Colleen Saidman Yee offers poses from her new memoir, Yoga for Life, to release anxiety and trauma from body parts that commonly hold it. Practice with Colleen in person and take her Yoga for Inner Peace half-day workshop at YJ LIVE! in Estes Park, Sept. 24. Spaces are limited, so sign up now!
Colleen Saidman Yee is an acclaimed yoga teacher, former fashion model, and the wife of yogi Rodney Yee. But her journey to becoming “the first lady of yoga" wasn’t all glamorous, she reveals in her new book Yoga for Life: A Journey to Inner Peace and Freedom (Atria Books, June 2, 2015). In the candid, soul-searching memoir (which also offers yoga sequences corresponding to the many chapters of her life), Yee looks back on her hardscrabble roots in Indiana, her addiction to heroin, two divorces, as well as a car accident at age 15 that gave her a broken collarbone, a skull fracture, and brain injuries. It also may have led to the epilepsy she still suffers from today.
“If my accident at age fifteen had any upside, it’s that I have a heightened empathy for the traumas, large and small, that my students have experienced," she writes in her book. “At times, I can see where the trauma is held in their bodies, and I try to figure out sequences that can create relief and release for them. Trauma can show up as tension, anxiety, or illness. Some common places of binding are the pelvis, the diaphragm, the throat, the jaw, the hamstrings, and the shoulders and neck."
We asked Yee to recommend poses from her book that release each of these “stuck" areas, as she calls them, helping us gain “freedom from the imprints and obstructions that are held in our bodies."
The Pelvis
Bound Angle Pose (Baddha Konasana)
Bound Angle Pose, aka Cobbler’s Pose, is a great release for the pelvis. We tend to bind in the pelvis when we feel threatened. We need adrenaline when we’re in real danger, but the feeling can become a default mode that exhausts us. This pose releases the hips, and can safely be held for 5–10 minutes.
“Olivier Chabaud and Associates Architects have completed the development of the 5 th floor of this former parking lot of the rue Turgot in Paris in a loft of 136m². Mixing concrete, marble, wood and stainless steel, the architect has turned this vast space an open, uncluttered and bright accommodation.
The loft is organized around two outdoor areas, a patio and a glazed balcony. In between, a long tunnel of rough concrete. The finesse of the development is the management of the light and in the perspective link between the living room. The smooth, white ground helps reflect light and door consistency of the place. The use of glass partitions allows the separation of spaces while allowing light to circulate.”
10 Ways to Get Real About Your Body’s Limitations & Avoid Yoga Injuries
YJ Influencer Laura Burkhart offers the story of her own chronic pain and hip injury as a caution to yogis and encourages you to get honest about your own practice.
Yogis, it’s time to get honest with yourselves and start respecting your body’s limitations. We’ve all heard success stories of people who have healed their body, mind, and emotions through yoga. But lately, I’ve been hearing about more and more students and teachers (including myself) who’ve been hurt by their asana practice.
Why is everyone talking about yoga injuries all of a sudden? For one thing, there are more people practicing yoga now and so likely more injuries. But getting injured by yoga, which most of us start doing for its healing benefits, can also be confusing, embarrassing, and counterintuitive. All of that can make it hard to talk about.
My Yoga Injury Story
I started practicing yoga during a time when I was dealing with chronic health problems and a lot of stress. I was originally attracted to it, because it reminded me of the moving meditative quality I used to find in dance. But unlike dance, where I was taught to push past pain and difficulty with a smile on my face, yoga, ironically, encouraged me to respect my body and its limits.
While I thought I was working within my limitations, years into my yoga practice, I made the decision to stop lifting leg weights in order to increase my flexibility to get into Visvamitrasana, which would eventually be photographed for this Master Class article in Yoga Journal. I was happy when my consistent practice “paid off” and I was able to work into “advanced” poses that required a lot of flexibility and arm strength. What I didn’t know was that 14 years of dance, followed by 16 years of yoga, plus 7 years of not counteracting all the stretching with strength training, had led to overuse of my hip joints and strain on my tendons and muscle fibers.
