The yoga practice may not necessarily make you think of the word ‘strong’ - but it’s a common misconception that the practice is all about getting bendy and flexible. Yoga can actually be a great addition to strength training and can make you more powerful and strong both in the gym and your day-to-day life.
Combining yoga with strength training can not only make you stronger - it can actually help reduce your risk of pain and injury. Read on to find out how.
Yoga is a form of bodyweight training
If you’re working on a specific set of muscles, perhaps to increase strength in these areas, or for aesthetic reasons, it can be easy to neglect the other muscles in your body - which can hinder your progress. Yoga as bodyweight training can help to even things out in your body.
When you practice yoga, it uses all of your muscle groups to create overall strength. The longer you hold yoga poses, the more endurance your muscles will gain. In particular, yoga focuses on building strength in abs, obliques, and lower back - which are the core stabilizer muscles.
Yoga can stretch your tight muscles
If you’re no stranger to strength training, you’ll know that tight muscles and limited range of motion can kick in and affect your gains. Tight muscles are caused by; either the length of inactivity - if you work a desk job you may be more at risk of this, injury, or post-workout, which can also be used as delayed onset muscle soreness.
Yoga can help to release tension in tight muscles, by using both static and dynamic stretching. This will increase flexibility, reducing soreness, and increasing your range of motion. If you lift heavy weights, this is vital in improving your recovery time and will get you back in the gym in no time.
Yoga improves joint health
Strength training can strengthen your muscles that surround the joints, which allow them to remain stable and able to absorb impact. However, joint health also relies on something called synovial fluid. This fluid moves around the joints, allowing the bones to smoothly move over each other without any friction. Synovial fluid also delivers much-needed nutrients and oxygen to cartilage. Yoga can aid in this by circulating synovial fluid to the joints, promoting joint health.
Yoga improves balance
Core training is crucial for improving strength, and balance has a huge part to play in your core strength. Balancing poses in yoga can help to build that deep core strength, as well as improving your coordination and stamina. All of this combined will improve your movement efficiency and allow you to work through your strength workouts with more and more ease.
Yoga improves breathing
Lifting weights, we might not focus on our breathing skills - but it can make a huge difference in the success of your workout. Yoga helps to improve your breath efficiency, allowing you to take deeper breaths, through your nose. This focus on your breath will eventually train you to use your full lung capacity. Deeper breaths and using all of your lungs will help to push yourself that little bit harder in your workouts, improving your strength and endurance.
Increasing your drive
If you want to lift heavier and push yourself harder in your workout, yoga can be a great way to increase your strength and improve your performance in strength training. Yoga can help to activate muscles that you’re not using in your regular workouts, as well as improving your flexibility and range of motion. These things can help to boost your drive in your workout, letting you improve your strength.
If you’re now on board and are looking to improve your strength with yoga, there are also a few ways to make your practice more effective for developing muscle strength.
Holding poses for longer, for example, will push your body more and allow you to get more out of each pose. You will start to feel that burn, and if your muscles start to shake or wobble - this means you’re working on increasing your strength! However, make sure you’re not causing your body any pain, especially in the back or knees.
Repeating poses can also add some extra strength work to your practice. Once you've decided what muscle groups to work on, you can select the poses that work on these muscles, and repeat them a few times to boost your workout.
For an extra boost, add weights to some yoga poses. While yoga is a bodyweight workout, you can always increase that weight to increase your strength. Ankle weights are great for this, but you can also add hand weights to poses to improve your arm strength.
Power yoga is also an extremely powerful way to get some strength training in. Ashtanga yoga, is also a more intense workout, with harder poses that move quickly. It’s like a cardio workout that also pushes your muscles to work harder.
By Amy Cavill
Ready to get strong and improve your yoga practice? Practice this Fitness 'n' Yoga Bootcamp and start noticing results!
Are you ready to kick off March with a 7-day Fitness and Yoga Bootcamp designed to have you feeling at the top of your game? If you struggle to fit in workouts and yoga, but don’t want to miss any of the physical, mental, and emotional benefits from both, this week’s program is for you. And if you’re simply feeling bored with your current routine, try this package as an adrenaline boost to spark your motivation.
Here are 3 reasons not to miss this Bootcamp:
1. Perfect Balance of Strength and Stretch
One of the guiding principles in yoga is Sthira Sukham Asanam, translated as saying yoga postures should be a balance of effort and ease. Learning to find appropriate muscular engagement, while also relaxing and breathing into a yoga pose takes practice. A lot of practice! This program embodies this principle, by alternately focusing on yoga, fitness, energizing, and relaxing postures.
The fitness classes help you get stronger, which in turn will help you with proper muscular engagement during yoga. Yoga helps you remain supple so you can perform all your favorite activities, sports, and workouts for years to come. It’s all about balance.
2. Efficient and Time-Saving
We don’t know about you, but often it’s tough to fit everything into your schedule. Between professional and personal responsibilities, squeezing in both a workout and a yoga session can feel impossible. Classes like the HIIT + Flow ensure you are doing a well-rounded workout and a complementary yoga session all in one class. Fusion classes are the perfect way to have the best of both worlds. And Ben Davis knows how to make them fun!
3. Eliminate Guess Work and Just do it!
Another time-saving benefit of this week’s program is you don’t need to think about it. Just press play and practice the classes in the order provided and voila, you’re done. There is comfort in trusting that an expert teacher has designed this program with you, the student, in mind, with a specific goal of saving you time and ensuring that you’re achieving the perfect balance of challenging workouts, active rest days, and the all-important full recovery day.
Join us for the challenge and see how much stronger and calmer you feel!
I love spice, and if I had to choose only one type of food to eat until the rest of my life, tacos would be very high on the list! They are incredibly versatile, and I always love to pile them with a ton of fresh ingredients. There always needs to be a spice element and always something crunchy. I am pretty sure that Mexicans would disapprove of this recipe because eggplant in tacos is far from traditional, but for me, it works!
Preparing soft tacos is pretty straightforward. Besides water and salt, you only need masa harina flour. I am sure that tortilla press makes preparing them even easier, but rolling them out between two pieces of parchment paper works well enough for me. The tortillas do not need to be 100% round and uniform in size. They are, after all, homemade tortillas, and nobody expects them to be perfect. Saying that – if you don’t feel like baking the tortillas from scratch, feel free to use store-bought small tortillas, and the dinner will be served in even less time.
One thing to keep in mind preparing this recipe is that the eggplant needs to be eaten quickly, or it will get soggy. One way to keep it crispy longer would be to fry the eggplant sticks instead of baking them, but I prefer keeping them on the healthier side. I recommend preparing everything else in advance and letting the eggplant sticks be the last ingredient added to the tacos right before eating them.
Homemade Tacos with Crispy Eggplant
Yields: 6 tacos
Cooking time: 40 minutes
For the taco dough:
1 cup masa harina flour
2/3 cup very warm water
A pinch of salt
For the crispy eggplant:
1 medium eggplant
Salt
1/3 cup hot sauce
1/3 cup rapeseed oil
½ cup panko breadcrumbs
To serve:
Red cabbage
Avocado
Tomatoes
Spring onions
Cilantro
Lime wedges
And whatever else you fancy
Instructions:
Start by cutting the eggplant to 2/3 inch sticks, sprinkle them with salt, and set aside until you prepare the dough.
For the dough, mix masa harina with warm water and a sprinkle of salt. The ratios here are the ones that work with the flour I used today, but it might very well be that you need a little more or a little less water because the flours are different. Just mix the dough with given ratios by hand and add more water or flour as needed. The goal is the dough that sticks together but is not wet. Once you have a nice ball of dough, set it aside to rest.
Mix the hot sauce with oil in a bowl and sprinkle panko crumbs to a large plate.
Preheat the oven to 400F and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.
The eggplant should be covered with drops of moisture by now. Pat it very dry with a paper towel and throw the eggplant sticks into the bowl with hot sauce and oil. Mix to cover all the pieces equally.
Take the sauce soaked eggplant slices and dip them to panko crumbs. Then place them on the baking sheet making sure the sticks are not touching each other—Bake for 20 minutes with a fan on, turning them once halfway through the baking time.
Come back to your dough. Divide it to 6 equal pieces. In case you have a tortilla press, use that. I don’t have one, so my method is to roll the dough out between two parchment paper pieces. Roll one tortilla at the time, carefully place it on the hot pan, and bake for about a minute on both sides. Repeat the same with the rest of the dough balls.
Between rolling out tortillas and flipping them, you probably also have time to chop up everything else you wish to add to your tacos – tomatoes, onion, avocado is always a must for me, but feel free to add anything from hummus to tofu.
To serve, place a warm tortilla on the plate, add a mountain of fresh stuff and top with crispy eggplant. Always leave the eggplant last on your pile to keep it as crisp as possible.
By Kadri Raig
Kadri is a food blogger and yoga teacher from Estonia. She loves to spend time in the kitchen, but most of her recipes are simple and don’t take more than 20 minutes of active cooking time. She thinks that everybody can find time to cook healthy food at home, it is just a question of planning. "I work in an office full time, teach yoga 7-8 hours a week and write a blog. So if I manage to cook most of my meals, then so do you!" Connect with Kadri and enjoy many more of her delicious healthy recipes on her website here: www.kahvliga.ee.
