Published on January 21, 2018
An introduction to the 2nd (or Intermediate) Series of Ashtanga - a challenging practice with a lot of deep backbending, hip opening and arm balances. Take your time and enjoy the process!
By Brent Laffoon on Sep 4, 2025
Hello friends! Welcome to a rest and digest session. A perfect practice if you've just done something strenuous, but also if you've just eaten, or if you're having a day when you need rest and restoration more than movement. This is a meditation on thoughts versus the thinker. Whose thoughts are these, anyway? If you can witness your thoughts, who is doing the witnessing? Does every thought you have deserve your attention and energy? Things to digest as we sit together and witness our experience. Feel free to sit up on a block or meditation cushion, or to prop your tailbone on a blanket if it helps you create a long spine.
By Brent Laffoon on Jul 19, 2025
Hello friends! Join Brent for this feel-good flow that will open up every major muscle group and help you develop deeper awareness about where you're feeling strong and open, and where you might still have room to grow. Maybe the standing balance poses come easy to you, and the twists feel open, but the inversions present a challenge. Or maybe the inversions are happening, but the binds are out of reach (see what I did there?) This practice invites you to consider - if something is stopping me from finding a pose, what is it? Is it a lack of strength, or a lack of confidence? Is it tightness in your shoulders, or is there room to strengthen your core? There's no rush, you don't have to figure it all out in one session...you can keep comin' back! Maybe save this to your favorites and practice until the poses that aren't coming easily start to reveal themselves to you. You might want a couple of blocks and a strap. Enjoy!
By Brent Laffoon on Jul 10, 2025
A great practice post-workout, post-run, or anytime you're looking for a light stretch and deep breathing. Expect to release your shoulders, hips and hamstrings. You may want a strap and/or a block. Listen to your body, breathe deeply and enjoy before bed, after a run, or before a tough conversation :)
By Brent Laffoon on Jun 5, 2025
This is a restorative, gentle, deep yin practice that opens the hips and hamstrings with long holds and conscious breathing. You may want a block or two so that you can "lift the floor up" to meet you in certain poses, and really allow yourself to surrender. As you breathe and open deeply, Brent will share some history of yoga with you. Going back to the Vedic Period and The Vedas, which explored fundamental questions about existence, the nature of the divine, and the path to liberation. Good stuff :) Enjoy, yogis!
By Lauren Peterson on Jun 3, 2025
This is a practice I do if I'm short on time! Great for morning as we will start with the Ashtanga warm-up - Sun Salutes and standing poses. Great for evening as we finish the practice with restorative poses on a bolster. Long slow holds and full deep breaths. Enjoy! Lauren
By Brent Laffoon on May 19, 2025
A sweaty, challenging, super fun flow with Brent, focused on hip mobility and core stability. Get ready to play with some of your old friends in new ways, challenge your balance, find muscles you didn't know you had, and work some deep core stabilizing muscles while you increase your hip mobility. Good stuff. Two blocks may be helpful. Enjoy, yogis!
By Brent Laffoon on Apr 1, 2025
Thought twice about whether to put this practice in the Meditation or Gentle Yoga section. Truthfully, it could be in both! This is a beautiful session that explores what happens when we sit and observe sensation in the body. The most consistent sensation is the breath. And the more we can attune our minds to noticing subtle sensation, the more we're able to be present, curious, and immersed in what's happening from moment-to-moment - in other words, the more able we are to suck the juice out of every moment. In this session, we intersperse deep stretching and breathing with periods of sitting quietly and breathing. There is hip opening with breath, then sitting. Shoulder-opening with breath, then sitting, breathing, and witnessing. There is hamstring opening and conscious breath, and seated meditation once again. Each time you stretch and breathe, and then sit and breathe, you may observe the mind as it quiets more easily and willingly, until the fluctuations cease, and your mind is smooth, like the most placid lake at sunrise, before even the birds are awake. Enjoy, yogis. You may want blocks, straps or blankets for any of the shoulder and hamstring opening.
By Brent Laffoon on Mar 3, 2025
Rainy days have their own vibes, don't they, friends? There's something cozy about being inside, on your mat, as the rain falls and your breath flows. This is a slow, sweet, stretchy practice that opens the shoulders, hips and hamstrings deeply, and really gives you the chance to feel your way into every moment. You might even walk away from your mat feeling a little sunshine in your heart. Two blocks and a strap may be helpful. Enjoy!
By Brent Laffoon on Feb 18, 2025
A little bit of breath, a little bit of movement, and a meditation on sukha (an authentic, lasting state of happiness, pleasure, ease, or joy) versus dukha (the "mind-stuff" that can cause us suffering, pain, stress and dis-ease when we ruminate too much on the things outside our control). There's a tendency to focus on our physical state, and forget that most of our lives are experienced through our mental and emotional states. Spend some time finding ease in your body, and sweet steadiness in your mind. You may find it helpful to prop a blanket or meditation cushion under your tailbone, or to sit up on a block.
By Brent Laffoon on Jan 30, 2025
This is a short, sweet yin practice and the focus is...flexibility. There are always new studies coming out, but the general consensus is static stretching - meaning holding a position - for roughly thirty seconds while breathing deeply, is the way. We're going to be looking for that edge, that place where there's a lot of good sensation to work with, but we are not experiencing pain. Let your breath be your guide - if it's hard to breathe deeply and consciously, you've probably gone too far. Stay in the zone where you can breathe, and enjoy this exploration of sweet flexibility, friends. 2 blocks and a strap may be helpful.
Brent Laffoon
