The Daily Downward Dog Blog
Inspiring Stories, Cool Yoga Playlists, and Yoga Tips!Get Lost In Your Mind
One of the goals of yoga is to let go of the chatter in your mind and focus on being fully present. When this happens, we achieve the true meaning of yoga, the union of the body and the mind. If you practice yoga, hell if you are human, you know that this “letting go”...
The Superbowl for Yogini Goddesses
I recently got the extreme pleasure of attending a screening for a powerful new documentary titled YOGAWOMAN. Talk about inspiration; this movie was like a superbowl for yogini goddesses. One after another, I gathered wisdom from some of yoga’s most incredible female...
Embrace Your Inner Yogini Goddess
You gotta love all of the early goddesses who paved the way for us twentieth century gals! I’m personally a huge fan of Lakshmi, the goddess of light, wisdom, generosity, courage, and prosperity. And when I say prosperity, I’m not just talking about material...
No Tricks, But Definitely Treats!
Happy Halloween! I’m teaching a yoga class tonight and couldn’t resist the urge to mix in a little flavor of the holiday. No, I won’t be showing up to teach in a costume, but hopefully I’ll be dispensing a few treats for my students. The treats are going to come in...
The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth
The theme of my yoga classes this week is satya or truthfulness, one of the yamas that are part of the 8-limbed yogic path authored by Patanjali. The yamas to me are a set of moral codes for living, and I can’t think of a more straight-up way to live than with the...
Navigating New Yoga Musical Horizons
I know it has been a while since I’ve written anything about cool yoga music. To explain the absence, I’ve gone through a bout of angst and upheaval as I’ve questioned the music I play during yoga classes. I’ve put a lot of thought into it, and yes, I know this will...
Close Encounters with Rodney Yee
On Wednesday I started to dish out some of the stories from the Rodney Yee yoga teacher training workshop I attended. I promised to share a funny (I can laugh at it now) encounter I had with Rodney Yee. It seems that every time I meet a well known – or dare I say...
Gentle Yoga
One of the very first yoga videos I ever purchased was Back Care Yoga by Rodney Yee, and ever since then, my back and I have been big fans of Rodney Yee's teaching. You can imagine how excited I was when I got the opportunity to study with Rodney at a teacher training...
Word of the Day: Skegging
skeg · ging (noun) A covering for the legs that is a mash-up of leggings and a skirt. Generally worn by stylish yoginis who don’t want to show off their bum to the world. A super-comfy alternative to yoga pant leggings that also happen to make you feel pretty darn...
Walkasana For Mental Clarity
In the past, I’ve written about the importance of hugasana, but today I’d like to share one of my favorite forms of asana – walkasana. What exactly is walkasana? Well, next to meditation, it may just be one of the best ways to clear your mind. Yes, walkasana is a...
Have You Seen This Yoga Mat?
You know those ads for missing people that you see on the side of milk cartons? Well, I was about to put out one of those, or better yet, an APB (no, that’s not some trendy new texting lingo, just a good old-fashioned police term for an "all points bulletin") for my...
Top 10 Yoga Intentions
You hear it all the time: be careful what you wish for because it may just come true. Well, I feel the same way about those powerful little wishes called intentions. I have to say that setting intentions has been very effective for me this past year, so much so that...
A Yogalicious Yoga Mat
The very first yoga mat I ever purchased cost five dollars, came in a lovely shade of lavender, and was ultrathin. If you've never bought a yoga mat, I'd just like to say that ultrathin is not a product feature you want in a mat. I still have and love this mat. (Hey,...
Goodbye Downward Dog Days of Summer
Well I have to admit, I’ve been in a bit of a funk ever since Labor Day, when my beautiful days of summer were ripped away as temperatures dropped and rain clouds appeared. Worse than the fact that I had to turn my furnace on before summer officially ended, I had to...
Are You Too Busy To Relax?
With the change of season from summer to fall I know many of us are feeling overloaded and stressed. When we get busy we tend to let go of really important things like exercise, breathing, and doing good things for ourselves. I know, because I have been struggling...
