RIMYI 2019 Update

by | June 14, 2019 | Personal, Practice, RIMYI | 2 Comments

June 2019 Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute Hellooo from Pune! Unbelievably, the first 2 weeks of study are already under my belt. I can’t believe how quickly time is passing! Not surprisingly, there have been several changes here at the Institute. On the one...
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RIMYI 2018 update

by | June 14, 2018 | Personal, Practice, RIMYI, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Hello from Pune, India! I'm currently immersed in a month of study at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI), the source for Iyengar Yoga. As I'm sure most of you can imagine, making a month-long getaway a reality is no easy feat, so once I'm here I'm...
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Has Your Yoga Practice Plateaued?

by | April 16, 2018 | Personal, Practice, Shut Up & Yoga, Teaching, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Illustration by Valeria Ko. Have you hit a plateau and are you feeling frustrated by the lack of progress in your yoga practice? Has your yoga practice been, in general, lacklustre? Have you ever 'cheated' on your yoga mat by seeking inspiration elsewhere? LOL, did...
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Effortless Effort: The Path to Perfection in Asana

by | September 22, 2017 | Personal, Philosophy, Practice, Shut Up & Yoga | 0 Comments

Do you struggle with your yoga practice? Do you wonder, ‘am I pushing myself too hard?’ or conversely, ’should I be trying harder?’ My latest article for Shut Up & Yoga takes a look at the value of exploring (and the challenge of navigating) these difficult...
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Shut Up & Yoga

by | July 20, 2017 | Media, Random | 0 Comments

Have you heard about Shut Up & Yoga? It’s a new independent digital magazine that takes a humorous approach to dissecting popular ideas on health, yoga and self-development. An article I wrote on the challenges of a restorative practice is featured and if that’s...
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Yoga Sequence vs Yoga Practice: Same Thing?

by | June 7, 2017 | Asana, Assessment, Personal, Practice | 10 Comments

Picture this: you go to a yoga class and it’s amazing. After class, you feel refreshed, clear, invigorated. You think, ‘wow, I wish I could feel like this all the time’. So, while it’s still fresh in your mind, you jot down the sequence. The next day you go and...
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Chatting About Yoga

by | February 27, 2017 | Media, Personal, Random, Studio Po | 2 Comments

    I don't usually post twice in one one week but this time, I made an exception... I recently had the pleasure of being a guest on Edward Reib and Lindsey Kimura's podcast, To Be A Yogi. The interview is about 30 minutes and we discuss...Iyengar Yoga, of...
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Have You Elected a Yoga Governor?

by | February 25, 2017 | Personal, Practice, RIMYI | 1 Comment

I remember during my first trip to Pune in 2011, Prashant Iyengar (not uncharacteristically) talked a lot about understanding the why, not just the how or what of each asana. He instructed us to identify the governor of the pose and would ask, “are you doing this pose...
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Why Study at RIMYI?

by | August 28, 2016 | Personal, Practice, RIMYI | 9 Comments

Why Study at RIMYI?? In my last blog post, I attempted to provide a sense for the richness of the learning environment when I am here, at RIMYI (the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India) fully immersed in yoga. My time now is nearing an end and...
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The Vastness of Iyengar Yoga

by | August 13, 2016 | Personal, Practice, RIMYI | 10 Comments

Unbelievably I am already 14 days into my month of study here, at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute. Where does the time go?! Every time I come, I think I am going write a prolific number of blog posts about my experience and then I sit down to write...
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Yoga & Summer Sports

by | May 22, 2016 | Asana, Practice, Videos | 1 Comment

Over the course of the last month, I've been doing some writing for Village Living Magazine, a community-based publication specifically focused on building voices for communities. They have a rich and informative health and wellness section to their online magazine...
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What Makes Yoga, ‘Yoga’?

by | March 26, 2016 | Personal, Philosophy | 1 Comment

It feels like almost every day a new brand of yoga emerges. I’m not familiar with many disciplines of yoga (as Iyengar Yoga is all I’ve ever studied) but I figure there ought to be merit to various approaches. What I find interesting though, is the broad range of...
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Beginner or Advanced?

by | October 30, 2015 | Assessment, IYAC, Personal, Philosophy, Photos, Practice | 14 Comments

BKS Iyengar developed a series of syllabi and instructed the founding members of the Iyengar Yoga Association of Canada to follow these syllabi when training and ultimately certifying new teachers. I recently had the privilege (and rich learning experience!) of...
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Effortless Effort (& How Much Effort is Required to Actually Get There)

by | July 9, 2015 | Personal, Philosophy, Practice | 4 Comments

A concept that BKS Iyengar often referred to when discussing practice is ‘effortless effort’. I remember the first time I heard that phrase. It really struck me. I immediately understood it to mean a deliberate, well-intentioned practice, but without strain or...
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Are Back Bends & Forward Bends Opposites?

by | May 3, 2015 | Asana, Personal, Photos, Practice | 4 Comments

A funny thing happened to me the other day. I approached the mat with the intention of practicing backbends. I spent much of the morning looking forward to a vigorous and uplifting afternoon practice. Then, as I settled onto my mat, it was not long before I realized...
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Padangusthasana This Way & That Way

by | February 6, 2015 | Random, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

I can’t help but be taken by the beauty of each asana. This afternoon I engaged in some digital arts & crafts and ended up with this collage 🙂
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What is Intelligence in the Body?

by | January 17, 2015 | Asana, Personal, Philosophy, Practice | 4 Comments

In my early days as a yoga student, one of my first teachers said something that has always stuck with me. He said that as beginners, we come to yoga with legs and arms. Then, as we progress in our practice we no longer have just legs and arms, but we have an upper...
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Do You Have a Good Side?

by | July 7, 2014 | Asana, Practice | 2 Comments

I’ve always been acutely aware of how different my right side is from my left. Early on in my practice, I noticed that in most of my standing poses, going to the right comes more smoothly for me. For example, in Utthita Trikonasana and Utthita Parsvakonasana, I can...
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Guruji’s 95th Birthday

by | May 28, 2014 | Personal, RIMYI | 7 Comments

I've been home for more than 5 months, but I'm finally ready to share with you a little bit about a very special experience I had during my last visit to Pune.  I was there in December and shared in the celebrations for BKS Iyengar's 95th birthday.  To my shock, I was...
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Learning from the Assessment Process

by | April 7, 2014 | Assessment, IYAC, Personal, Practice | 9 Comments

One of the things I love about both the practice and the teaching of Iyengar yoga is that the learning never stops. It seems like the process of continuous improvement is inherent to the Iyengar Yoga method. This, I believe, is a good thing. A couple of weeks ago, I...
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