Filed under: Yoga News
Here’s an interesting article from a few weeks ago about Qigong, with some discussion of how Qigong compares to yoga. This is a NY Times article, so I don’t know how long it will remain available online. Also, fyi, you’ll need a NY Times account (free) in order to read it.
The term yoga is used in so many contexts and in so many ways, it’s hard these days to know what anyone is talking about when they say something like “I do yoga” or “I study yoga” or “I teach yoga.” Thanks to this great book on yoga dedicated to an emeritus professor here at IU, I think I now have a little bit more of a grasp on what yoga means. (more…)
Filed under: Yoga Bloomington
I am starting up another 10-week Beginners Yoga Series for the summer. The cost is again $75 for 10 classes. I plan to start sometime during the week of May 20th and will run until the end of July. Please email me (eugene@bloomingtonpoweryoga.com) if you are interested, and let me know which of the following class times you prefer:
Tuesday 6:00 – 7:30, or
Saturday 3:00 – 4:30, or
Sunday 3:00 – 4:30
Classes will all be held at:
Blooming Lotus
106 E. 6th St. (above Roots)
Bloomington, Indiana 47408
Filed under: Yoga Tunes
Dustin O’Halloran is an amazing solo pianist from Los Angeles. I often serenade my students (and myself!) with his music at the end of class, sometimes even during Savasana. If you like, for instance, Chopin’s Nocturnes, you’ll almost certainly enjoy the music of Dustin O’Halloran. His music hits that perfect sweet spot of relaxing, dreamy, contemplative, with a hint of melancholy.
He has two CD’s out, Piano Solos, and Piano Solos 2, and they are both outstanding. You can purchase them through his website, or through Amazon.com. Once upon a time you could listen to samples on his website, but I think they have been removed. And I don’t see that they have any clips on Amazon either. So you’ll just have to take my word for it and check out Mr. O’Halloran’s music. If you don’t like it, I’ll give you your money back!
Filed under: Yoga News
Sorry for the lack of any postings in the past week and a half. I am in the final stretch of the semester and am bogged down right now with papers. I hope to get back to the blog with some new postings and videos very soon.
In the meantime, check out this video on YouTube of some boys in India doing a yoga demonstration.
Filed under: Digital Asana Project
Many of us learned Adho Mukha Vrksasana, or Handstand, by kicking up at the wall. This is certainly a good and safe way to feel what it’s like to get upside-down. But the wall can become a crutch, and eventually we’ll want to learn how to do Handstand away from the wall, with the hope of one day seamlessly weaving in Handstands into the flow.
I’d like to demonstrate two methods that I used to learn how to get up into an unassisted Handstand. In this first video, I work with what one of my teachers calls a “Gorilla Jump”. I keep both knees bent when I jump, which compacts my body, and allows me focus on floating my hips over my shoulders and wrists, and to develop a feeling for what it’s like to get some “hang time”. Once I manage to balance on my hands, then I extend my legs straight towards the ceiling.
In this second video, I demonstrate a slightly more challenging way of learning how to do an unassisted Handstand. Notice how I leave one leg behind as a kind of counterbalance. The weight of this counterbalance leg keeps me from flipping over, and buys me some time to play with finding my balance. Once I’ve found my balance, then I bring the counterbalance leg up, and straighten out my Handstand.
Disclaimer: I am not a certified yoga instructor, and the ideas and opinions expressed here are not intended to be formal instruction on yoga poses. If you plan to start up a yoga practice, or if you have one and plan to do any of the yoga poses described in this blog, please seek out an experienced, living, breathing yoga teacher to guide you with hands-on instruction.
The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali is one of the central texts of the Ashtanga tradition, probably even the central text, as I understand things. Perhaps the most famous statement in the Yoga Sutra is that “yoga is a suppression of the modifications of the mind.” What does this statement mean exactly? (more…)
As promised, now that Spring has rolled around (sort of…), I’m adding another All-Levels Vinyasa Flow class to my teaching schedule. The new class will meet on Thursdays from 6:00 to 7:30 PM, starting April 19th. My full teaching schedule and more detailed descriptions of all my yoga class offerings can be seen at the Bloomington Power Yoga website.
The location of all my yoga classes is:
Blooming Lotus
106 E. 6th St.
Bloomington, Indiana 47408
As a follow-up to my recent post about wrist pain, I’d like to share some additional measures I have taken in order to combat the pain, soreness, throbbing in my wrists. Again, my aim here is merely to describe my own experience, and I do not intend to prescribe solutions for or diagnose the particular cases of others.
