Yoga Musings

Building Strength

I’m super excited to bring hand weights to my yoga teaching. I have been on a journey to get stronger for over ten years. Once I realized that I was spending too much time stretching and trying to get into some deep yoga postures, I felt like I was always chasing pain around my body. But strength work changed everything. It became clear that my core was weak, which was part of the cause of some repetitive injuries I had been dealing with trying to manage. You may have been in a class with me where we have added external load using a yoga block, bolster, or blanket. However, unless you have worked with me privately or done a specific strength-building course I’ve offered, you may have experienced only some of the benefits hand weights can offer. First, I began focusing on more strength-building postures using my body weight and […]

Yoga and Lessons on Being Human

Let’s talk about how we take what we learn and practice on the mat into our everyday life. You may have heard me say that what we do on the sticky mat is rehearsal–the real yoga is everything it takes to live in the world. The time you spend on your mat learning to move well, connect to your center, balance, explore your boundaries, and grow them, all while breathing well, is all preparation to apply yoga out in the world. When you are on the make you cultivate presence and awareness. Are you bringing that into your daily life? Consider how you feel after a satisfying yoga practice. Words like present, calm, and centered may come to your mind. Your body feels good, your mind relaxes and becomes more at ease, and your energy feels balanced. It feels so good that it keeps you coming back for more. […]

My Journey to Contentment

When I was younger I dreamed of traveling the world. In college, I studied abroad and did a fair amount of traveling. After graduation, I moved across the country to San Francisco and got a job in the field I had studied at school. My career was going well and I was up for a promotion. On the outside, my life looked great. But on the inside, I was longing for something I could not quite put my finger on. There was an itch I was looking to satisfy. So I left my job and began exploring a new path. In the midst of all of this, I found yoga – though it felt a little more like yoga found me. In any case, it was as if I had come home. Somehow I knew this was my path. At the time, I did not quite understand or know the depths of it. Looking back, I realize […]

Musings on Movement

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 […]

Mobility and Enlivenment

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, […]