The BIG 2022 Announcements!

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This is a pretty long and juicy blog post so grab a mug of your favorite warm beverage and get cozy in your comfiest seat. I’ve got some exciting announcements to share with you today and I don’t want you to miss a thing.

When I recently sat down to start planning 2022 I realized that in March I would be celebrating a big milestone – my 10 year teaching anniversary. Those kinds of events always make me pause and take stock of where I’ve been and where I hope to go.

As I was reflecting on my 10 years of teaching yoga there were several related questions that kept coming to the forefront of my mind. Yes, I teach yoga, but what am I really offering my students? What is it that I do that makes my services so unique and so valuable? How can I better define that framework so that people can see exactly how it could help them too?

Answering those questions led to a massive overhaul of my website at toryjnash.com. It was a huge labor of love – burning the midnight oil a few too many times over the last few months – but it was so worth it. My virtual home now tells the story of what I really offer my students, what makes it so unique and valuable, and how the framework that I’ve developed over the last 10 years can help.

It all comes down to one word – HOME.

I help people become homebodies. I help people feel at home in their body and mind. I help them find deep comfort from head to toe. And I do it all from my favorite place on the planet – my home – through my virtual micro-studio.

Over the years I have learned this: My superpower is breaking down complex ideas into a simple, clear framework that delivers big on helping others bid aches, pains, stress, and tension farewell so that they too can be a homebody.

It all happens within a 3-part framework to help guide the journey home. Connect mind and body. Create balance in the body. Calm the nervous system.

Every service I offer is built around this framework. Yet each service is focused and specific because yoga is meant to be personal and deeply therapeutic. That can’t happen if you’re one person in a sea of 50 bodies. That can’t happen in generic classes where the theme bounces around from week to week. That’s why I am so committed to small group and one-on-one programs that are highly focused and specialized. It is vital that yoga programs take you into account and adapt and change as you grow and change.

When I started to think about the next 10 years of teaching yoga there was one main question that kept popping up for me. What do I really want my students to understand about the practice of yoga so that they can experience the greatest benefits in their body and mind?

The answer to that question was simple. It’s right there in the name of my business, Daily Practice Studios LLC.

I want my students to understand the power of practice and how that is the basis for huge transformation.

A once weekly yoga practice is an amazing place to begin. It’s where most people get started. But in my nearly 10 years of teaching – and 17 years of personal practice! – I’ve found again and again that the people that see the biggest benefits and experience the greatest transformations through yoga are the ones who practice 3-4 times per week.

That’s why I’m taking my services to the next level. I want to make it easy for you to experience that for yourself.

So…..Drumroll, please….

Introducing Quarterly Memberships!!

Each small group program will now be offered as a Quarterly Membership.

A Quarterly Membership supports our studio belief in the power of practice. It supports you in progressing towards feeling more at home in your body and mind through a combination of virtual livestream classes and access to an audio library of class recordings. Now you can do your HOMEWORK – did you see what I did there? – practicing each class as often as you’d like through the end of the quarter.

Practice the early foundational sequences of the quarter 2-3 times between livestream classes to reap the most benefit and to set yourself up for long-term success. Then as the classes build and expand – and, most importantly, as you get to know your body and mind better than ever before – you can zero in on what you most need to do for your weekly homework assignments. This allows you to further customize your small group program to your specific needs.

Did you find a class especially beneficial in improving how you feel? Did you find a class especially difficult and want to improve your ease? Now you can practice them – or even segments of a class – over and over throughout the quarter to help support your progress towards achieving homebody status.

A Quarterly Membership to a small group program does cost a bit more than a typical weekly yoga class but it gives you so much more too. You first get the incredible benefit of a highly specialized therapeutic small group program. On top of that are the remarkable benefits of a two, three, or four day a week practice – or maybe even daily! hint, hint– of these therapeutic classes. It’s an investment in you and your well-being that is hard to put a price tag on. Feeling at home in your body and mind, finding deep comfort from head to toe, is truly priceless and ends up impacting every area of your life.

You might be wondering what small group programs are available as a Quarterly Membership.

First up is Happy Hips & Low Backs! This is right for you if your hips and low back have you feeling like you are far from a happy homebody. Some of these might sound familiar. You are struggling with a low back that aches all the time. You have an SI joint that protests loudly. Your hips are sore at the end of a long day. And it all has left you feeling anxious and overwhelmed.

Then we have Happy Shoulders & Necks! This is right for you if your upper back, shoulders, and neck have you feeling like you are far from a happy homebody. In fact, some of these might sound familiar. Your upper back is filled with tension. Your shoulders twinge every time you try to move them. The pain in your neck has become constant. And it all has left you feeling stressed and defeated.

