The Daily Downward Dog Blog
Inspiring Stories, Cool Yoga Playlists, and Yoga Tips!
Coming Clean
Berry Delight Sweet Basil Mint Lemon Clary Sage No, these are not the names of my favorite smoothie flavors. They are the names of some of the most awesome, organic, and natural-made soaps and shampoo bars you can purchase. My good friend Katie (and also one of my...
Holiday Weekends Rock — Happy Fourth of July
“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and...
Woohoo, I’m Alive! Yoga Theme Song
It’s time for a new yoga theme song, and this one comes courtesy of the lovely Shelly who visited The Daily Downward Dog and suggested that I take a listen to “I’m Alive” by Kenny Chesney. I will go on the record to say that I am not a country-music fan and was real...
Choosing Happiness and a Life Worth Breathing
I just recently finished reading A Life Worth Breathing by Max Strom as part of the Twitter Yoga Book Club (#YOBC). I don’t typically read nonfiction, but when someone tells me a book is life-changing, it tends to pique my interest. I have to admit I felt a few...
Battle of the Languages: Sanskrit Versus English
I’d like to start a little discussion here and get some feedback from my fellow yoga teachers and students on the use of Sanskrit versus English for the names of yoga poses during class. I will go on the record to say that I primarily use English names for the poses...
Close Encounters with Max Strom
I just recently finished reading A Life Worth Breathing by Max Strom. Well, actually, I plowed through the second half of the book in record time in order to finish before attending live workshop sessions with Max at Inner Bliss Yoga in Ohio. I read the book as part...
I Just Want to Light You Up!
A few weeks ago I shared my latest yoga theme song, “You Get What You Give,” but never got around to sharing the yoga class playlist it was a part of. So, without further delay, here’s the music that embellished the mudras and mantras of a few of my May yoga classes....
Poems of Awakening
One of the things I look forward to in every yoga class I attend is the message that the yoga teacher conveys to the class. Sometimes it is just a few inspirational messages as we go through a vinyasa flow, and other times it can be a beautiful story or poem. These...
Baptiste Baptism
I love the fact that there are 101 flavors of yoga, and this past weekend I got to try out a new flavor I’ve never tried before: Baptiste. I was lucky to attend a series of master classes and workshops given by national Baptiste-certified instructor and former Akron,...
Santosha Overdrive
Last week kicked ass. From having a few new yoga breakthroughs to really enjoying the beauty of spring in Ohio, I was feeling love and gratitude and a major wave of santosha (one of the niyamas). Santosha is all about being content with what one has and where one is...
You Only Get What You Give
“Wake up, kids, we got the dreamer’s disease.” —Lyrics from “You Get What You Give” by the New Radicals It’s official: I’m sick. I’ve got a terminal case of dreamer’s disease, but I couldn’t think of a better ailment to suffer live with! I’m a Pisces, a dreamer, and a...
Running & Yoga: A Perfect Pairing
I’m all about good pairings: pasta and wine, pierogies and beer, coffee and bagels. But when it comes to pairing fitness activities together, the perfect pairing, as far as I’m concerned, is running and yoga. I’m sure many of you have heard that yoga can be great for...
Yoga 101—The Eight Limbs of Yoga
I’m starting to do another deep dive into the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. We read it during yoga-teacher training, but, like most students, I was in the throes of studying, learning, practicing, working, you know, all the stuff that life throws at you on a daily basis,...
Crazy-Blessed Angel
I’ve got some pretty cool playlists planned for May, but before I can share the tuneage with my yoga classes, I need to figure out how to use my new IPhone (I just switched from a BlackBerry), so wish me luck and a lot of patience. Thought I would share my class...
Official Card-Carrying Member
The very first card I ever received was a library card. I remember how cool it was to see my name on the shiny surface, the protective cover that came with it and finding the perfect place to store it so I wouldn’t lose it (which I ended up doing repeatedly). My next...
