Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

A Libra new moon invites us to get creating and start relating. Libra loves the arts, music and anything beautiful, so this is a good time to immerse yourself in the divine beauty all around you. Any excuse to work with your creative faculties should be taken advantage of, as this new moon sparks the beginning of new artistic works for you. Libra is also the great relator — no matter what kind of relationship needs tending in your life, the Libra energy from this new moon fuels the fire of intimacy.

As one of the most beautiful flowers in the world, the lotus stands for enlightenment and self-awareness. It has its roots in the mud, at the bottom of streams and ponds, but rises to blossom above the water without becoming wet or tainted by the mire below. It symbolically represents being fully grounded in our truths, yet aspiring past suffering and negativity towards our truest forms.

Roughly every three months, the season changes. In some places in the world seasonal changes are quite evident. It others, it feels the same for most of the year. I’ve always been a fan of seasons because I like variety. With each new season brings a change in perspective, whether we consciously think about it or not. New fresh fruits and vegetables, new available activities, new temperatures, new clothing to meet those temperatures and associated forms of precipitation, new colors.

Meditation teaches us how distracted we really are. We just don’t usually notice because we are so distracted. Most of us generally have the same series of redundant thoughts circling around in our mind, over and over and over again. In our society, we are so focused on getting somewhere, getting what we want, the “if only” syndrome so to speak. If only we can just get this job, this house, this person, fill in the blank, then we’ll be happy. When we are operating from this mindset, we aren’t focused on the here and now.

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.

It’s always best to eat foods that are in-season, and I recently got some pure kabocha flour and simply had to put it to good use. :) It’s 100% kabocha that has been dried and turned into a fine powder. I think I actually prefer this to cans of pumpkin puree because it’s very easy to measure, you don’t have to worry about what to do with any awkward leftovers, and it gives an intense pumpkin flavor and bright orange color to baked goods.

What are the chakras? According to yoga, our inner bodies are full of subtle energy. This energy moves along a central channel called the sushumna nadi. These centers are thought to be doorways into the depths of awareness – awareness that is within the body, outside the body and also can expand in such depth that we come to realize the innate vastness of our true nature.

The inspiration for today’s recipe came from past cleanse participants who elected to try our new Low Sugar Plan. Who is the Low Sugar Plan for? Simply put it’s for those of us who struggle with our weight, mood swings, hormone issues, anxiety, and/or insomnia. It’s for those of us who have an insatiable sweet tooth!

Do you ever get confused with all the labels attached to yoga practices today? There is hatha yoga, kundalini yoga, power yoga, yin yoga, vinyasa yoga, flow yoga, hot yoga— and the list seems to keep growing. For starters, classic hatha yoga is often referred to as the umbrella under which any practice that includes physical postures resides. 'Ha-' is Sanskrit for sun and '-tha' means moon. Thus, hatha yoga is based on creating balance between our masculine qualities—active, hot, sun—and feminine ones—receptive, cool, moon.

“Yoga and Ayurveda are sister sciences that developed together and repeatedly influenced each other throughout history. Yoga and Ayurveda work together to enhance their great benefits on all levels”.

Have you tried and failed at meditating? You are not alone! We all lead busy lives and the whole idea of meditating, for the peace that it is reputed to bring, sounds great. But when we sit down, the mind noise can be frustrating, distracting and downright irritating. Some friends have reported that they have stopped meditating because increasing their upset rather than reducing it!

Yoga can be the practice of discovering your own inner state of joy, so how will you achieve your yoga high today? Embrace what calls to you! Yoga doesn’t have to be so serious or complicated. It’s truly a simple practice, but as Patanjali states in the Yoga Sutras, it isn’t easy. There isn’t an identical path for any of us. We’re all unique. Individually perfect or perfectly imperfect. What really matters is how you feel during and after your yoga practice.

Every teacher can feel the shift that happens in the midst of teaching when the collective energy in the class begins to synch. It is a palpable sense of connectedness - a heightened quality of flow as movement, breath, and embodied awareness come into flow. As you may know and feel, our heart has a tremendous role in such shifts of consciousness that we feel at the heart of yoga.

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, which makes this juice cleanse I'm currently on pretty difficult. I mean, what would you rather have on a chilly morning? Fresh vegetable juice or a hot, delicious bowl of oatmeal? It's not a hard choice.

The smoothie bowl is a trend that I’ve been loving. They’re hydrating and cooling, making them perfect for summer breakfast or an afternoon snack. They don’t require sugar or sugar substitutes and you still feel like you’re eating a treat. Jason calls them “ice cream.”

