Posts by Jennie Williford CIYT
Shoulderstand – The Mother
As yoga teachers, we don’t get the question about standing on the shoulders as much as on the head. For some reason, Sarvangasana – short form “shoulder stand” – seems…
Read MoreWhy Would I Want to Stand on My Head?
As I am teaching the “Back to Basics” class for The Yoga Place, of course we touch on building the strong foundations needed to practice future inversions. One of the…
Read MoreTradition,Character and Imagination
Chapter 13 and 14 of The Great OOM brings us back to the foundations and tradition of Bernard and the Tantriks, and moves us forward into a new era introducing…
Read MoreFalse Advertising and The Changing of Yoga for Social Norms
The next two chapters in The Great OOM really stand out to me as a turning point for the Tantriks, Bernard, and even yoga itself. As they move to Nyack…
Read MoreMillionaires, Marriages, Mansions and More
It seems that yoga has been tangled up with money and love/sex affairs since it hit the shores of America in the early 1900s – with some successful and some…
Read MoreTransforming Consciousness, Transforming Matter
As we proceed through Chapter 3 of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, we are coming to realize the power harnessed by a changing consciousness. With the integration (samyama) of concentration…
Read MoreOn Track or Off the Rails?
In Chapter 7 of The Great OOM I find myself intrigued and frankly wanting to have a replica of Bernard’s “New York Sanskrit College” in operation today! So much of…
Read MoreThe “New Normal” with Yoga
Well, here we are in summer 2021. The restrictions of COVID are easing and the sun and the temperatures are perfect to get out and explore what open society has…
Read MoreThe Many Morphs of Yoga in America
(image is the seal of the Theosophical Society) The next couple of chapters in The Great OOM are a great overview of how many forms yoga took even when it…
Read MoreLodges, Loves, and Lasciviousness
To the outsider, the downfall of Pierre Bernard seems to be an inevitable end. Even though he might have taken advantage of the mystical curiosity of the age and approached…
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