Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

This delicious recipe combines Jason’s love for chocolate with everyone’s love for the peanut butter cups of our youth. Instead of peanut butter, they’re made with almond butter. Instead of sugar, they’re sweetened with agave. Boom! You’ve got a recipe makeover you never knew you needed, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

This Pisces new moon begs us to take stock of our spiritual lives and our transcendent experiences. The human psyche has deeper needs than the mundane world can satisfy and the calling to explore alternative spiritual experiences is real, and makes our internal reality more vivid and relevant. When what is inside of us (our nature, or soul) is honored though spiritual practice, we discover ways of integrating the inner and outer worlds for a more authentic life experience and fuller expression of self. This new moon provides us with the opportunity to delve deeply into our soul experience and find ways of satisfying the deeper spiritual needs that are uniquely ours.

When you’re practicing yoga, do you ever wonder why you’re doing a particular asana or pose? Why the teacher emphasizes alignment in a particular way? What the benefits are?

Living with anxiety on a daily basis can be very difficult. If you’re suffering from anxiety after experiencing a traumatic event or you’ve lived with it your entire life, finding the best ways to cope or relieve anxiety isn’t always easy.

In the past 2 months I have: Taught 63 yoga classes Taught 31 private yoga sessions Led 6 workshops Traveled to Ohio 3 times, twice unexpectedly and at the last minute Spent 35+ hours learning in yoga training Attended a funeral of a family member Decided to give away our puppy Learned that the foundation of our house needs to be replaced…now Learned that the people who renovated our house quite possibly took down a load-bearing wall, leading to the imminent collapse of our kitchen ceiling Cried Laughed Gave myself secret pep rallies in my mind to show up when I didn’t want to or felt like I couldn’t Surrendered to the universe Reminded myself I am human Practiced yoga Slept Meditated Indulged in a Nora Roberts book, a guilty pleasure Enjoyed Ben & Jerry’s ice cream because I needed to soothe my soul (see Amanda, we’re not so different) And much more If you’re tired just from reading all that, you’ll understand that I’m tired too.

I love love... I mean I really love LOVE! I’ve been accused of overusing the word in some of my circles. Regardless of that, I continue to use it because it rolls off my tongue and feels good when I say it.

When coming up with new recipes we often draw on inspiration from the places we visit on a regular basis. One of our favorite all-time salads is the Superfood Salad with Acai Dressing from Whole Foods. This week we decided to take all the things we love about that salad and put a Conscious Cleanse spin on it!

WHY THIS SEQUENCE WORKS Nothing beats a good side-bending practice. And, truthfully, the recipe for the classic posture Parivrtta Janu Sirsasana is simple: the practice needs to focus on stretching the hamstrings, adductors, and the sides of the torso (which are largely comprised of the lats, obliques, and the quadratus lumborum). The sequence above sticks to these three basic focal points. Let’s break it down a little further:

There’s snow on the ground in Boulder today which makes today’s post so apropos! We often hear cleansers talk about shivering to the bone after sipping on a frosty green smoothie during the winter months. The feeling can be, well, quite chilling to say the least.

It’s a heavy subject and one most Americans don’t feel comfortable contemplating. And yet, it’s the only ultimate truth in the world. And one we have very little control over. So it’s funny that we spend most of our lives trying to control everything around us. For peace. For happiness. For health. These are the reasons we often cite for why we do what we do. Why we believe what we believe.

So, what was your New Year’s resolution for 2016? If you’ve yet to break it (good on you, by the way!), let us help you smash it – and the rest of your fitness goals – this month and beyond.

Spring is approaching! It’s the time when our homes feel lighter and brighter after we purge all the junk and unnecessary clutter we tend to amass over the winter months.

Virgo, the great goddess of the night sky, embodies the properties of nurturing, self-care and cleanliness. Often misunderstood as simply, “the virgin,” Virgo gives us much richer feminine qualities than the sanitized virginal element she is often believed to represent. This Virgo Full Moon invites us to explore the most potent qualities of the feminine (regardless of our gender identity) and let go of those overdone, negative qualities that are passé, such as, martyrdom, self-criticism and control…these things always get in the way of our fullest expression and leave us fearful of simply being who we are, which Virgo energy calls us to be.

In this post, yoga teacher Adam Hocke shares his coping mechanisms for dealing with stress and gives advice on simple tricks you can do to chill out when work gets on top of you, either at home or on the go.

As busy moms and business owners we often find dinner time a challenge, just like many of you. To get something healthy, quick, and tasty on the table after a long day can be stressful. This is where our beloved crockpot comes in handy!

Hello my name is Jo and I’m a Chocoholic. I’m not ashamed to say that I walk down the chocolate aisle pacing and drooling on a very regular basis.

If you’ve ever experienced low back pain before, you know that it ranges in severity from mildly annoying to so severe you have to take off work because you can’t get out of bed.

This week I looked up the word transmute again – just to see if that theme actually vibrated with what I have been feeling into. Because you see, when I “pick” a theme, I actually allow it to come to me. I look to see what’s happening in the planets and I feel into what’s “hot” out there. And then I see how and if it relates, so things make sense.

Often, yoga is described as a journey for self-understanding-- a process for uncovering your true nature. Once we maintain a consistent yoga practice, we change—physically, emotionally, and mentally. Change is good! If we are different, we interact with others in a different way as well. Yoga can help us resolve issues in our relationships--past and present and future.

A grasshopper leaps only forward…it never leaps backward! When you think about it, that really makes so much sense.

Expanding the definition of reality beyond the usual time, money and politics is generally considered naive or delusional. Aspects of life that are immeasurable or defy explanation are relegated to the realm of hearsay and mysticism. But from a purely pragmatic standpoint, magic is undeniable.

We’re not above wanting to indulge in our favorite sweet treats, but what gets us really geeked out is the challenge of trying to makeover some of our favorite recipes into Conscious Cleanse or 80:20 friendly recipes.

The new moon is in the sign of Aquarius, the water bearer. Often likened to the figure of Jesus, the water bearer holds similar qualities that shine through the darkness of the new moon. Known for humanitarian efforts, revolutionary thinking, individualism and speaking the truth, the Aquarian energy also finds trouble with being exiled for radical thought, and going into seclusion to avoid skepticism (or, as a result of it!). It is all these qualities that the new moon calls forth from within you. At this time, you must speak the truth about what is most important to you, and walk your own path. For, when you do, you inspire others to do the same. Nothing is more important than starting your own revolution, whether it be quiet or loud, and living the life you are destined for.

During the winter months, the opportunity to play outside is limited by shorter days. Some of us are in the office all day and by the time we leave; the sun’s already set. Whether you’re in a brisk climate or a mild one, you may feel stuck inside more than you’d prefer. If you’ve got a case of cabin fever, try one or all of these five simple ideas to infuse some summer sunshine into your day.

How I close my yoga practice I don’t ‘om.’ It’s not that I have anything against it; it’s just not part of my secular world view or self-practice. I also don’t say ‘namaste’ – I’m from Florida and grew up saying “hi,” “bye,” and “thank you”, and for me it just doesn’t seem genuine (to me! for other teachers of course it can come from their heart and soul) to adopt someone else’s greeting. But I do treat the close of practice pretty seriously and over the years have refined how I close the practice for myself and for my students in class. This is where it stands lately.