Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

It's a dreary day here in the Rocky Mountains, which usually begs me to bake and cook. I usually like to bake or cook things that aren't too tedious and don't require a huge recipe. I'm not sure if that's just plain lazy or just savvy. I decided to cook up some long over-due granola with an Autumn twist.

This week we’ve got some great new classes designed to help you unleash your inner Shakti energy. Activate your connection to Shakti by mixing up your usual routine— change is good!

There are lots of benefits to exercise—improved muscle mass, better balance, higher metabolism. And certain specific kinds of exercises bring their own specific benefits. Take yoga: For people interested in a low-impact yet intense way to build strength and flexibility, yoga may be key. But there’s a subset of specific actions in yoga that offer even more benefits.

I’ve recently enjoyed reading #GIRLBOSS, a book by NastyGal founder Sophia Amoruso. Her story sounds all too familiar: she spent her youth as a total rebel, hating school, quitting jobs, broke, directionless, and angry at the world. Then she started selling vintage clothes on eBay. Eight years later, she is the founder, CEO, and creative director of Nasty Gal, a $100 million plus online fashion retailer.

This soothing toddy will warm your bones as we transition from long summer days to the fall and winter months. The ginger lends a spicy kick, turmeric brings in an earthy quality along with an array of health benefits, the honey soothes the throat, and lemon balances it all out. You can make the turmeric honey paste ahead of time and keep it on your counter so that you can whip up this delicious toddy in just a couple of minutes.

One of the biggest life lessons I've been learning over the past year is that I need to take time for myself. I've known this for years, but stress played a major, major role in my life last summer, which culminating in me taking a full week off to get my $h!t together.

Natarajasana, or Dancer's Pose, is a glorious heart-opening posture that challenges balance while lengthening the chest and spinal muscles. Also referred to as Lord of the Dance pose, Natarajasana stimulates the Heart Chakra (Anahata) and the Third Eye Chakra (Ajna), to help the practitioner feel more grateful, forgiving, focused, intuitive, and free. 

The spirits are stirring this time of year, which means that some of you might be conjuring your own personal demons (again). We all have a few ghosts from the past and skeletons in our closet that like to haunt our memories – and we’re going to help you shake them out and clear your spiritual cobwebs.

This Scorpio new moon calls us to initiate ourselves into the watery depths of our unconscious. Whether it be through occult practices, transformational rituals, psychotherapy, shadow work or anything that ushers us “beyond the veil,” now is the time to walk into the underworld. Most of us strive to stay in the light, ignoring the dark and repressing that which needs to be addressed for us to be truly free. We can no longer resist the change that is upon us, and ignore the power of the shadow within.

The other night we had our cleanse-friendly community dinner at Zeal and we met a young woman who had severe eczema. Allergy tests confirmed several food intolerances, chocolate being one of them. As diehard chocolate lovers, of course, we gasped. Allergic to chocolate? What could be worse? True to form, we started to dig deeper. This young woman, all of 13 years of age, wasn’t allergic to chocolate, she was allergic to dairy! So we asked her if she had ever tried cacao. Not to be confused with cocoa (or cocoa powder), cacao is the purest form of chocolate you can eat. Bitter in taste, cacao beans look a lot like coffee beans. All chocolate and cocoa is made by heating cacao beans, so the raw, less processed version, cacao is always our first go-to choice when living our 80:20 lifestyle.

Do you ever feel like yoga should be more accessible? It has become harder with our fast-paced lives to get our practice in. Especially in a highly digital world, we have become more and more distracted. Instead of staying centered and trusting our internal compass, we’re pulled in a million directions. What’s the solution?

Coming of age in the yoga profession means facing changing realities and shifting priorities. The majority of yoga teachers start out in the profession at an early time in their lives. But as the viability of old models wanes and independent players have less impact in the face of up-scaled operations, long-term prospects for careers in yoga are less apparent. For those whose passion cannot be deterred by the odds, their faith and trust in practice will likely be tested. This year marks the twentieth that I have made my living solely from teaching yoga. It’s hard to believe that the desperate stumble I took into yoga in my early twenties has morphed a life, replete with a family, a yoga center, and a multi-media platform. There was truly no plan. I’ve just been diligent in practice, showed up consistently, taught the best class I knew how, and it has panned out well enough so far.

Yama Niyama Asana Pranayama Pratyahara Dharana Dhyana Samadhi. In English (my translation): Be a good person, take care of your Self, be aware of your posture, control your energy, withdraw from your external senses, concentrate, meditate, allow total integration. These are the steps on the path, outlined in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, to enlightenment. I have talked about the Yamas and Niyamas a little bit, the whole world is obsessed with posture, albeit not always healthy posture, meditation is gaining popularity, and the other steps are pretty much forgotten. There are many reasons for this. It’s hard to teach the Yamas and Niyamas unless you’re ready for a self-help course with a philosophy book as a reading requirement. Sense withdrawal is the nicer way of saying sensory deprivation and that is being sold the same way tanning is sold these days. Concentration sounds boring, even though we all know it’s necessary and we could probably use it more then ever what with all the distractions of the internet. Total integration is admittedly optimistic, unrealistic, and metaphysical sounding all at the same time, so I get why people stay away.

