Category Archives: Yoga Therapy

Monday Punday

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Too cute not to share.  Laughter is great medicine; contentment breeds calm ~ or here’s to hoping! Naturally, a balanced Yoga practice will stimulate the endorphins; you can also do a lot with breathing exercises.

A great yoga therapy technique to simulate laughter is Kapalabhati

Kapalabhati Pranayama (pronounced (kah-pah-lah-BAH-tee). Kapala = skull and bhati = light (implying perception, knowledge).
The effect of this energizing pranayama is to clear the mind, release emotional tensions, improve digestion, and leave you feeling “brighter,” almost as if your brain was standing in a warm and happy sunbeam.
Build up slowly!
Step by Step Guide:
Sit comfortably, using any support or props.  Try seated tadasana on a chair, if you like.
Focus on your lower abdomen, placing your hands there, one atop the other. Breathe in and then try laughing.
Notice the activity under your hands, as the belly contracts in short bursts.
Inhale, and as you exhale next time, repeat the same “ha ha ha” action but using short exhales through the nose.

Your inhales can be long, passive and slow, the exhales will be shorter bursts.  You can keep your hands on the belly and use them to pump the abdomen until you are comfortable and feel more adept at the rhythm.

Monday Punday

 

Yoga as a Way to Cultivate Open Mind, Body, Heart

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I had this in mind when I practiced today ~ yoga as a way to cultivate open mind, body, heart

I reflected that I was grateful for a space to unroll my yoga mat, stack my props and breathe.

The pose, ustrasana = camel pose, can jam the neck if done in a hurry or incorrectly so it isn’t the first pose in your sequencing. There is an art to opening your upper spine (mid-back) and chest fully and this not only frees the neck but also helps ihelps protect your lower back from compression and improves nearly every other aspect of the posture ~ that’s my yogatherapy tip of the day. It is a pose that really prepares you for pranayama too.

That and “make an attitude to be in gratitude”…an attitude of gratitude can help

Fighting the Mind

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Who do you identify with?

If you plan to sit with your breath, I give full details on how to set up on the Yoga Mind cd; there should be no anxiety or discomfort in your posture, so use a few yoga props to ensure the spine is straight. My curiosity goes to the man on the left – he needs to sit on at least one(or two!) folded blanket(s) so his knees are not higher than the hips and bolsters fit under the outer hips is always welcome relief. Sukhasana = happy seated pose…

Also just know that meditation is a process and involves practice, patience, and replacing old patterns of thinking with a relaxed focus. You are undoing tension to uncover the calm that predates the anxiety..but just coexisting rather than resisting – honouring and accepting and gaining some distance from the busyness of the mind.

Once you are comfortable in your posture, and you are ok with touching base with your witness self, there is no need to force anything. Just bring yourself to the feeling of the breath touching the inside of your nostrils and focus on this sensation.

We can replace panic with peace as a destination  🙂 just stop fighting the mind long enough to practice taming it

thinking:notthinking

Plank like an expert

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So cute! Just look at that supple spine, and how, although we know this asana takes strength from the arms, the lack of tension in the shoulders makes it seem so effortless ~ the blend of strength and flexibility, plus the calm breath

How do we, as adults, re-create this? Often we have to let go something to ‘achieve’ something else.  One of the things you want to consider in plank pose is safety in the wrists.

If you are starting in downward facing dog, inhale and draw your torso forward until the arms are stacked with shoulders directly over the wrists, torso parallel to the floor.

Press your outer arms inward, firming the bases of your index fingers into the floor. Keep your shoulder blades against your back, with some expansion from the spine. Also spread your collarbones away from the sternum.

Draw your front thighs up toward the ceiling, but resist your tailbone toward the heels. Lift the base of the skull away from the back of the neck and look straight down at the floor, keeping the throat and eyes soft.

As with any Yapana® yoga therapy practice, we modify with strategic prop placement depending on who you are and what needs to be worked or relaxed. That is where a private yoga class comes in handy, as it assesses you

plank like an expert

Yoga Prop Perfect

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I teach yoga with yoga props, and love it. There I said it. Why? Click here for a blog devoted to the benefits of using them. No matter who you are I can bet that somewhere in your practice, a strategically placed prop will empower and power up your yoga practice.

You can see in this comic that T-Rex has short arms so the blocks help to add length which makes the pose more accessible to him. This means better alignment which = he is going to actually benefit from the asana rather than be overloading his spine, chest, arms etc. Your arms may not be ‘short’ but they might be extra tight.

