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.

Whole Being Change — Body, Breath, Brain

In her latest book, Yoga for Emotional Balance: Simple Practices to Help Relieve Anxiety and Depression, psychologist Bo Forbes emphasizes the following five healing practices for creating lasting change and health: Balance the nervous system. Our nervous system filters all…

Helen Maupin

Move It or Lose It

A well-oiled machine performs much better and lasts considerably longer,  as those of us who ride bicycles or drive cars know.  The same mechanical principle applies to the joints in our bodies.   Simply put, a joint is where two…

Helen Maupin

Getting a Leg Up

Many of us take our lower legs for granted, without realizing the significant role calf muscles play in circulating blood and oxygen.  In yoga, we refer to the calf muscles as the “heart of the legs.”  Through contracting and expanding,…

Helen Maupin

The Examined Life

Many Western societies have compartmentalized healthcare by focusing treatment and prevention on one aspect of our being — body or mind or spirit — rather than administering to all three. For physical pain, a physician tends to prescribe medication and…

Helen Maupin

Keeping Your Cool

Each season brings its own benefits and challenges.  Hot humid summer days help to unwind tension and tightness built up from fortifying against the blustery chill of winter. However, too much of a good thing also takes a toll.  Prolonged…

Helen Maupin

Sit Up — Take Care of Your Tailbone

The tailbone, or coccyx, is a small, triangular bone located at the bottom of the spine. It measures less than one inch (2.5 cm) in length and curves like a hawk’s beak — widest where it meets the sacrum and…

Helen Maupin

Proper Sitting Crucial

Although sitting with an erect and fluid spine is the goal for pranayama and meditation (two of the eight limbs of yoga), it is also vital for most people in the workforce who spend upwards of three to five hours…

Helen Maupin

The Back Door to Health

Yoga practitioners often hear from their teachers, “You are only as old as your spine is inflexible.”  Body and energy workers would agree that the more supple your spine, the healthier and more youthful your overall constitution. The key to…

Helen Maupin

Creating Space — Yoga Actions for Torso & Spine

Not everyone can do all yoga poses, but everyone can do all yoga actions. Yoga Actions for Torso & Spine is the fourth in a five-volume series of print and e-books emphasizing actions in focused areas of our bodies –…

Editor

Big Muscles, Big Responsibility

Did you know that quadriceps means “four heads”?  This term of reference includes the four front thigh muscles that join at the quadriceps tendon to attach on to the kneecap.  Quadriceps are some of the largest muscles in the body.…

Helen Maupin

Flex Excess — Keys to avoid or fix hyperextension  

Until we experienced a yoga class, most of us never considered a person could be too flexible.  In hypermobile bodies, ligaments and tendons can be too loose to prevent excessive movement of the joints, which can result in serious injury and,…

Helen Maupin

ELIMINATING THE PAIN IN THE NECK

Most of us take our necks for granted, even though every bite and breath we take and sound we make activates impulses through this relatively narrow passage. The neck’s muscles and ligaments surround its cervical vertebrae, which are the smallest…

Helen Maupin