The Yoga Sutras: Learning Through Experience Not long ago, I found a link to a short autobiographical account of B.K.S. Iyengar’s journey into yoga. He began his journey into yoga at age...
Yoga 101: Dharana – The 6th Limb I come from a musical family. My parents were both classical singers and my sisters and I all grew up playing piano and other instruments. I...
Yoga 101 – Saucha The yamas and niyamas give us guidance about living our daily lives. But they can also provide a framework for our asana practice and teaching. A...
Yoga 101: Pratyahara – The 5th Limb When I was in college, my roommates and I listened to music non-stop. We studied to Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and cleaned house to the...
Yoga 101: Pranayama – The Fourth Limb Every living being breathes. This includes all animals—even single-celled ones—and all plant life. Human beings take an average of 23,000 breaths each day. Our...
Yoga 101: Asana – The 3rd Limb Asana, the physical practice, is the most recognizable of the eight limbs of yoga. If you mention “yoga,” most people will automatically picture a person in...
Yoga 101: Niyamas – The 2nd Limb Many years ago, I read an interview with Rajiv and Swati Chanchani in Yoga Rahasya, an Iyengar Yoga publication from India. In the article, they shared...
Yoga 101: Yama – The 1st Limb In a recent post, I wrote about the Eight Limbs of Yoga. The Eight Limbs are a framework for practicing all aspects of the system of...
Yoga 101: The Eight Limbs A few weeks ago, I posted a blog that sketched out a very basic outline of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Of course, the sutras can’t...
Yoga 101: What is Yoga? What is yoga? A couple weeks ago, I attempted to summarize the different aspects of yoga. But I stated the caveat that yoga is not so...
Yoga 101: Defining Yoga What is yoga? Good question. And you’re not likely to get a concrete answer. When a philosophy has been around as long as yoga has, perhaps...
Women in Yoga: A Short History Walk into almost any yoga asana class and the first thing you’ll notice is that the overwhelming majority of students are women. For at least some...
Mindful Speech: The Power of Words If you like to keep up with national politics, this year is a doozy. The interesting clash of personalities has made the dialog perhaps even more...
How Mindfulness Can Help Your New Year Resolutions Stick Mindfulness for a New Year I want to say at the outset that I’ve never been big on New Year’s resolutions. It’s not that resolving to...
Santosha: A Different Holiday Yoga Practice How Practicing Santosha Can Bring the Magic Back I’m not sure when the winter holidays began being equated with stress, but I think I know why....
Ahimsa: Dynamic Peacefulness on the Mat Most who practice yoga these days have heard of the word ahimsa. We might have even read some of the in-depth literature on it, or practiced...
The Season of Generosity ’Tis the Season of Generosity One of my clearest, most nostalgic memories from growing up is that of the excitement of Christmas morning. Our parents would...
Cultivating Everyday Karma Everyday Karma in My Garden A few years ago, I dug up the sod in my front yard and parking strip to replace it with drought...