"Movement frames much of our experience on Earth. We are constantly resisting the pull of gravity and making our way around the world to accomplish our tasks, whether that be taking a shower in the morning, training for a marathon or picking up a tired child to tuck them into bed. Our yoga practice challenges us to untangle the complicated strands of unconscious movement and then re-create a new normal, one that is informed by a fresh understanding of how we perceive our own bodies in space."

- Kate Krumsiek for Yoga Dork

Chez les Yoghis

This is fanTASTIC!
Found via Yoga Dork

The Kolbergs

Love the little girl!
Photos from Rachel Yula Kolberg via Yogadork

Judith Hanson Lasater

Just listened to this interview with Eva Norlyk Smith of YogaUOnline.com and Judith Hanson Lasater (find via yogadork) and Judith had some very interesting points. I recommend having a look/listen. She talks about why yoga is not so much about poses as it’s about exploration and experience, and some of the challenges yoga teachers face.
One of my favourite bits...

"...People don’t have to touch their palms on the floor, they don’t have to get their knees down to the floor in Baddha Konasana.
As yoga practitioners, that’s not what we need to aim for, and as teachers, it’s not our job to make them do these things! Our job to create a space in which they can explore being present, a space that allows them to evoke the best parts of themselves. And as teachers, that is reflected and expressed through our words and our touch and our demeanor, and the spirit and context that we create within the class.
When I, as a teacher, can create an environment in which people are choosing, out of their own power and volition, to move in the direction of wholeness and health, then I’ve succeeded. When we help students choose to move in the direction of health, that is a victory.
We’re all here to make mistakes—to screw things up and to figure it out. We make mistakes on all kinds of levels, and then we try to clean up the mess, try to learn from it. We’re here to explore the things we can’t do, as well as the things we can—with love and attention. And that’s practice, that’s yoga."

  --Judith Hanson Lasater

Lilias Folan

thank you Yoga Dork!

Hmmmm.....

'Yoga Room' at San Francisco Airport...

The Yoga Room at San Francisco Airport is the first of its kind...brilliant!

“The room gives modern travelers a space that fosters and supports quiet and reflection. Those aren’t emotions that people typically encounter at the airport,” said Melissa Mizell, design director for Gensler, the Terminal 2 architecture firm that also created the yoga room, in a statement.

Located just past the security checkpoint in the recently renovated Terminal 2, the new yoga room is bathed in calming blue light, with a floating wall said to symbolize a buoyant spirit and enlightened mind. Lights in the room are low and warm — to counteract the bright concourse — and loaner mats are supplied.

Bonus: If you’re not interested in getting sweaty with strangers, you can simply go sit and meditate with them at the Berman reflection room — “a centre for quiet reflection and meditation.”

Come on Heathrow, your turn!

Source: yoga dork

Belly Breathing

By Jill Miller, Creator, Yoga Tune Up®

The physiological effects of Abdominal Breathing (belly breathing) is a gift we’ve been given, but too many of us have become accustomed to Thoracic Breathing (chest breathing) and end up living in a state of fight or flight. Watch this video below for your how to guide for abdominal breathing, but first, let me explain….

Abdominal breathing, once you become conscious of it, is easy to do and is the way we were born to breathe. If you watch a baby, it will belly breathe naturally. It is only once we take on the daily stressors of life that thoracic breathing takes on its evil grip.

Here’s how it works: Abdominal breathing relies on the unimpeded motion of the respiratory diaphragm. This dome shaped muscle contracts downward towards your abdominal viscera during inhalation; this creates a vacuum in the lungs and air then rushes in to fill the void. The diaphragm’s downward motion jostles and shifts the abdominal contents in all directions and this creates a bloating or swelling of the core.

As the body exhales, the respiratory diaphragm relaxes and flows back up towards the lungs, expelling the out-breath as it resets itself into its docile mushroom cap-like position. The abdominal muscles and its contents recoil and sink towards the spine as the diaphragm migrates towards the lungs. The downwards and upwards movements of the respiratory diaphragm create the appearance and sensation of the “belly rise, belly fall,” action that you’ll experience in this sedating breathing exercise.

Abdominal breathing helps to turn ON the OFF SWITCH in the nervous system. It tranquilizes a body and mind that is stressed, aroused and “up-regulated” into a calmer, more sedated, “down-regulated” state. Practice abdominal breathing to “chill out,” and collect your cool if you feel yourself spiraling towards panic…Happy Belly Breathing!

Found via yogadork