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Movement is central to human life. I think I can safely say that we all want to be good movers. In order to move well, you have have to move! Not only that, you have to move in a variety of ways. Motion is lotion, movement affords more movement. Healthy movement happens when the tissues of your body can slide and glide over one another. Movement also requires strength and stability. Muscles move bones because they have contractile tissue. This tissue shortens the fibers to move a part. And when one part moves, other parts have to stabilize. Stability and control are the way the brain knows the movement is safe. When you don’t move you don’t notice your limitations. If you try to move and can’t, or you experience pain, you become aware of your lack of range. I think sometimes when people to go a Yoga class or […]

I took my first yoga class about 23 years ago and it didn’t take long before I was hooked. For the better part of these years my focus was on getting more flexible. In some places I succeeded, but unfortunately it only brought me instability, pain, and injury. My problem was that I was weak.   For several years now I have been working on getting stronger and more integrated. Not only does it feel good to be strong, but I move better and don’t have pain. In terms of yoga, this strengthening has made me loose the ability to do some of the super flexi things I used to do easily. Does it really matter? Do those things make my life better? Do they help me move better in all the ways I want to and need to everyday? The answer is NO. And I didn’t “own” those poses in the first place.   A common theme in my classes is that, […]

What a stressful year this has been! When life gets challenging I try to look to the teachings of yoga for wisdom. Lately, I have been reflecting on Shiva Nataraja, The Cosmic Dancer.  This icon is a symbol of our yoga practice and has a lot to offer us in terms of how to engage in the world. Nataraja represents Shiva dancing the universe into existence. And the Nataraja represents you, dancing your life into existence. Within the dance, the cosmic dancer performs five acts, called Pancha Kritya.  The first three of these acts are creation, maintenance, and dissolution. Let’s start with the easy one first. I often say that your day-to-day yoga mostly consists of maintenance – going to work, cooking, eating, chores, relationship, all the things that sustain the status quo in your life. We call this being a householder.   And at the same time, there is always creation. Beautiful things are being born, […]

What are you working on, or towards in your life? What are your goals and dreams? In our society, to achieve what you want in life it often means you move and strive in one direction. Unfortunately, if you approach your yoga this way you end up getting stuck, or even worse, injured. If you come to my class you’ll often hear me say, “yoga is two directions.”   My definition of yoga is; “the harmonious integration of two opposite actions or energies.” In the physical practice, this means to first connect to what is steady and stable. Once you are established in your own center and connected to the earth via the foundation of the pose, you move toward your edge of the shape. Then the pose becomes your pose, a pose you own, not a shape you saw on social media or what the person on the mat next to you is doing.   Practicing […]