You may think napping is just sleeping. But there’s so much more to this afternoon rest! According to Arianna Huffington, in her book, The Sleep Revolution, research shows that napping boosts your learning power and lowers your blood pressure. Huffington also reports that older adults who take a thirty-minute nap and engage in moderate exerciseContinue reading “Rapid Restoration – Napping 101”
Author Archives: Michelle
Your Home Yoga Practice
Think of your home yoga practice as basic self-care. Self-care is taking care of yourself physically, emotionally and mentally. As well as attending to the body, mind, and emotions, regular yoga practice creates a container for developing interoception – your ability to hear your body’s signals, messages and intuitions. Remember that yoga means the unionContinue reading “Your Home Yoga Practice”
Breath-Centered Meditation
Using Your Breath as the Focus of Your Meditation Breath-centered meditation is one of the most common forms of meditation. In this sequence below, I point out aspects of the breath to pay attention to. Focusing on these subtle sensations will pull your attention inward and help to keep you from wandering off. Notice theContinue reading “Breath-Centered Meditation”
Post Traumatic Growth
A cancer diagnosis can be traumatic and scary! It can make you want to run and hide under the covers or put your boxing gloves on. Or both. Yoga can help. The word Yoga means union. It means to bring all parts of yourself – your body, mind, emotions, and spirit – into union, intoContinue reading “Post Traumatic Growth”
Take a Peek Inside Your Mind
I’ve been so excited about neuroscience lately! I’m learning about things like neuroplasticity which is our ability to change our habits no matter how old we are. I’m learning that we all have negative bias which means we’re hard-wired to dwell on our negative experiences instead of the positive ones (it’s a problem-solving mechanism for us humans). And then there’sContinue reading “Take a Peek Inside Your Mind”
Slow down, you move too fast.
One of my yoga class participants recently said that she’s never still – she’s always busy doing something, gardening, cleaning, community projects, etc.. This is all great, but it left me thinking about our cultural programming around stillness and busyness. We’re taught to value constant productivity. It’s not okay to just be still. What IContinue reading “Slow down, you move too fast.”
Sleep is a Beautiful Thing
Sleep is like the secret sauce. It affects everything – mood, focus, mental clarity and your general sense of well-being. So why are so many of us not sleeping well? For many, the culprit is the dreaded BUSY MIND! How do we fix that? It might help to understand some brain science: when your mindContinue reading “Sleep is a Beautiful Thing”
Take Your Laughter More Seriously
Every day, in my yoga-for-cancer work, I’m with people who are trying to take care of their bodies, quiet their minds and find some peace. So I think a lot about what it means to be healthy and happy, hence these writings about the 5 best things to give yourself (a quiet mind, a peacefulContinue reading “Take Your Laughter More Seriously”
A Happy Body
I’ve been writing about gifts to give yourself and this month I’m writing about the gift of a happy body. What’s a happy body? I think of it as a body that can move with ease and has no, or only small, discomforts (those are normal). I also think that a happy body means youContinue reading “A Happy Body”
Movement Awareness
A simple way to connect to your body is to move it in any easy way and really feel what’s happening. Develop mindful awareness of sensations like joint range of motion, breath rhythm and a sense of circulation. If you raise one arm, how high does it go without pain? Take that arm into aContinue reading “Movement Awareness”
