Articles

Pranayama is often translated and understood as a method to control the breath. In this video, Monica Voss of Esther Myers Yoga in Toronto points out that viewing pranayama as a means to control the breath can actually be a source of stress and anxiety. “We were born, and we began to breathe, and nobody Continue »

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health issues in Canada according to the 2006 Community Health Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing from Statistics Canada. In this video, Tama Soble of Esther Myers’ Yoga Studio discusses the natural causes of anxiety and how yoga can help establish and maintain a balance between anxiety and Continue »

“The pregnant body is changing if not daily, then sometimes weekly, and certainly monthly. Those changes can be profound, they can bring up structural stress or postural stress, and they can bring up a lot of strong emotion.  And quiet time for processing those emotions and for releasing that postural stress is so important.”   Monica Continue »

We live in stressful times, and we literally embody the experience of our lives. This embodiment often manifests itself through habituated patterns of tension. These patterns become hardwired into our nervous systems after years of repetitive triggering of the startle reflex, also called the fight or flight response.  When the startle reflex is triggered our Continue »

It seems these days in Toronto, and possibly elsewhere (although I have not heard it expressed when I teach in Canada, in the US or in the UK) that the study of Patanjali is being elevated and Hatha Yoga, unless accompanied by some recognition of the Yoga Sutras, denigrated. This hierarchical attitude was very much Continue »

Breathing, growing roots and letting go have sustained my body through physical life changes – pregnancy, childbirth, menopause – and my mind during parenting, working and being in relationships. Yoga fosters my imagination, offers me the opportunity to try to understand the mind, helps me to connect with the rhythms of nature. It brings me Continue »