Yoga

Yoga

Some years ago, I was working at my desk and realized that I had misplaced a bill that was due. While I anxiously searched for it, my then 4-year-old daughter came into the room and asked for my attention. I said that I was busy looking for something important and to come back later. In a few minutes she returned and asked quietly, "Have you found yourself yet, Mommy?" I was humbled by her question.

In today's fast-paced world, stress, anxiety, and constant mental noise have become part of daily life. Many people search for simple and natural ways to feel calmer, more focused, and emotionally balanced. This is where meditation comes in. Meditation is not about escaping life or forcing the mind to be empty. Instead, it is a practical skill that trains the mind to become more aware, steady, and present.

A cazimi, derived from the Arabic term kaṣmīmī meaning "in the heart," is when a planet draws close to the Sun. In our solar system and in astrology, the Sun is the essence of all life. As Venus in Capricorn enters into the heart of the Sun this week on January 6. 2026, she is 0ffered vitality, awareness, and the very source of life itself.

When life feels chaotic and your mind is spinning, a short yoga flow can help you slow down, breathe, and come back to your center. Rather than the nonstop twists and turns of some sequences, this practice helps you find your rhythm by taking your body through simple, repetitive movement, which offers your mind a place to find stillness. With its various iterations of the classic Sun Salutation A and B, this fluid practice grounds your energy and clears mental clutter.

The new wellness is not constant repair, but constant care. Compassion. Joy. Appreciation for what currently exists even as any intentional changes continue to unfold. The last several years have already been a time of refining, unlearning, and becoming for myself and many of us. Not arriving. Not fixing. Just existing within the process rather than being exclusively focused on the destination and ignoring, well, life.

You've glimpsed mat-toting, athleisure-wearing students emerge from a yoga studio. You've watched countless Instagram reels of people making incredible shapes with their bodies and moving fluently in between them. Perhaps you've even practiced Child's Pose, Cat-Cow, or Downward-Facing Dog during your favorite exercise class (even if the instructor doesn't call them that). Now, you're ready. Still, the question might be hanging over your head: what, if anything, do you actually need before you start yoga?

Lauren, a Los Angeles yoga teacher, slipped in a lunge while teaching and injured her ankle. Because she's a practice-through-the-pain kind of yogi, she didn't even stop to assess the injury before continuing her class. When she finally got to the doctor, she discovered she would have to stay off the ankle for at least a month. For Lauren, this triggered a deep identity crisis.

You finally get to your mat. As you begin to slow your breath and find the familiar shapes of poses, you can feel the emotional relief. You can also feel the nagging thoughts about that email you didn't return and the ruminations about that meeting that you're still reliving. Or maybe by the time you land in Warrior I you've already half-written a mental grocery list. You're checked out of your practice. Again.

Much like a lotus flower, Lotus Pose invites the body to find stillness and only truly bloom when ready. Patience and contentment must be practiced along the way if you are to truly embody the power of the pose. Lotus pose is a great posture to work towards when practicing contentment because there are many stops along the journey that help you get closer and closer to the full expression of the pose.

Movement of Mercury is movement of our minds. Each time the planet transitions between signs, it brings a shift of focus, perspective, intent, and thinking. In Capricorn, it brings grounding, quiet focus, and practical application of what we want to bring into the new year. We already have a planetary gathering in Capricorn this week of the Sun, Venus, and Mars. We are ensconced in Capricorn land. This is where our visions of what we want to create ask for commitment.

This week's practice invites us to soften, unclench, and let go - not by forcing release, but by creating the space for it to arrive naturally. As we move toward Pigeon Pose, we'll explore the hips and heart with mindful intention, offering ourselves permission to release tension and get rid of anything that doesn't contribute to our peace of mind. Let your breath be the gas to power the vehicle (your body) that moves you.

