My three-legged dog knows her own body in a way I wish I had inherently too.

While some dogs breeze by with their owners at a legato pace, never stopping to sniff garbage or chase a squirrel, my bull-headed dog much prefers staccato with elongated pauses in-between bouts of running.

She refuses to move whenever she needs a break, or wants to bask in the sun a little longer on these very short days. Sometimes when I’m caffeine-deficient and it’s a frigid morning, I feel my hackles come up when she is insistent on staying put.

I wish I could too doggedly demand the tempo of my life to slow and move through the streets of Brooklyn to a rhythm that isn’t beholden to the metronome of Capitalism. Situations like this beg the question: 

How can we listen to our body — and our nervous system’s needs more?

There’s a misconception in yoga that I come across often. When I’m teaching and suggest using props, like blocks or bolsters or straps to support the body, or aid in a stretch, they are often left unused. Perhaps it's the egos of some perfectionistic yoga students that prefer to grin and bear it through intense discomfort. Or that props are “cheating.” It might be more comfortable for their ego, thank thinks that striving makes them a More Intense and Real Yogi, but don’t their bodies get a say in the matter?

For me, treating the practice simply as a workout — or opportunity to create Instagrammable shapes — discounts all the myriad of ways yoga can offer us. Don’t get me wrong. I also once clung to the feelings I’d get in my movement practice: when my backbends were deeper than the person next to me, my tree pose more still. 

But eventually, my hips were no match for my ego. The elasticity I enjoyed in my rubber band hips failed me and I realized that props were not a crutch.

~ ~ ~ practice ~ ~ ~

The Philosophy of Propping Ourselves Up

Props aren’t just just for inflexibility, injuries, or conditions like high blood pressure, and suggesting they’re only used for this purpose is not yogic. 

There is no doubt a meaningful rigor to yoga — strengthening and opening up the body allows us to practice the same with our minds. 

But more so, the practice of yoga aims to help us transmute and eventually transcend whatever ails us. It aims to get us closer to and deeply know our truest self. To me, this means using a block under your bum in a deep squat, even if you don’t “need it,” but because it makes you feel more stable. Or placing blocks underneath your knees as you lay back in savasana, simply because it feels good and allows your low back to release. 

Yoga props can:

• correct alignment, help with restricted movement and serve the body’s proportions — (sometimes your arms are simply not long enough to touch your toes!)

• remove fatigue in practice and hold poses for longer

• allow the bones to feel supported and let the muscles relax, that would otherwise be impossible

• lessen fear of new poses like handstand

• develop objectivity and humility

After all, in the seminal text about yoga, The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali, there are only a few words written about the physical practice of yoga. He says yoga postures should be “sthira sukham asanam,” meaning that the practitioner should approach poses by balancing steadiness with ease, strength with softness.

[let’s take a quick breather!]

It Started By Accident

Before the renowned teacher B.K.S. Iyengar, props were far less used in yoga. His own teaching style was all about physical stamina and flexibility. 

Until his life-changing scooter accident. He injured his spine and suddenly, he couldn’t move in the way he had before. To persist in his practice, he called in a host of special guests, like folding chairs and looped ropes bolted to the walls, now known as Iyengar Yoga.

The Problem with Knowing When You Should Use a Prop

Yoga helps practitioners develop their proprioception and interoception.

Proprioception is the ability to sense how your body is positioned, or where it is in space. It’s a bit like the sense you get when you close your eyes, and simply know that there is a person near you without seeing it. Developing proprioception is really useful, especially as you age to avoid falls by judging distance, moving without looking, using appropriate force.

Interoception helps us sense what’s going on within: Where are you feeling muscle tension? Are you breathing intensely? Get curious! This helps us make small adjustments, like not bending your front leg so deeply in Warrior One if your hamstrings are hurting.

These abilities really help in class, like when your teacher might tell you to make sure you’re not twisting your hips in a pose. Without proprioception, you might be rolling your eyes in your mind, thinking, ‘How do I know what my hips are doing without a mirror?’ 

