Search Results for: yoga yoga practice

Safety Tips for Your Yoga Practice

Yoga is an ancient practice that offers significant physical, health, mental and spiritual benefits. While yoga is safe and effective for improving strength, flexibility, balance and overall health and wellness, there can be a risk of injury if an asana is not performed properly or you push your body too far. There are some tips to help you avoid injuries in your yoga practice, whether you take classes at a yoga studio or practice at home. Taking the time to learn the poses and follow some basic safety tips can help you prevent injuries that can derail your practice. Many … Continue reading →

Book Review: Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness

Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness by Erich Schiffmann is a comprehensive yoga manual. If you want to deepen your practice, this book offers something for beginners and experienced yogis. Schiffmann covers a wide range of topics, including asanas, breathing, and meditation and finding stillness. This book has the potential to change the way you practice. You will learn how to find that sense of inner relaxation and stillness and use yoga for the release of fear, to soften perceptions, and become balanced, centered. Yoga and meditation create a feeling of deep inner stillness that Schiffmann describes … Continue reading →

Relax Deeply for an Effective Restorative Yoga Practice

Restorative yoga offers significant benefits for people who are tired, stressed, over worked and having trouble with insomnia or another sleep disorder. The deep relaxation of a restorative yoga practice releases tension and calms the central nervous system, which can bring lasting relief. A restorative practice calms the body and mind and stops the overload of stress hormones released in the body as a result of stress, fatigue and lack of rest. Rather than a vigorous practice, restorative yoga allows you to rest and open the body and mind naturally without exerting the body. The key to effective relaxation is … Continue reading →

Book: The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice by TKV Desikachar

The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice: TKV Desikachar is the son of Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, one of the greatest modern yogis. Krishnamacharya lived over 100 years and his teachings have influenced BKS Iyengar, Indra Devi and his son, who has based this book on his fathers concept of viniyoga. Viniyoga maintains that for the optimal therapeutic benefit, yoga must be adapted to the needs of the individual student. The adaptations that are required are always changing, as the needs of the individual are always in flux. In this book, Desikachar discusses his father’s system and his own approach. … Continue reading →

Book Review: Create a Yoga Practice for Kids

Yoga offers many benefits to children, such as improving concentration and focus, promoting calm and reducing stress. If you have wanted to teach your child the benefit of yoga, but haven’t found the right resources, Create a Yoga Practice for Kids by Yael Calhoun and Matthew Calhoun may help. There are a growing number of programs for children and parents are sharing their practice with their kids for the physical and emotional benefits. This book provides an easy way to introduce children to yoga. It’s a good choice for parents, teachers and yoga teachers working with children. One thing that … Continue reading →

Book Review: A Year of Living Your Yoga: Daily Practices to Shape Your Life

A Year of Living Your Yoga: Daily Practices to Shape Your life by PT Judith Hanson Lasater Ph.D. is a good selection for anyone interested in living the yoga lifestyle and taking the practice off the mat and into the rest of your life. The book contains a short thought and suggested practice for every day of the year. The author conducts yoga retreats in Montana. The thoughts and suggested practices in the book are taken from her experiences in yoga and retreats. For every day of the year, there is a thought or bit of wisdom, along with a … Continue reading →

How to Get the Most from Your Yoga Practice

If you have practiced yoga, even sporadically, you are aware that it is more than just exercise. Yoga is a fulfilling practice that offers a broad range of physical and mental benefits. There are a few things you can do to get the most out of your yoga practice. Find the right place to get the most of your practice. This varies according to the individual. Some love to practice at home because it is convenient and fits with their schedules. Others have too many distractions in the house or small children and prefer getting away from it all at … Continue reading →

A Few Yoga Flows to Get Your Daily Practice Started

There is no better time than the beginning of the year to incorporate a yoga practice into your routine. You don’t need to worry about spending an hour or even twenty minutes to enjoy the benefits. A few minutes of stretching in the morning can help you start your day off right. Starting out with short sessions will help you build your yoga practice. The Sun Salutations just happen to be a great way to start the day. The coordination of breath with each movement asks the mind to focus and the poses stretch and awaken the body. The following … Continue reading →

Avoiding Injury with Your Yoga Practice

The fact that yoga is not high-impact makes a lot of people skeptical about believing that someone could get injured doing it. I will be the first person to recommend yoga to people who are afraid of getting injured by other forms of exercise, or who have a previous condition that they don’t want to aggravate, so the last thing I want to do is scare anyone away from trying it. However, just like anything else, it is possible to get injured if you aren’t careful. Stick with the following to make sure that you have a healthy and safe … Continue reading →

Yoga Moves to Relieve Pregnancy Pain

On Monday I shared a list of positions that can help ease pain during labor.  As a follow-up, I thought I’d share some of the moves that I’ve learned in prenatal yoga that can help with some common aches and pains during pregnancy. One of the biggest complaints in pregnancy is pain in the bladder/round ligament reason.  My daughter set up shop on top of my bladder once I was about four months along, and it’s been her favorite spot ever since, much to my discomfort.  I’ve learned a number of moves in class that really help when I’m having … Continue reading →