Basically if the stretch feels too far away, bringing it closer with a well placed prop or two is going to allow you to stay in it longer and it will overall be healthier, so try it next time ~ reduce struggle and compression and increase comfort, stability and strength…so adapt and invite your practice to find you where you are or you are welcome to contact me for private yoga class assistance

prop perfect

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breathe

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It is still so cold outside as I look out my window, this is not what I see, but it is the energy I wish to invoke…fresh, growth, potential, possibility, encouragement, calm. I cannot help but take a picture of my houseplant, the new little shoot is just beautiful and symbolic of this season which is upon us.  I actually wrote a blog about purification, if you are interested in reviewing it – click here

new growth

The breath is one of the foundations of yoga practice ~ when breath and body movement are coordinated, energy circulates into the musculature and the opportunity for postural change is enhanced ~ a sunken chest becomes more open, shoulders release away from the ears, digestion improves and so on!

So breathe in fresh energy and release anything with your exhale that you do not need; in this way you are using the breath like spring cleaning even when it is still pretty frozen outside! After a few moments, your nervous system may just move from panic to peace and with very little cost, you have added a dose of regeneration and relaxation to your day 🙂

breathe

Meditation Funny

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Wouldn’t this be great since most of our thinking is worry/stress based?

meditation funny

If you have a lot on your mind, it takes more effort to push thoughts away than to cultivate the witness…just be yourself, honour, and spend 15 – 20 minutes on relaxation in addition to your yoga mat practice.

Yoga Therapy : A great ‘clear the mind’ pranayama is Kapalabhati Pranayama (pronounced (kah-pah-lah-BAH-tee). Kapala = skull and bhati = light (implying perception, knowledge).

This wonderful breathing exercise will clear the mind, release emotional tensions, improve digestion, and leave you feeling energized and “brighter,” almost as if your brain was standing in a warm and happy sunbeam.
Build up slowly!
  1. Sit comfortably, using any support or props.  Try seated tadasana on a chair, if you like.
  2. Focus on your lower abdomen, placing your hands there, one atop the other. Breathe in and then try laughing.
  3. Notice the activity under your hands, as the belly contracts in short bursts.
  4. Inhale, and as you exhale next time, repeat the same “ha ha ha” action but using short exhales through the nose.
  5. Your inhales can be long, passive and slow, the exhales will be shorter bursts.  You can keep your hands on the belly and use them to pump the abdomen until you are comfortable and feel more adept at the rhythm.

I am available for private yoga classes, great way to build your home practice safely and should you need guidance, my Yoga Mind cd has several tracks that will lead you to that mindful altered state of deep letting go.

Breathing: A Yogatherapy Perspective

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breathe into this moment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The breath, from a yoga therapy perspective, is both tool and toolbox.

Read on : My latest blogpost is now available on MindBodyGreen “Why Breathing Isn’t As Easy As It Seems (And How To Do It With Intention)”

As always, I am available both for workshops and private yoga lessons and you can download further options on my Yoga Mind cd

Setting Your Intention

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Intention provides direction. Helpful to be clear about what that intention is. A few minutes of mindful breathing can help clear the mind for this process.

In 20 years, I have heard many reasons why people practice yoga, and they are all valid. One of the things that I find useful whether you are building a home practice or at a yoga class, is to set an intention and check in with it periodically, mindfully.

For example, if, at the beginning of your practice you notice that you are really stiff in the neck, guide yourself to bring balance…watch that you are not tightening the shoulders or clenching your teeth in your poses. If you have a very stiff lower back, perhaps try more restorative poses that provide traction, instead of over doing strong backbends.

If you are setting goals for your day, your career, relationships, check that your actions bring balance and that you are moving in the direction of your intention. I am available for private yoga classes to help you with the process. When your practices are meaningful to you and do move you towards your state of equipoise, then you are using your yoga practice therapeutically 

setting your intention

Reap the benefits of a yoga therapy practice

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yoga benefits comic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or just read on 🙂

The benefits of a private yoga class include:

-You can ask questions

-It is tailor made for your body, lifestyle

The benefits of a yoga therapy practice are:

 

-Breathe better, improve energy

-change musculo skeletal patterns/posture

-cope better with stress, be calmer
-relieve pain
-improve flexibility, joint mobility, range of motion
-sleep better
-strengthen the body
-focus the mind, meditation, mindfulness
-tap into inner creativity and intelligence
-decrease negative emotions and obsessive thinking
-energize the system and fight fatigue
-improve circulation and immune system
-cardiovascular conditioning
-lifestyle management
-reconnection with spiritual heritage