In the yogic tradition, spanda is the subtle creative pulsation that manifests in all living and non-living entities. Recognizing and aligning with spanda helps us become more present in the moment, with a greater sense of connection and joy. The ancient yogic assertion that everything pulsates is true in a very literal way: Scientific investigations confirm that everything vibrates, from [...]
To me the main benefit of practicing yoga is to become more present in more moments of our lives. There are many ways to help you along that path, including breath awareness and body awareness. Focusing on alignment to improve body awareness is one of my most frequently used techniques. However, this week I want to emphasize another method: setting [...]
Pranayama, one of the core practices of yoga, is often translated as "control of life force" or "breath control". This is so because 'prana' means life force or breath, and ‘yama' means control or restriction. (See the footnote below for a detailed grammatical explanation of the meaning of pranayama). While this is probably the original historical meaning, it is worth [...]
We typically discount the importance of the breath in our daily lives. This week, I want you to experience how central the breath is to your health. The breath is enough means that simply improving our breathing can increase our wellbeing in very concrete, measurable ways. There is data to back this up. Yogic breathing techniques have been shown to [...]
Research has shown that happy emotions contribute to long-term wellbeing. But none of us wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed everyday. So how do you generate joy when you don't already feel joyful? One answer of course is yoga. :) Generate joy by focusing on the here and now One secret to increase your joy is to realize that happiness is [...]
Muscular and Organic Energy are a pair of yoga alignment principles designed to work in tandem to bring us into balance. I find such paired alignment principles powerful teaching tools, because they inherently stress the importance of balancing opposites. By balancing opposites like Muscular and Organic Energies, we can increase not only our joy in our practice, but its [...]
When we talk about balance, both in the physical sense as well as metaphorically, we often use the words finding balance. We do that as if balance were a magical state that we only need to discover, hiding somewhere under a giant lotus leaf. Once we find it, then we simply ‘have’ it, is the implication, and we don’t need [...]
Setting a solid foundation can improve alignment, balance, and spaciousness in your yoga poses while increasing your safety and enjoyment. In addition, setting your foundation with intention is a way to become more mindful in your practice. However, to reap all those benefits, it is important to actually notice how changes to your foundation affect your poses, rather than [...]
Forward bends can be quite problematic for the lower back. When we bend forward, we tend to do too much of the movement in the lower back. The lumbar spine is quite mobile in this direction, but excessive movement here is a frequent cause of back pain. Lower back pain in turn is the most common health complaint in the [...]
My approach to yoga places the balancing of opposites at the heart of the practice, because I believe that an emphasis on balance is key to increasing the benefits of yoga. This week I want to focus on balancing groundedness and lightness. Balancing groundedness and lightness allows each pose to reach its full expression How is this pair of opposites [...]
