All classic Yoga texts insist that Pranayama practice cannot be done properly without using Bandhas. The Yoga Rahasya of Sri Natamuni for example repetitively warns us: If a person doesn’t fully understand the subtle aspects of the three Bandhas, the benefits of Pranayama cannot fully
I recently came across a study (well two actually) by a team of scientists from the University of Louvain in Belgium, who had been investigating the relationship between emotional feelings and respiration. A subject which, as a keen pranayama practitioner, I find particularly interesting. In
The great Taoist philosopher Tchang Zu tells us that True man breathes with his heels, while the mass of men breathe with their throats. Never mind the heels, you’re probably doing OK if you manage to take breath awareness as far down as your perineum,
You may be doing the wrong practice, or doing the practice wrong…. …Or you may just need to be patient. As any experienced practitioner knows, progress in yoga is not linear. Often, we feel stuck in our practice simply because we have reached a plateau,
I owe to my years of training in ashtanga vinyasa the habit to count my breath in asana practice. Viniyasa in, five breaths, vinyasa out, next posture… This habit has one great benefit: it focuses the mind on the breath. In a way, you could
Tapah svadhyaya ishvara-pranidhana kriya-yogah Enthusiasm, inquiry and surrender are necessary to thread the path of yoga (The yoga sutras of Patanjali, II-1) In this first aphorism of the Saddhana Pada, the second chapter of his classic manual on the practice of Raja yoga, Patanjali lists
In Buddhism, the five hindrances are temporary mental states that impede practice. They can be regarded as obstacles to mindfulness in daily life as well, clouding our Judgement and hindering our ability to respond appropriately to situations. They all rooted in aversion, attachment and ignorance.
In my many years of practising yoga at home on a daily basis, I’ve always endeavoured to have a “balanced practice”, but over the years my ideas about what constitutes a “balanced practice” have evolved considerably. In fact, rather than talking about a balanced practice,
As anyone who practice regularly knows, in yoga practice, just as in life, there are good days and bad days. There are days when we flow from posture to posture with ease and grace, in love with our body and with life, enjoying the sweet