All posts filed under: healthy living

How to Have a Dynamic Yoga Practice

Yoga is an investment. Like money, we don’t want our practice to be a proverbial credit card, where we’re charging skills and tricks that our body actually can’t afford for us to do. We also don’t want to needlessly hoard our energy, so we must learn to invest ourselves and our energy wisely. As with most things in life, you’ll get out of yoga whatever you invest in it. This makes me oh so happy! Hooray! A predicted outcome: work hard, enjoy the results! On the other hand, this makes me feel RIDICULOUSLY GRUMPY: wait, what? Sooo…no coasting? Not even a little cheating?! DAMNIT! I guess I’ll have to rely on good old fashioned hard work when it comes to my practice. Oh, joy. But all good things are worth the effort, and yoga is at the top of that list. Because yoga allows for many modifications and no one is shouting at you to run harder, climb higher, pump heavier, the degree of intensity is a highly personal and regulated primarily by the individual. Pros: you …

Natural Beauty: Do Essential Oils Work?

If you’re anything like how I used to be, when you open up your bathroom cabinets, you probably have tons of supplies that you bought to enhance your face, hair, and skin. I used love trying new beauty products until I realized: they weren’t so beautiful after all. Instead of being beneficial to my body, I was basically slathering myself in a lab experiment that was neither healthy for me or the environment. For people who are dedicated to yoga, asanas (yoga poses) are just one part of our lifestyle. Seeking a simple, gentle, and natural living has a gravitational pull for us. We want not only to be strong and flexible, but to have healthy bodies, minds, and souls as well. Using natural beauty products not only is kinder to the environment, but it’s better and more effective for our bodies. I now have a simple but highly effective skin care regimen that uses zero chemical ingredients, and while I’m not one of those lucky people who has a naturally perfect complexion, I can honestly …