Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

Last week I got the amazing opportunity to help assist a workshop at a corporate event, where my fellow teacher and I were tasked with teaching people yoga you can do at work.

If you’ve been following us on Facebook and Instagram lately you know that we’re mildly – scratch that – massively obsessed with this new organic extra virgin olive oil by Kasandrinos. This olive oil is unlike any other you’ve tried before and it will make all your recipes come to life!

The Yoga Sutras say that our movements should be steady and sweet – and they’re right. But that doesn’t make it easy.

Having a little one myself, I want to feed her the very best. She has allergies like I do, but can’t do most nuts or seeds, which makes things much harder. The recipe below is one that I truly believe can work for most kids with allergies–no nuts, seeds, grains, eggs, sugar and very little fruit.

Sagittarius, the great archer, is ready to take his aim and hit his target during this full moon in May. Charged up by Mars, this Full Moon gives us great energy to move toward any goals in higher education, publishing, exploring foreign culture or high-level (meta) teaching. While all these Sagittarian qualities are driven and expanded at this time by Mars, we may also pay special attention to the opportunity to explore our connection to religion, personal philosophy or our soul’s purpose. Nothing drives Sagittarius energy more than an interest in refining our belief system. If we have walked away from (or pushed away) a religious practice, then this is a good time to reconsider what might actually be potent and important to you in your life. Our early religious experiences (for better or for worse) shape and mold our unconscious mind and those impressions run deep. Though the external practices or dogma may have lost their luster for you, take time to find some personal, internal practice that ignites a spiritual spark inside your soul. Take back your religion on your own terms, and utilize this Full Moon energy to shine some light on what allows you to deeply connect to yourself.

A few weeks ago, I learned that I had been doing a yoga pose wrong for the entirety of my time practicing yoga. It took about 7 years for anyone to tell me otherwise, so I want to share the knowledge with you here today so that you can be an informed yoga practitioner.

I picked this topic because honestly I stood in awe after the event we did on Mother’s Day for my non-profit, Girls Elevate. It came to me before the event … for days leading up to it actually. But I was preparing a thank you note to all the people who were there after the event, and I was in awe of the support that came so easily. And then when I looked at that list, I realized that all those people were there in service with their gift, their passion, their purpose, their love of …whatever it was they were offering up.

Befriend yourself If we are concerned with self-improvement or cultivating physical disciplines, we can be quite hard on ourselves, especially when things aren’t going as well as we’ve hoped or planned. Off the mat, there are sure to be times we disappoint ourselves, failing to live up to some ideal expectations. Instead of chastising or punishing yourself, or suppressing behaviours that you think are beneath you, can you instead be kind to whatever it is inside of you that is calling out for help? Can your kindness be unconditional? When your thoughts dive into dark places, instead of wishing you were feeling something else, can you listen, befriend yourself, and see what you may need to feel better?

For the longest time, I ate yogurt for breakfast thinking that I was doing the “right thing.” What I didn’t realize, was that most of the “healthy yogurt” I was eating was not only filled with sugar, it was also causing me some unwanted side effects.

Sometime within the last year, a friend of mind asked about a nagging ankle injury. He had just recently gotten into yoga but wasn’t sure if yoga was helping or hurting his ankle recovery. Specifically, he wanted to know how you know when you need to strengthen, stretch, or rest.

Making the decision to sign up for a teacher training for most people is a big deal. Many register for programs in order to become a yoga instructor, but people also register in order to simply learn more about yoga. What most people don’t count on is how much you learn about yourself through the teacher training process. While learning alignment for Down Dog and how to cue people into a Warrior One is great, gaining tools to thrive and uncovering a new way of looking at life are even better.

