Author Archives: Clarissa Adkins

A Few Yoga Flows to Get Your Daily Practice Started

There is no better time than the beginning of the year to incorporate a yoga practice into your routine. You don’t need to worry about spending an hour or even twenty minutes to enjoy the benefits. A few minutes of stretching in the morning can help you start your day off right. Starting out with short sessions will help you build your yoga practice. The Sun Salutations just happen to be a great way to start the day. The coordination of breath with each movement asks the mind to focus and the poses stretch and awaken the body. The following … Continue reading →

Becoming a Yoga Teacher

Deciding to “do what I love” was one of the hardest things for me because I love doing so many things. It would nearly be dishonest to leave out the fact that choosing what I love as a career might also be difficult because it means less income for my family. I was blessed to have a support mechanism around me that encouraged me to pursue yoga as something I could share with other people, and yes, slowly make a life’s work. Many people wonder how one goes from being a yoga student to a yoga teacher. Hopefully, I can … Continue reading →

When Your Body Needs a Break – Coming to Child’s Pose (Balasana)

Have you ever found yourself struggling through a yoga class? You are not the only one! Lack of sleep or fuel, or overdoing it on your exercise plan can be major factors that keep you from maintaining during your practice. You could also find yourself with an instructor who is taking the class to a deeper level that your body is simply not ready for yet. Be happy that your body is telling you to take it easy. Overexertion can be the last step before injury or lowering your body’s immune system. The body isn’t shy about telling you when … Continue reading →

Avoiding Injury with Your Yoga Practice

The fact that yoga is not high-impact makes a lot of people skeptical about believing that someone could get injured doing it. I will be the first person to recommend yoga to people who are afraid of getting injured by other forms of exercise, or who have a previous condition that they don’t want to aggravate, so the last thing I want to do is scare anyone away from trying it. However, just like anything else, it is possible to get injured if you aren’t careful. Stick with the following to make sure that you have a healthy and safe … Continue reading →

Revealing Tension – Yoga’s Speciality

Some people quickly build tension in their shoulders when they are under stress, while others find that the jaw or lower back are the culprits. Some of us distribute the tension throughout the body in a mix and match of aches and tenderness. Recently, I wrote an article entitled “Yoga Cues: Listening to Your Body” which talked about the importance of awareness. One of the ways that yoga reveals these stockpiles of tension is by encouraging us to take a moment to feel what is going on inside. When you pay attention, you can feel the tiny variations in the … Continue reading →

The Classic Objections to Yoga

Last week we talked about whether or not being Christian makes yoga a questionable activity. Luckily, the answer was ‘no’ across the board. What about some other concerns that you may have about giving that yoga class a try? Here is my chance to debunk some of your possible objections. 1. “I’m not flexible.” I hear this one at least once a week. I understand that some of the poses may look intimidating. The crazy thing is that no one goes into other group fitness classes expecting to do what the instructor can do right away. Absolutely none of us … Continue reading →

The Yoga Path

I thought it would be helpful to outline some of the ways that yoga has changed the way I live my life. From time to time, I will be adding to the story of my path for anyone who is curious, or who is also choosing yoga for their main form of exercise. When I say “exercise,” I am including the mental and spiritual work that has become stronger as I start understanding how the mind and body work together a little more each day. My hope is that as a yoga instructor, I will inspire others to live a … Continue reading →

What to Bring to Your Yoga Class

Are you ready to try that yoga class that you have seen on your gym’s schedule, or maybe to visit the yoga studio that was advertising classes? Don’t hesitate to try to try them. Yoga is a form of exercise which bypasses many others in its simplicity. The following will get you started: 1. Yoga is typically practiced with bare feet. The only shoes you will need are those which will get you through the door. Remember that your gym may require that closed toe shoes are worn at all times, but be prepared to take them off once you … Continue reading →

Yoga is Non-Competitive

It is nearly impossible to go to the gym without feeling an air of competition coming from fellow members, and perhaps yourself. Of course, we should not reprimand ourselves if we have a desire to accomplish more with our personal fitness. This edge of competition can be healthy and can help us drive ourselves to our goals. But, what happens when we let ourselves become consumed by competition with others, thereby sinking more on the side of comparing ourselves with people around us? The two, competition and comparison, eventually become synonymous. Strangely, yoga, which does not have any organization which … Continue reading →

The Art of Balance Poses

Among the most enlightening of yoga poses are those which require balancing because they build trust in ourselves and they can rejuvenate the mind. The majority of these are done on one foot, although there are many which involve the head, hands, sit bones or various combinations of one or more of these. For example, Balancing Half Moon uses one foot and the hand from the same side of the body. Whether one does the popular Tree Pose, Balanced Half Lotus, or a head stand, there are a few cues which can optimize your experience in any of them. 1. … Continue reading →