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Engaging the Subtle Body: Collar Bone Tension Band

Philosopher and writer, Friedrich Nietzsche’s quote above reminds us that all we really have control over is how we choose to respond to life’s events. If we are unaware or not mindful of these events, in all likelihood, we react…

Helen Maupin

A Yoga Teaching: To Desire is to Suffer

Be very careful what you wish for, as you may get it, not in the form you wish but in the nature of the desire and the actions that you set in motion. Do not trust your mind to always…

Helen Maupin

Engaging the Subtle Body: Navel & Diaphragm Tension Bands

Band 3 – NAVEL: runs from the lumbar-thoracic joint around the waist to the navel (above or below).  Band 4 – DIAPHRAGM: runs from the DORSAL thoracic hinge around the rib cage to the bottom of the sternum (xyphoid process).  …

Helen Maupin

A Yoga Teaching: Curiosity

Recently, during a yoga class, I attempted a two-legged “Malasana (Squat) to Handstand (Adho Mukha Vrksasana)” and succeeded on the first attempt. When I returned to my feet to try again, my following attempts were unsuccessful. Needless to say, my…

Helen Maupin

Engaging the Subtle Body: Finding Ease

Self-deception and repressed feelings manifest in our physical body as tension, numbness, and/or disease. Tension, in the form of gripping or holding, is revealed through sensations such as tightness, strain, and pain. A human self-deception is the belief that we…

Helen Maupin

A Yoga Teaching: Truth Telling

The Yamas are the fundamental renunciation of a life based on fear. They are the change. The Niyamas are the fundamental practices that sustain a life based on love. They sustain the change.Rolf Gates & Katrina Kenison The five yamas…

Helen Maupin

Engaging the Subtle Body: Pelvic & Diaphragm Tension Bands

The seven myofascial tension bands universally situate in all human bodies, which arguably could be proof that we are all one. These connective tissue bands are unnatural straps holding tension just under the skin’s surface in the outer layer of…

Helen Maupin

A Yoga Teaching: Who Am I NOW?

A while back, I blogged about this very question: Who Am I? From a yoga perspective and my own personal experience, I recognize the importance of re-evaluating my understanding of who I am on an ongoing basis. Given that change…

Helen Maupin

Engaging the Subtle Body: 7 Myofascial Tension Bands

7 Tension Bands or Straps:  Myofascia is the flexible network of tissue that surrounds, cushions, and supports muscles, bones, and organs. It acts as a riverbed containing the flow of interstitial fluid. Interstitial fluid fills the spaces between cells and…

Helen Maupin

A Yoga Teaching: The Power of Positive

I recently read the following quote in a 2005 book written by Mary Doria Russell — When the preponderance of human beings choose to act with justice and generosity and kindness, then learning and love and decency prevail. When the…

Helen Maupin

Engaging the Subtle Body — Whole Spine Practice

Over the past several weeks, I shared Yoga Actions focused on creating space in the major spinal joints — sacrum-tailbone, lumbar-sacrum, thoracic-lumbar, and C7-thoracic. Using your awareness and breath to expand the space between these spinal vertebrae brings greater ease…

Helen Maupin

Engaging the Subtle Body — Cervical-Thoracic Joint

Over the past several weeks, we practiced asanas utilizing yoga actions that engage the subtle body — Pranamaya Kosha (energy body), Manomaya Kosha (mental-emotional body), and Vijnanamaya Kosha (wisdom/intuitive body). As you may have discovered personally, the holistic impacts dampen…

Helen Maupin