Beyond Asana Blog

In her book Real Self-care, Dr. Pooja Lakshmin - a psychiatrist specializing in women’s health - explores why the typical self-care practices offered to women today aren’t working. She argues that real self-care requires introspection to find clarity about one’s values and what truly adds meaning to one’s life. 
 
For years, I’ve been teaching, talking, and writing about how to make yoga an authentic self-care practice - one that’s a far cry from how it’s often positioned in the mainstream fitness world. In a recent article I read about her book, Lakshmin made a point that makes the difference crystal clear. 
 
She shared one woman’s experience of practicing yoga as an example of what she cal...

We are like migrating birds,
The sadness of our departure
Is mitigated by
The joy of our reunion

- Author Unknown

I remember the first time my yoga practice felt like a homecoming. It was 1995 and I was teaching English at a university in Nanjing, China. Living abroad was an unforgettable experience, and, like any great adventure, it also had its challenges.
 
It was during one of those tougher times when it first dawned on me that yoga would always be there to welcome me just as I was. I recall one day, when I was feeling especially lonely and frustrated, rolling out my mat felt like preparing to enter a warm and familiar home where I could take refuge and find comfort simply in being with myse...

Oh, not to be separated, shut off from the starry dimension
By so thin a wall.

What is within us
If not intensified sky
Traversed with birds
 
And deep
With the winds of homecoming?

-Rainer Maria Rilke, Uncollected poems, translated by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows
 
It always amazes me how just thinking about yoga as a practice of homecoming softens some of the hard edges that I didn’t even realize were holding me separate and small.

Isn’t it true that life, in all its fullness and complexity, tends to narrow and constrict how we experience ourselves and closes us off from an expansive sense of being?

How wonderful, then, to consider how yoga brings us back to that starry dimension of who we are, an...

Does shift only happen at the edges?
 
Yes, but not always in the way we might think.
 
Your edges are the frontiers of your practice, the limits where something is about to happen. Joel Kramer coined the term in a 1977 article, saying “The body has edges that mark its limits in stretch, strength, endurance, and balance. ...This edge has a feeling of intensity, and is right before pain, but it is not pain itself.”
 
The way we approach our edges, therefore, is essential for experiencing shifts in our practice. 
 
I believe that there times when it's appropriate not to work at your edges and that there are other edges that are equally important to consider in your practice. 
 
For many years, I was par...

My experience is that progress in yoga often occurs in seemingly small shifts that actually aren’t so small.
 
A student once shared with me that she holds the steering wheel of her car differently because of her yoga.

With the awareness and sensitivity afforded by her practice, she no longer grips it tightly like she used to. Instead, she holds it with a loose grip, allowing her shoulders and neck to relax.

This has changed her experience of driving. She’s calmer and less reactive to other drivers. Considering the substantial amount of time she spends commuting to and from work every day, this shift has had a significant impact on her overall experience of life.
 
Progress in yoga doesn’t always ...

I’m sure I’m not the only parent who experiences June as a nostalgia-inducing month. The end of the school year, the start of summer vacation, as well as milestones like graduations and weddings, can pull me into wistful memories right about now.
 
So, while I’m immensely grateful that my 16-year-old daughter has a summer filled with all good things, I also find myself experiencing a sense of loss in living these entirely expected and natural transitions. And I know that so many of us are grieving losses right now, both large and small, individual and collective. 
 
Grief - what we experience when what or whom we love dies or disappears - is as natural as eating, sleeping, or walking. 
 
Cultures ...

One of the more intriguing gifts I ever received from a student was a small, bright yellow melon given to me at the end of a one-day retreat. She shared that she chose it because it reminded her of an inner sun. That’s what she was feeling after our day of practices.

I can relate to her experience. Perhaps you can too. Just as sun’s brilliance brings light, energy, illumination, and power to the outer world, postural practice can help us to cultivate and generate those very qualities within ourselves. We may often feel lighter, invigorated, more energized, and refreshed, almost as if we are lit up from inside, because of our practices.

If we look at the historical development of yoga, many ...

In the midst of my recovery from Covid, coinciding with the haze of wildfire smoke descending upon our area, I found myself reflecting on the preciousness, and the profundity, of the breath.
 
Consider your breath as the rhythm of life moving through you. The pumping of the heart, the cycle of the days and night, the turning of the seasons, the ebb and flow of ocean tides; everywhere and on every level, life moves in waves of pulsating energy. This universal dance of expansion and contraction, arising and dissolving, filling and emptying, is present in every breath you take.
 
The teachings of the Nondual Tantric tradition refer to the dynamic, creative pulsation of consciousness the spanda prin...

I have two family reunions this summer. Can you offer a class about not getting caught up in family drama and instead, finding a way back to yourself where there is peace and self-acceptance? Like finding calm in the eye of the storm.
 
It was great to receive this question yesterday, not because I wish anyone difficulty with their families, but because I think it’s such a valuable topic and a common concern. If anything can push our buttons, it’s time with family. As Ram Dass said: If you think you are enlightened, go and spend a week with your family.
 
I’m not a therapist, but I can certainly share insights from my own experiences that have proven helpful.
 
When I notice myself entangled in...