As yoga teachers, we face different learner types in every class we teach. Some people are visual learners. Demonstrating poses clicks in for this group. Others respond to manual adjustments. (There’s also a substantial number of people who prefer not to be manually adjusted, especially without permission. But that’s another post.) Still others are verbal learners. For that group, we use yoga cues.

Last year, I posted a blog on how to simplify your cues to give students some quiet time as well to allow them to tune into the present experience of each asana. Today I’d like to tune in a bit more to language.

Why Change Up Your Yoga Cues?

I have been blessed with many long-term yoga students. Recently, a student who’s been attending my classes for 30 years told me that I said something in the class that completely transformed her practice. I was shocked—and pleased. The cue was something I’ve said countless times before. (Do you ever get tired of hearing yourself give the same yoga cues? I do!) Anyway, in this recent case, I changed the wording a bit, and in that moment, my student understood something she hadn’t gotten before.

Our students vary not only in their responses to visual and verbal learning. They also vary in their response to different words. Changing your language just might give even your most stalwart students a new way of experiencing their practice.

As a writer, I’m constantly striving to use words that are more descriptive and less generic—without becoming overly flowery. This is harder to do on the fly, when I’m teaching a class. But it’s doable. Here are a few ways to explore expanding your yoga vocabulary.

A Few Suggestions

• The best way to reword your yoga cues is to reflect on what you’re about to say ahead of time. You might be able to do this on the fly, especially if you teach a slower-paced, non-vinyasa-type class. Before you find yourself about to speak your tried-and-true yoga cue, stop yourself for a moment. Is there another way to convey what you’re about to say? Maybe the cue you’ve always used really is the best way to get your point across. But it can’t hurt to try another wording.
• If it’s easier, you can explore changing up your cues when you’re not teaching. Make a list of your most common yoga cues. Most likely, your preferred wording will come to mind first. Write it down. Then think about how you might word it differently.
• It can be really instructive to record a few classes. Then listen to how you communicate your yoga cues. Can you come up with creative ways to convey the concepts you want to share, without losing clarity?

I find coming up with creative wording to be a great way to juice up my teaching. It not only helps me reach more students, but it also keeps my own teaching fresh. Teaching yoga is an ever-changing process. Changing up your yoga cues can help you evolve as a teacher.

Asana, the physical practice, is the most recognizable of the eight limbs of yoga. If you mention “yoga,” most people will automatically picture a person in some beautiful, bendy position. But, of course, yoga is much more than just asana. There are seven other limbs of yoga in the system of Ashtanga Yoga. (Here, Ashtanga Yoga refers to the traditional meaning of the eight-limbed path, rather than Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, the system developed by K. Patabhi Jois.) In addition, there are many other forms of yoga that do not include postures.

In the context of the eight limbs, asana comes third, after yama and niyama. The first two limbs provide a solid foundation for the rest of the practice. They instill healthy intentions so that our practice can bear wholesome fruit. In addition, they give us guidelines for living a graceful life.

Because asana is the most popular aspect of yoga, it is also the most misunderstood. Western practitioners, who grew up on rigorous exercise, often practice asana in the context of that familiar paradigm. When we think of exercise, we think of concepts like competition and personal bests. Consequently, we associate the ability to do acrobatic poses with being “advanced.” But according to the yoga sutras, mastery of asana is a completely different thing.

The Asana Tradition

The word “asana” means “seat.” It literally refers to the sitting posture. The original purpose of practicing yoga asana was to support the body for the rigors of sitting meditation. This includes not only the physical body, but the physiological systems as well. Especially important is the nervous system.

When I studied in India with B.K.S. Iyengar, one thing he said stuck in my mind and has helped guide my practice. He said that we practice asana to create a peaceful, calm environment for the mind. When the body is at ease, the mind can more easily be at ease.

Three of the 196 yoga sutras describe asana. All are in the second pada, or chapter. Here they are (from Alistair Shearer’s translation):

1. 2.46: The physical posture should be steady and comfortable.
2. 2.47: It is mastered when all effort is relaxed and the mind is absorbed in the Infinite.
3. 2.48: Then you are no longer upset by the play of opposites.

So let’s break this down. As with other posts in this Yoga 101 series, my descriptions here will be short and sweet. If you want to delve deeper, pick up my book, Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life.

Sutra 2.46: Alistair Shearer’s translation uses the description “steady and comfortable.” Other translations of this sutra describe asana as “firm and soft,” “steady and easy,” and other such opposite qualities. For me, this says that balancing effort is the key. Steadiness implies a strength, stability and commitment. Comfort implies ease and calm. Steadiness without comfort can create tension and tightness. Comfort without steadiness can bring about sloth and heaviness. So we balance the two in every pose.

