The Daily Downward Dog Blog
Inspiring Stories, Cool Yoga Playlists, and Yoga Tips!
Diving Into Downward Dog
When is the last time you dove into a really deep, juicy downward dog? When you take a wall yoga class, you get to do just that—dive into downward dog—with the aid of a wall and straps securely fastened and hanging from said wall. If you don’t believe me, watch this...
What Did You Do on Spring Break?
Do you remember coming back to school after Spring Break and dreading that question? Most of my friends had tales to tell about beaches and parties, and they had the tan skin to go along with it. I always came back sporting my pasty white skin, obvious to all that I...
The Poster Gal for Setting Intentions
If you’ve been to one of my yoga classes, you know that I’m a big fan of setting an intention at the beginning of class. I always say that when you direct your mind and heart in a new direction, it can be a very powerful thing. Setting an intention before you start a...
Practicing Yoga With Scoliosis
Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve wrote about yoga for back pain and even longer since I’ve mentioned how much yoga has helped with my scoliosis. I’m a veteran of many rounds of physical therapy to help me heal and strengthen my back. The funny thing about...
The Cadillac of Yoga Mats Goes Sports Car Sleek
Spectacular design, outstanding light-weight engineering, and phenomenal handling precision are combined with unparalleled comfort. No, I’m not talking about the newest Porsche 911, but the brand new compact Vernice Vita Studio Yoga Mat. Racheal Ennis, the founder of...
Yoga, Poetry, Flamenco Guitar, Roller Coasters, and the Meaning of Life!
The yoga poetry love fest continues today with a little ditty from Bob Weisenberg about how freakin' amazing life can be! If you are not familiar with Bob, he is the Associate Publisher of Elephant Journal, creator of an incredible series called Gita in a...
One Love
During the week of Valentine’s Day, I honored the holiday in my yoga classes with a theme brimming full of love. It wasn’t girlfriend, boyfriend, or significant other love; I was celebrating that full-on unabashed love we all need to give ourselves. This love...
The Poetry of Yoga
A few weeks ago I received a book in the mail, and as I started to scan through the pages, I felt like I had won the lottery! Like a beautiful asana, each page contained words perfectly aligned to lift my soul. I had been given the gift of a book of yoga poems that I...
Happy Birthday Yoga Bliss – Celebrate with FREE Yoga!
What an incredible concept: Yoga Bliss Akron celebrates their 1-year birthday, and yoga aficionados around Northeast Ohio get the goods. The goods come in the form of an all-star line-up of yoga classes and workshops that are being offered on Saturday, February 25 for...
Yoga: It’s Better on The Beach
If you ever find yourself in South Beach (SOBE), forget about celebrity sightings and nightclubs, and head on over to the 3rd Street Beach to catch a beach yoga class! You don’t have to worry about what day of the year it is; these awesome beach yoga classes happen...
Take Your Passion, and Make it Happen!
Quick, name that song! If you were around for the awesome 80s, you should be able to – without missing a beat – rattle off the title “What a Feeling,” the artist who made the song famous, Irene Cara, and the kick-butt movie it came from, Flashdance. And before I get...
Has Yoga Ever Made You Cry?
“Crying is one of the highest devotional songs. One who knows crying knows spiritual practice. If you can cry with a pure heart, nothing else compares to such a prayer. Crying includes all the principles of Yoga.” ―Kripalvanandji I’m one of those people that have...
Practicing Green Yoga – Recycle Your Chi
“A Yogi should always keep this in mind: Teaching yoga is not like teaching history or geometry. The teacher must impart a life force—a little current—into others.” –Sri Swami Satchidananda from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Hip openers have always been one of my...
Announcing the 2nd Annual YOGAR Nominees
It’s red carpet season out in Hollywood with award shows like the Golden Globes and the Oscars, and in true red carpet spirit, The Daily Downward Dog studio is rolling out its red yoga mats and finest yoga wear in support of the second annual YOGAR awards. What are...
Make Someone Happy – Living Your Yoga Off the Mat in Cleveland (or your ‘hood)
“Forget your selfishness, make others happy, and you will be the happiest person. By seeing others happy, you can’t be unhappy. But by making everyone unhappy, you can never be happy yourself. So, at least for your happiness, bring happiness to others.” – Sri Swami...