Santosha
Santosha. I love the way this word sounds and feels as it rolls off my tongue. It could be an exotic food, a tropical getaway, or a really excellent cocktail (one that is pink with an umbrella), but it is none of those things. Santosha is part of the eight limbs of...
Downward Dog, Upward Fog
There were a few weeks of summer left and that meant one thing for me: time to get in at least one chick-lit novel while lounging in a beach chair and sipping a cool, refreshing drink. I want to go on the record to say that I don’t take the term chick-lit as...
Featured Yoga Playlist Artist: Lenny Kravitz
When a musical artist creates songs that have become Daily Downward Dog (DDD) yoga theme songs three times, then, my fellow yogis, the time has come to bestow the honor of being The DDD’s Featured Yoga Playlist Artist. This honor goes to none other than the...
Sanskrit 101
I love when a good discussion gets going from one of my blog posts, and that happened back in June when I posed “The Battle of the Languages: Sanskrit versus English.” If you didn’t read the post or the excellent comments, I explained that my style is to teach yoga,...
Happy Birthday, Daily Downward Dog
Over the weekend the Daily Downward Dog (DDD) celebrated its one-year birthday! Like a proud mother, I’m feeling a little nostalgic, and I just can’t believe my little yogini baby is already one year old. I’m also getting the strong urge to dig my hands and face into...
A Lovely (Yoga) Day
Don't you just love when you hear a song and it instantly makes you happy (and maybe even a little high)? You hear it on the radio, groove into a little happy dance, and the smile starts to spread across your face. When a song has a title like "Lovely Day," you know...
Getting to Know You
This kind of cool thing keeps happening to me. It seems that no matter where I go or what I do (e.g., a Kiss concert, practicing yoga outdoors, or visiting the Wienermobile), I am filled with little nuggets of yoga inspiration. It happened again while sitting in a...
Finding Balance, Even on the Wienermobile
I get a ton of spam, so, last week, as I was scanning through my e-mail inbox to weed out the important messages, my eyes fell upon the following subject line: Oscar Mayer Wienermobile in Stow/Canton/Akron--- I was just about to hit the delete button when my eyes were...
Taking Your Yoga Off the Mat
Take your yoga off your mat. You hear this a lot in yoga classes, but what does it really mean? Does it mean I should practice tree pose while I’m standing in line at the grocery store or to practice savasana and take a few more naps during the week? Well, those are...
GABA GABA HEY!
A few weeks ago I was perusing Spa magazine. I really shouldn’t read this magazine because all it does is make me pine away for a week of massages, herbal wraps, yoga, and a whole host of other yummy organic treatments at a cushy spa retreat (preferably somewhere...
![[Your City Name Goes Here] Rock City](https://dailydownwarddog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/paul-stanley-2-43030_247x250.jpg)
[Your City Name Goes Here] Rock City
A few days ago I got in a car with my big brother and drove nine hours—not to go to a family reunion or a really cool destination, but to see a Kiss rock concert. WTF?! I’ve seen Kiss perform several times in Cleveland before, so why, you ask, did we drive all the way...
Top 10 Reasons to Practice Yoga Outdoors
It is mid-July, and if you have not gotten your yoga mat outside for a little outdoor yoga, you need to get on it. I have been practicing and teaching yoga outdoors quite a bit this summer, and, to be honest, I’m getting a little spoiled. It gets harder and harder to...
Yoga For A Cause & DDD Yoga Class Updates
Please join me if you can this coming Wednesday to not only support a great cause, but also to get the benefit of practicing yoga outdoors! Yoga for a Cause Wednesday, July 20, 2011 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Community Yoga Event to benefit Stewart's Caring Place Where:...
Are You Too Busy for Yoga?
“You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day—unless you’re too busy; then you should sit for an hour.” –Old Zen adage I’ve had a crazy couple of weeks. I’m not complaining, because they have been filled with lots of wonderful summer activities, family...
Yoga is Like Life
Yoga practice is like life. Each circumstance in which we find ourselves is like a pose. Some poses are hard to hold; others are pleasant. It is how we hold the pose that determines whether or not we will suffer or grow And whether or not we will listen to the drama...