YogaPaws Blog for Beginner Poses and Postures
Finding Focus: Guiding Your Own Meditation
Posted on April 03 2018
You may not have that kind of time to devote to meditation every day. Or you may find you can only commit to five minutes a day during the work week and longer, deeper sessions on the weekends. The point is, just do it. A meditation practice — however long or short — can become an island of calm in your day.
Yoga for Connection: Deepen your practice with Delsarte
Posted on March 31 2018
Every yoga movement has meaning that goes beyond your body's mechanics. As you move through a sequence of asanas, it’s perfectly clear you’re not just going through the motions. What if you began to consider how every move you make, even the wiggle of a finger, is a form of self-expression? One way to jumpstart that process is to consider some mind, body, spirit cross-training by integrating yoga with a complementary practice such as the Delsarte System of Expression.
Yoga Buffet: Develop a Taste for Different Approaches
Posted on March 22 2018
Everyone gets stuck in a rut from time to time, whether in your job, your life, your style of dressing, or even your yoga practice. Just like with food, experimenting with your yoga can add flavor to your regular practice.
Spring Forward: Freshening up Your Yoga Lifestyle
Posted on March 18 2018
The concept of “spring cleaning” is a centuries-old way of recognizing the primal shift in the world as you move through the seasons. Getting rid of things you don’t need is a wonderful tool for balancing the Kaphic energy that’s abundant at this time of year.
Sacred Balance: Yoga Poses for Strength and Flexibility
Posted on March 15 2018
“Yoga is a constant dance between strength and flexibility.” One might be more natural for you than the other, but your practice has already started to address that imbalance, even if you don’t realize it.
AM or PM Yoga? Working With Your Body’s Clock
Posted on March 15 2018
The need for rest doesn’t disappear with adulthood, especially if you’re active. Whether you embrace sunrise or moonrise, taking a more holistic look at your life and your body’s preferred daily rhythms can help you find more energy.
Happy Back Yoga: Forward Bends to Release Your Back Body
Posted on March 04 2018
You probably already know that forward bends release your back and hamstrings. Approaching them more mindfully can help you get a deeper stretch through those areas. These poses are also grounding, helping you shed stress, which you might carry in your lower back and hamstrings.
Yoga Body Shop: Bodywork to Relax, Detox and Release
Posted on March 04 2018
Even the best-crafted practices performed by the most careful students create imbalances in their bodies from time to time. That’s where bodywork comes in. Working from the outside in, it’s easier to find places of tightness or “dis-ease” in your body and apply pressure to release them.
Look Ma, No Feet: Arm Balances to Uplift Your Yoga Practice
Posted on March 04 2018
You stand at the base camp of your mat and taking flight balanced on just your hands seems like a long, uphill trek. But, like most things you perceive as really far away, remember that, if you can see the goal, you know where you’re headed.
Square Your Shoulders: Yoga Tips for Pain-Free Upper Body
Posted on March 04 2018
Your upper body does far more than help you move into arm balances. Bad posture or a tight upper body can cause pain and stiffness or lead to injuries. Consider that your shoulders are among the most vulnerable joints in your body.
Inhale, Exhale: Yogic Breathwork
Posted on March 04 2018
It’s easy to feel that sensation in class when you are in a quiet environment filled with breathing and movement. For many students, though, finding that point of synchronicity is much more challenging without the physical cues of a yoga practice.
Your Yoga Workshop: Chaturanga Dandasana to Plank Pose
Posted on March 04 2018
A lot of students tend to think that it’s only arm strength that’s required for inversions and arm balance, but the work of these poses is, in fact, distributed through most of your body. Having that connection to the ground lets you work on using your upper body in tandem with your legs and core.
Om: Yoga to a Whole New Beat
Posted on March 01 2018
Whatever you choose to practice to today, play with letting the music direct your intention for the practice and see how you feel. As you move through the poses, focus on how you feel with a variety of different sounds. You might be surprised at how much what you hear affects your body’s capacity to stretch, strengthen or balance.
Beauty and the Beast of Ashtanga Yoga
Posted on March 01 2018
Sometimes when we are lost on a path, struggling through the darkness it is hard to see just how much ground you have covered. It is not until the sun comes up and as the light shines down on the path that you have walked, are you able to recognize just how far you have come.
Don’t Worry; Be Yogi
Posted on March 01 2018
Yoga and meditation are powerful tools for training your mind and spirit to be in the present. When you’re balancing on one leg or working toward an inversion, it’s almost impossible to allow your mind to wander. Mind, body, and spirit need to come together to enable your physical form to accomplish poses that stretch its possibilities to a new level.
Back to School: Tips for Deepening Your Yoga Practice
Posted on March 01 2018
Whether you, your kids or your friends are off to learn something new in an academic setting, it’s a time that invites you to think about mastering new skills and improving the ones you already have.
Warm up with Yoga: Spring will be here soon!
Posted on February 28 2018
The process of heating yourself up is also a metaphor for the power you have in your own life. When you can stay warm in the winter, it’s a reminder of how much you can affect your own experience. You have the power to kindle your own inner fire.
