Baptize yourself into nature. Visit a...
Read More• • • Feeling depleted and unfulfilled in your relationships? It may be time to explore a restorative yoga practice. In today’s world, busyness is an expert seducer: Step into its rhythm, and your thoughts and your days will always be occupied. It’s an appealing promise for...
Read More• • • Try these four tips the next time your hips need more love. Your hips are the source of most of your ability to move around in the world. These joints are comprised of many different muscle and bone structures, including the glutes, the inner...
Read More• • • Yoga can be a powerful aid to people experiencing aches and swelling in the body. Try these five yoga poses to lower inflammation. ↓ Have you ever had swelling in your leg, knees, or ankles? How about excruciating joint pain? Stiffness all over? I have...
Read MorePregnancy naturally causes anxiety—then tack on a pandemic. Writer Julie Peters shares her journey and how working on stress-management skills helps. You’re facing the big question: when (and whether) to have a baby? Then, you’re in the right situation, you feel ready, everyone is on board...
Read More♠ Strengthen, support, and stretch out your hips. ⇓ Every time I ask for requests in my yoga classes, someone mentions hip openers. Lots of people go to yoga simply because their hips brought them there! Our hips are designed to move in a lot of different directions,...
Read More♠ While “six-pack abs” are touted as the ideal, a soft and flexible belly is, by design, more useful. We often get the message in our culture that our bellies should be small and hard. But part of a belly’s job is to be soft and wide,...
Read MoreComfort and safety can only take you so far. Go deeper with yin yoga. “When we feel resentment because the room is too cold, we could meet the cold and feel its iciness and its bite. When we want to complain about the rain, we could...
Read MoreA more intense yoga practice can give you a little more sweat, more strengthening, and a sense of empowerment. ◊ One of the pieces of feedback I often hear from my yoga students is that the class was “exactly what they needed.” I am reasonably sure that’s...
Read More◊ Yoga nidra affects the brain by shifting brain waves into a beneficial state of regeneration and repair. Both yoga gurus and neuroscientists agree that yoga nidra meditation can significantly improve the quality of our sleep, our ability to cope with stress, and promote mental health. If you...
Read More↓ Five Yoga Poses to Release Hip Pain Emotions and Restore Motion Yoga teachers often refer to the pelvis as “the junk drawer of emotions.” Discover your hip pain emotions and how to get unstuck. Yoga teachers often refer to the pelvis as “the junk drawer of emotions.”...
Read MoreUjjayi Pranayam means Breath of the Warrior. When we do this breath, it can make us feel like that—calm, focused, fierce warriors on our mats. It’s often taught as a whispering sound at the back of the throat, so it can also sound like Darth...
Read MoreIn addition to diet and medicine, yoga can help treat the overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine. Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is when good bacteria, which is supposed to be in one part of the intestines, migrates up to the wrong place (the small...
Read More↓ A flush of blood and energy to the face in an inversion pose is just one way yoga can help clear skin. Acne is a common problem that can run the gamut from an occasional blemish to regular full-blown flares. It’s common enough for teenagers when...
Read MoreHave a holiday hangover? Try these yoga poses to help detox and rebalance your body. The New Year is a popular time to think about detox—to cleanse all that holiday indulgence and start the new calendar year out fresh. The big secret about detoxification, though, is...
Read More9 Tips for Balancing the Pitta Dosha Cooling asanas and breathing through your rolled tongue are just two ways to keep calm. Many years ago, on a hot summer day, I was at a yoga studio in downtown Manhattan. Towards the end of the practice, the yoga...
Read More↓ Yin yoga works the connective tissue that wraps around our muscles and carries messages from the brain. By practicing yin yoga, we may be able to reprogram some of the physical patterns causing chronic pain. Yin is a style of yoga that involves staying in supported...
Read More[caption id="attachment_17022" align="aligncenter" width="740"] The Spiritual Meaning of Hip Pain[/caption] The hips are connected to the energy center that governs creativity. The spiritual meaning of hip pain can also be tied to old memories, traumas, and uncomfortable emotions like shame. Pain in the hips can occur in...
Read More↓ While “six-pack abs” are touted as the ideal, a soft and flexible belly is, by design, more useful. We often get the message in our culture that our bellies should be small and hard. But part of a belly’s job is to be soft and wide,...
Read More↓ The use of essential oils for yoga can assist in setting intentions for your practice and further connecting mind and body. Learn which oils are best for your needs. When you pair essential oils with your yoga practice and intention-setting, this physical sense anchors your positive...
Read MoreTry doing this sequence daily, mixing yoga and pilates—especially during pregnancy. You may feel relief within as little as a week or less. I’ve been doing yoga a long time, and I’ve also had lower back problems for a long time. It took me a while...
Read More↓ Sciatica can be debilitating. Preventing sciatica requires some life changes, but it’s worth it. I have an admission—my posture is awful. Like lots of people, I’m working from home, hunched over my computer for hours on end, ping-ponging from chair to couch to bed, trying to...
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Yoga and mental health are inextricably intertwined. Yoga helps promote mindfulness, healing from trauma, and boosts creativity. Yoga has been thoroughly studied for its mental health benefits and has been proven to help with anxiety, depression, and many other mental health disorders. Even without a specific...
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↓ Hurting? Yoga for arthritis can soothe your joints and diminish pain. There are over 100 different types of arthritis, but all involve some version of joint pain, stiffness, and/or swelling, and almost all can benefit from a yoga for arthritis practice. You may think a yoga practice involves...
Read More↓ Sore, achy feet affect your mood, not to mention cause pain to radiate to other areas of the body. Find relief for your feet by practicing yoga for sore feet. Sore, achy feet can affect everything from hip pain to lower back pain to posture issues—not to mention...
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