Category: Blog

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What is Yoga?

The root of Yoga means to yoke, to unite.  One of my first teachers taught me yoga is a practice of re-membering, of putting ourselves back together again, consciously. With each ah-ha moment, we get to know ourselves better.  Yoga is a delving inward towards our true and essential nature– through the shrouds and traumas of life towards our inner essence, which has always been there and is interconnected with all beings and with our planet.

Yoga is not a form of exercise– though the asanas, the postures, do strengthen and stretch the body.  Yoga is a practice of awakening.  And paying attention to the physical body is certainly a part of this practice. This is a developing awareness of our Anamaya Kosha– our food body.  And yoga takes us deeper and deeper into our energy body, our mind, our intuition, and our interconnectedness.

Through yoga we can calm and reset our nervous systems. We can expand our capacity to engage the ventral vagal nervous system and live more conscious, contented, compassionate lives. Through yoga we can learn to nurture and nourish ourselves and to become more present for others.

The restorative practice is of equal importance to the physical work of the practice. It is in these practices we learn to question the PUSH life can become and to invite balance– We learn to play as well as work.  We learn to listen as well as speak.  We learn to deeply relax as well as GO. In the restorative sections of practice we may move beyond trying to please others towards nurturing and caring for ourselves.

 

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What is Qiqong?

Qiqong is an age-old practice of movement and mindfulness where we become fully absorbed in flowing with ease as we learn to sense and build awareness of energy inside and outside the body. We feel ourselves as conduits of energy between Earth and Sky.

There are numerous health benefits to Qigong practice which is the parent of Tai Chi.  Qigong helps us move stagnant energy in the body, releasing long-held tensions. As we move energy through the meridians, we bring our system back towards balance.

After a practice you may feel more grounded, at ease, and happy.  You may feel that restrictions in joints and aches and pains in the body have eased. Your mind may quiet and you may feel a sense of calm awareness. My hope is that over time this builds greater happiness and joy in your daily life.

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What is Pilates?

Pilates is a system of exercises designed to improve physical strength, flexibility, and posture, and enhance mental awareness.  And, the practice takes us far beyond this!

For me, Pilates is a mindfulness practice. We feel into the natural curves of our spine.  We invite in space and length and fluid movement.  We pay attention to balanced weight, to which muscles are active, over-active, asleep. We then sense, visualize, imagine and move ourselves back towards balanced strength and fluid grace, towards healthy integration of limbs into the torso.

This is a practice of learning the inner landscape of the physical body and paying attention to the ocean waves of breath.  This is a practice  of deep listening, of building confidence, of remembering possibility, even after injury and even as we age.

A student wrote me an email the other day. She said she had just participated in an annual MRI.  The doctor told her, as if confused, “We don’t usually see improvement in your age group.”  She was so happy.

Pilates is a practice of deep respect for body and mind– and of realizing that tissue can change throughout our lives with love and attention.