Half Moon Girl Yoga

10/21/2018

Finding yourself...

04/06/2016

This IS yoga.

Chris Becker (pictured above) is my longest standing student - traditional or non-traditional. I teach yoga to everyone – both to traditional students (people who seem not to live with any overt...

04/05/2016

Wise words

I teach yoga because it’s the best way I know for learning how to come back to your body — again and again and again.

I really don’t care that much about yoga poses, in and of themselves. As long as your Triangle is safe for you, it’s all good in my opinion. I care about yoga poses because they give us a way to feel what’s happening in our bodies in this moment.

Because research shows that when we’re disconnected from our bodies, we’re at risk for a number of adverse health effects.

Just as importantly, though, we’re also more likely to miss out on our lives — often through the form of forgetting. And in another, yet similar, way, we’re also missing out on a source of inherent wisdom: our body’s own radar and sensitivity systems.

When you don’t have access to information about how you feel, it’s harder to know how to act on your own behalf and make the best decisions for you.

On your yoga mat, learning to connect with your body might look like:

: Tuning in to your teacher’s instructions with extra attention. What *does* your breath feel like right now?

: Getting curious about a particular pose. What was it like for you yesterday vs. today?

: Experimenting with props. What is your experience of a specific pose with a block on high/medium/low?

: Naming how you feel to yourself when you begin your practice, as well as when you end.

: Placing one hand on your heart, or elsewhere on your body, any time you feel your mind drifting to what came before your practice

: Feeling your feet on the ground or bum on the mat/chair, anchoring back into your connection with the earth and the present moment

With this framework, it couldn’t matter less what pose(s) you can or can’t “do.” All that matters is coming back to this moment with curiosity, greeting yourself wherever you are.

03/04/2016

This is a great conversation!

Source: https://www.spreaker.com/user/8136242/ep-14-yoga-diversity-w-dianne-bondy Dianne Bondy is a trailblazer, workshop enthusiast, yoga lover, experienced...

03/04/2016

While stepping into a yoga class may feel like unfamiliar territory for adults 60 plus, it ma...

03/04/2016

Check out my website for more information on our Happy Curvy Trails Hiking Group - hope to see you there! www.halfmoongirlyoga.com

From forward fold (UTTANASANA) lift the right leg and rotate so that hips are stacking right over left. Bring the right hand to the sky, stacking shoulders same as hips. Let the gaze follow the right hand in a starry direction. You are a half moon girl (or guy).

02/21/2016

Yoga 101 :)

02/09/2016

Don't do this :)

01/26/2016

I got the chance to sit down with local donation-based yoga teacher Amanda Reh to talk about life before yoga, practice, vision and how her kind of equanimity comes with hard work. But is also re...

01/26/2016

I was talking with a lovely friend and student about her practice recently. She somewhat sheepishly told me that these days, her practice is mostly Child’s Pose and Savasana. And then she went through a list of reasons why it should be different — because she used to do more, because it would be “good” to do those poses from back in the day, because, because, because.

Then she paused. And said out loud what I was already thinking: “Maybe this is just my practice right now.”

I smiled and nodded because here’s what I heard underneath her laundry list: “Even though there’s not an actual reason why my practice should be different, and my practice is serving me exactly where I am right now, my mind wants it to be different, so I should make it different.”

After her ah-ha moment, I added: "Sometimes the practice we think we need in our mind isn't what our body actually wants."

Because here's the thing: it’s easy to think we should be doing things differently than we are, especially when those things are related to our bodies. After all, there's only, oh, a bazillion messages in myriad forms telling us that. And I think that's particularly true when our bodies aren't the same as they used to be. (Though truth alert: no one's body is the same as it used to be.)

For example, in the "good old days" of my early practice, I could take a nap in Supta Virasana, it was so comfortable for me. Nowadays, I’m pretty sure my knee would pop off if I got much closer than lying back on a few bolsters.

But also in the good old days? I was quick to spout my mouth off, passive aggressive in my relationships and forced myself to count to 30 before I hopped out of Savasana, car keys already in hand. Change is never only good or bad.

Over the years, my practice has become quieter, more internal. But that's not the point. It's possible your experience is the opposite, somewhere in between, or something else entirely. The point is that when we can allow our practice to be what it wants and needs to be today, then we open ourselves to the possibility that it will continue to shift and grow.

And that we will be better equipped than ever to do the same.