Three Partner Yoga Poses to Bring You Closer to your Valentine
Posted on February 14 2018
Partner yoga can provide a fresh perspective. Whether you are practicing with your honey or your best friend, working with another person helps you change preconceptions about what you can and can’t do.
New Year’s Yoga: Yoga for Your Resolutions
Posted on February 12 2018
Now is the time to set a foundation for your practice that will keep building and growing for the next 51 weeks, even when you don’t believe it. Remember, yoga is not a race. There are no points awarded for Most Improved Student. While it’s great to have goals (including ambitious ones), don’t let yourself be discouraged if you do, once in a while, have a class where things just don’t work.
Yoga and Running
Posted on February 12 2018
Runners can use their yoga practice to balance strength, increase the range of motion, and train the body and mind. Breath is a prime example. Yoga focuses so intently on pranayama, the art of breath control. The same tool which calms the mind and body for yoga and meditation works to create a rhythmic breathing in running.
Five Yoga Poses to Take Outside
Posted on February 07 2018
You don’t have to be in a national park or a flower garden to use the outdoors to enrich your practice. Just being outside of the place you usually practice gives you a new perspective on asana. The feeling of grass or pavement under your feet or the sounds of animals or people adds a new dimension to your experience of a pose.
How Yoga Helps Us To Learn From Our Mistakes
Posted on February 07 2018
Recently somebody crossed me. They belittled me, put me down and attacked me. (well it felt like an attack at the time although I did admit after to being a little low, a bit over sensitive and rather premenstrual-mental) anyway…. I reacted.
That’s the key word here reacted. Emotionally charged, fuelled with defensive anger, I attacked back, I lashed out with my scorpion sting and stung the guy right where it hurts – the ego!
That’s the key word here reacted. Emotionally charged, fuelled with defensive anger, I attacked back, I lashed out with my scorpion sting and stung the guy right where it hurts – the ego!
Beat the Blues with Five Uplifting Yoga Asanas
Posted on February 01 2018
Maybe you’re one of the millions more who feel frustrated or stuck in an unhappy place in your life. It may seem you have no choices. Yoga is a powerful reminder that you do.
Your yoga practice is a continuous exercise in exploring just how capable you are at directing your life.
Beyond Om: Mantras to Inspire Your Yoga Practice
Posted on February 01 2018
Whether you meditate regularly or not, you’re familiar with the power of a word or phrase to focus yourself. In many yogic traditions, mantas are held to have a power that helps you access a different state of being, one that is calmer and less distracted than your everyday mental patterns. Some mantra experts contend that mantras can help you tap into your “super-conscious” which is the highest form of consciousness.
Yoga For Men - limitations removed With Yoga Paws
Posted on January 30 2018
Due to their larger size, many men have a hard time staying on their yoga mats.
With Yoga Paws, you don't need to worry about fitting on a mat, because a mat is not necessary. If you prefer to use a mat anyway - in a hot yoga class, for example, hands and feet that stray off the edge of the mat still retain their grippy-ness and support with the addition of YogaPaws.
Five Yoga Poses to Open Your Horizons
Posted on January 25 2018
It’s a sense of physical deadlock that can go on for what seems like forever until you’ve labeled yourself the student who can’t touch her nose to her knees or will never get into a split. Then, one day, you’re a little more warmed up, a little less stressed, or a little more courageous in your practice. Suddenly, your “challenge” poses seem doable.
Four Yoga Poses to Renew and Refresh for the New Year
Posted on January 24 2018
Before you promise yourself that THIS will be the year you lose weight, stop smoking, get your Registered Yoga Teacher Certification, or visit India, set aside a few hours during the last week of December to turn your eyes inside and take a trip through the inner landscape or your mind, body, and spirit.
Improve Your Eating Habits with these Five Yoga Poses
Posted on January 22 2018
Yoga can be a powerful tool for putting eating in its proper—and honored—place in life. A recent study led by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center showed that mindfulness on the mat could be highly effective in creating healthy eating patterns.
Seven Yoga Moves to Keep Your Holidays Stress-Free
Posted on January 22 2018
Yogic breathwork and asanas help calm mind, body, and spirit. Recent studies suggest that yoga increases alpha waves that are associated with relaxation. It also reduces cortisol, the hormone released in response to stress. The best part is that you don’t have to wait to get to a class to bring the benefits of yoga into your lifestyle.
Why LeBron, Shaq and Other Pro Athletes Practice Yoga
Posted on January 18 2018
Whatever the sport, both male and female athletes are coming to the yoga mat as an effective way of engaging mind, body, and spirit to achieve their personal best. A regular yoga practice can do much more, by improving flexibility and core strength to helping to prevent injuries.
10 Tips for Beginning a Fearless Yoga Practice
Posted on January 18 2018
Check your fears at the door. No one can “fail” in a yoga class. Your mind, body, and spirit working together in the moment determine the full expression of every pose. You will do each pose in a unique way, your way, because that asana comes from within.
Five Tips for Beginning Yoga Lovers
Posted on January 18 2018
Practicing yoga offers countless benefits, but for some people, beginning a practice can be intimidating. One of the first things to keep in mind is that the practice of yoga has nonjudgement built right in.
