Morning Stiff Neck Pain?

Don’t try to stretch it out. Neck muscles sometimes spasm because they are overstretched! Ouch, you can’t move your neck. What to do? Stiff Neck Massage Tip: Put your neck and upper shoulder muscles on slack. To do this, lean on a counter or table. Shrug your shoulder towards your ear and slump your ear [...]

Finding Neutral for Your Neck

The curve of the neck develops after birth as we lift our head up to look around us and for some milk to drink. This desire for sustenance and connection begins the development of our neck curve. Throughout our life, we are constantly looking ahead – still searching for sustenance and connection with others. Our [...]

Stiff Neck? Try the Bobble-Headed Bunny Move

Waking up with a stiff neck, the feeling of restriction and lack of motion is awful. It really makes you want to stretch. Don’t! Stretching does not cure everything. Sometimes it makes things worse. Stiff necks often occur when our necks have been overstretched. For instance, sleeping in a funky, neck-stretched-over position can create a [...]

Yoga Teachers: Honesty

May 21, 2012 I had a student who came to my class regularly for a while. During that time, I felt that Down Dog was not really an appropriate pose for him. I suggested that he do Down Dog at the wall. I also spent time making suggestions for his home practice to open his [...]

Yoga Teachers: Building Compassion

April 23 How do you express your compassion?    - Through my voice. Volume and tone can have a powerful effect.    - Being calm & centered in yourself. Then you can really listen.    - Listening and relatedly meeting people where they are.    - Empathic listening. Listening with every part of me. How [...]

Yoga Teachers: When Our Students Say ‘I Can’t’

April 16 What to say (do or feel) when our students believe that they lack the ‘appropriate’ range of motion and say that they’ll never be able to do the pose fully. – Think of yoga as a process. – Work with inner dynamics in the present moment. – Work on the mechanics. – “I [...]

Yoga Teachers – Teaching Poses We Cannot Yet Do?

April 9 Do we need to be able to do every yoga pose that we teach? * One teacher said that she mostly avoids teaching the poses that she cannot do. Though she does sprinkle them in occasionally. * Another said that it is all a process. * From another teacher, “I fluctuate between hiding [...]

Yoga Teachers – Does Therapeutic = Feel Good?

April 2 If something is therapeutic, does that mean it feels good?    *One teacher said that she followed the ‘no pain no gain’ philosophy. If something is therapeutic, it should hurt.    *Another teacher said that when she first started practicing yoga – eveything hurt: her back, her knees. That was all part of [...]

Yoga Teachers: Shine & Refine – Listening

Monday, March 26 Buddha said – (Anguttara Nikaya III 248): There are five advantages of listening to the dharma. What five?    One hears things not heard before,    clarifies things heard before,    dispels doubts,    straightens one’s ideas,    and one’s mind is delighted. On Monday afternoons, among other things yogic that are [...]

Yoga Teachers: Shine & Refine – Paradoxes of Teaching

March 12, 2012 Paradoxes of Teaching:    While we are all busy teaching, as teachers we seem to be starved for the time to practice ourselves.    We teach, yet we are often the ones who are really learning.    We attempt to teach our students the ability to be present, yet sometimes they don’t [...]

Yoga Teachers: Shine & Refine – Stay Connected

March 5, 2012 Ah, not be cut off, not through the slightest partition shut out from the law of the stars. The inner – what is it? if not intensified sky, hurled through with birds and deep with winds of homecoming.      -Rainer Maria Rilke Sukhasana     Funnel breath, Lift Ribs & OM Sukhasana [...]

Yoga Teachers: Shine & Refine Feb 27, 2012

Do you listen to your inner voice? When? We want our students to listen to their inner selves. The only way to do that is to connect with our inner teacher.    One teacher finds her inner voice when she relaxes her abs.    I hear my inner voice, get annoyed by it and shut [...]

Yoga Teachers: Shine & Refine Feb 6, 2012

Natalie Levin, who is starting a new course of study – the Jungian Seminar for Advanced Studies at the Jungian Institute of Philadelphia sent me this quote: “An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those [...]