Sutra 2.47: This sutra is crucial for understanding the intention—and the power—of asana practice. Notice that it doesn’t define mastery in terms of what our bodies can or can’t do. There’s nothing about pushing further or mastering fancy poses. In fact, it implies the opposite. Unlike competitive sports, where we constantly push our edge, asana asks us to relax our effort. When we can relax effort in our poses, instead of “doing” the pose, we start to “be” the pose. In that present-moment experience of the internal process, our minds are absorbed in the Infinite. Anyone, with any body type or physical ability, can achieve mastery in asana.

Sutra 2.48: Flexibility, strength, tone, stress relief—these are the qualities most often listed as the benefits of asana practice. And it’s true; regular practitioners often report these benefits. But these are simply side benefits to the real purpose of practice: to be able to meet the ebb and flow of our lives with equanimity. When we practice with steadiness and comfort in mind, we balance our nervous system and cultivate mind-body calm. When we relax effort and let go into the moment-by-moment experience of asana, our minds become spacious and clear. By developing this state, we are able to approach our lives’ ups and downs with more grace. I don’t know about you, but I think this is an extraordinary claim for a physical practice.

So through the instrument of our own physical bodies, we can touch into spacious equanimity that expands outward into our everyday lives off the mat. This is the purpose of asana. It prepares our body-mind for meditation, but it also helps us integrate the meditative state into all our physical pursuits.

When we think of balancing in yoga, Tree Pose (Vrksasana) is often the first pose that comes to mind. Of course, there are lots of other poses that can challenge, and therefore cultivate, good balance. But how do we train our bodies to practice these poses? A while back, I posted a blog on the 6 Elements of Good Balance. All the elements of balance are of equal importance, but today’s post will focus on yoga for core strength as a way to stabilize our balance.

When most of us think of the core, we think of the abdominal muscles. But the core is a whole system. It includes the abdomen, sides and back; and even the abdominal organs. Wait … the organs? Yes, how the contents of the abdomen seat inside the structure can determine whether our core actually engages—or doesn’t.

In this post, I’ll suggest a short sequence that can help you stabilize your core, in order to support your body’s ability to stay in balance. But first, a lesson on a small bone that can make a big difference.

The Hyoid Bone and the Core

The hyoid bone is a small, u-shaped bone in the front of your neck that sits just below your chin and above your thyroid cartilage. Place your right thumb on the right side of your neck just below your chin and your index finger on the left side. You can feel the ridges on its surface if you palpate the area. Because it is the only bone in the body that is not attached to another bone it is quite mobile. If you press on it from the right, you will feel the left side pushing out against your index finger and vice versa. Its primary functions are to help move the tongue and to facilitate swallowing.

The position of this little bone powerfully affects your posture. If your chin and hyoid bone are jutting forward or your head is tilting back, your entire core—internal structures such as your organs—will push forward into your abdominal wall. When you draw your hyoid back, lengthening the back of your neck and lifting the base of your skull, your organs and abdominal wall draw back giving frontal support to your spine.

Core Stability in All Your Poses

So what does this have to do with core stability? If you are jutting your chin out and throwing your head back in Plank Pose (Phalakasana), Bird Dog Pose (Parsva Balasana), Four-Limbed Staff Pose (Chaturanga Dandasana), your organs and abdomen will sag toward the ground, making the pose even more difficult as your arms fight the weight of your core. Drawing your hyoid back allows your core to lift up into your back body, stabilizing your pose. You can apply this principle to literally every pose we practice in yoga. Yoga for core strength starts with keeping your head in a neutral position relative to your spine and drawing your hyoid bone back.

Yoga for Core Strength: A Short Sequence

I’ve designed this sequence to address all the different aspects of the core.Keep your hyoid bone in mind as you practice this sequence.

Bird Dog (Parsva Balasana) Flow

The Bird Dog Flow challenges balance while it stabilizes both the front and back sides of the core. Because our head position is horizontal, the flow stimulates the vestibular system. Here’s an explanation of the series.

Baby Backbends (Salabhasana Variations)

Baby backbends are often given short shrift in yoga classes. Because their movements are more subtle than, say, Upward Bow Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana), they’re often relegated to “beginning” classes. While Upward Bow requires more shoulder, spine and hip joint mobility than Locust Pose, it doesn’t require as much strength. In the so-called “baby” backbends, your back muscles are totally on their own, with no help from your limbs. Baby backbends are an essential tool in your yoga for core strength toolbox. Read this blog on a sequence for practicing baby backbends.

Downward Facing Dog Pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

Dog Pose is good for whatever ails you. It strengthens the core as it stretches the torso. The pose also stretches the shoulders and hamstrings, while it strengthens the upper body. Feel free to sprinkle Dog Pose in between poses throughout this series. Practice with bent knees so that you can focus on lengthening your torso.

