By Astrid Vause I have been practicing yoga for a while now, in fact I am a yoga teacher, but it wasn't until I got sick that I fell deeply in love with this beautiful practice and it's healing powers. It was a warm sunny and vibrant day in my new home in Los Angeles and my children were building towers with wooden blocks and laughing as they toppled over. I sat on the floor with my knees tucked up to my chest and watched the crashing blocks, wincing as they hit the ground. I felt like I too had … [Read more...]
How Deep Do You Really Go in Your Yoga Practice?
by Kara-Leah Grant On Friday, a friend who is a talented healer, did some energy release work on my shoulders. He stood behind me, pressed into each shoulder and breathed. It was a simple technique and yet I could feel pressure evaporating into the ether. Afterwards he shook his head. You had half a ton of pressure in there. I know this. I feel it and I see it in my body when I watch myself on video - this held tension that isn't so much about the muscles but the underlying … [Read more...]
The 6 Best Yoga Video Parodies You’ll Ever Watch
By guest author Lucinda Staniland You’d think an afternoon spent on Youtube watching Yoga video parodies would make for a good time. But it didn't. In fact, it was draining. And my quest to find ‘The Ten Best Yoga Video Parodies’ quickly became ‘The Ten Best Yoga Video Parodies (That Don’t Suck)’ and finally left me quietly fuming on ‘Why Funny Yoga Videos Actually Aren't Funny At All’. As I trawled through the Internet's bountiful supply of Yoga spoofs and parodies, I began to finding them … [Read more...]
Reflections on Teaching the Worst Yoga Class of My Life
by Kara-Leah Grant On Saturday I taught my first yoga class in five weeks, as it's summer holidays here and I've been doing just that - holidaying. Possibly it wasn't prudent to take so much time off teaching when I've got a major festival within a week - i.e. Wanderlust. Although as I've been on a Forty Day Practice, my asana practice is stronger than it's ever been. However it turns out a strong asana practice doesn't necessarily make me a stronger teacher. I turned up on Saturday … [Read more...]
How to Use Your Yoga Practice to Cultivate Specific States of Being
by Kara-Leah Grant When Wanderlust asked me to submit four classes to teach at the inaugural four-day festival in New Zealand, I pondered how to theme those classes. One of my yoga students had recently told me how she thought my teaching was Goddess-focused and she always felt like I was helping her step into her feminine power in class. I pondered that for a few days. And then it hit me. I was a long-time Tarot enthusiast and love the symbology and depths of insight revealed in Tarot … [Read more...]
Teenage Kicks! The Impact Of Yoga On Teenagers
By guest author Charlotta Martinus, TeenYoga I was 37 when I started yoga and to be frank, I thought it was all pretty weird! And so did most people. A lot has changed since then. There has been a 25% year on year increase in the UK in people involved in yoga, one way or another in the last ten years. So, clearly, perceptions have changed! When I started thinking about offering yoga in schools, it was fun and easily accepted at primary school, as little kids are so open to new experiences … [Read more...]
Forget New Year’s Resolutions. Ask Yourself this One Question Instead
by Kara-Leah Grant It's my first day back at "work" in 2015. I'm starting by renaming "work" as "creation", because that's really what I do. I create. And I love it. I create words, movement, ideas, processes, life and ultimately, myself. This year I'm cranking up the mojo on my speaking career (find out more about booking me here) and I'm working on launching my first webinars. Actually, I was meant to do the webinar thing last year, but I kept putting it off. Out of the comfort zone, … [Read more...]
The Full Creative Abundance Sun Salutation Sequence
by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the sixth and final Creative Sun Salutation Abundance flow video here on The Yoga Lunchbox. This week we put it all together - everything that we've been exploring over the last five weeks. This time, I verbally talk you through two circular sun salutations - once on the right leg and once on the left leg. This is to help you fully learn the sequence. However, once you've got it, forget about watching me and the video and instead play and explore in your … [Read more...]
How Many Years of Yoga Practice Does it Take to Get Flexible?
by Kara-Leah Grant This is an impossible question to answer - at least, to answer definitively, but I'm still going to give it a damn good crack. And with good reason. Despite the fact that yoga has nothing to do whatsoever with flexibility - that flexibility is a side benefit of one's yoga practice and no measure of the depth or strength of one's yoga practice - yoga and flexibility are intimately intertwined in the modern idea of yoga. There's a good reason for this. We are predominantly a … [Read more...]
Why it’s Possible to Evoke Abundance through a Yoga Practice
by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the fifth Creative Sun Salutation Abundance flow here on The Yoga Lunchbox. This week we explore our final three postures, facing the back of the mat. As always, we're using the same tools and techniques to find freedom and ease in our bodies - breath, micro-movements, pulsations. It's also becoming more clear how it's possible to evoke a sense of abundance through a sun salutation. Our first posture this week is about releasing and bowing to the earth - … [Read more...]