Teaching Yoga

I remember the first time I was able to hold myself up in Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose). After spending a year struggling with lifting my...

What does a yoga community look like? If you go by photos on social media, you’re likely to picture endless sea of yoga mats, their occupants...

Years ago, I attended a yoga teacher training with a well-known teacher. The teacher shared lots of helpful information about alignment and adjustments. Early in the...

For my first 10 years of yoga teaching, I followed popular alignment orthodoxy. In standing poses such as Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) and Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II...

A few years ago there was yoga culture controversy over a teacher who was fired from a corporate yoga class for discouraging cell phone use in...

In 1988, I attended my first silent Insight Meditation retreat. I noticed one thing right off—how incredibly out-of-control my mind is. But as my mind began...

Betsy was tall, lanky and tanned. She loved to swim and take beach vacations with her family. Betsy loved a good joke, and knew how to...

In the past two weeks the pile of unopened mail in my kitchen has grown taller and more unruly. Every so often I try to neaten...

Most of my students have been attending my classes for many years—some for decades. When a newbie comes to class, they often remark that their fellow...

Decades ago the film, Annie Hall, embellished a famous quote about the art of teaching. In the film the quote went like this: “Those who can’t...

Some years ago, a yoga teaching colleague related a story about a student at her studio who suffers from a rare neurological condition that causes tremors....

Utthita Parsvakonasana (Side Angle Pose) is a pillar among standing poses. It combines strong grounding with expansion and spinal rotation. It looks like a lateral stretch,...

Last weekend I guest taught for a local yoga teacher training. In the 300-hour training, I gave a talk on Iyengar Yoga and offered thoughts and...

Range of Motion is Different For Everyone Have you ever wanted to get into an intermediate or advanced yoga class and been told that you had...

What is a Yoga Voice and How is it Different From Your Authentic Voice? For almost three decades, the outgoing message on my home voice mail...

One of the most frequent questions students ask in my classes is, “What should I be feeling in this position?” I always give a non-answer to...

Until the 20th century, yoga—the whole system—was always taught one on one. An aspiring yogi studied with their yoga mentor often for decades. Over the years,...

Ahimsa (non-harming) is the cornerstone of the Yamas (the ethical principles of yoga). As the first principle of the first of yoga’s Eight Limbs, ahimsa can...