Ask The Yogi Q: I have suddenly started to experience some very annoying and hindering panic attacks. There should be no apparent reason for this, as I am doing what I love (teach keep fit and dance) and generally feel quite happy with myself but somewhere along my way I have lost all confidence in myself and forever worry about …
Search Results
Ask the Yogi: Love in Sanskrit
Q. What is “Love” in Sanskrit? A. Your question about what love is in Sanskrit intrigued me a bit. So I looked at an online dictionary and found that, in addition to bhakti, there are literally over a hundred entries! I thought of Eskimos and how many different words they had for snow, describiing the subtle nuances and differences and thought …
Ask the Yogi: Round Back in Forward Bends
Ask the Yogi: Round Back in Forward Bends Ask The Yogi Q: My back always rounds in forward bends. Is this a problem? A: A round back in forward bends can be the result of several different forces. Tight shoulders, “armored” thoracic spine, weak lower back or abdominal wall and the most common causes of tight hips or hamstrings. Usually a …
Ask The Yogi: Follow Your Dharma
Follow Your Dharma: The Difference Between Quitting and Surrender By Jeff Martens In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna rides with his chariot driver Krishna (an avatar or God incarnate) into a no-man’s land between two vast armies about to wage war. After seeing friends, teachers, family cousins and brothers arrayed on both sides of the battlefield, Arjuna, the greatest archer of his …
Ask the Yogi: Downward Dog
Ask the Yogi: Downward Dog Ask The Yogi Q: How do I get my heels down in downward dog? A: Adho Mukha Svanasana or downward facing dog is one of the most comon yoga postures practiced in class. It can also be one of the most challenging… Downward-Facing Dog is particularly challenging to new students because it works alomost every part of …
Yoga for Men: Know Your Yo!-sha
by Jeff Martens Attention all Men! Do your joints sound like a fourth of July celebration gone horribly wrong? Does the only time you breathe deeply occur when police lights flash in your rear-view mirror? Does the extent of your stretching routine take place during commercials when you reach between the sofa cushions for stray cheese whips and the lost …
Snapping the Straw Rope of Habit
by Jeff Martens In ancient India, an elephant driver would tie up his elephant with a straw rope. Though the powerful elephant could snap the rope with a single toss of its head, the elephant remained in place, believing itself to be bound. Our habits (in Sanskrit: sanskara or samskara) are much like this straw rope. We place all kinds of …
The Practical Yogi
To live our practice in every way is to bring the awareness of unity into the simplest and most mundane as well as the most challenging areas of our lives. This section is dedicated to providing practical means to apply our yoga in the external world in order to reduce distractions and support our inner alignment with Self. Go Organic… …
me vs. Me
Why I entered the Arizona Asana Championship by Jeff Martens If you bring forth what is within you, what is within you will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you. – Jesus, Thomas Gospel *** The amplified voice booms like thunder beyond the relative safety of the stage …
“How I Spent my Winter Vacation (Ownership. Peace, and the One Who Is Beyond Greed)”
by Jeff Martens It is a rare thing in my life, not to see another human being for five days. My wife at the time, Michele, was out of the country for almost four weeks and I found myself visiting a friend’s cabin in Northern Arizona with my dog Ginger. The long drive from the city and I have arrived, …