Plank Pose (Phalakasana)

Plank Pose has replaced sit-ups as the mainstream ab-strengthening pose of choice. Even the U.S. military has replaced crunches and sit-ups with Plank Pose. Like Bird Dog Pose, Phalakasana strengthens both the front and back sides of the torso as it strengthens the upper body overall. Since we don’t yet have a post on the how-to on this blog, I’ll describe it here. You can practice with hands on the floor, or if you prefer to bypass the potential pressure on your hands and wrists, you can practice on your forearms.

How to Practice Plank Pose on Your Hands

1. Begin in Downward Facing Dog Pose on a Yoga Mat.
2. With your toes turned under, shift your body forward so that your shoulders are directly over your wrists.
3. Activate your legs by stretching your heels back, and make sure your hyoid bone is drawing back.
4. Your body should be in a straight line. If your pelvis is either too high or too low, your core will not engage. Raise and lower your pelvis until you feel your abs engage.
5. Stay for 3 to 5 deep breaths, or longer if you like.
6. Release your knees down to the floor and rest in Child’s Pose (Balasana).

How to Practice Plank Pose on Your Forearms

1. Begin in Tabletop Pose (Bharmanasana) on a Yoga Mat.
2. Place your elbows on the floor directly under your shoulders, and interlace your fingers.
3. Step your feet back. Activate your legs by stretching your heels back, and make sure your hyoid bone is drawing back.
4. Your body should be in a straight line. If your pelvis is either too high or too low, your core will not engage. Raise and lower your pelvis until you feel your abs engage.
5. Stay for 3 to 5 deep breaths, or longer if you like. In my classes, we practice the forearm version of the pose and stay for 60 seconds.
6. Release your knees down to the floor and rest in Child’s Pose.

Side Plank Pose (Vasisthasana)

Side Plank Pose strengthens the sides of the body as it promotes balance. In the traditional version of the pose, we practice with straight arms. As with Phalakasana, some people may benefit from practicing on their forearms instead. Here are a few posts that explain Vasisthasana and several wrist-saving variations:

Vasisthasana: Balancing Outside Your Comfort Zone

Side Plank: Strengthen Your Core, Save Your Wrists

Side Plank Pose: Vasisthasana

Finishing Up: Yoga for Core Strength

Now that your core is heated up, there are several directions you can go. Here are some poses you might want to practice to stretch the core:

• Supported Fish Pose (Matsyasana)
• Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)
• Revolved Belly Pose (Jathara Parivrttanasana)
• Seated Angle Pose (Upavista Konasana)
• Seated Forward Bend Pose (Paschimottanasana)

And of course, don’t forget to practice a nice, long Savasana (Final Relaxation).

Many years ago, my mother fell and broke her hip. Or maybe her hip broke and she fell as a result. Sometimes it’s impossible to know which is the chicken and which is the egg. At any rate, the fall was almost the end of her.

Long story short, after a stint in the hospital, she was progressing well in rehab. A day before she was to go back home, she went into kidney failure. Apparently, the combination of multiple medications was too much. Her caregivers stopped her medication completely and she slowly recovered. But the incident made me understand why it’s often said that falls can be the beginning of the end for older people.

More than 800,000 people are hospitalized each year for injuries stemming from falls. One out of five falls causes a serious injury such as broken bones or traumatic head injury. In fact, falls are the most common cause of traumatic brain injury. Here are some more stats on falls and their sometimes-catastrophic effects.

What is Balance and Why is it Important?

Put simply, balance is our ability to recognize our position relative to the objects around us, including the surface on which we’re standing or walking. A good sense of balance allows us to perform our daily tasks with a sense of stability and ease. For example, something as common as walking down the street and turning your head to talk to a friend requires a healthy sense of balance. Without balance, simple activities become not only challenging, but can even be dangerous.

As we age, some of the factors that contribute to good balance can begin to decrease. Eyesight can dim. Inner ear problems can disrupt the vestibular system. Neuropathy can decrease proprioception.

External causes such as slippery or uneven surfaces, intoxication or illness can cause falls. But they can also happen because of a lack of attention or underdeveloped proprioception. The good news is, yoga can help. Many asanas are specifically designed to improve balance. And the centering of our minds on our bodies sharpens mindfulness, so that we’re more apt to recognize subtler signs of imbalance in our bodies before we fall.

There are many yoga poses that support balance. All the standing poses—think Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), Virabhadrasana I and II (Warrior I and II), etc.—can help strengthen our legs and cultivate balance. And of course, the one-legged standing poses such as Vrksasana (Tree Pose) are balancing poses.

