By Noelle H. Lowery
Just one conversation with Jillian Pransky gives a person a sense of peace and calm that is hard to come by in today’s fast-paced, technologically-driven world. You immediately take a deep breath and relax. Your heart rate slows down. Your mind clears.
You’ve tried chamomile tea and melatonin, you’ve even sprayed your pillow with lavender oil, but you still can’t sleep. Believe it or not, yoga can help. A Harvard study on insomnia found that people who consistently practiced yoga for just eight weeks enjoyed significantly better sleep—both their length of slumber and its quality improved.
By Victoria Wolk
If you’ve ever relished in the triumphant walk to the shower after a really good workout, you don’t need science (or us) to tell you that exercise feels just as good on the inside as it makes you look on the outside. But now, a new study in Complementary Therapies in Medicine finds the feel-good effect can differ depending on the exercise.
Despite not knowing exactly how sweating so little can work so well, scientists are piecing together a compelling story about gentle yoga. Its basic outlines will be familiar to anyone who has ever read a self-help book. Changes in the body change the mind, which changes behavior, which reinforces changes in the both mind and body. In this case, what's profound is what this virtuous loop ultimately changes: the body's very shape and size.
By Karen Macklin
East Coast yogini, Jillian Pransky, national director of restorative yoga training for YogaWorks, has been revolutionizing the practice of chilling out for years, and now she's sharing her wisdom in her first DVD.
Jillian Pransky wasn't always the calming, glowing presence she is today. Twenty years ago, the New Jersey-based yogi was as fired up by the corporate ladder as she was by the step classes and rigorous marathon training she subjected her body to. If it was hard, she was into it, and as a natural result, she was sometimes as stressed as the students who now flock to her slow-flow vinyasa and restorative classes.
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Mar 14, 2014
As if a toned body and calmer mind weren’t enough, practicing yoga also makes you a nicer person—who just happens to have better sex, according to two new studies. According to a Journal of Holistic Nursing study, yogis credit their practice for making them nicer, kinder, and more patient. And just two hours of yoga a week is enough for a boost in the bedroom, finds a study from the International Society For Sexual Medicine.
Courtesy of Yogaglo
Prana comes from the prefix “pra,” and the root word, “an,” which means to breathe. The word translates as “to breathe forth,” or often even more simply, “life.” Jillian Pransky, director of Restorative Therapeutic Yoga teacher training for YogaWorks, and a founding Director of Bright Spirit Yoga Trainings, says that the concept goes back thousands of years, to the ancient writings known as the Vedas.
It was as if I had only been waiting for the opportunity for my own understanding, but it was an unconscious understanding and in my first yoga class I put it all together. the practice itself was like sitting with the master of all teachers, instantly. It was another world--from my first class forward.
By Jillian Pransky
This past weekend I led a spring yoga retreat at Mohonk Mountain in New Paltz, NY. With morning temperatures at a frigid 29 degrees, the only sign of spring was no snow on the ground and a radiant, but teasing sun. Because spring alleviates the heaviness of winter with its fresh, effervescent energy, we tend to forget that it also comes with a rigorous intensity. It’s like nature’s way of *‘Rolfing’ the environment (and us.)