Yoga Teachers: Shine & Refine Jan 30, 2012

The week of teachings with Geshe Michael Roach on the Bhagavad Gita has been intense. I have received so much valuable info. In pondering what to bring into my teaching right away, I focus on my genuine concern for the well-being of my students. This morning in Shine & Refine, each teacher generously shared what [...]

Yoga Teachers: Shine & Refine Jan 23, 2012

This special launch class brought a great group of teachers & deep practitioners into the studio. I am influenced by Glenn Black’s 2 two hour workshops on Shoulders and Hips last week at Ishta Yoga. We looked at the skeleton and Neter for an inner view and understanding of the ligaments of the hips. We [...]

Yoga Teachers: Shine & Refine Day 3 – Jan 16

I was inspired by a book that Margi Young recommended: The Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer. Palmer writes, “Good teachers possess a capacity for connectedness”. They “weave” the connections between themselves, their subjects, and their students on “the loom of the heart”. Today we spoke about connecting with our students. How can we make [...]

Yoga Teachers: Shine & Refine Day 2 – Jan 9

We introduced ourselves. After class one teacher wrote, “I loved that there were other people in the room asking the same kinds of questions as i usually do (or at least want to). There is such a need for this class and all the wisdom you have to offer. And special extra thanks for my [...]

Yoga Teachers: Shine & Refine Day 1 – Jan 2

January 2, 2012 Inspired by a Rumi poem & The Inner Game of Tennis – appreciating the inner intelligence that is already within each of us. There are two kinds of intelligence: One acquired, as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts from books and from what the teacher says, collecting information from the [...]

A Love Affair in Virasana – Her Pelvis Met Her Heels

It has been so many years, she thought it’d never happen. She practices yoga regularly. Fourteen years that I know about, during the week and on weekends too. She practices with fervor, refinement and a smile. She is the one often found in the gym convincing others to join our class. She finds peace in [...]

The Holidays

The Holidays As the weather changes and the holiday’s approach, so does out sense of urgency and stress. Plans get made, gifts get bought, meals get consumed, and time, as always, seems to continually run out. The weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year can be a blur. We all know we should be thankful, take [...]

Yoga Practice is Shocking

Whether we are fresh to yoga or practicing for years, the feedback from our bodies can be shocking. That tightness in my side, shoulder or hip – where did that come from? Ow, I am prevented from doing what I want to do. What is that biting restriction? Something inside is howling for attention. I [...]

Teaching Letting Go

Begin face down to the earth, feeling your breath. Internally rotate your legs so that your back feels open. Feel your breath like a buoy in your belly. Notice how it fills along your ribs, pressing your chest into the floor, inflating and deflating the whole rib cage, flaring open your gills. The process of [...]

Supine Shoulders Adjustments

When I attempt to adjust someone’s shoulders in savasana, I first lift their arm by the hand or wrist. I give their arm a little wiggle or shake to determine the degree of release. Still sometimes a student is not ready to give up the weight or muscular control of their body. Here are several [...]

On Teaching Alignment

While working to align ourselves, specifically our shoulders, it’s easy to overdo it. To minimize strain, we want to spread our collarbones wide. If we trace the collarbone with our hands, we can feel the distal end far out to the side, further than we think. When we thrust our collarbones back too far to [...]

Subway Series

Subway Series Photo Shoot: July 21, 2010 On any sweltering summer day, practicing yoga provides its own challenges. On an unusually hot Wednesday morning in late July, Gina and I descended into what one can only consider the least likely and most challenging environment to practice yoga—the NYC subway. Yoga is a challenge. With the [...]

AcroYoga

AcroYogis, Deven Sisler and Sam Miller guided our workshop group through a very short, simple warm up. Their plank partnering taught us about holding our own weight and they shared the best standing core exercise ever – The Hollow Body! We all played around taking turns trying things out, with lots of assistance from Deven [...]

Fitting In Fitness: Exercise Tips for New (and not so New) Moms

This was originally posted by Jennifer on Hip Slope Mama (www.HipSlopeMama.blogspot.com). Oh the joys of new Motherhood—so much excitement and so much caretaking to do for the new child. And if the new baby is not the first baby in the family, the other little ones still need our complete attention, not to mention the [...]

Teaching Sequence: The Wave

The powerful movement and sequence of a wave is used to create a rippling effect in the body by mimes, break dancers and even ballet dancers (think of the dying swan’s wings). It transfers energy from one point to another. A wave can also be used to clarify our neuromuscular patterning. We can feel for [...]

