Leslie Kaminoff Interviews T.K.V. Desikchar

Strike a Pose

Inhale/Exhale

One Breath, Then Another

Check out my friend Amanda Miller's One Breath, Then Another performance at Dixon Place March 9th at 7:30pm.  One Breath, Then Another: An Interactive Solo Show chronicles Amanda Miller's month long experience studying yoga on an ashram in India.  The show depicts Amanda's quest for healing and empowerment to avoid destroying herself like her father.  Practices in her training conjure memories of her father's lung cancer and death, in addition to her own struggles with mental health.  As she trains to become a yoga teacher, she reflects deeply on mortality and the workings of her mind, learning to let go and surrender to the present moment.  Amanda plays many characters in this piece, including herself, her father, a friend  and the elderly ashram leader, Purnima.  Interactive elements include breathing exercises, chanting, yoga poses, and meditation.

Written and Performed By : Amanda Miller

Direction and Sound Design by Colleen Toole

Body Postures

Psoas

Get in touch with your psoas! The psoas is a deep triangular shaped muscle that connects your spine and leg. It helps you walk and is the center of movement for the body.  The psoas effects many things including: balance, muscular integrity, flexibility, range of movement, joint stability, and organ functioning.  This awesome animation by Bandha Yoga showcases the psoas in yoga postures and also lists a sequence of postures that help awaken the psoas. Yes!

Anterior Rotation

Are you tilting your pelvic forward? Does your belly protrude and low back sink, shortening the hip flexors?   Psoas strengthening poses can help with creating a more neutral pelvis.

Yoga Face

I love incorporating yoga face poses in class!  Cultures from Hungary to Mongolia to India all practice facial exercises to help release 50+ muscles found above the neck. Habitual patterns of scrunching, clenching and grimacing can build up through the years and show up on your face as an emotional archive.  Repetitive patterns will cause creases and furrowed brows.   Soften your face. Relax your jaw. Flutter your lips.

More on yoga face poses found in Annelise Hagen's book, Yoga Face.

Vanishing Bees

This documentary shares the story of the vanishing bee and how the epidemic links to 
the way crops are grown in the US.  It will inspire you to grow a garden, eat local farm
fresh vegetables/fruits grown without pesticides, and lobby for a more mindful approach to 
food production.  Honor the bee.

Image found in Yoga Anatomy By: Leslie Kaminoff