Yoga Sanctuary Montana

07/23/2025

When the mind is overwhelmed and chaotic, its movements are so fast that it is difficult to see clearly.
When the mind is calm and settled, it can become still, for reflections be perfectly clear.

We don’t need to be grand or deep in our intellectual thought. Just like this tiny shallow puddle, it reveals and reflects perfectly in stillness.

Practice moments of stilling your body and calming your breath. It will invite the mind to follow.

07/19/2025

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air,but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

07/10/2025

“Don’t think that unless you have reached the ultimate final pose then only the fruit comes. No. At every level, asana has something to offer.”
-Prashant Iyengar

Similar to language where words are built from root words or sounds, many asanas (yoga postures) contain “root” shapes or movements, that can be built upon to create the full pose.

Warrior III

A dynamic standing pose that requires strength, balance, stability, and flexibility.
Even before practicing the variations featured in this post, one can first gain flexibility, similar shape and alignment, in reclined hand and foot pose (supta padagusthasana), and then explore strength, stability, and balance, in opposite arm and leg balance, beginning on hands and knees.

Tips for standing practice:
1. Root down into the standing foot, creating tone and strength in the leg to balance.

2. Lift and extend the back leg fully, energizing by pressing out through the foot, rotating the inner thigh upward to keep the hips level and toes pointing down.

3. Elongate the spine - lengthen from heel to crown, drawing the chest and eye gaze forward.

4. Steady your breath, soften your face and gaze.

5. If using blocks underneath your hands, come up onto fingertips and press the fingertips into the block to help you lengthen through the torso and avoid collapsing in the shoulders.

6. When extending the arms forward, reach out and energize by extending through the fingertips.

07/05/2025

Dust if you must, but wouldn’t it be better
To paint a picture, or write a letter,
Bake a cake, or plant a seed;
Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must, but there’s not much time,
With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb;
Music to hear, and books to read;
Friends to cherish, and life to lead.

Dust if you must, but the world’s out there
With the sun in your eyes, and the wind in your hair;
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,
This day will not come around again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
Old age will come and it’s not kind.
And when you go (and go you must)
You, yourself, will make more dust.

-Rose Milligan

07/02/2025

06/30/2025

“Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be.” ~Eckhart Tolle