By Kristin Marvin, Yoga Tune Up Teacher Head and neck pain can come from a multitude of factors: poor posture, slipped or bulged disc, trauma, muscle tension, muscle weakness, muscle imbalances and/or injury. These pains are a growing epidemic due to our modern sedentary lifestyle (i.e. seated at desks, driving [...]
By Jillian Pransky “We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe This past weekend I led a spring yoga retreat at Mohonk Mountain in New Paltz, NY. With morning temperatures at a frigid 29 degrees, the only sign of spring was no snow on [...]
by Jill Miller The first time I took a live yoga class, at age 12 or 13, I remember hearing some strange, prayer-like, exotic word come out of my teacher’s mouth. Everyone echoed it back, and it made me uncomfortable. It didn’t stop me from going back, but I did [...]
by Jillian Pransky February 14, 2011, was the most heart opening Valentine’s Day to date… As the sun rose my father passed on. And forever now, Valentines Day will be truly a day that takes me deep into the heart. Amazingly, if you asked me a few years before what [...]
By Jill Miller Of the approximately 230 joints in the human body, I would argue that the majority of them take a serious beating from our day-to-day habits. But I would wager money that our collective ankles are high up on the list for the most disrespected joint. The irrational [...]
by Jillian Pransky I was originally drawn to yoga in the early 90s as an athlete and a typical over achiever. I played sports all my life, was a collegiate soccer player, a marathon runner, and an avid 7-day a week aerobics junkie. In my business career I held a [...]
By Jill Miller, Creator of Yoga Tune Up Backaches, anxiety, and feelings of claustrophobia are all common symptoms associated with the stress of the packing, schlepping, waiting and hurrying involved in travel. And travel can present the risk of more serious health threats including deep vein thrombosis, the formation of [...]
by Shelley Piser, Yoga Tune Up Teacher Teaching yoga for 35 years, I am always excited to discover new clarity in conveying movement (sometimes very abstract movement) to my students so they get it! Teachers can get stuck in how they express poses and students can get stuck in how they [...]
Helpful tips and important points to remember post-Hurricane Sandy and every day this Autumn season. by Jillian Pransky Tragedy, disaster, our deepest challenges, leave us feeling strangely present. They force us to stop, immediately. Seizing our attention. Convincing us, instantly, to open our eyes, ears, mind and eventually our hearts. [...]
Knee pain, ranging from general discomfort to consequences of traumatic injury, is one of the most common reasons people seek medical attention. Treatment often includes physical therapy and sometimes includes surgery (according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, 600,000 knee replacements are performed every year in the United States alone). But people are also increasingly looking to yoga. A recent Yoga Journal survey suggests over 15 million people currently practice yoga and at least that many more are very interested in beginning a practice. These populations will likely collide. If you do not have a client with knee issues in class now, chances are you will. And soon.
Let’s be straight, sometimes our life circumstances just plain suck.
This is often the very heart of the teachings I have received from the masters I study with. What I learn from them, what I also know to be true from my own practice and life experience, is that while my situation sucks, I don’t have to. How I respond is up to me.
Generally, being human, we develop a finely tuned knee-jerk reaction to greatly difficult situations, and before we even realize it, we are engulfed by a surge of emotions and thoughts. (Or frozen by them.) And as we continue to engage in an internal dialogue with our reactions, we unintentionally stretch out the duration of discomfort while simultaneously longing for it to end. When we are not conscious about it, our reaction to a single challenging moment can expand into an hour, a day, a season…and for some, even a lifetime.
Have you ever wondered what your yoga teacher means when she instructs you to “go deeper into the pose?” What exactly does this cue mean? Let’s say you’ve been holding the pose for a while, and are already shaking and trembling. Then instead of calling out a new pose, your teacher calls out “drop deeper into the pose!” You summon the courage to try it … but you aren’t exactly sure how, or what component of the pose needs further deepening.
Now of course this is an extreme situation of how being short on breath begets less breath, how tension and anxiety further progress tension and anxiety. But as I watched William I realized how most of us do this to ourselves all day long. In fact, we can get so used to feeling restricted, we don’t even realize how tight we are until it’s too late. At first, we begin by bracing ourselves just a little, waiting for something to throw us off balance, eady to defend or protect ourselves. And like a snowball effect, we respond progressively by getting tighter and tighter, minimizing our breath moment after moment.
One of my clients in her 20s complained about cramping and pain around her right big toe. I asked her a few questions and found out she just started working (1 month ago) at her first professional job wearing high heels every day. Whether she wanted to hear it or not, I told her right away that high heels are detrimental to her health!
Peep into any of the thousands of yoga classes across the globe and you will find that students are donning more than just yoga outfits. In addition to the latest leggings and tank tops by (insert your favorite designer here) you’ll also find students of every age, both male and female, sporting a different kind of accessory. These, however, are not made from lycra, mala beads or precious metals, but rather from an overzealous nervous system.
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