Take a tour of your body

When we get stiff or achy, we usually try to move or stretch the part of the body that’s uncomfortable. This is very useful short-term. But when it comes to physical tension, “it’s the victims who cry out, not the criminals.” This means that tense body parts usually end up on the receiving end of some imbalances that are happening elsewhere in the body. Again and again, I meet students who have tense abductors because of hamstring tightness, or back tension because of contracted hip flexors. What happens in your ankles can travel to your knees and all the way up to your hips, shoulders and neck. That is why it’s so important in our yoga practice to rotate through the entire body, including the areas that don’t give us obvious trouble.

That is why I put together a new yoga series Happy Body: Yoga from Head to Toe. This series consists of fifteen short yoga practices that cover each body area from neck to ankles. Some of those practices have been featured on my blog before, and some of them are brand-new. All of them include foundational movements that I found to be very effective for targeting specific body areas in a short period of time. This series gives you an opportunity to take a complete tour of your entire body. The series also includes a collection of articles I wrote about each body area in printable pdf format and video summaries of the most important points you need to know when you work with specific body areas.

Please check it out!