Now this is very exciting! You can bundle up the two memberships I just mentioned – Happy Hips & Low Backs and Happy Shoulders & Necks – to create Happy from Head to Toe! It gives you some major savings and is the best value in the studio for aspiring homebodies.

Finally, is The Bespoke Yoga Homebody. This is the most customized small group program you can get without investing in a one-on-one yoga program. This is right for you if you have been feeling like you need more focused attention or if you need an even more customized plan. Things are kept very small and very personal- just 6 participants – so we can go deeper within the practice, getting to the root of what each person really needs to feel more at home in their body and mind. All you have to do is tell me your #1 struggle and I’ll build a customized small group program that delivers on the participants’ requests yet feels like I created something just for you.

Ok, let’s say you’re not quite ready to go all in on your HOMEBODY journey. I’ve got you covered. You can continue to purchase single class drop-ins to Happy Hips & Low Backs or Happy Shoulders & Necks. It’s a great way to dip your toe in the water to decide which program might be best for you. BUT! Please note that a drop-in is livestream class attendance only and no audio recordings are provided for either a missed class or for on-going practice.

Are you ready to begin your HOMEBODY journey?

Head over to the website and check out all that is new at toryjnash.com. Pay special attention to the Services page because that is the launchpad to each program, including detailed descriptions and registration information. Chances are any question you might have will be answered right there. But if you find yourself having read through everything and a question still comes to mind don’t hesitate to reach out and ask.

Here’s to becoming homebodies – and finding deep comfort and ease from head to toe – in 2022!

Be well,

Tory

Summer Yoga & Ayurveda Tips

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In Ayurveda, the summer season corresponds to Pitta dosha and it is characterized by the heat of transformation. You can see it in nature throughout the growing season: the seeds planted in spring are transformed into the fruits of harvest. With the arrival of this new season it’s time to make some changes to our diets and yoga practices so that we can keep our cool. Read on for your Summer Yoga and Ayurveda tips!

image of Summer Yoga and Ayurveda Tips

Summer Yoga and Ayurveda Tips

Summer Ayurveda Tips

In the summertime it is important to balance the heat of the season with foods that are naturally sweet, bitter, or astringent. Luckily, mother nature provides us with exactly those foods in the summer growing season. All you have to do is look at what is abundant in the farmers market and eat tons of those foods!

Foods to Favor in Summer

Leafy greens like swiss chard, kale, collards, dandelion greens
Broccoli, cauliflower
Zucchini, summer squash
Cucumbers, bell peppers
Quinoa, barley, rice
Lentils, beans
Ghee, coconut oil
Berries, stone fruit & melons
Cilantro, coriander
Mint or hibiscus teas

There are certain foods that should be reduced or avoided during the summertime. These are foods that build heat in the body and contain the tastes of sour, salty and pungent (aka spicy). Consuming them without moderation is like throwing fuel on the fire!

Foods to Reduce in Summer

Spicy foods like chili peppers
Salty foods like salt, soy sauce, or miso
Sour foods like pickles, yogurt, or sour cream
Lemons
Beef, pork, or dark meat poultry
Caffeine
Alcohol

Summer Yoga Tips

Just like the foods that we eat can add fuel to the fire so can our yoga practices. Thus, it might be best for you to to avoid heated power flow classes! Summertime on the yoga mat is for practices that are more gentle, calming and cooling in nature. If possible practice in the coolest parts of the day – early morning or evening.

Yoga Poses to Favor in Summer

Twists like lunging twist, revolved side angle, revolved triangle, reclining twist
Side stretches like seated side stretch, extended side angle, gate
Forward folds like wide-legged forward fold, pyramid, seated forward fold
Restorative poses like reclining bound angle, legs up the wall

To finish your yoga practice rest in a savasana that takes up a lot of space! Think about taking the shape of a star fish so that there is lots of room for your skin to do one of its primary jobs – dissipate heat. And don’t be shy about spending some extra time in relaxation. Oftentimes summer becomes a go, go, go season where we try to get in ALL the activities while the weather is divine but that can lead to burnout so remember to rest!

Supported Backbend Video Tutorial

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I’d like to introduce you to one of my very favorite yoga poses. Supported backbend! It’s a pose I do every single day for 5 minutes a day. Occasionally, it might even appear an extra time during the day. It’s that helpful to me in daily life. And because I want you to reap those same benefits I made you a supported backbend video tutorial!

Why do I love it so? Supported backbend effectively, and rather passively, undoes the caved in chest, forward rounded shoulders, and overstretched upper back that is the result of hours and hours in front of computers and other devices. If we don’t work to balance this tendency in our yoga practice, this shape of the shoulders and spine will often lead to nagging aches and pains in those body parts. Not to mention it sets us up on a trajectory to be stooped and rounded forward later in life….and I think most of us would love to still be standing tall at 90 and beyond!

