Ever wondered how to control thoughts during meditation, but not sure where to begin? Imagine: you gather your meditation cushion and a couple of blankets, ready to begin a guided meditation. You’re in a quiet room, or maybe even outside in the garden, seemingly free from unwanted distractions. You light some incense, close your eyes…
Is Chair Yoga Right For You?
Look around the room at one of YogaToday teacher Adi Amar’s chair yoga classes at her Jackson, Wyoming based studio, Teton Yoga Shala, and you’ll see yogis of all shapes, sizes, and abilities. There is a senior who chooses the class to strengthen his bones and improve his balance in a safe, non-weight-bearing way. There…
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…
Top Ten Essential Yoga Poses
Whether taking a yoga class, practicing on your own at home, or following along to one of our top yoga classes online at YogaToday, there are a few essential yoga poses poses that you are almost guaranteed to see. While there are over 300 positions in the physical yoga practice (asana), these ten basic yoga…
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…
Yoga Breathing Techniques: The Basics of Pranayama
The aim of both yoga breathing techniques, or pranayama, is to help us live more fluidly in partnership with the world around us. In many ways, our life begins with our first conscious breath and ends with our last. The breath is said to carry a person’s life force, and our lives are dependent on…
The Granthis: Untie Your Emotional Knots
What are the Granthis? The Granthis are psycho emotional knots that are housed along the Shushumna Nadi and correlate with the seven main chakras along the central nerve channel. The Shushumna Nadi translates to a hollow reed and is a channel that runs through the central axis of our body and is where energy either…
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…
4 Yoga Poses (With Props!) for Athletes
As an athlete, stretching and yoga can be amazing allies. This article, highlighting recent Olympians who practice yoga, certainly attests to that! If you want to be an athlete on the top of your game, stretching and rest are all part of a successful training program. These four yoga poses with props will soothe the…