Integral Yoga: the Original Integral Practice

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Integral Yoga: the Original Integral Practice

In all of the excitement about integral practice (not just the one in a kit, but the whole kit and caboodle), it seems to me that yoga—fully practiced beyond the reductionist emphasis on Hatha-yogic postures—serves this rather well. As a yoga practitioner for the last twenty years, I have found that yoga fulfills what most people seem to be seeking in this quest for integral practice—a comprehensive method for engaging Spirit in our lives…

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The Kindness Diet: Can I Be A Yogi and Still Eat Meat?

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The Kindness Diet: Can I Be A Yogi and Still Eat Meat?

In the context of my teaching, people regularly ask me if yogis must eat a vegetarian or vegan diet. Often, what they're really asking is can I be a yogi and still eat meat? 

The short answer is: opinions vary. There is no shortage of passionate, conflicted, and contradictory opinions on the subject. Most long-term yogis I know...

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AM Rise & Shine Yoga, PM Rest & Sleep Yoga Sequences

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AM Rise & Shine Yoga, PM Rest & Sleep Yoga Sequences

Here are two gentle 18-minute sequences designed to wake you up and tuck you in when you can't get the Luminanda love up close and personal. Enjoy!

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Principles of Wholeness: Ethical Practice

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Principles of Wholeness: Ethical Practice

The beginning of all yoga is virtue. Like all wise people world-wide, the yogis of ancient India realized that certain behaviors are more conducive to healthy development than others, so they described and prescribed a code of conduct as a prerequisite foundation for Yoga: Yama, five abstinences that guide our relationships with others, and Niyama, five observances that guide our relationship with ourselves. Together, Yama and Niyama are an essential set of ten underlying principles (intentions, values, choices) that guide one’s yoga practice on and off the mat. These are the “ethical ground” from which all else grows...

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The Cosmic Striptease: Uncovering the Koshas

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The Cosmic Striptease: Uncovering the Koshas

In the yogic tradition, Self-realization consists of discovering and discarding false identifications with aspects or energies of human being (koshas) that make up the spectrum of being-consciousness-bliss underlying who we are and the nature of reality. Ranging from material to spiritual, the entire spectrum is considered to be variations of the same being-consciousness-bliss organizing itself at different vibrational frequencies or forms...

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9 Reasons to Love Your Yoga Practice

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9 Reasons to Love Your Yoga Practice

1) Seussian portability.

On a plane or on a train, in a car, here or there, near or far... yoga can be practiced wherever you are--gardens, studios, parks, living rooms, bedrooms, boardrooms, lunchrooms, offices, atriums, gymnasiums, airports, hotel rooms. It’s wireless and portable. All that’s really needed is you in a relatively quiet, comfortable room with open floor space —and of course, depending on how physical the practice, comfy clothing and a mat can be helpful, but even these are optional.

2) Conspicuous contentment...

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Light of the Moon: Chandra Namaskar

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Light of the Moon: Chandra Namaskar

When I was a child, my mum used to sing a little folk song with me. Perhaps you know it. The beginning lyrics were, “I see the moon and the moon sees me. The moon sees the one that I long to see…”  

On a clear night, under the light of a full moon, that little childhood ditty will often come to mind. Of course, as a child, I thought that the one in the song was a special someone somewhere else in the world.

Years later, I often think of the one...

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Turning Toward the Light: Surya Namaskar

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Turning Toward the Light: Surya Namaskar

People across cultures have a long history of paying homage to the primary source of life energy here on Earth, our most magnificent star, the Sun.  The yogic tradition is no exception.  Enter any hatha yoga class, and you will find yourself surrounded by sun-worshipers—not the skin-deep, scantily-clad variety of the pre-sunblock eras burning epidermis in pursuit of epic tans—but rather, the lycra-clad, bare-foot yoga enthusiasts engaged, often unknowingly, in the ancient ritual of burning through illusions to rest in the radiance of realized being, commonly referred to as the Sun Salutation...

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