What would your body be like if you never sat in chairs? Like this Not all injuries are visible. I was "injured" and didn't even know but because of Ashtanga Yoga I was able to discover it. Luckily for the last 13 years I've been trying to put my body into certain shapes each morning which at times has worked out fine but then other times not so well. When I couldn't get into the shapes I made the mistake of forcing my body through them and hurt myself even more till I couldn't practice at all. If you want to know that whole story click here When I injured myself so bad I couldn't get out of bed...
Why Extra Grip Equals Extra Weak Would you ride a mountain bike with training wheels? Seems kind of ridiculous right? Then why are you using a sticky mat? Or anything with "extra grip"? Just like training wheels the extra grip could be necessary in the beginning but at some point you will be strong enough to move to the next level. In this post I will explain how I adjusted the difficulty of the surface level I practice on so I could build stronger legs, feet and back and how it made a massive difference in my practice. This is part of the Strong Foundations Emails Series *Please note this is not to be taken as medical advice or the...
True story. Bouncing through the Indian countryside in an SUV on our way to see how the organic Mysore rugs are made I asked my supplier “So how many of your 75 buyers come to see you and how your products (cushions, rugs, bags etc) get made? He said “One of my biggest buyers of 17 years has never been here. About 15 or so come to the office and then a handful to see the looms.” I mean why would they? It's not like they would be in India learning yoga or anything. It’s something that I see very commonly. Businessmen selling yoga products without a yoga education. From the surface it might not look like it matters...
"Breathing is very important. Without breathing spiritual body is not coming, spiritual mind also is not coming." - Sri K Pattabhi Jois Similarities Over Differences What do Christians, Muslims, Hindu’s, Buddhists, Atheists all have in common? What do children, seniors, males, females, Africans, Caucasians, Asians all have in common? What do criminals, saints, businessmen, prostitutes, preachers all have in common? What does every single human being alive on the planet right now have in common? Breath. We all breathe. No matter what the person's belief system, the actions they take take or what their outer shell looks like this one thing is done by every single human alive. You could be a saint and you breathe. You can be...
“Anything that makes you weak - physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject it as poison.” ― Swami Vivekananda Cultivating Courage Vs Fear The Modern Yoga Practitioner's Dillema "I want to have backbends like Margaret (above) but haven't updated my Facebook status in 24 hours?" I don't know about you but I would rather end up more like a brave Hanuman with open psoas in hero pose vs a closed up computer guy with a great looking Facebook Page. That's just me though. My challenge like many people is that a large part of my work is tied to the being on a computer. So what is an aspiring yogi to do? How can I have a healthy hanuman psoas (not clenched in a fear position),...
