. yoga

When you do things TO the body and the breath, you might develop control of how you move and breathe, but you will be exaggerating the separation between yourself and your body. And separation is at the source of any physical/emotional issue you are using your yoga to redress...
Here I offer a clear and practical explanation of the difference between this, and relating to the world THROUGH your body and breath, which unites you with both. Follow my suggestions and feel the difference in yourself ... if you like the feeling, it will change your practice forever...
If you have a few yoga years under your belt and would like to do my deep dive into pranayama course, go to https://www.acquaviva.yoga/the-sacred-breath-1

All of these things are to do with how we hold our weight up ... Here I show you how to become light, by giving your weight to to ground instead of to your back and joints... Enjoy!

Leg extensions - the way to do it that makes you want to do it all the time....

(plus my thoughts on Astanga)

How to liberate the upper spine for the true 'yoga' experience of these extension postures.

The solution to tight hamstrings...
When your hamstrings are tight, it is usually because they are overly involved with your support strategy. Here I explain what might cause this, and then offer a practice that is very likely to lead to a completely different somatic experience of opening out the legs, together with actually being able to let go of the habitual hamstring resistance, so they can be 'stretched' without the usual problems that go with attempting to do this.

The best way to massage them, and how to do any kind of balance.

If you want freedom in your body, the feet are far more important than you might think. Here I explain why problems with knees/hips lower back (and the rest of you) might well be sourced in feet that have become dull.
I show you the best way to massage your feet. and then give you an experience of the difference between supporting yourself over your foot compared to supporting yourself WITH your foot. I then add some details so you can take it into something like tree pose.

Sitting and twisting is a simple enough thing to do, but are you interested in HOW you do it?
If you are someone with tight groins, you will pull yourself round with your groins; if you have lower back issues, you will probably be twisting from there, and if the uppers spine is stiff you will probably pull yourself round with your arms and neck. With a willingness to explore the 'how' of it, sitting twists can help you re-balance whole-body movements in a way that can relieve you of most common-place postural issues... (apologies - the sound is not that good, but the content is really transformational if you can follow it)

How to release the groins whilst using the legs (squat and happy baby)

Frozen shoulder, tight ham strings, stiff neck....

Does your back pinch in sphynx & cobra? That can disappear with a simple shift of perspective and intention (plus some quite intense work - which should feel pleasant to do)

Boat pose ... how to approach so that you don't end up creating problems for your hips and groins... (if you already have these problems - perhaps just engage with the approach until the posture feels possible)... Enjoy!

How to 'open the hips' when there is groin pain/damage (or if there is basically resistance from the muscles and tendons around the hips)

Do you get dead legs/feet, painful knees, hips/lower back when you sit for any length of time? Here's why, and what you can do to solve these very common problems.

"Applying the solutions isn't easy because it will be all so 'counterintuitive' - here is my response to someone that wasn't sure about the intensity involved...
I did say you might need to let go of the idea of it being relaxing to start with! You can relax when there's balance over your base and through your spine, but to start with it most probably won't be comfortable! ... because the tissue around bones and joints won't be used to the arrangement... If you can relax into a new balanced arrangement, the tissue gradually changes to accommodate, and once it changes it will become both relaxed and more comfortable... and you will be generally more aligned... hope that makes sense. Marc"

Today I tackle the sticky problem of 'frozen shoulder'.
And I also have a go at hanumanasana (splits) - something I haven't tried for 20 years - but with the intention of ...
1. Seeing what happens when I apply my 'principles' of support and good relationships in approach
2. Seeing what the benefits of doing it are...

Here's another yoga solutions half hour session offering solutions to difficult legs in dog pose (and other inverteds) ...

Like all potential functional movements of the human body, your somatic experience of side-bending will of course depend entirely on how you are doing it. And how you are doing it will depend on WHY.
Here I give you ways of understanding and engaging with side-bending in ways that should make total sense to your body. But as always, it will involve you tuning into the natural function of the thing so your yoga can point you in the most harmonious directions.

