Essential oils have been in use for thousands of years. With more and more people looking to natural health remedies, their popularity is soaring, and for good reason. Using essential oils for yoga can give your classes a bit of [...]
Do you meditate using Mala beads? I was first introduced to Japa (meditation using Mala beads) in a yoga teacher training course about six years ago. It's a practice I return to whenever my mind feels particularly busy. I recently [...]
Mobility and flexibility are two similar yet distinct concepts. Understanding the difference can help you support your students to build a functional, intelligent yoga practice. Flexibility No doubt you’re familiar with flexibility. It’s our range of motion, or how far [...]
Yoga teachers may find during their careers that it's sometimes difficult to support and provide exactly what their students need in a general open style class. It is a consideration that most teachers eventually come to at some point on [...]
A friend of mine is in the middle of a teacher training course at the moment, and he’s having a hard time memorising the Sanskrit names of the asanas – largely because he doesn’t see any point to them. From [...]
Gratitude has become such a buzz word that I fear it's at risk of losing its meaning for some people. I hope I'm wrong, because implementing a daily gratitude practice has been life changing for me. The more I focus [...]
I've practiced yoga with many, many teachers over the years. I've been lucky enough to have lots of good teachers, and a few really spectacularly amazing teachers. I've thought a lot about what makes the difference. What makes a great [...]
Back-bending postures can trigger strong emotions – for some people, the experience of lifting into a full wheel is one of pure, unadulterated freedom and joy. For others, the act of exposing the heart and vital organs brings on a [...]
Quite a few yogis (mostly teachers) have asked me recently about yoga books I recommend, so I thought I'd share some of my favourites. I've deliberately left out the super-obvious ones such as the Bhagavad Gita, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, and [...]
In a typical asana practice, we stretch our hamstrings a lot. The opposing muscle group, our quadriceps, don't receive nearly as much stretchy love. Many of us yogis would benefit a whole lot from stretching our quads and strengthening our [...]
