From the book The Humming Effect, by Jonathan and Andi Goldman Lowered blood pressure and heart rate Slowed paced humming causes both our blood pressure to be significantly decreased as well as a decrease in heart rate. Thus, it promotes deep relaxation and reduces stress, including reducing all those hormones associated with stress such as [...]
Are we willing to “look” at ourselves and “undo” what has us trapped? Our chakra system is quite a miraculous way to do so. It gives us a glimpse into how we are operating. Do a quick assessment on yourself to see how you can refine your existence. Remember if the root chakra is [...]
As the Director of a trauma-informed yoga teacher training, I’m grateful that awareness about trauma is on the rise. There was a time when the general social attitude was that a person simply needed to “get over it” if they experienced a traumatic event or series of events, and many popular movies and shows [...]
In the Kundalini Yoga lineage, it is said that there are three statements we might consider avoiding: I don’t know I can’t do it I’m not ready I have found that looking at whether or not these statements are the best thing for me to say or project has been illuminating, especially “I can’t [...]
Meaning, the thing you tell yourself about what you can and cannot do in your practice. Do you have one? Mine was that Vinyasa yoga was “too hard” for me. I told myself this even though I once practiced it regularly. But because I had not practiced in a while, I almost convinced myself [...]
How do you develop your intuition? And how might you use it pick the best yoga teacher training for you, or, really, to make any sort of decision of significance? There’s a whole story around how I picked my first training. However, the boil down answer for me was: something about it simply felt [...]
I have been teaching prenatal yoga for over 15 years and training prenatal yoga teachers for 13 years. One might ask, “What keeps you so motivated after all this time?” While guiding pregnant women in a yoga practice is truly inspiring for me, it is so much more. One of the most gratify things [...]
I did not start taking yoga classes because I wanted to. Instead, I started taking yoga classes because I was a bad ass, amped out athlete who had injured myself. At the time, I thought yoga wasn't "real" exercise. I don't remember which sports injury it was, anymore, the one that took me back [...]
Contraction vs Expansion Contraction is a state of resistance, tension, a need to control or protect. Expansion is a belief or faith that regardless the circumstance, all is well, and it is safe to be open. Contraction is rigid and impermeable. Expansion is soft and fluid. Contraction feels like the weight of a bull [...]
“I was being worked up for kidney transplant when the doctors told me that I needed new lungs because I wasn’t passing my pulmonary function tests. After a slight panic, I started pondering what to do to heal myself. One thing led to another and I found myself in a yoga class. The only [...]
