Over the past several months, I’ve reviewed some popular yoga books here on Om Shanti. These reviews were fairly conventional in their style and format — i.e., I provided a basic overview of the book, without revealing too much, and mentioned a few things about each book that I liked. The next book on my reading list, … Continue reading
Category Archives: Self-Practice Journal
Yoga Product Review: Visvamitrasana: Vol. 1 of the Sage Series
In yesterday’s post, “Self Practice vs. Home Practice,” I mentioned some of the helpful tools I use to get myself to practice at home, especially when I don’t feel up to self-directing my own practice. I’ve tried a wide range of yoga DVDs, podcasts, and some guided audio classes. Most are pretty forgettable, so when … Continue reading
Self Practice vs. Home Practice
For a lot of longtime yoga practitioners, the final frontier of yoga is learning how to practice at home. It’s not entirely clear why it’s so hard to practice alone, but there’s no doubt it’s a tremendous challenge. I certainly have a long way to go in building and maintaining a consistent home practice, but … Continue reading
Beyond Asana: “Going Meta” on Your Yoga Practice
The other day, I posted some remarks about my New Year’s resolution, which is to go “beyond asana” and cultivate a more well-rounded yoga practice. The specific areas I discussed were (1) Meditation, (2) Pranayama, and (3) Yamas/Niyamas. Today, I want to discuss what I have found to be a useful first step towards pursuing … Continue reading
Beyond Asana in 2013
Yesterday morning, I started off 2013 in the best way possible — yoga! Along with twenty people or so, I sweated, stretched, and backbended my way into the new year. Throughout the class, the teacher encouraged us to think about the upcoming year and what we’d like to manifest in our yoga practices. He provided … Continue reading
Holiday Meditation: Take a Breather
The holiday season is obviously a time for joy and celebration. But with all the hustle and bustle, it can sometimes be pretty stressful, too. Family gatherings, crowded airports, office parties, etc., can overwhelm even the most “centered” yogi or yogini. For me, it’s very important (but not always possible) to keep up my yoga … Continue reading
45-Minute Self Practice
A few years ago, I posted an example of a 45-minute yoga practice that people can do at home. A shorter practice like this can be especially useful during the holiday season, when you’re traveling or just don’t seem to have the time to get to your local yoga studio. Today, I’m going to post … Continue reading
Monthly Unlimited Yoga
A few days ago, my monthly unlimited pass at yogaview expired. Intentionally, I did not renew the pass, although I do plan to return there soon to purchase another. But not too soon. It might be a week or two before I purchase another monthly unlimited. It might be a month. We’ll see. I’m delaying for … Continue reading
Self-Practice w/ Injuries
I’ve been virtually out of commission for the last month with a shoulder injury. It looks like it was probably a rotator cuff tear/strain that I sustained from excessive and overly enthusiastic climbing at the local rock climbing gym. Of course, I’ve stopped climbing (for the time being) because of the injury. But I have been trying, on … Continue reading
New Year’s Resolutions
A response to my last post got me thinking about all the crowded yoga classes in January and February. It’s true that a lot of people flock to yoga studios at the beginning of the year because they are all amped up to get back into their yoga practice or maybe start yoga for the … Continue reading