Enjoy this FREE 25-Minute yoga class from home, before your delicious tacos!
25-Minute Full Body Yoga with Keith Allen
This lunation marks the next phase in divine evolutionary development. The Full Moon moves the collective forward into the next level of divine will and alignment of plan after the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on December 20th. The physical realm is being broken down and reshaped.
This moon will work to move the soul forward, to aid in materializing forces by concretizing previous experiences and aiding to provide more gusto in creative impulses. There will be a surge of cosmic lifeforce uniting with individual lifeforce (prana) to aid in the divine plan to materialize along this next evolution.
At the Full Moon the Sun, Moon, and Mars will enter specific archetypal points which will highlight the planetary energies working through this Full Moon. Venus and Sun will combust in Aquarius. This energy is working for creative processes of divine will, and not for interrelational love, but will require more self-love, and love within presence. It is union with divine will for soul manifestation. Dream bigger, what you imagined may limit what is intended for you. The mind has been expanding and as a collective, we have ascended great heights in such a truncated time. This moon will mark the pivot of another evolutionary phase- a celestial mile marker.
During this moon, a few worldly aspects will try you. The ‘worldly’ may trigger control mechanisms as this shift occurs; it is recreating the framework which divine plan will be created through you. Many of you will doubt, many of you will face inner opposition, what you think you knew may be broken to show you the true path or a broader perspective of divine plan. These energies are drawing down cosmic prana to purify the vessel and sustain a greater evolution within the individual and the collective.
A purification and awakening of the conduit (self) will open new avenues for divine expression on another level of consciousness and manifested reality. What you see of yourself within this world, how you execute and create, and what you believe is possible is shifting completely. Staying focused on freeing your mind, devoted and humble in the day-to-day tasks, service to the mundane, will help you stay open to the downpour and free from the ego. Divine responsibilities will come to the forefront for many. Can you be the devoted being, to your highest, not swayed by personal desires, but driven through divine plan and service?
I must add that because these energies are purifying the individual and will create courage to expand and enlighten, it is important to create peace with what is released. A heavy precedence on general welfare and wellness will come to light. This can show in both the negative of holding greed out of concern for personal welfare, or in the positive of using more lifeforce to create better welfare.
The planetary energies will encourage you to look beyond self needs, to trust that you-personally, are taken care of. Only then can the wealth of divine prana flow through an aligned being. Anything that goes against that will come into question. Now is the time to double down. Apply enthusiasm, joy, and innocence to what you’re being led to. Give it love, life, and it will flourish.
To move confidently as you are guided, one step at a time. Divine impulse is transcending selfish near-sighted desires. The merging of lifeforcee with divine at this lunation there is a downpour of universal energy to bring forward new creative realities. Cleanse the framework, allow new activating forces to awaken beyond personal or single-minded desires and endeavors. Relinquish the path and follow the light. This moon will show falsification, be mindful of superiority complexes and overly competitive natures do not rear their ugly heads.
You are being asked to sit in the One, The All, yet own your uniqueness. To be connected to source, yet so resolute in your individual truth. Things will not make sense, logic is just making its way back into the mind, and will serve the divine plan, not personification. Be nimble, trusting, and open to the unseen greatness that awaits.
Be well my loves,
Geenie (Gemma) Celento For a personal astrology reading and 6 month personal forecast, book here.
Geenie, also known as Gemma, is an Ayurvedic Practitioner, astrologer and student of the Sri Vidya Tantric lineage. Her classes on YogaDownload are often inspired by astrology and aimed to guide each student to unfold a deeper connection from within. Her diverse knowledge and continued studies in the spiritual sciences can be felt in her class offerings. With humble devotion Gemma weaves the wisdom of yogic practices into accessible and impactful mat experiences. Her website is here.
Practice the Yoga & Astrology series with Geenie now!
Yoga is one of the most helpful and healthy ways to directly benefit your riding. From stretching, to strength, to balance, yoga has you covered to be a better snowboarder. Here is why!
Stretching: Staying limber is one of the most important things you can do to keep your body healthy for snowboarding. Basic yoga, done before and after snowboarding, will help prevent injury due to falls, and keep your body less sore after a day of shredding. It’s like performing preventative maintenance on your car.
Flexibility will help you when learning how to snowboard, and help your body perform at its best when you are engaging in such a physically demanding sport. It will also help your body move without restriction. There are so many directions and movements your body must go through while riding, that keeping yourself as flexible as possible is of utmost importance.
Balance: Balance is the name of the game with snowboarding. Yoga keeps your body balanced and in tune. Snowboarding is more of a directional sport like surfing, so your body will use some muscles more than others. Yoga helps keep your body centered. It helps your body remain balanced while in strange and foreign positions, like deep carves and time in the air. Simple poses like the Warrior poses and Tree pose are priceless movements to keep your body in balance and primed for riding. Not only will yoga help your body keep its balance, but it will also help you progress your riding as you step up to bigger terrain and more difficult maneuvers that require extreme balance. The balance acquired from the practice of yoga will help keep you in a flow state while riding. Like surfing, snowboarding is all about natural flow.
Strength: Staying strong but limber is a tough thing to do, but it is the most helpful thing you can do to set yourself up for snowboarding success. Core strength is the most important element for riding, as most of your balance, flow, and turning requires the use of your core. It’s a no brainer that yoga helps to develop a strong and limber core. Leg strength is also important because you are constantly flexing and using your muscles to absorb vibration and chatter while making beautiful turns. Strength in your core and shoulders will also help prevent injury in a fall or sudden avoidance of an obstacle. It will help you adapt to all the different kinds of terrain you may encounter on your board.
Clarity of Mind and Breathing: Keeping your mind clear and perfecting your breathing is one of the greatest benefits of yoga. This also directly relates to snowboarding. Starting your day with a clear mind will have great effects on your riding. It will help you keep your balance, your focus, and your mind free of distractions. Snowboarding is entirely in the moment, like yoga. Entering flow state is one of the most beautiful aspects of snowboarding, and is the ticket to escaping your worries and troubles. Practicing your breathing is critical because as you get tired, breathing can become rapid and shallow, and make things far more difficult than they need to be. Perfected breathing will keep you energized, relaxed, balanced, and will allow for more focus on the freedoms of snowboarding. There is no better feeling than entering a flow state.
Yoga and snowboarding go together like fish and water. It is something that will not only make you a better snowboarder but keep you riding for years to come.
Ready to give it a try before your day snowboarding on the mountain?
Power Up for Powder Days: Snowboarder Flow
Whether you’re working to improve that backswing on the fairway or perfect an inverted hand plant with a snowboard, incorporating a yoga practice into your routine can really help step up your sports game. In fact, doing yoga can make you better at just about every other sport you’re passionate about. And all you need is your body to make the magic happen!
Just ask professional athletes like Lebron James, golfer Lexi Thompson, snowboarder Emilien Badoux and the entire New York Yankees lineup. They — and their trainers and coaches — know that yoga offers both physical and mental benefits that translate both on and off the field. But here’s the good news: you don’t need to be a pro to reap the rewards of a regular practice.
While incorporating yoga on a rest day can be beneficial, timing your session so that you’re engaging in stretches right before or after your activity can multiply those benefits.
Here are three reasons why the timing of your yoga practice is crucial to athletic performance:
A good yoga warm-up can translate to better performance during your sport.
Most experts agree that static stretching should be saved for after your workout (more on that in a bit). But engaging in a yoga session that incorporates dynamic stretches is the perfect way to start your workout. A simple sun salutation can gently wake up your body to the activity it’s about to undertake. You can also hand-pick a series of dynamic stretches that specifically target the muscles you’re about to use in the workout ahead. Think lunges to open up the hips and quads for a day on the slopes and an arching-down-dog-to-knee-to-chest to engage your hip flexors and hammies for an endurance run. A good pre-sports yoga session is a low-impact way to prime your muscles for peak performance on the field while improving strength, balance, and flexibility.
Post-workout yoga stretches can help prevent injury and keep you in the game longer.
Ever woken up the morning after a grueling workout to find yourself on a bed-ridden struggle bus? Hello, sore muscles! A little post-activity yoga stretching can go a long way toward preventing that dreaded delayed-onset muscle soreness. And here’s where you’ll want to throw some static stretches into the mix — while they’ve been shown to impede performance before a workout, they can actually help increase range of motion, ward of stiffness, and safely bring down your heart rate when performed post-workout. For example, a post-tee time Revolved Crescent Lunge can help golfers stretch out tight outer hips and hip flexors.
Yoga can make you fully present to the activity you’re about to undertake.
Priming that mind-body connection before or after a workout can be a powerful tool in your fitness kit. Your practice can ground and center you for the activity ahead while teaching you how to be comfortable in the face of discomfort. Taking a moment to reflect on your sport and be mindful of the signals your body is sending you can help prevent injury and turn your focus on what your body may need from that workout.
