- QUOTES:
- T.K.V. Desikachar: “Your yoga practice must always be a little more clever than your habits (tapas).”
- Leslie Kaminoff: “What we are after in our Yoga practice is freedom. One of the first things to get free from is the idea that there is a *right* way.”
- Leslie Kaminoff: “Instead of ‘how deep can I breathe’ why not ask ‘how little can I get away with?'”
- Leslie Kaminoff on teaching bandhas: “If you’re going to ask someone to engage a muscle, you better make sure they can release it first or it’s just tension on top of tension.”
- Leslie Kaminoff: “Breath is the great teacher of tapas, svadhyaya, isvarapranidhana. Tapas refers to that which you can change; isvarapranidhana relates to the stuff you can’t change; svadhyaya refers to self-reflection, the introspection that allows us to distinguish one from the other.”
- Leslie Kaminoff: “If you can make even a tiny bit of positive change in something you do a lot of (like walking and breathing), that’s a lot of positive change.”
- WATCH/LISTEN:
- Prana chant video
- The Warrior Series: Upwardly Mobile video and article on Yoga Journal website
- Tom Myers’ Deep Front Line dissection video
- Gil Hedley’s YouTube channel
- Freeing the Breath: Health, Relaxation, and Clarity Through Better Breathing with Leslie Kaminoff
- Yoga Anatomy YouTube channel
- Jessica Wolf’s Art of Breathing DVD (from Amazon)
- Yoga Alliance’s Yoga Talks with Leslie Kaminoff on Regulation
- Jill Bolte Taylor’s powerful “Stroke of Insight” TED Talk
- The Man Who Lost His Body, documentary about proprioception
- RECOMMENDED READING:
- ANATOMY:
- Yoga Anatomy, 2nd edition
- Yoga Journal article: Anatomy 101: Understanding Your Tailbone by Amy Matthews and Leslie Kaminoff
- More Leslie Kaminoff content on Yoga Journal
- Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists by Thomas W. Myers
- Your Body, Your Yoga by Bernie Clark
- HISTORY / BIOGRAPHY / PHILOSOPHY:
- Sri T. Krishnamacharya’s history of classical alignment in the Yoga Makaranda, part I (PDF) and Yoga Makaranda, part II (PDF)
- Religiousness in Yoga: Lectures on Theory and Practice by T.K.V.Desikachar
- Claude Marechal’s article describing some of the teaching of Professor Krishnamacharya: Teachings
- Health, Healing, and Beyond: Yoga and the Living Tradition of T. Krishnamacharya by T.K.V. Desikachar and R.H. Cravens
- Yoga Yajnavalkya (PDF) or book, by A. G. Mohan
- Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham
- The “Yoga Sutra of Patanjali”: A Biography (Lives of Great Religious Books) by David Gordon White
- “Seizing the Whip: B. K. S. Iyengar and the Making of Modern Yoga” by Eric John Shaw, California Institute of Integral Studies, Asian and Comparative Studies
- Leslie’s original post on providing certificates.
DOWNLOAD YOUR OWN CERTIFICATES HERE: Weekend workshop, Monday immersion (5 hrs) - Yoga Alliance “Statement on Yoga Therapy”
- Leslie’s blog post from 2008: “I’m Not a Yoga Therapist Anymore“
- The Goddess Pose: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West by Michelle Goldberg
- SCIENCE / PAIN / MEDICINE:
- John E. Sarno’s Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection
- Spine research on Chirogeek.com
- Research study abstract: At least half of herniated discs spontaneously de-herniate
- Paul Grilley’s Bone Photo Gallery
- Polyvagal Theory
- Infant-parent researcher Dr. Beatrice Beebe. Dr. Beebe’s most recent book “The Mother-Infant Interaction Picture Book (The Origins of Attachment),” reviewed here.
- The Myth of Core Stability (PDF) by Professor Eyal Lederman
- YOGA PRACTICE:
- The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice by T.K.V. Desikachar
- Yoga for Wellness: Healing with the Timeless Teachings of Viniyoga by Gary Kraftsow
- Intelligent Yoga: Re-educating Mind and Body, Second edition by Peter Blackaby
- Wild Thing Is Not Impossible (but it still might not be worth doing) by Amy Matthews
- Wobble cushion (we don’t recommend one company over another, this is just the first link I found)
YogaYoga charges a discounted tuition of $1,595.00 for Leslie’s online courses! Email to enroll through YY or call 512-326-2273. If you’ve ever considered joining this online community of over 5,000 students worldwide, this is a great opportunity.
Leslie performing kapalabhati on a bathroom scale
Leslie Kaminoff performs kapalabhati on a bathroom scale, illustrating Sir Isaac Newton’s law: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
Should We Keep Mula Bandha All The Time?
Have you heard advice about maintaining mula bandha all the time? Have you heard advice about maintaining any body position all the time? Join Leslie and students as they examine well-meaning advice, habits, and practices you can follow to honor the balance into your system.
What is Flexibility, and How Much Do We Really Need?
Do you do yoga to live a better life, or do you live to do better yoga? Your answer may surprise you, and it will help you learn where to set healthy limits in your own practice.
Honesty in Yoga Credentialing
If you’re ready for a learning experience that will make you a more sought-after teacher, re-charge your personal practice, and change the way you think about yoga, breath, and movement, join our online community.
- ANATOMY:
Flickr set available. You’re welcome to use these as long as you credit them “Photo: Lydia Mann” and tag them “lkaminoff” and “lydiamann” (on social media sites).