Overthinking I was having a chat with a neighbor friend of mine the other day about overthinking. About how decisions seems harder to make because of all the thinking, considering one choice and all the potential ramifications and then another and another. It’s actually a......
13 September, 2021
First, a series of questions Do you have a morning routine? Don’t be so quick to say no if you don’t have an elaborate ritual you move through each and every day. Chances are you brush your teeth and feed your dog, or look at......
06 September, 2021
Yoga Prop Excitement This past week brought all kinds of excitement in yoga prop land. I had conversations with some friends/students/practitioners about how useful the wall is in asana practice and other friends/students/practitioners have acquired new props or inquired about which ones to buy. All these happenings......
30 August, 2021
Overthinking I was having a chat with a neighbor friend of mine the other day about overthinking. About how decisions seems harder to make because of all the thinking, considering one choice and all the potential ramifications and then another and another. It’s actually a......
13 September, 2021
Yoga Prop Excitement This past week brought all kinds of excitement in yoga prop land. I had conversations with some friends/students/practitioners about how useful the wall is in asana practice and other friends/students/practitioners have acquired new props or inquired about which ones to buy. All these happenings......
30 August, 2021
Prakrti & The Gunas Yoga philosophy holds that all things in nature (nature: prakrti) are in a constant state of change. Specifically, this system says that everything is a mix of the three gunas with the proportions arranging and rearranging forever. The three gunas are rajas, tamas, and sattva. To put it......
09 August, 2021
I wonder if you’ve noticed any differences in your life from before you were practicing yoga to now. Has your practice changed things for you in any way? Does it show up for you outside of the time you spend on your mat? Is Yoga......
02 August, 2021
Last week we talked about trees, which brought up the foundational dualism inherent in the yoga philosophy – prakrti and purusa, or nature and pure consciousness. This week, let’s talk about distractions for the mind. Refresher on Purusa and Prakrti Purusa is the light of awareness within you that’s......
12 July, 2021
Trees. Aren’t they great? Trees are our teachers and are a large part of the reason I’ve wanted to move back to Oregon for so long, to be situated in the temperate rain forest surrounded by trees. I sit here now, hotter than I remember......
05 July, 2021Get updates on class times, special events, and other news.
This week I want to highlight Yin Yoga poses for beginners. On Wednesdays we practice together for 45 minutes on Zoom, but I know not everyone can make class live and besides, some of you might be wondering what Yin Yoga is in the first......
21 June, 2021
Wondering if Yin Yoga builds strength? The short answer is yes – just not in the way you might be thinking. Yin Yoga is an exercise for your connective tissues, not muscles. When you build muscular strength, you’re exercising in familiar ways: working up a sweat,......
28 December, 2020
The adjectives “yin” and “yang” must always be used in context. Nothing is inherently yin, nothing inherently yang. Something might be yin compared from one perspective, but yang from another. For example, dense and stable connective tissue is yin compared to more elastic and flexible......
04 April, 2019
January I tried something different with online OAY classes and went with the theme of “Anatomy Month.” Over the last three weeks, we split the body into three parts – hips on week one, shoulders week two, and spine week three. This week, we put......
25 January, 2021
First of all, with that title up there is anyone else picturing a bare butt sticking up out of a convertible? No, just me? ???? Ok, on that note let’s get down to business… What parts of you lie beneath your consciousness? Do you think about......
22 February, 2021
Think of the thermostat in your home or on a space heater. You set a certain temperature and when the sensor senses the room reach that temp, the heat cuts off. What if something was wrong with the sensor and the heat didn’t turn off?......
08 February, 2021
Cartoon from the animal cartoonist named Jimmy over at theycantalk.com Have you ever been in conflict with somebody who just checks out? Maybe you’re trying to explain yourself, make a point, or get them to understand something, but they aren’t responding. It’s like they aren’t......
15 February, 2021
Let’s talk autonomic nervous system. Why? Because anxiety, that’s why. And because you’re a body and you have a nervous system and it’s nice to make friends with yourself, all the parts. Your body and brain’s number one job is to keep you alive. When your......
21 September, 2020
Last weekend I was practicing with an upturned chair under the dogwood tree when I had an interesting yoga experience. It was nothing magical, and perhaps just a series of coincidences that my human brain registered as a pattern. But I had a poignant insight about......
10 May, 2021
Did you know that yoga is much more than a physical practice? The asana, or postures, we practice in a typical yoga class is the third of a total of eight limbs of yoga. The first two limbs of yoga are yama and niyama, or......
29 December, 2018
The yamas can be understood as ways in which we interact with the world around us. Things we must observe to be good, solid people. It’s no surprise that telling the truth makes the list. We now arrive at our second core discipline, satya. Satya:......
28 December, 2018
There are five yamas and five niyamas, for a total of ten moral and ethical precepts to help guide one’s life. Here is the third precept, asteya. Asteya: Non-Stealing Resisting desire for that which does not belong to us. This one, like the others,......
27 December, 2018
The eight limbs of yoga, including the yamas and niyamas that we are working through, are not meant to be completed in a linear fashion. It’s not that you master all five yamas, then move on to all five niyamas, and only after that you’re......
26 December, 2018
The language of yoga is Sanskrit, and Sanskrit words mean so much more than a simple and direct translation can do justice. We do our best to express the concepts in English. The next and final yama is one that feels to me to go......
25 December, 2018
The yamas are external observances, ways we strive to show up in our community and our household. Conversely, the niyamas are internal disciplines, ways to aim to be on the inside, personal rules to follow for a spiritual life. The first niyama is sauca. Sauca: Cleanliness, Purity Recognizing the......
24 December, 2018
Yogas citta vrtti nirodhah (Sutra 1.2) states that yoga is the calming of the fluctuations of the mind. It’s a move away from the myriad distractions of knowledge, misconception, imagination, memory, and even sleep into a place of centered presence unaffected by these states of......
23 December, 2018
Yoga is both the goal and the steps you take to get there. That is, one practices yoga in an effort to achieve yoga. The word yoga has many definitions. It means to yoke or to unify, to become one with the object of concentration.......
22 December, 2018
Yoga is a robust philosophy full of advice and practices based on thousands of years of experience. Yoga has evolved with its master practitioners, who are themselves connected to a lineage of teachers through the history of time, to suit the changing needs of the......
21 December, 2018
Yoga is not a hard and fast dogma. It’s flexible. It’s open. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali themselves recommend six techniques for concentration before simply saying “or practice anything that is uplifting.” (1.32-39) Even as a non-yogi who has no interest in the practice, you’ll......
20 December, 2018