Ready to get started? Tee up these four classes right before (or after) your next workout:
Elise Fabricant: Post Workout Gentle Cool Down
Denelle Numis: Apres-Ski Yoga
Claire Petretti Marti - Power Up for Powder Days: Snowboarder Flow
Robert Sidoti - Yoga for Golf
These little brownie bites are simple, sweet, salty, and totally delicious – perfect for a Valentine’s Day dessert. Plus, they contain a secret superfood ingredient: CBD oil!
CBD is one of the hottest health supplements right now.
If you're interested in learning more about CBD and its benefits, check out our interview with Plant People Founder Gabe Kennedy, on our website, here!
Chocolate CBD Sea Salt Brownie Bites
Yield: 20 balls
Ingredients:
1 cup raw walnuts 1 cup dates, pitted ¼ cup raw cacao powder 1 tbsp maca powder 1 tsp vanilla extract ½ tsp sea salt ½ tsp Plant People CBD oil
In a food processor, combine walnuts, dates, cacao powder, maca powder, vanilla extract, salt, and CBD oil. Process until smooth.
Using your hands, roll the mixture into 18 bite-size balls. Place the balls in a container with a tight-fitting lid. Store in the refrigerator or freezer, and enjoy chilled or frozen.
Note: A standard recommendation for dosage is on average 10 mg of CBD. Since there are so many options available for CBD strength, we’ve given you the amount of CBD in milligrams, which will ensure that if you eat 2 brownie bites, you’ll be getting about that recommended dosage. In other words, each brownie bite will deliver you 5 mg of CBD per bite with a recommended serving size of 2 bites. Of course, if you have experience with CBD oil, feel free to play around with this suggestion.
Jo Schaalman and Jules Peláez are co-authors of two books The Conscious Cleanse: Lose Weight, Heal Your Body and Transform Your Life in 14 Days, a best-selling, step-by-step guide to help you live your most vibrant life and their brand new The Conscious Cleanse Cookbook! Together they’ve led thousands of people through their online supported cleanse through their accessible and light-hearted approach. They’ve been dubbed “the real deal” by founder and chief creative director Bobbi Brown, of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, beauty editor of the TODAY show.
Daily Back Pain Relief with Kristin Gibowicz
I have struggled with perfectionism my whole life. If you’re anything like me, your ego carries a dialogue within you that charges up your desire to be the best or do it best.
I have noticed in my own shadow work that words my ego creates around this energy that is essentially draining, impossible to achieve, filled with loads of effort, and yet like the dangling carrot in front of my face meant to be endlessly chased.
One of the key insights that came about as I looked within myself to work with this energy was a simple yet profound exchange of energy I could create within my body, most especially my fourth chakra, the Anahata or Heart Chakra, which I see as a space that holds shape for the energy that codes my self-esteem. This is the energy center where many of us hold the keys to our self-esteem.
I was storing the energy in my heart space that said “am I doing it right?” It felt really valid and like it had served some purpose for me. I have been feeling the weight of the energy come to my awareness recently, and as I got curious and looked at how this vibration showed up in my space I decided that it was time to switch things up and recreate how that energy was set. No more trying to be perfect or putting unrealistic expectations on myself, that made me feel less than.
I let that old vibration go. It appeared like a rusty orange and dropped like the weight of ten bricks in my chest. I then replenished myself with the vibration of, “I’m doing my best.” Ahhhh, it felt like a long satisfying exhale of relief. That brought in beautiful shades of blue and felt like expansion, freedom, grace, as well as an infinite level of permission to just simply do my best, whatever that may look like.
And while I am sure that there are layers to uncover around this vibrational transformation within my heart, I will say it has felt as if I dropped a lead jacket filled with unnecessary expectations and pressures.
Check-in with the space around your Heart Chakra. Are you putting an insane amount of pressure on yourself there to be perfect? Can there be more room to let in feelings of doing your best being enough? Notice if being more accepting towards yourself feels lighter, and give yourself permission to be kind to yourself more often. You might see your self-esteem increase in the process.
By Angela Droughton
Give your Heart Chakra some love with yoga from your home!
Anahata Chakra Vinyasa with Les Leventhal
Heart Chakra Yoga: Backbend Flow with Cicily Carter
Handstands are one of the more impressive poses that you can have in your arsenal, however, they can be difficult to pull off. This is a pose that you need to work up to, building the muscles needed and mastering variations of the pose before tackling an unaided handstand.
There are lots of ways you can prepare to master the handstand, but they mostly come down to strengthening your core and arm muscles, as well as improving your general strength and flexibility with regular yoga practice.
Here are some of the key poses and exercises you can do to help you ace your handstands.
Plank
Plank is a great way to strengthen your core and arms, in preparation for nailing your handstands. They’re actually one of the most effective exercises you can do to improve your core strength, by engaging all of your major core muscle groups. You also will benefit from developing your biceps, neck, and shoulder muscles which will help you to hold your body up in a handstand position. With planks, try to build up how long you can hold the pose at a time by starting off by holding for 10 seconds and working your way up.
You can take your plank to the next level by adding leg raises (or leg lifts). This will help to activate more of your abdominal muscles as well as more lower-body muscles such as glutes, hamstrings, and quads. Simply lift one of your legs in plank, and try to hold it, building up how long you can hold at a time. You can also increase the core work by tapping your toes out to the side, keeping the rest of your body still.
Another variation of this position is to bring your knee from your lifted position in towards your elbow, and extend the leg back out. Repeat this 5-10 times on each side. This will intensify your core work further, as well as strengthening your hip flexor muscles.
Finally, Side plank really helps to strengthen your oblique muscles, as well as your arms and wrists. Side plank is also really important for you to improve and explore your sense of balance, and make you aware of any differences between your two sides - balance is a key part of a handstand!
Boat Pose
Boat pose works out, you guessed it, the core. It can also strengthen your hip muscles, which allows more control while you are in your handstand. Start seated with bent knees, your feet flat on the floor, with your hands beside your hips. Next, lean back slightly with a straight spine, lifting your feet. Keeping your chest lifted and lengthened, lift your arms forward with palms facing. Eventually, straighten your legs so your body is in a ‘v’ shape.
Walkouts
Walkouts are another excellent exercise to strengthen your core muscles, as well as your arms and shoulders. This is slightly more advanced than a plank and will help you on your journey to a handstand.
Start in a Downward Facing Dog, and walk your feet forward to meet your hands, keeping your hips upwards and keeping your strength in your arms. Walk your feet backwards into plank, then lift your hips to Downward Facing Dog and start over again. Keep your core engaged, and move slowly to keep your form.
Walkouts will also get you used to being inverted in a more accessible way. Try to observe your alignment while doing this exercise. When your feet are near your hands, try to imagine your hips over your shoulders, shoulders over your wrists. You can even imagine lifting your legs up, to mentally prepare.
Warrior 2
Warrior 2 is a great way to strengthen your legs, and also increase your sense of balance. It also brings awareness to your hips, which we know are a key point of alignment in a handstand. You can increase the intensity of your Warrior 2 pose by turning your palms and inner elbows in to face the ceiling, drawing your shoulder blades down your back, and then turning your palms to face the floor again.
Standing Splits
Standing Splits are a great pose to practice as a precursor to your handstand. This pose will warm up both your lower body and your arms, and mentally gets you prepared to have one of your legs balanced in the air. You can also use this pose to explore your balance on both sides and notice inconsistencies, as well as finding a comfortable way to launch into your handstand.
Start in Warrior 2, cartwheeling your left arm up and over your head, then twist your torso to the right, lifting your left heel off the ground. Next, leaning forwards, rest your torso on your right thigh, setting your hands on either side of your right foot. Shift your weight onto this foot, then lift your left leg parallel to the floor.
L Hops
Similar to Standing Splits, but instead of stretching your leg up, stretch it outwards, so your body forms the letter ‘L’. With one leg extended out, you can gently hop up and down and see what it feels like to have both feet away from the ground. This movement will build up your core and arm strength while allowing you to explore the starting movements of a handstand.
Ready to learn how to press up into a handstand? Give it a try now, in this Quest for the Press Workshop with Angela Kukhahn.
Which handstand camp do you belong to? When it comes to handstands, there is no middle ground, it’s either: I love handstands and press up every chance I can or no way can I balance on my hands. Whether you love them or hate them, this week’s special Quest for the Press Program can benefit you.
Now, if you’ve never been able to do a handstand or you’ve tried but been unable to achieve one, this program provides a methodical, intelligent, progressive method. Each class builds upon the prior sequence. You’ll work toward overcoming fear and press up into handstand with confidence. And if you are already a handstand aficionado, it never hurts to review technique and maybe even learn some new tips and tricks!
Certain people should avoid this upside-down pose if they have high blood pressure, spinal issues, or brain injuries. While the reverse blood flow to the brain that accompanies inverted postures is usually an energy booster and benefit, it should be avoided in these circumstances. Also, if your shoulders and wrists lack adequate strength and mobility, handstands could cause injury. That’s why it is so important to work on building strength and mobility in these two key areas.