It’s important to challenge our balance in different ways. While we often think of standing balance poses when we’re hoping to cultivate proprioception, balancing in different orientations is also important. That’s why I’ve several types of balancing poses in the examples below.

Most important is to remember that balancing, like all asana, is a practice, not a performance. Meet your body where it is. For example, if you need to stand close to a wall in a standing balance pose, please do so. Even with that little bit of extra support, you’re still developing the skill of balancing.

5 Balancing Poses

1. Foot Massage: Giving attention to our feet, massaging them, exercising our toes, etc., keeps them healthy and responsive to whatever surface we’re negotiating. Start your practice with these simple exercises. But you needn’t limit it to your on-the-mat practice. You can also practice these while you’re sitting around watching TV or anytime you have a spare moment. One longtime student of mine who had never been able to balance on one leg practiced these daily for about nine months and was able to balance for the first time in her life! At the time she was in her 70s.
2. Vrksasana (Tree Pose): There are, of course, lots of standing poses you can practice to hone your balance. Follow the instructions in this post. It’s helpful to remember that even when you’re feeling shaky in your balance poses, you’re still learning the skill of balancing. When you’re flailing around trying not to fall in Tree Pose, you’re actually developing proprioception. So don’t feel discouraged. Remember, this is a practice, not a performance!
3. Parsva Balasana (Bird Dog Pose): As I explained above, it’s important to challenge our balance in different ways. Bird Dog Pose is a core strengthener and a balance pose. Because it strengthens the core—front, back and internal—it stabilizes us to increase balance. But the act of “standing” on one knee and one arm also develops proprioception. In addition, balancing with your head in a position other than upright helps stimulate your vestibular system. Read these instructions to help you refine your practice.
4. Ubhaya Padangusthasana (Both Hands and Big Toes Pose): This pose offers an opportunity to balance in yet another way—on your rear. Practicing this asana in its most common form, with the arms and legs straight, can be challenging if your hamstrings and calves are on the tighter side. Feel free to bend your knees and hold onto the backs of your thighs instead of holding your feet. This post can give you some pointers on practicing safely.
5. Savasana (Corpse Pose): Years ago I attended an early morning class that was only an hour long. The teachers reasoned that with such a short class, they didn’t need to include Savasana. While I enjoyed their teaching in the other asanas, the Savasana-free class always made me feel scattered and ungrounded. In retrospect, I can see that this is a recipe for moving through the rest of the day without a sense of balance. Savasana is, in fact one of yoga’s best balancing poses. It balances your body-mind at a deeper level than simply balancing on one leg. Give yourself 10 minutes if your practice is an hour or less, and 15 minutes or more if it’s longer.

Of course there are many more balancing poses than the five examples I’ve given. Inversions are great, and as I wrote above, all the wide-stance standing poses are helpful. The most important factor is the attention you bring to your body as you practice. Keep your focus inside your body, on the sensations you feel. Remember that frantic, shallow breathing creates agitation—not a great recipe for balancing. Make sure your breathing is continuous, deep and calm.

There’s a lot of debate in the blogging/social media world about what yoga is and is not. Popular yoga is often seen as a sped-up version of yoga asanas (postures). While a smaller, but just as vocal, camp see yoga as a whole system that includes meditation and daily life practice. As a yoga practitioner of almost 40 years, I fall into the second group. If I had to pick one aspect as the most basic foundation of yoga, I’d choose ahimsa.

Ahimsa is the first of the yamas, which comprise the first of yoga’s eight limbs, according to the yoga sutras. The yamas are moral/ethical guidelines for living consciously. Ahimsa is usually defined as non-harming. That’s a good start, but it’s more than that. Sutra scholar Alistair Shearer calls it “dynamic peacefulness.”

I love this definition. Instead of simply avoiding harm, the phrase suggests active participation in living a peaceful life. For me, it also implies a cultivated state of inner peace. We can act from this inner state of peace in our yoga practice and in our lives.

Ahimsa on the Yoga Mat

We can practice ahimsa on or off the mat. Here are some ways to explore ahimsa on the mat:

• Check Your Judgments: We all come to yoga practice with certain genetic and habitual physical qualities. Some of the qualities are conducive to certain poses. Some of them might hinder our ability to practice some poses. We are all different. Comparing yourself to others in the class can take the joy and spontaneity out of your yoga. Notice the times when you judge yourself in comparison to others—positively or negatively. (Then take care not to judge yourself for judging!) Notice how it feels. Instead, tune in to your internal experience in the pose. What can you learn?
• Check Your Breathing: Ultimately, our yoga practice should replenish our energies. But quite often, pushing and striving on the mat can actually deplete our energies. The most reliable way I’ve found to monitor my effort is to check in with my breathing. If I’m practicing at my intelligent edge, my breathing will be relaxed and deep. If I’m pushing up against my body’s limits, my breathing will feel shallow and restricted. Breathing deeply in yoga postures is what allows us to feel that incomparable calm energy after we finish Savasana (Relaxation Pose). If your breathing is restricted, back off and do less.
• Check Your Stretching: Yoga is most effective when we follow a “less is more” strategy. Western culture loves intensity and the “no pain, no gain” mentality. That’s not what asana practice is about. Pain is a signal that we may be causing harm. Aim for a mild to moderate stretch, one that gives you room to explore.

