Do you find yourself having to battle your mind for the long, dreary winter? Seasonal Affective Disorder or seasonal depression is a very common, and potentially life-altering, condition that is more common in women than men. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that comes and goes with the seasons, typically starting in…
Category: health and wellness
New Year, New You: How To Start Yoga for a Healthy + Happy Body
Is this your year to start yoga, commit to self-care, and feel healthy and happy in your body?! We all have specific areas of the body that tend to ache, cause pain, or grow stiff due to stress or lifestyle. You don’t necessarily need an hour each day to devote to opening up these stiff…
How Yoga Can Help You Keep Your New Year’s Resolution
As we ring in the beginning of both another year and another decade, many of us will set a New Year’s resolution: the good news is, yoga can help you keep yours. Read on to find out how your yoga practice can help you begin new healthy habits that will not only last the year,…
6 Stress Relieving Strategies for Moms (or Anyone Feeling Overwhelmed!)
How many moms out there have experienced overwhelm? As a yoga teacher and mom of three, I can say with relative certainty that at some point or another any mother reaches a tipping point. I often feel it rise in my body, starting slowly at my feet. If I leave it unchecked, it feels like…
The Surprising Benefits of Good Posture
Stand up straight! We’ve all been on the receiving end of that comment (hi mom!). Yes, good posture helps us appear put together and confident, but does it offer more? The answer is yes. Good posture is important to balance: by standing up straight, you center your weight over your feet. This also helps you…
Hips Don’t Lie: How Hip Openers Release Old Emotions
Love ’em or hate ’em, hip openers are soooo good for you, physically, mentally and energetically. Most people love them because their hips are so tight and they need that release; and then again, most people dislike these hip openers for the same reason. So why are the hips filled with so much tension? Think…
Yoga for Veterans: A Vet Explains the Healing Power of Yoga
Ann Richardson Stevens, a certified Adaptive Yoga teacher and member of the Exalted Warrior Foundation, provides adaptive yoga classes to veterans returning from combat. She began teaching yoga for veterans at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Virginia and has since moved her yoga for veterans classes to her studio, Studio Bamboo Yoga. Alex was one…
Setting Yoga Intentions On and Off Your Mat
The Importance of Setting Yoga Intentions As a yoga instructor, I give students time and space at the beginning of each class to set an intention, or sankalpa. Rod Stryker, the founder of ParaYoga and author of The Four Desires, explains that to create the life we were born to live, we must enlist the…
Stress Less: The Science Behind Cortisol
Cortisol is the stress hormone. It is made by the adrenal glands along with other hormones including norepinephrine, epinephrine, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and aldosterone. In times of stress, the hypothalamus signals the pituitary gland to tell the adrenal cortex to release cortisol. When there is enough cortisol, the hypothalamus and pituitary stop communicating, and cortisol…
The Cleansing Benefits of Massage
There is nothing quite like that post-massage bliss, but are there actual health benefits of massage? The answer is yes! Massage has been used for thousands of years by people living all over the world as a means of naturally treating both mental and physical body ailments. Massage therapy is defined as “the manual manipulation…