So, why put in all the work to perfect your handstand? Besides how much fun they can be and how cool they look? Handstands require core and upper body strength, so practicing them will help improve abdominal and spinal strength. It’s an active posture which means you must stabilize your muscles to remain steady. You’re bearing all your weight on your hands, which helps strengthen the bones in your shoulders, arms, and wrists. Physically, the benefits are clear.
A handstand requires work to balance in space and doing so requires you to focus your attention. This intense concentration helps improve mental clarity and overall well-being. The inverted position taps into the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps you feel happier and more relaxed. Also, by going upside down, you’re enhancing circulation and benefiting your entire system.
Angela Kukhahn’s skill and talent in encouraging you to find the magic in advanced poses and release fear will motivate you to continue returning to the mat. Her comprehensive press program will help you to build the strength, flexibility, and confidence to help you overcome this challenging entrance into the advanced Handstand pose, while also keeping your wrists and shoulders happy and healthy! This program should be taken at your own pace and modify as necessary. Most of all: have fun with it!
If you have been following my posts for a while, you probably know that I really do not like food waste. And yet people do waste a lot of food. I can’t say I’m completely free from this sin. Still, whenever possible, I always try to use up everything I have and plan my weekly menu around the things I already have in the fridge before ordering anything new. One thing that people usually don’t consider food waste is everything we remove from produce before eating - vegetable peels, the outer leaves of cauliflower, carrot tops, banana peels etc. It all makes up a lot of food that we feel is completely normal just throw away. However, this is food waste too!
For all kinds of veggie scraps (as long as they are not dirty), a good recommendation is to keep a separate box of them in the freezer and if the container is full, make vegetable broth. It saves you the money you would otherwise spend on buying the broth, and you will get all the goodness out of the veggies. Out of carrot tops, you can make pesto (I will share the recipe with you soon), and you can even use banana peels in some recipes!
Don’t get me wrong – I usually also throw away the banana peels. As I typically eat at least one banana every day, it would not be possible to use up all of the banana peels, but even using a few of them now and then helps to reduce waste. And, nobody would guess that you also used up the peels in addition to the bananas. Besides reducing food waste, the banana peels are also rich in many nutrients as potassium and fiber. If you decide to give using banana peels in a recipe a try, choose organic bananas.
There is enough sweetness in this recipe from ripe bananas and a little honey in the topping for my liking. In case you love sugar, you probably want to add a little bit in the batter too.
Banana Peel Cupcakes
Yields: 24
Cooking time: 50 minutes
For the cupcakes:
2 organic bananas, with the peel
2 oz soft dates
5 oz Greek yogurt
3 eggs (always free-range)
5 oz whole-wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
For the topping:
5 oz cream cheese
1 tsp honey
1 tsp vanilla paste
Wash the bananas thoroughly, cut off the tough ends. Peel the bananas, and simmer the peels in boiling water for about 10 minutes. Drain and repeat the process once more.
Preheat the oven to 360F and butter your muffin tins. I always use the mini muffin tin with 24 holes. If you have a tin for larger muffins, this is okay too, but the baking time will be a little longer.
Once you have simmered your banana peels for 2 x 10 minutes, add them to the food processor with the dates, bananas, yogurt, and eggs. Whizz until fully incorporated.
In a different bowl, mix the flour with baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix briefly until the batter just comes together.
Divide the batter between the muffin tins and bake for about 25-30 minutes (a little longer if you use larger tins).
Remove from the tins and let them cool before piping on the topping.
For the topping, mix the cream cheese, yogurt, honey, and vanilla paste. Have a taste and add a little more honey if you feel like it.
Unhealthy habits and lifestyles can contribute to low energy, weak digestion, and depression. To prevent these challenges from developing in your body, it is better to take care of yourself and do things every day to restore your body in simple, yet effective ways. Fortunately, yoga is one of those ways, and even if your lifestyle isn't perfect, it can make a big difference to your overall well-being and digestive system.
In yoga, there are specific yoga poses that help your digestive system work optimally. Certain asanas are aimed at improving the functioning of the digestive organs: the liver, pancreas, stomach, and intestines, to eliminate excess tension that interferes with proper blood circulation. Regular practice of these poses will improve digestion and eliminate intestinal dysfunctions and have your digestive system operating in harmony.
Certain families of yoga postures, such as twists, have a direct influence on the abdominal organs. They will help you improve your digestion and metabolism. Perform some of these asanas in combination with other postures that you love, or do them all in one session and notice after a few weeks if your digestive system is feeling better.
8 Yoga Postures that Improve Digestion:
Padangushthasana
The pose consists of bending down and grabbing the big toes. You can keep your knees slightly bent, your feet the width of hips, and your breath calm and steady. With the help of this asana, a little pressure is applied on the stomach and there is a subsequent release of excess air. This forward fold lowers stress levels, improves blood circulation, and enhances digestive processes.
Vajrasana
You can remain in this asana for up to 10 minutes. While it looks simple, it can significantly improve digestion. You can even do this one after eating to immediately help you digest.
Bhujangasana
This asana activates the work of the abdominal organs – the stomach, intestines, bladder, pancreas, and liver. It has a beneficial effect on the spine and thyroid gland. It also has anti-stress effects.
Halasana
It is excellent for the entire vertebral column, chest, and neck area. It prevents the appearance of hernias, improves blood circulation and brain function, as well as the functioning of the digestive and pelvic organs.
Balasana
Child's pose stimulates the digestive system by massaging the internal organs, normalizing blood circulation in the pelvic organs, and improving metabolism. It also relieves tension by calming the body and mind.
Setu Bandha Sarvangasana
In addition to stimulating the abdominal organs, massaging the colon, and improving digestion, Bridge pose tones the reproductive system, relieves the symptoms of menopause, alleviates anxiety, headaches, insomnia, back pain, and fatigue. It stretches the chest area, returns the displaced vertebral discs to their place, and contributes to good posture.
Pavanamuktasana
The knees, pressed against the stomach make a kind of massage to your internal organs. The right knee massages the ascending colon, while the left knee massages the descending colon.
Apanasana
This pose translates to something along the lines of, the pose that expels the wind. It's because it eliminates gas formation, improves the digestive system, and relieves tension in the intestinal area.
Vakrasana
This asana aligns the spine, is beneficial for the liver, gallbladder, stomach, and pancreas. Twisting in this pose massages the internal organs, improves the blood circulation in the intestines, helping to keep your microbiome healthy. This is one example of a twist that helps improve digestion, but nearly all twists contribute to better digestion.
Be healthy and happy! Yoga is a powerful reminder that you can live with lots of vitality and not let stress get in the way of you living a good life. By Donald Mena
Donald Mena is Pilates and Ashtanga yoga practioner. He loves the physical, as well as the mental benefits of yoga and exercise and is glad to share his experience.
Practice yoga for better digestion, right now!
Digestive Reset for a Happy Belly with Maria Garre
This New Moon will bring the lessons of the last Full Moon into action. We have a rare and incredibly impactful 6 planet conjunction in Capricorn, with 5 planets (Venus, Moon, Mercury, Saturn, and Jupiter) in one Nakshatra (lunar house). It’s time to unveil the wisdom that lies within your heart and raise the power of your gifts to build an unlimited future.
The theme of this moon will carry you to higher objectives. It will call for a calm mind and tempered emotions to serve the higher ideals. There is a lot of energy stirring my loves, all of these planets in a tight conjunction are playing by Saturn’s rules and will require humbleness in order to unfold their wealth stream. Humbleness continues forward. Remember this is the year of Saturnian energy and since January 20th, humility will be paramount to individual evolution and collective unity.
Higher guidance has evolved within the psyche and the individual mind will carry these lessons into another perspective of understanding. There have been many opportunities to let go of triggers, to see the truth behind traumas, experiences, and evolve into a more wholesome dedicated self. On this level, you may have seen beyond the ‘me’ and ‘victim’ or blaming mechanisms. You have glimmered into real reasonings, and hopefully found a deeper connection within self and humanity as a unified whole.
Guidance to truth will continue to lead you to unfold lessons and shift perspectives on how to view self within relation to gifts through wisdom. Inner gifts that were revealed last August are becoming more grounded within the layers of self, and unfolding into more materialized forms. This aids in owning one’s own magic, power, and unique offerings. Now is the time to apply your gifts where they are now, perfection is obsolete. Applying gifts and move forward with service to further develop inner talents.
This moon will aid you in supporting creation, and creating the right conditions. New ownership of prowess as it pertains to cosmic forces. Understand heights beyond capabilities. Know self in a new world. And know the new you more intently. Embrace this new self and serve it. See the world through the new you, this is the dawning of subtleties, and it will require your ‘vibration’ to be more subtle, more refined. This will require your mind and body to be free from the weight of the past, but also open to reception. This point within the cosmos is expediting spiritual evolution, it’s been on hyper speed for some time, and it’s only getting faster. It’s time to rise up without excuses, do not nurture your weakness, but honor your strengths.
