by Mike Miller I had a good conversation with a friend of mine today about yoga. We both have practiced and learned yoga from teachers who seemed dedicated to the true principles of yoga. What are the "true principles' of yoga? good question. I believe in the eight limbs of yoga as described by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. The eight limbs are: Yamas (how you treat others), Niyamas (how you treat yourself), Asanas (poses - what most people associate yoga with), Pranayama

CONNECTION - talking with others, sharing ideas and laughs, learning, helping others, getting help, the good-bad-ugly. People absolutely must have connections to others to live a healthy life. Functional medicine has learned that there are physiological changes and benefits to people when they have connections with others on a regular basis [and dis-ease, suffering, illness when there is little or no human connection]. The more connection with others we have is better. One

In 2008 a movie came out about a man named Benjamin Button. As time passed, he appeared to grow YOUNGER! That's me! I've been practicing yoga for 5 years now and I have seen many changes in my body and mind. Before starting yoga my hair (what's left that it) was very white, including my beard. Within 6 months I could see it starting to get darker. I attributed this anti-aging look to yoga with a focus on inversions. Inversions can be very simple such as downward facing d

By Amanda Mack At a recent training I attended, participants were asked to write down some of our different identities and to then identify both positive and negative assumptions made by the broader culture regarding those identities. Yoga teacher was one of mine. Positive perceptions associated with yoga teacher included words like peaceful, calm, flexible, perhaps evolved even. On the flip side, negative perceptions might include descriptors like vacuous or not very intelli