Posts by Pilar
How to Choose a Yoga Teacher
Once upon the time, there was a system that was so hard to access, that you would probably have to travel far and wide to find your yoga teacher (or guru), who would hopefully share the knowledge of an unknown and mystical practice call “yoga”. In order to receive that precious gift of knowledge, a…
Read MoreI’m Not Flexible, Is Yoga Right For Me?
If there’s a topic I can talk about knowledgeably, it’s this one. Over the past eight years that I’ve been teaching, I have received this same question (or comment) over and over again. It has been a strong “disclaimer” from a great many students as they enter the door. Speaking from experience I started practicing…
Read More3 Main Reasons to Start Practicing Yoga
I started practicing yoga when it was still fairly new in my country. I was curious to learn more about what was considered at that time a strange and sort of “hippie” Eastern philosophy. I was also very intrigued about the complex postures and movements and how they could actually affect my state of mind.…
Read MoreThe Sacred Side of Aging
I recently celebrated another birthday, and I was reminded of something I learned in India that, this week especially, resonates with me greatly. It is this: in our “modern”, westernized world, we have lost the value of aging — instead of something beautiful, natural, and ultimately graceful, it has become a painful step in life…
Read MoreSantosha and Sustainability
I just returned from teaching a great morning yoga class. There was a sense of calmness in the atmosphere today. I went up to the yoga platform to prepare for my class and practice my Pranayama breathing exercises. As I was breathing deeply to absorb all the life-giving force, Prana, and serenity provided by nature, a…
Read MoreHow I’m an Ocean Guardian: Putting Yoga into Action
A few months ago I wrote an article that was published in Elephant Journal about my move to a rural Costa Rican community and how the reconnection with nature influenced my yoga practice and my life. In that article I talked about how a connection with nature nurtures my yoga practice. Now I would like to…
Read MoreBe Soft: Lessons from India
Today in my Bhagavad Gita lesson, the teacher was explaining a certain chapter and he told a story from Confucius that truly resonated with me. It is said that when Confucius was laying on his death bed, surrounded by his disciples, they requested one final lesson from him. Apparently, he simply opened his mouth very wide —…
Read MoreNamaste to Everyone!
I’ve never really been that into the concept of tattoos, but for the first time in my life, I am actually considering getting one. I want to tattoo the Sanskrit word Namaste. What does Namaste mean? Namaste is my favorite word: Namaha means “to bow” and te means “to you”. So it basically means “I…
Read MoreWhy Do I Practice Yoga? Why Do I Teach?
Yoga came into my life for the first time in 1999, when I joined a class at a friend’s house. A few months later, I began attending the classes being offered at my gym, and although now I don’t consider gyms to be the best place to learn yoga (as I will explain more below),…
Read MoreBrahmamuhurta Madness!
The alarm goes off. My first thought is “oh nooo, I can’t believe it’s time to get up again!” My second thought is “should I snooze it?” It’s dark, the bed feels so deeply comfortable and warm; I can feel the law of attraction holding me to the sheets. I think, “why should I get up?” The…
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