This moon will also call for indifference. This indifference is a spiritual tool. If you can be one with everything, every situation, if you see beyond your triggers and others projections, you rise into expansive heights as intended. What unfolds will support your resilience, but you must do your part. Listen and let go. Continue to listen to intuition and inner guidance. Recollection will be an avenue to relook at situations, and experiences in the present and the past.
Can you see behind the lines? Many of you have, if you create silence and listen intently there will be waves of revelations, quite literally it’ll seem like a veil is lifting and you see the reasoning, and understand motivations and see pains of others, of yourself and the roles. This is a recalibration of relating and will teach higher lessons. View it all as service and exercise passive awareness.
As you apply gifts greater wisdom will unfold. How you view your world must shift. In embracing a new world view, a new view of self, you will draw down energies that support your new self and development of self and of the new world. Thus create from now have the courage to continue and drive efforts and gifts that support you and the wider perspective. The courage to explore, learn, and apply your gifts or talents will be exalted and should be commanded accordingly. Remember to remain humble and of service.
Lessons of equilibrium and how to be at peace will arise. This was a stronger influence last Full Moon, now emotional security mechanisms should be more apparent, and will continue to reveal themselves through this lunation. It is important to witness what arises, and to practice emotional security within self, and apply emotional maturity to all situations. See the connected whole. You have everything within you. There is nothing missing, nothing lacking. Move from this space of wholeness and this will move the individual into manifesting higher spiritual knowledge within self and their gifts and responsibilities. Manage the mind. This moon will unveil through lessons a deeper meaning. Conquer irrational thoughts and tame emotions.
Geenie (Gemma) Celento
For a personal astrology reading and 6-month personal forecast, book here.
Raise your hand if you’ve sat more in the last year than ever before? With stay-at-home orders around the world, many of us have adapted to a new way of life: working from home, Zoom calls instead of going out with friends, and a whole lot of Netflix on the sofa. Even if you’re staying true to your yoga practice, the additional hours on your bum instead of your feet can take their toll.
Never fear––we’ve got the antidote to all that couch dwelling. This week’s yoga classes are designed to help you squeeze in more standing and more quick yoga sessions throughout your day. But first, let’s delve a little deeper into why all that sitting can leave you feeling not just physically stiff, but also mentally cloudy and emotionally stagnant. We store unprocessed emotion in our hips, so it is vital for our hips to be open and healthy, not just for the physical body, but also for emotional well-being.
Prolonged sitting wreaks havoc on our spine, pelvis, and muscles and ligaments. A seated position shortens the hip flexors and psoas at the front of the hip and tightens the hip rotators. The outer hip and buttock work intensely to level and stabilize the hips. Getting up off the couch and practicing standing yoga poses will aid in creating space in the psoas, rectus femoris, and sartorius to provide freedom in the pelvis. Also, standing poses build stability and strengthen the hip stabilizers like the gluteus medius to protect your lower back.
By working to keep the psoas and hamstrings supple, you create space and freedom for your spine, which assists in alleviating lower back pain that accumulates from being sedentary. Standing poses like Tadasana (Mountain Pose) and Virabhadrasana poses (Warrior poses) provide a myriad of benefits for improving posture by strengthening the bones, muscles, and ligaments. Balancing postures help address imbalances and work to bring the body back into proper alignment.
It’s a great idea to stand up every thirty minutes or so and walk around the room, strike a yoga pose, or perform some gentle stretching. By breaking up the hours in a seated position, your body can stay healthy, your mind has a chance to clear, and your emotions elevate. Taking a quick yoga break once or more during your day can also keep you feeling your best on every level. Try one of this week’s offerings and see for yourself!
Jackie Casal Mahrou - 15-Minute Yoga Reboot (FREE class)
Elise Fabricant - Stand Up & Yoga!
Keith Allen - Hips & Leg Love
Dia Draper - Get Up, Stand Up: Lumbar Love
Solyanka is an old Russian soup that, in its original form, always contains a lot of meat. The most classical version includes 7 different types of meat, including kidneys. So the recipe I am sharing with you is definitely not an authentic one, but it sure is delicious. I promise you that the taste is still very similar to the original one and is so much better for the body. If you have a meat addict in the house, feel free to let them add some meat products (leftover roast, frankfurters, salami, whatever they like) to the soup after it is ready. I do add eat meat sometimes, but I don’t feel it is necessary to use it in this recipe, and I definitely would never add 7 different types of meat in my soup. Who would even have so many various meat products just lying around in the fridge?
Anyhow, meat or not – the essential things in this recipe are onions, pickles, black pepper, tomato paste, and olives. The mushrooms are definitely not mandatory, but I like mushrooms, and they fit well here. The soup needs to be sour, salty, and a little spicy from black pepper. I sometimes also add capers and lemon slices if my pickles are not sour enough. All in all, it is a balancing act as most soups are.
To serve, I recommend enjoying a slice of dark rye bread with the warming bowl. Many people in Estonia also like to add sour cream directly to the soup. I personally am not a fan of sour cream in a hot soup, but as 90% of people seem to love it I figured, it would be good to give you this recommendation too
Vegan Solyanka Soup
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4
3 large onions
2 celery stalks
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
6 large sour pickles
10 oz mushrooms
1 cup of tomato paste (the strong stuff of at least 25%, nut just jarred tomatoes)
4-5 cups of hot vegetable stock
Freshly cracked black pepper
2 bay leaves
20 black olives
Peel and chop the onion (I like to use half circles in this recipe, but it doesn’t really matter). Chop the celery. Place both in a pot with the oil and sprinkle of salt, and throw in the bay leaves. Sweat at medium temperature, giving it a mix every few minutes until the onion is translucent and slightly starts to brown.
In the meantime, chop up the mushrooms and add them to the pan once the onion is translucent – increase the heat and let the mushrooms mingle with onions and celery for a few minutes.
Chop up the pickles and add them to the pot with tomato paste. Mix everything well and season with a lot of black pepper.
Pour the veggie stock and give the soup another mix. Add in the halved olives, taste and season the soup more if you feel like it.
Leave to boil for 5-10 minutes and serve with rye bread.
The Inspiration Download interview series features different people who are bringing ideas to life and sharing something with the world that they are passionate about, whether it's through teaching yoga, creating a business, doing work in their community, creating art, hosting events, bringing to life new wellness products, or more.
These interviews highlight real people who have brought ideas to life and give real-life insight and inspiration on their processes and journey.
This session is with Sandra Bracy-Toscani, a Berlin, Germany based yoga teacher.
Sandra's Bio: My journey began in chaos. I was insecure with talking in front of people, I oftentimes had panic attacks & not to mention, an issue with self-love and self-esteem. Better to say I never experienced high self-esteem and self-love.
I, always being attached to men, subconsciously put them in front of me. A position I should have held for myself. Until one day I decided I wanted more from my life, and so my story began. I began to stand up for ME. I began to connect with ME.
I then started my Yoga Teacher Trainings, my Dance Therapy Education, studied about Self Love, different techniques on self-care, and the inner workings of myself.
Because SELF LOVE is a never-ending journey; I know that it will never end, from day to day I will learn more about me, and with each day I will grow in strength.
So, with all that I have uncovered within the field of self-love and personal compassion. My mission at present is to assist in the unfolding of those women that find themselves crumbled. To do my best as my clients and I journey hand in hand, to retrieve those aspects of themselves that have been forgotten.
What are you passionate about sharing with the world and how does this inspire you?
I’m working a lot with movement, from yoga, to dance, traumatic release, to Women's Circles about self-love through movement. This is my way of healing. So my passion to share is, connecting with people, sharing what I have learned in the past years and giving this as a gift to others. You do not have to be a professional in anything. So I try to remind my students, friends, and movers all the time to look inside, express, and distance themselves from any shame society teaches them.
It inspires me because each of us is an individual. So with all the classes I teach, you can see something new; new expressions, new smiles, new processes, which lead to growth.
How does your at-home yoga practice benefit you?
I can finally follow classes from friends and teachers all over the world. It unites us through different styles of teaching and practices. Secondly, it gives me the feeling of traveling. I had so many workshops online, with friends from all over the world, which makes for the feeling of connecting internationally.
Why do you think it can be hard for people to show up to yoga regularly?
I think many people do not see yoga as a lifestyle, more as a sports program that they can change anytime. Instead of going deeper and deeper with their practice and seeing themselves growing from inside through their practice.
How would you encourage someone to stay consistent in their yoga practice?
Learn more about the history of yoga & more connection of breathing and movement.
What do you think about the current yoga culture?
I think many people use the word Yoga for advertisement rather than a lifestyle.
What brought you to teaching yoga?
Yoga helped me a lot through my panic attacks in the past. So I started to learn more and more. I am interested in giving this feeling of healing to others.
How has teaching evolved for you as you continue to teach? Do you stay consistent in your style of teaching or does it change?
I started planning my classes with a certain topic. I listen more to my intuition. My practice has changed completely if I compare it to the beginning. I now really love Yin classes, but also my Vinyasa Flow classes changed completely. I try to always practice different styles and take the most beneficial parts and implement them into my classes.
