On December 30, 2013 I went into my two Monday morning classes at the Hampshire Regional YMCA in Northampton, MA and asked my regulars to look back at their year of practice and acknowledge (and share if they like) their top five accomplishments from this year. My mother (Linda Hill, also a yoga teacher) went …
Real Yoga Students Share Top Five Results of Their Yoga Practice in 2013 Read More »
At any given moment life is a certain amount of busy. What is important to realize is there are events in life that produce more stress on our bodies than we know or even think they should. I’ve always liked the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory as it quantifies stress in a very objective way. It says divorce is …
I have this new rule for blogging. If I hear of something more than 4 or 5 times from my patients in a two-week period I write about it. Call me silly, but this whole sharing a universe thing makes me think we are subject to the same twists and turns of fate. So today …
Anniversaries: Honoring The Good, The Bad and The Horrid Read More »
Some yoga teachers worry about inversions, others worry about forward folds, I am obsessed with Savasana. Yes, you could do some serious damage in headstand and a forward fold with a herniated disk is terrible. These are plenty of things to worry about. As a teacher I’m trained to always be looking for the person …
Savasana: A Guide To The Most Beloved Of Postures Read More »
This has been the summer of weddings. Three weeks ago we were in Colorado, then we were in London and soon we will be driving south for a beach wedding in mid September. It has been an exceptional amount of travel in a teeny amount of time and I am an easily overwhelmed traveler. With …
Hitting the Ground Running: Why Speedy Recoveries Are Overrated Read More »
The four diaphragms of the body: arches of the feet, pelvic floor, breathing diaphragm and soft palate are key components to the Embodyoga system. They are seen as soft supports for the bones, muscles and organs that are piled up on top of them. But Her Majesty The Breathing Diaphragm is far and away my favorite. It …
For a long time I’ve resisted the concept of gratitude. It is a buzz word in the mindfulness world and lots of people are doing gratitude meditations, radical acceptance workshops and all sorts of practices that encourage one to take notice of the blessings in their lives. For the last few years I’ve known that my …
I wrote about stress during my Emotions Series. But there is one component of it that has been on my mind lately. Most disease in the body caused by stress is often deemed as cure-less. And believe me it is, if we disempower the person by saying it is hopeless unless they shut the stress off. The important …
Stress: Why It Isn’t A Switch We Can Just Turn Off Read More »
It is amazing how many people come in and check off “Fear” under the Emotions category of my health history form and then when I start to ask questions correct themselves and say it is worry. It might be helpful in addressing fear to return to my Worry post or my post on a recent skiing trip, Outside …
I feel moderately obligated to skip ahead and talk about fear with all this snow buzz, but as I’ve spent all week treating spiked levels of stress I must stay true to course. The most dangerous aspect of stress is thinking that it is inevitable. Don’t get me wrong there are going to be times …