To meditate or not to meditate? How meditation works
When new students arrive in a yoga class they often have little awareness of their bodies. So it is our job as yoga teachers to gradually help them figure out[…]
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Does yoga have its own approach to meditation?
At a holiday party couple of weeks ago I was having a conversation with a lovely young woman who turned out to be a certified meditation teacher. After hearing that[…]
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Five koshas: How to gain access to hidden inner layers
The movie Cake follows the main character Clair (played by Jennifer Aniston) as she struggles with chronic pain that was a result of a bad car accident. Yet despite time[…]
Reignite your home yoga practice
At a recent yoga event I got to talking with one of the prominent yoga teachers and we somehow got on a subject of personal yoga practice. “Nowadays it is[…]
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Awaken your inner force: Fierce mama yoga practice
When I was growing up, my mom never cared for action flicks or end-of-the-world type movies. She used to say: “I would not be the one to survive an alien[…]
Discharge excess mental energy: Sturdy as a mountain yoga practice
When I lived in Portland, Oregon, on a clear day you could see Mt Hood from different parts of the city. I could go about my business teaching yoga, running[…]
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Three stages of working with chakras
At the beginning of my yoga studies many years ago I was fascinated by a yoga book that gave a list of yoga poses for each chakra. It seemed so[…]
How to use chakras to map out your functional and dysfunctional beliefs
Pop culture has a way of taking over some potent concepts and then diluting and trivializing them. It happened to the yoga tradition as a whole, and it happens to[…]
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Do your beliefs hold you back or propel you forward?
I saw this movie a decade or so ago called “What the bleep do we know?!” It gave a simple and down-to-earth introduction to the confusing world of quantum physics.[…]
Deeper is not always better: a closer look at backbends and lateral bends
I don’t like to play favorites with my yoga poses, but I must say that I am a big fan of backbends, especially Cobra pose and its many permutations. I[…]
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How to work with chronic pain on the level of intellectual mind
According to Walter Freeman, one of the great neuroscientists, “All the brain can know it knows from inside itself.” This means that every thought and sensation you experience is your[…]
Look at your current challenge from a different angle: Fresh perspectives yoga practice
There was a farmer whose horse ran away. That evening the neighbors gathered to commiserate with him since this was such bad luck. He said, “May be.” The next day[…]
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Four ways to change your emotional responses: types of cognitive reappraisal
In Pixar’s movie Inside Out there is a scene where two characters travel on a “train of thought” and accidentally bump into two boxes spilling their contents on the floor.[…]
Pratipaksha bhavana – the most powerful tool of mind control and emotional regulation
I used to have a rather complicated relationship with my paternal grandmother. When I was little she had a looming presence in my life, often shaming me for the smallest[…]
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Let it go – doorway to serenity yoga practice
“I just wanted to stay there forever – this pause feels so comfortable and peaceful,” – said one of my students after a yoga practice designed around Patanjali’s yoga sutra[…]
How to overcome mental obstacles (part 2)
I met my teacher Gary Kraftsow at an event called “Yoga and Meditation Conference” in Seattle in 2004. Even then I was slightly puzzled by the title of the event[…]
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How to overcome mental obstacles (part 1)
According to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras there are nine potential mental roadblocks that you can bump up against. When that happens, you might experience physical pain, anguish, agitation and disturbed breathing.[…]
Are your pain and anxiety pointing to an internal roadblock?
We tend to think of physical pain, depression and anxiety as stand-alone issues. If you experience physical pain, you usually try to figure out where the damage is and what[…]
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New solution to an old problem practice
Is there a challenge that you are dealing with right now, or a problem that you are trying to solve? If so, your natural inclination is probably to focus on[…]
Does the way you see the world limit you or empower you? Four steps to change your thinking patterns
What do you think is the most effective yogic tool for working with the intellectual mind? Is it meditation? Nope. Meditation helps you to observe and focus the mind, but[…]
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