What are the qualities of an excellent yoga teacher for you?
To be creative, and have the ability to give students the ability to forget about the outside world. I like it when teachers try new things.
How have other teachers helped you as both a student and as a teacher?
It is like going to school. From each class, you can learn something new. For instance new cues, new adjustments. But also as a student new styles of teaching.
What is one of your favorite postures and why?
Half-moon (Ardha Chandrasana) is my absolute favorite. Why - because it takes a lot of discipline and forces you to focus on your breath, to activate your Uddiyana bandha, and stay present.
What are some books or podcasts you recommend?
My favorite books are: Attached by Amir Levine, Eastern Body, Western Mind by Anodea Judith, Healing the shame that binds you by John Bradshaw.
What keeps you motivated?
Joining different classes & also different activities. I am attempting to diversify more instead of doing one thing.
Why are rituals or practices important in modern life?
I think that ritual keeps you present. For example, I have a morning and evening gratitude practice, or a yoga and dance class and it allows me to forget my surroundings and brings me back to now.
What is the key to feeling balanced for you?
Moving my body.
Where are you from?
Germany
How do you think where you are from or where you live has shaped you?
I lived for a while in Koh Phangan, Thailand. I lived there in a huge spiritual community which opened my eyes.
How do you have good relationships in your life and why is connection important to you?
I would say, open communication is the goal. Always communicate your boundaries and your needs. Do not feel ashamed to say out loud what is going on in yourself.
Do you like to have a regular schedule?
I do not like maintaining a regular schedule. I love to plan each week from the beginning and have different structures of appointments. It makes me feel free.
What is one of your biggest blessings?
I love to help people and be there for others.
What helps you in your life?
Again, movement helps me a lot, but I’ve learned to first take a moment to listen inside before making decisions.
What is one of your wildest dreams?
To open a hostel on the beach next to the ocean. Where I can combine yoga, nutrition, and movement altogether and still maintain the feeling of traveling.
What keeps you grounded?
Kundalini Yoga
What are you grateful for?
To be able to feel love, having a healthy body, and access to healthy food.
Connect with Sandra on her website or Instagram:
www.sandratoscani.com
IG: @sandragiveslove
Practice yoga from the comfort of your home right now, to experience the freedom from anxiety Sandra describes.
Now that 2020 is behind us and we're settling into 2021, it’s time to start looking ahead to the future, even though we're still living in a pandemic. Given how difficult the past year has been for all of us around the world, if you’re having a hard time thinking positively, you’re not alone. There’s no guarantee the rest of 2021 will be perfect, but with the right attitude, you can still make the most of the year ahead.
Here are 6 simple tips to foster and maintain a positive outlook throughout the year:
1. Commit to Positivity
Life is full of challenges and the only thing that really matters is how you respond to them. Instead of reacting to difficult situations with negativity or fear, embrace the opportunity to rise above. Commit to starting each day with a positive attitude and be mindful about how you act in the face of difficulty.
2. Get a Handle on Negative Self-Talk
Though you may not always be aware of it, we all have a stream of self-talk running through our heads. It may seem harmless but using negative language even in your own thoughts can affect your emotions and how you perceive the world around you. When you notice yourself thinking negatively, try to reframe your thoughts in a more constructive if not positive light.
3. Set Goals for the Rest of the Year
You can’t always predict what life is going to throw your way but setting goals for yourself may help you keep moving in a forward direction. By setting short- and long-term goals for the year ahead, you’ll feel like you’re making progress. Each milestone you hit will serve as motivation to strive for the next.
4. Take Time to Unwind
Stress is a constant in life for many people, but if you don’t take time to unwind that stress can start to negatively affect your mental and physical health. It’s important to take time for yourself on a regular basis, even if it’s just 30 minutes a day. Make time to do something you enjoy or give meditation a try. Yoga is a great activity for stress relief as well and you can find online yoga classes and instructional videos online to get started.
5. Be Grateful for What You Have
It’s too easy to get caught up in the things that don’t go your way. If you want to maintain a positive outlook, however, you may want to shift your focus to the things you do have and away from the things you don’t. Start a gratitude journal to make note of the things you have to be thankful for and you may find that, over time, you find it becomes easier to recognize the good things over the bad.
6. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help
Changing your attitude can be difficult and it may not be something you can do entirely on your own. Speaking to a licensed therapist – or even a trusted friend – can help you pinpoint some of the triggers for negativity in your life as well as patterns of negative thinking. Talk to your healthcare professional or schedule a telepsychiatry consultation to get the help you need from the comfort of your own home.
Life is unpredictable. There’s no guarantee that this year will be completely different from the last, but you have the power to choose how you respond to the challenges life throws your way. With a positive attitude and a little self-awareness, you can make 2021 a year to celebrate.
By Amelia Ma
Amelia Ma is a freelance writer with over 10 years of experience from San Francisco, California. She enjoys writing articles for professionals that are interested in self-improvement, health, and wellness.
Ready to feel uplifted? Try these free yoga classes from home!
Head Up, Heart Strong with Christen Bakken
How are you handling conflict and challenges these days? Is there adequate space in your reaction time or has the stress of the last year amplified to a point where you aren’t quite as patient and kind as you could be? If you’ve experienced more fear and edginess and anger, you aren’t alone. This week, we’re focusing on cultivating your own unique sense of grace and strength in your yoga practice.
The word grace derives from Old French and means “pleasing quality” or simply a pleasing way of moving or behaving. A graceful person is one with poise, decency, honor, and elegance. Sometimes if you’re being pushed to your limits by the events of the world and personal circumstances, it can be difficult to react gracefully. Developing grace under pressure is one of the greatest gifts yoga can impart.
Yoga encourages us to become aware of how we are feeling by creating stillness within. During challenging times in life, it can be easy to slip back into a fight or flight mode and react to what’s happening around you instead of reacting from a place of quiet strength. So, through asana, pranayama, and meditation, we tap into our inner strength and true natures. By turning our senses inward, we recognize our authentic selves and can work to refine our outward expression.
Yoga helps us react with more grace and poise in every aspect of our lives. For example, you hear about the concept of “letting go” often in yoga class. Whether you’re letting go of tension in your muscles, freeing yourself from repetitive negative thoughts, or releasing emotions that no longer serve you, you are clearing space for more inner strength. An example of grace in action would be choosing to forgive a past wrong committed against you. When you forgive, you’re able to move on.
When we feel lighter within, we are also more mindful. Mindfulness translates to a strong yoga practice because we’re embodying grace through asana and breathwork. The more disciplined and present we are on the yoga mat, the more we hone our poise and elegant expression.
Every person's embodiment of grace will be unique and yoga can help you discover your own graceful qualities. Explore these fantastic yoga classes for movement and inspiration.
1. Shannon Paige - Strength for Grace
2. Christen Bakken - The Next Right Thing
3. Mark Morford - Absolution Flow: A Call to Arms
4. Pradeep Teotia - Practice with Grace
We’re entering mid-winter here in Colorado, and if you’re like us, the cold weather and extended time inside might be starting to get you down. To counter those wintertime blues, we like to cozy up at home and make healthy comfort food – like today’s recipe: Herbed Turkey Stuffed Squash!
This is a recipe that I (Jo) and my husband, Adam developed together for our family. Cooking is one of our favorite things to do together – we’ve developed several recipes from our new cookbook, Conscious Cleanse Cookbook together, including the Squashie Pancakes and Curry Chicken Salad.
Cooking nourishing, healthy, delicious meals for ourselves and for our 6-year-old and 8-month-old kiddos brings us connection as a family and a lot of joy, and we want to share some of that joy with you today with this recipe. This is one of our go-to healthy comfort meals – it’s warming and filling, perfect for a cozy meal by the fire.
You can easily make it totally plant-based by swapping out the turkey filling for one made with chopped mushrooms, quinoa, or chickpeas.
This recipe falls into our 80:20 Lifestyle category because of the food combination – during our cleanse we eat proteins (like turkey) and starches (like winter squash) separately to help ease digestion and encourage detox. To learn more about our online program, including our cleanse and 80:20 Lifestyle, click here.
We hope you enjoy this recipe, and let us know if you try this recipe in the comments below. We love hearing from you!
With love and cozy comfort food,
Herbed Turkey Stuffed Squash
Yield: 4 servings
4 small acorn squash 1 onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 carrots, finely chopped 1 stalk celery, finely chopped 1 apple, finely chopped 2 TB. olive oil 1 lb ground turkey 2 tsp dried rosemary 3 TB. parsley finely chopped 1/2 tsp Himalaya sea salt Ground black pepper to taste
Instructions: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Using a long serrated knife, cut squash in half. Scoop out the seeds. Place squash facing up in a large baking pan. Brush with 1 tbsp of olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes.
While squash is cooking, warm 1 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook until translucent, stirring occasionally. Add in ground turkey, and cook for 7 to 8 minutes, stirring and breaking meat into pieces.
Add in carrots and celery, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Add in remaining ingredients, and cook for 2-3 more minutes.
