About: Ricardo das Neves
Posts by Ricardo das Neves:
Visual Yoga Blog: The Gateway Leg Lift.by Ricardo das Neves on May 8, 2013 The gateway leg lift is, as the name implies, a “gateway” pose to acquiring the strength, balance and flexibility to do more complex poses. 129 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Baby Headstand in 3 Easy Steps.by Ricardo das Neves on May 2, 2013 In baby headstand, you get 90% of the benefit of a headstand without any of the neck or balance issues related to the full pose. 936 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Wretched Wrist Wrestle.by Ricardo das Neves on Apr 25, 2013 In the universe of yoga stretches, there are those quieter parts of the body that are never loud enough to get enough attention… the wrists come to mind. 295 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Standing Neck-Shoulder-Back Release.by Ricardo das Neves on Apr 18, 2013 No time to release body tension? That’s like having no time to breathe well. Try this 5-minute, do-anywhere respite from shoulder, neck and upper back tension. 565 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Son-of-a-Camel Pose.by Ricardo das Neves on Apr 11, 2013 Son of a Camel is a variation on the camel pose… easier to do and involving core-stability muscles. 241 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Cheater’s Guide to Doing the Splits.by Ricardo das Neves on Apr 4, 2013 If you’ve ever wanted to be able to do the splits… here’s an irreverent inside scoop on how to set up your body and your mind for it. 3,046 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: Free Your Shoulders in 3 Steps with the Diagonal Yoga Mudra.by Ricardo das Neves on Mar 28, 2013 If you spend too much time in front of a computer or need something to reset your back or your aching shoulders, then the Diagonal Yoga Mudra is for you and doesn’t require much more than some minimal floor space. 994 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Easy Side Leg Extension.by Ricardo das Neves on Mar 21, 2013 Here’s the everybody-can-do-this version of the balancing side-leg pose. The hamstring length you want at a price you can afford. 597 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Happy Dead Baby Bug Pose.by Ricardo das Neves on Mar 14, 2013 Here’s a do-anywhere, easy way to release upper-back and shoulder tension as well as open up your hip joints. 108 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Twisted Scissor.by Ricardo das Neves on Mar 7, 2013 Twisted Scissor is a neat little variation that’ll make shoulder stand fun again. 94 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Knuckle Spine Releaseby Ricardo das Neves on Feb 27, 2013 Here’s a fantastic little pose to help release tension in the middle or upper spine. Do it at home or do it at work if you don’t mind looking a little funny. 146 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Drunken Paschimottanasana.by Ricardo das Neves on Feb 20, 2013 Every now and then I receive an email featuring drunk people passed out in what looks like yoga poses. It’s time for the yoga teacher to fire back with… drunken paschimottanasana. 323 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: Upward-Facing Dog on Steroids.by Ricardo das Neves on Feb 13, 2013 If you’re looking to shape and strengthen your derriere and arms, “upward dog on steroids” will invigorate the common upward-facing dog in a few simple steps. 106 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Modified, Rockin’ Paschimottanasana (Or, How to Touch Your Toes & Save the World).by Ricardo das Neves on Feb 7, 2013 Somehow touching your toes has become the universal determinant of whether you’re flexible as a blade of grass or brittle as peanut brittle. Here’s my inside scoop on how to modify paschimottanasana, the seated forward fold, to develop faster that longed-for toe-touching flexibility. 276 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: the 2-Minute Shoulders & Upper-Back Release.by Ricardo das Neves on Jan 29, 2013 Got tight shoulders and back? Try this easy two-pose combination to first overload your upper back muscles and then lengthen, rotate and stretch everything: 136 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The 3-Minute Better Spinal Twist.by Ricardo das Neves on Jan 23, 2013 So how exciting can a spinal twist be… yawn, right? But a twist on the ol’ twist can make you feel like you’re being introduced to your spine again. Three minutes to a simple but very effective spinal twist that will have your back thanking you. 468 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: 5 Steps to the Standing Knotted Spinal Twist.by Ricardo das Neves on Jan 16, 2013 If you need a pose that’ll release back and shoulder tension in a couple of quick moves, this variation on a yoga pose will do the trick. 1,000 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Wobbly Crane Pose.by Ricardo das Neves on Jan 9, 2013 Strength, flexibility… your yoga practice can handle those. But balance? Not so much? Well, the Wobbly Crane is your gateway pose to yoga’s harder balancing poses. 272 views |
