So you have a regular spiritual practice—you go to yoga three times a week, let's say, or you meditate every day. Yet the practice feels less fulfilling than it used to: You've somehow lost touch with the core teachings that define the purpose of your spiritual struggles. This is no doubt one of the reasons that svadhyaya, scriptural study, is one of yoga's main ethical precepts. The natural tendency of the human mind is to forget, and it's necessary to be reminded of where we are and where we're going.

While its roots stretch back in time to an ancient sage named Vamana Rishi, nearly 80 years ago the Ashtanga yoga system was passed to Sri K. Pattabhi Jois from the legendary yogi, T. Krishnamacharya. Since 1948, this Jois has been teaching this disciplined style of yoga from his Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute, located in Mysore, southern India, instructing many thousands of people worldwide.

Dr. Andrea Pennington is pregnant, and it seems she’s always hungry for a snack! With help from organic chef Veggie Annie, Andrea will learn some recipes for seasonal snack options to keep on hand, and get good advice on healthy eating during pregnancy or any other time. Plus, we’ll explore exercise ideas that can benefit mother and baby – like water aerobics!

A word of warning for the occasional-yogi: Don't touch that communal mat! And if you do, disinfect yourself immediately.

After issuing its decision on wetlands protections last week, the Supreme Court once again made headlines in environmental news this week: The Court decided to hear the case about whether the federal government is required to regulate greenhouse gases.

I’ve never been one who felt it was necessary to wear clothes designed specifically for yoga—a plain T-shirt and a pair of Nike running shorts have done me just fine in my asana practice for several years. I figure that yoga practitioners 5,000 years ago didn’t have special yoga garb, so why should I?

Sometimes it seems that yoga's the vanilla ice cream of the body/mind/spirit crowd—people can't help themselves from sprinkling on their favorite toppings and swirling extras into the basic flavor. How else to perceive AcroYoga, Yogilates, and Cy-Yo, if not as the yogic versions of fudge ripple?

Recent research has found yet another entry to add to yoga's long list of attributes. In addition to increased flexibility, strength, and peace of mind, the ancient practice has now been linked to a significant and all-encompassing improvement in cancer patients' quality of life.

Somehow on its journey west, yoga shifted from a mostly male endeavor to a mostly female one. For as much as I hear about entire professional male athletic teams doing yoga to improve balance and strength, in ten years I’ve never been to a class in which women didn’t outnumber men by at least two to one.

In today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , reporter Jack Kelly writes about what men are missing when they skip both yoga and pilates. “Men in general are less flexible than women. They’re just put together differently,” Dr. Betsy Blazek-O’Neill, Medical Director of the Integrated Medicine program at Allegheny General hospital told Kelly. She added that many of the exercises men do––like weightlifting––tighten up their backs, making them ripe for some deep stretching.

A new book, Kripalu Yoga: A Guide to Practice On and Off the Mat, details how to practice yoga from the inside out. Written by Richard Faulds, a former Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health resident and president, this latest and most detailed book from the Massachusetts-based retreat center defines a difficult-to-describe practice based on loving self-observation, asanas, and awareness of energy, food, consciousness, and yogic ethics.