YOGA
“If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into you.”
Enjoy These Musings and Insights on Yoga and Life
Releasing and Refocusing
As we end 2020 and look to 2021, our minds naturally start to move towards the future.
However, we can’t successfully move forward until we release the past.
Have you taken time to stop and recognize all of the myriad of things you’ve accomplished this year?
Have you made time to celebrate your successes and reflect back on how far you’ve come?
Here are two videos to help you refocus your mind and thoughts to help you release the past and embrace what is to come in the year ahead!
Benefits of Uddiyana Bandha Kriya - The "Abdominal Lock"
The practice of Uddiyana Bandha Kriya increases blood circulation throughout your body and brain. It stimulates the vagus nerve by putting a little pressure on it, which strengthens and tones your parasympathetic response, which creates a calming and balancing effect on our nervous system. Through this practice, your brain becomes healthier and you will experience more clarity in your thinking.
This bandha also massages the internal organs and on a more subtle level, it stimulates the inner agni, or digestive fire, which resides around your navel. By strengthening this fire you will experience better digestion and assimilation, and it also helps to purify the subtle energy channels, or nadis. READ MORE…
A Meditation To Reduce Fear and Anxiety
We often devote enormous amounts of energy to suppressing our feelings of anxiety, worry and fear.
Unfotunately, this only makes our fears worse! We often push these uncomfortable emotions to the dark corners of our minds, or hide it in areas of our body. Often we make ourselves overly busy to avoid having to sit with anxiety or uncertainty. However, fear thrives in the darkness of ignorance, so although these strategies may work in the short term, when we bury our negative feelings, they only tend to grow bigger. Alternatively, when we become attentive to ourselves, and shine the light of awareness on our feelings of fear, we can observe how it immediately effects us, and how it also changes. With a little time and steady practice we can watch our worries dissolve and disappear altogether.
Have you ever wondered what might happen if you took the time to consciously explore your fears and anxiety?
Read More…
How To Open Your Heart
Tomorrow’s full moon is in the sign of Aries, but it is conjunct with Chiron, an asteroid that orbits our solar system, known to Astrologers as “the wounded healer.”
The asteroid called Chiron entered the sign of Aries back in February of 2019 and will remain in this sign until April 2027! Chiron, in Greek Mythology, is a healer, teacher and mentor. Whereas Aries is the ultimate warrior.
So this is a time to open your heart and ask yourself, “What do I want to fight for that needs healing within myself and within the world?” We are entering a period of deep healing and transformation. It’s time to let go of these old patterns that effect your present reality, face your fears, and confront what’s holding you back. Embrace the power that is you-here-now.
The healer resides within… Read More
5 Ways To Reduce Stress & Anxiety
As we transition out of our slow Summer pace into a new kind of speedy September mode, you might be feeling a little anxious at the prospect of sending the kids back to school, heading back into the office, or trying to create some kind of “normal” feeling into the weeks ahead. Especially during these stressful times, it is important to take care of yourself. Here are 5 simple things you can do to decrease any feelings of overwhelm as you make this transition… READ MORE
Walking Meditation
This kind of meditation practice can be a very helpful way to feel grounded and connected to the earth, while bring more awareness and presence into both your body and mind. Each mindful breath, each mindful step, reminds us that we are alive on this beautiful planet…
Learn how to do this practice… read more.
A Conversation on Yoga and Motherhood
Are you are passionate about practicing yoga, but struggling to balance the demands of “Seventh Series” (having a family) with your desire to create or maintain time for yourself and your yoga practice?
Recently, I had a conversation about this struggle and especially the understanding that, wow, things will never be the same again.
Supta Virasana - Sleeping Hero's Pose
This is an excellent restorative yoga posture that can be of great benefit to your back-bends and can also help heal minor aches and pains in the knees. With time and practice, this restorative posture can very easily become a resting pose that can deeply renew and rejuvenate the entire body.
An Introduction to Meditation
Are you’re feeling anxious or stressed-out and you’ve heard that meditation can help?
But is it safe to just sit down and try to meditate?
And what the heck does it mean to meditate anyway? Where should you begin?
Relax, you’ve come to the right place. In this video, I will answer all your questions, and guide you through a short practice that you can easily start to use on your own.