Divide the turkey stuffing between the squash. Place squash back in the oven for 20 minutes, or until meat is golden brown. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve warm.
The yoga sutras say “Through transgression of the original rules there is non-attainment of the goal.”
So what are the rules—or even the goals- in life as we know it and to live now in the midst of a pandemic? Many of us are still looking back at how it was a year ago, putting everything in our lives on lockdown as we wait, and wish and hope life will be ours again in three months, six months, or a year.
Even our friendships are affected and changed during the pandemic. Suddenly they feel distant, uncertain—practically unknowable.
It’s almost like we have returned to when we were about 5, and there was a thing called an “imaginary friend.”. It was someone you invented, who didn’t actually exist but that you talked to and played games with and basically hung around with in your mind.
Over the past 8 months, we seem to have returned to a life of imaginary friends. People who once were so real and such a presence in our everyday life now feel imaginary because we never actually see them in person and while they continue to exist somewhere in the world, they’re just not here in ours.
Perhaps it’s more accurate to say they have become E-maginary friends!
Our real friends have become characters on our computer; like our Netflx friends such as Elizabeth in The Queen, or Emily in Paris, or Daphne in Bridgerton.
Our friends too have names and stories and we can see them if they post a picture of themselves on Facebook or Instagram and we can actually talk to them on zoom or the phone, but just like our Netflix friends, we can ONLY spend time with them through a machine.
Suddenly every relationship is a long-distance one. Even our yoga has become screened off—from being a shared activity in a special room filled with a group of living, breathing, people, it is now a solitary experience in a not so special room in our house or apartment that we can’t seem to get out of.
We have heard over and over again in our practice that we need to strive to be here now! To be present in this moment!
Some days, these days, it feels like all we have are moments. There is little other activity –just time passing. Moment after moment.
But wait a minute—what if we put those moments to good purpose?
Maybe we can redefine moments. Maybe there is a possibility for a new way. Perhaps, in this moment to moment, in what feels like an undirected, unfocused, freefall life, we can find some enlightenment, make our own rules, and find a new perspective. We can make our lives real again.
Perhaps yesterday we had an office, a job, places to go, and people to see. And, if we are honest, we may remember how many times we wished we didn’t have to go there, do that job, or see those people! We fantasized about how we would spend our time if only it really was our time and not being meted out according to the rules of others.
Well, it is our time now!
And our yoga is a way to connect with it, and our mind, body and soul every day. Even if we feel we are practicing yoga alone at home, and may be one solitary person in our room, we are also one with the universe.
The very meaning of the word yoga is to join, to yoke together. And it is through our quiet meditation, our asanas, our spirits, hearts, and breath that we are united with all others in friendship, love and peace.
And every time we get on our mat, in rooms around the world, we are one trikonasana closer to attaining our goal!
By Gaillane Grosso
Gallane is a creative director/writer with a long career in advertising and PR. She has written a novel called The Other Side of NIce and served on the board of directors of the Iyengar Institute in New York. She has been practicing for 35 years--gratitude to Eddie Stern, Rodney Yee, Colleen Saidman Yee, Seane Corne, James Murphy, Debby Green, Karine Plantadit, Erika Halweil, Alison Cramer and so many more gifted inspirational guides.
Practice yoga from the comfort of your own home, and energetically connect with others around the world here!
The full moon on January 28th is all about learning, unveiling universal truths, and how to manifest a thriving life through universal laws and through the upliftment of humanity. This moon will ignite a new beginning of Saturnian energy that will influence the remainder of the year and will work to unfold new heights within consciousness, the collective, and the individual. This unfolding will occur within the mind, but will also play out in experiences with our fellow man. It will show a new level of healing, learning, and attainment through interpersonal relationships.
As the full moon rises it will stir interdependence and self-dependence. This placement is strengthening one’s ability to recognize truth within self and be with all realities. This can become turbulent for some. Internally you must be able to be at peace with your truth, and honor other’s truth. Not in opposition to your own. The ability to be tranquil and listen to divine guidance and intuition is at a fulcrum. In order to use this energy, you must be willing to sit with yourself, to see all sides, and even release thought processes you once relied on. Quieting the mind and unfolding higher levels of consciousness will recreate and integrate the ego. Here, the small self will succumb to inner light, and, touching that inner light is easier. Be mindful of ‘hard-headedness’, the need to be ‘right’, or seeing your directive as the only feasible route to reaching goals, and personal evolution. Remember that humility is the way higher wisdom is being facilitated. Manage the mind.
Be willing to learn. Educate yourself on anything that will support your future, mankind, and be willing to learn about yourself. Learn from within, and through the divine. This full moon will ask for faith in the divine plan, to create unflinching confidence in oneself. Cosmic plan reaches within new levels of the mental and emotional body for recognition. Purification of the psyche and intuitive perception will rise to receive the divine plan.
Dharma (purpose) and righteousness is the primary impulse. It is immersed in materiality but imbued with maturity. You will be shown how this affects self, confidence, and personal dharma. If there is mental agitation, there is ego and it will show tamas: which is inertia and resistance. This will be an indication to let go, there is nothing to armor this is the ego. Allow the mind to become nimble.
Achievements and how one views themself (recognition) will be more aligned to inner wisdom, which will aid in shifting the mental and emotional body with the divine directive within the psyche. Primary themes that will come to light this lunation are calmness of mind, right way of thinking, and exposing weaknesses and false thinking. Relax rigidity. Underlying conditions will shift and bring much to light. This will aid in creating connections, and sacrificing outcomes.
You must stay focused, especially through the fluctuations of emotions and outer conditions. Perseverance to realize success and assimilate lessons and karmas. Do not push the river, Saturnian energy is heavy, during this full moon and will teach devotion through patience. This will require greater detachment. Rest assured, realizations will be quick but the Saturnian energy will unfold throughout the year, and this full moon marks the beginning. Working with these energies will require continued commitment and devotion. Surrendering outcomes and personal timelines will continue to come up.
One must face obstacles, both external and self created. Strengthen the mental and emotional body, become indifferent to discontentment, expectations, and instant gratification. Attachment to personal will and preconceived outcomes will cause turmoil. Weather discontentment, again another point of sacrifice and reward awaits those who are willing to ride the tides. This is the path of the student, and as will be rewarded with good karma sown into the next cycle.
Power and prestige will not rule during this time, this is a time of humility, of service to fellow man and moving more towards unity. Do not seek to conquer, seek to serve. Great compassion will be called forward within self and for your fellow man. Exercise it abundantly. Patience is a method of making space, it allows the mind to be calm, to be free of frazzled energy of searching. Learn these attributes and what you sow will have greater fertile grounds to bloom.
Another aspect of this lunar cycle is emotional security. How emotions are assigned, how emotional security is gained, and how we tether that to our physical standing. What may come to light is how emotional security has been created through past experiences and karmas. This is ending emotional securities that were linked to false attachments, especially ones that sacrificed the self for the ideas of security. Emotional relationships and how one nurtures their inner security will come to light.
During this process, one must be extra mindful of the emotions entwined around the ego, and how emotional attachment is established with others. Mother energy here will ask that you nurture your inner self, through faith in your path and with your own wisdom, it will ask that the emotional binds you once created may require dissolving, can you let those go with grace? This will create new lines within the mental and emotional bodies. Here we take a detached look at the emotional effects on the physical and how the mind can weather the storm, create the storm, or stabilize through all of it. This will unfold for each of you in unique ways. Stay true to your inner light my loves, not the ways you sought to receive light. Rest powerfully in the unwavering inner light.
"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and the seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change, there is power." - Alan Cohen
Change is good! We know it’s a wonderful feeling to step onto your yoga mat and practice with your favorite teachers. We all have our preferred types of practice, whether it’s a range from Ashtanga to Vinyasa to Power to Yin. Mixing it up helps us stay fresh mentally and emotionally and also ensures we don’t physically injure ourselves through too much repetition. So be adventurous this week and try something new.
Have you heard of Katonah Yoga? The buzz is increasing around this style that’s been growing in popularity. Katonah focuses on alignment, but less muscular alignment and more sacred geometry principles. It involves a focus on organs as opposed to muscular engagement and seeks to shift your perspective by approaching the poses in a different way. It incorporates the Taoist principles of Yin and Yang, but doesn’t focus on one over the other. You’ll feel more like you’re in a workshop than a flowy Vinyasa class and the benefits are profound. Check it out and see if it resonates for you.
Tantra Yoga: The use of the term tantra has been distorted so that many people associate it with sex. Tantra means to weave or expand. Tantra Yoga helps you get in tune with your authentic self and when you’re more connected internally, you more easily deepen your relationship with others. The practice teaches how to meld the entire person––physical, mental, energetic, wisdom, and bliss body––to become clear on what our deepest desires are and pursue them for ultimate happiness. A Tantra yoga class incorporates various styles of Hatha yoga like Kundalini and Ashtanga, depending upon the instructor. Chanting and meditation are also key parts of the practice.
