Category: Yoga

Stay up-to-date on the latest from Asheville Yoga Center with our blog! Meet our teachers and hear them share more about their lives and yoga practice. Read tips on how to integrate yoga more deeply into your life off the mat. Learn more about inspirational teacher training programs, and discover new ways to deepen your practice!

Blog

Teacher Feature: Get to Know Sierra Hollister

The first yoga class that really captivated me was a power flow style with Sarah Powers. I was young – still in college, and a dedicated runner and climber at the time. Yoga was poetry for the body. In my attempts to find a class / teacher similar to Sarah, I stumbled into Ahimsa Ashram in Washington, DC and found kundalini yoga- which felt like
rocket fuel to me. Some 30 years later, I am still enchanted with kundalini and the
incredible power of the practice to transform. And, I still love flowing vinyasa andmany other styles. I think of myself as a “yoga universalist” – I love all the
lineages and paths deeply but kundalini is the maha (great) practice of my heart,
the one that I do every day, no matter what.

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5 Tips for A Sustainable Yoga Practice: Connecting On & Off The Mat

We can practice ahimsa or non-violence with others, mother Earth, and also ourselves. When we notice thoughts of judgment or criticism, there’s an opportunity to return to the breath, witness those thoughts and emotions, and allow them to flower. This momentary gap enables us to choose how we respond – ahimsa lives in our breath, that dynamic and divine pulsation of inhalation and exhalation that we share with all living beings.

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Spring Renewal: Yoga Practices to Care for Your Self & Environment

We can practice ahimsa or non-violence with others, mother Earth, and also ourselves. When we notice thoughts of judgment or criticism, there’s an opportunity to return to the breath, witness those thoughts and emotions, and allow them to flower. This momentary gap enables us to choose how we respond – ahimsa lives in our breath, that dynamic and divine pulsation of inhalation and exhalation that we share with all living beings.

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You Already Know How: Yoga and Breathing​

Did you know that Ada Limón, the extraordinary 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, loves yoga? And yet, in a recent On Being podcast, she laughed while sharing the following:

When I lived in New York City, my two best friends, I would always try to get them to go to yoga with me. And they would say, “I don’t want to go to yoga.” And I was like, “Why?” And they said, “I just don’t want anyone telling me when to breathe.”

I know, right?! Breathe in—do this. Breathe out—do that. Enough already!

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Warrior Breath: Astrological Archetypes & Yoga

A short time after I moved to Asheville, NC in 1996 I stumbled upon a little yoga practice room above an antique shop downtown. There was no sign outside advertising it as a studio or practice space. At the top of a narrow and creaking staircase there was simply a wooden bowl for donations.

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Bhakti Yoga: The Flow of Devotion

Bhakti means devotion, a deep yearning to experience love in its purest form. According to Dr. Shyam Ranganathan, Bhakti is identical to Yoga as a basic ethical theory that originated in South Asia. Although it is often confused with Theism, a decolonized view of Yoga or Bhakti does not require any beliefs.

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December Blog: Giving Back Through Yoga

Giving Back with Yoga  By Rosie Mulford “Giving” is a funny thing.  It is like an endless well that just keeps on flowing and filling no matter how much it is used.  The word “purna” in Sanskrit means full. But more than full.  My teacher describes “purna” as holding a

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Benefits of Bringing a Friend to Yoga Class

One of the first yoga classes I ever attended was because a friend convinced me to go with her to help me deal with stress after a difficult day.  How many of us have tagged along with a friend to a yoga class and walked away grateful for the experience?

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Meditation with Paige

Gift yourself 10-minutes, a moment to clear your head, check in with yourself and reconnect with your intentions.This meditation guide by Paige will provide the reset you’ve needed.

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Eco-friendly Yoga Mats & Props

Maintaining a Sustainable Yoga Practice Plastic. Trash. Single use items. Carbon emission. These are all items that quickly come to mind when you think of types of pollution that we are battling every day. But as a yogi, have you ever considered how your practice impacts our environment? The most

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“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.”

– Mary Oliver

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