A couple of years ago, my body started telling me it was exhausted and didn’t want to do long practices or extreme poses. Did I listen? No. I had big plans, work to do, classes to film, and bills to pay. One day, while demonstrating Compass Pose, I pulled my left knee into my armpit and immediately felt a deep pain in my left groin. My initial reaction was frustration with my body for not keeping up with me. I pushed past the pain and continued doing everything I’d been doing. A week later, while teaching I demonstrated Side Plank with my top (injured) leg in Tree Pose and heard a “pop.” That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I was in so much pain that I could barely sleep or walk for 5 months. During that time, to teach I either sat in a chair or hobbled around in pain.
I haven’t talked much about my injury, not so much out of embarrassment or secrecy, but because I made a decision a couple of months into the healing process to focus on the positive and what I could do, rather than what I couldn’t. I find talking about the injury, and focusing on the physical and emotional pain it’s caused, is a depressing road that leads nowhere.
Unfortunately, I’m not the only yogi dealing with serious injury.
It didn’t take long to reach out to a handful of other highly skilled teachers in San Francisco (where I live), Los Angeles, and beyond, who have been injured by yoga. Like myself, Jill Miller and Melanie Salvatore August have suffered from major hip injuries due, in our opinion, to overuse. Jill recently had a hip replacement. Erika Trice healed a back injury using yoga, but ironically feels too much asana created repetitive stress injuries in her shoulders and lower vertebrae. Sarah Ezrin recently had shoulder surgery for an injury that she also believes too many Chaturangasand binds contributed to. Similarly, Kathryn Budig assumes years of repetitive movement, vinyasas, and emotional stress led to the shoulder labrum tear she just recovered from. Jason Bowman had surgery for a knee injury that he attributes partially to the regular practice of poses requiring external rotation paired with deep knee flexion like Lotus Pose. Meagan McCrary thinks it was 10 years of hyperextension and nerve entrapment around her joints in practice that short-circuited her nervous system and caused her severe chronic pain. I also know many teachers who have had to reduce the intensity of their practice or focus more on strength training due to non-yoga-related injuries.
In the classroom, I see shoulder injuries most often. They tend to happen to ambitious newer students who skip learning the basics and push hard the first 6–18 months trying to “advance” their practice. Normally I find students experience shoulder pain when they practice too often, do too many Chaturangas (incorrectly), or try to get into arm balances when their alignment is off. Luckily, most students are grateful for any tips and corrections when it comes to injury prevention while other students don’t think the adjustments or warnings are for them until it’s too late.
On a brighter note, if you are injured, your life is not over by any means. I have actually “accomplished” more since I’ve been injured by thinking outside the box and stepping beyond the lines of the path I had created. I discovered that I love writing articles and blogs, mentoring teachers, experimenting with yoga props, swimming, and having a simple, yet satisfying yoga practice. I still take yoga photos (some of which have been published in Yoga Journal Italy and Singapore). And I’m currently creating a co-led teacher training with Jason Crandell. My injury has given me an opportunity to step back and create a different life for myself.
These stories are not to scare you, but to encourage you to be careful, listen to your body, and not to push past your God-given limitations! You can have a healthy practice that is extremely beneficial to your body if you can get real with yourself about it. The following questions are a good place to start.
10 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Yoga Practice
1. Does your practice balance the rest of your life?
If you are already performing high-intensity activities such as running, swimming, cycling, etc., I recommend choosing an asana practice that is less intense in nature, such as Iyengar or restorative practice. That way you can reap the benefits of yoga and avoid overusing your joints, tendons, and muscles. On the flipside, if you lead a sedentary life, then a vinyasa practice might bring your body into balance.
2. Do you practice too much?
As practitioners get serious about asana, some feel the need to do an intense 90-plus-minute practice, 5–7 days a week. Many yogis try to keep up with this “expectation” because they believe it’s what a “true yogi” would do. Unfortunately, for many of us, too intense of a practice too often can also lead to overuse of joints and unnecessary repetitive stress on tendons and muscle fibers. I personally don’t recommend doing long, high-intensity yoga practices more than 3–4 days a week.
3. What motivates you to practice?
Your teacher? Your ego? Social media? Your body? Some of us want to “master” complex asana to win favor and praise from our teachers, fellow practitioners, or social media followers.