Cultivating Dynamic Peacefulness

Ahimsa off the mat is a huge practice. You could spend the rest of your life just focusing on this single yama. In my book, Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life, I go into much more detail about some of the ways of practicing ahimsa, but here are a few ideas:

• Think Before You Act: The tricky thing about ahimsa is that non-harming action can differ depending on the situation. Let go of evaluating actions as “good” or “bad.” Instead, as you consider taking an action, ponder whether you believe your action has potential to cause harm or to bring happiness. Also, ponder your intentions. Are you considering taking action out of anger, greed, jealousy or some other unskillful mental state? Or are you taking action out of compassion, kindness, generosity or some other skillful state? Mindful speech is a huge area of exploration. Here are some ideas for refining your speech.
• Cultivate Dynamic Peacefulness: When our actions are aligned with our integrity, and our choices are skillful, we naturally feel more peaceful. So practicing the above suggestion can go a long way toward cultivating dynamic peacefulness. But we can do this in our meditation and yoga practice as well. You can practice the above “Ahimsa on the Yoga Mat” suggestions. You can also take time to practice mindfulness and kindness meditations. Ultimately, we want the state of dynamic peacefulness to be where we are coming from, so that ahimsa guides our actions naturally.
• Consider Your Choices: We can express ahimsa in our lifestyle choices. For example, we can choose to buy products that are friendly to the Earth. Or we can choose whether or not to eat animals. This is a tricky one, often fraught with judgment. For some of us, the choice is easy because going meatless feels good. For others whose bodies thrive on animal products, the ahimsa-informed choice might be to consume meat. To start, pick one area that you feel passionate about—living small, getting involved in charitable causes, being available to struggling friends or family members. There are lots of ways to cultivate dynamic peacefulness in your life. What do you feel passionate about?

Please let us know how you cultivate ahimsa, on and off the mat.

One of yoga practice’s great gifts is its emphasis on balancing. Poses such as Vrksasana (Tree Pose) are an integral part of almost every form of practice. The ability to balance is a crucial part of healthy aging, and it can be helpful to develop balancing skills as early as possible. Conventional wisdom has it that a thinner Yoga Mat (⅛ inch or less, or 1.5mm to 3.5mm) is most conducive to staying on our feet during one-legged balancing poses. The thinner the mat, the less your standing foot is going to need to make adjustments. But is that optimal? After almost 40 years of yoga teaching, my unequivocal answer is: it depends. So what is the best yoga mat for balancing?

The Best Yoga Mat for Balancing Depends on Your Intention

Counterintuitive as it may sound, the mat I usually use for teaching yoga—even in classes where we practice lots of standing balancing poses—is the Ultimate Cushion Yoga Mat. At ⅜ inch, it’s the thickest mat Hugger Mugger offers. (I alternate between this mat and the Para Rubber Yoga Mat (3/16″)).

Why would I want to make it harder on myself? I practice balancing poses to cultivate and maintain my balancing skills. Sure, I can more easily perform balancing poses on a thinner mat, but I want to challenge my balance. That’s the way we build balancing skills—by balancing in challenging situations. So, to accomplish my objective in practicing balancing poses, the best yoga mats for balancing are the thicker, more challenging ones.

Because I have a longstanding relationship with Hugger Mugger Yoga Products, I’ve bought many mats from them over the years. I find that balancing on different types of surfaces—and mats of different thicknesses—is important for building balancing skills. So sometimes I practice on thick mats, and sometimes I practice on thin mats. I also place my mats on various surfaces. While wood and surfaces such as concrete are the most reliable, I think it’s helpful to practice balancing on soft, squishy surfaces, such as carpeting, as well.

It’s important to respect where you are. If your balance is generally unstable, practicing on a thinner Yoga Mat is a good place to start. Once you feel stable in balancing poses on a thin mat, then you can begin challenging your balance on a thicker mat.

