Even if you have never done yoga it is likely you have heard the jingle “Body Mind Breath” before. And it’s also probably likely that you think that improving your Body-Mind-Breath relationship is important. But how do we do that? Start with the Body In Iyengar Yoga we start with the body. Compared to the […]
Is the purpose of yoga to help improve your health? Yes it is. WAIT! I mean… no it’s not. Well, it kind of does. Let’s sort this out: “Classical yoga” (which is yoga as outlined in ancient philosophical texts) is defined as the “cessation of the movements in the consciousness.” This means that yoga is […]
At the intensive in India, this past December, Prashant Iyengar many times said that he wants us to become our own teacher. That we need to stop relying so heavily on our teachers to tell us what to do in our practice. Which doesn’t mean we don’t need a teacher. You need a teacher so […]
Last December I traveled to India to attend classes at the Iyengar Yoga institute in Pune. The yoga institute started by B.K.S. Iyengar and now run by his son and granddaughter. The practice hall at the institute. It’s been less than a month since returning from India. The experience is still very fresh in my […]
At the beginning of class I occasionally engage the students in a short yoga philosophy discussion. The discussions are usually inspired by my on-going reading and contemplation of yogic texts, such as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. (A sutra is a short phrase. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is a book of phrases, which are […]
In such-n-such pose, “is my knee supposed to be straight, like this?”, said every new student. Students always have lots of questions about the logistics of poses. Class is a great venue for answering your questions. The Iyengar Yoga method is known for a few things, one is the instructions we give students on how […]
A friend of mine years ago used to always say “if it’s urgent, it’s not spiritual.” She meant that if you are pressuring yourself to make a decision too soon you might not make the right decision. Some decisions do require urgency: Should I call the police or my spouse after a fender-bender? Don’t delay […]
Do you think it’s important to have a yoga teacher? I do. This past weekend I traveled up to the Ann Arbor School of Yoga to attend the weekend intensive with my teacher, Laurie Blakeney. (In the photo below, that’s me standing on Laurie’s shoulders!) I have been attending these weekend intensives regularly for years. […]
It was a pleasant surprise to realize that yoga has helped to improve my concentration. Over the years I have seen immense (immense) improvement. I am now able to witness, while working at my desk, for example, a break in concentration and guide my mind back to the task. When I notice the break I […]
Are you experiencing an obstacle that is keeping you from practicing? Is your obstacle physical, mental intellectual or spiritual? And how can you know which one it is? Over the years I have experienced a huge list of obstacles to practicing. Most of the time I wasn’t able to name the obstacle until it had […]