Your shoulders have a lot of moving parts. Each shoulder has 4 joints (GH, AC, SC, ST), plus layers and layers of soft tissues that include muscles, tendons, and ligaments. When you add the physical demands that the shoulders undergo on a daily basis to the complexity of the region, you wind up with an unavoidable truth: Your shoulders need regular—if not daily maintenance—if you want your upper-body to be functional and comfortable. We frequently take our body for granted. Even as yoga practitioners, we often forget the intricate subtlety and profound majesty of the body. When we take our body for granted, we forget that it needs our attention and care. We forget that our body needs regular—if not daily maintenance—especially as our body ages. I’ve watched my body through my yoga practice for 20 years and it’s finally become clear that my shoulders, neck, and upper-back need a simple, quick, daily practice if I want them to work optimally. I created the following sequence for myself a few months ago and I’ve been extremely consistent with it. It’s usually not the entirety of my practice or training on any given day. Rather, it’s a supplement. It’s simple, basic, and hugely effective. Think about it as the equivalent of brushing your teeth or taking a shower. It’s just basic hygiene that helps you feel better.

What does it mean to "Go Your OM Way? Where to begin? To me, this hashtag directly translates to follow your passion or trust your heart. We receive so many conflicting messages from the world, be it from our parents, our friends, our workplace, or our community in general. Often, our true passion or dharma in life becomes subjugated to the expectations of others and we find ourselves living a life that doesn’t feel authentic.

A confession: I’m a book worm. I was recently asked by a teacher during a guided meditation, “Where do you find refuge?”. In other words, where do I go for support, reassurance, and inspiration? Where is my safe harbour? I immediately thought of my books! My library of spiritual guides and how-tos of yoga practice and meditation shout pretty loud and clear to me “You are not alone. Many have walked this path.” I take refuge in this great tradition of teaching and go to it when my spirits are low or if I need a good kick in the bum. Whenever I am lost in this big world of yoga, I recall Joan Didion’s directive from The Year of Magical Thinking: “Read, learn, work it up, go to the literature.” Here are my essentials.

Coffee seems to be one of those foods that’s either vilified or celebrated in the media. Since having my daughter, I am on Team Celebrate Coffee, but it seems most important to determine what works for your personal constitution. You can certainly make this smoothie without the coffee component. Between the coffee, the raw cacao, and the cinnamon, this is a smoothie that’s packed with antioxidants.

We’ve got something new for you this month. In the interest of exposing you to a broad range of yoga, we’re excited to roll out new Kundalini classes and practices with Guru Jagat from the Rama Institute for Applied Yogic Science and Technology. If you aren’t familiar with Kundalini, you aren’t alone. More mysticism surrounds this style of yoga than most others. Do you have to wear white? No. Is it a religion? No. And, what’s this about coiled serpents? How can this ancient practice apply to me in this modern age where I’m just seeking to find a mind-body connection?

The Full moon in Aries invites us to take charge of our lives and think outside the box. You know you have it in you: the will to do what inspires you most. Take advantage of this sacred energy and put this power to use. Aries carries the energy and passion of our drives and urges into the world. When used wisely, this energy is unstoppable and a force for positive change and growth. If you’ve been playing small up until now…stop. It doesn’t serve you or your gifts. Those who would benefit from what you have to share are waiting for you to make your move.

Among the core tenets of yoga philosophy, drishti—a Sanskrit term referring to immersive mental concentration—can expand, deepen and recalibrate that intrinsic mind–body connection during your practice. In order to experience these benefits for your well being, however, you must become attuned to every nuance of movement on your mat, from the postures and energy flow to breath work. The best part: you can practice to reach this desired degree of focus off the mat, just as effectively, through other pursuits that sharpen both cognitive function and physical dexterity. The following autumn inspired activities can help yogis everywhere, from the disciplined veteran to the untrained novice, improve their drishti throughout this beautiful and transformational time of year.

Are you living your life to the fullest? Have you done the work to uncover your beautiful shining light? Living your most authentic life? And, if so, are you sharing it with the world? Consider this: you already possess the power and strength to do whatever it is you want to do. Each one of us is born with a special gift, a potential that when realized allows us to shine beyond our wildest dreams. Yoga offers the tools to help harness your prana and unleash your unique energy to live a life without limits.

Yoga is an invitation to grow—to wake up and to experience your life in the most fulfilling way. The true transformation is more than just a physical change in your appearance—it’s an awakening of your inner strength, freedom and perception. There are no guarantees to this awakening though. You have to be willing to do the work, stay the course when you hit a wall or plateau, and allow your yoga practice to be about more than just your body.

At the end of every yoga class I teach, I conclude with a prayer. It sounds a little different every time. But I usually say: “Begin to slowly awaken here, noting the symbolic journey from death into new life: from the pose of the corpse, savasana, into this shape of new life, the fetal position; how we all entered this world. This is symbolic of the journey, of the death of ignorance — feeling fractured, unwhole, anything less than divine — thanks to the journey of yoga. And here now, we emerge into new life: the new you, the true you, the whole and yoked you. That is yoga. Remember that today is not yet over. That you always have an opportunity to begin again, to start anew, to be you, to choose your Self and be unapologetically you.”

Life is one beautiful mess of relationships. We can classify them. We can put them in quotes. We can add that extra long, extra inquisitive inflection at the end, but are we in a relationship? Some are transitory. Some are so interwoven into our fabric we can forget that we are separate from them. We can forget that they each deserve reflection and intention. We can forget that they are, no matter what, intimate.

One of the most influential people in my life was John Magill, a Presbyterian minister and my grandfather. I remember his warm, soft hand holding mine when I was a little girl squeezing it as we sang, “let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” At a young age, I developed a deep conviction that I would do something about spreading peace. It was this same conviction that led me to get on a bus when I was 11 years old and travel 5 hours across the state of Pennsylvania and joined the 6.5 million people in the Hands Across America human chain.