A Yoga Epiphany
I love it when I go to a yoga class where something the teacher says really speaks to me. A few weeks ago, I attended a class taught by Jennifer Bishop and experienced quite the yoga epiphany. While reaching our arms up and overhead in utthita parsvakonasana (extended...
A Lasting Lecture
The theme in my yoga classes this week came from the book The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I guess you could say I’m a little late in getting to this material since the book was published in 2008, but what the heck. I use The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as class themes...
Confessions of a Bikram Virgin Part 2
This past year, I’ve done my best to try out lots of different flavors of yoga. If you read my post yesterday, you know that a week ago I got to have my very first Bikram yoga experience at Bikram Yoga Cleveland, and trying Bikram was more than just trying out a new...
Confessions of a Bikram Virgin
I love the Twitter yoga community. Have a question, need advice…? Just put it out there, and the Twitter universe will deliver the answer. That was the case last week when I posted about how excited I was to be attending my first Bikram yoga class at the new Bikram...
Yoga Fashion Alert: Rock Star Capris and Ruching!
Rockstar Capris I’ll be forever grateful to my older brothers for taking me to my very first rock concerts. By the same token, I’ll be forever grateful to Mondetta Performance Gear (MPG) for turning me on to my very first pair of rock star skintight yoga pants. Both...
Intentions are the New Resolutions
It’s that time of year again, when the dreaded “R” word threads its way into our vernacular. A new year is about to commence, bringing with it a rapidly spreading fever and overwhelming desire to declare our resolutions. And, yes, I’ve caught the fever too, as I’ve...
Asana Wishes and Handstand Dreams
Do you have a yoga asana (pose) that you dream of doing? Maybe it’s adho mukha vrksasana (the elusive handstand) or a challenging arm balancing asana like bakasana (crow or sometimes called crane) or astavakrasana (eight-angle) pose. It’s the time of year where I do a...
Smileasana
“Let us all meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” -Mother Teresa “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” -Tich Nhat Hanh I recently led a whole yoga class...
What’s it Gonna Be, Yogis…Love or Fear?
How cool is it that so many great yoga teachers have come to my hometown this past year and that I got the opportunity to attend one of the sold-out yoga workshops given by Kathryn Budig at Evolution Yoga? If you are unfamiliar with Kathryn, she brings an awesome...
The Yogacracker
I am going to make a confession; I’m a Nutcracker-aholic. With the exception of my infant years, I have seen a production of the Nutcracker every year of my life. I own three different CDs of the Tchaikovsky score, and I pop them into the CD player in my car the day...
Sharing the Yoga Love – Holiday Gift Giveaway!
If you missed the Daily Downward Dog’s holiday yoga gift guide, you’ll want to step, hop, or float on over to that post and check out the great deals on gifts for the yoga lovers in your life. Each of the products are made by yogini goddesses, and some of them happen...
Share the Yoga Love this Holiday Season
I recently saw this post on Sandy Kish Jordan’s (one of my super cool summer beach-yoga friends) Facebook page and got a big smile on my face: BLACK FRIDAY IS COMING!!! Just imagine if everyone spent their money locally instead of on discount crap that no one will...
The Boys Are Back in Town
While the classic Thin Lizzy hard rock tune “The Boys are Back in Town” did not make one of my latest yoga class playlists, there were still plenty of wild-eyed boys blasting out my favorite yoga songs. One Trevor, two Michaels, a dash of Krishna, and one of my...
Trouble Sleeping? Try A Radical New Remedy Called Gratitude
Did you know that November has been designated the official month of gratitude? Since Thanksgiving falls in this month, the economies of scale made sense to parlay it into a month-long celebration. I told my husband that it was National Gratitude Month and that we...
If Patience is a Virtue, Impatience is a Vice
They say that patience is a virtue, and if that’s the case, then one of our society’s biggest vices has to be impatience. How often each day do you get pissed off that it takes a webpage longer than just a few seconds to load? And, I bet you can recall an experience...