But first, a little about how I became interested in Buddhist meditation practices…
Five Signs That You Need A Retreat
Do you feel like your life is on autopilot? Are you exhausting yourself by burning the candle at both ends? Maybe you're beginning to feel a little burnt out?
Although yoga is a very therapeutic practice, healing (on any level) can only take place when we are relaxed. Right now we need the healing benefits of yoga more than ever, but we also have to create the space to allow it's effects to work on us….
READ MORE
How To Make A "Peacock Feather"
Pinchamayurasana translates as the “Peacock Feather Pose.” This is a challenging Intermediate Series asana that many students struggle with, especially the naturally flexible ones, as it requires a degree of stiffness and strength in the arms, shoulders, and deep in the core muscles…
One identifying feature of Lord Krishna is the peacock feather in his crown. In India the feather of a peacock is a symbol of good luck, prosperity, beauty, and wisdom. It is a protection against evil and is thought to destroy all poisonous emotions like anger, greed, and jealousy…
Ouch! Was that my hamstring?
Hamstring injuries are one of the most common spots injuries that occur and most of the time they will heal without any kind of surgical intervention. But how can you continue your practice if you’ve injured your hamstring? It can feel very painful to continue stretching this area in forward folds while it’s healing. However, gently stretching the area is exactly what is needed to prevent scar tissue from forming a ball or knot while it’s repair the tissue tear.
How You Can Get A Better Backbend in 3 Simple Steps
Are you struggling with you backbends? Can’t figure out where it’s all going wrong?
In this Wellness Wednesday video, I demonstrate the how you can find a better backbend with 3 simple steps. Now, I said the steps were simple, that doesn’t mean they are easy!
What's stopping your Bakasana B?
Bakasana B can be an intimidating prospect when working through the Second Series of the Ashtanga yoga sequence. Many times students say, “but I can’t jump and land!” So, what exactly is stopping you from successfully landing on the backs of your arms in this position?
Tips for Working on Kapotasana
Kapotasana is another one of those very difficult postures in the Second Series of the Ashtanga yoga sequence. Here you will find some tips for working on this asana using the assistance of a wall to gradually open and strengthen the muscles supporting the spine so that you can practice this posture without pain.
Tips To Work Your "Drop-Backs"
Many yoga students are very excited to start learning how to drop-back from a standing position into a back-bend. However, when they come to start trying they discover that it is a lot more challenging that it first appears. Here, in this video and post, Harmony gives some helpful tips to get you started on this journey.
A Book Review: Ageless
A Book Review: Ageless
His book begs us to ask how yoga and the eight limbs of the Ashtanga practice relate to the way we eat, think, consume, breathe, sleep, exercise, and how we can be more discerning in the way we expend our energy, focus our attention, all while caring for others and our planet.
The entire text stems around this principle: “Living like a yogi is about becoming connected with vitality and health.” ……
The Upward Facing Dharma Dog
In the great Indian epic the Mahabharata, the Indian Pariah Dog features prominently, as possibly one of the first domesticated dogs in history…
he Pandava brothers decide it is also time for them to renounce their kingdom, and set out on their final journey to the top of Mount Kailash - the gateway for their ascension into heaven. Their shared wife, Draupadi, decides to go with them, along with Yudhisthira’s faithful dog…
Matsya - A Fish Will Guide Us
The “Fish” in all three of these postures is referring to the first avatar of Lord Vishnu. This myth first appears in the Shatapatha Brahmana (700-300 BCE). This story is one that we might be more familiar with than we realize…
Matsya keeps growing and growing, and Satyavrata continues moving him from one jar into another, always needing larger and larger containers, until he has no choice but to move him into the ocean…
This is possibly where we get the progressions of these postures. Each referring to a different period of Vishnu's transformation from a simple little fish, to the size of a 'half-king-fish' and finally into the form of a 'full-King' fish!
Matsyendra warns Satyavrata about the coming dissolution of the world…
Kapilasana - Mind Your Manners!
The name Kapila appears in many texts prior to the conception of Samkhya. In fact, Kapila is mentioned as one Vishnu’s names.
There is a story in the Brahma Purana where King Sagara commands his 60,000 sons to go searching for his sacrificial horse that he believes was stolen, as he can not complete the vedic ritual without it…