Many people are attracted to yoga by its physicality rather than its spirituality. Teaching some simple deep breathing techniques is a great way to introduce pranayama to novice yogis. So What is Pranayama Anyway? In its simplest form, pranayama is just deep breathing. Yes, we can make it technical by using only one nostril, closing […]
Born in Brasil in 1939 and teaching yoga since 1967, Dharma Mittra has been teaching yoga for almost 50 years, and is still teaching at the Dharma Yoga Centre in New York City, as well as offering courses and retreats around the world. After years of reading books about yoga as a teenager, Dharma Mittra
Born in Riga, Latvia to European aristocracy in 1899, Indra Devi was the first female to been allowed into an Indian ashram (let alone the first woman to study in an ashram) in the 1930s. Studying with the “godfather” of modern Hatha Yoga, Krishnamacharya (famous for also teaching Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois), Indra Devi is
The Yoga Sutras were composed nearly 2,000 years ago and have become one of the classic yogic texts. You may have seen it on the bookshelf at your local studio, on the reading list for teacher trainings, or heard it alluded to in class. But it can often remain shrouded in a certain mystery. So,
Between 2010 and 2017, celebrity chef and eponymous domestic goddess Nigella Lawson, has gone from a ‘voluptuous’ size 16 to a ‘svelte’ size 12. These are not my words, but the words of lifestyle magazines and tabloids, who have endlessly focused on the way that women in the public eye, like Nigella, look. It’s a
If I asked you who you were, your answer would probably start with the words “I am…” followed by descriptive terms such as your age group, job title, family set-up, where you live and what you like to do. We are programmed to give expected answers to that question and we cherry-pick the responses we
A good career, enough money, great health, a good time and spiritual fulfilment – too much to ask? Surely you can’t have it all? Well, actually, yes you can. Desire is what makes us human, and by understanding what the heart truly wants, we can uncover our soul’s deepest desires to live a well balanced
There is one thing that you can guarantee all yoga teachers will share: a love of yoga. Apart from that, the only other thing you can guarantee is that they will be entirely different. And that’s what’s so great about them! But, there is a clichéd view that if you’re a yoga teacher you should
I whole heartedly succumbed to the holiday season frenzy. Every temptation was welcome as though they were necessary for survival. Logic and reason vanished as deep-filled mince pies were washed down with oodles of red wine, after a hedonistic night in the company of Nicole Kidman and the delicious Alexander Skarsgard. I ‘caught up’ on
“We have five senses in which we glory and which we recognize and celebrate, senses that constitute the sensible world for us. But there are other senses — secret senses, sixth senses, if you will — equally vital, but unrecognized, and unlauded.” ~ Oliver Sacks Trust Your Intuition Intuition is one of our ‘unlauded’ senses.
