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.
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.
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.
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.
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!”
Core strength refers to the combined strength of the abdominals and the muscles that support the spine. Building core strength is important for running because it improves our posture and causes less strain on our bodies. If we have weak abdominals our back muscles often compensate in order to maintain an upright running stance. This can lead to aches and pains in the lower back and an imbalance in our running stance. With a strong core we are able to keep our torso stable while we run and avoid unnecessary twisting of the upper body as we move through our stride.
Muscle aches and stiffness can be a natural consequence of running, especially when we’re increasing our mileage or adding things like speedwork or hill running to our training regimen. Our muscles become stronger by rebuilding and repairing themselves as they adapt to more challenging activities. But for any change of routine, it is important to be able to differentiate between the body’s natural response to increased training (adaptation) and pain that is caused by injury or overtraining.
When I first started teaching yoga fourteen years ago, and writing about how it can benefit athletes, my running buddies were skeptical. But in the years since then, yoga has become mainstream, specific classes for runners are on the rise, and yoga and running are no longer mutually exclusive activities. Whether it’s through greater breath control, increased leg strength, better posture, relief of post-run tightness or simply a deeper awareness of the way our bodies move, yoga is a great complement to any type of running training.
