Michelle

For Those with Breathing Challenges

If your lungs have been compromised by treatment or other conditions, here are a few ways I can work with you to improve your ability to breathe. First, work with your diaphragm. Your diaphragm is your main breathing muscle and the first area I check. What you want to notice is whether your belly expandsContinue reading “For Those with Breathing Challenges”

How is Yoga for Cancer Different Than Other Types of Yoga?

I’m often asked this question: “How is yoga for cancer patients different than other types of yoga? “ There are many ways we’ve adapted yoga to serve cancer patients. Here are the main points . . . Physical Ability. The first issue to address is the participant’s physical abilities and limitations. Through a pre-class interviewContinue reading “How is Yoga for Cancer Different Than Other Types of Yoga?”

Loving Kindness for Donald Trump

For this Valentine’s Day I intend to spend the day, to the best of my ability, in Loving Kindness. Loving Kindness is a practice of developing compassion and friendliness toward yourself and others. It’s a mindfulness practice that comes out of the Buddhist tradition and it helps us to cultivate an open heart, to seeContinue reading “Loving Kindness for Donald Trump”

Renunciation

This week I had my first colonoscopy. Wow, what an experience! As some of you may know, the hardest part is preparing which involves some fasting and then an uncomfortable period of evacuating. The interesting piece for me is the fasting, the renunciation. No grains, no nuts, no seeds, no corn; the process starts aboutContinue reading “Renunciation”

Dream Yoga

I’ve been interested lately in Dream yoga. This was sparked by an article by Andrew Holecek and his research on the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep. The basic premise is that in sleep you are most spiritually awake – a vast array of experiences are available to you; you are not encumbered by the earth’s physicalContinue reading “Dream Yoga”

The Importance of Retreats

Have you been curious about retreats – what they’re like, how you’d benefit? Why not just go on a vacation instead? While vacations can certainly be inspiring and rejuvenating, retreats can be an important time for self-care, for realigning with the vision for your life or for evaluating what is really important for you. TheyContinue reading “The Importance of Retreats”

THIS is the Best Part!

I just returned from a short vacation. Before going, I created a mantra – “THIS is the best part!” What’s that about? Let me explain… A mantra can be a word or phrase used for concentration in meditation or, in my case, this mantra was a statement repeated frequently to remind me of an intention.Continue reading “THIS is the Best Part!”

Practicing Gratitude

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Beattie I often recommend cultivating a gratitude practice to the cancer survivors I work with. Why? Because it is easy to become consumed by anxiety and fear and to get overwhelmed by everything you need to do to takeContinue reading “Practicing Gratitude”

Yoga Nidra and the Parasympathetic Nervous System

I recently returned from a teacher training on yoga nidra. Yoga nidra translates as yogic sleep and it’s a practice that guides participants into that realm between wakefulness and sleep. It’s much like hypnosis however the nidra practitioner is encouraged to stay awake and alert. What I found most phenomenal was the state of deepContinue reading “Yoga Nidra and the Parasympathetic Nervous System”

How Yoga Heals

This article was written for the Shuttle, a local newspaper in Philadelphia’s Mt. Airy Neighborhood. “Inhale, raise the arms. Exhale, lower them.” Perhaps you’ve experienced these yoga moves. Perhaps you’ve enjoyed moving and stretching in yoga class, feeling the heart rate gently increase as the body becomes warm and supple; feeling the body’s strength and powerContinue reading “How Yoga Heals”