Yoga Practice

I first came to Utah in 1982, planning to stay a couple years. Like so many best-laid plans, my life proceeded to go its own way. What first caused me to forget my intention to leave Utah was the landscape, both the ever-so-accessible alpine beauty of the Wasatch and the otherworldly landscapes in the south. As time passed, the community I’ve come to love solidified my roots here. In the ‘80s, I hiked every single weekend in the spring, summer and fall, and camped a dozen times a year. I especially loved hiking on slickrock and hopping boulders. In my...

The holidays are a mixed bag. On the one hand, they’re fun. We get to turn our focus to reconnecting with friends and family. On the other hand, adding lots of extra commitments into our calendar can create feelings of stress. It's not always easy to fit more commitments into our schedules. Then there’s shopping, wrapping, mailing, etc. All these things can add up to a feeling of being overwhelmed. Yoga—including asana, pranayama and meditation—can help. Here are some ways to use your yoga practice to relieve potential holiday stress. I call it developing holiday presence.   4 Ways to Develop...

More than 25 years ago I decided that I would ingest only foods that would contribute to my health and well-being, and avoid “non-foods” that have no nutritional value. Things like chemical-ridden processed foods and zero-nutrition soft drinks were officially off my food list. I haven’t eaten meat since 1978, and spent about 12 years on a vegan diet before returning to eating occasional eggs and goat or sheep cheese. I eat local, organic and homegrown foods whenever possible and always cook from scratch. Fortunately, I love to cook. There are times when I enjoy eating sweet treats at friends’...

Almost every Thanksgiving for the past 25 years, I’ve taught my 7:30 am yoga class. It would certainly be easier to sleep in on what is usually a busy day in the kitchen. Instead, my students and I enjoy regenerating with Thanksgiving yoga to prepare for the day ahead. Years ago, we practiced mostly abdominal and digestive poses. In recent years, I’ve added restorative yoga to the mix. For some, holiday gatherings can be exhausting. Whether it’s the work involved or the heightened social interaction, holidays can take a toll. Restorative yoga helps smooth out our nervous systems and renew...

When we think of balancing poses,  Vrksasana (Tree Pose) or Hasta Padangusthasana (Standing Big-Toe Pose) often come to mind. But standing on one foot is not the only way to develop the skill of balancing. We can balance on our rear ends, as in Ubhaya Padangusthasana. We can balance on our arms and hands, as in Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand) or Bakasana (Crow Pose). We can even balance on hands and knees, as in Parsva Balasana (Bird Dog Pose). Balancing poses not only teach the extremely valuable skill of balancing, but they can also help us collect a fragmented mind. They...

Trees are our partners in keeping this living, breathing planet alive. We inhale the oxygen that trees exhale, and they inhale the carbon dioxide we exhale. We are inextricably tied together. Trees can also teach us about the importance of cultivating roots. While only the trunk, branches and leaves are usually visible to us, the roots of most trees are just as massive as what’s above ground. Knowing that this complex invisible root system is what keeps a tree upright can teach us about grounding our own bodies. Vrksasana (Tree Pose) emulates the steady, rooted stance of a tree. When...

Human beings breathe an average of 23,000 times a day. That’s about 8.5 million breaths a year. These millions of breaths are literally keeping us alive. The breath is so important to our lives that it is the only autonomic function that we can easily control. Legend has it that ancient yoga masters could control the speed of their heartbeat. But how did they do it? By controlling their breathing. In a process called “sinus arrhythmia,” each time we inhale, our heartbeat speeds up a little. Each exhalation, it slows down. So lengthening either the inhalation or exhalation, practicing three-part...

“It is through the body that everything comes to the mind. It is through and with your body that you have to reach realization of being a spark of divinity. How can we neglect the temple of the spirit?” — B.K.S. Iyengar (Sparks of Divinity, Shambhala Publications) When I first read Iyengar’s quote many years ago I interpreted this way: It is through our practice of asana, at those times when we lose the struggle and become the asana, that we see into our true nature, the undefined spaciousness that connects us all. This still rings true for me. Asana...

Last week, I wrote about ways to ease your transition into fall. In the post, I suggested traditional grounding poses such as balancing poses and standing poses. In addition, I recommended nervous system-calming restorative yoga. Restorative yoga is not about stretching. It’s about easing into a supported position so that your body can release tension and agitation. It’s about creating the conditions that allow your body to open naturally and to shift from the sympathetic (fight-or-flight) to the parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) nervous system. We in the West seem to consider the idea of setting aside time to relax as being non-productive...

The “shoulder seasons”—spring and fall—are often cited as favorites. According to a Gallup poll, more people favor spring and fall over summer (which is actually not far behind fall) and winter. The shoulder seasons give us relief from the relentless, predictable heat and cold of summer and winter. The shoulder seasons can also be quite unpredictable. For example, just last week, it was a crisp 40 degrees one morning. The next day, the overnight low was 65. The daytime highs climbed back to the upper 80s after a few days of lovely 70-degree temps. These changes can be disorienting and...