Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

Hello from underneath 3 feet of snow! We’re stuck at home. The plows are probably another day or two out. The drifts are so deep that it’s hard to take a few steps beyond the house, let alone get to the yoga studio. This is YogaDownload weather.

All week I have been playing in the realm of intuitive guidance. In fact, one of my phrases for the year is intuitive guidance. Being open to it, as always, but more than that, actually following it. Really dropping in and listening … intently. Not questioning, not wondering, but actually following through.

Although I have never been tested for Attention Deficit Disorder, I’m confident I would have fallen into that category.

Here we are at the end of the New Year’s Conscious Cleanse! Making it this far is a huge accomplishment and deserves to be celebrated!

It’s sort of totally amazing and fabulous. Loads of FLAVOR – FIBER – PROTEIN – PROBIOTICS – NUTRIENTS – HEALTHY FATS.

These are, hands down, my favorite 15 poses for opening the hips. Creating a balanced, effective hip-opening sequence is simple if you know how the hip muscles are laid out. When you don’t have for a map for their hips, you’re at a higher risk for overstretching your hamstrings and external rotators compared to your hip flexors and adductors. Teachers make this mistake in their sequencing regularly and, as a result, hamstring insertion injuries are one of the most prevalent injuries in modern yoga

The Leo Full Moon is an opportune time to revel in your creativity and play, while ensuring that you make enough time for rest and self-care. As the full moon shines into the qualities of Leo, we are called to reflect on the ways in which we seek the spotlight or take active leadership roles.

Who doesn’t love a Caesar Salad? Check out this vegan, gluten-free version and be ready to get your taste buds groovin. This is so delicious, you’ll never miss the ole original. Try it this weekend and let me know what you think in the comment section below. With love and garlic kisses,

For more than a decade, I’ve quivered at the thought of attending a hip-opening workshop. Having played ice hockey and been a skateboarder for more 15 years, my hips were molten lead that no amount of Pigeon Pose could crack open. Now, 20 years in, I’ve chipped away and breathed steadily enough to be halfway comfortable and mobile in these joints.

Chaturanga Dandasana is hugely common in vinyasa flow classes and often vilified or blamed for all sorts of injuries. Some of that may be true, especially if done quickly, forcefully, and without any concern for alignment. I prefer to think positively about what chaturanga delivers, although extolling its virtues may fall on deaf ears and tired arms. With sincerity, I believe it is an efficient and effective transition from plank into upward-facing dog, priming the strength of the arms and shoulders to deliver the backbend energetically as well as giving an opportunity for rhythmic breath and movement.

How can we possibly discern what is true for us and beneficial for the evolution of our soul when we are bombarded by life? And by bombarded I don’t mean that we’ve lost control some how. I just mean, sometimes life moves at the speed of light and honestly, we start to move at that speed without knowing it and that’s not always the best thing.

Samskaras are impressions imprinted in the mind, created by our life experiences. They form together and create habitual patterns that can be experienced physically, mentally, or emotionally.

Cravings. No one is immune – not even us. They can be challenging, annoying and all consuming.

Now that the information superhighway is such a ubiquitous part of our lives, repercussions must be reckoned with. In this time of smartphones and big data, the ancient yogic practice of questioning our identifications needs to include the technologies that have become appendages to our minds and bodies.

Discipline is defined as a branch of knowledge or the practice of training people. I find this interesting as a yoga “teacher,” for a few reasons. One is that that while I am a teacher, I am also only a student. And honestly, the only person I am ever really training is myself.

It’s 3pm. You’re brain is fuzzy. It’s getting harder and harder to focus. Your body is sore from sitting. And you just want to make that final push to get that last bit done and then you’ll take a break.

If you’ve done the live Conscious Cleanse program with us then undoubtedly you recall Jo’s infamous “chicken breast story.” You may have also picked up that I’m someone who is powered by a plant-based diet, eating the occasional piece of fish here and there when I crave it.

For the modern yoga world, 2015 was a time of reckoning. The veneer of yoga lifestyle branding dulled further and the un-photoshopped belly continued to garner greater market appeal. Both grassroots and corporate entities that staked claims in the once vast frontier are now scrambling to stay ahead of the digital winds that are shaping the new paradigm.

This past year has provided big shifts for me, and I know (from personal connection) for a lot of you as well. I have witnessed shakedowns, breakdowns, breakthroughs, breakups, epiphanies, and big page-turners. But really, it’s not any different than any other year, now is it?

Happy New Year’s Eve! Before you put on your party shoes and head out to ring in the New Year, let’s talk about doing a little prep work for tomorrow. We’re talking hangovers…ahem…and how to beat them!

If you ask me, it’s always pumpkin season. Thank goodness for canned pumpkin! To avoid all the extra stuff in the store bought or coffee shop smoothies or pumpkin lattes – I like to whip something up at home and know exactly what is in one of my favorite pumpkin treats.

In the latter part of December, I found myself completely underwhelmed in yoga class as another teacher themed on the trials and tribulations of holiday stress. I'm talking about the self-induced stress from busyness, not true emotional strife due to current or past, uncontrollable circumstances magnified around this time of year. We bowed our heads in child’s pose commiserating over our burdened schedules, practiced twisting postures to detox from the holiday parties the weekend prior, and were asked to put our “to-do” Christmas lists aside for the hour.

Happy Winter Solstice! I love celebrating the solstices and equinoxes as they represent light and new beginnings. There is innate wisdom in nature and I think we human beings can look to nature to find more peace and happiness in our lives.

You are not one big backbend away from enlightenment. I hate to break it to you, but it is really the unglamorous work of getting up a bit earlier to do a daily practice, most of which probably isn’t instagram-worthy, that will keep you sane and healthy. It’s the accumulation of consistent practice over months and years that puts you on a path towards joy and freedom and not just one rockin’ class with a Coldplay soundtrack. If the experience of subtle energetics is part of your practice, then of course big poses have the possibility to connect you to transcendental states. But they can equally throw you off balance and out of the continual practice of balancing the energies that compose your physical, emotional, and spiritual states.

I wish I was a better meal planner. I’m great at food prep, but I must admit that I never do it with specific meals and menus in mind. I go to the farmers market or the supermarket and purchase what is in season or on sale. Then I build meals on the fly around those foods.