This need for approval and recognition can be exacerbated when teachers encourage students to push deeper into poses, or praise students who have the ability to get into difficult asana, rather than applauding students with mastery of alignment and stability. If you always want to go deeper or make a pose “more advanced,” where is that coming from and why?
4. Does what you’re doing hurt?
If it hurts, don’t do it. Period. Regardless of whether your teacher is pushing you to go further, or you see other people going deeper.
We come from culture of “no pain, no gain” and pushing past our limits. Hard work, sacrifice, and going the extra mile get us good grades, promotions, and wins in sports. While this mindset can lead to advancement, it can also lead to imbalance. Your internal drive may be high, but your anatomical structure can only take so much. Too much pushing can lead to impingement, strain, and tears in the joints, tendons, and muscles. Honor your body’s limitations.
If you have existing injuries, tell your teacher. Your teacher should be able to show you how to modify poses, which poses to avoid, and maybe even guide you toward poses to heal what ails you. You might also need to back off your intensity with the practice to avoid making the injury worse.
5. Are you protecting your shoulders?
In Chaturanga, do your shoulders dip below the level of your elbows? Do you jump back every time you vinyasa? Do you land in Chaturanga or Plank? I recommend limiting jumpbacks and landing in Chaturanga when you do. For most of your vinyasas, I recommend lowering your knees to your mat or skipping Chaturanga all together to prevent repetitive stress injuries, such as labrum tears and rotator cuff issues. If you have a pre-existing shoulder issue, avoid Chaturanga and arm balances.
6. Are you protecting your hips?
Are you listening to your body? In poses where you externally rotate your legs and/or go into deep hip flexion (like Compass Pose, Tittibhasana, Visvamitrasana, Krounchasana), observe how far your body naturally wants to go without pushing further. Also consider balancing out hip flexibility with abduction, adduction, and gluteal strength training.
7. Are you protecting your knees?
A few pointers: In standing poses, don’t let your bent knee go past your ankle. In standing poses that require external rotation like Warrior II, rotate the front leg from the hip socket rather than the front foot. Be sure your body is well warmed up for poses that require deep external rotation with knee flexion like Full Lotus Pose before attempting them. If you already have issues with your knees, avoid Pigeon Pose and practice Thread the Needle on your back instead.
8. Are you protecting your lower back?
Do you warm up before going into deep twists? Recently, many senior teachers and physical therapists alike have begun recommending not squaring your hips in twists, especially if you’re hypermobile, to protect the lower back and SI joints. If you already have lower back issues or have tight hip and hamstrings, be careful with forward bends, particularly seated forward bends. In seated forward bends elevate yourself on a block or folded blanket to avoid rounding your lower back.
9. Are you working on mastering alignment and increasing stability?
I view an advanced student as one who knows how to align their body and use appropriate props when needed. Better alignment will also help you avoid injuries.
10. Can you be happy with where you are?
Be in the present moment; focus on what you can do now, not what you used to do, or what you think you should be doing a month from now. Your practice will change over the years. Don’t get too attached to the current season. This doesn’t mean you can’t have goals, but be realistic and see where your goals are coming from, and if it honors your body.
Shift your goals from intensity, strength, flexibility, and complex asana to digging below the physical. Our yoga culture has drifted away from the purpose of asana. The practice was originally intended to prepare the mind and body for meditation, not a career as a contortionist.
The house is situated in L’Ametlla del Vallès in a slanting plot. Toward the east, there is a road and a gathering of neighboring private houses; toward the west, perspectives to the pinewood. In this environment, the aim of the building is to turn its back to the vehicular activity and to open itself to the environment.
Benefitting as much as possible from the qualities of the plot, we put the stopping region in the road level keeping in mind the end goal to arrange the tenable spaces in the floor – 1, where there is an immediate access to the patio nursery and a visual association with the pine woodland of L’Ametlla. Since every one of the spaces in this floor are masterminded in parallel, each room appreciates regular light: bathrooms, rooms, kitchen, dinning room and parlor.
The main space situated in the road floor is the studio, which serves as a kind of cushion territory between the stopping and the parlor. The house has two façades. The road façade is obscure, dull, wave-like.
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Including only a window and an entryway, it detaches the house from the street and the passers-by. The patio nursery façade is the perfect inverse: it has enormous windows and is massively splendid. The broken lines that shape the façade, and also the structure of the openings, all react to the lighting needs of the inward spaces.
