When we moved to Northampton in 2007 I had two months of yoga teaching under my belt. I knew a handful of people in the Pioneer Valley and had almost no money and no prospects other than a Wednesday night yoga class at the Hampshire Regional YMCA. I didn’t really know what I wanted out …
“I am balanced. I am calm. I am steady.” Sitting on my mat during centering in a yoga class this week, this phrase or mantra floated into my mind. Without much effort I just started saying it to myself over and over as I went about my business. The mantra was there in my morning …
Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole, not toward one “object” of love. If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to the rest of his fellow men, …
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 »
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness. -unknown* Sunday night this week after getting into bed I started up a very old, very familiar fight with my husband. All of you in …
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 …
Monday when I walked into my intermediate class everyone was sprawled out on their mat about two minutes away from sleep. One sure sign we need to do inversions is seeing a room full of exhausted people. So I did an arm balance class. There is nothing that gets blood flowing to the brain faster …
The Power of Inversions: What We Gain From Turning It Upside Down Read More »
There is a concept in theater called the Fourth Wall. If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry about it, I made it through four years of art school without knowing what it was. The idea is when you are in your audience chair you will never be directly spoken to if the fourth wall …
One of the fundamental differences between yoga and other group exercise endeavors is the emotion. Your basic practitioner, ie someone who hasn’t read the books, attended numerous retreats at Kripalu, doesn’t know how to put a yoga mat in the overhead containers on an airplane, also may not know about emotions. The body holds stories …
In the wake of tragedy there is a precedence of dangerous behavior long after the violence ends. That is where our country stands even today, days later. Everywhere I look and listen, I hear two strong emotions: fear and anger. We don’t need to be angry and we don’t need to be afraid right now. …