Dogs Do Yoga Without Our Help

This was originally posted by Jennifer on Hip Slope Mama (www.HipSlopeMama.blogspot.com). Have you ever watched a dog get up from a nap and do a beautiful Downward Facing Dog followed by a graceful stretch into Upward Facing Dog? My dog Baxter, who is quite familiar with waking from naps, stretches his legs to the back [...]

Teaching Sequence: Sense Your Self

The lesson of this warm up is to sense our self without trying to emulate someone else’s ‘shape’. We go as far as we need to experience our sensation. At that point of sensation we integrate our awareness of what it feels like to be alive in our bodies and mind while consciously relaxing and [...]

Roaring Lion

Lion Pose, Simhasana, is said to cure bad breath, clean the tongue and improve speech and enunciation. It is such fun and a fantastic release of tension and energy. The ‘Roaring’ part of it comes in the teaching of it. First the students sit face to face, even across the room. Half of the class [...]

Teaching Sequence: Clearing A Path

To begin our practice we must carve out time for ourselves in our schedule. We arrive in the space where we’ll lay out our mat. The space you choose should be somewhat clear. For me that means swiffing the floor before each practice. The process of opening our bodies so that internally we can begin [...]

Teaching Sequence: Anchoring A Buoy

When we anchor ourselves firmly into ground, we can allow our heart a feeling of buoyancy. This warm up begins with releasing the inner legs downward, all the way. If you could get your inner legs to touch the ground, it might feel quite reassuring. When our inner legs grip, our hearts and brains grip [...]

Teaching Sequence: Sun Salutes… Some Standard and Some Not

This article originally appeared on YogaCityNYC. As central as the Sun Salute is to so many practices, it seems as if each yoga school, or tradition, teaches its own brand. With so many subtle differences between them you could become a collector… So we did! Some jump, others step. Some include Warrior Poses, others don’t. [...]

Teaching Sequence: Hips Square, again

Many yoga poses require us to keep our hips squarely facing front. This direction is something that we have all heard so many times and have done so many times that we assume we have mastered it. But, it is surprising how often our hips are not yet squared off. This inquiry about the facing [...]

Teaching Sequence: Feel Your Prana

This warm up begins lying prone, on my belly. I lay down and relax in a prone Savasana. My head is turned to one side; my shoulders slump comfortably, my arms bend with my hands somewhere around my head. I begin my letting go process and to sense my breath. On the inhale, I feel [...]

Teaching Sequence: Locking Not Leaking

In this warm up, the wall is your partner. The idea is to prevent energy from leaking through our own physical patterns and misalignments. We use Jalandhara Bandha (Chin Lock) to ‘lock’ our Upward Moving Wind out of our head and move it down towards our heart. This will preserve our energy and direct our [...]

Teaching Sequence: Twist and Shout

This warm up begins standing so that we are up and ready to go. It is also a change from how many yoga classes begin – with sitting or lying down. We twist to cleanse. The arm movements wake up and circulate the shoulders. 1. Right Arm Up 2. Twist: Circle right arm back at [...]

Teaching Sequence: Follow the Flow, even if you’re not there yet

In this Warm Up, I was working with two ideas. The first idea is about being fully committed, even if what we are doing isn’t exactly ‘right’ yet. When we are on our way to a pose, we can make a full commitment to it, even before we get there. That is what it is [...]

Teaching Sequence: Energizing Internally

It is quite a relief to feel our body weight releasing down, comfortably settled. Letting our bellies release the habitual gripping we often hold can tell us how our clothes are actually fitting us around the waist. We tune into our gut. Then we can turn our energy around. This time we sit powerfully upright [...]

Teaching Sequence: Stir It Up

We settle our weight down onto the floor in Sukhasana (with crossed legs) to begin our practice. From this starting point we attempt to cook up some of our inner fire and energy. The first few movements of this warm up remind us to dig to the bottom and sides of our pelvic bowl to [...]

Teaching Sequence: Middle Breath

According to yogic texts and teachings, the wind that flows in the middle of the body, Samana Vayu, helps in the process of digestion. It can do much more than that. The breath that flows in the middle of the body may also help to free our hips and twist with more ease. Holding ourselves [...]

