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9 12, 2024

The True Power of Perfect Intensity

2024-12-10T03:50:34+07:00December 9th, 2024|

How do you know whether you are working too hard or not hard enough in yoga? How much should you push yourself when practicing yoga? What is the difference between intensity and pain? What is perfect intensity, anyway? And why does it matter? Most people who practice yoga have experienced creating too much intensity, at least occasionally. So how do you [...]

2 12, 2024

Find Your Minimum Edge

2024-12-03T03:48:06+07:00December 2nd, 2024|

You have probably heard a yoga teacher say something like "come to your edge". Most often this place is defined as the place beyond which the risk of injury goes up dramatically. In the context of stretching, I define "the edge" as the point beyond which you can no longer savor your breath. To me, that is a definition more [...]

25 11, 2024

It’s the Journey, Not the Destination

2024-11-26T06:25:09+07:00November 25th, 2024|

Yoga for most of us is a journey towards increased awareness and acceptance of the way things are. But letting go of our future-focused, goal-oriented mindset is a long journey. Experiencing a moment of full awareness in at least some yoga poses some of the time is a big step in the right direction. But when the poses themselves become mini-destinations [...]

18 11, 2024

Lengthen and Compress Your Spine

2024-11-19T06:49:12+07:00November 18th, 2024|Tags: , , , |

Back pain is one of the most common physical complaints people have. 80% of Americans complain of back pain at some point in their lives. Learning to stop overusing your spine (which we do to avoid having to stretch big hip and shoulder muscles) can help keep your spine safer. In addition, learning to lengthen and compress your spine intentionally [...]

11 11, 2024

A Life Lesson from Thai Traffic

2024-11-11T14:27:23+07:00November 11th, 2024|

When my dad was visiting Chiang Mai from Germany years ago, he was astonished how well the traffic flows there despite the huge number of vehicles on the road. Thai traffic has taught me an important life lesson that has not only made me a better driver, but a better person. True, traffic in Thailand is chaotic and there are [...]

28 10, 2024

Is There Such a Thing as Perfect Alignment?

2024-10-29T03:14:50+07:00October 28th, 2024|

I do believe in the value of alignment, and thus I have actually spent quite a bit of time thinking about this question. The answer I have settled on is that the question itself is taking you off the path, is derailing the deepening of your practice.  It is simply not a particularly helpful question. To ask if there is [...]

21 10, 2024

Do Less, Feel More

2024-10-22T02:08:51+07:00October 21st, 2024|

There really isn’t much more to say than the title: Do less, feel more. It’s not about the difficulty or impressiveness of the poses you do. Nor is it about how long you can hold them without hating them or collapsing into a heap of muscle spasms. It’s about how deeply you can get your whole being involved in each [...]

14 10, 2024

Everything is a Miracle

2024-10-15T02:43:20+07:00October 14th, 2024|

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; or you can live as if everything is a miracle.” –Albert Einstein Making this distinction may seem at first like a contrived intellectual exercise. However, living life from the perspective that everything is a miracle can profoundly change your attitude. It can change your attitude [...]

7 10, 2024

A Lesson from a 2-Year-Old

2024-10-08T00:31:02+07:00October 7th, 2024|

Do you like speed bumps? (Or speed humps, judder bars, lomos de burro, or sleeping policemen, depending on where you are from.) I didn't think you did. Who does? I used to dislike them like everyone, but then I received a lesson from a 2-year-old: a lesson in acceptance. Not that my son is (or was) a buddha-like creature in [...]

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