Have you ever wanted to get crystal clear on the things you wanted to manifest in your life? Do you know deep down that you are a creative soul, but you aren’t really sure about the vision you’re looking to bring to life? Gain clarity around your creativity by learning more about the sacral chakra!

Have you ever wanted to begin a yoga, meditation, and mindfulness practice as part of your healthy holistic lifestyle? Lay down your spiritual foundations, and begin your journey at the root chakra!

What is the difference between regular (Yang) yoga, Yin yoga, and Restorative? The poses are mostly the same; the difference is the intent behind the practice. What follows is a comparison of six yoga poses: Paschimottanasana, Prasarita Padottanasana, Baddha Konasana, Virasana, and Upavistha Konasana expressed as Yang, Yin, and Restorative versions.

It is essential to retreat. Here are the top 10 reasons why.

“It felt natural to sign up for the YTT after finding a studio in Marin that resonated soundly with my own yoga practice. Signing up for this teacher training offered the opportunity to deepen my practice once again, reconnect with teaching, build community with the other teacher trainees and gain mentorship from the faculty.”

Do you find yourself looking around the yoga room when your teacher tells the students to come to utthita hasta padangusthasana? Curious about the difference between chaturanga and ashtanga? Then look no further than the list below, which has ten Sanskrit words to help you learn many poses that are often found in yoga classes.

The last three segments (limbs) of aṣṭāṇga yoga - dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi - are considered the subtler, inner limbs of yoga… three stages in a process called saṃyama or ‘integration’. The five outer limbs serve as preparation for this internal practice: concentrating awareness on something (dhāraṇā), maintaining complete and objective awareness of it (dhyāna), and staying with it until one merges with it (samādhi).

Patanjali’s 5th limb, is often explained as a ‘withdrawing the senses.’ Think of the idea of plugging your ears, closing your eyes, and singing ‘la la la’ when you want to avoid knowing something. But pratyhara is actually much more complex than just shutting everything out. The literal translation means to ‘draw toward the opposite.’ It is an act of redirection, as opposed to removal. A discipline, rather than a deprivation.

Ujjayi Pranayama is called the victorious breath because of the expansion in the belly and chest. Practicing this type of breath perks up one’s confidence in a way that is reminiscent of a victorious warrior. It can also mean to gain mastery. On a deeper or more spiritual level, Ujjayi Pranayama is about achieving freedom from bondage.

Sitali Pranayama, often called “the cooling breath,” is a breath practice that cools the body and has a calming effect on the nervous system. This breath is going to be particularly helpful for those of us in California and the West effected by the deteriorating air quality from the current wildfires.

Kapalabhati is a rigorous practice of the breath and body; it is intended to build heat in the deep core and radiant heat out the skull. Game to give it a try? Have a sense of humor with this one and keep at it.

The lion represents courage, and the root word of courage is heart. Practicing this pranayama can help you stay open when you want to close, when you want to shut down, when your default reaction is to shrink and hide. Lion’s breath is for anyone who could benefit from clearing out some space, stepping into it, and owning it.

Metta’s blog is moving into explorations of pranayama (breathing practices). There’s really no better time to practice various breathing exercises than right now. Particularly in this time of global pandemic, as the world around us at times feels crazy, scary and unpredictable, using the breath to center and ground ourselves is especially powerful.

This month we move from the heat of the sun and our sun salutes (Surya Namaskar), to the cooler, softer, more nurturing side of our cycle, the moon. I’ve shared with you my favorite variation of Chandra Namaskar. I find it helpful in calming my nervous system and returning to my center, particularly useful right now.

Surya Namaskar B (or Sun B) is a Vinyasa sequence that builds on Sun A, featured in our February blog. In the Ashtanga Primary Series, Sun B is repeated five times, right after opening with five cycles of Sun A. The Surya (sun) Namaskar (greeting someone with deep respect) B continues to warm up the body and soften the mind by keeping the movements in sync with the breath.

The Sun Salutation to invoke warmth, integrity, and breath. Surya Namaskar A is the backbone of many yogic practices. Traditionally practiced to greet the sun (Surya in Sanskrit), this dynamic, breath-driven practice invites us to bow to the light within while finding connection to the natural world around us.

As we celebrate and embrace the fresh, new year of 2020, we launch our blog into its next phase of exploring yoga and philosophy both on and off our mats. The first two limbs along the path are the Yamas and Niyamas, which we covered over the last 10 months.  So this brings us to the third limb of Asana. As Ram Dass said, “The ordering of these eight steps is not random.  The first things necessarily precede the last things, and you move through the sequence in order.  You can’t jump the line.”  (Paths to God, Ram Dass) 

And so we reach the last of the Yamas and Niyamas, Isvara Pranidhana.  I’ll be honest, I find this one tricky to articulate.  It is one of the Yamas and Niyamas that I grapple with and yet it is one that speaks to me most often.  Something tells me it holds the key to resting in a quiet peacefulness that I associate with the state of yoga.

Svadhyaya, the fourth Niyama of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, means ‘self-study.’  This process of getting to know your emotional and soul interior is central to the yogi’s path for many reasons.

Tapas literally means to burn.  Within the yoga practice, it often refers to pranayama with an emphasis on heat.  Both on and off the mat, Tapas is that fire within us that makes us come alive.  For many of us, the practice of yoga has cultivated a fire that can’t be tamed.