Day by day, we'll get through. There will be heartbreak and frustration but there will also be moments of joy and connection. For now, I choose to focus on what I CAN do (rather than what I can't) and am SO excited to share some new offerings with you!! . . .
Read moreSeason in South Florida
While school may have started months ago and Starbucks long ago brought back pumpkin spice everything, it doesn't really feel like fall in South Florida until the cooler breezes start blowing (don't they feel AMAZING?!) and our Northern friends start heading south.
Season is almost here and I’ve got some great new things lined up for you!
Read moreLast Weekly Yoga Classes (For Now)
Friday, August 30th will be my last Candlelight Yoga class at Zeal Yoga and the last weekly public yoga class I’ll be teaching (for now). To call this bittersweet fails to capture. . .
Read moreSurviving Chaos: A Restorative Yoga Journey
Emiko relaxing and recharging in a favorite Restorative Yoga pose - Instant Maui.
My introduction to Restorative Yoga felt like a lifeline to inner peace amidst the madness surrounding me.
Read moreDaily Practice for Using Your Breath to Feel & Heal
Ten minute daily practice to get out of your head and reconnect to your body to build self-awareness and compassion, release tension and heal.
Read moreThe Most Important Thing I Learned at Yoga. . . and and How it Taught Me How to Stress Less & Love Myself More
Illustration Credit: "Watercolour Anatomy: Lungs" by Chemical-Adventures from Deviant Art
E-motion-s are meant to be in motion. When we shut down from feeling them, they don’t disappear. They become stagnant swamps of hurt, anger and pain, slowly poisoning us and our relationships until we clean them out. I learned that if I could just keep breathing, those feelings would rise and crest and eventually dissipate. Breathing then became a way of checking in with myself.
It showed me a new way to stay present no matter what the world threw at me. I didn’t have to armor up. I didn’t’ have to shrink away or pretend that everything was fine.
Read moreOne Simple Question to Radically Change Your Practice and Improve Your Confidence
Are you sick and tired of feeling broken? Ready to live without the pain and frustration of chronic injury and/or self-defeating beliefs (I suck at this. There’s no way I can do this. Etc. . .)? Want to find the strength and confidence to go after something that feels out of reach?
This one simple question will help get you there. . .
Read moreStarting Takes Guts: The Fear and Magic of Beginnings
Starting takes guts.
Whether it's rolling out a yoga mat for the first time, creating your first piece of art, traveling somewhere new or learning a new skill; there is something magical and terrifying about trying something for the first time.
Read moreUnlocking the Mysteries of the Psoas: What Is It? Is It Causing Your Pain? How to Stretch and Strengthen the Psoas
What the heck is a psoas? Could it be the source of your back and hip pain? How can you stretch and strengthen the psoas? What are simple ways to release the psoas? Let’s unlock the mysteries of this deep and vital muscle.
Read more5 Reasons Why Forrest Yoga is the Kindest Yoga You'll Ever Do
A beautiful article from one of my mentors, Forrest Yoga Guardian Kiki Lovelace about the deeply powerful aspects of Forrest Yoga that make this such a healing practice.
Read moreSummer Inversion Challenge
Do More By Doing Less
"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."
To keep them functioning, computers can be restarted and cell phones charged but what about us?How often do we truly unplug?
Read moreActive Feet & Why They Matter
Active feet turned on with toes lifted and spread
In order to have a stable low back, balanced hips, relaxed hip flexors and pain free knees and ankles we need strong feet. Active Feet, a Forrest Yoga Basic Move, will help make this happen.
Read moreCan I Do Yoga/Pilates?
When people find out I teach yoga & Pilates, the most common response I receive is “I’ve heard that would be good for me. Can/Should I do that?” That last question is usually prefaced by “I have a herniated disc/the tightest hamstrings in the world/a torn rotator cuff/a hip replacement . .”
My answer (assuming that injury didn’t happen yesterday) is always “Yes.” More specifically, "Yes, but only in a way that honors what your body needs from you to heal.”
Read moreNew Year's Goals & Being Enough
Photo credit: Steve Adams
This simple change is a radical act. It changes the whole paradigm of working out from a task necessary for our own or others’ approval to a self-care ritual that will make coming back to your mat something that you want to do, rather than something you “should do.”
Read moreSelf-Care Lessons From An Unlikely Teacher
My body was trying to do what my mind couldn’t – get me to slow down long enough to be present, to absorb everything I had accomplished and to cultivate compassion for myself, even when I couldn’t make it through more than a single item on my to do list.
My limitations challenged me to up-level my practice by feeling, rather than doing, more.
Read moreSun Salutations and the Rhythm of Life
That’s a Sun Salutation and that’s life. . . a continuous cycle where glorious highs are followed by slides back down. Sometimes then, the biggest step forward means just pausing and breathing – recognizing what’s happening and what we’re capable of doing in that moment and that moment only.
Yoga reminds us it’s not about perfection or arriving at the end destination. It’s about the journey there. We come to our mat to feel and to be – to just be – without the need to explain or apologize or be any different. To show up, to breathe and keep moving. To fall over, to modify, to rest when needed and just stay present.
Read moreThe No Pain Game
What’s your weakness? Tight hamstrings? Tweaky low back? Joint aches from an old injury? Most of us have one – or at least we tell ourselves that we do – a reason why we’re in pain, why we can’t/don’t do more, why we aren’t as good as the person on the mat next to us.
Ultimately our “weak,” “bad,” or injured areas can be our greatest teachers – if we’re willing to listen. They show us how to move and live differently, with more care and connection to our bodies.
By ignoring and pushing through the pain or oppositely, diving into our stories about how broken we are, we stay stuck, robbing ourselves of the opportunity to grow, to learn and to move vibrantly and easefully through life.
Read moreYoga Nidra
Do you ever find yourself dreading what should be the best moments of the day? Those first few minutes upon waking in the morning or the last ones at night when you lay down quietly in bed and every last thought or care you have comes at you like a firehose.
In these moments Yoga Nidra has been the best way I've found to quite and relax my mind. It's essentially a guided Savasana to unwind the nervous system and quiet anxiety. A systematic relaxation practice designed to bring ease to the very deepest layers of our being, Yoga Nidra taps into both the conscious and unconscious mind to unwind deep-seated anxieties and even trauma which is why it's now being taught to veterans for PTSD and modern folk craving calm in an overstressed world.