yoga

Walking up to the woman on the street I gave her a couple of blankets and a few loaves of bread. It was what I had in my car, and she needed them. Driving off, a smile came over my face. I never spoke of it until now, but it changed my life forever. Something happens when you serve another human with no intention for gain. It liberates you; it connects you with a force greater than yourself. It expands your path and lights the way home. It rights your karma.

Side-Reclining Leg Lift

Benefits:

Strengthens core muscles.

Stretches inner legs.

Improves balance.

Foundation & General Alignment:

Start laying on side of body.

Slowly raise leg that is on top.

Can grab outside of foot or big toes and straighten foot.

Legs are engaged.

Both legs are straight.

Core is toned to keep body from falling forward or backward.

Shoulders are back and away from ears, chest is pressing forward.

Ice baths have long been used as a recovery tool for high-performing athletes as well as those looking to reduce inflammation and fatigue, but what if all those freezing sessions were for naught? New research points less to the ice and more to the warmth. Here are six reasons you might try drawing a hot bath to better recover—and make it enjoyable, too.

Corpse Pose/ Shavasana

Benefits:

Helps reduce blood pressure, anxiety, and insomnia.

Can help with meditation.

Helps relax body after yoga practice.

Foundation & General Alignment:

Foundation is entire back of body.

Feet can be pointing upward or relaxed.

Backs of legs are pressing into ground.

Back is not completely flat on ground, there is a natural curve in back.

Shoulders are back and pressing into ground.

Chest is not caved inward.

I feel I have always been a tantrika by nature. I often imagine lifetimes where I must have danced in the ancient temples of India with other women who remembered this Divine truth. How we, as the tantrikas, must have been the souls to which one turned when they were unable to contact the holy within them—whether out of guilt, shame, or fear from what horrors or traumas they had experienced.

There’s so much about yoga that we don’t know or can’t comprehend—and by we, I mean all of us—from the practiced yogis and yoginis to those who don’t know the "y" of yoga. As we have oft reiterated, yoga is not just exercise.

Half Moon Pose/ Ardha Chandrasana

Benefits:

Strengthens arms, legs, and core.

Improves balance.

Stretches arms, legs, chest, and back. 

Foundation & General Alignment:

Arm and leg are foundation of pose, hand can be flat on ground or up on finger tips.

Leg that is straight out is toned and in line with body.

Upper body is as straight as possible.

Other arm is extended upward.

Body is flat, black is not curved and legs are bent.

My mother is Christian, but she is a Bhakti yogi, no doubt. Her entire spiritual practice is that of no-minded devotion. She is not about the letter of the law, but rather the heart behind her worship. I admire that about her, and though I do not believe in the same way she does, I can learn a lot from her devotion.

One of my favorite exercise routines is doing Surya Namaskars (sun salutations). Each Surya Namaskar makes you stretch and use muscles you didn’t even know you possessed and more than that—it regulates your body processes at an elemental level, unlike any other exercise. I began with barely managing to do 12 a day but now do 32 in one go. And I plan to increase it as I go along. So here go my reasons for doing the Surya Namaskar, and why you should get on the sun salutation bandwagon too.

Red as blood, red as molten lava, as the fires of life dancing in the embers. Dark as night, as the cave of wonders, as the unknown depths of a person’s soul before discovering the gifts awaiting them. Red garnet is a dark red stone whose vibration and color helps us to tune into the richness of our capacity to live by aligning us with the fires of kundalini awakening in our root.