After completing this article last night, after a long period of insomnia, I awoke again to a very disturbing nightmare. I feel exposed and vulnerable and now understand the terror Karen Rain speaks of in daring to state the brutal truth, in piercing the pressure of silence. With trust… Monica
Author Archives: Dr. Monica Gauci
Why I Left the Mysore Community in 1999 – My Statement
Now that the sexual misconduct of Pattabhi Jois has become common knowledge and while the victims wait their apology students are asking “now what?”
The Secret of Vinyasas
The secret to being able to jump through in a vinyasa is not in the ability to jump but in the ability to brake! Everyone can jump. In fact you hold yourself back from jumping if you do not have the strength to brake your jump. Your body inherently knows if you do or do not have that strength and will even override your conscious attempts to jump in order to protect you. Luckily! How brilliant is that?!
Core Sequencing
A common cause of low back pain is when our deep core muscles do not fire before we actually move our trunk or limbs. This can easily happen from prolonged sitting, from too many forward bend postures or even after an episode of low back pain, where the hip flexor muscles override the stabilising role of the deep transverse abdominis muscle.
What Are We Stretching?
There seems to be a lot of confusion around stretching and I am often asked the questions, “What are we actually stretching?”, “Are we stretching muscle or fascia?” and “Should we stretch ligaments?”. One important principle we first need to understand is that stretching will be a different experience depending on your degree of mobility.
Motion is lotion for our joints!
In yoga we tend to tend to focus our movements within just three planes of motion. This simple exercise takes the many small facet joints in our neck through their entire spectrum of movement.
Natural Breathing – What is it?
Our breath represents life and is the basic movement pattern that enables us to exist and experience. Just as breathing is our most primal, natural movement pattern, so is dysfunctional breathing our most significant aberrant movement pattern. Our primary muscle of respiration, the thoracic diaphragm, is central to our functional core. Its ability to move freely has far reaching consequences on our health from posture, to movement, to spinal stability and visceral function as well as mental health and wellbeing.