Have you ever experienced that moment where someone says something to you and although you’ve heard the words before, somehow this time they penetrate your thick skull and hard emotional armor? There are times in my life when I can clearly remember the exact life changing words that someone has said to me. Words that stopped me in my tracks – thick skull penetrated, armor dropped….. Words that may have saved my life. The words Read more…
I’m now old enough to have experienced the waxing and waning of passion and love in many of my steady relationships. This includes my relationship to people, movement/exercise, life-long learning, spiritual practice, and my yoga practice. These particular relationships are all very long term for me, and very dear. Let’s get something straight … the common denominator in this waxing and waning relationship thing is me. None of the things I am in Read more…
Restorative Yoga Didn’t Used to be My Cup of Tea… OR How I came to appreciate restorative yoga – wherever you are, there you are When I was in my 20’s and dancing was my main squeeze, I began to have a fling with yoga. I was lucky enough to find my teacher, Judith Lasater, early in my relationship with the yoga asana practice. Judith’s teachings resonated with me because although she was a senior Read more…
Welcome to your thoracic spine! Did you know that your thoracic spine, made up of 12 vertebral bodies, is the longest section of your spinal column? T-spine rests between your neck (cervical spine) and your lumbar (lower back spine) and develops in utero as a primary curve, or kyphotic curve. Yep, you’re supposed to have a bit of a curve outwards in this part of your spine behind the heart area. The thoracic spine acts Read more…
As we age, we undergo physical changes. OK, that’s sort of a “no brainer” statement. Although physical changes occur with aging, we have the ability to bend the aging curve. It just requires us to better understand what can affect that curve and how to go about doing the things necessary. We need to know the “why” and then figure out the “how”. It is likely that aging will affect our balance acuity. Read more…
Welcome to your Lumbar Spine I’ve mused in some of my recent blog posts about how we might view our body as a stack of joints, the importance of variable movement and the cardinal planes, and the concept of “stiffness” (which is really about stability) in our spine. Now I’d like to delve into how the various segments of the spine work together as a functional family to support full body movement. The individual regions Read more…
I had every intention of continuing my tome on spinal movement in this next blog post, but I’ve become completely enchanted by an instragram yoga posture challenge I’m participating in. It’s fulfilling a deep need (or a kick in the ass) to explore my asana practice more deeply and write about the process. I’m taking videos/photos each day and then writing about what I did and what I experienced. For 84 days! The theme of Read more…
My husband and daughter work as civil engineers. Early in their college education they studied “statics”. Statics is the analysis of loads acting on physical systems that are in static equilibrium with their environment, that don’t experience acceleration. Later in college, they also studied something called “dynamics”, which is the branch of mechanics dealing with the movement of objects and the forces that drive that movement. But even things that civil engineers consider static, like Read more…
The Human Body is Baked From a Recipe of Integrated Ingredients When I clean my house I start in one room and within 5 minutes I’m in another room doing something else. Eventually the house sort of gets clean. When I begin to write I start with a topic or concept, do some review and research, and then I’m off to the races with a plethora of thoughts and ideas that ultimately (and ponderously) Read more…
