What if you were practiced in knowing what your body needs? What if stepping onto your mat and moving was intuitive? Here's the deal: no matter how masterful your teacher, they don't live in your body. They'll never know exactly what you need better than you do. Because my mission is to empower you in owning your practice so you can know yourself better, I'm sharing 3 tips to knowing what your body needs.
Read MoreToday, I’m sharing with you what I've already let go of in my yoga practice, in case you need some inspiration. Three things. It’s a short list of mindsets and practices which I've learned don’t work on the mat—not just because they tend to lead us toward injury—because they go against the purpose of this practice in so many ways.
Read MoreWe need yoga more than ever these days--depression has skyrocketed during COVID, among other things. So I started asking yogis on Instagram: what are you struggling with in creating/sustaining a home practice? I think what's happening is that we have a perception of what our yoga (mat) practice should look like or looked like in the past, and those ideas are keeping us stuck (and stiff)!
Read MoreI love a studio practice, but there are big benefits to building and sustaining a home yoga practice that'll serve you for life and deepen your practice like no studio can. Today, I urge you to keep coming to your mat especially if you're in a place where things are shutting down again due to COVID cases spiking, and your stress levels are high. Don't know where to start? I came up with these 4 simple, actionable steps for you.
Read MoreYoga is more than just postures on a mat, or getting physically stronger. We begin with the body, and the practice moves deeper from there toward our mind and heart. I feel that some of yoga's most valuable teachings are about resilience and equanimity. These 5 resilience practices come from my own experiences and knowledge gathered in inquiry of a yoga practice.
Read MoreI took a yoga class with a mentor the other day, and she used a cue that makes me wince. Not because it's bad, but because it's not inclusive. It doesn't work for all bodies. It got me thinking... if this teacher (who's been teaching for about 20 years) is still using that cue, how many students don't know that there are other alignment options, to accommodate their unique anatomy?
Read MoreWhat if I told you that there is no such thing as "correct alignment"? Don't get me wrong--I'm not about completely tossing out alignment in your practice. There's value in understanding a basic framework for your poses. What I am saying is that there is often WAY too much emphasis on the aesthetics of a pose in comparison to focusing on the actions occurring and how it feels.
Read MoreYou know how some yogis seem like they can just... float? Or they move through balances, backbends, inversions and tricky transitions with so much ease you're sure they're not even mortal? That's what bandhas do for your practice. Bandha (buhn-DAH) means "lock" or "binding" in Sanskrit. There are many types, but they all have a few things in common.
Read MoreA couple times this week, I had moments where things went REALLY wrong. I’m talking bathroom ant invasion at 4am when I need to get ready and leave the house by 5am (plus ice on my SoCal windshield that same morning) kinda wrong. Moments you don’t anticipate, which throw a wrench into how you thought things would go.
Read MoreThe new year is the perfect time to create new habits and cultivate ways to improve your quality of life. If you are excitedly reviewing a list of intentions, goals, or resolutions for 2019, yet unsure of how to make them manifest, I wanted to offer some advice on the yoga of habit.
Read MoreIt’s December. The holidays can bring an array of emotions with them, the most common ones being overwhelm and stress. Here are 4 self-care habits that help me keep the overwhelm at bay. And because I have geeky tendencies, I made it into an easy acronym for you to remember: SWIM!
Read MoreIf you found me through social media, you probably came across my account via my overachievers guide to yoga tutorials which were designed to help yogis struggle less (i.e., to stop overachieving, because it isn’t serving you) and find more ease in their practice.
Read MoreWe lost my father-in-law last December. So we decided to have my mother-in-law move in with us, and purchased a home to accommodate her and our family. To navigate all this change, I tapped into my toolbox of mindset and attitude shifts. If you are ever dealing with your own challenges, turn to these tools for support.
Read MoreHow many times have you heard a teacher encourage you to “find your edge,” during a yoga class? Social media–all media, really–churns out the narrative that we are to continuously improve, if not in our yoga practice, then in our personal development, career success, self-care, and relationships.
Read MoreThe word “mantra” is Sanskrit for “instrument of thought.” Mantra is the repetition of a sound, word or phrase. It’s a essentially a mind-and-heart-hack that cultivates focus, a simple method of altering (and improving) your state of mind.
Read MoreSay you’ve been practicing for at least a year or more. You probably noticed you feel stronger physically, perhaps your flexibility has increased, and you are becoming better and better friends with your breath, too…
Read MoreSo many people find their way to yoga looking to increase flexibility, decrease stress, and to create more overall balance in their life. Unfortunately, because of our “more, more, more” culture, we have a hard time finding that balance on and off the yoga mat…
Read MoreAyurveda is the sister science of Yoga, and the world’s oldest known medicinal system. The word Ayurveda means “knowledge of life” (ayur = life + veda = knowledge)…
Read MoreLooking to make some progress in your Hanumanasana (Ha-NOO-ma-NAH-sah-nah)? The yogic split is so-named for the half monkey, half god Hindu deity.
Read MoreNatarajasana is one of my favorite poses to work on and to be in, and I’m willing to bet that many other yogis feel the same. A combination of deep backbend and standing balance that requires strength, flexibility and intense focus–it’s a powerful and elegant pose!
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