Journey Into Yoga

Chairs can be useful in various parts of a yoga practice. In this, our last episode of the yoga chair series, we explore a way to use a chair to assist in your downward facing dog pose. I like to call this variation the Dessert Dog, because usually in this posture we are able to get our heels to the ground in our downward dog - doesn't that sound delicious? See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/...

Opening up the hips is possible even while we are sitting on a chair. This Pigeon pose variation provides a deep stretch into the outer hips and can be done nearly anywhere, anytime. Also! Avery has a Substack called Declutter U . It is full of great ideas to declutter your life. Sign up now and start making space in your life. Follow the show on  Instagram  and on  Facebook. We wou...

Our feet - they sure take a beating. Not only do we jam our feet into shoes most days, but we also use our feet A LOT. I like to think of my feet as the employee who is constantly asked to do overtime and seldom compensated for the time.  Also! Avery has a Substack called Declutter U . It is full of great ideas to declutter your life. Sign up now and start making space in your life....

Journeying on with our chair series, we have come to a personal favourite of mine - the seated chair twist. It’s such a subtle twist that I often tell people they can do this one anywhere, including sitting at the dinner table! Speaking of dinner, the seated twist is a wonderful way to help digest a meal, and also a great way to stimulate the internal organs and give our inside body a refresh...

When we are working, we may often find ourselves sitting for many hours on end. Yes, getting up and taking a walk around is good, but sometimes we don’t even have the time for that. So what can we do while we are seated? These seated side stretches can be done while you continue to sit and they can bring a lot of relief to the body. Also! Avery has a Substack called Declutter U . It is full o...

I love the seated forward fold because you can do it almost anywhere; well, it may look weird if you do it at a restaurant, but other than that it is very accessible. You can do it at home, as a passenger in a car, at the office when you have some space alone, even at the airport or the doctor’s office. Whenever you need some calm and ease and need a nice back stretch, this is your pose....

Sphinx is one of those yoga postures that I can only best describe as subtle. This pose which has a restful component is a beautiful low back stretch which I am excited to share with you. Also! Avery has a Substack called Declutter U . It is full of great ideas to declutter your life. Sign up now and start making space in your life. Follow the show on  Instagram  and on  Facebook. W...

Well, we discovered downward dog, so it makes sense that there is a yoga pose called puppy pose! A slight inversion posture where the head is lower than the heart, this pose will provide the advantages of an inversion; changing the flow in the body both on a physical level as well as on an emotional level. Also! Avery has a  Substack called Declutter U . It is full of great ideas to decl...

In our exploration of legs up the wall, we find a posture that is very effective in helping alleviate stress and anxiety. A full body tension releaser, this cooling and calming posture has so many benefits, and is extremely effective at relaxing the body and the mind. Also! Avery has a  Substack called Declutter U . It is full of great ideas to declutter your life. Sign up now and start makin...

Ever feel full after a holiday meal or celebration? Or perhaps I should phrase it "Always feel full after a holiday meal or celebration??" If you can relate to this at all, this show is for you! We often allow ourselves to overindulge at holiday time, as we should! Today we will look at how to help ease some of this overindulging that will inevitably occur around the holidays. We will also look at...

Intense side stretch….hmmm intrigued? Parsvotanasana has never been an easy pose for me, reason being it can be difficult for those of us with tight hamstrings. This challenging standing forward fold helps to bring stability and balance to the body and the mind. Sometimes called pyramid pose, a name which emphasizes the pose’s powerful foundation and strength.   Also! Aver...

Wall stretch, sometimes called wall push, is one of the first yoga poses that I personally learned. It seemed so simple at first, but then I realized there is actually a lot to it. This posture stretches the back of the legs, the shoulders and the back; it can also expose a lot of our postural habits along the way.  Also! Avery has a weekly  Substack called Declutter U . I...

