Category: Yoga Practice Tips

Ed’s Guide for Starting and Developing an Inversions Practice

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What are inversions?

Any pose where the head is below the waist can be counted as an inversions posture. However, most often it’s the poses where the feet are above the head that are called “inversions”.

Inversions

Why do inversions?

Hatha Yoga is an amazing physical practice. If you read into it a little, you soon see that there is no part of the human body that is not targeted for practice. So, of course we would try to stand upside down. Hatha Yoga creates people who are as strong and stable upside down as they are standing upright.

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Thought and Feeling – Buddhist Philosophy and Hot Yoga

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Buddhist philosophy is intensely practical – in a very physical way. This blog tries to explain how you can use your Yogafurie Hot Yoga practice to deepen your understanding of Buddhist ideas.

hot yoga
Invitation for free thinking

The Kalama Sutta relates a discussion between the Buddha and the peoples of a district in the north east of India. In it, the Buddha encourages people to think for themselves in a reasonable way. What follows is not a translation, because most translations use a sort of Biblical language. I’ve presented a contemporary reading.

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The Science Behind How Our Breath Helps Change Our Mood

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Our Breath is closely linked to our nervous system, read on to find out more!

deep breath
Image Source

Just for a moment, before reading any further, take a long, slow breath in. And then exhale for twice the amount of time it took to breathe in. Take note of what effects you might notice; maybe your body relaxes where you didn’t realise tension was being held, for example muscles in the face, shoulders, chest. Perhaps you notice a subtle shift in your mind set, perhaps you suddenly see more colours in the environment where you’re sat. A lot can change from just that one, single, lovely and purposeful breath. And when this is practiced for more than one breath and daily, perhaps taught regularly in a yoga or meditation class, the long terms effects can be phenomenal.

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A close look at Parsva Bakasana – Side Crow

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Take flight and enjoy a twist with the arm balance Parsva Bakasana – Side Crow

As a challenging arm balance, and a step further than Bakasana variation and full Bakasana, Parsva Bakasana or Side Crow helps to further one’s confidence with balance. This helps to strengthen muscles in the belly, the spine and the arms. As great as this pose is, it’s important to prepare the body for such work with some targeted asanas beforehand.

It’s best to avoid this pose if you are currently dealing with wrist or lower back injuries.

Side Crow

Read on for instructions how to safely practice this pose at home!

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Yogafurie Chakra Workshops

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Rationale

Yogafurie Chakra Workshop

Many cultures – for a long time now – have regarded thinking and intellectualism as the defining characteristic of humanity. It’s all that’s best in people. The functions of the rest of the body, and how humans behave from those places, generate different responses.

For instance, there’s great joy in eating – but also the curious spectacle of the “Bushtucker Trial” on mainstream TV.

Love and it’s many and varied outcomes are the subject of most of the music we listen to. But there’s a reluctance from all nations to step forward and end, once and for all, the starvation, exploitation and disease suffered by millions.

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Yoga, Twisting Postures and Ownership

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Ed’s Thoughts on Our Twisting Pose of the Week

Twisting in Class

Hatha Yoga offers lots of twisting positions for us to work with. There’s much to learn

physically by exploring our own obliques and how our spines react to turning. There’s a

reflective journey to be taken too: twisting is an opportunity to consider how we turn away

from (or towards) ourselves.

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What’s best for Teacher Training: intensive v longer duration; local v overseas – what are the pros and cons?

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I’m often asked this question! To answer it, I would take a step back and ask instead: What do you, as an individual, need to get the most out of your course?
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Transcend that

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Transcend that

 

Yoga practice offers methods to transcend duality, as in transcendent meditation for example.

Sounds great. But what does it all mean?

One way to decode this is to consider the concepts of good and evil. Imagine the evil laugh associated with the baddest villains and anti-heroes in films. Evil delights in destruction – in fact, it’s the very essence of destruction.

But it’s also subject to destruction, like everything else. Good – the very essence of growth and creation – is similarly itself subject to growth. Good and bad rise and fall endlessly in their own, self-created patterns. I feel that the yin-yang symbol is a remarkable, stylised graphic representation of the interplay of two.

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