Respecting the Undertow
For years I was desperately treading water, trying to stay afloat, gasping for oxygen yet getting pulled under by a relentless undertow, a toxic vortex of suppressed emotion. I was trying to move forward, reaching for shore, yet beneath my consciousness was a powerful opposing force holding me back. I was living out of my body because being in body, actually feeling all that had been getting pushed further and further down, was too painful. It was a terribly destructive way of…
Interpertation of pain and injury in context of Ashtanga Yoga practice
Foreword from Stu Girling First of all I want to say that I really love the way Iain writes and that he has the conviction to always say exactly what he is thinking. For this particular post I felt it was necessary to put a little bit from me up front as the views put forward are so opposite to mine. So why am I posting it you may ask. Well the answer is very simple. As a resource site…
Dark Night of the Meniscus
Knee injuries are unfortunately too common with yoga practitioners. Karen Kirkness explains some of what might be going on with meniscus tears and how to prevent it. So many yogis are dealing with knee issues. I’ve heard these maladies described as: clunky, dodgy, sore, noisy, tight, overstretched, tender, and painful. One of the common sources of these sensations is the meniscus. The meniscus of the knee is a fibrocartilaginous disc whose name is derived from the Greek “meniskos” or crescent, for its crescent-shaped appearance on the tibial plateau.
Anatomy Body Painting
As most of us working in the field of yoga anatomy are aware, memorising muscle attachments is not a particularly useful exercise in and of itself. For one thing, muscles as single entities kind of don’t exist anymore. Owing enormous thanks to the ground-breaking work of manual therapists in the last few decades, we are now starting to fully embrace the holistic model of fascial continuities as the great attenuators of force in the body and to feel the impact…
The Geometry of Bandha
Bandha naturally emerges within a person when the two polarities of the spectrum of any given aspect of our existence are in relative balance and communication with one another. If we stand in the middle of a high mountain ridge, we can clearly see what lies on either side of the ridge. Similarly, in the balanced state of bandha we can easily feel the qualities of either end of the spectrum of our potential experience. From this vantage point, we…
Becoming Animal: Cultivation of Organic Intelligence
Using Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and Meditation as Embodiment Practices for the Cultivation of Organic Intelligence A practitioner in my Mysore program recently asked me: “If one side of a posture is more open than the other, and I feel like I can keep going deeper in the more open side, should I hold back to try to even it out with the less open side?” My response drew from what I feel is one of the most beautiful aspects of…
Mega Matcha Mango and Super Smoothies
Grab your kimono and get your Zen on. Matcha Green Tea is one of my top three favourite foods. Studies on the health benefits of green tea have gone off the scales in recent years and rightly so. Green tea is proving to be effective against a range of illnesses. It is known as The Elixir of the Immortals however I don’t remember seeing Edward necking it back in Twilight. It must have been in the outtakes. Green tea has…