Sleep is a Superfood: How a Little Intention—and Some Yoga—Can Help You Get More
When it comes to dramatically improving health, reducing stress, and impacting the quality of life, sleep is a superfood! You can eat bowls and bowls of kale salad and speak to yourself kindly, but until you’re well rested, then you’re never fully nourished! While I might have a
Kick Start Your Practice: A Dynamic Yoga Warm-Up Sequence on the Floor
Truth be told, starting a yoga practice on the floor is my favorite way to begin, regardless of what might come later in the sequence. It is a great way to warm up for both gentle and active practices. It’s also
Lengthen, Expand, Relax: 6 Ways to Use Blocks in Your Yoga Practice
If you’re new to yoga, you may be curious about the blocks you see on the prop shelves at your local studio. What are they and why would you want to use them? A yoga block is shaped like a
You Can’t Solve an Old Problem with Old Solutions: A Yoga Practice to Shift Your Thinking
Is there a challenge that you are dealing with right now, or a problem that you are trying to solve? If so, your natural inclination is probably to focus on the problem and try to work it out logically. This
Empowered Thought: 4 Ways Yoga’s Wisdom Tradition Can Help You Change Your Thinking Patterns
What do you think is the most effective yogic tool for working with the intellectual mind? Is it meditation? Nope. Meditation helps you to observe and focus the mind, but not necessarily change it. To quote my yoga teacher Gary
Yoga for Fibromyalgia: Soothing Practices to Relieve Pain
Individuals who are living with fibromyalgia may experience a myriad of symptoms, including widespread musculoskeletal pain, sleep challenges, memory problems, mood instability, headaches, and fatigue. These issues vary in degree, depending on the individual, but are widely reported by those
Balancing Forces in Yoga Practice: Forearms, Wrists and Hands in Dog Pose
A starting point for combining Western science with yoga lies in the term Ha/Tha. This Sanskrit word means Sun/Moon or Yin/Yang and implies a balancing of energies or forces. Balance creates stillness. Apply this concept in your yoga practice by
Yoga Anatomy: How Your Breathing Pattern Affects Back Pain
It is essential that manual and corrective exercise therapists develop a good basic understanding of ribcage and thoracic spine biomechanics and their relationship to optimal breathing. When we think of breathing, usually we think of the respiratory system, but, in
Do Yoga Therapists Rely on Evidence-Based Practices in Their Work? Results from a Recent Survey
As a new, emerging discipline, one of the great questions yoga therapists face is which yoga strategies, practices, and tools will be the most effective in addressing the needs of any particular client. One tool for inquiry is that of Evidence-based Practice. Evidence-based
Yoga for the Hypermobile: Protect Your Spine - A Sequence for Lower Body Strength
As yoga’s popularity has risen for more than a decade now, a major theme seems to be emerging: extreme stretching in an already hypermobile body can create joint problems, particularly in the hips. While it’s easy for hypermobile people to
6 Tips to Landing a Yoga Teaching Job
Graduating from a yoga teacher training program is a monumental step in one’s life. Not every graduate goes on to pursue teaching yoga, but for those who want to teach, the next step is landing a job. Yoga is everywhere,
The Many Benefits of Jathara Parivrtti
Have you heard the term “superfood?” It is usually used to describe a nutrient-rich food that is especially beneficial for our health and wellbeing. I adopted this term to describe certain yoga poses as “superposes” because they also carry an
Your Brain on Pain: How to Remap Your Brain and Reverse the Effects of Chronic Pain
Have you ever been told your pain is “all in your head?” Unfortunately, this is often the experience of many people experiencing persistent pelvic pain. Interestingly enough, the brain itself is actually very involved in producing pain, particularly when a
Daily Life Yoga: 4 Ways to Practice Self-Care—Even When You’re Busy
I haven’t been taking care of myself lately. I’ve pulled a few almost all-nighters, missed lots of workouts, and skipped many meals. I’m overcommitted creating recipes for not one, but two books, and have fallen into the “busy” trap of
The Fibromyalgia Epidemic: 5 Ways to Heal Chronic Fatigue and Pain
Do you feel exhausted, achy, with brain fog, and can’t sleep? This combination suggests that you have a severe energy crisis called fibromyalgia that caused you to trip a brain circuit breaker called the hypothalamus. Meanwhile, if your muscles do