Karma Chameleon! What is Karma anyway?

I heard this great podcast from the guys at “Stuff you should know.”  An accessible and interesting primer on the history of karma from Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant. [read more...]

Alchemy! The secret roots of hatha yoga.

Did you know that alchemy is part of the roots of hatha yoga? The desire to transmute the body into a worthy vessel was inspired in part by the alchemical explorations of turning lead into gold.  “The siddha is a spiritual alchemist who works on and transmutes impure matter, the human body-mind, into pure gold, [...] [read more...]

Protect thy neck: further thoughts on yoga injuries in headstand and shoulderstand

Tonight in class, one of my students asked me to expand on the response article to “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” particularly as it relates to two asana: shoulderstand and headstand. Headstand and Shoulderstand – labelled the King and Queen of Asana by Iyengar for their therapeutic properties – got a bad rap in [...] [read more...]

When the muse stops talking: how to teach when inspiration doesn’t strike

A yoga teacher and galpal of mine recently emailed me about the proverbial drying of the creative yoga well. “Last Wed I feel like I taught the WORST yoga class of my life: it was so vanilla, last minute sequencing on my feet (which sometimes I’m good at, but this time I lost the muse), [...] [read more...]

“How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body”: A Response

The New York Times recently ran an article, “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,”that has a rather sensational and silly title and a fairly simple point: doing yoga can cause injuries.  The article, citing the musings of yoga teacher Glenn Black, references the medley of yoga injuries that have been developing through the West over [...] [read more...]