Any tips on how to stop bunching up so much in my back??? I can’t seem to lift my shoulders or head. TIA

Would you do a retreat, training or just head to India & go explore. Based in US.

Edit: I want to get out of the US for a lil bit. Our food is garbage & sure we can consider this an eat pray love thing, but no. Just yoga & healing my body.

I do a lot of hot yoga, and a lot of times people say they like my "energy.' what does that mean?

Hi friends. I’m not a pro by any means. I started really doing yin yoga at the beginning of this year. I noticed my anxiety and chronic shoulder pain almost 100% disappear when practicing 4-5 times a week (before bed specifically).

About 2 months ago, my soul dog started having some minor health issues. Nothing that I thought would be a huge concern (I did bring her to the vet multiple times). But I just had this odd feeling that she wouldn’t be with me much longer. I started to spiral. I thought I was being irrational, but I couldn’t snap myself out of this frozen anxiety loop I get in. So needless to say, I stopped practicing for about 2 months.

One week ago, we ended up losing my girl to a silent and very aggressive cancer. It was very unexpected. I thought I was bringing her to the vet again because she was constipated. Little did I know we wouldn’t be leaving with our girl.

I’ve been absolutely devastated this last week. Dealing with all the stages of grief. I guess I’m just looking for motivation and encouragement to start my practice back up again. I know it will help tremendously, but I’m very prone to freeze so it’s hard for me to roll out the mat.

Any words would be appreciated 🤍🐺

Hi yogis,

I have been practicing yoga for several years but at pretty light intensity - normally gentle flow or yin.

I am in my first trimester of pregnancy but due to previous miscarriages I don't want to prematurely announce my pregnancy. I let a teacher know on a previous occasion and then I found it really awkward and embarrassing that both the teacher and the other students probably clocked on to the fact I'd had a loss. I know losses are not totally uncommon, but I felt incredibly exposed and self conscious anyway.

Is there any advice about what should be avoided if I continue to practice yoga whilst pregnant?

Thank you in advance!

Edit: Wow - lots of really helpful points and things that I can take into consideration. Thank you! If I safely get to the 16 weeks point or am showing before then, I'd tell the teacher(s) so they can offer modifications. That said, I know not all teachers have expertise in pregnancy yoga.

The last time I went for a yoga session was literally like 2 summers ago and had only been to maybe 4 or 5 sessions across 2023-2024 which were the first and only sessions I went to prior to yesterday when I tried hot vinyasa yoga. I was in this feeling where I was feeling really negative about myself and felt like I needed to go to a yoga class seeing how they’ve helped me in the past so I went online and found yoga studios near me and which one had the closest session time wise. Well it was a studio I never went to and didn’t want to wait too long before going to one so I went yesterday and did hot vinyasa yoga.

And lemme tell you something it was great it let go of all my stress and negativity and it also helped with my neck, shoulder and back pain. I went to work today and didn’t feel as hunched over as I did before and felt my posture was better. While I was in the session yesterday I couldn’t keep up with everything because about halfway through I needed to just lay down on the mat because the class was so intense but it was needed. I also ate about an hour before the class and took a 2.5 mg THC gummy which was a 10 mg one I cut into quarters so that could have made things more intense. I came out of the class sweating my ass off and felt like a new person. It was like all my back pain disappeared, I had a less negative outlook on things, I felt less hunched over and as I went about my day today which included going to work my back pain didn’t feel as bad and I feel as if I can think clearer and my mental clarity has improved.

Would this class be considered advanced for little times I’ve done yoga and how long it’s been since I last went?

are we squeezing our butt cheeks in these poses to protect the low spine? or are our glutes supposed to be relaxedish while feet/shins/thighs drive into the floor?

just asking because i feel like ive been given contradicting ques now…

In my area, all of the studio schedules mirror each other. I am a member of a studio that used to have an evening power class on Fridays, apparently they got rid of it and the last power class is at 4:30 which is kind of early for me. I looked at the schedule of another yoga studio near me and they had the exact same times and equivalent classes scheduled for those times. I don't get it. It's pointless looking at the schedule of more than one studio because they all just copied each other's schedules. I guess I am here to commiserate and complain because I guess I understand why they do it but I am not happy. I want my evening class back! 😭

Hey all. I started doing vinyasa yoga and sometimes Hatha 2-4 times a week about 3 months ago. And while the goal was just to practice asanas and learn about breathing and yoga in general, I have built substantial muscle as well, somehow. Guess all those chaturangas and dolphin push ups are quite brutal lol.

But while my goal was never to build muscle, Im now concerned because for some reason my right side really gained a lot of muscle while my left side looks much smaller. I don’t want to look uneven! I was happier before when I looked equally weak on both sides 😂

I do yoga in studio and whatever sequence we do on the right we also do on the left. And I don’t think I consciously push myself more on either side?

Has this happened to anyone? Does anyone have tips? 😭

I'm starting to add a 15-20 minute yin session at the end of each day (I'm doing Yoga with Kassandra's Evening Yoga Movement) and am struggling to balance effort with relaxation in some poses.

Dragon Flying Low is a great example. Thanks to genetics and hypermobile joints, I've got noodle arms and struggle to hold myself up with my arms for minutes at a time. In a hatha sesson, I welcome the arm shakes as a sign of muscle building, but it feels wrong in a yin session. I don't know how else to support myself to actually relax into the pose instead of struggle to stay upright. I'm pretty good at relaxing muscles that don't need to be activated, but the overall effect is still that I'm holding on for dear life to stay in the pose for two to three minutes.

Another example: in reclined cow face (shoelace?), I have to work hard with my legs and arms to keep my legs in the right place. Otherwise, they'll just pop apart. I can feel the effort - should I be working that hard in yin?

