Ellen Saltonstall's Blog

Balance: It’s Not Just Tree Pose

“The reason we think balance is associated with longevity is because it requires keeping your brain and nervous system’s integration circuitry intact.” —Danine Fruge, MD, family-practice physician Practicing specifically for better balance is important for us at any age, but it is essential for those of us over 50 or 60, when so many changes happen in our bodies. To work on balance with yoga, Tree pose is a common choice. Although Tree Pose is iconic, often representative of yoga in general, there are many other diverse and entertaining ways to improve balance. With better balance, we avoid falls, which can lead to injuries and a serious decline in overall health. In this post I’ll describe to you some of my top choices for practicing basic balance skills that will help you in daily life and in your Tree pose. To get the bad news out right away, here are the most common changes that … Read more

Shoulder and Neck Release in 10 to 15 minutes

Do nagging pains in the shoulders and neck impact your everyday life, perhaps even causing mental stress or headaches? Relief is possible, in as little as 10-15 minutes a day. The good news: Our shoulders and neck have a complex array of muscles and joints to give us amazing range of motion. The bad news: those muscles and joints can be locked into inefficient and even harmful patterns. More good news: you can re-establish beneficial patterns so that your body knows how to return to “neutral” after any activity or stress that builds up tension. Here are five simple and relatively quick fixes for shoulder and neck pain. 1. Shoulder circles (2 min) Standing or sitting, move your shoulders forward, up, back and down. Do this slowly and with close attention to what you feel. Don’t just rush through it – “I already know this one, it’s easy”……but really feel the process and note the … Read more

Protection and Relief for Your Wrists and Hands

Human hands have many skills: using tools, typing, playing musical instruments, giving massages, or using sign language, just to name a few. But in many yoga poses we make a special demand of our hands, expecting them to function like feet, holding all or most of the weight of the body. Examples of these poses include Downward-Facing Dog pose, Upward-Facing Dog pose, Plank pose, Handstand, and all the “bird poses” when we balance on our hands. Yet we don’t always prepare the wrists for this special demand, and injury can result. Looking at the structure of our wrists can help you understand why some preparation is important. The wrist is made up of eight small bones, which form the transition between the two large bones of the lower arm (the radius and ulna) and the long bones of the palms (the metacarpals). The second illustration above shows the fascia in the wrist area, including tendons … Read more

Breath is Food for the Body and Soul

How has your awareness of your breathing changed in this year of COVID? Perhaps some reactions to wearing masks, avoiding closed-in spaces, or being especially sensitive to any respiratory distress? With the pandemic dominating the world for an entire year, we are forced to the realization that we can’t take breathing for granted. Each day we breathe about 25,000 times, and in our lifetime, that number might be 670 million. The body is programed to keep the breath going, and for much of the time we don’t think about it. But how we breathe is in our control, and is worth noticing and improving. Yogis know this, and it is the basis of pranayama practice. Dancers and athletes know this, and have developed strategies to improve and sustain enough breath for their energy output. I’ve recently read Breath, by journalist James Nestor. His book condenses the story of his ten-year journey of exploration and research … Read more

Design Your Practice To Give You What You Need

In a recent blog post I talked about interoception, the ability to keep track of inner sensations in an ongoing way. The next step is to use what you feel through interoception to help guide you in designing your own practice for your particular body and mind. What is your body type? Are you more fluid, and attracted to a nice stretchy practice? Or do you have a more solid musculature, pulling you toward weight lifting or gym workouts emphasizing strength? It’s not about which is better, it’s more about observing the body type you were born with, and using your choice of exercise to fill in the gaps. Recent research tells us that the best way to have a resilient, strong body is to do a variety of movements – not just the same yoga series every day, or the same game of tennis, or the same gym workout with machines. Give your body … Read more

Tiny Habits

Did you make any New Year’s resolution about your physical health? Many people resolve to exercise more, lose weight, get rid of an unwanted habit, or some combination of those goals. But the complexity of life can so easily take over and dislodge even the best intentions. The other day, I heard an author speak on NPR about how to establish new good habits and get rid of “bad” ones. His name is BJ Fogg, and his book is Tiny Habits, The Small Changes that Change Everything. As you can guess from the title, the trick is to take small steps toward your goal. Instead of resolving to do an hour of yoga a day or taking class once a week, you can set the goal of doing one or two poses each day on your own. Make the “tiny” effort, and you’ll feel the results and probably want to do more. Instead of approaching … Read more

Better Interoception Equals Better Health

How’s your interoception? In case you’re not familiar with that word, it’s the inner felt sense of the body, including being warm or cold, hungry or full, tired or energized, stiff or flexible. Interoception is increasingly seen as a crucial component of health by twenty-first century researchers, especially in how it bridges the gap between physical and emotional experience. Recent research shows that well-developed interoception can lessen our experience of pain, which might surprise you. In other words, the more we are in touch with our inner world of sensation, the more we can adapt our behaviors to lessen the causes of pain. When our interoception is faulty and we are disconnected from the body, we are more vulnerable to anxiety and depression. One way to check in with our interoception – our inner sense of subjective presence in the body – is with an inner dialogue. Think for a moment about whether you have … Read more

Bodymind Ballwork for The Outer Side of The Legs

Right now, it’s the beginning of winter in the Northeast USA. We are wearing heavier clothing and shoes, the ground might be slippery, and the cold temperatures can sometimes cause muscles to tighten as we rush through our day. Tension in the outer legs that can cause hip, knee or ankle pain and fatigue. Last year I wrote a blog about strengtheners for this part of the body, and today’s blog is about how to release tension there with the balls. While I acknowledge that many people use rollers for this, and get a lot of benefit, I prefer the balls, because I feel that the balls can get in between the layers and neighboring muscles really well, and they facilitate inner “glide” and healthy circulation. Two of the techniques are done sitting on the floor, and the other two lying down. The balls can be purchased from www.lifesaball.org – look for the 4” spikey … Read more