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Get Your Perfect Body…100% GUARANTEED!

Hi, You! So…you want a perfect body… Don’t we all! Well, you’re in luck, because I am about to make you a promise that holds a 100% guarantee. YOGAthletica will get you that perfect body. Period. In fact, if you practice yoga correctly (even with some other teacher 🤨 ), you will get a perfect body. How…

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Not That Person

Last month, my BFF Nicla and I went to Costa Rica for my 52nd birthday and there was one particularly interesting leg of the journey.  We went on an amazing horseback ride through the rainforest and across the black sandy beach (side note: if you haven’t been to Costa Rica, go.). It was pouring rain–as…

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My Handstand Teacher

A very famous yoga instructor taught me how to straddle press to handstand. That may or may not surprise you, but this will: She was never my teacher. Not online, not offline, not ever, anywhere, any time. But then again, she was. You see, this woman and I used to take all the same classes…

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That Insta-smile!

By Shana | February 27, 2022

Okay…okay! I’ll admit it. Despite what you see on Instagram, I am not always happy. There. I said it. And in times like these–with the people of Ukraine suffering in the most dire and frightening of circumstances–all I want to do is cry. But instead I smile. Because that’s what you do on social media.…

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The Fallacy of Free

By Shana | January 31, 2022

There’s this thought in the world: if you offer a good or a service, you should give it away for free to all your friends and family. And perhaps to various, sundry acquaintances, as well. It seems “fair” enough. What are friends for, after all? To take care of each other, lift each other up,…

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Bah, Humbug…Well, That’s Too Strong…

By Shana | December 31, 2021

New Year’s is not my thing. I may wish you a Happy New Year and, in fact, I probably will. But I am just as likely to wish you a happy Monday, or a happy August 29th (a very good day), or a happy Whateverdayithappenstobe. Truth is: I don’t think there is anything special about…

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Who Am I To Question Jois…?

By Shana | November 30, 2021

I know I will be burned at the stake for saying this, but I find the classic Ashtanga Primary Series video led by Sri Pattabhi Jois to some of his most prominent students……well…….sort of cringy. From the tense-shouldered Urdhva Mukha Svanasana to the Chaturanga Dandasanas that are an inch off the floor, from the splayed…

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Ah! The Naïveté of Youth!

By Shana | October 30, 2021

When I was but a wee lass in my pre-yoga 20s, I used to wake up at 4am every day to go to the gym before work. Every day, it was the same group of worker-outers. Always the usual suspects. Among us was a man in his early 90s, who not only did an hour…

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You’re Getting Sleepy…Sleeeeeepy….

By Shana | September 30, 2021

One thing (if I can possibly name one thing) that everyone is talking about these days is how hard is has been to get a good night’s sleep during the pandemic. A year-and-a-half into all this craziness, that’s a long time to go sleep deprived. Sleep is such an incredibly important part of not just…

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Well…I Gotta Have Faith…

By Shana | August 31, 2021

In a recent personal exploration of faith, I came to an unexpected conclusion: that one can be a person of tremendous religious devotion without being a person of faith. Typically, these words are used more or less interchangeably. Devout, faithful…same thing. And yet… My revelation emerged from an examination of prayer itself. The act of…

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Financial Abundance…Beyond Wealth

By Shana | July 12, 2021

I have financial abundance. Not because I am rich. Not in the conventional way, at least. In fact, my financial abundance has nothing to do with with what I have and everything to do with what I have to give. Like many, this past year-and-a-half has been a rough one for my business. When you…

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Happy Memorial Day?

By Shana | May 31, 2021

Pop quiz! Quick! What is Memorial Day? Time’s up! If you said it is for honoring our servicemen and women, you are wrong. That’s Veteran’s Day. Memorial Day is a day of commemoration of those who lost their lives in the line of duty. So, it always rankles my nerves when people wish each other…

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it’s just so easy for me!

By Shana | March 28, 2021

easy peasy, lemon squeezy. it always takes me aback when people comment on my photos or videosthat they will never be able to do something but it’s just so easy for me. or even better, that everything is easy for me. first of all, i’m not going to lie. most of the stuff that looks…

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Soul Purpose

By Shana | February 23, 2021

Do you believe in reincarnation? I sure do. And I always have. Waaaaay before I knew a single thing about yoga, I just knew. I believe that a soul is eternal. And recyclable. I believe that child prodigies are reincarnated souls that remember. I believe we are all here to learn the lessons we failed…

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lesson learned

By Shana | January 26, 2021

I had been teaching almost a full decade when I decided to take a second, entry-level 200-Hour training with Sri Dharma Mittra. I was already highly experienced, already teaching at studios all over the world, but I really wanted to train with the master. Anyone who knows me–who knows my teaching–knows that I love alignment.…

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i 💚 you

By Shana | December 28, 2020

quick! when i say “love”, what color do you think of? bet you said red! of course you did! red is the color of fiery passion and romantic fire. red burns. it excites. it ignites. it’s the color of hearts and roses and valentines. how interesting, then, that the color associated with love in yoga–the…

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when you give a yogini a pillow…

By Shana | November 29, 2020

i’ll admit, it’s been hard for me to sleep lately. not for the normal covid reasons. it’s not anxiety or stress or depression. it’s my neck. and shoulders. living massage-free for the last eight months has not done my body well. and i wake up repeatedly during the night because my neck and shoulders just…

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is yoga a religion???

By Shana | October 20, 2020

you’ll probably be surprised to hear that my entire yoga career started by teaching extensively throughout the ultra-orthodox jewish community (with both women and men). and one of my other first clients was a traditional catholic school. this, despite the vocal objections from some extremely religious people (of all faiths) that “yoga is a religion”…

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prop me up! and let me down easy…

By Shana | September 23, 2020

love props? you can thank bks iyengar for those yummy blocks, satisfying straps, soothing blocks and blankets, and, of course, paul the wall. props can be used to make your asanas more accessible, deeper, or even more challenging (hello, handstands!). blocks don’t always make things easier! but no matter how you use them, ultimately, they…

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why i never had children

By Shana | August 8, 2020

i never had kids. the simple explanation is this: no man has ever wanted to marry me. the longer explanation is this: let me begin by saying that there is no one on earth who loves children more than i do. i will concede there may be some who love kids as much, but no…

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the handstand video that never was

By Shana | July 24, 2020

so….i have a lot of handstand tutorials online. on youtube, i have 62 videos in my handstand mania playlist, including 31 handstand drill-a-day vids. and on my vimeo channel, it’s simply handstander’s paradise! but there is one handstand video i’ve been wanting to make for years but just haven’t been able to figure out how.…

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the full monty

By Shana | June 29, 2020

if you follow me on social media, perhaps you’ve heard. or perhaps, you need to follow me a lot closer… my newest vimeo video, “the full monty“, is up and here’s why it gets its own blog post! this is a video i have been meaning to make for years but, quite frankly, i’ve been…

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the same thing…over…and over…and over again…

By Shana | May 2, 2020

it started on april 14. i made a commitment that day to recite the mourner’s kaddish and psalm 23 daily for everyone who has lost his or her life either due to, or during, the coronavirus pandemic, until this nightmare, too, shall pass. every day at 1pm (pacific), i go on facebook live to say the…

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covidYAMA and coroNIYAMA

By Shana | April 10, 2020

as coronavirus sentences us to solitary confinement, we are each given a unique opportunity to step back, take inventory, and think about who we were coming into this pandemic…and who we will be coming out. we are all suffering in our own way, be it emotionally, financially, mentally or all of the above. and while…

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