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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
A growing body of research continues to illustrate the benefits of yoga postures that turn us upside down. These inversions affect the central nervous systems in such a way that not only is our mood elevated but the muscle tone…
Prior to our current COVID circumstances, I wrote of research proving that yoga poses incorporated with regulated breath work (pranayama) drastically reduced depressive symptoms. Interestingly, there is a known correlation between depression and anxiety, which realizes that reducing one reduces…
Refinement is a necessary step on our evolutionary ladder toward self-actualization and fulfilment. Being aware of what forces drive our behaviour means we can adapt who we are, moment-to-moment. Each adaptation we make refines our skills, innate gifts and decision…
I just came home from an intriguing breakfast conversation with two dear friends, David and Deri. Our back-and-forth dialogue circled around the uncertain adventure COVID is presenting within our global community. Fortunately, in any time of personal and collective crisis,…
Given the tendency for many people to project their head forward as a result of long hours working on computers, I am continuing to explore how the throat diaphragm can enable us to correct this misalignment. The yoga actions and…
Last week, we looked at a yoga sequence and yoga actions focused on freeing the physical and emotional tension (holding patterns) in our heart space. Within our body, the physical element of air is concentrated in the heart region. Air…
© Copyright 2026 – Helen Maupin/Right to Joy – All rights reserved
