The yoga student journey from potential new student to practitioner is not a straight line. When students come to class for the first time I definitely don’t assume they will want to dedicate their life to a yoga practice. I assume new students are trying it out casually and I don’t put pressure on them. […]
I sat down with my mentoree Dawn (pictured here) to discuss her experience with Iyengar Yoga and talk about a new class she is offering this fall. Aaron Fleming: Hi Dawn, tell us a little about yourself. Dawn Baurichter: In addition to yoga I enjoy being outside, traveling to national parks and walking the trails. […]
I attend class with my teacher, Laurie Blakeney, three or four times a year, usually during her weekend intensives up in Ann Arbor. In between her intensives I try to take class with other senior certified Iyengar Yoga teachers. There’s no certified Iyengar Yoga teachers senior to me in Cincinnati so I must travel to […]
Misconceptions about yoga abound. But I am here to tell you that it is not what you think it is. Yoga is not what you think it is. And Iyengar Yoga is not what you think it is. If you have never taken a yoga class I bet you already have an idea of what […]
If you stick with it practicing yoga can lead to a life of contentment. But how does doing poses lead to contentment? Let’s explore a recent experience I had which will hopefully illustrate the process. I spent last week vacationing on Lake Michigan with six adults, six small children and one pretty big dog. There […]
Can you grow a relationship with yoga? Many people don’t think of yoga as something you can actually learn. That is probably because a lot of what we see in advertising makes us think that yoga is an exercise for people who are already flexible and some how intuitively already know what they are doing. […]
In the previous post, we touched on Why we use props in yoga. The props are essential for helping us approach the poses with safety. But we also use the props to help facilitate a more profound effect through the awareness of the breath. When we are doing active poses, and not holding still very […]
B.K.S. Iyengar invented ways to use props to support the body in yoga poses. He saw that many people had difficultly achieving the poses and therefore could not reap the benefits of a practice. His props help when there is a limitation like stiffness or injury. An example of props sometimes used in an Iyengar […]
I am always so grateful when a holiday arrives. I am glad to have a break from the usual schedule and spend time with my family. To “sleep in” (there’s no sleeping in at my house), to not rush to a meeting, to take a slower pace. My body and brain need a break from […]
Last week I was practicing at home and settling in for Savasana (usually the last pose where you lay down and just try to be still and quiet). My two year old, who had been mostly playing quietly in the room with me, comes over and begins stroking my eye lids and lips with her […]