Liberated Yoga
Yoga is for everyone!
Topic: Asana
Mind Body Connection
I think it is common knowledge now that the mind and the body share a powerful connection. The ancient Yogis had known about this and used it to achieve high physical and mental states. Asana in Sanskrit means "posture", and the way we carry ourselves, our posture, reveals volumes about our mental and emotional state. Look around you next time you are in a store, standing in a check-out line, and ask yourself what the people around might be thinking or feeling just based on thei...
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Moving from the Core
My Core Integration WS is scheduled for October 14, and here I will lay out some ideas I base my approach on. Integration. What does it mean to have a pose well integrated? I have been structuring my classes in such a way as to allow gradual and deep integration of various aspects of the core into one cohesive whole. I have become really interested in this since I was introduced to Pilates five years ago. Before Pilates, I could get by in my Yoga practice because I wa...
Yoga Alignment: Neutral Pelvis
Neutral Pelvis is one of the most important alignment cues in my teaching and personal practice. In previous posts we talked about the few alignment points one needs to pay attention to have a safer Yoga practice and to be more confident doing Yoga at home. We discussed neck and shoulders, and now we are moving on to the pelvis. Our daily lives and genetics predispose us to certain deviations from neutral that can contribute to tension and weakness of the postural muscle...
Open Your Heart
One definition of a Yogi is someone who has space around the heart. An open, yet well-balanced heart is capable of giving and receiving love freely, with no strings attached, yet has healthy boundaries and knows when to say "no." In our Yoga Asanas a lot of attention is often given to back bends - partly to counteract the "slouchy" posture a lot of us are carrying, partly to give back to the heart some of that open, spacious feeling. Part of the reason why we are such a slouchy ...
Three Directions of Awareness
You often hear in a yoga practice: Ground down through your big toe mounds Lift up the arches of the feet/tone the belly Broaden the chest Lengthen through the crown of the head It would be interesting to investigate in your own practice how easily you are able to do these three things, each on its own, and all three simultaneously. A balanced Yoga practice would involve, among other things, a fine-tuned awareness of these three subtle movements, and t...
Balance the Five Elements
The ancient teaching of Ayurveda, the sister-science of Yoga, talks about the five elements of the manifest world: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Ether (Space). They are represented in the human body by the bones, fluids, muscles, breath, and inner spaces/cavities, respectively. Consciousness journeys through these elements towards Matter, and from Matter it evolves back into pure Consciousness. It is all too easy for these elements to become out of balance. The...
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HGH - Human Growth Hormone - is it Really the Fountain of Youth?
It has been getting some attention in the media and especially among the supplement companies, eager to make a fortune by exploiting our fear of death and aging. They call it the "youth hormone", because it helps to shrink fat cells and maintain lean muscle, it facilitates blood flow and collagen production, giving one a youthful glow. It boosts the mood and gives us greater energy and an improved sex drive. How much would you pay to have all that? How about, nothing at all! Below is a FREE...
Yoga Sequencing: Half Moon Pose
I like to say this quote: "Things fall apart that the center does not hold." That, in a nutshell, is the essence of my approach to core strength and awareness. Now, it is all and good to focus on the obvious - the transverse abdominis, but here I would like to share some of the things that I have been exploring relating to the side body and the obliques. Side body is often neglected as we focus our attention to opening and strengthening the front and the back body. Howev...
Yoga Sequencing: Function over Form
Have you ever wondered what certain Yoga poses are meant to do for you? Have you heard claims that twists detoxify and "wring out" the internal organs, that some poses "open" our hips and shoulders, that some poses help with depression, anxiety, or... fill in the blank. Sometimes it seems like there is a Yoga pose for every affliction of humanity. I am not going to debate some of these claims here, although I encourage you to approach with a grain of salt any claims that seem a bit too far-f...
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Yoga Sequencing: The Basic Rules
I hear this a lot: I don't know what to do, in what order should the poses be, so I am not comfortable designing my own Yoga class. This post is aimed at teachers and practitioners both, because I have been to so many Yoga classes where it was obvious to me the teacher had not the vaguest idea of what the goal of the class was, how to get there, what the effect of each poses is meant to be, as well as the cumulative effect of the entire practice. And compensation? What's that? T...
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