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I realized last week that trying too hard to lift my arms.
I was reaching my arms overhead in urdhva hastasana and – I thought – doing a pretty good job. I was straightening the arms, lifting through the sides of the waist, and (for once) not sticking my ribs at. Ah-ha, I thought, I’m DOING it! My teacher comes by and purses her lips at me. “Relax here, stop working so hard. Your collarbones are all tight.” She wiggles my fingers until my collarbones have space to breathe.
Hmmmm, now I seem to be doing much less. And it feels…better.
How many [read more...]
I got disconnected three times.
Three times.
In a row.
“Just hold one moment while we transfer you to confirm,” they’d say sweetly, just before I heard a strange sound. The sound of silence. The vacuum of a disconnected phone line. The sound of my impotent, mediocre frustration growing to a boiling point of irrational, helpless rage.
Nothing can be quite so delightful as customer service, eh?
Or how about when the woman in customer service would ask me for all my details, “I’ll just need that information before transferring you,” and the guy in cancellations would say, “I’ll just need all that information again, [read more...]
Eka Pada Koundinyasana. It’s one of those poses that you see on the cover of yoga journal, performed by someone smiling peacefully (and seemingly in no state of stress or panic) that makes you go, “Huh? Riiiiiiiiiight.” As my boyfriend said with alarm upon seeing this picture to the left, “Jesus! That is not good!” (Photo courtesy of Yoga Journal.) But despite it’s daunting appearance, there are accessible roads into this seemingly impossible position.
Eka Pada Koundinyasana #1 (there are two versions of this pose) is not only an arm balance, it’s also a deep twist. To warm up the body [read more...]
Last Thursday evening, I attended a talk by Reginald Ray, founder of Dharma Ocean and tantric buddhist practitioner.
He spoke about the intimacy and the power (and terror) of really Seeing another person.
What is Seeing? It’s when we strip away the filters through which we most often see the world and take the time and space to witness what is actually before us. Usually we half-ass our seeing. I look at my partner, but what I’m really seeing is what I expect to. I impose upon him everything that I think a partner is, or should be, or what my own [read more...]
So it’s New Years. So you made a resolution. What is it this year?
I’ll share my typical checklist:
-lose five pounds
-go to yoga EVERY DAY
-finish writing book
-resolve all unresolved psychological issues
-do something really important that will make everyone love me
Hmmmmm. Lofty, anyone?
Resolutions are excellent. They invite us to visualize, set intentions, make goals. Like many of us, I love the idea of a clean slate. From this brilliantly cleared slate, my life is an open book with nowhere to move but forward into greater and loftier etheric realms of [read more...]
Aadil and Mirra of Purna Yoga share a vision for 2010. Read and be inspired to connect more deeply with your own beauty and joy.
Happy New Year! The Divine’s dream for 2010 is for a year of JOY! The work that we did in December, practicing pure giving and receiving from the Heart Center, was wonderful preparation for the New Year. We are now ready to open to a greater experience of joy, which is what the Creator wishes to express through Its creation!
A good question to ask yourself is “Does my vision of joy match The Divine’s vision of [read more...]
This is an article shared with me by a friend. I found it to be full of useful tools to help clarify our sense of connection and purpose.
Create a Life You Love
There are times when you know just what to do, and life seems to rise up and support you and your ideas. And then there are times when it is all a little murky, and you might feel a bit lost. Thankfully, you have your yoga practice to come to—a time to tap into a deep connection with yourself and remember who you really are and what is most [read more...]
During the holidays, it’s more important than ever to have some quiet time. With all of the distractions – parties, relatives, drama, presents, planning, joy, baggage – it’s easy to get swept away on a holiday rollercoaster!
This week’s pose is halasana (plow). By turning ourselves upside down and folding over, we are literally looking into ourselves. The pose helps us to pull our energy in and become more contained and centered. As in inversion, halasana encourages us to challenge our point of view and get out of sticky patterns. Its (literally!) navel-gazing properties can [read more...]
Many yoga students are quite surprised to learn that joints can become too flexible. But in many joints, ligaments and tendons play a major role in preventing excessive motion; if those tissues become too loose, the joint can move in ways that cause damage or set the stage for injury. A joint with such laxity is said to be hypermobile, and the knee is particularly vulnerable to this problem. In fact, this joint is more or less just one long bone (the femur, or thighbone) stacked on top of another long bone (the tibia, or shinbone). Ligaments and tendons are [read more...]
Introduction
There are staggeringly vast numbers of people in this country suffering from breathing related disorders; particularly when factoring in related maladies such as hypertension, back pain and depression. Not surprisingly, similarly large numbers of people are seeking out alternative approaches to healing. A 2002 CDC study1 on Complementary and Alternative therapies found that the most popular method of natural healing (other than prayer and nutritional supplements) is deep breathing exercises, with 12 percent of the population practicing. Another 8 percent of Americans say they practice meditation and 5 percent practice yoga for natural healing. We can only expect that these [read more...]
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