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Backbend Into An Open Heart — Part VII

During times of social isolation from friends and even close family members, we especially need heart-warming and heart-opening rituals and experiences. These practices remind us of the vital role loving-kindness plays in healing, growth and transformation, which becomes even more…

Helen Maupin

Backbend Into An Open Heart — Part VI

If you have already practised my previous five backbend sequences, you recognize those practices are directed toward intermediate or advanced yogis. However, backbend yoga poses are introduced at the beginner level in order to encourage new students to adopt them…

Helen Maupin

Backbend Into An Open Heart — Part V

With the persistence of COVID 19, so much of our daily experience asks us for patience and compassion. In addition, if you discover yourself becoming even more sedentary or only bending your spine forward, finding ways to flex your spine…

Helen Maupin

Backbend Into An Open Heart — Part IV

A new day has dawned politically in the United States. May the hope and inspiration currently being felt by many in that country be also experienced socially, economically and ecologically for them and for all. The youth poet laureate, Amanda…

Helen Maupin

Backbend Into An Open Heart — Part III

Although some people find bending over backwards more difficult than standing on their hands, both inversions and backbends energize our body, mind and spirit. And because humans are essentially energy beings, it is vital for us to open ourselves to…

Helen Maupin

Backbend Into An Open Heart — Part II

HAPPY NEW YEAR. With the arrival of a new year, why not start it off hopeful by creating room for loving kindness to flourish. The more space we create within our ribcage, particularly around our heart and lungs, the more…

Helen Maupin

Backbend Into An Open Heart — Part I

Tis the season to be jolly. As this carol lyric reminds, the winter holiday centring around the Solstice is a time for counting our blessings with glad tidings. In order to fully experience happiness, our heart needs to be unencumbered…

Helen Maupin

Vinyasa: Asana that Warms From the Inside Out

For the past six weeks, I illustrated different mini inversion sequences intended to open you to the benefits of turning upside down. Most specifically, the focus was to relieve the depression and anxiety that creeps in when we are under…

Helen Maupin

Invert Your Way Out of Depression and Anxiety: Part VI

When carving stone, the sculptor removes everything that is not the statue. […] The art of revealing beauty lies in removing what concealed it. So too, Patanjali [in the Yoga Sutras] tells us that wholeness exists within us. Our work…

Helen Maupin

Invert Your Way Out of Depression and Anxiety: Part V

For the past five weeks, I offered mini inversion sequences as a means of alleviating depression and anxiety through overcoming fear. The result in the body and mind is a greater sense of calm. Believe it or not, when practised…

Helen Maupin

Invert Your Way Out of Depression and Anxiety: Part IV

When we drop our head below our heart, as in yoga inversions, we flip our perspective through a physical act. Turning ourselves upside down teaches us that our predictable reactions to the outside world are not the only way. In…

Helen Maupin

Invert Your Way Out of Anxiety & Depression: Part III

Peace is all around us – in the world and in nature – and within us – in our bodies and in our spirits. Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed. It is not…

Helen Maupin