Tag Archives: yoga blog
Monkey Business
I’ve just finished a workshop for actors and directors. It taught me something about my yoga practice.Actors are a wild bunch. Gathering them in a room to work on technique for three days is like locking monkeys in a grade… Continue reading
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Tagged Beginner's yoga, kristin shepherd, yoga blog, yoga humor, yoga humour
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Meditation Camp
Have you been to a meditation camp before? Having just returned from a five day version, I’d like to summarize the effects for you. This will come in handy if you decide to go yourself. It will also be useful… Continue reading
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Tagged Beginner's yoga, kristin shepherd, meditation, meditation blog, meditation humor, yoga blog, yoga humor, yoga humour
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Leaving the Circus
“We usually don’t look, we overlook.”Alan WattsI’m off to a meditation camp this morning. It’s a good thing. There are days, like today, when I begin to overlook, when landing fully and immediately in the moment is something that only… Continue reading
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Tagged Beginner's yoga, kristin shepherd, meditation, meditation blogs, meditation humor, meditation retreat, yoga blog, yoga humor, yoga humour
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Two Words
Here’s a business idea for someone. In my clinic, we talk some days about having only two words left to say in your life. Maybe your throat is closing permanently, maybe you suddenly find silence far more attractive than words,… Continue reading
Posted in best of blogs, Yoga
Tagged Beginner's yoga, kristin shepherd, meditation, meditation humor, yoga blog, yoga humor, yoga humour
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A Beginner’s Love Letter To Yoga
If I were to write a love letter to yoga today, it would go like this:Dear Yoga,I know, I know, we were just on the mat together, but there’s something I’d like to say before we meet again tomorrow.We live… Continue reading
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Tagged Beginner's yoga, kristin shepherd, Yoga, yoga blog, yoga humor, yoga humour
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Yoga Junkie
It’s 7:30 in the morning, and my phone rings. It’s my sister sounding like an undercover cop on surveillance: whispery voice, hand cupped over the phone, shifty eyes.
“I really love yoga,” she says. “You have no idea how much I love yoga right now.”
She’s a new yoga junkie. It happens. We arrive here from other sports, other pastimes, other loves, and we fall into yoga like matter into black holes.
I’ll bet you’ve had these hushed conversations.
“What about running?” I asked a yoga friend when he first fell. “I dunno,” he said. “I don’t want to run as much. It doesn’t help my yoga.” This, from marathon runner to marathon runner.
“I’m supposed to ride tomorrow, and all I want to do is go to yoga,” my sister continues. “I know,” I say. “I know the feeling.”
“I can jump through to a seated position,” she says. “Learned that last night.”
“Oh yeah,” I say, knowingly. “That’s good.”
“And I’m starting to get that thing about lifting my heart without sticking my front ribs out. You have no idea how good that is.”
“Oh yeah?” I say.
“Oh yeah,” she confirms. “And another thing: did I mention that my knees don’t hurt when I’m walking to work, now? Did I mention that?”
Yeah, you did, but that’s okay.
“You have no idea how good that is,” she persists.
I don’t want to scare anybody, but this is the way you begin to talk to the people you love. You can go on running, cycling, and all the rest of it. No one’s going to stop you, but you might love this yoga thing more than you thought.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Thanks to yoga for the inspiration, and thanks to you for the conversation.
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Tagged kristin shepherd, new yoga, Yoga, yoga blog, yoga humor, yoga humour
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Some Days We Are Enormous
I go to two yoga classes a week, but I do my own practice at home every single day. I adore it, and I wouldn’t miss it for much.
It’s still dark when I get out of bed, I shuffle to the kitchen and make a coffee (perhaps when I am a real yogi I’ll drink something healthier), drink half of it, set the timer on the microwave, and begin.
The first three Sun Salutations feel a bit tight, a bit creaky. Even my mind is tight and creaky. I’m thinking about getting my hands positioned correctly, thinking about rotating my thighs inward and pulling that lower belly in (something I have no idea how to do, still). Heels closer to the floor, shoulder blades down, etc. You know all of this.
Then something or someone–some larger part of me, perhaps–begins to well up. The rabid thinking slows down. Something warm and delicious takes its place. I begin to feel more generous with my positioning. I feel happy all of a sudden, and light.
Some days, about ten Sun Salutations in, this thing takes over and I go crazy, like a whirling dervish. My breath pours in and squeezes out, I’m warm from the inside out, I am strong, I am beautiful, and I am huge, somehow. Unconstrained. You should see my Warrior II pose. I fill the living room. I fill the house.
I love those days.
This morning was one of those days. I’d set the timer for 70 minutes and was so enormous by the end of it that I didn’t hear it go off. Best Savasana ever.
Does this ever happen to you?
Thanks to yoga for making us huge, and thanks to you for the conversation.
–Kristin Shepherd
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Tagged home practice, kristin shepherd, Yoga, yoga blog, yoga home practice, yoga humor
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