Beware the Power of Three – Three Ways to Avoid Yoga Injuries
Posted on January 18 2018
Yoga has often been viewed as a gentle exercise of stretching and breathing but, as those who have practiced for long come to discover, yoga can prove quite challenging.
Seven Anti-Aging Benefits of Yoga
Posted on January 18 2018
Enter yoga, the great age-defying stress reducer. Though not necessarily Ponce de Leon’s famed fountain of youth, practice yoga on a regular basis and you may just start to notice some welcome benefits.
Yoga A Relationship Tool? What You Can Learn - Partner Yoga
Posted on January 18 2018
Whether trying partner Yoga with your best friend or boyfriend or girlfriend, essentially partner yoga utilizes the same principals of individual poses, while having the partner help to deepen the pose or expand the pose.
Travel Yoga: 11 Luxurious Yoga Destinations Worth The Splurge!
Posted on January 13 2018
Whether you're drained, suffering from the winter doldrums, or just need to prioritize some "you time," sometimes the best investment you can make is in yourself—and in your yoga practice. A week at a sunny, tropical yoga retreat could be just what you need to recharge and replenish, both inside and out.
Core Curriculum: Yoga for Your Center
Posted on January 13 2018
One area that’s probably not top of mind as you warm up is your core. But the combined strength and suppleness of the muscles that control your torso affect everything from balance work to full extension in standing poses and proper alignment in seated asanas. It’s no wonder this part of the body is called your powerhouse.
Five Yoga Poses to Get You Grounded
Posted on January 09 2018
In the Western world, spring is viewed as a time of hope, possibility and greenness. While all those expansive vistas are appealing, sometimes you might feel overwhelmed. It’s a little like walking into a maze. But there’s also the urge to refresh and rejuvenate that comes from deep inside.
Let it Go: Yoga Poses for Emotional Release
Posted on January 09 2018
Memories from your earliest years can be shaping and defining the body you’re living in today. Even when you’re not consciously aware that you’re holding back emotions, your body is spelling it out for you. Yoga is a wonderful way to open yourself up to not only difficult emotions but joyous ones.
Seven Yogi Tips for a Healthy Heart Chakra
Posted on January 09 2018
Everyone wants to love and be loved. That very human desire creates an immediate and deep connection with Anahata, the heart chakra. The fourth of the energy wheels stacked from the pelvic floor to the crown, the heart chakra sits in a pivotal position in your body.
Don't commit to a new you, instead, commit to the REAL you.
Posted on January 09 2018
“Don’t tell me what to do.” Most of us have channeled that as a mantra. At a lot of points in life, we bristle at other people telling us they know us or our goals better than we do.
New year, new you? Why? What was missing in the “old” you?
Clean Slate: Yoga for a Fresh Start
Posted on January 01 2018
Remember that while samskaras can be hard to break -- you can do it. Just as your body stretches and becomes more malleable and stronger as you work on physical yoga poses, your mind also becomes more responsive as you work to reshape your thought patterns. Happy New Year!
The Gift of Forgiving You :)
Posted on December 30 2017
The holiday season sometimes feels like one long assault on your ability to be good at everything. Forgive yourself so you can truly move forward to be a better you.
Seven Tips and Yoga Poses for Balancing Kapha
Posted on December 26 2017
In Ayurvedic science, knowing your dosha is vital for optimal health and self-understanding. The three doshas, Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, can help you guide your energy levels, your overall health, your mental/spiritual growth and ultimately your entire life experience.
Achilles’ Heel: Yoga for Your Tendons
Posted on December 26 2017
When you hit the mat, chances are whatever body part you are aware of is one that’s not happy. Whether it’s a cramping hamstring or a stiff back, muscles speak eloquently about exactly how they feel.
Your Happy Place: Yoga for Emotional Balance
Posted on December 22 2017
As much as the holidays are a wonderful time for you to indulge everyone else in your life, don’t leave yourself off your list. Pick one thing a week that’s just for fun -- coffee with friends, a class, a massage, or just some uncommitted time -- and enjoy.
Time for a Change: Using Your Yoga Minutes
Posted on December 20 2017
As you plan our your goals for the upcoming new year, think about how you want this year’s last seconds to play out. Don’t lose sight of the now, even when you feel like time is going by at warp speed. Slow down, focus, and celebrate this treasure trove of experience.
Meditation: To Go Please :)
Posted on December 15 2017
Ideally, your time to look inside would come on a yoga mat, surrounded by scents and your favorite soothing sounds. If you’re like most people, though, you might find that your need for peace doesn’t always come when you have access to your yoga home.
Five Heart-opening Yoga Poses to Keep Love Flowing
Posted on December 02 2017
Even if you’ve just taken your first yoga class, you’re already familiar with the fourth Niyama: Svadhyaya. Taken from the Sanskrit words sva, which means “self,” and adhyaya, which means “education of,” this vital rule for living reminds you to look wit
Chakra Series: Five Yoga Postures to Power Up Your Third Chakra
Posted on December 01 2017
Located just above the navel, this Chakra associated with the solar plexus is often seen as the seat of your personal power. It is the place where the idea of “I” is born.