Yoga Sequences

Five Minute Poses: Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

Five Minute Poses: Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana: Low Back First Aid
I find Setu Bandha Sarvangasana an invaluable pose for the way it helps counteract low back compression. In my world, lower back ache is a result of gardening, long drives or sitting at my computer.
Part of why the pose is so good for my lower back and sacrum is because it stretches the abdomen, a part of my body that tenses when my back is tight. […]

Five Minute Poses: Supta Baddha Konasana

Five Minute Poses: Supta Baddha Konasana

Supta Baddha Konasana: An All-Rounder
Years ago I did a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat. The only yoga pose I did during the course was Supta Baddha Konasana. It helped balance many hours spent in sitting and walking meditation. When my meditation energy was flagging, Supta Baddha Konasana served to make me feel cradled and deeply nourished.
How to Do It
Props you will need: a bolster and a 3-fold blanket. The reason for using props is that you can let them do the work. […]

Five Minute Poses: Supported Child's Pose

Five Minute Poses: Supported Child's Pose

For years, I wondered why this posture is called Child’s Pose. Sometimes babies and young children will end up in this posture and even sleep in it. But more to the point, children appear to be at their sweetest and quietest when they’re asleep. And, perhaps never more so than in Child’s Pose.

Five Minute Yoga Poses: Mountain Brook Pose

Five Minute Yoga Poses: Mountain Brook Pose

This restorative pose has a name like a flowing Tai Chi movement or a sweetly sedative acupuncture point. Actually, the name Mountain Brook Pose simply reflects the way a yoga practitioner’s body drapes over the soft props. Like water flowing over the stones in a mountain brook.

Five Minute Yoga Poses: Lazy Downward Facing Dog Pose

Five Minute Yoga Poses: Lazy Downward Facing Dog Pose

 
A Holiday Gift for You
In this busy lead-up to Christmas Day, it’s difficult to fit in a full-on yoga practice. Still, you know you need to do something for your body-mind. But what?
Over this holiday period, I’ve decided to ‘gift’ my readers some of my favourite lazy yoga poses. […]

The Art of Creating Yoga Sequences

The Art of Creating Yoga Sequences

 

Rules for creating yoga sequences
There’s an fine art to creating yoga sequences. But there are certain rules that, if adhered to, will help you to be successful.
In the beginning, you have to do a period of study. You’ll need to learn some set, structured sequences. These might be from class sessions you’ve attended, dvds or yoga books, for instance. On repetition, these sequences will help you build a solid foundation of experience. You’ll learn the basics of sequencing from repetitive practice. […]

Yoga at Sunrise, A Cold Beer at Sunset

Yoga at Sunrise, A Cold Beer at Sunset

Yes, I do occasionally have a beer. Especially when the conditions are ripe for it. For instance, Northern Territory winter arvos with sunsets to live for.
On occasion, I’ve been driven to drink a beer at the end of the day by the rigours if long distance driving along with the 30 degree plus dry heat.
What was it that W.C. […]

Travel Yoga: A Bumpy Road

Travel Yoga: A Bumpy Road

Practising self-forgiveness along the bumpy roadI thought it would be easy, but no. In two weeks of travel up the coast of NSW, I’ve only managed a few yoga practices. ‘Just do it!’, I’ve advised students over the years. Set up a regular practice. Do it and you’ll reap the benefits. If you do your practice regularly, it will become an unbreakable habit.Well, I’m feeling a little chagrined about the fact that habits are breakable. I’m not fitting in much practice time.Worse, my body is suffering. […]

Rainy Weather Blues: Do Yoga

Rainy Weather Blues: Do Yoga

The rainy weather here on Mitchells Island has been extreme. There’s been widespread flooding, including our neighbours’ paddocks. The overflow has spilled on to our property and filled part of our paperbark wetland. We’ve come to expect these occasional wet events. We live on an island, and it’s less than a kilometer from a river channel.

