Knee or Hip problems?  Pain?  Inflammation?*  * please read my medical disclaimer at the bottom of this blog post.  A common  problem of the joints one that creates pain and inflammation is hip or knee bursitis.  What is busitis?  The bursae are small sacs of fluid that cushions the different parts of a joint.  They  are situated between the bones and the tendons, muscles and skin near the joints to prevent friction and to cushion pressure points.  Bursitis is an inflammation of one of these sacs. (Information adapted from Mayo Clinic Website www.mayoclinic.org ).  But let’s not get too caught up in the diagnosis or prognosis – we need to leave that to the medical professionals*.   What you want to know is how to soothe the  joint pain for yourself.   M ost Drs. will recommend some form of very gentle movement therapy to keep the joint moving, but not anything intense t...

Are you aware of  ankle pain, or restriction?   You first of all need to approach the joint very gently.  Many yoga poses forget to include the ankle - or think that the pose is about another part of the body, when actually the ankle is the focus. In kaiut yoga we do a lot of virasana sequences and the thought could be it's to open the knees or the hips to sit in those positions.  Actually the virasanas are taught to concentrate on the ankles. Why ankles are important?   The ankle joint is where the ground can come from the foot up the leg to the spine and head, and where the spine, head and torso can reach the ground through the legs.   Heaven to earth, earth to heaven through the body.  The ankles are also an incredibly important function of balance.  And if they are not working well, you can loose balance. Also if you have pressure in your knees or hips, it could be sourced from restrictions in the ankles. We tend to i...