From dancer to yogi
Yoga is hard. Yoga is a discipline. Yoga is not like dance. Through yoga, I’ve been challenged and changed in ways I never thought possible.
Rekindling youthful energy with aerial yoga
Aerial Yoga is a form of yoga asana practice that utilizes hammocks suspended from the ceiling. It allows a practitioner to both strengthen and lengthen the body in ways you perhaps could not while being on the floor.
Art museums make for inspired yogic spaces
Throughout Iowa, both beginner and experienced yogis find that classes held in an art museum offer a unique way to generate community and promote engagement with others.
Making space: Yoga for creative flow
You may not paint, draw or make music, but you still need to nurture your creativity. In our modern, busy lives, we’re pressed for time due to countless errands, interruptions and jobs. We’re overstimulated by our handheld devices. It’s important to carve out space to follow our hearts. To be happy, we must express ourselves in a multitude of ways. To be balanced, we must feel fulfilled.
Ask the Teacher: How does yoga feed creativity?
A dedication to being present allows me to build upon potential, take chances, and shake loose notions of fear, failure, judgment, and a smothering preoccupation with perfection. My life, my practice, my art—they’re all entwined, fluid, and evolving passages. The destination may not always be clear, but the movement is always forward.
So we asked our teachers: How do you think yoga expands the potential of creative pursuits?
Off the Mat with Kate Connell Potts
As a private yoga teacher, deep listening is essential. Through my teaching practice, I’m regularly inquiring about my clients’ experiences and pivoting based on the physical and verbal feedback they provide.
Actions for Peace
As your awareness expands, change happens — a visceral change that influences other aspects of your life, revealing points of evolution in profound and dynamic ways. So we wondered: are people who practice yoga and meditation more likely to be the citizens who respond to calls to action? If so, why?
Peace at the Center
My life is hectic. It’s go-go-go from one jobsite to the next, all the while trying to keep up with texts and emails. Coffee is a must and often breakfasts and lunches are a luxury.
From Political Pain to Peaceful Power
When you’re feeling stressed, it’s easy to forget the importance of self-care. However, your yoga practice can be used to cultivate a peaceful, non-reactive ground from which you can relate to others. Think of yoga as a break from our hyper-stimulated culture.
Off the Mat with Aaron Washington
I practice and teach with the belief that health and fitness require a strong physical body and mind. Strength in all aspects of life requires experiencing the muscles of the body through asanas and the “muscles” of the mind through pranayama and meditation.
Ask the Teacher: Are you a peacenik, an activist, neither, or both? Why?
In myriad conversations with yoga teachers, I continue to learn the power of individual action, and what it represents during the sea change of local, national, and world issues. But this power can be subtle, and to respect an individual is to respect his or her course of action, or even non-action. […]
So we asked our teachers:
“Are you a peacenik, an activist, neither, or both? Why?”
For a Better World, First Heal Inside
World peace starts with inner peace — and there’s perhaps no greater advocate of this worldview than Max Strom. Respected internationally as a motivational speaker and author, Strom has practiced and taught yoga since 1991. He travels the world sharing his insight on how to attain true happiness in a society increasingly obsessed with technological shortcuts.