Your Yoga Archives - The Yoga Garden

Category: Your Yoga

Calm water - Yoga Garden Blog post about Sutra

YOUR YOGA – Sutra 1:2

Yoga is mastery over the roaming tendencies of the mind.

Attention is a rare commodity these days, and we have to work hard to cultivate a mind-state of paying attention to what is in front of us. I’ve been thinking about this more recently with the arrival of spring. Walking with my dog, I’ve been trying to pay close attention to everything around me: the fresh, green leaves of the ferns; the daffodils pushing up out of the ground; the cherry blossoms exploding into color; and the smell of freshly mown grass. The list goes on and on, and it seems as though the more I listen and watch, the brighter and more vivid the experience becomes.

YOUR YOGA – Ishvara Pranidhana

Ishvara Pranidhana — Surrender to a Higher Being.

The holidays this year provided my family with a peaceful opportunity to recharge and prepare for the new year ahead. We ended up staying home, taking the time to read, spend time together, and rest—not our original plan, but it’s a gift how things worked out.

Your Yoga – Viparita Karani (Legs up the wall)

For many of us summer can be a wonderful time of the year, serving as a period of rest from our regular routines and an opportunity to recharge and take stock of the year before we launch into the business of back to school and work in the fall. For others who do better with a schedule, it can pose a challenge to find stability in the more unscheduled weeks and months. In either case, we are given a chance to look at our lives differently for a while and to change our perspective, whether through travel or simply spending more unstructured time with family and friends. There can be a freedom and lightness that comes with this more open time.

Your Yoga – Utkatasana (Chair Pose)

We already know about IQ and even EQ, but there is a new concept that is now drawing attention known as AQ, or adversity quotient. Stephen Cope refers to it in his new book, ‘Soul Friends’: “We might call it a measure of adversity intelligence that examines questions like these: How does one cope with, respond to, and ultimately, what does one do with life’s inevitable challenges… the capacity to come back again and again to complex problems is the most important temperamental component of adversity intelligence. ” Over time, it’s possible to strengthen our EQ and gradually build our resilience.

Your Yoga – Transitions

As I paddled into the ocean over spring break, my surf instructor suggested I face each wave head on to get through it more effectively, which struck me as a nice analogy for life. Sometimes we want to find a way around what is in front of us by remaining in the past, holding on to what has come before, and dwelling on what may come in the future. Mindfulness can help us with this. When we practice mindful meditation and yoga, we watch our thoughts rise and fall like waves, and we remain present without being pulled into the undercurrent, simply by focusing our attention on the breath. Through this practice, we gradually learn equanimity and presence.

Scientific research backs this up. Mindfulness practice has been linked to increased grey-matter density in the hippocampus, which is important for self-awareness and compassion – and alternately, a decrease in grey matter in the amygdala plays a significant role in anxiety and stress. This means that we can re-wire our brains and learn to move through life with more grace and equanimity, wherever we are. It’s helpful to know that we have these meditative and yogic tools to help us sit with whatever comes up, stay present, then let it go. With practice, we can face the experiences that come our way with more freedom and spirit, as I did when I learned to ride the waves.

Your Yoga – Setu Bandasana, Bridge Pose

This is a beautiful time of year when in between intermittent rainfalls, we start to see new signs of growth: tiny buds and new leaves forming. We know spring is coming but it unfolds slowly in its own time, it’s a magical moment of potential and new beginnings. Spring is when we embrace expansion and upward-moving energy, physically and mentally moving outwards after conserving our energy through the winter – like a fractal reflecting the cycle of nature that is all around us.

warrior 1 yoga pose at the yoga garden studio in san anselmo

Your Yoga – Warrior I

As we look to the new year ahead of us, we may feel happy and contented with where we are in our lives or we may feel unsettled and unsteady – not sure how to navigate the challenges in front of us. One of the benefits of yoga is that it helps us stand more firmly on our feet, aligned in our physical body – and this can lead to a mental and emotional steadiness over time which supports us. This is reflected in one of the central niyamas or character-building observances – Ishvar Pravidhana – one translation of which is ‘learning how to line up with nature’s intelligence and grace’.

Yoga Blog Post about pratapana and doing yoga to stay warm

Your Yoga – Pratapana

The weather has transitioned to become beautifully crisp and cold over the last few weeks but as the temperature drops, it can sometimes feel challenging to get warm. While we can always wrap up in a warm blanket, sweater and socks, we can also find ways to move our energy from the inside and build up some heat from our center. When you feel warm on the inside, your whole body can soften, relax and feel safe.

Your Yoga – A Simple Twist

After enjoying a seasonally rainy October, we now find ourselves looking towards the holiday season. As we think about the holidays, it can be helpful to consider what we are hoping to get out of the time we will have away from our usual schedule. Are we seeking connection with others, good food, some down-time or simply more time at home with family? While it is a wonderful time of year in many ways, we can sometimes feel challenged by how much there is to do, so it can be valuable to set an intention to help you make the time for what is important to you. And to make space to ‘digest’ not just the food, but also the experience.

Your Yoga – Season of Harvest

A few weeks ago we moved through the autumnal equinox, when day and night are of equal length. The equinox acts as a point of balance between the two solstices – summer and winter – and provides a moment to reflect as we find ourselves at a point of balance between day and night, light and dark, outward-moving and inward-moving energy.