A young yogi injures herself and then learns to listen to her body instead of her head by taking the word “should" out of her practice.
“Should” is a precarious word with even more threatening consequences. I was reminded of this again recently. My yoga practice has increased greatly over the past months, and I want to maintain it. But a few weeks ago, I noticed my knees felt strange. I felt unbalanced on top of them, as if they weren’t quite aligned or in sync with the rest of my body.
I was perplexed. Yoga is supposed to be good for you, supposed to make you strong both physically and mentally, and up until then that’s what I’d experienced. But I knew the day that my knees couldn’t quite support me in Warrior I that something was wrong.
Did I tweak them in an off moment? Do I just have weak knees and never knew it? I asked around and got some good advice, such as sitting on a blanket in Sukasana (Easy Pose) to elevate my hips, which did alleviate some pressure. But something was still missing. Why could everybody else do these poses without knee pain but me? It didn’t add up; I am a 25-year-old healthy, active woman. I should be able to yoga without incident.
During one class, my knees felt so tender that I grabbed a block instead of straining to stretch into Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose), and stayed in resting positions when before I would have opted for the more aggressive pose. My knees simply wouldn’t allow it. This troubled me. I shouldn’t be regressing in my yoga practice, I thought. I shouldn’t need to use blocks and blankets and skip more difficult poses. I should push through this, right?
As class ended, the instructor, obviously having noticed my struggle, said something to me that completely shifted my experience: “You are probably pushing too hard. Your body needs time to develop the strength.”
Suddenly it became as clear as my mind in Savasana. Should. That word had been driving me to push too hard too soon and ignore my body’s signals. Again. You see, “should" has always confounded me. Like when I wanted to travel abroad, my heart longed to go to India, but I thought I should study a practical language like Spanish, and so went to Argentina instead. Or in school, pushing myself to the point of over-competitiveness in sports, because, I told myself, I should be the best.
Of course, there really are things that I, that we all, should do, like go to the dentist (I do need to do that). But when I start using “should” to compare myself to others—I should look like that, or I should be able to do that pose just like her—is when “should" is no longer my friend.
Since I stopped pushing myself so hard in yoga, my knees feel better. I now use blocks and blankets liberally and without embarrassment. I’m actually proud, because I know that I found the voice of my body, and that I am strong enough to mute the “should” and to actually listen to what’s right for me.
About Our Writer After graduating from Tufts University, Jessica Abelson returned to the San Francisco Bay Area where she grew up and has embarked upon a regular yoga practice.
If something definitive the clients said to us was their desire to look towards the sea. The house is placed in a little town near the coast of Lugo, raised and oriented towards the landscape opened to the sea. Arriving Vilapol means leaving back the town of Xove to go through a dense eucalyptus forest until appearing in this peaceful and lonely little town, elevated from the surrounding lush landscape with the sea in its horizon. The feeling is to be alone facing all that.
The house is placed in a high triangular plot, on the edge of the only street in which every house is relied on. This geometry ends configuring its dynamic floor plan and subsequent volume, that reinforce the will of the house to orient itself to the landscape. Its position in the plot leaves a rear space that is used mainly as a parking, and a front one opposite the big porch in which the house is felt over. The more protected side of the house is the one where you gain access to the house.
Over time, the trees in the northeast corner will end up protecting the space that the occasional pedestrians could use. Being a vacation house, the open layout proposed facilitates the communication between rooms, placing the main ones in the front of the house that faces the sea. Around that covered space is where the relaxed vacational life will happen. All the rooms fall over it, and by its external stairs and the corresponding internal one, both floors are communicated, creating an easy and funny circular path. The bedrooms, placed in the top floor, enjoy outstanding views over the green landscape until reaching the sea.
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Local natural slate floors with different treatments and orientations, synthesize the proposal and help seeing it as a simple container of vacational activity. The bathrooms and kitchen are covered with the traditional multi color tiles. The access doors to the bedrooms are told apart by using a green color. The bright colors of the interiors are used with the idea of cheering up the life in an environment that usually has the lead colored of the Galician skies.