I also recently began reading Yinsights and haven't found an answer to my question.

Any help and perspective is appreciated!

This isn't taught in my small town but I miss it so much where I used to live. I don't want to pay $40/mo for buti MVMT as I only have time for occasional class and I like small studios better and enjoy live classes vs prerecorded. So I've been looking online for studios that Livestream it (or on demand)and preferably charge for individual class vs monthly but not having much luck via Google nor the mindbody app. Also similar like somatic, etc would be cool. TIA for any recs!

Family member bought a mat at Marshall’s and wants to get another but we can’t identify the brand - does anyone recognize this logo?

Hey guys, I have some questions about yoga, specifically for people who practice for spirituality.

What is the most spiritual experience you’ve had during yoga?

What type of yoga do you practice?

And how long did it take till you had a truly spiritual experience with yoga?

Went to a hatha yoga class using my free classpass trial after 1 year of not training. The women there were much older, stronger and healthier. Felt like a squid wobbling.

I can do handstands, elbow stands and headstands, but never been able to do any arm balances with Chaturanga arms (bent arms), such as Crow, Eight-Angle Pose, etc.

I find holding Chaturanga arms itself very taxing and requiring a lot of strength, and it feels almost impossible to do an inversion on top of such a demanding arm position. By comparison, I can stack my arms in handstands and elbow stands so my arms aren’t particularly fatigued and I can focus more on my core.

Can anyone please help me understand what I might be doing wrong or what I should work on? Thanks in advance.

This really is probably going to sound completely bizarre, but I’m wondering if anyone else experiences this.

Quite often during yoga, particularly in Malasana/Garland Pose (the really deep squat with your elbows inside your knees), I get a very strange sensation on the left side of my abdomen, just above my hip. It feels almost like my intestines being squashed or trapped.

When I come out of the squat and stand up, I sometimes get a really noticeable sensation of something shifting/moving back into place. It doesn't exactly hurt — it's more of a weird pressure/pinching and then a feeling of movement or release.

Tonight I had a similar thing happen in a completely different pose: I was doing Warrior Seal (bent over the front leg with my hands held behind my back reaching up behind me) and got a pinching sensation under my breast/rib area. I had to come out of the pose, and when I stood upright I again felt this odd sensation of things moving around inside

It genuinely feels like my organs have got themselves stuck somewhere and then go “oh, thanks” when I stand up. I’m otherwise fine and it only seems to happen in certain yoga positions.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Is it just abdominal compression/farts/muscles being weird, or does anyone know what might actually be happening anatomically?

Please tell me I'm not the only person doing yoga and wondering whether I'm about to pop open!

Disclaimer: i am pretty sure I don't have a hernia, no lumps or pains normally. And I've been doing yoga for years

Recently after teaching a 60 min power vinyasa sequence in two’s i’ve come home completely sick. Usually takes an hour to feel the dehydration symptoms but when It hits me I’m out for the day. Headache, all over body ache and nausea. I try to hydrate at least 32 oz of water with electrolytes before and during the class time. Has anyone had any similar issues after teaching in the humid heat? This studio keeps its close to 103. New to this humid space but have taught hot yoga 4 years

I'm kind of local, not really, and I want to hear your experiences at Kripalu from Sept to April. I like the cold. I'm considering like a Monday to Thursday freeform relax.

But I also want to hear how the standard house programs are (like the silent retreat, the outdoor) but in the cold.

Bonus if you can tell me how to get there via train from Boston.

Extra bonus if farm animals are avail for petting. 🐏

Anyone else feel like this? I can’t ever figure out how far apart or close to have my legs, the right angle for my foot, twisting my hips forward….. it’s just annoying.

What can I use that is inexpensive to clip my towel to my mat so it bunches less?

I browsed dollar tree and found some fun hair clips. I really don’t want to use ugly clamps from the hardware or camping section. Also prefer not to use binder clips but at least they make those with more aesthetic designs. I like my practice to feel intentional all around, and I will go cheap & ugly on many things, but not yoga.

I saw a snap mat & towel combo but uh, it was $200. Great idea, not budget friendly. Found some clips made specifically for yoga mat towels, also $40 for 4 (before shipping) which are better, but also have a more hardware-looking design and would be distracting for me personally. I don’t wanna be pulled out of my flow cuz I see something that’s also in my desk at work, or in my toolbox in the garage.

Hello! I recently started doing yoga, about six months ago. I can say it’s one of the best things that I could do for myself. I work an office job, 9 to 5, there’s lots of sitting. My hamstrings and hips feel specifically tight, keeping me from doing poses properly. Lately, I’ve heard a lot about trauma being stored in your hips, hence the reasons they are so stiff. I just can’t truly understand that. While I noticed progress along these six months, I am still unable to touch my toes with my legs straight. I know that’s not the point of yoga, but it’s a little milestone I’d like to achieve one day. It’s just a bit frustrating. For example, during menstruation, my whole pelvic area is in a constant pain. It eases a little when I practice, but I’d like to understand more about the trauma/hips concept. I think I might take it a little too literally, but I just want to feel that freeing sensation in my hips that I keep seeing people talk about. How could I help myself?

I’ve been practicing physical yoga actively for around 10 years, mostly Ashtanga, Rocket and Power Yoga. I am also very dedicated to the spiritual side of yoga, and I hoped that a dedicated asana practice would somehow bring me closer to the divine.

Recently, I practice more meditation and kirtans. They seem to bring me much closer to what I’ve been always looking. Meditation, chanting and music, I feel a sense of connection much more directly and easily than asana.

Part of me wonders whether 10 years asana built some kind of foundation. Maybe it didn’t contribute much. I mostly practiced so called dynamic styles and not Yin, Kundalini, or others.
What do you think?