Liberated Yoga
Yoga is for everyone!
Ordinary Life.
Just a quick post about something, that has been looming large in my life, raising teenagers. Boy, is it hard. I am an average parent. I am not fantastic, nor am I terrible, I am smack in the middle of my social, economic, and age cohort. I am okay with being average. Not just in that department, but in general - one can't be a genius in everything. Some things we are naturally more talented in, have deficiencies in others, and they balance each other out. It is curious to me how my children g...
1 Comments
Sensations as nutrition
This is a concept that I have been developing in my practice and teaching for the last few years, and my Liberated Yoga approach is based on the new research about the nervous system. As a teacher I sometimes hear from my students, as they are doing a pose, that they feel something in their back, hip, etc. "Should I be concerned?" they ask me. "I feel something!" The reason for their uncertainty is that many people live such cerebral lives, that they notice sensations from the body only w...
Mind Body Connection
I think it is common knowledge now that the mind and the body share a powerful connection. The ancient Yogis had known about this and used it to achieve high physical and mental states. Asana in Sanskrit means "posture", and the way we carry ourselves, our posture, reveals volumes about our mental and emotional state. Look around you next time you are in a store, standing in a check-out line, and ask yourself what the people around might be thinking or feeling just based on thei...
2 Comments
Matless Yoga
It has been a few years now that I've stopped using a Yoga mat for my practice. I still use a mat at the Studio where I teach just for appearances sake, but I prefer to step off it while doing standing poses, and I usually cover it with a blanket if I am lying or sitting down. At home I have a carpeted floor for Yoga, and I hardly ever use the mat there anymore. I understand that a mat can become a kind of security blanket for some, or an ego enhancer for others, but if you've never even consi...
2 Comments
Liberated Yoga 2018
Happy New Year, everyone! I am back from the break and brimming with new ideas and plans for the next year. My Liberated Yoga method has been evolving over the past year and thought I'd go through some of the concepts that I will be working on with my students going forward. Dynamic stability is the new mobility. I have been moving away from static stretching and holding of the poses towards controlled movements in small-to-mid range of motion. I feel that holding a static stretch does n...
1 Comments
Dharma: I am a Door...
Albeit a narrow one. This entry is, in a way, about my Dharma the way I see it, or my purpose in Life, and in another way, about Chakra One, which governs our ability to feel sustained by our environment, to be provided for by the universe, to feel that we have a right to be here. By examining these things I feel aligned with the Universe, and I invite you to conduct a similar analysis of your Dharma and see how it aligns with the larger scheme of things. Let's begin with Chakra...
Yoga for the Lymphatic System
The lymphatic system is our first line of defense again illness: once the invading forces gain access inside the body, it is here that the lymphocytes mobilize to neutralize the invaders. Yoga has long been recognized for its ability to boost the immune system, not just on the physical, but also on the psychic level - our ability to keep healthy not only the body, but also the mind. What is the lymphatic system and how can one activate and nourish it? Lymph is a clear, slightly yellowish...
2 Comments
Moving from the Core
My Core Integration WS is scheduled for October 14, and here I will lay out some ideas I base my approach on. Integration. What does it mean to have a pose well integrated? I have been structuring my classes in such a way as to allow gradual and deep integration of various aspects of the core into one cohesive whole. I have become really interested in this since I was introduced to Pilates five years ago. Before Pilates, I could get by in my Yoga practice because I wa...
Body as a Sacred Vessel
The soul is sacred. By inhabiting your body, it makes the body sacred as well. It helps to see the body as a vessel for the soul - it creates a sense of reverence and a responsibility to maintain the vessel. Don't cook foul food in your vessel - it will leave unsightly gunk caked on the inside and produce a foul odor. Instead, put only wholesome food and pure water, and cook over gentle fire of your Ujjayi breath. As any pot that begins to smell of the food that ha...
Yoga Alignment: Neutral Pelvis
Neutral Pelvis is one of the most important alignment cues in my teaching and personal practice. In previous posts we talked about the few alignment points one needs to pay attention to have a safer Yoga practice and to be more confident doing Yoga at home. We discussed neck and shoulders, and now we are moving on to the pelvis. Our daily lives and genetics predispose us to certain deviations from neutral that can contribute to tension and weakness of the postural muscle...
