Yoga from a teacher's perspective
Posted in home practice, mindfulness, vinyasa, yoga on Feb 28th, 2011
Have you ever practiced yoga in the dark? I’m not aiming for a clever metaphor here. I literally mean in a dark room. Pitch black; where there is a period of time as you transition from light to dark when your vision is temporarily useless. Real darkness.
Posted in home practice, mindfulness, yoga, yoga sequence on Feb 25th, 2011
Most of us start out on our yoga journey by taking group classes. This is a fantastic way to learn yoga. You will be in the hands of a trained professional who can teach safe alignment and keep you injury free. At some point, after you’ve absorbed the fundamentals, you might develop an interest in [...]
Posted in back bends, bhekasana, eka pada rajakapotasana, garudasana, gomukhasana, lunge, pigeon, running, vinyasa, virasana, yoga, yoga poses, yoga sequence on Feb 23rd, 2011
At the start of each class, I ask students if there is a pose or body part that they would like to work on. One of the most frequent requests is for hip openers. It’s in the top 10 along with neck and shoulders. Hmmm…all places we commonly carry stress. The anatomy of the hip [...]
Posted in mindfulness, vinyasa, yoga, yoga poses on Feb 17th, 2011
What would you think if I called you a poser? Isn’t everyone who practices yoga a poser? Or are we? I guess that depends on how you define poser. I’m thinking of it in 2 ways: a person who aligns their body into yoga poses a person who acts like something they aren’t From my [...]
Posted in back bends, inversions, viparita karani, yoga, yoga poses, yoga sequence on Feb 14th, 2011
Sequencing a yoga class is akin to choreographing a dance. Like a dance, a yoga class should have a sense of flow and feel coherent. At the same time, it should target a variety of postures to open energy channels throughout the body. There are hundreds of basic yoga poses. Add to to those, the [...]
What is Om and why would you want chant it? I was first introduced to the nuances of Om during my yoga teacher training. Beryl Bender Birch was a guest speaker and she gave a great explanation of the mechanics of chanting Om. She explained that it is actually 3 verbal syllables and 1 non-verbal: [...]
Posted in anxiety, emotions, mindfulness, yoga on Feb 8th, 2011
A student came up to me recently and said: “After today’s class, I thought, Yes! This is why I come to yoga.” He was in his yogic happy place and attributed this to the class. Acknowledging that this is not the case with every class, we mused for a minute or two about what might [...]
Posted in yoga, yoga products on Feb 4th, 2011
This past summer, I noticed thumb pain during my yoga practice and while gardening (my other job). Even with good alignment, poses like up-dog and wheel were starting to get painful. Being a type-A leaning human, my first instinct was to maintain status quo and see if it cleared up on its own. Being a [...]