Yoga Medicine® Therapeutic Specialist in Kansas

Personal Yoga Therapeutics Sessions in Leawood Kansas

3 Tips for Better Breathing.

Improving your breathing is a surefire pathway to feeling better in mind and body.

Try these 3 Yoga Therapeutics Techniques that lead to Better Breathing.

If you want to learn techniques to de-stress, regulate your mood, increase mental focus and breathe easier, you’ll want to enroll in my course: “Abiding in Breath: a 28-Day Guide to Yogic Breathing.”

If you have stiff shoulders like I do (yes, my hand is raised); JUST stretching doesn’t cut it.

Self-Myofascial Release is a soft-tissue manipulation technique where you use a tool (in this case, a RADRoller Recovery Round) to alleviate pain and stiffness.

Combined with stretching and strengthening, MFR is a game changer for stiff shoulders.

Here’s the thing: I don’t know anyone who hasn’t complained (at least once) in their life about having tight shoulders.

Because your shoulder is a complex joint, with an intense amount of connective tissue keeping the bones in place and LOTS of muscles originating around the upper arm bone… keeping your shoulder tension-free, strong AND mobile is a freaking difficult group project.

And, as per usual in group projects, there’s one person complaining, one person not pulling their weight and one person doing ALL. THE. WORK.

After 10+ years of leading, growing and scaling Yoga Studios in Kansas City, I’m hanging up my hat as a Yoga Studio Owner. ✨

I’ve worn all the hats and played all the roles: lead teacher, operations director, studio manager, studio owner, front-door-fixer and more.

It’s been a wildly rewarding ride and I’m so very grateful for the opportunity to nurture communities of hope, health and happiness as a career.

Moving forward, I’m focusing on what I believe to be most impactful: my role as a Yoga Medicine® Therapeutic Specialist.

As a Yoga Medicine® Therapeutic Specialist, I’ve witnessed beyond-incredible transformation and achievement of wellness goals in my clients because:

Ok, Spring has barely SPRUNG and I already have Spring Fever. It’s difficult for me to focus and I find I’m rushing through tasks so I can go play outside and linger in the sunshine.

You too?

Try these two Yogic Breathing Techniques designed to enhance mental focus -- they work wonders to get you focused and mentally sharp.

Do you RESPOND or REACT? ✨

The ability to self-regulate emotions is definitely a learned skill. It’s not innate (enter: every toddler ever born who throws a fit when their socks don’t fit well or their pasta isn’t salty enough) but it is achievable.

A core skill of Mindfulness is the ability to feel an emotion without being overwhelmed by it.

When you are able to “observe” your emotional state and hit the pause button (even for just one inhale) you can then choose how you want to RESPOND instead of REACT.

Reacting looks like:

How do you handle “overwhelm”?

Overwhelm is the sensation of your nervous system reaching its allostatic load. Meaning: you’ve taken in as much stimuli as you can possibly handle and your system is about to combust. Or shut down.

A core skill of Mindfulness is the ability to feel an emotion without being overwhelmed by it, so learning to approach Overwhelm mindfully can be really helpful.

Next time you’re 3 seconds away from spontaneous combustion…

✨ Try these Three Yoga Therapeutics Tips for Overwhelm✨

Santosha reflects a state of being in which your inner contentment is independent of situations and circumstances happening around you. Santosha is internal steadiness.

The changing of the seasons is a perfect time to notice this.

When I think about Inner Contentment, I think about Polly Pocket.

(For those of you who didn’t grow up in the ‘90’s: Polly Pocket is a teeny, tiny playset with a miniature Polly and itty bitty animal friends, completely encased in a plastic purse that fits in your pocket.)

Polly Pocket has her own little world of cuteness, with everything she needs, in a travel-sized container.

Polly Pocket is the perfect example of Inner Contentment: even when her external environment changes, even when everything around her is in flux, even when she has no idea where she is going or what the future holds, she’s content and safe in her own little world because she has the inner resources she needs to navigate the changes.

When we are cultivating Inner Contentment (Santosha), teacher Sharon Salzberg says to,

“create around you a little bit of space that is all your own, a place where the rules of interaction you've chosen make sense and your actions have integrity."