A typical yoga asana class winds down with forward bends and twists, because they are calming. Both support the down-regulation of the autonomic nervous system that eases us into the full relaxation of Savasana. However, if we approach forward bends with an attitude of “must touch the toes”, we are unlikely to derive the benefits that they are designed to [...]
Do you frequently wish you had more energy? Do you drink coffee or tea to energize? Caffeine is by far the most-consumed drug worldwide, and the reason is simple: we all want to have more energy. Unfortunately, caffeine is generally not the best way to get it. A few hours after a caffeine-induced energy boost, your energy levels tend to [...]
Keeping your knees safe is important but challenging, because the knee joints, despite their size, are rather fragile joints. One main reason is that there is no overlap of the two bones meeting to create the joint. That means the knee joints can move into problematic alignment with relative ease. Crescents of cartilage (the menisci) create a shallow joint socket [...]
Hip alignment can be challenging—perhaps more so than the alignment of any other joint in the body. This is true not just because hip tightness is such a common phenomenon. It is also true because we don’t spend much time thinking about our hips and core. Poor hip awareness in turn makes it very challenging to place the hips intentionally, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Last week we worked on spreading awareness to all the parts of our bodies. This week we will focus on generating the sensitivity to guide your awareness to where you need it most. There are many poses in which almost everyone benefits from the same alignment instructions (i.e., energize and lift the back thigh in high lunge). However, all our bodies are [...]
Yoga and meditation teachers often use the words 'attention' and 'awareness' interchangeably. To me they are fundamentally different, as they create two fundamentally different experiences of reality. Attention means focusing on one thing. Awareness means taking in multiple things at once. Focusing on one thing gives us a distorted view of reality, especially when we (as we often do) focus [...]
