Category: Yoga Actions

Not everyone can do yoga poses, but everyone can do yoga actions. For some, yoga appears to be a pretzel-bending physical practice for those with flexible bodies. This is far from the truth. Yoga postures emerged in response to an understanding that tension, tightness and painful suffering can be alleviated and eliminated by tapping into the body’s cellular healing capacity. Our bodies always tell us the truth about what we are experiencing. Unfortunately, we are often too busy or too blind to pay attention. To better utilize our body’s innate ability to heal, we must awaken to how it speaks to us. Yoga poses (asanas) help us to discover where our pain and tension lie. Yoga actions, such as release the thigh bone back and the shin bone forward, take us deeper into our inner experience thereby bringing us ever closer to the source of our suffering. Yoga actions also help us to concentrate our awareness in the present moment. Through this intimate mindfulness of our direct experience, we learn what truth is. The body must tell one what to do, not the brain. BKS Iyengar YOGA ACTIONS began as a creative collaboration between two friends and yoginis, Candace Propp and myself, Helen Maupin. Our original intent was to write one book in an attempt to capture even a small portion of the knowledge and wisdom we gained from practising yoga. That modest intention mushroomed into — 1. six yoga actions books focusing on specific areas of the body, 2. two teacher training programs (A 200- and 500-hour) complete with facilitator manuals and student handbooks, 3. a bi-monthly yoga column in the Winnipeg Free Press, and most importantly, 4. a deeply-rewarding sisterhood filled with peace, love and joy. As always, journeys of creation and discovery, whether on or off the yoga mat, take us beyond the scope of our imagination into the Universe’s intentions and gifts. Below are some of the gifts that emerged from our collaboration.

A Yoga Teaching: We Are All Creators

At its core, “We Are All Creators” reflects the fundamental human reality that we constantly shape our lives, relationships, and environments through our daily thoughts, words, and deeds. Whether intentionally building art or simply navigating interactions, creativity is inherently woven…

A Yoga Teaching: Only Knowledge Removes Fear

When we arrive on this planet, it seems to me that we are born fearless. It is our journey through life that cultivates strengths and fears, thereby setting us on a path of discovering who we are and why we…

A Yoga Teaching: Rainbows are Power Sources

Spiritually, a rainbow (ROYGBIV) symbolizes hope, renewal, and divine connection. Emerging after a storm, it represents the light and peace that follow life’s difficulties. It is a reminder to us that storms/challenges are temporary, and better days lie ahead. It…

A Yoga Teaching: To Worry is to be Addicted

Worry wastes time.Mind spins endlessly through past or futurenever resting in the present. The Tao and Yoga, as foundational concepts in East Asian philosophy and religion, share several core tenets. Tao (or Dao) literally means “the way” or “the path.”…

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…

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). …

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…