Teaching Sequence: Smooth Moves, things to do with a blanket

Whatever might cause us to move through our lives in a jerky, hesitant, insecure way, we still possess the ability to be graceful, fluid and easeful. Sliding on a blanket on a smooth wood floor is like a gentle ride. It reminds us to glide through our yoga practice using our muscles in a flowing [...]

Teaching Sequence: Side Channel Balance

Stretching out the body is one of the benefits of yoga. But, we are not stretching just our body. We are elongating and thinning our physical, mental and emotional blockages within our inner channels. So if we focus on our right side to motivate a movement, then the inner body on the right side gets [...]

“Good job!” and Other Feedback

How often do we as parents and teachers say, “Good job!” in response to something our child or student has done? Feedback like this comes out of our mouths so often that it is habitual. It is only when we try to eliminate this kind of encouragement that we notice how hooked we are on [...]

Teaching Sequence: Golden Red Thread

We have hundreds of nerves streaming from our spine into all parts of our body. You can see this very clearly laid out in the Bodies exhibit. According to ancient yogic texts, The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, we have thousands of energy channels (nadis) threading through our bodies in a [...]

Teaching Sequence: Relax Then Rebound

Letting go is one of life’s important lessons. Reconnecting with our sense of grounded ness helps us to relax right in the midst of our busy schedules. When we let go, we can sometimes experience a renewed sense of freedom, like taking a heavy bag off our shoulders. The process of letting go is one [...]

Teaching Sequence: Cone To Your Core

I was sparked with new intentions and energy after a 6 hour workshop on Yoga and the Pelvic Floor with Jaki Nett at Yoga Union Center For Backcare and Scoliosis. The word Core is rampant in our physical vocabulary. But, we rarely talk about the foundation of the core – the Pelvic floor muscles. Connecting [...]

Views Into Ustrasana (Camel Pose)

When we move into a pose, it is tempting to try to make the pose look like some picture in our mind. And it is true that initially we do learn a lot by imitating what we see visually. But after some experience with our practice we want to move in and out of our [...]

Teaching Sequence: Shoulder Tension Falls

To bring about an ease of movement and grace in our bodies, most of us can afford to release some extra tension from our shoulders. Too much restriction around our shoulders gives our nervous system an emergency signal to tense for fight or flight. It impedes our movements, whether we are back bending or playing [...]

Teaching Sequence: Initiating Our Movement

While walking down the street in our daily life, we must use our eyes to look before turning a corner. Our head leads the way. No wonder we end up with our heads in front of us. We are most often following our eyes and our mental center. But in yoga we have an opportunity [...]

Teaching Sequence: Use Pressure to Open

My work this week included decompressing the spine at all the points along the way where collapse is likely: between the lumbar and the sacrum, between the low floating rib line and the lumbar spine, between C7 and the ribs, between the skull and the neck. I have also been working with opposites. Putting pressure [...]

A Really Big Yoga Class

This was originally posted by Jennifer on Hip Slope Mama (www.HipSlopeMama.blogspot.com). On two consecutive Thursday evenings in July, I taught free yoga classes in Bryant Park. I was somewhat prepared for a large crowd because Lululemon, the event sponsor, told me that there had been over one hundred people on the lawn in the park [...]

Body/Mind

Taking time to practice yoga or to work out regularly is a path toward knowing yourself. This self-discovery is separate from your family, past experiences or other obligations. It’s about YOU—your body and mind—coming together moment by moment. You are reminded that your body and mind have never been separate. You learn to integrate yourself [...]

Teaching Sequence: Snake and Slither – Keeping it Simple

Here is a warm up that is quite simple, with nothing too fancy. It doesn’t feel quite right to me to tell people where to breathe in and where to breathe out. So as I teach the movements of this warm up sequence slowly there is time for several breaths in which to experience each [...]

Teaching Sequence: Crank It Up

Here is a warm up for you to try. Some more intro text. Maybe a few lines. And a few more. I think you’ll like this because… See if when you’re doing the cow, you can feel your chest widen. Sukhasana (Crossed Legs) Crank It: Circle right shoulder 4X, tipping slight forward from the hips [...]