Balancing On and Off the Yoga Mat

Practicing yoga on various mat types and floor types is not the only way to hone your balance. Here are some suggestions for taking your balancing practice off the mat:

• Practice balancing in different types of shoes—thick soles, cushy soles, thin soles, etc. Unless you regularly wear heels, I wouldn’t recommend practicing yoga in them. (For that matter I would recommend avoiding or minimizing wearing heels in general, because of the havoc they wreak on the integrity of your musculoskeletal system.)
• Practice outdoors. Hiking trails are rarely completely level. Walking, and practicing balancing poses, on uneven surfaces challenge your feet to balance in a different way. Next time you take a hike, stop for a minute or so and practice a one-legged balancing pose—Tree Pose seems appropriate when you’re in the woods—on an uneven surface.

If you’d like to learn more about the elements of developing stable balance, here’s a recent blog.

Why practice yoga? There is a multitude of different answers to this question. As with any longterm relationship, over time, our practice evolves; it ebbs and flows. Sometimes our practice feels fresh and vital; other times it may feel as if we’ve hit a plateau. At times we may drop the practice for a while, and at others we may look forward to stepping onto the mat or sitting on our meditation cushion. It can be helpful to remember why we decided to prioritize yoga practice in the first place. Reflecting on our initial motivation to practice can help us maintain not only consistency, but also inspiration.

3 Tips for Developing Motivation to Practice

When I look at my motivation to practice, I’ve found that it’s really simple. I practice because after 37 years of meditation and 43 years of yoga, I recognize the immeasurable value they bring to my life. I don’t practice because some awful harm would befall me if I don’t. It’s not simply something I’ve added to my daily to-do list. It’s not a should. I trust the practice. I have faith in the practice. And it’s not blind faith, but a faith that’s been verified through decades of experience.

How do we develop motivation to practice? Whether our core practice is yoga or meditation, we often need to be reminded why we’re doing it. Here are some tips for staying on the path:

• Think of your practice as part of your morning ritual, a way to maintain the health of your body/mind. We don’t think twice about eating a decent breakfast, brushing our teeth, showering, etc. Yoga and meditation practices are they ways we bring equilibrium to our bodies and minds.
• When you set aside the time to practice, give it your full attention. You’ve got plenty of time to go over your to-do list, or to reflect on that difficult conversation you had with someone yesterday. You’ve got time to formulate your reply to that person—later. Use your practice time to invest your full awareness into what you feel in your body and mind, here and now. Your practice time is precious. It deserves your attention and care.
• Reflect on the value of your practice in your daily life. According to the yoga sutras, the benefit of asana practice is the cultivation of equanimity in the face of the ups and downs of our lives. This can apply to minute daily annoyances, or it can apply to major challenges and losses. The benefits can be subtle or obvious. What benefits have you experienced? Reflecting on this can remind you why you practice and can help you stay motivated.

Trust Your Yoga and Meditation Practices

Reflecting on the value of practice in your life can be tricky. While there are benefits you can feel right away when you practice yoga and meditation, some of the deeper benefits are subtle. This is where reflecting on the millennia-long history of these practices can be helpful. Yoga and meditation have survived for thousands of years. They’ve survived because millions of people have reaped their benefits. So even if you’re just starting out, and the benefits you experience are on the subtler side, trust the process. Approach your practice with an open, curious mind. Reflect on why you love your practice. Then grab your meditation cushion or your yoga mat, open your mind and see where your practice takes you today.

I recently published a blog on the 6 Elements of Balancing. First on the list of the balancing essentials is healthy, stable and sensitive feet. In this post, I’ll introduce some foot yoga, to help you give your feet the TLC they deserve. 

I’ve been blessed with many longtime yoga students. Many have attended my classes for more than 10 years, some for more than 20. It’s a privilege to move through life’s inevitable ups and downs with such a solid core of wise and wonderful humans.

I met one of these students—I’ll call her Patricia—in the late ’80s. At that time she was in her 50s. She came to classes regularly for more than 20 years, participating fully into her late 70s. Balancing on one leg was her one nemesis. For decades she propped herself against the wall in order to practice such staples as Tree Pose.

Foot Yoga and Balancing

In the early 2000s, Washington DC-based teacher Jenny Otto taught a workshop in Salt Lake. She began each class with a five-minute foot massage that included spreading the toes; massaging the toes, balls, arches and heels; and rolling a tennis ball under each foot. She preached the importance of tending to our feet every day as we age—a process that is happening to all of us no matter when we were born.

The next week, I brought Jenny’s foot massage to my classes. My students loved it and we practiced it regularly. Six months later, Patricia was balancing on one leg—without the wall—for the first time in her 20-plus years of practice.

Foot Yoga and Healthy Aging

Not long after Jenny Otto introduced me to foot massage, an article in The New Yorker (“The Way We Age Now,” April 30, 2007) described how leading geriatrician Dr. Juergen Bludau spent most of a new patient’s initial exam looking at her feet. He claimed that the condition of a person’s feet tells an important story about her general health. According to the article, the greatest risk for most of us as we age is not what we might think. Our greatest overall risk is falling.