In opposition, the external grayish blue color is associated with those skies trying to integrate the house with its context. The scale and layout of the openings try to integrate with the near constructions, without sacrificing the strong desire to open its most exposed facade towards the landscape. With this work we tried to make a cheerful and relaxed vacation home with the best understanding possible with the surroundings, and felt over towards the lush and peaceful coast landscape.
假定「相近出生時間有相似性格」這現象假設可以得到印證，但是更穩固地「證實」「懷孕經歷假說」就必須進一步研究母親懷孕在不同季節的心理，對於懷孕的生理環境之影響，而懷孕之生理影響又如何影響胎兒大腦發育，大腦發育的型態又如何影響胎兒的天性性格如此等等，這裏有太多太多有待研究的謎。每個環節都有可能否證「懷孕經歷假說」。但即使「懷孕經歷假說」被證明為假，並不會減損、反而是強化它的科學性。 我自己是不會去作這個科學研究啦，我可以提出「科學假設」（合理的自然因果鏈假設），但我不擅長「科學實作」，我也沒有那個實作的耐心和環境。我歡迎科學界（醫界？）有人援用我這假設去做統計調查研究（不過，現在重視CI和成果的學術界，大概不太有人敢冒險）。總之，我在這裏提出一個 research program ，它提供很多「謎題」，可以被用來從事「解謎活動」。
Instruction
Loop a strap and place it across your sacrum, over the tops of your thighs, and around your feet. Place folded or rolled-up blankets under each of your knees and lie on your back with your heels together, as they were in Baddha Konasana. Stay here with eyes closed, and relax for 5 to 15 minutes to stretch the hips and hip flexors intensely.
On a rocky, granite cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Ketch Harbour, Nova Scotia, this 8,000 square foot house is a series of angled glass and raw concrete pavilions that capture the dramatic landscape in each direction.
Crowned by gently curving zinc roofs, each pavilion frames views of a historic lighthouse, the sea-lanes to Halifax and a WWII Allied bunker.
Set along a linear entry hallway, the pavilions also define programmatic areas, with the den, living and dining rooms, the kitchen and master bedroom each ensconced in their own space.
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Further enhancing the experience of the site, two additional bedrooms on the second level cantilever off the main body of the house.
Landscaped terraces provide a platform for lounging areas with long outdoor patios. Wild rocks and crashing waves are as sublime a site as any in the world, and the house is a perfect balance between architecture and nature.
然而，讓中野剛志更感好奇的是，在報導官員失言、失格的資訊會讓電視台創造大量收視率的日本、抨擊這些失言的官員會為政治人物製造大量支持率的日本，竟然對田中均的發言無感甚至不見一點討論。也就是說，這樣的反叛居然被大眾允許了，該如何理解這樣的現象呢？中野剛志引用了哲學家加塞特（José Ortega y Gasset）的著作《大眾的反叛》（The Revolt of the Masses）來加以解釋。加塞特認為所謂的大眾，是「由於特別的理由，無論好壞都不評價自己，自己感到與大家是相同的，並不為此覺得痛苦，反而會為他人與自己相同感到舒適」這樣的人群。也就是說，加塞特所指稱的大眾，並非是特定的階層，而是不表示自己的意見、隨波逐流的人們。也可以說，即使是有錢人或統治者，具有這樣被群體左右的性格，也屬於「大眾」的一員。而與「大眾」相對的「菁英」，則與之相反，是「對自己要求嚴格、背負困難與義務」的人。同樣無關乎身分階級，而是「在自由的原則與法律規定的庇護之下，作為少數派行動與生活」的人。他們擁有古典自由民主的理想，持續為了更高的目標而鍛鍊、常常超越施加義務與要求於自己的現實。對比自我滿足、安於現狀、不加以鍛鍊、過一天算一天的大眾，他們常常備受排擠與攻擊。
Bryant Park Yoga is back in New York City for its 12th season, featuring teachers curated by Yoga Journal. This week’s featured instructor is Jeffrey Posner, who will teach on Tuesday morning, July 28th.
Struggling with arm balances? From Crane (Crow) Pose to an all-out Handstand, the form in the hands and forearms remains the same. Mastering this form will help you build the proper foundation to support your weight throughout your inversionpractice.