Warrior 2 is also a power pose, which I discussed in our warrior 1 episode, but it bares repeating. In addition to encouraging strength flexibility and balance, this posture can bring power and resilience which can help the emotional body. Tough meeting or situation coming up which requires strength to manage? Do a warrior 2 and find your inner strength! Also! Avery has a weekly  Substac...

The practice of yoga is full of many poses or asanas. On a physical level, some of these poses help to improve flexibility; some help to improve strength, and some do both. Warrior 1 is a pose which encourages the promotion of both strength and flexibility; it also helps to improve balance. This pose is a member of the warrior family, and is a power pose which can help provide us wi...

Lunge is a perfect pose that helps to examine 2 very different aspects we find in yoga: strength and flexibility. This pose does them both. Within the practice of yoga there are some poses that address flexibility more, some that address strength more, but there also postures that do both: lunge is a perfect example of one such double duty posture. In addition to being an important stand alone pos...

Standing. Seems simple? Au contraire; there is so much more to standing than we think. Is the crown of my head extending in an upwards direction? Is my head shifting forward or back? Are my shoulders softening down my back body? What is happening with my tail bone? Are my shoulders stacked over my hips (what does that even mean)???!!! What about my feet and my legs....So...uhhhh...yes...there is m...

A twist in the yoga world, although comes in the form of a physical posture, actually works into our internal body as well. When we move into twists, our internal organs are given a refresh - think of the internal body as a sponge - when we twist, we wring out our sponges, thus allowing the sponge to be cleaned , rinsed and ultimately refreshed. In yoga classes, you will typically find a...

Core strengtheners like boat pose are important poses in yoga, and the reason may surprise you. As we start to build a yoga practice, the building blocks start to come together. Poses not only exist on their own, but they also assist as stepping stones or gateways to other poses. Core strengthening poses like navasana is just one example of such a pose - a wonderful core pose on its own, but also...

In the yoga world, heart opening poses have the intention of alleviating depression. As we give the heart a boost and an open, the hope is to combat any feelings of sadness and gloom one may be feeling. Now file that information away - it will come up again, but know that our posture today will aim not only at helping combat the blues, but it will also hopefully bring some heat and energ...

One of the areas in the body that many many people complain about is tension in the neck and shoulders; I hear this a lot! As we focus some awareness on these potential tension hotbeds, these parts of the body could easily be the subject matter of 50 or more podcasts! Why you ask? Well, the short answer is that stress tends to live here. Not only does the neck have the all important job of li...

Have you ever noticed how limber and flexible children are? Think of a young child sitting on the floor with crossed legs - they do this with extreme ease barely thinking about it. It happens all the time in the world of children: assemblies, music class, and in school. Now, change your thinking gears for a moment and consider an adult body sitting cross legged on the floor; as...

Come with me for a moment on a different kinds of journey - a journey back in time to when we were in gym class - ah the dreaded gym class. whether your memories are fond or not-so-fond of “gym period” I am pretty sure we can all have a mutual recollection of touching our toes - or what I will refer to as “uttanasana of times past” Now don't get me wrong uttanasana or a standing forward fold actua...

Downward dog is one of those yoga postures that most of us learn early on - it also typically appears in most yoga classes This is a posture that stretches and lengthens almost every part of your body! But wait…there’s more! Downward dog is an inversion - meaning that in the pose, your head is below your heart. When we move into inversions in yoga, we are changing the flow in our interna...

Our practice today is going to open and stretch out our spines!  Undulate - the dictionary describes this word as meaning “move or go with a smooth up and down motion” It is also said to mean something moving in a wavy pattern. The first time I really grew accustomed to this word was when I started my own yoga journey. Finding myself in the hands and knees or “table top” pose,...

As we move through life, we encounter many experiences, some are good and some are not so good. We often have emotional responses to these events, which we in turn have to “put” somewhere, or even absorb into our bodies in some way. In the yoga world, we often say that all of these experiential emotions get slotted into the hips; our own personal junk drawer - ergo, this is why the...