So for that past few years I’ve been practicing ashtanga. Flow, flow, breath, breath. There is a cycle and rhythm to the practice. You move. You keep going. You jump around. You breath some more.

But here I am visiting my old Yoga Works crew. And they study Iyengar.

See, in the yoga world, there are three main lineages: Ashtanga, Iyengar, and the yoga of Desikachar. Most our our Western yoga springs from the same teacher (the granddaddy of yoga as we know it, Krishnmacharya). But where ashtanga focuses on movement and breath, the Iyengar tradition [read more...]

New York City has chilled out.
People on the street are less hurried, the traffic flows sedately, the line at Zabar’s is leisurely. There is time to nod and smile at fellow customers without feeling that everyone is clawing for the front of the line. Even on the subway, a civilized distance is observed between the pressing bodies. New York has become freakin’ mellow.

Or maybe not.

The last time I lived in the city, I had a mission, an agenda, a dream. Higher than high ambitions that were not to be thwarted. The city was to be gotten [read more...]

A couple weeks ago, I put my car into storage and started riding my bike.  Now, I am not what you’d call a good bike rider.  My ass hurts, my thighs ache, and grease somehow gets smeared all over my calves.    Small children on tricycles pass me on the street.

While my body may be used to yoga, riding a bike challenges me in a completely different way.  Muscles get tightened rather than lengthened; cardio work is a main component rather than a by-product. And although riding a bike is undoubtedly good for me, it is very humbling and hard.

As I was riding [read more...]

Last week, I took a roadtrip with my boyfriend. He struggles with anxiety and is working towards flying on planes. In the meantime, we drive. He hasn’t been to Los Angeles for several years, so this was a pretty significant adventure.  The prospect of leaving terra firma and adventuring into the wilds of the United States held the potential for serious discomfort.

We had our moments, of course. All evolution requires some growing pains. There were times with then anxiety would come on, and he would have a choice: open to possibility (that he would live through this [read more...]

A recent workshop with John Scott (www.stillpointyoga.com) has revolutionized my ashtanga practice.  Ashtanga is a vinyasa system, but I must admit that I have spent more time “polishing my asanas” than I have exploring how the breath supports the poses.  During the workshop, I was reminded keenly of Mark Whitwell’s viniyoga (breath-based) style (though Mark would undoubtedly decry such labels).  Inhalation is surrender; exhalation is strength.  As both teachers state, it’s a “strength-receiving practice.”  Suddenly, the two very different practices of viniyoga and ashtanga merged.  Ultimately, all practices unify.

Because the external configurations (bend your knee in Warrior II!) are sometimes all [read more...]

The yogis race around in slung back crocs, their new manduka mats slung across their shoulders as they race into class.  Here, in air-conditioned conference rooms with indelicately laid out tape (in crowded spaces, everyone gets their own yoga parking space), the giants of yoga meet with their adoring masses and share their wisdom.  These yogic rockstars – Shiva Rea, Dharma Mittra, Seane Corne, Ana Forrest, to name a few – become more accessible in the bland, generic conference rooms.  In Yoga Journal or on their dvd’s they are impossibly graceful, superhumanly peaceful, and (surely) enlightened.  But there’s something about a [read more...]