Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

We all get stuck in a rut from time to time—even yoga teachers. In fact, the question that comes up most frequently in the group of teachers that I mentor is, “How do I keep my practice and teaching fresh?” After all, it’s hard to inspire and connect with your students when you’re feeling stale. The first thing to remember is this: All relationships, vocations, and passions go through different phases. If things feel a little lackluster from time to time it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you or your relationship to yoga. Try not to go crazy if your practice and teaching feel stagnant. Acknowledge and allow the feelings. And when you feel ready try these simple tips for getting back to what matters most.

Did you know that the right body posture can make you look taller, slimmer, and more confident? Thanks to our hectic schedules, our mind and body are always tired. Most of us slouch over our desks, straining our backs in the process. The constant stress and pressure make it really hard for you to maintain a good posture. When your body is in the ideal position, everything else is comfortable. However, accommodating time for a workout or exercise is stressful when your timetable is blocked by work. What if I told you that without wasting much of your day, you could do a few yoga asanas that can make a difference? Read on to know more.

The novelty of yoga has been worn down to almost nothing by a multi-billion dollar industry that cares little for its tenets, like the crumbling shreds of a shoddily made pvc mat from China. But from out of the ashes of craven images and advertising schemes, a new discipline is emerging.

It is common for people to go through dry spells or feel burnt out. We all have, at one point of another, felt uninspired, overworked, wanted to check out and just plain exhausted from the humdrum of life and the prevailing idea of not ‘being enough’. We don’t always have time to go to cook healthy meals, go to yoga classes, stick to our budget or just do things ‘right’. One might wonder what it would be like to have more hours in a given day to do the things we want to do to live a more fulfilling and happy life. Yet if your evenings and weekends are spent in the same couch potato or indulgent fashion, it may be time for you to check in and recognise this as a sign that you’ve been making excuses for yourself.

Are you wondering how to improve your yoga practice? It’s one of the most common questions I get from my students and clients. It’s also one of the hardest questions to answer because there is no one answer. Improving your yoga practice is not about learning how to do the postures the “right way” or learning how to hold a handstand and master arm balances. Improving your yoga practice starts with shifting your perspective, keeping an open mind, and committing to stepping on your mat, literally or figuratively, as often as possible.

It’s normal to start feeling little sluggish or unlike your usual confident self after a long, rainy winter. It may the perfect time to clear out any energy or feelings that have gone stagnant. We could all use a reboot in our systems to charge our inner fierceness and tap into our ambition.

It is widely known that yoga helps us conquer a long list of health benefits. Yoga eases anxiety and relieves symptoms of depression. It helps with back and neck pain and it reduces stress levels; it helps us be more in the moment and so much more. Despite knowing that yoga is good for us, it can still be hard for us to do yoga, especially when we have an already overpacked schedule. You don’t need a full hour to incorporate this exercise into your daily routine, however, and the following tips will show how you can do yoga every day, no matter how busy you are.

Some people have told me not to talk about it. That it’s my place as a yoga instructor to spread peace and harmony. That my message must be about love and fairies. That I must ignore reality. That’s not yoga at all. That’s a continuation of the mess that got us here in the first place. Yeah, I get it. We’re all sick of it. There’s a lot of anger and resentment and fear. Encouraging people to escape to yoga is a disservice to students.

I’ve had anxiety since college and have been lucky enough to use therapy as a tool for managing it. As such, I’ve learned a lot about how anxiety manifests in my life and how to recognize as well as soothe it.

What is discipline, really? Discipline is a tricky little devil. Ideally, it can be the fire that gets us on the mat so that we can strip away the illusions and misidentifications that cause us to suffer. As Iyengar explains, “wood must be heated to ignite it and bring out the hidden fire within.” Not so ideally, it can also be a confusing agent of self-hatred and punishment. When we commit ourselves to a disciplined daily practice (and since there is no need to preach to the converted, we know this has benefits) we can also be mistakenly committing ourselves to a desire to achieve aesthetically based fitness goals and an addiction to the ability to perform complicated party-trick asana. When I miss a practice or feel that I’ve just sort of lazily stretched for an hour, a niggle in the back of my mind warns that perhaps I’ll soon slip back into adolescent pudginess and its maelstrom of related emotional entanglements if I don’t step up and get myself back into shape. I have to remember that there is a balance of health to be maintained between body, mind, and heart – which of course are fundamentally intertwined – while on the sometimes difficult and circuitous path of yoga. A path that we hope leads us through a life liberated from cycles of suffering.

A sedentary person also termed a couch potato, is someone that leads a lifestyle with irregular or no physical activity. Couch potato's spend most of their day sitting watching TV, working on a computer, reading or playing video games. Excessive sitting contributes to many chronic health issues including anxiety and preventable causes of death.

I’m going to share something straight-up and simple that’s transpiring for me lately. Here goes: As the working mom of a preschooler with a husband who travels constantly, I can say that unequivocally, it’s my practice that keeps me sane and balanced. (Can I get an “Amen!”)

Full disclaimer: when it comes to the morning, I’m a coffee first kind of guy. Yoga is a close second. But, it’s second nonetheless. It wasn’t always this way, but nothing is permanent. So, if you’re like me and you prefer some liquid inspiration to get yourself on the mat first thing, don’t judge yourself. Once you’re ready, here’s a solid, get-up-and-go practice.

Whatever you thought about 2016, this year is a fresh start. We’re here to help you take your life to the next level with new programs and classes to make sure you can put your best mind, mood and foot forward. While some big-picture new years resolutions are ‘head-in-the-clouds’ plans that will soon fade, this is about creating attainable daily routines and results through yoga and meditation classes that will restore, revitalize, and sustain you throughout the year.

My first yoga class was in the NYU gym. I was 18 and on the bagel, pizza and cereal diet of a student. Holistic wellness wasn't necessarily on my radar and I went to class mostly because I wanted a bohemian experience that would fuel my assumed New York artiste persona. That was the same year I pierced my ear, wore yellow tinted glasses, and sported a beret on occasion. Yoga was to be another fashionable accessory.

I know back pain. I’ve dealt with varying degrees of back pain—from mild to severe—for more than 20 years. I’ve also worked with hundreds of students that have similar challenges. In fact, many students turn to yoga when they’re facing lower-back problems.

Fitness trends come and go all the time. Crossfit had its time in the spotlight, as did rail running and P90X. However, as studies are published across the fitness and medical industries, telling us which exercises will really get us into the best shape of our lives, there is one form of fitness that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Which one is it? You guessed it: yoga.

As a formally vocal sceptic that recently “found” yoga during a month long stay at Blue Osa Yoga Retreat and Spa, I was keen to do a little digging into the benefits that yoga could provide. The results were staggering!

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.

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.

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.

Practice our Featured Pose of the month, Warrior II, to fuel your flow. Warrior II / Virabhadrasana II symbolizes strength and victory.

With the world’s drishti turned to Rio this week, we’ve been asking ourselves, what if yoga were a global competitive sporting event? Yogis would be judged in categories like compassion, presence and breath - they would be judged on their non-judgment. Yoga will likely never join the 28 sports that earn gold medals (and if they did what version of yoga would that be?), but with over 36 million Americans practicing everyday, we still feel a patriot-like sense of pride and community. Many global athletes embrace a yoga practice to enhance their athletic performance. In addition to physical conditioning and strength training, yoga helps build mental agility – in short, it connects brain and brawn for a higher purpose.