Taurus’ stellar ability to manifest earthly beauty and abundance are brilliantly enhanced during the New Moon. A thrilling combination in the sky create an opportunity to expand on your transformative powers and throw out any rigid beliefs that are getting in your way. This New Moon brings richness and offers supremely powerful energy to enhance your finances. If there is a money-making endeavor that has presented itself, go for it! And, if you have been waiting on your payday, it is just around the corner, provided you clear whatever energy may be blocking your inherent success.

I haven’t even begun to try and process Prince’s death. I can’t seem to find the middle ground between dancing and crying. The day he passed, I listened to his music until I fell asleep. Before sleep came, I scrolled video after video, article after article … I couldn’t get enough. My eyes were bloodshot I was so tired.

Ever wondered what the difference is between a yin class and a restorative class? Or maybe you even wonder what this yin yoga is in the first place! Yin yoga is a relatively new “form” of yoga that has become popular in the past decade or so. While the practice itself has always existed, the practice as it’s offered today in studios across the world has evolved. Today I’d like to offer you my perspective on the yin practice and give you a little experience.

We’re in celebration mode (find out why here) and that means it’s Conscious Cocktail time! Who’s thirsty?

Backbends are demanding and invigorating. They require a combination of flexibility and strength that can vary from person to person. They require patience and preparation. Often our ability to backbend in big and deep ways can be limited by muscular and soft tissue tightness across the front of the hips, around the numerous connections of the spine itself, and across the front and back of the shoulders. Here are three warm ups focused on stretch and release of these regions to help you deepen your backbends.

“Calm mind brings inner strength and self-confidence, so that’s very important for good health.” ~ Dalai Lama

As the world becomes more complex, the universe is sending subtle signals to simplify. It seems a lot of the world is starting to question the complexity we’ve built into our ways of doing things.

With our spring cleansers in mind, we whipped up this delicious, oh-so-springy, cleansing soup featuring asparagus.

A full moon in Scorpio shines light on all our darkest depths: the secrets we carry beneath the outer facade, hidden in the shadow, waiting for the light. At its worst, Scorpio energy forces these secrets to the surface at the worst possible moments, often wounding others (and ourself!) in the process. However, when we consciously bring acceptance and awareness to our shadow, the hidden depths reveal not darkness, but long buried treasure that is the source of our greatest healing, wisdom and truth. In this way, the deep processing required by this illuminated Scorpio energy brings things to light that ultimately reveal our power.

Hey Guys, So I have seen so many of my friends over the years trying to get healthy, detoxify and lose weight…which is cool. But then they tell me what they’re eating and I freak out!

I am a vinyasa flow girl through and through. I believe that spending time studying alignment is vital to a lifelong yoga practice — whether in the form of Iyengar classes/workshops or with a flow teacher like Jason who occasionally slows things down. When you learn to understand and tune into the details of alignment you not only stave off potential injuries, you truly learn the skill of connecting your body and mind.

Ahhhh the blooms and trees beginning to bud, and the grass popping up through the snow….it can all be such a thing of beauty. It can also be a time for allergy sufferers to struggle!

Am I full of it? I love Sun Salutations. I love doing them exactly the same way every day. I don’t need to be creative with them. But why is this? When asked about keeping up a yoga practice, I often say “consistency is what really matters. don’t worry about duration or intensity, just do something every day.” When asked about sequencing one’s practice for home or a classroom environment, I’ll defend the power of simple movements repeated several times with breath taught over many classes over complicated choreography that’s shifting and changing from one moment to the next and never repeated again from one class to another. If asked why, I’ll say “repetition of simple movements with breath is what will help the nervous system and mind relax, too much new and complicated will just stimulate and potentially lead to new stress.” I say these things, know them intuitively to be true, but beyond tradition (yoga sutras definitely emphasize repetition and consistency, and the movements of sun salutes are very much present in Eastern prayer tradition) really haven’t had much to back it up. But I think I’m beginning to get a clearer picture.

Do you have emotional vampires in your life? Do you have friends or family that suck your life energy and leave you feeling depleted, depressed, irritable and antsy?