The kitchen is the heart of the home! If you're looking to make eco-friendly swaps, the kitchen is a great place to start.

According to research, the kitchen is the most used room in your home! Whether we're preparing food, cooking, or cleaning up, it is the place we spend a lot of our time during the day. It is also a place that can accumulate waste quickly. Not only is food wasted in the kitchen, but also a large number of single-use disposable items.

In this blog post, we'll discuss 5 eco-friendly kitchen swaps to help you jumpstart your sustainable journey!

Sitali Pranayam is the second of several techniques we’ll cover in the “Intro to Pranayama” series.

The sanskrit can be loosely translated to “cooling breath,” and it is a breathing technique that promotes a calming effect on the nervous system and a cooling effect on the body (you’ll definitely feel it as you practice this breath).

While this technique features a curled tongue (which is a genetic trait - either you can, or you can’t), fear not if you’re not able to do this! I’ve provided separate instructions for those with this trait and a modification for those without.

Nadi Shodhana, or alternate nostril breathing, is the first of several techniques we’ll cover in the “Intro to Pranayama” series.

The sanskrit phrase breaks down into two parts: nadi, meaning channel (flow), and shodhana, meaning purification. Together, the phrase highlights how we can use the breath to help clear the subtle energy channels that exist within the body and mind.

Pranayama - also referred to as breathwork - focuses on breathing techniques that can be traced back to the traditional yogic practice originating in ancient India.

Pranayama posits that our bodies are prime repositories for emotional and physical blocks, as well as stress, all of which impact our life force energy: our breath (prana). When prana is stuck, we might notice this in a variety of ways: jaw tension, muscle tightness, anxiety, overwhelm, etc. Pranayama, therefore, is a vehicle through which we can start to clear these blocks, allow prana to move freely, and help our bodies “clear the clutter,” so to speak.

This quick and easy spring Fattoush salad recipe is sure to be a hit. With fresh, clean, and simple ingredients, you can rest easy knowing that you prepared a healthy meal for your family; and it tastes great, too!

This recipe is perfect for those busy nights where you don't have a lot of time, but you do want to make something healthy - when you need to clean out the fridge - or for a summer cookout. Enjoy!

Technically, you don't need any props to practice yoga, but for many (myself included), props are helpful tools that make yoga more adaptive to our unique bodies and needs. Accordingly, their purpose is to enhance, strengthen, and add sukha (ease) to your practice. 

It is also important to note that while props are helpful, they can also be expensive. As a result, I've provided inexpensive at home options for you in the descriptions that follow.

Before we get started, however, I find it important to note that, if you asked me to use props at the beginning of my yoga practice, I would have turned up my nose - because, as a novice, I was under the impression that yoga props were “crutches.”

Now that I’m a yoga teacher with 10+ years of practice under my belt, however, let me tell you why I was oh so very wrong - and why I think that everyone should play with props on the regular:

With a seemingly never-ending list of options, finding the best yoga gear and accessories is difficult, to say the least. Not only are there tons of options from which to choose, but it’s also hard to sift through the clutter to see what will actually help your practice, what accessories are the longest-lasting, and what’s just for show.

The following list highlights tried and true products that I’ve found to best support my yoga practice, as well as a few “extras” that I like to have in my space for good energy and to promote a tranquil environment. Whether you’re looking for the perfect gift for the yogi in your life, or the right props and/or accessories to support your own practice, you’re in the right place.

Let’s get real for a minute.

You’ve decided you want to start doing yoga at home (or maybe even at your local yoga studio), so you throw on your favorite leggings, grab your yoga mat and water bottle, and search for your favorite Wild Yogi Studio class. You are ALL IN, baby.

This practice is the one that’s going to kickstart your new yoga habit: You’re going to practice every day or x times per week, and you’re going to feel so good and everything is just feeling awesome; your motivation is at an all time high, and you’re doin the damn thing. *cue applause*

The labor and delivery team swarmed in again, the surgeon and midwife sat at my bedside, and they had the look on their faces; I could tell, even through their masks.

Babies only have a reserve of oxygen in the womb for up to 10 minutes, so we had only seconds to decide.

I looked back at my husband; we didn’t even have time to discuss what was happening.

As my contractions continued to ramp up, my doula stepped up to the plate with essential oils, homeopathic remedies for tension headaches, acupressure, robozo, and massage (seriously, get you a Doula if you can - I don’t know that my home birth experience would have been nearly as manageable without her).

At 3:30am, after three days of labor, the delivery team engulfed the small space in my hospital room for a second time to address my son’s rapidly decelerating heartbeat.

At 3:30am, I looked into my husband's sleep-deprived eyes, then at the nurses, midwives, anesthesiologist, and surgeon staring back at me, awaiting my decision - and finally, at the doppler on the monitor telling us that it was now or never.