Meditations
Living Spirit Meditation
Living Spirit Meditation I learned this meditation from Ram Dass. Here I will share it with you the best I can remember it, with some of my own expressions mixed in. Place your attention on the center of your heart. … Continue reading
Pranayama – Difference between holding your breath after inhales vs. after exhales
Question proposed to me during a pranayama class; “What’s the difference between holding your breath after the exhale vs. after the inhale?” I did propose this questions to my pranayama teacher, his response: “It is different for different people in … Continue reading
Tratak and other Eye Exercises
Tratak and eye exercises These are fairly new to my practices. I’ve been studying pranayama with Robert Moses and he introduced a few eye exercises in his classes (mostly related to the vagus nerve), then in the Pranayama Teacher Training … Continue reading
Simhasana – Roaring Lion Pose
Lion pose is fun! And dynamic. You stick your tongue out, turn your eyes back a exhale/roar out your mouth. This is detoxifying for emotional angst. Some schools of yoga call this simhagarjanasana, but mostly it is just known as … Continue reading
Ajagari
Ajagari with Bhastrika In ajagari pranyam/kriya we hold our breath in with udara bandha (pushing the abdomen outward) and then after exhale hold your breath out, lift and hold uddiyana kriya with khechari mudra. It is typically practiced in between … Continue reading
Thoppu Karanam
Thoppu Karanam This is a nice way to start a pranayama or meditation practice, awaken your brain when you need better focus or attention, and/or if you do have to sit at a desk break it up with Thoppu Karanam … Continue reading
Ujjayi Pranayama – the “real” ujjayi pranayama
Ujjayi Pranayama This is the “real” ujjayi pranayama. It is a very calming and healing pranayama. There are a lot of opinions about what ujjayi is, our practice of ashtanga has popularized the term ujjayi, and while many experts say … Continue reading
Kaki Mudra
Kaki means crows, this mudra is named that because inhaling through your pursed lips in this manner resembles a crows beak. Begin by finding your meditation posture, sitting tall breathing slow and deep through your nose. Perform nasagrai drishti, which … Continue reading
Developing a home pranayama practice
A Pranayama Practice featuring Nadi Shodhana, Kapalabhati, and Bhastrika First get yourself familiar with each of these pranayamas, you can just pick one for your pranayama practice until you are comfortable and familiar with it, then move on to the … Continue reading
Bhramari Pranayama
Bhramari Now let’s have some fun 🙂 This pranayama is fun. Bhramari is a female bee. Female bees make a high pitched humming vibrational noise as they fly. Turns out bees use vibrations to fly which is why their wings … Continue reading
Introduction to Holding Your Breath
Holding your Breath within a breathing practice Pranayama includes all types of breath work, as one progresses through the practices of pranayama we quickly realize that it becomes about not breathing … Why do we want to hold our breath? … Continue reading
Pratiloma & Anuloma pranayamas – Strengthening your breathing muscles
Pratiloma and Anuloma Pranayamas Pratiloma disturbing the natural order, anuloma means along with the natural order. There are many different ways these breathing exercises are taught. They alternate between inhaling both nostrils and exhaling through one nostril (changing sides with … Continue reading
Ida & Pingala – Alternating Dominant Nostril Breathing
Which nostril is dominant and what does it mean? Your right nostril is most often your dominant nostril when you are active, it is connected to your sympathetic nervous system. The right nostril is associated with the masculine — think … Continue reading
EFT Tapping for your Meridians
Familiar with EFT tapping? This is a useful tool from TCM, a 5 minute tapping session standing right in your office or standing in your kitchen can be very effective at mitigating stress. I have a little tapping routine I … Continue reading
Rest Pose Meditation – Taking an internal tour of your body
Using the Power of Your Mind in rest pose Here is a nice meditation using the power of your mind to take a tour through your body. These are excerpts taken from Beryl Bender Birch’s (my first yoga teacher) book … Continue reading
Heart Rate Variability, Coherence, & Resonance Breathing
Resonance breathing, Coherence, & Heart Rate Variability aka HRV What is Heart Rate Variability? A heart rate that increases on your inhales and decreases on your exhales. A heart rate of 60 or 70 BPM has a beat to beat … Continue reading
Sitali – The cooling breath Pranayama
Sitali – This is like your ‘finishing lotus flowers’ of asana practice, wherever you stop your pranayama always end with sitali, the cooling breath. Pranayama builds heat in our body due to breath holding (we exhale heat from our body, … Continue reading
Ashtanga Pranayamas
Learning Pranayama in the Ashtanga Tradition – The 5 Ashtanga Pranayamas and their benefits There are 5 pranayamas that were researched and put together to go with the Ashtanga practice. Just like the ashtanga practice they are quite intense pranayamas, and … Continue reading
Pranayama – Scientific & Spiritual
Pranayama is another yoga limb of the 8 limbs of Ashtanga Yoga. Pranayama means expansion or control depending on who you ask … In my opinion it is both; it is controlling our breath to expand our prana 🙂 … Continue reading
Calm and Positivity Meditation amongst CoVid19 – We all have each other.