The article’s author, Atul Gawande, writes: “Each year, about three hundred and fifty thousand Americans fall and break a hip. Of those, forty per cent end up in a nursing home, and twenty per cent are never able to walk again. The three primary risk factors for falling are poor balance, taking more than four prescription medications, and muscle weakness. Elderly people without these risk factors have a twelve-per-cent chance of falling in a year. Those with all three risk factors have almost a hundred-per-cent chance.” I find these numbers staggering—so to speak.

Our Amazing Feet

In early June I reconnected with Mark Bouckoms, a yoga teacher from New Zealand who co-taught a teacher training here with Donna Farhi in 1996. In his workshop, he spoke about the importance of the feet in traditional yoga practice. Our feet are our most powerful energy source, he said. They contain a plethora of marma points, gateways to the connective tissue and the nadis, the subtle lines that channel energy to every cell in the body. The 72,000 nadis and their 108 marma points are Ayurveda’s answer to the Chinese meridian system.

In Mark’s workshop, we started each practice tending to our feet. In my classes, even if we don’t go through the full foot regimen, we always begin each class by rolling massage peanuts under our feet to stimulate the connective tissue via marma points. Most people feel marked differences in the two sides of their bodies after simply rolling a massage peanut under one foot for about 30 seconds.

Nice Things You Can Do for Your Feet

Walk barefoot. Direct contact, especially with uneven surfaces stimulates the connections between your feet’s 11 stretch-sensing muscles and your brain.

Avoid high heels. I’m well aware that heels are de rigueur for many special occasions. (I recently read about some women that were denied red carpet access at a swanky awards show because they wore flats!) And some people just enjoy wearing them. But there are many ways in which heels can cause major damage to your feet, knees, hips, back and everything above, but that’s another article. If you want to wear them, do so sparingly.

I hate to say this because they are a summer favorite for so many, but flip-flops are not great either. Your toes have to work very hard to keep them from falling off. This creates a whole lot of tension in your feet and toes. It’s fine to wear them for running errands and for short walks, but stick with more substantial sandals or shoes for extensive walking.

Massage Your Feet

• Sit on the floor with legs extended. Bend your right knee and place your ankle across your left thigh. Thread the fingers of your left hand between your toes.
• With your fingers between your toes, circle your ankles about 8-10 times each direction. Then flex and extend the balls of your feet 8-10 times and twist them 8-10 times.
• Remove your fingers and massage the balls of your feet and toes for 15-30 seconds or more. Find your “bubbling spring” point (Kidney 1 in Chinese medicine), a pronounced depression located between the first and second metatarsals just below the ball of your foot. It’s easy to find. It’s a power point that, when stimulated, is said to send a spiral of power through your body. Spend some time—30-60 seconds—massaging it.
• Massage your arches. One of my students, a body worker who knows reflexology, says this stimulates and calms your “guts,” the vital organs.
• Straighten out your leg and let it settle. Repeat on your left foot.
• Stand up and roll a tennis ball under each foot for 30-60 seconds. After your first foot, take a moment to feel any differences between the two sides of your body, all the way up to your neck and shoulders.

We rely on our feet all day long, way more than we realize or appreciate. Take some time—five minutes—each day to give them some TLC. Your feet will return the favor by keeping you stable and upright.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), falls are the leading cause of injury or injury-related death in older adults in the United States. There are many reasons that older adults are more susceptible to falling, and to suffering serious injury after a fall. Bone and muscle loss are a natural part of aging, sapping our strength and stability. Hearing impairment can affect your vestibular system’s ability to keep you in balance. Some common prescription drugs can cause dizziness. The good news is that yoga can help. In future posts, I’ll make suggestions for yoga practices that can help us build balancing skills. In today’s post, I’ll describe six factors to consider when creating a practice for good balance.

Good Balance is More than Just Tree Pose

Practicing Tree Pose (Vrksasana) can definitely be a part of your balance-building regimen. But there’s more to it. Maintaining good balance over your lifetime requires considering the whole body/mind spectrum, and yoga can go a long way toward honing the skills that contribute to balance.

Here’s a list of what I know to be elements of steady balance. There may well be more that I haven’t learned about yet. This is an ongoing area of study for me, so I’d love to hear from readers who can share more information.

Element #1: Strong, Sensitive Feet

Our feet are our foundation. And yet, we tend not to give them the attention they deserve. Our feet can lose sensitivity over time, due to neuropathy, keeping them in tight or ill-fitting shoes, and due to general aging. In order to maintain good balance, our feet need to be strong, mobile and sensitive. Strength requires using them—walking, running, practicing yoga’s standing poses. Our toes are intimately involved in balance, so they need to be able to move freely. It’s also important to be able to feel how our feet are articulating with the ground, so we can detect when our feet are grounding unevenly.