Be a Beginner: It Will Change Your Life

Be a Beginner: It Will Change Your Life

Yoga BeginningsDo you like to be a beginner? At times I think that I don’t, but once I have additional skills and knowledge under my belt, it feels great.The domain of neuroscience and neuroplasticity informs us oldies that we need to keep our grey matter fresh through on-going learning. We especially need the sorts of complicated learning that challenges our brains and creates new neural pathways.The most transformative learning experiences I’ve had have been through the pursuit of yoga.Being a beginner in Iyengar Yoga is still a vivid experience for me. It was mid-week October 1979. […]

In Praise of Legs Up the Wall

In Praise of Legs Up the Wall

What’s not to praise?Legs up the wall is a favourite with many people because it’s a pose that’s guaranteed to sort you out. With a minimum investment of energy, the pose will return you maximum benefits. It is restorative, regenerative and reviving.Even non-yogis seem to find their way to this pose. I’ve seen bushwalkers take a break, lie down and put their legs up a tree. […]

'Ultimate' Yoga is Coming

'Ultimate' Yoga is Coming

When ‘Ultimate’ is a nounIn the U.S. where I was born, there’s a word–snowbirds–to describe people who head for warmer climes when the first hint of winter chill infuses the air.For some of us, this is the ultimate lifestyle–never ever having to experience snow, wind and ice. Others might want to enjoy the snow-and-cold experience, but only in the ski fields when winter evenings feature warm fires and mulled wine.My smart housemates, Heather and Rick, just before they flip the calendar to June 1st, routinely head for the north American summer season. […]

Yoga Props Can Be a Lifeline

Yoga Props Can Be a Lifeline

An unexpected benefit that I’ve derived personally from using props is humility. They are truly supportive and remind me that I don’t have to it all myself. I can yield to a ‘helper’, and in this sort of surrender I’ve learned to let go physically. That has a knock-on effect for letting go emotionally and mentally, and releasing the tight grip of ego.

Yoga for Exhaustion

Yoga for Exhaustion

Who hates being exhausted? Me!It’s not sexy to find oneself in a state of exhaustion. It could even be viewed as decidedly unattractive. Worse, exhaustion is often accompanied by low spirits, including a whole lot of resistance to feeling this way.My dictionary defines exhaustion as extreme tiredness, great fatigue, weariness, and burnout. So, we’re not just talking about feeling a little tired after housecleaning or gardening.Okay, I’m going to dob myself in. I’m not here only to write an exposition on exhaustion or to merely define it. I’m here to tell you that I am exhausted. […]

Hot Weather Yoga: Do Flop-asanas!

Hot Weather Yoga: Do Flop-asanas!

In the heat, keep your brain cool
One of the definitions of the word ‘flop’ is to fail at an endeavour. Another meaning for the word is to crumble or collapse. Flop-asanas are not poses that you do and then you fail; nor are they done simple by flopping over soft props. Rather, they are supported poses that help you open up your chest and your breathing when the hot weather becomes stifling. […]

The Yoga Props Queen Gets a New Toy

The Yoga Props Queen Gets a New Toy

 To Prop or Not To PropCarrying the crown of Yoga Props Queen was heavy work when I began teaching in the 1980’s. There were various styles of yoga around but unless you were an Iyengar-trained teacher, you were likely to do your poses unpropped.Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga stood out as one of the styles which only required a willing body/mind and a non-skid mat. As this style became more popular and spin-offs were spawned, there was a period of time when yoga instructors looked down their noses at the use of props. […]

No Yoga Mat, Will Travel

No Yoga Mat, Will Travel

I don’t have to tell you it’s winter in Australia. On the east coast we’ve experienced mild weather, then bitter cold, and even snowfall where there isn’t meant to be any. No matter what the winter weather is like, Australians have a habit of fleeing our island continent for tropical paradises as the chilly temperatures bite.In a short time, I’m leaving for a sojourn in the U.S. […]

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