When you learn how to properly distribute your weight throughout the hand, specifically in the triad of the hand (metacarpal knuckles of thumb, index, and pointer), the balance will take on a new feeling of lightness. Learning to distribute the weight and find balance in the hands is very similar to how a baby learns to balance and take their first steps. When learning to walk and balance on the feet, the weight must be shifted into the toe mound (the front of the foot) to achieve even weight distribution in the feet. The same rule applies for the hands: As you move the weight of your body forward to enter the pose, the triad of your hand should begin to bear the weight.
Once bearing your weight evenly in your hands, you must use your wrists to resist the weight moving forward in the hands and body. Think of the way your ankles push your feet into the floor when you walk to keep you from falling on your face. Same rule applies here: you flex the wrists to push the hands into the floor so you don’t fall on your face.
When the hands are flat, the forearms should start perpendicular to the floor. The farther the forearms move forward, the more the body is able to open up in a pose. Think of your shins and how they move when you walk: more control is achieved when the shins are moving in a forward angle to keep the weight into the toe mound rather than leaning back into the heels of the feet. When it comes to arm balances, this forward motion keeps the weight in the triad of the hand, so you have something to add wrist flexion against. Keep your gaze 6-8 inches in front of your hands as another way to keep the weight moving in the right direction.
3. Give Yourself Time
If this technique is new to you, then take it slow. Wrist flexion is a big part of arm balances, and unfortunately we rarely do the actions necessary in our daily lives to strengthen the wrists. Over time, you will build this strength, and improve your arm balances.
Check the schedule of upcoming Bryant Park Yoga classes, which take place every Tuesday and Thursday through Sept. 23. and join us. Follow the Bryant Park Yoga series at #YJendlessYOGAsummer.
Architects: Kuba Wozniczka, Rafal Specylak of KameleonLab
Location: Wroclaw, Poland
Collaborator: Marek Wozniczka
Year: 2012
Area: 235 sqm
Photos: Tomasz Zakrzewski
Description:
The venture shows an aggregate makeover of an ordinary clean family house from 70s of XX century. Customers have purchased a site with existing 2 story little building and their fundamental goal was to make this house twice as large, whilst joining the old structure of a building and to totally change the heights.
Toward the end of a “cosmetic touch up” old white block turned into a “dark 3D square”. Existing house was stretched out in two headings, towards greenery enclosure and west site limit, accomplishing additional space for a family room on the ground floor and unexperienced parents bed room with closet on first floor.
The site is situated in urbanized city zone in local location of high thickness, where accomplishing protection, so imperative for customers, was principle venture issue. Taking after customer wish to minimize conceivable perspectives into the house structure outside, front and side rises have only a base number of openings which was repaid by couple of sky facing windows and 5 meter tallness channel glass divider lightning up stairs and passage. House format was revamped to discrete diferent zones in extremely customary mode. Open arrangement on the ground floor is committed for entire family and their companions, though top floor is entirely private with folks rooms on one side of a house and children in the other.
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One of essential parts of this task was to make smooth move in the middle of house and finished territory. From the greenery enclosure side steel casing has been outlined encompassing porch and supporting anticipated “room box”. This has made another space-by one means or another encased however as of now in the greenery enclosure. Steel edge will serve as a development for timber louvers or material layers to expand protection and make shade in summer months.
This “in the middle of” zone will serve as a family room expansion, where sliding glass veneer make it conceivable to interface with space mlessly. Amid late spring and spring this will be perfect for BBQ, patio nursery party’s and will serve as children play area.
In the forthcoming porch region there grew a tree which was proposed to stay on the spot. Shockingly, the tree was harmed amid development works and consequently it must be removed. The house proprietors chose to plant another tree on that spot once the development of the house is finished.
After precisely reaching for sufficient rise treatment architect shave chose to clad this house with timber painted black,thanks to this achieving extremely solid, just about “realistic” impact and same time utilizing environment inviting materials. To highlight ‘exhaust parts’ of the structure (where strong mass is subtracted)- passage zone and porch zone, hued and white render was utilized rather than timber.
![]black-cube-house-kameleonlab_portada](https://www.caandesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/black-cube-house-kameleonlab_portada.jpg)
【◎心靈研磨坊 – 曼陀羅藏(Ⅲ)◎】 
【容大千量】