Yoga Therapy is Backed by Science

Dreaming Jamaica…. It’s been a month since I left our little island home of Coral Cove. I still dream of waking to the warm sun rising over the Caribbean, snorkeling in our own private cove, and teaching in the open palapa where every night we’d pause practice to feast on the blazing sun as it set.

Over the past few weeks I’ve seen numerous social media posts counseling people to stay calm. Simply coaching people not to panic in the midst of a crisis does little to ensure immunity from the current state of mass hysteria. In my experience, employing good breath hygiene is the most effective way to both stay grounded and to support respiratory health. The breath is our greatest inner resource and with a little breath education, you too can develop the capacity to settle yourself, even when fear is gnawing at your gut! 

It’s a new year - which is a good time to rethink our priorities and how we are allocating our energy. In some ways, this transition is an ‘artificial’ shift in consciousness.

Greta Thunberg is my Super-Heroine. I find her courageous, fierce, and an unapologetic Truthsayer. I share her anger and grief over the planetary crisis that we are moving towards at warp speed. For me, her most salient moment was when she spoke of, “The fairytale of eternal economic growth.” With this phrase she exposed the underbelly of the human delusion that somehow we are always entitled to more. Whether we seek more money, more food, more fun, more experiences, more health — ultimately we hope that with the attainment of these provisions we will experience more happiness. Yet, according to wisdom teachings like yoga, the quest for more often drowns out the sense of contentment and containment, qualities that actually define the state of happiness.

The discovery of the Zone of Apposition or the ZOA has completely shifted my way of cuing for posture. Organizing the body around optimal, functional breathing makes so much more sense and integrates the core abdominal and mid-back muscles to work synergistically together.  It’s a revelation!