Imagining that you are a Patanjali, a centaur or a mermaid can help you make best use of the energetic differences that exist between your lower and upper body
As you go through this learning progression you aim to strike just the right balance of being content with where you are while at the same time aiming to extend the range of your perceived and actual limits. In the creation phase as you test your limits yo
Attaining a mature practice can only happen through piling up nearly countless failed attempts to become skilled enough in the techniques to avoid the painful consequences that come from wrong thinking, wrong effort, mistakes, misperceptions, and other for
Ashtanga is not arbitrarily difficult or demanding—no, the practice provides you with a perfect, explicit model of what it takes to come to the mastery of anything. And the requirements of Ashtanga’s sacrifice are so blatant, physical and explicit.
Your efforts in practice are meant to feed the ideal images that you are shaping within your mind and body, and this maturation takes place nearly imperceptibly, little by little, day by day. Part of establishing yourself in the discipline, is learning to
The hatha yogi uses his body to create an inward, symbolic sand mandala each morning, and thus he mounts to a similar pinnacle of devotion, a turning away from the pull of materiality in favor of turning towards the sublime spiritual realms within. In ma
Baddhakonasana, Bound Angle Pose, is an important hip opening seated posture that is found in the primary series. In this blog post I provide instruction for the upright phase and the two forward bending phases...
I recently posted about the importance of spinal positioning in asana study, and also how the asana allies can help you to position your spine in the center of your asana. When I say asana ally, I mean that in response to the mind’s tendency to be turned o
So how can I be realistic about the effort I do put forth? How do I accurately assess whether I practice too intensely or too mildly and in either case effectively? And what level of mildness or intensity is right for me at this time? How do I know the dif
A significant part of asana practice is to encounter physical hardship, it is by challenging yourself physically that the body becomes firm, strong, and healthy–the strong body enables you to work with your mind.
