There are many types of yoga. Not only are there different styles, there are different flavours. You can find classes that pair your favourite tastes with yoga (think chocolate yoga, yoga in the vineyard), and you can find classes geared towards specific groups (think yoga for runners or bro-yoga).

My granny had the best posture. She carried herself with grace and ease—even into her eighties—so when people comment on my good posture, I give Granny a mental thumbs up. In part, my good posture comes from being a yoga and Pilates teacher and constantly being aware of my body, but I have also discovered a few tricks for better posture that don’t involve core exercises.

So, if you’re desk-bound most days and need a little help to stay upright and smiling, try these easy tips:

Pull The String

You’ve found a rare chunk of time in your day and you think, “Awesome, perhaps I can finally get to a yoga class this afternoon.” You’ve been craving some movement in your body, a bit of stretching and strengthening, and—of course—the relaxation portion of a class. You check out a local studio and you’re flummoxed by the options. There’s slow yoga, hot yoga, Ashtanga yoga, flow yoga.

“You’re worthless,” he told me.

In our household we seem to accumulate kids’ stuff at an exponential rate. With two children in the house we try to limit the amount of clutter, but toys and trinkets apparently procreate and multiply overnight. So when my daughter Lizzie told my husband and I that she didn’t want presents at her sixth birthday party, there was a celebration dance happening inside my head.

But beyond the joy of not bringing more stuff into our home, there was a much sweeter, deeper lesson we learned from Lizzie.

In my last post, I shared a key piece of advice for anyone who wants to start meditating—all you need to do to start meditating is simply start a meditation practice. Stop. Sit. Breathe. Repeat.

There are many profound and beautiful words to describe motherhood, but peaceful is not one of them. Our household is full of noise. From cries to laughter, from singing to shouting, from music to meltdowns, and from whispers to wails. It is full. Of love. And of noise.

The word, “balance” is bandied around a lot. It’s often used when talking about lifestyle habits—think “work-life balance” or living a “balanced life.”. That definition of balance refers to how we spend our time, or how we handle competing interests in our daily schedule. But there’s a very important type of balance we should be equally concerned about—the type of balance that reflects the body’s ability to remain stable when either standing or moving.

When I became a parent—or rather, as soon as I was visibly pregnant—everyone seemed to have advice for me. Whether I asked for it or not, I was inundated with other people’s opinions about childbirth, breastfeeding, sleeping, strollers, soothers, baby carriers, bouncy chairs, tummy time, etc. Although I have been on the receiving end of much (oh, so very much) unwanted advice, I have also heard some stellar pieces over the seven years I’ve been a parent.

Before having kids, I read the following quote by Nora Ephron: “Having a baby is like throwing a hand grenade into a marriage.” At the time I laughed and thought—in my naive, pregnant state—that it would NEVER be like that for my husband and me. Well, fast forward to seven-and-a-half years of parenthood, and my husband and I have spent a fair bit of time picking up shrapnel.

This morning at breakfast, our four-year old son, TJ, announced that it was his favourite stuffie Curious George’s birthday today. “How old is he turning?” I asked. “Five,” said TJ.

Do you start your mornings feeling stiff and sluggish? Do you always feel sleep-deprived? Do you need a coffee (or three) before you can think clearly? Here are a few simple yoga tips that — in 10 minutes or less — can change the way you start your day. The following exercises will awaken the body and the mind, but are also a gentle way to ease into the morning rush.

I was a little behind on my new year’s prep for 2014. A little thing called an ice storm and being displaced over the holiday season will do that every time. (More on that in another post.) I’m not really one for new year's resolutions anyway.

Every year, leading up to my birthday, I take some time to reflect on the year that has passed and to think about what lies ahead in the year to come. It’s always an interesting experience to look back on accomplishments, failures, the high moments and the inevitable low points. A few weeks ago I was reading about a 75-year study by Harvard researchers on what makes a fulfilling life. It inspired me to think about my life as a kind of study.

Last week I sent my son to school in his pajamas. It was one of those mornings. “I don’t want to go downstairs, I don’t want to eat breakfast, I don’t want to brush my teeth, I don’t want to pack my backpack, I don’t want to get dressed.”  When he dug his heels in over changing out of his pajamas, I asked myself, "Does he really need to put on day clothes?" And I decided it wasn’t a fight I was willing to fight.

It’s that time of year again: the time when school photos start coming home. Lots of my friends have never and will never buy these pictures. The envelope with five proofs of five sometimes-goofy faces and five different backgrounds are sent right back with their kids’ Thursday folders. But I have yet to send one back without an order attached.

Every family has their own family traditions. One of ours is ordering school photos.

At the end of a yoga class, you’ll likely hear the instructions, “Come into corpse pose.” Corpse pose — or savasana as it is called in Sanskrit — is arguably the most important pose in any yoga class. It is the final posture, and is a chance for our bodies and minds to integrate the benefits of all the poses we’ve done in our practice. It’s a time for the body to completely relax, and come into a meditative state.

But why the name “corpse pose?”

It’s been going on for months, if not years. It’s talked about in my Twitter feed, on Facebook, at the coffee shop, at school drop-off and pick-up. People everywhere seem to be screaming: “I’m just not sleeping and I’m sick of it!”

I’ve written before about Relaxation and Meditation for Sleep. But the issue of sleep — or rather, the lack of it — keeps coming up.

It’s a Friday night. I’m in the parking lot of the

We all wish certain things for our children. And while my kids are often my greatest teachers, there are many life lessons I hope they learn. I feel that if they live with these five philosophies in mind, life will be far easier for them.