Kundalini Yoga: Kundalini yoga is a form of Bhakti yoga, (the yoga of devotion) Raja yoga, (the yoga of royalty) which is a practical systematic style of yoga that incorporates Patanjali’s eight-limbed yoga path, and Shakti yoga, (the yoga of harnessing your personal energy). A typical Kundalini class is made up of three parts, an opening chant, a spine warm-up, and a kriya, which is a special sequence of postures and breathwork. Fans of this style of yoga love it for the feeling of freedom and purpose it invokes from within.
The final class this week is less yoga and more of a mind-body experience. Barre class is a full-body workout that incorporates elements of Pilates, ballet, and yoga and is all about exhausting the smaller accessory muscles to improve muscular endurance. Each body part is worked to fatigue with high repetitions and light resistance. If you’ve never experienced the shaking that only a barre workout imparts, you’re in for a challenge! And the mental benefits are excellent because you can’t focus on anything other than the work you’re completing. Trust us on this one.
What are you waiting for? Step out of your comfort zone this week and try some new styles of yoga!
Ali Duncan- Tantra Yoga
Noemi Nuñez - Katonah Yoga Flow
Shapadpreet - Kundalini Yoga: Relax & Restore
Erin Wimert - Grin & Barre It
Mustard is a common ingredient in many cuisines and widely available all over the world. But I still felt that I need to spend time to make a condiment from mustard seeds from scratch. It started as an idea to add to Christmas presents – homemade cookies, sourdough rye crispbread, vegan Nutella truffles, and pickled mustard seeds – all packed up in nice little jars. Add a (vegan) cheese to this, and I am sure that most people would be happy to get this kind of present!
Since preparing the mustard seeds this way for the first time, I am adding them everywhere. They are relatively mild in taste but add a wonderful zing to many dishes. The texture slightly reminds caviar bursting in the mouth, adding a wonderfully gentle and warm spiciness.
So far, my favorite uses have been on deviled eggs, oven-roasted potatoes, seared salmon, sandwiches, and a condiment on a cheeseboard. I am sure there are many more ways to use these little pearls, so if you try them out somewhere else – don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments section!
Homemade Mustard
Yields: 2
1 cup yellow mustard seeds
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
Add all ingredients to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer on low for 35 minutes.
Depending on the mustard seeds, it might be that you need to add a little more water. Make sure there is some liquid left in the bottom of the pan at all times.
Taste mustard seeds halfway through the cooking. Add sugar, salt, or vinegar as needed to suit your taste buds.
Cool the seeds in the same pan; this way, they keep absorbing all the moisture.
Store in nice jars and enjoy on top of deviled eggs, salads, sandwiches, and everywhere else you usually use mustard.
The Third Chakra, Solar Plexus (also called Manipura Chakra), relates to the region of the body that goes from the navel to the lower third of the rib cage.
If the physical body were a cell, the third chakra would be the mitochondria. The solar plexus creates our relationship with what we are physically able to achieve.
The third chakra may also correspond with our to-do list and the expectations we have on ourselves for what we want, or may not want to get done on a physical level.
While anxiety and burn-out may have a way of creeping into any chakra, I often see those frequencies manifest within this region of the body.
We can do energy work on “burn out” until the cows come home, but often the body desires much more than meditation to refresh, restore, and transform the body’s longing for relief, space, and nourishment.
Meditation can help create the container in which we give ourselves more space and drop us into the present moment, and that can help us co-create a reality in which more physical space and room to breathe may manifest.
Another highlight of this region is how it interplays within that survival space we all have, depending on your history with how fight, flight, or freeze responses have played out in your unique history.
Now, just because we may have some energy triggered in our third chakra, doesn’t mean it can’t physically affect regions of our body that aren’t within the navel to lower rib cage.
For instance, a lot of the foreign energy I have found within my third chakra tends to physically manifest for me in the area around my neck and upper back.
Often times when we are working on transforming the energy within a certain chakra we find the next layer of a pattern we are working on, in other various regions of the body that are physically asking us for attention.
One of the best ways to dive into this is using your own awareness and sense of self-discovery to quiet the mind and get in tune with the breath.
Sitting or laying, breate in and out with an awareness on the breath for the first 10-15 cycles of breath. Then notice if there are regions of the body where the breath wants to go. Hold the intention that the inhale in creating space within those regions of the body and the exhale is releasing energy that is no longer serving you or is no longer in affinity with your truth, in those affected areas.
You can also use our breath to help us release the energy of our to-do list being stored within the body. Inhale space for your body to vibrate in the present moment, and exhale the energetic demands of what needs to be done so that we may process it as we physically function as opposed to energetically bathing in it within the realm of that third chakra.
Practice yoga for your third chakra, from home, right now!
Awaken Your 3rd Chakra with Valerie D'Ambrosio
Getting up and onto the yoga mat regularly is great for your health and mind, but if you work at a busy desk job, your regular practice still might not be enough to combat the stress and pressure you are putting on your body - and your posture!
However, there are many ways to alleviate this pressure, but the easiest ones don’t even involve getting up from your chair - perfect for those days when you’ve just got too much work to do.
There are many yoga poses you can practice at your desk, and we’ve put together some of the best to help the areas that get the most strain sitting down, to reduce back pain, posture issues and stress.
Even if you only have time for one of these yoga postures, they will still bring benefits to your workday!
Seated Crescent Moon
Slouching is all too common when we’re busy at work and not thinking about our posture. Hunching over a computer is a very easy yet bad habit to get into, which will make your neck and shoulder uncomfortable after a while. This pose will help to elongate your spine and get you thinking about sitting up straighter.
Simply lift your arms over your head, stretching out your fingers and stretching your spine tall. Take a few breaths leaning to one side, then repeat on the other. Voila!
Hand Stretches
Typing away at your desk all day can increase tension in your finger and wrist muscles. Giving your hands a stretch every so often will increase blood flow and give a little relief to those areas.
Drawing circles clockwise and anticlockwise with your wrists is a great way to get these joints moving, followed by spreading your fingers then closing into fists a few times to stretch your fingers. This will get rid of any tension in these areas. You can also bend and stretch your wrist inwards and outwards to stretch your wrist muscles further, holding each side for a few breaths to get the best benefit.
Spinal Twists
Seated spinal twists are a great way to alleviate any tension in your lower back that can be created by sitting down at your desk. Placing your left hand on your right knee, hold your chair with your right hand. With each inhale, sit a little taller, and then turn to your right with each exhale. Sitting taller on the inhalation will help to deepen the twist, so take a few breaths here before switching sides.
Chair Pigeon
If you tend to sit crossed legged or lean on one side more than another at your desk, you can create an imbalance in your hips and spine, which affects your alignment and posture. Chair pigeon is a great pose to alleviate this.
Sitting at your desk, put both of your feet flat on the floor, and cross your left leg over your right at a 90 degree angle, flexing your foot to protect your knee. Try to keep your weight evenly distributed across your sitting bones, and sit up straight. Hold this for a few breaths before switching sides.
Seated to Standing position
Sitting down all day can lead to our leg muscles and glutes taking a break, which can lead to strain on our upper back when it's time to sit up again. Doing this movement a couple of times a day can awaken up your leg muscles and relieve the pressure on your back.
Start seated with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Try to make your way up to a standing position pushing down from your heels, without using your arms or moving your feet. Then, slowly make your way back down, keeping your hips straight and your body upright.
Desk Chaturanga
You can adapt the Chaturanga pose to use your desk, to help you strengthen your muscles and give your arms a boost of energy. It’s also a great way to get up and out of your chair.
Resting your hands on your desk (make sure it’s sturdy!), step your feet back so you are diagonal to the floor. Bending your arms to a 90-degree angle when you inhale, and pressing back out again on your exhale, like you’re doing a push up against your desk.
Desk Upward Facing Dog
Follow your Chaturanga pose by opening up your chest and shoulders with an upward dog - modified to do at your desk. This pose will help to straighten your posture and combat that rounded spine we can get hunched over our work. Stand in the same position as you prepared for your Chaturanga, but this time instead keep your arms straight and lower your hips towards your desk, stretching your chest out and pushing your chin up.
Plank Pose
Finally, one more pose before you can sit back down again - planks are great to increase strength in our muscles and get our bodies working. Standing with your feet under your hips, put your hands shoulder-distance apart on the edge of your desk. Hold this position for a few breaths to shake off the tension you can build up after sitting down all day.
Restorative Resting Pose
While in a yoga class we would get a peaceful savasana at the end of our practice, sitting at our desks can still allow for a small moment of restoration. It’s important to still take a few moments to ground ourselves. Placing your feet flat on the floor, cross your arms on your desk and lay your forehand flat down on your arms. Breathe deeply for as long as you are able to, allowing your mind to unwind, giving you a boost of mental energy to get on with your day.
Try to set aside even a couple of minutes each workday to breathe deeply, clear your mind and stretch your muscles - your body will thank you, and you’ll find those busy workdays become a little more manageable with yoga.
Ready to practice yoga at your desk, for a quick breather? Try the Quick Yoga Breaks at Your Desk: 16-Class Package!