The secret is to put your hand on whatever body part your teacher refers to, like your low back, or SI joint. If your palm doesn’t feel flatness beneath it, you’re twisted. Soon, this physical intentionality will help train your brain to make those small adjustments without needing touch.

How to & When to Use Props

The next time you find yourself in yoga class and think you could benefit from a little scaffolding help to support your body in a pose, here are some tips thanks to The Studio in NYC that practices a form of yoga called Katonah:

• Blankets (rolled up or folded): If your back is hunching when seated and reaching towards your toes in a forward fold, that means that your pelvis needs a little support to sit up higher. When you use the blanket to bulk you up under your bum, and remove flesh from underneath the bony parts of your butt, you’re helping your pelvis move into an “anterior” tilt. This tilt moves your tailbone back and your hips front so you can lessen the distance from your torso to your toes. You can also use a block under the bum! For a bigger lower back and hip release during longer-held poses, also use a rolled blanket under your knees. 

Heels don’t reach the floor? Rolled up blankets are also awesome for poses where you might not be able to place your heels on the ground. So in downward dog if you have tight hamstrings, consider placing your heels on a blanket to give your body the steadiness it needs. This also works for Malasana (or deep yogic squat).

• Blocks: Think of your blocks like bone, The Studio says, use them for support and stability. They can help “bring the floor up” to you, if you can’t reach the floor during a standing forward fold, triangle or pyramid, they help under the hands. Also, if you want to feel the ultimate stability in wide-legged standing forward fold (Prasarita Padotonasana c/o The Shala, my studio in Brooklyn), use them underneath your head if it doesn’t touch the floor. They are also wonderful to keep the hips square in pigeon pose if you have tight hips, this will keep your spine from twisting.

[time for another breather!]

How Do We KNOW Yoga Works?

Yoga is having a heyday. We might hear a range of benefits of the practice in the media or in class: Yoga helps you move through strong feelings! Yoga helps with memory loss!  Yoga helps melt away stress! But how do we really know? 

In the coming editions, I’ll be revisiting a conversation I had with a neurologist, yoga teacher and Founder of the Neuroscience and Yoga Conference, Dr. Jonathan Rosenthal, on what scientific studies show us about the benefits of yoga and how we can utilize these findings to make our practices even more effective in certain populations and reduce risks of injuries.

The ancient practice has been beneficial for centuries, but now science is catching up to look at how we know what we know about yoga. Dr. Rosenthal says that science is important for yoga because as science is the language of our modern society, sharing scientifically proven benefits encourages participation from individuals but also from institutions like healthcare organizations, schools, governmental organizations, etc.

He also says there’s a moral imperative: We owe it to people with diseases to know the risks and benefits of yoga for them. In 2023, 859 studies were published on yoga.

Even if you’re not a yogi, having a deeper understanding of how to read scientific studies — and using discernment when you read a headline — has never been more important in a greatly divided media environment. 

Let’s dig into how you can separate fact from fiction yourself.

Understanding the Strength of a Study

If you see two studies that say different things, like “drinking any amount of alcohol contributes to cancer risk” and “a glass a wine of day helps reduces the risk of heart disease" — a good place to start is to understand the level of evidence. 

When you’re discerning if the study you are reading is strong, look for the top-two tiers: randomized controlled trials, systematic review & meta analysis. These types of studies represent the most convincing evidence that you can trust, that may influence clinical guidelines and change practice.

Next, use the PICO method to look at the POPULATION of the study, the INTERVENTION used, what intervention the researchers use as a COMPARISON to gauge the effectiveness of the intervention, and the OUTCOME.

Dr. Rosenthal says when using PICO, it’s a good sign if the study involves lots of people, active controls, randomization, and detailed descriptions of interventions.

+ + + action + + +

Instead of asking you to take more action this holiday season, take a moment to just be.

Follow me on Instagram to receive a short meditation on Friday that will help you quiet down during this cacophonous holiday season.