At some point when I was running around doing a bunch of people's work for a project that was supposed to be supported by an entire group, I thought, "Wait a minute. Why am I in this by myself?! Then I remembered something that I'd heard from someone a few years prior that basically asserted non-reciprocal relationships are abusive relationships.

However, it is regrettable that an organisation such as the World Health Organization appears willing to promote the incorporation of traditional and other medicines into mainstream practice by leaning heavily on emotive language heritage, tradition, and the sharing of local resources rather than on clinical evidence. Then it appears to contradict itself by saying that it doesn't support it if there isn't robust and reliable evidence.

When temperatures drop, we cover ourselves with puffy jackets, burrow underneath blankets, and keep an endless supply of warm tea on standby. Maybe yoga is the last thing on your mind (especially when it involves abandoning your protective layers). But unlike the temporary fixes that you reach for when you're feeling chilly, yoga generates warmth from the inside out. These static and dynamic postures are sorta like your body's personal space heater that you can turn on whenever you need it.

Tis the season to be jolly...and overworked, frazzled, exhausted, freezing, overcommitted, a little broke, and stressed out. The days are shorter, the nights colder, and the to-do lists longer. There are backyards to winterize, presents to buy, parties to attend, cookies to decorate, professional projects to wrap up, children's recitals and plays to attend, roofs to repair thanks to the first big storm, and end-of-the-year reviews to endure.

To get a better understanding of how structured breathing patterns can reshape both body and mind, let's delve into the science behind Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (also known as SKY Breath). From nervous system regulation to hormonal balance and brainwave modulation, we'll unravel the physiological mechanisms that explain how targeted breathwork can transform physical and mental health. Modern life bombards us with stressors-tight deadlines, endless notifications, and constant stimulation-that keep our stress response perpetually activated.

The upcoming new Moon takes place in the expansive realm of Sagittarius. Ruled by fire and Jupiter, Sagittarius embodies the spirit of the eternal student, philosopher, and adventurer. This sign teaches us that life is one continuous learning experience, with every person we meet serving as a teacher and every situation we encounter offering wisdom. Sagittarius sparks a fire within us to explore our horizons, broaden our perspectives, and find meaning in our every experience.

Thailand is now one of the top places in the world for yoga retreats. It offers ancient wellness traditions along with tropical beauty, warm hospitality, and modern comforts. A yoga retreat in Thailand offers the perfect balance of relaxation, self-care, cultural exploration, and mindful living. Whether you are new or experienced, Thailand is a great place to refresh your body, relax your mind, and reconnect with yourself.

While this asana (pose) appears to be a simple forward bend, Paschimottanasana (Sanskrit for intensive stretch to the West or back of the body) is the most difficult forward bend for most students to practice correctly. What makes the pose so difficult is that the hamstring muscles in the back of the thigh must lengthen in order for the pelvis to rotate forward. This allows the spinal column to remain relatively straight while bending forward.

Have you ever struggled to feel warm in cold weather, even when bundled up? Maybe you've wondered how that's even possible-after all, how can you be cold when you're wearing seven layers? But when temperatures drop, it's not just the world around you that cools down. During the winter, your circulation slows down and blood flow diverts from your extremities to protect your core. That's why your hands and feet often feel icy even when you're wearing cozy clothes.

This pose offers the benefits of inversions, such as increased circulation to the upper body. Like the other classical inverted poses of Sirsasana (Headstand) and Sarvangasana ( Shoulderstand), it also teaches the student poise. The nervous system controls movement through learned patterns in which groups of muscles and joints act habitually to produce desired results. In turn, this movement produces feedback, which informs the nervous system where one is in space in relation to gravity.

The breath plays an important part here. If the breath is held, a hardness pervades the abdomen and disallows what Iyengar considers the full benefits to the internal organs. It is therefore important to keep the abdomen as relaxed as possible, and the breath moving and soft. Although it is difficult to breathe as deeply when in the pose as you might if you were just sitting, the breath nonetheless should be as relaxed as possible.