In this supported backbend video tutorial I walk you through two versions so that you can chose the one that makes the most sense for your body. Are you a beginner? Chose the first option I demonstrate. Set your timer for 1 minute and little by little work your way up to longer and longer in the pose. Have you been practicing this pose for a while? Chose the second option I demonstrate. Set your timer for 5 minutes and enjoy. I hope you’ll watch the video and start incorporating this pose into your daily life. I think you’ll find it as beneficial and worthwhile as I do!

What is Ayurveda?

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Ayurveda is yoga’s sister science and India’s ancient system of medicine. Its literal translation from Sanskrit, the language of Yoga and Ayurveda, is “the science of life”.

Two Goals of Ayurveda

The primary goal is to maintain health in the healthy by nipping any imbalances in the bud. It is about prevention of disease. Secondarily, it looks to alleviate and manage disease in the unhealthy. We achieve these two goals through diet, lifestyle, and culinary herbs.

image is Ayurveda is ancient personalized medicine

Ayurveda is Ancient Personalized Medicine

Each of us is born with a unique constitution or make up. Therefore, Ayurveda takes a highly personalized approach to health. It looks at the individual — mind and body — in order to determine what that person needs to restore balance and well-being.

What does that mean? What one person needs to deal with their digestive upset might be completely different than what another person needs. It’s not just the symptoms that determine the diet and lifestyle recommendations. It’s everything about the person that determines them.

At the end of the day Ayurveda looks to return you to the “truth of you” by restoring balance to your unique constitution. Because a healthy you means you can do all that you’re meant to do in this world!

Setting up a home yoga practice: The props

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I once read that a yoga teacher was asked by a student, “How many times a week should I get on the mat and practice?” The teacher’s response was once a week is better than zero, twice is better than once, and on and on.

Getting to a yoga studio for a 75 – 90 minute practice 7 days a week is probably not likely given our life schedules. What is possible though is getting on the mat every day at home. And good news! It needn’t be a lengthy practice to see great benefits. By showing up on the mat every day anywhere from 5 – 30 minutes you will feel better in your body and your mind.

And more good news! You don’t need a lot of gear to get started. From my point of view there are two things that everyone should invest in. The rest can be gathered up from around the house.

Yoga props to invest in….and those to find around the house

Invest

A high quality yoga mat:: Invest in a heavy sticky mat that won’t crawl all over the floor while you’re practicing. It should also give you enough padding to help cushion your knees when kneeling.
A pair of sturdy blocks:: Blocks help create possibilities in our poses. They help us access actions and movements in the body that might otherwise be inaccessible when, say, straining to reach the floor. It’s not a crutch or a cheat!

Shop Your House

A blanket:: Most of us have plenty of options from which to choose already laying around the house. Blankets create a perch to sit upon so that you’re nice and tall. And the obvious? A cozy layer to rest under during savasana.
A belt, towel or long scarf:: Having something at the ready that helps you to reach your feet or get your hands behind your back is a must have, especially while we patiently wait for hamstrings to lengthen and shoulders to open. There are so many options around the house to help in this endeavor!
A dense pillow or couch cushion:: In a more restorative yoga pose extra props create the shape for you so that you don’t have to do the work. A dense pillow or couch cushion will take the place of a bolster anytime you need some extra R&R.

Releasing tension in the neck

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Releasing Tension in the Neck
Does this sound familiar? You’re at your desk working away at your computer. Your shoulders are hiked up towards your ears. Your chin is jutting out towards the computer screen. By the end of the day you are reaching to massage the back and sides of your poor aching neck.

These three stretches are little miracle workers for releasing tension in the neck. They are my go-to when I literally have a pain in the neck or feel a headache coming on. As a bonus they take less than 5 minutes to do. Remember: slow and steady wins the race so always work gently and mindfully. In these stretches less is more! Back of Neck Stretch

Back of the Neck: Interlace the hands at the back of the head. Allow the chin to drop towards the chest until a stretch is felt at the back of the neck. With the interlaced hands providing gentle resistance lightly press the back of the head into the interlaced hands for 10 seconds. It’s as if you were trying to return the head to center but the hands prevent you. Let that go and drop the chin any closer to the chest, until a stretch is felt at the back of the neck once again. As before gently lift the head into the interlaced hands for 10 seconds. Repeat this process 1-2 more times.

