In Westernized yoga, there appears to have been a bit of a confounding of eastern traditions in regards to their application in yogic philosophy. We tend to mix up Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, even Jainism and put them all into the same category of “mindfulness” aimed towards stress reduction and happier, more meaningful living. Not that … Read more
The “Victorious” Breath That changes in respiration that occur during a yoga practice might be the greatest benefit of yoga. Deep breathing using a technique such as the Ujjayi breathing technique can relieve stress and toxicity from the heart and the entire circulatory system. Ujjayi breathing specifically relaxes the body through diaphragmatic breathing meaning that air … Read more
Yoga provides exercises and experiences that allow you to experience life more fully and vitally. This means that the breathing exercises, stretches, calisthenics, abdominals, standing poses, back-bend, inversion, spinal twists, and hip-openers that you do during a yoga class are pretty useless by themselves. The idea is that they free you up inside to be … Read more
Raja yoga is a term with different meanings depending on context; in the 1900s, Swami Vivekanada equated it with the sutras of Patanjali. Raja means best, chief, or king; when used in yoga it means the highest state of yoga practice or striving for samadhi (bliss). This is the feeling that you achieve in savasana after … Read more
I’ve just finished updating the blog to scale as it grows, as you may know I’ve been running out of space for all of my pictures recently, which isn’t good because readers love pics. Now I have a lot more space and the pages of the site should load much faster. I’m excited to continue … Read more
Krishna Pattabhi Jois is the founder of the Ashtanga style of yoga and one of the most influential yoga teachers to have brought yoga to the west through the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India. I studied there in January 2015. Jois was born on a full moon in 1915 in Kowshika in southern … Read more
Death is the ultimate freedom. This is Shiva’s gift to all of life. Mahadeva, or the supreme deity, also known as Shiva is the destroyer and transformer of all of life. He is limitless, unchanging, eternal, formless, and the ultimate yogi; one who has joined with the death of all things. Shiva is often displayed … Read more
Modern Hinduism As humans, we like to idealize about things that we don’t necessarily experience. The grass is always greener where you aren’t. Recently, this has occurred quite often in the way that Westerners view eastern religions in the yoga community. I definitely experienced this before I saw the religions in action when I visited southeast … Read more
A nice return sunset in #Sacramento #nature #sky #sunset #colorful A photo posted by Elliot | ET (@pada_yogi) on Jun 10, 2015 at 11:24pm PDT I’m back to teaching yoga again. Back home, in Sacramento, back to the westernized suburban life, back to clean water, fresh food, reliable transportation. It’s weird to think about the … Read more