The Cheater’s Guide to Sitting in Lotus Pose.by Ricardo das Neves on Jan 2, 2013 So you’ve always wanted to be a real meditator–or a real yogi–able to sit in lotus position like the grown-ups… Fret not: I have pre-suffered for your convenience to bring you an easy way to achieve lotus pose. 1,411 views |
Three Ways to Bring Your Spiritual Practice into Daily Living.by Ricardo das Neves on Apr 6, 2012 One of the things that I always find striking when I visit a predominantly Islamic country is the call to prayer. Five times a day you basically have a reminder to detach from everything that feels oh-so-important right now and reconnect with your spiritual source. So I started to think: how can I get something equivalent in my life? Here are three possibilities, in case they speak to you. 513 views |
10 Apps to Propel our Spiritual Practice.by Ricardo das Neves on Feb 24, 2012 So, you’re a spiritually-inclined type who just shelled out some major cash for the latest smartphone, and you wouldn’t mind finding some Great Spiritual Justification to rationalize what in a harsher light might be seen as your materialistic, acquisitive side. You’ve come to the right place: I assure you, you and I are in good company. And what better way to justify your technological habit than to put it to use in your quest to become a more enlightened human being? 6,884 views |
Remember your New Years’ Resolutions? No? Here are the Buddha’s all 12 (apocryphal) ways to fix that.by Ricardo das Neves on Feb 10, 2012 My guess is if the Buddha did New Years’ Resolutions, the Four Noble Truths would’ve looked like this: 1. In life there is time-wasting 2. The origin of time-wasting is unconsciousness 3. To stop being unconscious you must know what you want and what you don’t want (duh!) 4. To know what you want and what you don’t want, walk the noble twelvefold path…. 623 views |
Perky Holiday Letters, Yogic New Years’ Resolutions, and Valentine’s Dayby Ricardo das Neves on Dec 31, 2011 Does anybody ever read those impossibly happy holiday letters that friends and family send out? Don’t these letters/emails always seem a little too… perky? Once, just once, I want to receive a letter that says, “Dear Friends, This year I broke my stupid toe in the same place as the last three times.. In other news, after twelve years of marital bickering, my wife eloped with the butcher” … 422 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Everything Poseby Ricardo das Neves on Oct 6, 2011 Impatient yogis everywhere, meet The Everything Pose.Yes, it’s nice to do a whole yoga sequence leading up to a pose, but sometimes you just want to skip to the pose, a pose that cuts to the chase and does everything… 877 views |
Visual Yoga Blog: The Yogic Tripodby Ricardo das Neves on Sep 21, 2011 What do people do now that cell phone cameras are replacing regular cameras… and it’s hard to find a tripod to mount the phones for those group portraits where you want to include yourself? The yogic tripod is not, I repeat, not a solution to this issue, but it is a nice little inversion/hip opener/quadriceps stretcher. 634 views |
 Visual Yoga Blog: Warrior 1.1by Ricardo das Neves on Sep 13, 2011 Among the many things in the world that are hard to improve upon, we have cheesecake, rollercoaster rides and bungee jumping. Warrior 1, a staple of any yoga practice, would appear to be in that category. But watch out: fresh out of beta testing, here comes warrior 1.1. Okay, so we all know the original [...] 606 views |
8 Things You Can Do Now to Help Your Eyes.by Ricardo das Neves on Jul 20, 2011 As a sort of self-help followup of a previous article I wrote, Yoga for Your Eyes, I thought I’d compile a quick-and-dirty set of rules for keeping your eyes healthy. The below are courtesy of Drs. Michael Rozen and Mehmet Oz, in “You: The Owner’s Manual” Drink 8 glasses of water daily, more if you [...] 2,202 views |
Extra! Extra! Yoga teacher smoked as an eight year old! Read all about it!by Ricardo das Neves on May 27, 2011 Yes, I started smoking when I was eight years old. As a future yoga teacher, it’s not as if I didn’t know that smoking was bad for you, it’s just that I grew up in Spain, where smoking is so endemic that not too long ago they had an anti-smoking campaign aimed at doctors so [...] 591 views |