If you’re reading this, you’re a seeker. A warrior of love and quester for experiences and purpose. You’ve been on the journey, maybe for a day, maybe for years. This journey of becoming who you are. And, it occurs to me that, at times (maybe at this time) you might feel lost. Your path may feel far away, and the road ahead may seem very murky and uncertain.

Mindful eating is a powerful tool that can be used to control weight gain, assist weight loss, fight binge eating, and deal with several other eating disorders. There are currently a lot of unhealthy solutions regarding weight loss, ranging from unhealthy fad diets to questionable, chemical supplements. Mindful eating, on the other hand, is a simple attitude that results in being aware of your appetite and thus allows you to control portions and make healthy meal choices. By practicing mindfulness while eating, you engage all of your senses, particularly when choosing foods. This way you are able to choose foods that are nourishing as well as satisfying. You will remain well aware of your level of hunger and be able to choose foods without relying entirely on emotional cues or stimuli, which drive many people to impulse eating. Eventually, you will be able to decide the ideal time to start and stop eating and the ideal foods to eat.

If you’re reading this, you #GoYourOMWay. You are not restricted by class times, work schedules or even walls. You have followed your heart (and our mobile app) to discover new teachers, styles and inspiring places to take your yoga. If you are reading this, you are part of a community that decided to throw away the script, think outside the studio and build the yoga practice that works for you.

September features two eclipses in a row, starting with a solar eclipse during the new moon in Virgo on September 1st. The next event is a lunar eclipse during the full moon in Pisces on September 16th. This makes all of September an incredibly potent month to start, end, renew, reevaluate and deepen all areas of life. The energy of an eclipse lasts six month or more, so use the preliminary energy of Virgo in the month to be cautious and careful of all you cultivate during this cosmic time. The lunar eclipse in Pisces is a good time to immerse yourself in transcendence and oneness, and let go of all that doesn’t serve your spiritual needs.

I have what you could call a peach problem. That is if you consider consuming massive amounts of the cuddliest fruit ever over the months of July and August, then yes I have a problem. I know Georgia is known for their peaches. But my friends, Colorado is the sneaky underdog of peach production. We make a damn good peach. Like shenanigans good. But those Colorado beauties aren’t around all year round. And it sucks. And it’s painful. And at least a dozen times I want to rock a grocery store peach that has traveled miles upon miles to be meticulously piled up in ze Whole Foods. But I don’t. (At least not usually.) Because they are always a disappointment. And because they beg to ask the question: do I really need to eat peaches 12 glorious months out of the year?

Why do I feel this sense of urgency? I feel it all the time. I feel it the morning when I first wake up. I feel it while I am doing my work. I feel it while I am driving, walking and riding my bike. I feel it when I am on my yoga mat. I feel it in meditation. I feel it now as I write these words: write faster, finish writing sooner, move on to the next thing you have to do today. 

My journey in yoga lately has been leading me to throughly analyze the way postures work. In other words, alignment. Lately I’ve been asking myself: what is the balance between strength and flexibility? Does a body party or muscle group need to be strong in order to be flexible?

It’s safe to say I’m green-tea obsessed. It hold promise for many different types of health benefits (including cancer prevention and cardiovascular disease prevention) and there are so many varieties and delicious blends that I never grow tired of it. Since reading David Servan-Schreiber’s book Anti-Cancer, I try to drink it regularly, so I’m often experimenting with different recipes. This one is my current favorite summer iced tea. It requires some prep, but you can make a big batch and drink it over the course of a few days.

There may be no better foreplay than partner yoga. Your girlfriend is in spandex, you're touching each other, and you're both getting bendy. It's hot—and research agrees. The ancient Indian practice has long been shown to ease joint pain, lower blood pressure, and relieve anxiety, but researchers say it's great for the sexual health of both women and men, too.

Summer is winding down and as the season starts to shift, it’s a perfect time to integrate some more calming practices to not only beat the last hot days of summer, but also to remind ourselves how important it is to chill out in our busy, high-tech world. Ayurveda, yoga’s sister science, offers advice on how we can acclimate to the heat and balance it out through both diet and our asana, pranayama and meditation practices. When we align ourselves with nature, we learn to live in balance no matter what’s happening externally or internally. Without launching a dissertation on Ayurvedic principles, we’ll give you the quick basics on how Pitta energy can be exacerbated in the summer and provide some practices that will help you stay calm, cool, and collected no matter how steamy it gets.