MP STYLE GUIDE RSSTag Archives: Emilia Hallquist
Balance In The City: Will He Like Me?
As you might have guessed, I’m trying new yoga studios. I recently took a great class at Hosh Yoga in my neighborhood. (Chalk advertising does work!) I was nervous entering the studio. Would he like me? What if we didn’t get along, would my downdogs be good enough,? What if he smelled weird, or [...]
Balance In The City: Sunrise, Sunrise
Time crept an hour forward last weekend, and life barely seemed to have missed a beat. Monday morning arrived, and the L subway train still ran with delays. There is, however, a general feeling there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Temperatures are expected to climb to the sixties on Thursday, and [...]
Balance In The City: In Transition
The days are getting longer, but the temperature still dips past freezing at night and a blizzard could descend upon us tomorrow. And while we can’t pack away those winter coats, I do see those ballet slippers poking their bowed toes from behind the well worn uggs. Yes, it is March, and we are in [...]
Balance In The City: Restore Me Please
Perhaps there is a bad moon rising because my emotional state has been off balance for the past few weeks. In an effort to restore balance, I took an open/restorative class to celebrate our Presidents. Restorative involves pulling every prop off the shelf, building towers of support, and resting in poses, such as supta baddha konasana for five to [...]
Balance In The City: I Heart
Once again, the local drug store has indicated that Valentines Day is here. In high school, my bff and I often referred to it as “Happy *^%# It Sucks Day.” Just a couple of angst driven teenagers looking for a place to focus our aggression, now fairly well balanced adults with significant others, and still [...]
Balance In The City: Contentment
My sinuses have been on the attack this week with an indescribable fervor that could only be combated with a Z-pack. They are rebelling against the weather, and I really can’t blame them. It is likely that, either due to illness, weather, or the pick up of life, we are on the downward crest of [...]
Balance In The City: Watch Your Step
It is a wintery mess and New Yorkers are carefully watching their step. Is it a puddle? Is it ice? It’s both! This cautious approach and effort to ground the feet can directly be applied to the yoga practice. In any standing balancing pose (Tree, Warrior 3, Dancer) the work begins by trying to find [...]
Balance In The City: Ask that Question!
It was truly a delight to take class at OM Yoga last night. The strength of the studio lies in its focus on the technical aspects of each pose and the transitions between, but sometimes to a fault. Throughout the hallways, students ponder how to gaze from the corner of the left eye while firmly grounding [...]
Balance In The City: Svadhyaya
Over brunch last weekend, my friend indicated that while the rest of us are pushing ourselves to eat less, exercise more, her resolutions weren’t kicking off in January. She is hibernating. I started thinking, and not out of laziness, that perhaps the calendar year is not necessarily the earthly year. The properties of winter, according to the ayuvedar studies, are [...]
Balance In The City: Resolutions, Revised
Just a week into the New Year and my resolutions have been revised. And yours can too, I promise not to tell. Truthfully, mine have just been clarified. It occurred to me that “recommendations” are really just how I chose to support the overarching, big picture resolution, which is: Try New Things. Scary. The list [...]
Balance in the City: New Year’s Resolutions
New Year’s resolutions are upon us: lose weight, practice yoga every day, cook five nights a week, so on and so forth, blah, blah, blah. This time of year seems full of self-criticism, highlighting the things gone wrong, despite our best efforts, rather than acknowledging our accomplishments and joys over the past year. One of [...]
Balance In The City: Tis The Season
Tis the season to be jolly, and stressed, and cold, and obliged to attend various holiday parties with open bar and buffets of frosted cookies in the shape of snowflakes. The season seems to have taken me hostage, and I yearn for the New Year when I can detox without guilt. In this time of [...]
Balance In The City: Back Into It
Back from the holidays. Back to work. Back to yoga. I’ve been fondly remembering last year when I threw out my back by retrieving eyeliner from the bathroom floor. It took three months before stepping foot into a yoga studio. As a child, I was fortunate to avoid broken bones or sprains, while B.K.S. Iyengar was plagued with malaria, typhoid and bouts of [...]
Balance In The City: Why Yoga?
It was just one of those days; I was cranky, irritable, short tempered with no one or nothing to blame. My energy was pulled in three different directions: in need of a run, a hard yoga class, or a romantic comedy with a big bag of butter popcorn. I even crossed the street to see [...]
