Yoga-based support for chronic pain & stress
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!
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
Cow Pose (Bitilasana) on the top; Cat Pose (Marjariasana) on the bottom Cat-Cow is a common movement both in the yoga world and in other movement modalities. This flowing series is most often done on all fours. In Cow Pose (Bitilasana), the spine is in extension or a backbend, with the belly descending towards the… Continue reading Fresh Take Friday: Cat-Cow
Happy Friday, everyone! Today, let's take a fresh look at coming out of Balasana, or Child's Pose. Balasana is a pose that is commonly used as a place of rest in many yoga classes. I want to look specifically at how we exit this pose today, but before we get into that, I think it's… Continue reading Fresh Take Friday: Balasana (Child’s Pose)
Happy Friday! Today we’re concluding our look at Supta Padangusthasana, or Reclined Hand-To-Big-Toe Pose. If you missed the previous articles in this series, you can catch up on those here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. While this is a pose we often think of as a hamstring stretch, there are a lot of other things you… Continue reading Fresh Take Friday: Supta Padangusthasana Part 4
Happy Friday! Today we're continuing our look at Supta Padangusthasana, or Reclined Hand-To-Big-Toe Pose. If you missed the previous articles in this series, you can catch up on those here: Part 1, Part 2. While this is a pose we often think of as a hamstring stretch, there are a lot of other things you… Continue reading Fresh Take Friday: Supta Padangusthasana Part 3
Happy Friday! Today we're continuing our look at Supta Padangusthasana, or Reclined Hand-To-Big-Toe Pose. If you missed Part 1 of this series, you can catch up on that here. While this is a pose we often think of as a hamstring stretch, there are a lot of other things you can explore in this shape.… Continue reading Fresh Take Friday: Supta Padangusthasana Part 2
Rachel Ishiguro Yoga Therapy 