While most people think of yoga as contorting your body into weird positions on a piece of rubber, yoga is so much more than that. While yes, you do put your body into odd positions to strengthen, stretch, and balance your muscles and bones, it’s a deeper experience than just the physical. Many years ago
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Yamas and Niyamas, part 6: Saucha/Purity Over the last 5 weeks I have written about the 5 Yamas, or the first Limb of Yoga. These 5 principles focus on how we relate to others in our lives, yet it’s useful to also direct them inward. Today’s post is the first of the 5 Niyamas (2nd
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Once upon a time… As I was coming out of parenting really young children and was starting to have a moment to breathe, I noticed that I was craving connection. I felt alone in my marriage, and in general, and tried to figure out what to do. I had always been shy (which may come
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Welcome to part 5 of the 10 part exploration of the Yamas and Niyamas, the first 2 limbs of yoga! These posts come out every Tuesday. If you missed any of the previous posts, scroll to the bottom to catch up. When I was young, I used to hate change. Change was scary, and I
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I hear it all the time when it comes to meditation: And so on. Many people who think they can’t meditate don’t have a clear picture on what meditation is and what purpose it will serve. Hopefully this will clear things up. What is Meditation? The basic principle of meditation is training the mind to
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Yamas and Niyamas Part 4: Brahmacharya/ non-excess or enough Welcome to part 4 of the 10 part exploration of the Yamas and Niyamas, the first 2 limbs of yoga! These posts come out every Tuesday. If you missed any of the previous posts, scroll to the bottom to catch up. What is enough? I often
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The Gifts that Yoga has given me I have been in an almost 30 year relationship with yoga. When I started at age 23, I was steeped in anxiety, perfectionism, and self-loathing. I was simultaneously too much and not enough, and struggled with depression on and off for many years. Yoga has been the one
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Yamas and Niyamas part 3: Asteya/Non-Stealing Welcome to part 3 of this 10 week exploration of Yoga off the Mat! If you’ve missed the first 2 installments (plus the intro), they are available for you at the bottom, just scroll down. To make sure you don’t miss a post, subscribe on Substack! I used to
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How Practicing Tree pose can Improve Your Concentration (Dharana) Have you ever noticed that when there are a million things to do, it can be difficult to focus on just one? Multi-tasking has been proven to be “not a thing,” because instead of doing multiple things simultaneously, you actually get nothing done. All you do
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Yamas and Niyamas part 2: Satya/Truth There’s a saying by Robert Fulghum, “don’t believe everything you think.” I find there is a lot of truth to that. Our mind believes all sorts of things that it’s picked up over the years. Beliefs about our worthiness, or lack thereof, beliefs about our lovability, or lack thereof.
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