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Why it Took Me Twenty Years to Learn the Most Basic Yogic Breath

December 21, 2016 by Kara-Leah Grant 1 Comment

yogic breahting

by Kara-Leah Grant Twenty one years after my first yoga class, I finally learned the most basic of all yoga - I learned how to breathe properly. Yes despite all those years on the mat, and all the many teachers I went through, and all the years of home yoga practice, I didn't master Yogic Breath until 2016. Yogic Breath is elementary to yoga practice. It involves inhaling first into the belly, allowing it to fully expand out, before filling the chest and finally the clavicular (under the collar … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Practices Tagged With: ben ralston, breath, breathing, Relationship, yogic breath

In the presence of Seane Corn: A Workshop With a Potent Yoga Teacher

June 3, 2015 by Guest Author Leave a Comment

Seane Corn

By Michelle Jayne, Yoga Facilitator/Therapist/Coach I love teaching yoga but like any job, there are pros and cons. On the pro side, I go to ‘work’ everyday and do what I love. I usually see the best in people and the essence of possibility and growth, all interwoven into a well themed yoga class. I have freedom during my week, and there is a sense of irresponsibility that goes along with it. I feel like I never managed to ‘grow up’ get a ‘real job’ and ‘settle down’. This is a good … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Teacher Training, Teaching Insights Tagged With: affirming, breath, chakras, clarity, energy healing, inspiration, powerful women, realisation, sacred, traditional yoga, transformation, vinyasa, women in yoga, Yoga training

Restorative Yoga: Exploring Supported Child’s Pose In-depth

May 29, 2015 by Guest Author 1 Comment

Supported Child's Pose

By Neal Ghoshal, Sacred Moves A little while ago I wrote an article on the eight essential principles of Restorative Yoga. Since then I've been continuing to delve deep into this beautiful practice. Deep rest is always calling! I'm happy to be sharing some more … and one of the most profoundly restful of the Restorative postures is Supported Child's Pose (Salamba Balasana). This is a posture which many find deliciously comforting and relaxing, perhaps because it tunes us into a time when we … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Home Yoga Practice, Physical Practices, Practices Tagged With: breath, calm, comfortable, ease, meditation, Neal Ghoshal, parasympathetic, relaxation, release, rest, restorative yoga, Salamba Balasana, Savasana, support, Supported Child's Pose, yoga

How to Open the Front of the Body using Core Cultivation {video}

June 26, 2014 by Kara-Leah Grant Leave a Comment

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...]

Filed Under: Home Yoga Practice, Home Yoga Practice Video Tagged With: breath, Lizard, Lunge, prana, Twist, video

How to Use Breath Movements to Free the Body’s Spontaneous Movement {video}

June 19, 2014 by Kara-Leah Grant Leave a Comment

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...]

Filed Under: Home Yoga Practice, Home Yoga Practice Video Tagged With: breath, sahaja, shiva rea, spontaneous movement, stephen cope, tantra, video

How to Cultivate your Core and Radiate through Your Limbs {video}

June 12, 2014 by Kara-Leah Grant 2 Comments

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...]

Filed Under: Home Yoga Practice, Home Yoga Practice Video Tagged With: breath, cultivating the core, prana, shiva rea, vinyasa

Sun Salutations Video Series: Transition Time! How to Link the Postures Together

January 29, 2014 by Kara-Leah Grant 3 Comments

Time to link the poses 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...]

Filed Under: Home Yoga Practice, Home Yoga Practice Video, The Foundations Tagged With: breath, seka ojdrovic-phillips, sun salutations, video

What does it mean to “breathe into it” in yoga?

July 20, 2013 by Kara-Leah Grant 5 Comments

Breathing into a twist helps us mindfully move deeper without wrenching our body. Demonstrated by YLB Reader Kay Gries

by Kara-Leah Grant There's loads of phrases which yoga teachers toss around willy nilly that after time cease to have any real meaning. Phrases like: Surrender into the pose Let your heart open Find your centre Honour yourself Let yourself come into a place of... Honour yourself for committing to your practice today... I know, I say these things. Thing is, many of these phrases have value and depth, and - in the right circumstances - apply to the practice. In particular, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: The Foundations Tagged With: breath, breathe, camel, kay gries, listen, surrender, video, wide-legged forward bend

How to bring a dragonfly back to life

March 16, 2013 by Kara-Leah Grant 15 Comments

By Kara-Leah Grant, Yesterday Samuel and I went for our usual morning walk around the boardwalk. As I pushed his pram down the dusty trail beside the river I started and stopped. Was that a dead dragonfly on the trail? I doubled-back and carefully picked up a grey, wizened and dusty dragonfly and placed it on the palm of my left hand to show Samuel. I was startled when the dragonfly moved one leg out into a more comfortable position and I realized it wasn't dead - at least, not entirely. We … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Musings from the Mat Tagged With: breath, dragonfly, light, magic, resurrection, sun

Pranayama in Pyjamas

March 1, 2012 by Guest Author Leave a Comment

Pranayama in Pajamas

by new columnist Gabrielle Harris, The Suburban Yogini It’s 5.30 am, I’m up to do some serious breathing. It feels virtuous and good to be up at this time, just like a real yogi, however I do note that not even the birds seem to be breathing at this hour. But I’m a yogini and I’m on a mission - to find out more about Pranayama and its reported effects. I read somewhere that you should aim for at least 5 minutes breathing, 10 minutes meditation and 20 minutes asana in your morning … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Practices Tagged With: beginner, breath, practice, pranayama

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