What is Mindfulness?

by NinaIn Baxter’s post yesterday (see here), he described how a student of his, after a day of mindful yoga, was able to achieve a state of detached awareness that helped her deal more effectively with her teenaged son. And in my original post on the relaxation response (see here), I mentioned mindful yoga practice as one of several ways to trigger the relaxation response. So today seemed like a good day to explain what we mean by mindfulness and...

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Detachment, Discrimination, and Mindful Yoga

by BaxterClouds Blowing By by Brad GibsonAt my recent workshop at The Yoga Project in Sellwood (see here), many insightful stories were shared among students over the course of our two days of practice together. One of my favorites came from Maleena on Saturday at the start of class. Maleena was one of the students who had taken both sessions on Friday. The practices we did that day included slower, introspective practices that involved noticing...

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Mr Little India Classic 2011–Photo albums.

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Friday Q&A: Cautions for Inversions

Legs Up the Wall Pose (Viparita Karani)Q: I’ve heard that some people should not do inversions, but you didn’t mention this in your post on Wednesday about inverted poses. Could address this?A: Oops! My bad, as Buffy would say. It’s true that for certain medical conditions, inverted poses are, as they say, contraindicated. So I’m sorry I did not mention this earlier in my post Just in Time for the Holidays: Inverted Poses.First off, the poses you...

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Just in Time for the Holidays: Inverted Poses

by NinaIn my original post about the relaxation response and yoga (see here), I mentioned that inverted yoga poses are one of the many ways you can trigger the relaxation response. Inverted poses are my personal go-to stress busters of choice, and if I could get my hands on Paul Weston (see here), I’d certainly teach him one or more of these amazing poses. So today I’m going to explain what I mean by “inverted poses,” and I’ll also provide some scientific...

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Mr Muscle Melaka 2011–Tanjung Bidara

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Pertandingan Gusti Lengan Kompleks Sukan Negara

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Larger Women and Yoga: Getting Creative

Tarot Garden by Baxter Bellby BaxterOn my last teaching trip to Portland, Oregon, in February 2011, I was asked by studio owner Vilma Zaleskaite of The Yoga Project in Sellwood (see here), if I would be willing to offer a three-hour session to the students  in her Yoga for the Larger Woman class. You can imagine that as a skinny fella from Toledo, Ohio, I might think twice about such a proposition; but once I got grounded, I realized there...

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Featured Pose: Hunting Dog

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }@font-face { font-family: "Courier New"; }@font-face { font-family: "Wingdings"; }@font-face { font-family: "Optima"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Optima; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0in; }ul { margin-bottom: 0in; } by Baxter and NinaThis week’s featured pose is one of Baxter’s favorite poses for...

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Any Activity is Better than None

by NinaA recent article in the New York Times "Aging Well Through Exercise"  (see here) cited several studies on exercise and aging that confirm, once again, that through exercise you can preserve your muscle mass and your strength, and thereby avoid declining from vitality to frailty as you age. Here's a brief quote from the article:“We think these are very encouraging results,” said Dr. Vonda Wright, an orthopedic surgeon and founder of the...

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Hey Doc, What I Can I do About this Ringing in My Ears?

Normal.dotm 0 0 1 242 1380 N/HP 11 2 1694 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;...

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Weigh-in during Mr Universe 2011

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You're Too Late

by NinaToo Late by Brad Gibson We started out with an agenda. The plan was to go to the Japanese Garden in the Seattle Arboretum to see the Japanese maples in their brilliant fall glory. But we we arrived, the garden was closed until February. We peeked in through gate—what we could see through the bars looked gorgeous. The arboretum itself was open and we could see from the road that mixed in with the evergreens there were still trees in brilliant...

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Mr Beach Carnival 2011–Penang

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3rd WBPF Men's World Bodybuilding Championships Official Results.

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Thursday Q&A: Head Rolls

Q: I note that you don’t recommend 360 head rolls, but there seems to be great variation in this among yoga instructors (as well as other types of instructors). Could you please explain the issues with particular reference to us older folks? I don’t do neck rolls that move the head back into extension, especially if I have older students in class, as there is a risk of causing pain in the neck from several sources, including the facet joints, nerves and vertebral artery.I prefer to introduce gentle neck extension against gravity via poses...

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Friday Q&A: Feet and Comments

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }@font-face { font-family: "Optima"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Optima; }p.MsoBodyText, li.MsoBodyText, div.MsoBodyText { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Optima; font-style: italic; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Q: I have a lot of trouble with...

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Featured Sequence: Dynamic Reclined Hip Stretches

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }@font-face { font-family: "Optima"; }@font-face { font-family: "Book Antiqua"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } by BaxterLast week I introduced some thoughts on low back pain and yoga (see here). As I mentioned, the majority of episodes of lower back pain are related to short-term...

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Balance and Strength

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }@font-face { font-family: "Optima"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Optima; }p.MsoBodyText, li.MsoBodyText, div.MsoBodyText { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Optima; font-style: italic; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0in; }ul { margin-bottom: 0in; } @font-face { font-family: "Times...

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Running with Bare Feet

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }@font-face { font-family: "Optima"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Optima; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Yoga with Bare Feet! From "Yoga: The Poetry of the Body"I just finished reading Chris McDougall’s piece on running barefoot in the NY Times magazine called “The Once and Future Way to Run” (see here). Having read his book...

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What I'd Say to Paul (Yoga for Insomnia)

@font-face { font-family: "Optima"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Optima; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } by NinaPaul Weston and his new therapist from "In Treatment"There I was on Saturday night, doing that thing where...

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Friday Q&A: Yoga and Menopause

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }@font-face { font-family: "Optima"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Optima; }p.MsoBodyText, li.MsoBodyText, div.MsoBodyText { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Optima; font-style: italic; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } A Beautiful Branch by Brad GibsonQ: Now that I am making the transition into menopause,...

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