Find your inspiration: “Plugging into the lineage” yoga practice
I love this expression my teacher uses when describing a way to connect to the yoga tradition – plugging in. When you plug an electric appliance into an outlet, the[…]
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Extend your yoga beyond the physical: How to design an integrative practice
Some time ago one of my students reported to me: “I was watching this movie last night about an assassin who was doing yoga to stay in shape.” What’s wrong[…]
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Why therapeutic yoga belongs in the counseling sessions
A female client comes in regarding depression and anxiety concerns. She has been to three different therapists, seeking help. Looking distraught and overwhelmed, she states that she came to me[…]
How to organize back bends in a yoga sequence
A number of years ago a friend of mine went to a new yoga class. At one point they did a Camel pose and my friend couldn’t quite reach her[…]
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Letting go of worry, finding inner peace
Few weeks ago my grandmother passed away. She was 87 and died peacefully in her sleep. When it is my time to go, I hope I will be in a[…]
An Ode to Warrior
There are a handful of poses that I choose to do in almost every yoga practice, and Virabhadrasana 1 (Warrior 1) is one of them. This pose holds a special[…]
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Rebirth of Asana – the real work of Yoga during pregnancy
When I begin a new course for pregnant women, I tell them that they are, in fact, in a normal Yoga class. But, since Yoga needs to be adapted to[…]
How to bend back without hurting your back
When I was little, I did gymnastics, and deep back bends like this one were easy for me. It didn’t happen because I was particularly accomplished; my spine just went[…]
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Cobra and Co: Strengthen your back and clear your head
Few months ago I read an article in The New Yorker about the abuse of pain medication to treat lower back pain. I kept thinking: “Man, so many of those[…]
Why do we bend back in yoga?
If you follow any famous yogis on Instagram, you will inevitably see many beautiful, glamorous images of backbends in your feed. There is something about backbends that makes the practitioner[…]
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Running to My Mat: How Yoga Helped Me Face Injury
I was once a runner. I started small – 30 seconds at a time, eagerly watching the time tick by on the kitchen timer I carried in my hand, waiting[…]
How to take your yoga practice to the next level
When we think about taking our yoga practice “to the next level”, it often conjures images of deeper stretches, more challenging poses, longer practice, etc. These are all fine ideas,[…]
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Yoga for gardening
I live in Michigan, and spring had a pretty slow start here. As soon as the snow melted, I could feel a strong drive to spend time outside and get[…]
Should we take the body to the maximum bend possible in every direction possible?
A few months ago one of the teachers in my yoga teachers Facebook group posed a question: would it be a good idea to go straight from Camel pose to[…]
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Yoga for climbers is not about building arm strength – it’s about developing body awareness
Few years ago two Chilean friends, Andrés and Rodrigo, who are great climbers and regularly practice yoga, visited me in Germany. Because of the wet weather we couldn’t climb outside,[…]
Twists vs forward bends as compensation postures – who wins?
Most yoga teachers are aware of the idea of compensation (pratikriya, which literally means counteracting). It basically means that in the course of the practice we challenge the body, breath,[…]
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How to prepare the body and mind for meditation
My first serious yoga teacher training was a residential one, where I lived in a yoga community for about a month focusing on nothing but yoga. It was fun for[…]
Is it safe to begin your yoga practice with seated poses?
When I was on vacation few weeks ago, I did my first SUP yoga session (yoga on a stand up paddle board). Practicing yoga to the gentle rhythm of the[…]
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Going Propless
I realize this may cause a scandal, but it’s time to come clean. For the past 10 years I have practiced yoga propless. When it started, I was dealing with[…]
How to avoid overstretching in forward bends
For the past couple of weeks we’ve been talking about Forward bends and how to use them to stretch the posterior (back) structures of the body (along the Superficial Back[…]
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