As I start 2010 I find myself turning more and more to kundalini yoga in my home practice, with some hatha yoga as my warm-up. I do the hatha yoga to stretch and tone, and the kundalini yoga kicks it up a notch with the powerful breath and meditation techniques. Where kundalini yoga kicks hatha’s [...]
Read the rest of It’s the Breath: Kundalini vs. Hatha Yoga for Stress
I actually got into a decent night-time yoga routine before bed while I was visiting family for the holidays. I live on the West Coast; they live on the East Coast. I was always up after everyone else went to bed. I find that doing some gentle hatha yoga before bed calms my mind down [...]
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I was doing really well with my yoga practice – I was doing yoga almost every day at home and going to classes at least once a week. Then I took a trip to Mexico for a weekend, came back with a touch of Montezuma, Halloween hit, then the election, and I’ve been trying to [...]
Read the rest of In a Yoga Hole
My hamstrings have been tight all my life. When I first started doing yoga in my twenties I could not touch my toes. I never thought I would get to the point where I might see my head near my knee. Well, I was doing a standing forward fold last night before bedtime. I don’t [...]
Read the rest of Forward Bend Breakthrough!!
I’m obviously not a Bikram gal. It’s been in the 90s here this past week and I have no air conditioning. Why? Because normally the weather is a lovely, balmy 70s during the summer in my part of town. But it’s been getting hotter lately (global warming?)…too hot. Some nights it’s stayed in the 80s [...]
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I’ve just started learning the Bikram series at home. Living in Los Angeles, I’d actually love to experience the bombastic personality Bikram in person (his school is a short drive away), but I can’t. Hot yoga is counterindicated for my chronic fatigue syndrome. (CFS sufferers have a tendency towards orthostatic hypotension, which means we have [...]
Read the rest of Thoughts on the Bikram Series
OK…first off, I take absolutely NO RESPONSIBILITY for your use of the following method. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! As I’ve stated in an earlier blog post on Bikram, I just can’t see how I’d enjoy an overheated room while doing yoga. I’ve been taking some classes in 90 degree weather recently and I [...]
Read the rest of Hamstrings + Heating Pad = Success!
I am starting my yoga teacher training tomorrow, and physically I am soooo not ready. I caught that nasty cold that’s been going around, and my yoga practice in the last week and a half has been practically zilch. I’ll be aching at the end of the weekend. Well, at least the training will force [...]
Read the rest of Teacher Training: Completely Unprepared
Took a class at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center last night. I guess Sivananda Yoga is not considered trendy or flashy these days, being “classical yoga” and all that, but still, I wonder why more people don’t take the classes there. With a $35/year membership, drop-in classes are only $10. This is insanely cheap for [...]
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Sometimes we can get spoiled in Los Angeles, seeing as it’s the American hub of yoga. We’ve got the best yoga teachers and the best yoga studios in the country. I’ve already studied with Shiva Rea; last night I ventured bravely out to Hollywood for a Full Moon Yoga class with Gurmukh at Golden Bridge. [...]
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