Mark Goldstein | Quepolandia in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Don’t Do Yoga With Me

By Mark Goldstein

Don’t do yoga with me.

Well, please do, I will love to have you join us! My point is to ask you to do some yoga on your own. Having your own yoga practice, away from class, is often the key to forming a lasting and progressive yoga practice. Don’t get me wrong, I prefer to practice with a group, along side others. As well, I love to teach and have a deck full of students.

Filed under: Costa Rica Yoga Journal, Mark Goldstein on April 18th, 2013
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Headstands

By Mark Goldstein

This March, our pose of the month here at PranaVida wellness is the Headstand. If there are two things that we all did far more as children, they had to have been somersaults and headstands. This month I’d like to offer to all of you the opportunity to revisit your childhood headstands.

As always, in yoga, there are plenty of variations for this pose and with that in mind, anyone can practice one form or another of headstand. Why do headstands? Well, first because anything that we did as kids for fun has to be good for us to embrace as adults again, right?

Filed under: Costa Rica Yoga Journal, Mark Goldstein on March 20th, 2013
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Yoga is a pain in the Butt!

King Pigeon Pose

By Mark Goldstein

This month we are concentrating on your periformis muscle, your back pocket muscle, your pain in the butt muscle. Why? Because it feels so good to stretch and release this muscle. and opening up this muscle can have a huge effect on your life.

Have you ever had sciatic pain? That pain that can go down the back of your leg? It can hurt so bad that all you can do is lie down. Some people get sciatica it so bad that lying down hurts almost as much. The muscle that is the cause of this pain is very often the periformis muscle, and coincidently, the cure to this issue is opening up this very same muscle. If you have sciatic pain, then opening up this muscle can help. If you don’t have sciatica, then these poses and stretches can help greatly to keep you out of this crazy amount of pain.

Filed under: Costa Rica Yoga Journal, Mark Goldstein on February 27th, 2013
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Bakasana, the Crow Pose

Crow Pose

By Mark Goldstein

I would like us to focus on a pose this month which will be a challenge for us all. The pose of the month is Bakasana, in English known as Crow Pose.

Bakasana is an arm balancing pose that all of us can do, that is, as long as you are willing to try, willing to fall, and willing to have fun. If you are are in, then I will love to have you join us as we explore this challenging pose in our classes this month. I find that challenging ourselves can become a very humbling, building and achieving experience, and always worth our efforts.

Filed under: Costa Rica Yoga Journal, Mark Goldstein on November 30th, 2012
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Restorative Yoga

By Mark Goldstein

If there is anything close to “winter” here in Costa Rica, it is this time of year. It is our rainiest, muddiest, and least busy time of the year. You can find us making more soups, and baking and roasting more of our foods. This is partially because it is our cooler and stormier season, and also because we have more time on our hands. This is also the time when we can get the things done that we didn’t have time for during our busier season. As well, this is our greenest time of the year, and the plants seem to grow right before our eyes. If we decide to, we can take this time to restore ourselves, bringing back our equilibrium, our balance.

This article is about restorative yoga. You can see in the photos that restorative yoga poses look very easy to do. Well they are. They are also very powerful when approached correctly.

Filed under: Costa Rica Yoga Journal, Mark Goldstein on October 31st, 2012
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Yoga and your Inner Barbie

Barbie Foot

By Mark Goldstein

Like a long, strong dancer……

I’ve used this description many times while teaching yoga. More exactly, I will say, “More like a strong dancer, and less like a body builder.” Think about it, imagine in your mind a beautiful ballet dancer, man or woman. They are elegant and strong, often peaceful and powerful at the same time, and they are effortless and liquid in their movements. As well, ballet dancers are asked to make themselves as long as possible, therefore, “a pointed toe, is a pretty toe.” Chances are if you look at their faces, their features are smooth and relaxed, and there is intention in their expression; a certain amount of concentration.

Filed under: Costa Rica Yoga Journal, Mark Goldstein on September 16th, 2012
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Creating Space

By Mark Goldstein

When was the last time that you said to yourself “It will feel so good to shrink things down, to compress my body, to squeeze things shut” ? Maybe you have, but I doubt it.

In retrospect, what do we all do after sitting at a desk to long, or after riding in a car or airplane seat for many hours?

Quite often we stand up, put our hands on our hips, push our hips forward and send our shoulders back and then probably make a nice long releasing sigh.

Right? This is good, this is great, this is…..wait for it….this is a backbend!

This is extending the spine, this is opening up the spaces between our vertebrae, this is creating space.

July’s pose of the month is the backbend.

Filed under: Costa Rica Yoga Journal, Mark Goldstein on July 19th, 2012
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