The way we respond to the earth beneath us with our feet is literally the foundation of our entire support system. Waking up the feet to the degree they need to actually support us is the most fundamentally important thing to understand, because without it, yoga is just like developing a 10 storey building on sand. The right foundations lead to a supportive strength that is uncontrived, and all practices you build upon it can become natural responses rather than tension and holding patterns.

Pregnancy often comes with postural difficulties that can continue long after the birth (aggravated by baby carrying). And there are many common-place 'fix-it' ideas people turn to that simply don't work in any real way.
After a question on my group about this subject, I felt it was an important enough subject to put on a FREE live workshop for anyone that wishes to attend.
You don't have to be pregnant to get the enormous benefit that this workshop will offer you, but if you are, or if you work with pregnancy on any level, I would recommend going through this video from beginning to the end.
If you know my work, you know that I am all about real solutions that work for people, so do go to facebook at this link: www.bit.ly/fb-pregnancy , and tag people you know would benefit from exposure to this (basically anyone with lower back pain), and feel free to share it anywhere that allows it.

On this masterclass I build up a kind of general understanding of joints and the muscular response in the two dimensions around them, then in practice how we need to expand understanding into 3 dimensions to find practical solutions

Here I shared a trick I use to help both myself and others to have the experience of spine/core centred movement without the reactions and control of the head and neck... the result is a release of tension and subsequent freedom in the face & neck.

On today's session I went quite deep into why a large proportion of us that practice yoga get stuck around up the upper spine (thoracic ~ from the neck down to the heart)...stiffness here leads to neck/shoulder pain and keeps you from the truly glorious experience of being able to release into elongation through the spine.
I of course offer a practice the helps you find what you need ...

I start with a way of understanding limbs that should give you a clue of how to practice in a way that will solve knee problems (and elbow issues) - which will incidentally shift your understanding of all yoga practice…
I then got on to the important subject of mental health, anxiety, stress and the breath. And the even more significant subject of how we interpret the sensations and efforts/tensions that the body is displaying. I then got on to pranayama and posture as a practical way of exploring what the body is trying to tell us…

How to be kind to your SI joints...
In response to a request from a regular, I want to offer something to help anyone that feels a strong reaction around the Sacro-illiac joint.
Its a scary thing when it happens, so I want to give some context of how to look at :
1. things you can do to discover why it might be happening
2. things you can then do to help it out.
3. things you need to practice (and relationships you need to find) in order for it to not happen again.
ps. if you don't have a problem, this practice is the best way to make sure you never develop one.

I start with the common issue of fear in headstand, then I explain what to do to release the fear, as well as the advantages of actually approaching the practice of headstand. I also offer an explanation of the two oppositional sets of instructions you might come across from different teachers. And the video ends up with practices you can do for yourself even if you never actually do headstand, and a way of getting into the actual posture that leads to the best outcome...

Something for your hips, lower back, and a potential solution for sciatica...
I began with something about the necessity of understanding that your yoga is a relationship and that the relationship itself needs tending to... I then offer a precise way of relieving sciatica, lower back and hip tension...
NB.
if you have sciatica and want to try this out to begin to solve the issue, I would rather you at least begin supervised... so book a free 15 mins with me so I can check you have the right idea ... otherwise you MUST take full responsibility for how you work with your own body - applying yourself to my suggestions IS exactly this.
www.acquaviva.yoga/book-online

Seated forward bends are the nemesis of many yoga practitioners... Here I explain, deconstruct and show ways of approaching that can solve most of the usual complications.

Simplicity - your relationships with above and below, and the sacredness of the breath...

How to do Camel in a way that is pleasurable and pain-free....
I approach this as always with an intention to deconstruct and solve all of the common complications that arise, complications that you will notice if you are interested in the quality of experience within the posture rather than simply achieving it....
The outcome for me was blissful (as apparently it was for the person that asked the question).

