For the final week of our Spring Cleaning session here at The Yoga Room, we worked with the yogic concept of Samskaras on our yoga mats. According to Michael Singer in the book The Untethered Soul, Samskara is a Sanskrit word meaning impression, and in the yogic teachings it is considered one of the most …
Spring Cleaning Challenge, Week 7: Sauca
This past week in our yoga classes here at The Yoga Room we shifted our spring cleaning focus beyond just the physical by working with the concept of sauca–cleanliness and purity. Sauca can have to do with physical cleanliness and purity, and therefore we can cultivate it simply through practicing asana and pranayama that cleanse …
Earth Day Project 2013 – Virginia Park Tree Planting
For our annual Earth Day project this year, 10 hardy Yoga Serves volunteers (plus a toddler and The Yoga Room’s mascot, Annie the dog) came out on a chilly but sunny Sunday morning to help out Ann Arbor Natural Area Preservation by planting some native fruit trees at Virginia Park and doing some general clean-up. …
Earth Day Project 2013 – Virginia Park Tree PlantingRead More
Spring Cleaning Challenge, Week 6: Digestion & Detoxification
This week my intention for our yoga classes here at The Yoga Room was to revitalize the major organs and systems in the body that aid in the detoxification process. Those major detox players are the lymph, blood, liver, kidneys, colon and parasympathetic nervous system. Lymph and blood deliver waste products to the liver, kidneys …
Spring Cleaning Challenge, Week 6: Digestion & DetoxificationRead More
Spring Cleaning Challenge, Week 5: Kapha
In Ayurveda, health is defined as the dynamic state of balance between mind, body, and environment. It is possible for each of us to achieve and maintain a vibrant and joyful state of health by identifying our mind-body type and then creating a lifestyle that sustains and nurtures our unique nature. There are 3 different …
Spring Cleaning Challenge, Week 4: Apana
The tradition of Spring Cleaning can be extended to yoga practice on a multitude of levels. Physically, it is important to recognize the body’s energy systems, and how they respond to seasonal cycles. Our lower bodies are the location of waste energy, or apana. Other ways to describe apana are a heaviness, dullness, or lethargy. …
Spring Cleaning, Week 3: Tapas & Agni
This post was edited March 2022 to add more content. Sorry, no, I’m not talking about spanish food! The tapas I am referring to here is the discipline, effort, challenge or sometimes even hardship that we go through for the sake of change, growth or to move forward. It is a fiery resolve, pointed strength, …
The Spring Cleaning Challenge: Week 2
As we continue to work on our own personal cleanses (see previous ‘Join the Spring Cleaning Challenge’ blog post for more details!), this week our yoga practice here at The Yoga Room focused on our lymphatic system. Lymph is the clear, watery fluid that moves through the body picking up bacteria and viruses and filtering …
Maya Tulum Yoga Retreat 2013
I wanted to share a few pictures and memories from my recent yoga retreat to Maya Tulum, Mexico. I’ve been to Tulum twice before, but the last time was in 2005, and the last yoga retreat that I got to attend as a participant (and not as the leader) was in 2006 to Peru, so …
Join the Spring Cleaning Challenge!
We began our March-April ‘Spring Cleaning for the Body & Mind’ session here at The Yoga Room this week. Our physical practice focused on purifying in the form of building up our immune systems to help cleanse our body of germs and toxins. We emphasized backbending postures that would open up our lungs and help …