Greetings from NY! The hot, sweltery days in Manhattan are actually rejuvenating me in Spirit. I love the energy and vitality of this community- so different from the laconic LA way.......

I am delighted to share an exciting contest sponsored by, one of my favorite partners, Yoga Journal

Yoga Journal is holding a contest to choose the favorite covers for the past 35 years & I hope you will pick mine!

Go to this link and click on the "VOTE" button below. http://covers.yogajournal.com/gallery.html?cover=2004_0910

and as you may have read in my last posting, iVillage has included my submission for the Top 10 Summer Workouts -

(check out the link below to read them all & perhaps it will inspire some summer moves of your own?)

http://www.ivillage.com/why-wait-treadmill-10-best-workouts-summer/4-b-229466#229472

I hope you are all most well & are enjoying your summer where ever you may be!

Sat Nam-K.

I Village- 10 Best Workouts for Summer

I am honored to be included in IVillage's best recommendations for Summer fitness! Fun-in-the-Sun Salutations- Yoga poses and deep, cleansing breaths can help you beat fatigue from the heat while keeping you centered. And you don't have to practice yoga in a studio. "When the gym is just too sticky, the lake or ocean in the morning is still peaceful enough to allow your mind to meditate and your breath to expand," says Kristen Eykel, creator of Yoga Emergency DVDs, all available for download onto your iPod or MP3 player. Check out the story's link HERE

Pain Relief & Labor Support- Cat/Cow to the Rescue!

I know you have done Cat/ Cow before. Hands and knees on the floor, pressing your heart upwards as you exhale and as you inhale, pulling up through your tailbone & arching your heart skywards. Maybe you've done it in a yoga class or after an aerobics class at your gym. But doing Cat/ Cow during pregnancy has a whole new dimension to add to you and your baby right now.

When you have to get up yet again for the 3rd time in one night, try a few minutes of this pose on the floor. Keep your eyes closed & lights out and watch how your little soccer player leaves your bladder alone and settles back down, letting you relax enough to go back into sleep.

Not only does this posture relieve back pain & pressure and give you a nice stretch along your entire spine, but when the baby gets heavy, and it will get very heavy, this posture might become your best friend.

Because, this posture, my friends, will help you to give birth.

As you get closer to term, and you feel the head begin to engage deeply down into your pelvis, simple things like getting in and out of the car become more of a challenge. By getting down on your hands and knees and flexing the spine & pulling the heart up, not crunching in your low back, you can help alleviate some of this pressure.

Notice that when you rock up through the tailbone, you can actually open your hips too, flaring outwards to open up your pelvic girdle. This opening action becomes especially important while you labor as you really, really want your pelvis to open up from the inside to it's greatest extent. You can feel here how the baby falls forward with a little gravity, relieving pressure on the cervix. Cat/Cow also allows you to bear down more easily and with more power on your hands and knees than you ever could dream of lying on your back. Midwives worldwide recommend mothers to labor in this posture to help move the baby into proper birthing position (with the baby facing towards your spine) & to relieve the pain of back labor (so called when the back of baby's head is pressing into your tailbone. Excruciating, trust me!).

On your hands and knees you are actually helping to relieve pain & pressure not only in your body, but also for your little one. You are creating space in a tiny place where centimeters count.

Need another reason to get down on the floor?

Birth is hard on both of you and the more you can do to keep both of you oxygenated, relaxed and moving, the better you both will feel and the easier labor will be on you and your baby.

Be well & Sat Nam- Kristen

Following up on the last post, Leg cramps are excruciating, and are all too common during Pregnancy. If you wake up with them, flex your feet upwards & stretch through your heels, NEVER point your foot. This will only make the cramp worse.

A super simple stretch that might also be useful for you, is to place the balls of your feet on the edge of a thick phone book. Go up high onto your toes, then come back down again all the way past the edge towards the floor. This counter stretch should feel pretty amazing. Keep going up and down on your toes to strengthen your ankles & calves and enjoy a deep stretch all the way into the tendons.

Make sure to stretch your legs out well before bed if you have been on your feet all day or done lots of walking.

Add these few practices, & I think you will sleep much better tonight!

Sat Nam- Kristen

Happy New Year to you All. I have found that, despite my best intentions, I do not update my blog as often as I had hoped. As a result, I resolve this new year to do better & write more.

To that end, I was inspired by the ladies in my class today (thank you Amanda!) to repeat here what we speak so often about in class- yes, our least favorite subject, painful hips and cramping legs. Hooray for the new normal!

I give you now the beginning of a series Top Tips for Pregnancy & Beyond.

Perhaps not the most inspiring title, but truthful nonetheless. These babies are the real deal and will help to get you through some tricky spots and perhaps have you feel better at the same time. Oh, and if some of these ideas inspire you to come up with more & even better ones? SHARE them. I always look to pass on the good info.

A to B Calm- This Calcium/ Magnesium supplement is a blessing. Taken as a small spoonful dissolved in hot water, add to your juice or tea before bed and you will not only sleep like a baby, but say goodbye to leg & hip cramping as well. You can buy it here.

During Pregnancy you need more calcium than you can absorb from just drinking milk & as much as you love your dark, leafy greens, you probably just can’t eat one more salad. I like mine Juiced for that reason. Skip the fruit altogether unless you are a real newbie to juicing.

If you just can’t swallow it without a bit of the sweet stuff, add a small amount of carrots, or 1/4 beet or apple. Your body & your baby do NOT need the sugar and your taste buds will adapt to the new flavors pretty quickly.

However, have someone who really drinks juice to make it for you in the beginning. The difference between delicious and disgusting is a pretty thin line. Too much ginger or parsley can ruin the whole balance. And I’m not a big one for a lot of pulp either. Eeeww.

Try a light one to start off- some cucumber, spinach, carrot and a tiny bit of beet. Work up to the kale and parsley with wheatgrass & ginger number. They take a bit more tolerance, and the goal here is to add some yummy vitamin & minerals to your diet that are easy to assimilate in your body and are less trouble to digest than all that roughage. Your body will begin to feel as if it is really absorbing the nutrients from these drinks. That’s because, it really is.

Leg cramps will go bye- bye if you add more of the Cal/ Mag to your diet as well as some Potassium. Add a banana to your daily diet too and you’ll feel better. Also recommended is a bit of Tonic water, you know the one with Quinine in it? Quinine, in addition as an aid for Malaria, can also help with the cramping and I’ve even used it for my boy and his growing pains.

I have lots more where this came from, and I promise to share.

I really do appreciate your feedback & experiences. Let me know what you need & if I don't know the answer, I swear I will try to find out.

Be well, feel better & do YOGA!

Sat Nam- Kristen