Every yoga practice must have purpose, order and meaning
Do you hold your breath while typing, emailing or texting? Apparently, this is such a common occurrence, that Linda Stone, a writer and speaker, had coined a phrase “screen apnea”,[…]
Time and time again I see new yoga students being confused about whether to do a certain movement on the inhale or the exhale. “How does it go?” – they[…]
The normal unconscious exhalation is a passive process, as one simply relaxes the muscles that were engaged on the inhale. However, in our yoga practice we purposefully augment the natural[…]
Many of your body’s physiological processes have a rhythmic nature: your heartbeat, blood pressure, digestive peristalsis, breathing rate and many others proceed in pulsating (or wave-like) fashion. Each system has[…]
Two years ago, my family and I went to the beautiful San Juan Islands. The San Juan Islands are an archipelago of about 170 islands in the Pacific Northwest between[…]
In college I majored in Russian literature, and I remember being fascinated by the sheer number of heroines in the Russian classics who would faint at the slightest sign of[…]
Your diaphragm is the primary muscle of respiration; it contracts like any other muscle and can be controlled voluntarily. It is important for your diaphragm to maintain tonicity, so that[…]
A diaphragm is the primary muscle of inhalation; it is responsible for about 75% of the air movement in normal breathing at rest (external intercostal muscles are responsible for the[…]
The last time I went to visit my mom, she asked me to show her some yoga moves because she wasn’t feeling too well. Once we got down to the[…]
In 2004 a documentary called Supersize me made quite a splash. In it, an independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock committed to eating at McDonalds for 30 days and documenting his experience.[…]
Over the past several months the subject of breathing had become particularly charged. We keep hearing about breathing everywhere: the phrase ‘I can’t breathe’ became a symbol of police brutality,[…]
Over two decades of practicing and teaching yoga, I discovered that certain movement combinations work every time to release tension in specific body areas, and simple yoga practices based on[…]
Yesterday morning I was trying to do my pranayama practice, as my 9-year old was bouncing on furniture around me, my puppy was chasing his tail knocking over everything in[…]
Lately, I find myself juggling more projects and responsibilities than ever, which often means that I usually don’t have enough energy or brain power left to be creative and ambitious in[…]
For the last several weeks, my neighborhood has been having Happy Hour get-togethers on Thursday evenings to check in and make sure everybody was doing OK. We keep safe distance[…]
What is your favorite TV show right now? What is at stake for the main character of that show in every episode? What kind of tragic outcome might befall on[…]
Have you ever seen one of those late-night infomercials with the host screaming at the screen that you should “Buy now!” that this is an “Exclusive offer for the next[…]
A few years ago, I received an email from an avid blog reader who was considering a private yoga session with me. She was struggling with back pain and was[…]
Several years ago, I went to an ophthalmologist’s office for a vision check. At one point the doctor said with slight irritation: “Your cornea can get scarred if you wear[…]
How’s your transition to teaching yoga online going? Are you finding that you have enough of a student pool to keep you busy, or do you need to find more?[…]