This recording was a trial run of the online meditation I did on facebook to help us navigate these interesting times. I meant to record the live class … but forgot! So here it is. I made this recording outside … Continue reading
Bhastrika Pranayama
Bhastrika is a fun pranayama! The pranayama bhastrika or bellows breath produces brain waves similar to gamma waves — our brain waves of integration and higher consciousness. Bhastrika initially gives one a sensation of excitation followed by emotional calm and … Continue reading
Compassion to Love Meditation
This meditation comes from Compassionate San Antonio (www.sacompassion.net) and uses a 10 bead repetition of the alphabetical mnemonic designed by Dr. James Doty, CCARE Standford University. It begins with Compassion and Ends with Love resulting in the Golden Rule: “Treat … Continue reading
Chakras
In yoga tradition there are 7 chakras or energy centers in the body. A chakra is a nerve center, in Sanskrit chakra means circle, and they are points or vortices at which energy is filtered through our system. They act … Continue reading
Liver Meditation
Why do you want to meditate on your liver? First of all, now we know as the yogis have always told us “prana follows thought” or in science terms when you think about an area of your body, you have … Continue reading
Sweeping Breath Meditation
Sweeping your breath along your body with you mind. Your breathing will transmit its calming influence. This type of breathing is relaxing and nourishing. Establish a relaxed 1:1 belly breath (1:1 meaning equal inhales and exhales) Observing your breath, breathe … Continue reading
The Four Purifications
These breathing exercises I first learned from Nancy Gilgoff, she learned them from Baba Hari Dass. They are in the book “Ashtanga Yoga Primer” by Baba Hari Dass. They are known as “The Four Purifications” and help to clear the … Continue reading
Four Square Breathing – A 3 minute breathing meditation
4 Square Breathing aka Box Breath This breath is taught to the Navy Seals for use during high pressure situations to reduce stress. The slow inhales and exhales combined with breath holding induced the parasympathetic nervous system. Take 5 Yogic … Continue reading
Nadi Shodhana – alternate nostril breathing
Nadi Shodhana Alternate nostril breathing. Alternating nostril breathing improves the function of your vagus nerve. As I spoke about before most of our yoga practices are about the vagus nerve (This blog has in-depth information on our vagus nerve and … Continue reading
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Here is a nice script for a Progressive Muscle Relaxation Meditation. Until you learn it, this is nice to have someone read to you as you relax on your back. Feet wide, arms about a foot from your sides, palms … Continue reading
Loving Kindness Meditation aka Metta Meditation
One of my favorite meditations is the Loving Kindness Meditation aka Metta Meditation. The story on this meditation goes back to the Buddha. He was teaching his pupils how to meditate in the woods and they were afraid of the … Continue reading
Kapalabhati – Skull Illuminating
Kapalabhati means forehead shining, Kapala = skull and bhati = shining or cleaning. This is very different from our yogic breath, here we are doing a short quick exhale puffs (the opposite of how to breathe in a yoga practice!). … Continue reading
Listening to the Heart Meditation with David Crow
This is a wonderful short 5 minute meditation, that leaves you with a nice visualization to sit with. David Crow is my plant medicine and essential oils guru. This is a blip from one of his courses offered through The … Continue reading
How to Meditate? Its easier than you think & A few meditations to get you started
Meditation and Awareness Mistaking the method for the goal Many people think meditation is about being a good meditator when you sit on your mat, meaning you don’t have any thoughts. This is simply untrue and nearly impossible. This is … Continue reading