We are fea­tur­ing per­son­al sto­ries from guests, teach­ers and vol­un­teers who attend­ed the fourth Lamu Yoga Fes­ti­val March 8–12, 2017. Send us your sto­ry, too! By Adri­an Kibai The fast dash of the plane on the run­way can be unset­tling if you are not used to it. The lift-off of the small com­muter jet that trans­ports pas­sen­gers between Nairo­bi and Lamu might make … Read More

What a day! We’ve kicked off the fourth Lamu Yoga Fes­ti­val with a bang. Our vol­un­teers did a won­der­ful job wel­com­ing hun­dreds of guests at the Shela Bazaar, with fresh coconuts in hand. We had our first round of yoga class­es in four dif­fer­ent venues around the vil­lage. In the evening, we had a intro­duc­tion from the fes­ti­val’s chair­la­dy Moni­ka Fauth, drum­ming by kids from Anidan, … Read More

Yoga instruc­tor Ash­ley New­some sees clients make mis­takes in five com­mon yoga moves — and this can lead to injury, she says. In a sto­ry from Well and Good, New­some demon­strates and explains what you may be doing wrong, and how to fix it. Are you doing these pos­es right or wrong? Check out the sto­ry here. 

Yogis say the prac­tice can stim­u­late organs and improve their func­tion. So why not help your body digest that heavy meal you just enjoyed? NDTV author Priya Deesh has com­piled three asanas that can help boost your diges­tion: gomukhasana, vajraasana and ard­ha chan­draasana. Check out the arti­cle for detailed instructions!

Amer­i­can woman Ran­di Greene is a yoga teacher who refused to roll up her mat when she became preg­nant, Dai­ly Mail reports in this sweet sto­ry. The “new moth­er who was still per­form­ing head­stands the day before she gave birth says yoga was behind her speedy 10-minute labour.” It also helped her cre­ate a “deep­er mind-body con­nec­tion” dur­ing preg­nan­cy. Check out … Read More

A new U.S. study finds that while seri­ous yoga injuries are rare, they are on the rise. Here’s an excerpt from Health­Day Reporter, pub­lished on Web­MD: It’s a small num­ber com­pared to how many peo­ple prac­tice yoga, researchers said, and the odds of a seri­ous injury are low. How­ev­er, the study found that the rate of ER-treat­ed injuries increased over time: from … Read More

“Long before you took your first yoga class, your body already knew some­thing about co-ordi­­nat­ing breath and move­ment, thanks to the mech­a­nism of yawn­ing. We humans start prac­tis­ing this nascent form of yoga in utero, yet we are taught from an ear­ly age to sup­press our yawns for fear of caus­ing offence,” writes YuMee Chung, a self-described recov­er­ing lawyer who teach­es yoga in … Read More

Did you know we spon­sor free com­mu­ni­ty yoga class­es? Africa Yoga Project teacher Pas­ka Atim John teach­es yoga to local adults and chil­dren in Lamu Town and Shela every week. Check out all the ini­tia­tives we spon­sor to sup­port our beau­ti­ful com­mu­ni­ty here, and join us if you can.

Take a trip to the tiny Caribbean island with a lot of soul by read­ing this piece on “the grand­fa­ther of Cuban yoga.” Excerpt: “The con­di­tions are minimalist—students rest in Savasana on a small area of tiled floor space, sur­round­ed by emp­ty walls with peel­ing paint and views of lush, fer­tile jun­gle out­side. [Eduar­do] Pimentel dreams of one day sell­ing his … Read More

Cool essay in Vogue about The Hard­est Yoga You’ve Nev­er Tried, a style that focus­es more on still­ness than move­ment. But don’t let the pace fool you, the writer says, it can be “excru­ci­at­ing and elat­ing.” And it might help with chron­ic symp­toms. Here’s an excerpt: Yin is the under­dog of the yoga world, like­ly because its qui­et, inward-focused nature means … Read More