The Hugger Mugger Yoga Blog

Scientific studies have shown that meditation has many benefits—calming the mind and body, promoting general wellbeing, even increasing brain cells in certain areas of the brain....

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you practice yoga. And chances are, you practice because it feels good. If you teach yoga, you probably do so...

In the Insight meditation tradition, breath awareness is the first technique we practice. Observing our breath creates an anchor for the restless mind. Of course, practicing...

In 1989 I went to India for a three-week intensive with B.K.S. Iyengar and his daughter, Geeta. Mr. Iyengar had just turned 70, and Geeta was...

Restorative Yoga is a form of “power yoga.” It doesn’t look anything like what we usually call “Power Yoga,” but it’s nonetheless a powerful practice. The...

Before 1993 I enjoyed the luxury of moral certainty. I was pretty good at separating the “good people” from the “bad people.” Good people were kind,...

I’ve been ambivalent about the phrase “yoga pose” for a while. At one point, I resolved to stop using it. But it wasn’t easy. Thirty-plus years...

If your idea of Restorative Yoga comes only from photos you’ve seen of it—looks boring, you might say—your view is likely not accurate. While it’s true...

I was not born with a lot of hubris. When I started teaching yoga, I knew there was lots more to learn. But I felt that...

From time to time, I’ve been exploring metta (kindness) meditation in this blog. The first installment covered practicing kindness for an easy being—someone, human or animal,...

In a previous post, I wrote about the using Sanskrit vs. English names when you teach yoga poses. The answer, as in so much of yoga...

On every silent Insight Meditation retreat I’ve attended—at The Last Resort in Southern Utah, or at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California—meals have always been...

On January 22nd, a bright light gently flickered out. Vietnamese Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh, 95, left his body. Nhat Hanh was known as a meditation...

A former longtime student recently told me that she had to stop coming to yoga classes because she just couldn’t make herself sit out poses that...

Everybody wants to be happy. So why do so many of us feel dissatisfied? There’s a variety of reasons that we might feel unhappy or unfulfilled....

Our breath is like the flywheel that controls and regulates all our physiological processes. The rhythm of our breath regulates our heartbeat, among other things. This,...

Have you fallen away from your yoga practice? It happens to almost everyone. We get busier. Our schedules shift and we can’t make it to our...

People come in all shapes, sizes and levels of strength and flexibility. Because of this, B.K.S. Iyengar invented yoga props to help everyone achieve comfort and...