Side of Neck Stretch

Side of the Neck: Lean the right ear towards the right shoulder. Reach overhead with the right hand and rest it on the left cheek. With your hand, gently press the right ear to the right shoulder until a slight stretch is felt on the left side of the neck. Reach the left fingertips towards the floor. With the right hand providing gentle resistance lightly lift your head into your hand for 10 seconds. It’s as if you were trying to return the head to center but the hand prevents you. Let that go and drop the right ear any closer to its shoulder, until a stretch is felt on the left side of the neck once again. As before gently lift the head into the hand. Repeat 1-2 more times and then switch sides.

Front of the Neck: Rotate your chin towards the right shoulder until you feel a slight stretch towards the left side of the neck. Rest your left hand on your left cheek. With the left hand providing gentle resistance lightly rotate the cheek into the hand for 10 seconds. It’s as if you were trying to rotate the chin back to center but the hand prevents you from moving the head. Let that go and rotate the chin any further towards the right, until a stretch is felt on the left side of the neck once again. As before gently rotate the cheek into the hand. Repeat 1-2 more times and then switch sides.

A savasana to eliminate shoulder knots

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Here is my favorite piece of homework to help you get rid of that glorious knot on the top of your shoulder.

You know the one. It’s right where the top of the shoulder runs into the base of the neck. Throughout the day you reach up to massage what feels like a goose egg lodged underneath the skin. So how do we get rid of it?

A Savasana to Eliminate Shoulder Knots

When you come to rest in savasana at the end of your yoga practice, allow the right forearm to rest on the forehead. To make it even yummier, you can let the right ear tilt slightly towards the right shoulder. Hold for 1 to 2 minutes. I highly recommend using a timer here. We often vastly underestimate how long a minute is in a pose, even the restorative ones! Resting with the arm in this position brings the two ends of the muscle closer to one another which allows the muscle to relax and unwind. Now switch and do the left side. Finally, end your savasana with 1-2 minutes in the classical pose. Arms are at a bit of an angle away from the sides of the body with the palms facing the ceiling. Let the shoulders rest heavily on the floor.

If you give this modified savasana a try, I’d love to hear what you think! I don’t think you’ll miss those annoying shoulder knots one bit.

Hard is OK

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I was assisting a yoga class and noticed a very tall gentleman in a very, very short Utthita Trikonasana (triangle pose). I suggested he take a much longer stance given his very long legs. At first he resisted and then he looked worried. That will make the pose too hard he replied. I set him up with some props to bring the floor closer to his hand and he settled into the longer stance.

Several weeks later I suggested a slight modification to someone’s Virabhadrasana II (warrior II pose) to bring the knee in line with the center of the foot. Again I was met with resistance and worry. But it’s so much work to bend my knee and keep it pointing in the right direction was the reply. I smiled and agreed completely. It IS hard. And that’s part of the practice.

Depending on who you are and what particular set of anatomy you came to the practice with it can be hard for a number of reasons. Perhaps your muscles are strong but completely resistant to the idea of stretching. Or perhaps your muscles are very long and the idea of the stability that comes from strong muscles is completely foreign to you. Likely it is some combination of the two.

Hard is OK

But you stick with it. You start to explore the physical body and its unique combination of expansiveness and limitations. You push the edges of boundaries both real and imagined. You start to notice your default reaction to the hard. Your mind wanders. It shuts downs. You blame the teacher. You set your jaw and decide to power through as the ego takes over. You make excuses because you aren’t (__________) enough.

And then there is a subtle shift as you start to notice the important difference between needing to let go and come out of the pose because the mind wants a break and the body actually needs a break. You realize you alone control your reaction to this pose and this practice. That it is up to you to learn from this experience and mold it and shape it into something.

It is then that the practice takes a big shift from being all hard, all the time to something more balanced. There is work and effort but there is a lightness and ease. It is both hard and soft. You start to find space for playing and giving it a try no matter what it might end up looking like. And then you forge forward into that next level of exploration – you start to take the yoga off the mat.

You realize all this practice was never about the pose because in the end does a perfect handstand really matter? It was about creating a safe space on the mat to explore our edges and our reactions to life. It was about cultivating a reaction to the hard that life inevitably throws at us. It’s about learning to override the default switches the poses revealed to you. It’s not about instant reactivity but thoughtful consideration. It becomes discernment in action.

Then another shift occurs. You notice you miss the challenge the poses gave you — the way that the hard poses required your instant focus and attention on them. So you start exploring new poses and new variations. You look for ways to continue to hone this skill of being present even when poses are hard. You take that increased learning off the mat, where life continues to throw us something hard or uncomfortable.

And thus the cycle continues: facing what is hard or uncomfortable, working to stay present, finding tremendous growth. This is why hard isn’t to be avoided. It is the place where magic happens. This is why we practice yoga.

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