Braces and the Yoga Teacherby Ricardo das Neves on May 18, 2011 I have been serving out a sentence at a dental correctional facility for the last two years. My crime? Being born with bad teeth. Or sucking on a pacifier during a less-enlightened part of my life. I’m sure at the time it was worth it (especially for my parents) but I’ve been paying for that [...] 247 views |
Yoga in an airplane.by Ricardo das Neves on Apr 20, 2011 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen – this is the captain speaking, and on behalf of the flight crew and everyone at Reunited Airways, I’d like to apologize again for the delay in departing. I know you’re all feeling a little antsy, but unless you must use the lavatories, please remain in your seats with your [...] 420 views |
The 5 percent solution for depression.by Ricardo das Neves on Mar 28, 2011 Selective Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitors: Who would pass up the opportunity of saying that mouthful on a regular basis? Well, okay, anybody who isn’t a biochemistry nerd would. But in case you don’t know, it’s a class of drug that throws some light in the amazing ways in which the brain works…and helps anyone immobilized by [...] 2,612 views |
Japan without the sensationalism… from someone living thereby Ricardo das Neves on Mar 19, 2011 (The following is an email from my friend Scott Bohart, who lives in Tokyo and whose assessment of the situation in Japan post-tsunami and post-nuclear reactor damage provides a counterpoint to everything we’ve been hearing in the media. Published here in its totality and with his consent.) Hi, I want to mail you about the [...] 600 views |
You can lead the horse to the yoga mat, but you can’t make him do parasympathetic yoga.by Ricardo das Neves on Mar 2, 2011 When it comes to yoga, I’ve always been like those racehorses rearing to get out of the starting gate. Actually, when it comes to anything, I’m that racehorse… yet my first introduction and training in yoga was in a gentle, introspective, meditative tradition. And there actually existed, as I found out, an even gentler and [...] 549 views |
How to ruin your knees with yoga, running, tennis or skiingby Ricardo das Neves on Feb 10, 2011 Hello, boys and girls, this is Mr. Rogers and today we discuss the fine art of ruining your knees. Can you say “knee replacement surgery?” I hope you never have to. Actually, ruining your knees is not a fine art. It’s a rough art. You can do it without your parents’ supervision. Just go running [...] 1,547 views |
Zen and the Art of Password Managementby Ricardo das Neves on Jan 19, 2011 “Never recycle user names or passwords,” Internet gurus tell us, “so if one of your accounts is compromised, the damage is contained to just that account.” It used to be that looking both ways before crossing the street only cost me a second of my impatient kid’s time; following the above rule as an adult [...] 381 views |
Yoga for your eyes.by Ricardo das Neves on Jan 6, 2011 I want to thank all the optometrists I’ve seen in my life for their reliability: no matter what my current glasses’ prescription was, I could always depend on them saying, “You need a stronger prescription.” In a world awash in change, it’s comforting to count on the consistency of their verdict. I got my first [...] 998 views |
Ever felt like your yoga teacher just channeled the exact class you needed?by Ricardo das Neves on Dec 21, 2010 “How do they do that?” you might wonder. If the kind of class you attend is a structured one (say, a classical Ashtanga practice, or a Bikram sequence) then after a while you learn which pose comes after which and how the entire sequence is threaded together, so you always know what to expect. On [...] 706 views |
If the Buddha Tweeted.by Ricardo das Neves on Dec 3, 2010 If the Buddha tweeted, chances are you’d see better Twitter entries than “I’m finally over my stupid cold. Stupid, stupid cold.” I mean, really, what sounds more fulfilling, reading an intelligent, compelling, well-thought-out article or book (many of which, I’m willing to bet, sit patiently on your shelves waiting for your undivided attention) or reading [...] 807 views |
A Tastier Thanksgiving, a.k.a. Ricardo’s Paella Recipe.by Ricardo das Neves on Nov 22, 2010 I’ve been vegetarian for over three decades, like to cook, and have sought to propagate the idea of compassionate animal care by simply serving everybody I know the tastiest vegetarian dishes I can make. Those who know me, but don’t know me well, occasionally ask me at this time of the year, “So are you [...] 532 views |
