As a yoga therapist with years of experience in both traditional yoga and yoga therapeutic, I've witnessed firsthand the transformative power of yoga therapy and how it differs from personal training. While both practices aim to improve overall health and well-being, their approaches, methods, and goals are quite distinct. Let me share my insights on the key differences between yoga therapy and personal training.
Read MoreEco-therapy is a practice that involves engaging with nature to improve mental and physical well-being. It offers a range of benefits for mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Many principles and practices found in traditional yoga philosophy align closely with the ideas behind eco-therapy.
Read MoreIn the heart of the Nepalese Himalayas, where the air is thin and the peaks pierce the heavens, lies a trail less traveled, winding through pristine forests and towering cliffs. This is where our story begins.
Read MoreWhile seemingly disparate disciplines—yoga and strength training—can converge to create a powerful synergy that combines the meditative grace of yoga with the empowering resistance of weight training. Let's embark on a journey to explore the fusion of yoga with weights and the myriad benefits it offers for physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.
Read MoreWhen you’ve got a tight budget or busy life attending regular yoga classes can be challenging. Even package rates at studios put a dent in your wallet, and isn’t it ironic when struggling to squeeze sessions into your busy schedule actually increases the stress you’re trying to reduce with your practice. Moving your yoga routine out of the studio and under your own roof alleviates these problems while opening new avenues for deepening your practice.
Read MoreJust in time for Valentine’s Day, I am sharing with you some fun and effective ways to create more connection with yourself and with a partner through embodied practices of reverence for deeper intimacy. I’ll be giving ideas for how to use yoga, playful movement, eye gazing, massage, and dance to enliven your body, mind and spirit and open your heart to a partner. I've been a dancer, yoga therapists and massage therapist for many years and have seen how intentional connection exercises can help lovers, friends, family, and individuals to find their way to, or back to, connection.
Read MoreIt's normal to feel down once in a while, but if you're sad most of the time and it affects your daily life, you may have depression. There are many different types of depression. Events in your life cause some, and chemical changes in your brain cause others. Seasonal Affective Disorder, or S.A.D., which is a period of major depression that most often happens during these winter months, when the days grow short and we get less and less sunlight.
Read MoreNavigating the healthcare landscape can often feel like an intricate maze, especially as we age and our medical needs become more complex. For older adults, who may be managing multiple health conditions or medications, active self-advocacy is no longer an option—it’s a requirement for maintaining optimal health. This guide zeroes in on six crucial strategies tailored to the unique healthcare challenges faced during your golden years.
Read MorePoses which relax and restore the mind, body and spirit are an essential part of a yoga practice that provide nourishment to support the many systems of the body that keep us healthy and happy throughout the year. Collectively, these practices are known as Restorative Yoga.
There are several misconceptions and limiting beliefs surrounding this practice that can hinder people from engaging in it and receiving it’s benefits.
Read MoreTeam-building exercises, like partner and group yoga, teaches people how to trust each other and work together to achieve common objectives, whether it is in a corporate, home, or social space. What communities are you a part of, including work, school and social circles, where group/partner yoga could help support the community to build bonds and grow together?
Read MoreMany of my clients what to lose weight and are struggling to love their bodies, especially if they have recently gained weight. They come to me for weight loss, and even though exercise, like yoga can help with weight loss, what I really have to offer is much more profound. Outlined in this article is my approach to food from a yogic perspective. I am not a personal trainer, nutritionist or dietitian. These ideas are about our relationship to food as an extension of our relationships with ourselves.
Read MoreAs we enter the week of the summer solstice, when we receive the most daylight all year, we are called by nature to presence this moment on the planet as a time of intense heat, activity and growth. The season of summer relates to the element of fire in the indigenous medicine wheel of life. The warmth of the sun is not only helping us to grow food, but spurring activity. It is time when many of us are leveraging the good weather to come together more in community.
Read MoreThe five gross elements are parts of our consciousness that flow through us in physical ways. For example, fire shows up as anger and heat in our bodies. Water as tears. Earth is experienced in our bodies as heaviness and strength. This article explores the many ways to feel and experience the Earth element in our lives and bodies, through the various models yoga has given us.
Read MoreHave you ever noticed that the ancient yogis were all men? The Vedic Brahmans, Patanjali. Shri Aurobindo, and many more. Up until the last 100 years, female yoga teachers were not recognized in books, priesthoods, or much of anywhere. That doesn't mean they didn't exist. Their voices, their wisdom, their spiritual findings, were excluded from the standard teachings, but why? And, how did this begin to shift?
Read MoreWe all need to feel spaciousness in our lives, but with the efficiency and production oriented culture we live in it can be hard to find moments of subtlety and emptiness. Akasha, the element of space can provide help with it’s inherent clear, soft and unbounded nature. In it’s lack of dimension and structure, freedom, playfulness and expansion are more present. The 5 elements, called Mahabhutas in sanskrit and pali languages, are the colors that the Grand Artist paints with. Out of all of the elements, space is the most voluminous, all-pervading and immeasurable.
Read MoreDiscipline does require self-control no matter what. How we formulate and relate to the concept of self-control is of great important. It can be helpful to understand what we are working with. According to various schools of eastern philosophy, samskaras are the subtle mental impressions left by all thoughts, intentions and actions that an individual has ever experienced.
Read MoreA Sankalpa is a way to put positive thinking and desires into action, which is separate from the action or achievement itself. It is based on our present moment experience, while goals are external and future-oriented. When you begin to understand what you are seeking from your practice and from your life as a whole, you will be able to direct energy and actions in order to get there.
Read MoreAging and yoga should go hand in hand. Yoga can help seniors, older adults, and those of us recovering from injury or with limited mobility regain a sense of balance, strength, stability and flexibility.
Balance, strength, stability and flexibility are key in preventing falls, injuries and illness. Let’s discuss some best yoga asana practices for aging, as well as some societal myths that can prevent us from making good decisions for ourselves.
Read MoreThe five elements – earth, water, fire, air, ether – are the manifestations of the vibrations of our own consciousness in their most physical form. When we understand them as a part of us, we can create greater harmony and balance. The elements are a gateway to experiencing more freedom and pleasure in life. This article explores the many ways to feel and experience the air element, and its connection to our mind, body and spirit.
Read MoreSteady gazing, Trataka, is a concentration and purification exercise. Among the six Shat Karmas (yogic purification practices) Tratak is known as the simplest to do. It involves gazing at an object or point of focus without blinking, then closing your eyes and continuing to hold the visual of the object in your mind’s eye. Consistent and correct practice of trataka increases concentration power and purifies the mind from fluctuated thought patterns. It also has proven to improve eyesight and stimulates the brain in at least two studies.
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