McGraw-Hill Publishing was kind enough to send me their latest yoga book to review. Anatomy for Yoga: An Illustrated Guide to Your Muscles in Action, by Nicky Jenkins and Leigh Brandon, is a helpful guide to a personalized yoga practice. The authors provide an overview of yoga anatomy, including terminology, main systems, and breathing. They [...]

Last night I went to Flavorpill‘s monthly decompression, Get Your Dance On. It’s kind of my ideal situation: great DJs, friendly people, lots of gorgeous space, and healthy snacky treats. All before 11pm. They serve free kombucha, wine and chocolate all night, plus coconut water and granola bars. (Well, I guess it’s not free — [...]

Yesterday morning I headed up to Union Square. Slushy weather and train delays didn’t help the trip, and I began my meditation practice a bit early as I tried to let the irritable thoughts float up and away. 9:35 was still a fine time to arrive, it turns out. I settled onto a bolster and [...]

Yesterday I taught a workshop for Internet Week NY. I’d randomly decided their schedule of events needed “yoga and teatime” in addition to the lectures and cocktail parties. I set up an RSVP form, so I could gauge interest and experience levels, and had 40 people “interested”, and 14 people RSVP. Nearly all marked their [...]

The last couple days, I’ve returned to Sun Salutations. They are a perfect practice in and of themselves. I used to hate them. Always forced myself through them, knowing I needed the warm up. Finally I realized: if you hate a pose in yoga, you’re doing it wrong. There is some other alignment, variation, or [...]

…as Baryshnikov explains it, what made Pushkin [his revered teacher] so effective was the logic of the step combinations he taught — the fact that they were true not just to classical ballet but also to human musculature. They seemed right to the body, and so you did them right. And the more you did [...]

Last night, at the invitation of my “friend”, I went to a Bikram class in the West Village. I haven’t been to Bikram in five or six years, but I practiced it for about six months when I first started yoga. At that time I was fresh off of rowing crew, and looking for something [...]

I hit another dry spell, just four classes in two weeks. (I usually do a bit of stretching and meditating in the mornings, but my asanas were being neglected.) I did two home practices, but they petered into staring at the wall, and not in a meditative way. I’ve started the Yoga Anatomy and Application [...]

I’m thinking more and more about teaching regularly, since I’m working on this yoga book and need my vocabulary back. I should probably try to pick up a class at my local studio, but I haven’t gotten around to calling them. My boyfriend is a member at Equinox, and he’s been working on me to [...]

My mom stayed with me for the past 3.5 days. I did zero yoga. But, we saw theater: The 39 Steps, brilliant plot (it was a Hitchcock movie) and brilliant comedy dance: Step Afrika, a tap/rap amalgamation created by college kids (also a horrible “modern” dance performance to the Sound of Music that was immature [...]