Although this 20-minute yoga practice won't change the chaos of your day or your seemingly endless to-do list, it will slow you down long enough to change how you show up to them. Basically, it's designed to help you escape from life just long enough so you can feel more calm and like yourself when you return to (gestures at everything).

Over time, though, Chaturanga has become a great friend and teacher, helping me to develop the strength and stability that once seemed elusive and imprint actions and principles that serve throughout my practice. The pose is challenging for many students, but its payoffs are great: It strengthens the arms and legs, tones the abdominals, builds healthy shoulders, and prepares students for arm balances, inversions, and backbends.

As early as 2015, a conference at Harvard Medical School examined links between fascia, acupuncture and oncology; the lectures remain available online and underline how much more we need to understand about fascia's role in medicine. Manual therapists have long recognised the importance of working with fascia. Andrew Taylor Still, the founder of osteopathy, stressed its significance, and newer approaches such as the Bowen technique aim to improve hydration, proprioception and flexibility by engaging fascia gently but directly.

What's especially helpful about these is that you can incorporate them into your existing yoga practice or gym workout. They also bring a surprise factor in that they're not things that you might normally think to try on your mat. Even better, it's not an entire 30-minute strength conditioning workout. It's simple drills you can rely on every single day to strengthen your shoulders.

Even now, just the word "loneliness" can trigger the emotion-part melancholy and part loss-of those days. It was only after I had been doing spiritual practice for quite some time that I began to see that the emotion of loneliness is not just personal. Like anger and fear, loneliness is one of those universal, primal emotions, a groove in humanity's subconscious.

Venus is love, beauty, worth, abundance, magnetism, and balance. She is connection, art, value, and creativity. Each time Venus shifts into a new sign, we are brought a different experience of our worthiness. It's an invitation to embody it in a different way, to meet any spaces that question it, and explore renewed trust in our desires. Venus reminds us that life can be beautiful, that our body is art, our desires are maps, and our value is unquestionable.

On the second day of a workshop I'm teaching, called The Art of Letting Go, I've planned a discussion of the yogic practice of releasing our tendency to over-control situations. My intention is that people will recognize how much pain they create when they try to control every little thing in their lives-and that they learn how to let go.

A decade ago, it seemed as though the high-tech smart yoga mat revolution was poised to arrive. The TERA Mat, the Glow Mat, and the SmartMat were widely anticipated and rumored to change the game with embedded lights designed to indicate "proper" alignment. The same benefits one could get from a yoga teacher were purportedly reduced to pressure sensors and LEDs.

As defined by brands and advertisers, the holidays mean socializing, decorating, gift buying, cooking, traveling, and forced socializing. For many of us, that feels like barely contained chaos. Yes, it can be lovely to partake in the spirit of giving and gratitude and all that comes with it. But it's entirely too easy, amid the endless tasks and commitments, to lose yourself and forget about the things that keep you grounded.

The best part about reading? No matter what type of book you choose, it inevitably helps you escape life for a little while also bringing you a more sharpened understanding of your existence. Whether you're looking to lose or find yourself, books are typically the answer. And our best books of 2025 definitely deliver. Following are the titles that we found difficult to put down throughout the last 12 months. Whether you're looking to expand your knowledge, flip your perspective, enhance your awareness of self and others, or simply bust yourself out of a rut, the following are our recommendations, in no particular order.

Over the last decade, astrology has gone mainstream in a major way. It seems like every brand wants to offer you something-a coffee, a book recommendation, a t-shirt-based on your personal astrology. Because of this, whether you live in accordance with astrology or are only semi-aware of it, chances are you at least know your zodiac sign. ...or do you? Your birthday dictates your Sun sign. Adding birth location and time into the mix is enough to create an entire birth chart (a snapshot of the placement of the stars and planets the moment you came into the world and of your personality as a whole). But it turns out that different traditions assign these signs in different ways-meaning the zodiac symbol you identify with may not be your only (or even true) Sun sign.