I begin by talking about how practice needs to be a 'First Principle' inquiry, otherwise we are only accumulating ideas about 'right and wrong' that will drive our practice and interfere with the truth of what we are looking for.
I then apply that to practice in forward bend to standing, and in standing balances...

Inverteds - specifically headstand. What they offer you, why they are beneficial, and how to approach to make this so. Like any yoga practice, the benefits of taking weight through your head will only arise if you have a clear idea of what it is you are trying to achieve from it. Headstand gives you a way of understanding that you have a relationship to the space above your head that needs to be interacted with, if you want to be free of having to 'carry' your head.
Enjoy!

My thoughts on how the practice of yoga has become a way of improving the quality of life as I get older, and how that has actually happened... together with a little practice to help you understand and experience total freedom and integration for the neck & throat.

In my opinion and experience, the role of the thinking mind/intellect/personality is more often than not inappropriately positioned in the physical exploration of what yoga is. Understand its natural role and your practice transforms....

Today I want to actually give an answer to the question 'Should I feel it there?' Of course, any yoga teacher worth their salt knows that this is a question that cannot really be answered, without knowing the entire physiology of a person in the moment of asking. But I wish to shed light on the topic of the right/wrong idea of how the body works, putting it in a context that should help you discern for yourself....

Backbending is kind of 'revered' in the yoga world as a sign of 'flexibility', but there is no value in bending yourself out of shape to 'achieve ' it. This doesn't mean its not worth trying. Quite the opposite. If you understand some of the fundamental conditions you are looking for, a standing backbend can become the ultimate expression of openness and freedom - and as long as it is that, then you will be doing yourself (and your spine) a big favour!

As requested on Facebook - here is a gentle flow sequence that encourages development of the relationships that I suggest will give you what you need...

Today's solutions was after my weekend at the world yoga festival (full workshop recording in the blog).. most of this was more of a discourse around the way we compartmentalise different aspects of life in a way that keeps the magnificence and reality of each aspect away from us... a small practice at the end to make sense of it.

If you think you have to keep stretching - you've got it wrong!

This should help sort out problematic knees, and essentially a practice that can rebalance and unify all the joints of the legs & hips in action... Works for the lower back too if you can relate your breathing to support.

This session was a masterclass on how to be physically and somatically centred in the head in a way that leaves it light, released, and free in space....

Today's session was in response to a very important question: "How do I take what I am learning with you into daily life?" The examples given were standing and walking up stairs....

Letting go of 'right vs wrong'. I began with talking about non-attachment to the 'rules' we learn.... Rules have a purpose, but dogmatically following the rules can keep us away from understanding the reason behind them... So then I guide you through a practical exploration of the nature and purpose of breath retention in practice.
Enjoy!

A general look at the idea of 'contraindications' and how, with a broader view of what's going on, if we can work appropriately with what the body is telling us, we can discover brand new ways of being in ourselves, free of what has been previously contraindicated.

On today's Yoga Solutions, I highlighted two baseline principles to apply yourself to in practice that will serve you for life

A straight forward exploration of an approach to bridge that develops the sense of released support for the spine, from the way your 'breathing gear' interacts with the earth.

I begin sharing a personal take on some worry I was experiencing and how the yoga gives me a way of bringing myself to a more helpful place of Presence. Being with what is, as it is, is the only true starting point for anything you wish to change... (10minute practice at the end)

The first 15 mins I share with you my current process as I re-evaluate life in terms of how I value myself, and then offer an overview of my work that describes the life process at the source of all issues, and how practice can return us to a state of innocence...

A more technical approach to how to engage the lower half of the body in wheel so as to be able to 'pop' up into wheel rather than 'push'.

I begin with the overview principle of how anyone can find solutions to any particular bodily issue through a shift of perspective in practice, and then go on to offer the practical details of how to integrate the sacro-illiac joints in movement and support.

This week's yoga solutions breaks down an approach to wheel (ardha chakrasana) without strain on the spine or limbs.