 Reboot the Consciousness, not the Computer.by Ricardo das Neves on Nov 18, 2010 One of the things that suggests to me that there is no such thing as death is the law of physics that says that you cannot create nor destroy energy: you can only transform it. You create a nuclear chain reaction and what you’re doing is liberating mass into energy; or for that matter, you [...] 313 views |
 The Tao of Daylight Savings Timeby Ricardo das Neves on Nov 10, 2010 Ever since I was a kid and my dad took us to the theater one hour early (unintentionally) on a Sunday in October, I have been pondering the magic possibilities of Daylight Savings Time. I mean, here you have a gift of time, a commodity so precious these days that I’m guessing most of us [...] 163 views |
 9 tips for staying healthy while writing a novel in one month (a la NaNoWriMo)by Ricardo das Neves on Nov 1, 2010 Last year over a quarter of a million people worldwide partook of the November madness known as NaNoWriMo – the national novel writing month. NaNoWriMo is the marathon (or the sprint, depending on how you think of it) of the literary world, and it’s where you commit to writing one 50,000 word novel in the [...] 265 views |
 Halloween through a European’s Eyesby Ricardo das Neves on Oct 29, 2010 This is the conversation about Halloween I would’ve had with my mother (living in Lisbon, Portugal) several years ago: “Hi, mom! Guess what day it is over here?” “I don’t know.” “It’s Halloween!” “What’s Halloween?” “Well… it’s this day where people sort of celebrate death and ghoulishness.” “That sounds awful! Why do they do that?” [...] 710 views |
 My HMO hires witch doctors.by Ricardo das Neves on Oct 21, 2010 Magical thinking is the belief that there’s an unseen, supernatural force at work that causes things to happen. It dominated most of human history and started to go out of style with the Age of Reason in the 1700’s – but magical thinking has never completely disappeared. From belief in the Evil Eye to fundamentalist [...] 758 views |
 Can I get enlightenment to go, please. And a side of fries with that.by Ricardo das Neves on Oct 15, 2010 A Zen Buddhist monk once told me, “There are two types of enlightenment: the one that takes 20 years of practice to achieve and the one that happens instantly but it takes you twenty years to incorporate into your life.” At the time I heard that, I wasn’t going to go for the delayed gratification [...] 1,114 views |
Spirituality, My Girlfriend, and a Composting Toilet.by Ricardo das Neves on Oct 3, 2010 Every time I bring up the subject of acquiring a composting toilet, my girlfriend tells me, “Feel free to set it up… somewhere else.” In case you don’t know what a composting toilet is, it’s like a regular toilet, except it turns your, uh, (what’s a good literary word?) effluvium, into compost – the same [...] 460 views |
Plug in your fetish, get a spiritual a-ha!by Ricardo das Neves on Sep 27, 2010 You know those big bronze statues of Shiva where amid a halo of fire, the multiple-armed god dances with one foot resting on a child? Traditionally, it’s not a child, but a little man with rapt attention on a leaf he’s holding. If I were to design that statue for modern times and for my [...] 371 views |
 Feeling bored? Unstimulated? Concerned about Alzheimer’s? Click here!by Ricardo das Neves on Sep 10, 2010 New places to visit. New operating systems. New books, new magazines, new faces. We’ve been on this kick ever since that first toy we were so thrilled to get no longer excited us after we played with it for a day or a week, and we had to nag our parents to get that other [...] 148 views |
 Can yoga help me lose weight?by Ricardo das Neves on Sep 3, 2010 It’s not the question most commonly asked of a yoga teacher, but definitely ranks up there. And since I don’t teach the kind of frenetic, fast-paced, sweat-dripping down your limbs type of yoga class anymore, whenever I’m asked if yoga helps with weight loss, the wise-ass in me wants to say, “Absolutely: since you’re not [...] 636 views |
 Vanity as a Spiritual Pathwayby Ricardo das Neves on Aug 21, 2010 Having been raised Catholic, it always seemed to me that there were many things to be gained from the so-called Seven Deadly Sins. (The Seven Deadly Sins – I love it! Catholics don’t mess around: not only are you “missing the mark” [the original meaning for the word sin] but you’re doing so in a [...] 328 views |
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