Changing the Time for Restorative Yoga!

Well - the people have spoken! I asked and you all responded so it's official: Restorative Yoga will now be earlier in the day from 2-4 on the first Sunday of each month. The next scheduled class is March 6th at Body in Balance! Hope to see you there :-)

Try One Pose a Day to Start a Simple Home Practice!

Trying one pose a day at home is a great way to start a home practice. Let kids or other family members join in and play around with variations of the pose that you can find online or through library books or DVDs. Speaking of which, your local libraries and Netflix both have lots of DVDs that can inspire you. There are plenty of beginning yoga DVDs out there; they are a great way to take a class with a master teacher!

Free Pilates and Yoga at Body in Balance!

Jules and I will be teaching a free class that offers 45 minutes of Pilates and 45 minutes of gentle Hatha Yoga sometime soon at Body in Balance. I'll post dates and send out an email soon -- but feel free to give me a call for more details if you're interested!

Finding Your Own Style of Yoga

Sometimes a student comes to my class a couple of times and then asks me about whether I can recommend a more difficult or vigorous class. I teach very gentle classes and sometimes students want something that pushes them or challenges them in a very physical way. I always encourage them to try other classes around town -- I would encourage anyone to do the same. It's important to remember that there are lots of different styles of yoga and that what feels "right" for your body on one day or during a certain period of your life, may feel not so "right" at other points. Personally I think it's great to explore all kinds of yoga -- although I would always make sure that the teachers are well educated and knowledgeable and encouraging. For a good overview of some of the types of yoga practiced in the US check out this Yoga Journal article; for a list of qualified teachers take a look at the Yoga Alliance web site.

Happy Practicing and Happy March!!!

Supporting Your Home Practice

I'm always asked by students (as well as friends and family) how they can start creating their own home practice. And although much of it comes down to just being consistent, and setting up a convenient place in your home, sometimes props and tools can really make a difference. I recently took a look at an interesting new product from My Yoga 2 Go which some of you may find really useful for home practice -- or practice while you're traveling.

The practice system they sell has an interesting twist -- it includes a display case which holds 60 yoga cards (and many of you know how much I like using yoga cards for home practice) and allows you to hang them up on a wall, door knob or on the back of a chair. Conveniently you can buy the system with the case and cards or you can just buy the case or cards separately. I was able to play with the whole system and really found it useful. One of the pluses of the cards that come with the system is that they have color coded a series of different practicing sequences right into the cards, but other cards work equally well in the display case.

If you're looking for something to help you with your home practice or a fun yoga-related gift to give someone for the holidays, I think this would be a great choice.