THE YAMAS Ahimsa – ‘Non-Violence’ Satya – ‘Truthfulness’ Asteya – ‘Non-Stealing’ Brahmacharya –  ‘Right use of energy’ Aparigraha – ‘Non-Hoarding’   The last five days we have been exploring the Yamas as part of our Balanced Planet Yoga Instagram challenge – #BPYMindBodyChallenge.   We have been able to just provide a drop in the bucket of what understanding and making these precepts a part of your daily living can do.  The Yamas and their counterpart the Niyamas are a framework for living. You may have noticed how these first five Yamas are so interrelated.  One of the questions that I have explored involves Ahimsa and Satya or non-violence and truth.…

If you have attended yoga class at BPY, no doubt you have heard your yoga teacher calling out alignment cues as you move through your practice.  These practice cues include “keep your knee over your ankle,” during our low lunges or “roll your shoulders away from your ears” during up dog and are important reminders for keeping the body safe. Listening for and trying to incorporate these alignments during a slower paced class is much more easily done than during a faster-paced Vinyasa flow or Budokon class, which could cause some of students to overlook alignment and this can contribute to habits that over time can lead to injury. I am sure…

Hello BPY Yogis!  Next up on our journey through yoga lingo, I would like to introduce some of the Sanskrit basics when learning yoga posture names.   To facilitate understanding the names of poses in yoga, you may find it to be most helpful to gain an understanding of what the root words are that forms the construct of each Sanskrit word or phrase. The names can be broken down into similar categories and then observed how they can be combined. When we see the separate names that combine to create a pose, the logic of how they are formed easily leads to the understanding of other combinations/pose names, for many…

Have you heard your yoga teacher say something that you were pretty sure was not English?  At the time you are desperately trying to stand on one leg and it just doesn’t seem the time to raise your hand and ask.  In fact, you are sure you may be the only person that didn’t understand, and you certainly don’t want to call attention to that or the fact that you actually cannot stand on one leg.  You get to the end of class and you know you wanted to ask your teacher something…what was it, what was it???? You are not alone….with the struggle to learn yoga’s terminology, balancing on…

A few weeks ago I was listening to a radio interview and heard something that I thought was profound. The gentleman being interviewed said that we suffer when we live from a dark place filled with thoughts and emotions like hate, anger, and fear.  He said that we also suffer when we live from a place of light and love.  The difference is that when we live from a place of light and love we have a greater opportunity to experience the moments of happiness and contentment that we all yearn for. To me, the tools and techniques that we learn in yoga can help us to live in a…

When you think everything is someone else’s fault, you will suffer a lot. When you realize that everything springs only from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy.” -The Dalai Lama Love this Dalai Lama quote that focuses on personal responsibility and awareness.  We live in a world where we are constantly reminded that everything that happens is someone else’s fault.  The stock market crashed because of bad people (Ok, so maybe some research would have been helpful).  I’m late to work because of construction (yep, notified in advance).  My kids are unruly because of violence on TV (yes, the television does have parental controls and there is this…

Take the scenic route… Whenever asked what is my favorite quote, I immediately whip out my favorite Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken’s ending line:  “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”  These lines highlight a distinct theme that has run through my life, and as I imagine, like many of you taking the time to read this blog.  That theme for me is about choices and about seeing your choices, good and bad, as a learning curve and not a point of no return. Sometimes these choices have been simple in my days, such as…

Just about every class ends in savasana at BPY – which is some version of collapsing on your mat after the end of class.  You know, the spot where you start to re-live the argument you had with your spouse before class, where you berate yourself about your performance on your last exam, and oh yea, where you start to wonder if you have enough time to stop for milk after class. A little tongue-and-cheek for sure, but probably pretty relatable to those of you who have just started practicing yoga and even those of us who have been practicing for a long time.  Savasana is not as easy as it…