Element #2: Bone and Muscle Strength

You may be surprised to learn that muscle mass begins to decrease in our 30s. It’s true, and the rate of decrease accelerates around age 60. Muscle strength and mass are crucial in maintaining bone health. Weight-bearing exercise like yoga and strength training can help us maintain overall muscle and bone health.

Element #3: Core Strength

A strong core—both abdominal muscles and back muscles—stabilizes the whole body, helping us maintain good balance. In turn, balancing exercises can help us maintain a strong core. Think poses like Boat Pose (Navasana), Bridge Pose (Setu Bandhasana) and the baby backbends like Locust Pose (Salabhasana).

Element #4: Flexibility

It’s inevitable that we will, at times, lose our balance. But when we do, it’s important that our bodies are able to recover, which can help prevent us from falling when we lose our balance. This means that we have to have movement options. A body with stiff joints simply will be less likely to stay upright when we trip, twist an ankle or falter while walking on uneven ground. Yoga, of course, is especially suited to promoting flexibility.

Element #5: Vestibular System

According to the Cleveland Clinic: “The vestibular system includes sensory organs in your inner ear that help you maintain your sense of balance. We’re constantly in motion, and so is the world around us. The vestibular system, when it’s working, helps your body understand how you’re moving and how things around you are moving to help maintain your balance or steadiness.” Yoga is unique among physical practices in that many of the poses require our heads to be in positions other than upright, which stimulates and strengthens our vestibular system.

Element #6: Concentration

Many falls happen when we’re simply not paying attention. We may be hiking on uneven terrain and thinking about something else entirely when we trip over a rock and fall. Or we may be practicing Tree Pose and lost in thought when our balance suddenly falters. In any case, paying attention to our movements, our environment, our posture, the relationship of our feet to the ground—all these things can help us balance. Mindfulness practice is key to helping us develop concentration skills.

In Conclusion: Build a Yoga Practice for Good Balance

In fashioning a yoga practice for good balance, we need to consider all these elements. Over the coming weeks, and perhaps, months, I’ll be sharing practices I know to be helpful. Yoga can be a wonderful ally in keeping us upright. In the meantime, practice poses you know to strengthen, stabilize, stretch and promote steady balance.

A few years ago there was yoga culture controversy over a teacher who was fired from a corporate yoga class for discouraging cell phones in yoga class. Hired by the company to provide a yoga break for employees, the teacher shot a student a disapproving look when that student in the front row interrupted practice to tap out a text in the middle of class. Apparently the dirty look was enough to get the teacher fired.

Whether or not you approve of cell phones in yoga class, I suppose a corporation who hires a teacher has the right to let that teacher go if she is not following their rules. Fair enough.

By the same token, a teacher has every right to set parameters about a whole range of student behaviors, including allowing or disallowing cell phones, in her own classes. However, the situation gets murky when that teacher is representing a corporation with its own set of rules. Still, it seems a little odd that the teacher’s employer’s first response would be to fire her rather than make her aware of their specific cell phone rules and give her another chance.

Cell Phones in Yoga Class

I very much appreciate being unreachable at times. As an introverted type, I need alone time, without the distractions of phone calls and emails, in order to function at my full potential. The idea of setting my phone next to my yoga mat in my home yoga practice—let alone in a class—so that I can keep up with my emails, phone messages or Facebook feed is unthinkable. When I’m practicing yoga and meditation, my practice works better and feels better if I focus on what’s happening in my body/mind in the present moment.

All this said, I have not banned cell phones from my classes. This is not because I think it’s okay for students to text, talk, or engage with social media in yoga class. It is because my students are mature and considerate enough to understand that fussing with cell phones in yoga class would be inconsiderate to everyone else in the class. I’ve never had to spell out a cell phone rule. My students just get it.

It’s Never Black and White

From what I’ve read in the yoga blogosphere, this is not always the case. In larger studios, people do keep their cell phones with them, ringers on and answer ready. If this is the teacher’s and studio’s wish—to allow cell phones—if all parties know this going into a class situation, then it is certainly their prerogative to come to that agreement. This would not be a class I would want to attend or teach, but that is my prerogative. We all have choices.

There have been maybe a dozen instances over my 39 years of teaching in which a student has alerted me to the fact that she may receive a phone call in class because of some emergency situation. These students have always left the room to talk, and have always let me know beforehand. I am completely fine with this. We all have lives outside yoga, and some things are more important than uninterrupted practice. Fortunately, my other students can roll with these situations.

If you’re a teacher, do you allow cell phones in yoga class? If you’re a student, would you like to be able to use your phone in class, or are you happy for the technology break?