by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the fourth article and video in this series of Yoga Explorations. You've now learned how to spontaneously allow the body to move within the structure of a posture, as well as two breath pairs - the Ascending and Descending breath, and cultivating the core and radiating from the core breath. This week, we start to put it all together even more, using these tools to work with a posture to find alignment. In particular, we'll be exploring Lunge and variations … [Read more...]
How to Use Breath Movements to Free the Body’s Spontaneous Movement {video}
by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the third in this series of Yoga Explorations. You've now learned two breath pairs - the Ascending and Descending breath, and cultivating the core and radiating from the core breath. We're going to take that understanding, and use Downward Dog and Three Legged Dog to look at how tuning into the breath can allow our body to move spontaneously within the structure of a posture. As I mentioned in the first article on the Ascending and Descending breath, … [Read more...]
How to Cultivate your Core and Radiate through Your Limbs {video}
by Kara-Leah Grant Welcome to the second in this series of Yoga Explorations. This week we're going to continue building on our sequence while exploring a second pair of breath movements. Tuning into these two breaths - inhaling and cultivating the core, exhaling and radiating through the limbs - helps us to find strength and integrity in postures. But for many of us, tuning into the breath movements within the pose can be difficult. We struggle to keep our awareness on the breath … [Read more...]
How to Work with the Ascending & Descending Breath {video}
by Kara-Leah Grant This is the first in a six-part series of Yoga Explorations which takes you through a creative Mandala Surya Namaskar - or a circular sun salutation. The focus on this series is in teaching you how to use the breath to explore and play within your home practice. It's about giving you the confidence to step outside the usual linear flow of your practice and see what it is that your body needs moment to moment. There is a huge difference between a home yoga practice and … [Read more...]
Home Yoga Practice Questions: Do I Need a Home Practice if I’m Regularly Going to Yoga Class?
by Kara-Leah Grant, author of Forty Days of Yoga It's easy when you regularly go to yoga classes to dismiss the idea of home yoga practice - after all, you don't need it right? You're already practicing in class 2 or 3 or maybe even 5 or 6 times a week. However, even if you are going to class, there is much to be gained by also doing a home yoga practice. It doesn't have to be every day, and it doesn't have to be long. Ten minutes is enough. Even such a small amount of time can have … [Read more...]
The Basic Principles of Building a Home Yoga Practice
by Kara-Leah Grant As a yoga teacher, my goal is to inspire my students to practice yoga at home. It's great when people get themselves to classes three times a week, but the true benefits of yoga really start to unfold when you commit to just showing up on your mat by yourself and seeing what happens. In a class, your focus is both internal and external. You're listening to the teacher and watching the demonstrations while also paying attention to what's going on inside of you. When you … [Read more...]
Home Yoga Practice Questions: Can I Practice Yoga with A Herniated Disc?
by Kara-Leah Grant, author of Forty Days of Yoga This week's Home Yoga Practice questions comes from Catherine in India. She writes: I have practiced yoga for many years and for the last 6 months have been doing a regular home practice. However last month I had an MRI scan due to persistent backache and discovered that I have a slipped disc. My doctor has asked me to stop yoga - forward bends are a definite no - and his opinion is that I should walk and swim as exercise (which I have been … [Read more...]
Sun Salutations Video Series: Transition Time! How to Link the Postures Together
by Kara-Leah Grant In recent months, we've looked at all the different asanas or postures that make up a standard sun salutation. We've explored each of these postures in-depth, and explained them on video. Now it's time to took at the transitions between the postures. Because this is what makes sun salutations such a fantastic yoga sequence - especially for home practice. Each pose flows effortlessly into the next posture, creating a complete circle where you end up where you started, … [Read more...]
Home Yoga Practice Questions: What Should I Do in My Practice?
by Kara-Leah Grant, author of Forty Days of Yoga Home yoga practice - it's awesome and everyone's getting into it, right? But you know what's missing? A teacher. That's what. I mean, at the end of the studio class, you can always go up to the yoga teacher and ask whatever burning question is on your mind. But when you practice yoga at home? Who you going to ask? Me, that's who. Yep, every week or two, I'll be selecting a reader question to answer on video, and sending out a … [Read more...]
How to Calm an Overactive Mind with Yoga
by Kara-Leah Grant There are days when I spend too much time commuting, too much time on my computer, and have far too many balls in the air. My mind feels like it's going a million miles a minute, flitting first from one thing, then to the next. Sometimes this monkey mind is shadowed by anxiety or fear, lurking deep in the belly and driving me out of my body and up into my head. It's exhausting. And on days like that, I know exactly what kind of yoga I need to do - yoga to still the … [Read more...]