Yoga-based support for chronic pain & stress
A simple online search for ways to reduce chronic pain will turn up a wide range of approaches. I'm going to assume that most or all of these approaches help a lot of people feel better (because otherwise they wouldn't continue to be used), and that there may be people they don't help as effectively.… Continue reading What’s your best approach to healing chronic pain?
Photo credit: Chris Wojdak As part of my yoga therapy certification program, I’ve been privileged to be able to learn about yoga’s sister science, Ayurveda, from Mona Warner of Janati Yoga School. Ayurveda is an ancient system of holistic medicine that’s been practiced for thousands of years in India and elsewhere. One of the key… Continue reading Grounding breath practice for hectic times
Shoulder pain can make it hard to do the things you love to do. Can yoga help? Because I'm a yoga therapist and teacher, people tend to ask me for certain kinds of advice. It usually goes a little something like this. My shoulder is killing me! It's keeping me up all night and I'm… Continue reading Three Things to Consider When Your Shoulder Hurts
When I started learning about therapeutic yoga from Susi Hately, I noticed this question was coming up a lot. What support is needed? What is the support that would create enough safety to move with ease, to have less pain, to relax, and to reveal what’s possible? I often find that I don’t know. But… Continue reading Practice tip: What support is needed?
Photo by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels.com I find I turn to Mary Oliver's poetry a lot at the turn of the seasons. No one quite captures the lessons of each time of year the way she does. Here's one of her poems as we head into summer: Just as the Calendar Began to Say Summer… Continue reading On Unlearning
Photo by Klaus Nielsen on Pexels.com I get asked about Adho Mukha Svanasana/ Downward Facing Dog a lot. For good reason - it’s a pose that makes a lot of demands on your body that are quite different from the demands of daily life. For one thing, you’re bearing weight on your hands. For another… Continue reading Help! I hate Downward Facing Dog!
Now that I'm teaching more therapeutic yoga, both privately and in groups, a question I get asked a lot is "What is yoga therapy?" This is a great question, especially since there are many different approaches to doing this work. Here is a short video I made to explain a bit more about my method… Continue reading What is yoga therapy?
Photo by freestocks.org on Pexels.com We’re entering New Year's Resolution time, the season of self-improvement. All around us, folks are plunging into their efforts to better themselves by losing weight, getting in shape, reading more, cleaning their house, being more organized, and many similar projects. Just around the corner is the season of failure, falling… Continue reading Santosha: The antidote to self-improvement
It's Friday, and today we're taking a fresh look at Virabhadrasana 2 (Warrior 2 Pose). I've already written about the hip rotation involved in coming into this pose, and also about the alignment of the front knee. Today I want to give some love to the straight leg. When the right knee is bent in… Continue reading Fresh Take Friday: Virabhadrasana 2 (Warrior 2 Pose)
Happy Friday! For today's post, let's take a fresh look at your basic seated posture. In Sanskrit, the word asana, which we often translate as "pose", actually means "seat" - so a simple seated pose might very well be the original asana. In Western cultures where we've transitioned away from sitting directly on the floor,… Continue reading Fresh Take Friday: Sit on the earth
Rachel Ishiguro Yoga Therapy 