Category: Benefits of Yoga

If you're so smart why aren't you a Vegetarian?

Margaret Kruszewska
Another item in the news this week: from the British Medical Journal reporting on the connection between a high I.Q. in childhood and later vegetarianism in adulthood. Strange, but true, they say. OK, let's set aside for now my opinion on I.Q. tests (what exactly do they measure, and for whom?) and consider that maybe what this report suggests is that it may take a little smarts to figure out that (1) diet does affect...
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Health Is ___?

Margaret Kruszewska
How do you define health? Is it connected to a certain part of your body, like being headache-free or having good digestion? Or is it being fit, athletic or "buff"? When you say you are "doing well" today do you mean that you are optimistic or feeling financially stable or in love? Are you healthy because you feel connected with people and the world around you? (more…)
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In Yoga, Less Can Be Much More

Margaret Kruszewska
I overdid a lunge yesterday. I was getting into a nice sequence of lunge/ downward-facing dog and pressed on that back heel a little too much and - tweek- felt something move all the way to my knee. Yes, I was pushing myself cause it felt good but, not knowing my limits, I set myself back instead. (more…)
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Getting Yoga

Margaret Kruszewska
I've been checking out yoga equipment and yoga accessories and am pleasantly surprised to locate them easily in popular retail stores like Target. There was a time, not too long ago, when yoga practitioners created make-shift yoga props with long beach towels and square throw pillows. When I began studying yoga in 1986, we simply laid towels down on a carpeted floor, wore old T-shirts and loose sweat pants. In fact, I didn't even own a yoga mat...
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Freedom to Move into Yoga

Margaret Kruszewska
yoga movementSometimes I look around a yoga class I'm attending and notice how too much instruction can create the opposite effect of what we really desire- a freedom in the body. Students are straining to follow every detail of a yoga teacher's instructions as their bodies become rigid and turn into stone statues. (more…)
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The Practice of non-speaking

Margaret Kruszewska
Yoga Meditation PracticeThere is a practice I remember one of my Sivananda teachers describing where you don't speak for 3 days, called mouna- it is a voluntary vow of silence. I remembered this because when I get depleted, my voice becomes very weak and I recently started feeling as if I was using massive amounts of energy just to engage in conversation. (more…)
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Fast Walking & Breathing

Margaret Kruszewska
Fast WalkingThe weather has been perfect for long fast-walking, I mean like 4-5 miles in less than an hour! Although I've never been a jogger, I can outwalk most of my runner friends. Even before my years of doing standing warrior poses, I always had amazingly strong legs. And, I've been feeling a need to build endurance into my physical movements and this is by far the most beautiful way to do it...
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Pranayama and Breath

Margaret Kruszewska
If you've ever attended a yoga class and heard this word pranayama, you know it has to do with working with subtle energies and breath.  In some schools it is considered an advance practice while others, such as the one I trained with, introduce pranayama techniques from the beginning.   (more…)
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Missing Yoga

Margaret Kruszewska

I’ve heard this comment so often. Someone hasn’t done yoga in a while and then finally has an opportunity to take a class and at the end they say, “I’ve missed doing yoga.” I’ve even said it myself, when I’ve been pulled away from a regular practice.

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