Under the regular stresses of life, what is the highest response for our long-term health and happiness? Some popular self-help practices of ‘positive thinking’ advocate to mentally re-contextualize a psycho-emotional stressor in one’s life and change it from a negative event to a positive one, from a sad one to a happy one. Certainly, shifting our …
In Nature, most birds learn to fly out of their nest within just a few weeks, some in as little as three weeks. They instinctively open their wings to fully flap the air as they dare to fly. It is natural and free to open your wings to fly, yet under daily stress the human nervous system will …
A well-known yoga teacher in Europe (former student of mine) wrote on Facebook recently that he was dropping full backbends from his yoga practice since they were too painful. He openly revealed his love for his past practice of deep backbends which enlivened him with “vitality and passion”. Yet, these days, “even the gentlest lumbar …
A buoy in the sea stays afloat in the water even when there is a storm. If the buoy gets pushed down below the surface of the water, then it will pop back up with resilient lightness. This attribute of buoyancy or the quality of floating and of lightness is central to the experience of …
A common question by Anusara yoga students who first experience Bowspring is, “What Happened to the Kidney Loop?! I was just taught last week in my Anusara yoga class to apply Kidney Loop and take the back of the floating ribs backward until they line up with the back of the pelvis. Now Bowspring is …
Under the auspices of Mr. Kenta Nakano of Studio Bowspring in Japan, Desi Springer and I spent another enriching and mind-expanding week-long experience in Tokyo this past month – September 2017. One of Kenta-san’s explicit intentions with sponsoring Desi Springer and me to visit Japan annually over the past 4 years, is to educate us …
Ancient Japanese Mind-Body Practices for 21st Century Bowspring Read More »
Provocative poem written by Laoshi Yali Lui in the aftermath of our 5-Day Bowspring Training in Xi\’an, China last month. It is loosely translated from Mandarin, but the deeper meaning of her poetry is felt in the images of her awakening to a marvelous view of waves in a world that only sees straight lines. *** Earth …
It was fantastic to have almost 70 Bowspring teachers attending our first 5-Day international gathering last week at Vital in Denver, Colorado from all over the globe: Japan, Austria, Sweden, Canada, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Croatia, and Caribbean (Trinidad and Barbados) were represented plus American Bowspring teachers hailing from various States: OK, OR, CA, TX, …
Flowing with Tai Chi Master Xi Li Chen – September, 2017: Last month in Xi’an, China, Desi and I met with Tai Chi Chuan master, Xi Li Chen, for a 2-hour private lesson in Tai Chi that included an overview of his Chen family lineage connecting back over 400 years to the source teacher of this …
Probably the most common breath instruction that we hear in modern postural yoga and among general health practitioners is to “take a deep breath.” In gyms and yoga classes worldwide an audibly strong, deep breath is encouraged to fill up the lungs as much as possible to gain more oxygen and to eliminate unhealthy carbon …