Yoga Urban Legends
We’ve all heard a few good urban legends in our time. You know what I’m talking about; those stories you hear around the water cooler, the ones that get passed along from a friend of a friend (AFOF). Oh yes, the tellers of these tales believe them to be true, and the...
The Internet is for… YOGA!
As a yoga teacher, I'm always looking for new, creative resources for class themes, new asana flows, and inspiration. Thankfully, I have a wellspring of information at my fingertips through the World Wide Web. Yes, the Internet is more than just for porn (shout-out to...
Confessions of a Kirtan Virgin
“Like a virgin, touched for the very first time… …Yeah, you made me feel shiny and new” —Excerpts from “Like a Virgin,” Madonna What the heck is up with all these confessions lately on The Daily Downward Dog? I’ve been opening my heart and baring it all these...
Spring Fashion Week at the Daily Downward Dog
Hey, New York and Paris don’t get to have all the runway fashion fun in the spring. The Daily Downward Dog was sporting some hot new spring fashions at the most glamorous yoga studios in Ohio last week. Forget the runway; my trusty yoga mat served as the best place to...
Making Dreams Come True
Warning: Careful What You Wish For. It Might Just Come True! If you have followed my blogs over the past year, you know that I’ve been through a little honking-ass amount of “Changes” in my life. I transitioned from a stressed-out vice president to a blissed-out yoga...
101 Flavors of Yoga
For the past few months, I’ve been on the magical mystery tour of yoga. Not that I was sheltered or anything, but at the yoga studios I had been practicing at, we only were offered a few different flavors—vinyasa and hatha. Kind of like vanilla and chocolate—classics...
The Best Bedtime Story
Have you ever spent a night trying to fall asleep but, instead, tossed and turned, lying awake, regurgitating the events of the day or, my specialty, stressing out about everything you need to do in the next 24-hours? Being the major stress queen that I was (Okay, I’m...
Can You Name This Mystery Musical Diva?
Each week so far I have put together a new playlist for my yoga classes, and it is something I really look forward to not only creating, but sharing with my students. It gives me a chance to pull out old CDs I haven’t listened to in a while and also to search out new...
Taking Your Yoga Off the Mat
I love the whole concept of taking your yoga off the mat, but the organization Off the Mat, Into the World® (OTM) is putting its money where its mouth is and doing just that. I first found out about this organization when I asked people to nominate their favorite Seva...
Real-Life Confessions From a Yoga Teacher
I was keeping a list of every faux pas I have as a yoga teacher. I figured I would compile them later this year and share them here at The Daily Downward Dog. By then, I rationalized, I wouldn’t be as embarrassed to share all the mistakes (or perhaps I should say...
Headband Haute Couture
I’m a headband mama. You’ll see me sporting one to every yoga class I attend. The obvious reason is to keep the hair out of my eyes when I’m hanging out in downward-facing dog. The not so obvious reason is that it covers up some of my beautiful gray hair that is...
Kick Butt Week in Review
This past week kicked ass! Here are just a few highlights in no particular order. 1) DoYogaWithMe.com founder David Procyshyn wrote a pretty cool review of The Daily Downward Dog. DoYogaWithMe.com has a wealth of information about yoga poses, breathing,...
I’m a Breath Believer
So, you pop out of the womb at birth, and the first priority of your life is to take that all-important first breath. Then, for the next 80 plus years (if you’re lucky), you pretty much take breathing for granted. Our ability to breathe goes on auto-pilot, and we...
Neti Pot Confessions
During my yoga-teacher-training, we learned about the supernatural benefits of the neti pot. For those of you not familiar with this contraption, it is not a kitchen appliance used for roasting organic vegetables; rather, it is a small pot with a long spout that you...
You’ve Just Got to Believe—Believe In Yourself!
I’ve been a bit remiss on sharing my yoga theme songs. They pop into my head and bring inspiration all too frequently to share each and every one with you, but I’m happy to say that the latest yoga theme song made it to my yoga class playlist last week, and I just had...