Category: Understanding Yoga

Slow Know

Margaret Kruszewska
One of the name speakers at the American Academy of Religion national conference that I attended was author Karen Armstrong. Her list of published books include: The History of God, The Gospel According to Woman, and The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions. Although she is not a religious studies scholar, she has succeeded in bringing many of the issues explored in our field to the public. Among my notes...
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The Education of a Yoga Teacher

Margaret Kruszewska
Yoga EducationThis week I am attending the national Amercan Academy of Religion (AAR) conference in Washingtion DC. I am swimming in a sea of religious studies scholars - what's a yoga teacher like me doing in a place like this? When I began teaching yoga immediately after completing my teacher's training in 1990, I also began formulating many questions about what and how I was teaching that could not be answered within the yoga community....
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When You Don't Have a Yoga Teacher

Margaret Kruszewska
Yoga TeacherYoga TeacherNo doubt, having a yoga teacher who inspires and encourages you is a blessing. But, contrary to the old saying, sometimes the teacher just doesn't appear - even when the student is ready! If you're fortunate enough to live in an area that offers several yoga studios and different yoga teachers and you still have not found someone to work with (and you'll know because you'll look forward to...
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When You Don’t Have a Yoga Teacher

Margaret Kruszewska
Yoga TeacherYoga TeacherNo doubt, having a yoga teacher who inspires and encourages you is a blessing. But, contrary to the old saying, sometimes the teacher just doesn't appear - even when the student is ready! If you're fortunate enough to live in an area that offers several yoga studios and different yoga teachers and you still have not found someone to work with (and you'll know because you'll look forward to...
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Yoga as a Practice

Margaret Kruszewska
One of the reasons yoga has survived is that it provides some very practical instructions for dealing with what ails us.  Suffering and pain can take on many forms, as anxiety or depression, heart "aches", overstimulated organs, overworked muscles etc. Yoga doesn't just say to study these concepts and think about them or discuss them or write papers about them, nor does it say to pray and hope for the best (although all these can also be used)- yoga is...
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Where Does the Head Go, in a Headstand?

Margaret Kruszewska
There have always existed differences amongst the various schools of yoga. In the order of the yoga poses, how quickly you move through them, if you rest in between or if you're encouraged to use yoga props. Yesterday, while taking one of my favorite yoga classes, I was told that my head placement in a headstand was wrong. I tried the suggested adjustment, but immediately felt pressure on my neck and knew it was wrong. ...
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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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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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Navaratri- Lakshmi Mantra

Margaret Kruszewska
Mantra SoundAs I did for the three previous days devoted to Durga, I silently repeated the Lakshmi mantra during these 3 days devoted to Lakshmi. During the first day, I felt "off" - it took me another day to really better align with the rhythm and cadence that felt different from that of the Durga mantra. Mantras are a science of sound. Mantras that are connected with specific energies, like Lakshmi, are a combination of...
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