Yoga Therapy is the term we use today to describe the application of Yogic knowledge and tools in the area of healing. This application is not new: healing was one of Yoga's primary purposes in ancient times (even then, sickness and injury were among the daily issues that students of Yoga faced). Yoga Therapy draws from the great breadth and depth of knowledge provided by existing Yoga traditions in the area of wellness, vitality, and healing, as well as Ayurveda, the traditional system of medicine in India. Both these systems, like all forms of hollistic medicine, have their own models and tools for evaluation and treatment. Yoga Therapy has been the focus of research over the last 50 years because it has shown promise as a complementary approach to the interventions ins Western medicine, especially in areas that are difficult to identify and/or treat, as is the case with chronic pain, insomnia, metabollic disoders, etc. The goal of Yoga Therapy is to restore balance to the individual and, thus, freedome from suffering.

Though a fairly recent trend in the United States, Yoga is an ancient practice that has been carried through oral tradition and teacher-student relationship over thousands of years. Today, in our commercially-minded soceity, we see all variety of branded styles of Yoga (Hot Yoga, Power Yoga, Gentle Yoga, etc) that focus on one particular area (exercise, relaxation, focus, and even fun to name a few), but these are modern innovations. The broader and deeper knowledge of Yoga's tools, techniques, and perspectives exists today because of the contributions of teachers over many hundreds and thousands of years, each of which passed along what they had learned and often contributed something new to adapt those teachings to the changing times. What we know as the Krishnamcharya Tradition owes its name to Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, a South Indian yogi and scholar who studied and taught through much of the 1900s who is credited with the revitalization of Yoga in South India and, ultimately, worldwide. Well known modern masters of Yoga such as BKS Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, Indra Devi, and TKV Desikachar (Krishnamacharya's son), were all students of Krishnamacharya. Krishnamacharya's family continues to teach Yoga, Yoga Therapy, and Vedic chant today, offering the most complete knowledge base of Krishnamacharya's teachings and hence continue the legay of Krishnamacharya's Yoga Tradition.

A Yoga Therapy session necessarily involves a 1-to-1 relationship between the Yoga therapist and the client. Because each person is unique, the way that disease affects the person will typically also be unique, as will the path of healing. There are many people today who suffer stress, but the source of stress and the way this stress manifests in the person will differ and create different problems. In one person, the symptom may be constant worry, in another irritation and a bad temper, in another it may cause poor quality of sleep, and still in others it may cause digestive disorders. The way to approach these will likely differ depending not just on the symptom but on the person's own capabilities, inclinations, level of energy, and discipline. During a session, we will discuss your overall health and daily habits, your chief complaint, and what treatments you have pursued, if any. From there we will build a Yoga practice which may be as short as 5 minutes or longer if needed or desired. We may use any of Yoga's tools, including physical postures, breathing techniques, meditation, and even sound. Depending on the issue and the person, we may work together for just three or four sessions or longer term. Sessions may occur as frequently as once a week or once a month, depending on the situation. With each session, we evaluate improvement and adjust the practice so that it meets your needs. Some practices will require some commitment over time, while others might achieve the person's goals within a couple of weeks. Some practices need only be used during flare ups of a condition.

We are all different. We have different goals, different strengths, different needs, and different challenges. Though a group Yoga class often leaves us feeling lighter, more relaxed, and even stronger,with so many people in the class it is very difficult to focus on a particular person's needs. Working with a teacher in a 1-to-1 setting allows for Yoga practice to be tailored to your needs and goals at that very moment. We evolve over our lives. Sometimes a promotion brings additional (or different) work hours, increased travel, and often increased stress. The same Yoga practice that provided respite from daily stress before may not achieve the same ends with the additional stress or the changes in schedule. Another major change in the lives of students comes in the form of parenthood. Having a baby is a joyous occassion that changes everything about a person's life. Their sleep schedule notoriously changes and, with the added concern of tending to a newborn, they often feel it is more difficult to focus. Tailoring your practice so that it meets your needs and evolving it as your needs change, then, is the best way to advance in practice and keep it relevant to our daily life. A new job with new hours or lots of travel may require a practice that enables deeper and more satisfying sleep but also which increases much needed stamina abd focus in the person. For a new parent, a personal practice will generally be more effective if it is brief, so that it can be done daily without interruption. Often, two practices with very different goals are much more accessible and rewarding than the single longer one the person was used to. Working in a 1-to-1 setting does not mean you have to meet the teacher daily, of course. Once you have your practice, you do it daily and meet with the instructor on a regular basis (sometimes every coule of weeks, sometimes every couple of months, to adjust it, especially if there have been significant changes in life.

The bets way to become a great photographer is to develop your eye and to practice taking photos. There's no escaping these two. Much can be said about reading books and blogs and watching YouTube videos, but if you don't spend time looking at photographs (and discerning why they work or don't) and spend substantial time taking your own photos, then you will only have theoretical knowledge with no way to apply it real time. Now, practice always benefits from some guidance, so a good photography book or even your camera manual are indispensible when you decide to have your photo shoots. You can even benefit greatly from the many photography course books out there which tackle concepts and scenarios with assignments. But you must follow through with the practice. Learning to look is probably the part that many photographers miss. Visiting your local photography or art museum, looking at photo books by photography masters, and paging through photo journals and magazines are all ways that you can expose yourself to the art of photography (or visual art in general) and continue to build your photographer's eye.

The truth is, any camera will give you great photos. The biggest contributor to great photos is not the hardware but the photographer. This truism has become a bit overused but there is no escaping it. Many newcomers to photography make the mistake of buying very advanced and expensive cameras and lenses without realizing how much of a learning curve comes with them and end up disappointed that they cannot immediately capture the images they envision. In photography, learning should come before selecting hardware. Using even the camera on your mobile device can be a great learning tool to explore how to frame photos, experiment with perspective and lighting, and learn about what most inspires you as a photographer. Once you have a sense of these things, you will be drawn to certain areas of photography and then the hardware plays a bigger role. There are great cameras out there that still do not manage great night photography without significant image editing. There are modestly priced, small cameras that are excellent for travel photography. The best advice if you are new to photography is actually to borrow a camera from someone who already has one and doesn't use it much. Playing with a camera is the best way to learn what things are important to you as a photographer, information which will instruct what camera will meet your needs.

Thankfully, today we have a broad selection of printers that can offer us high quality photo prints. Which one is best for you depends on a few factors, among them the size you intend to print most often, the types of paper you plan to print on, how often you plan to use your printer, and of course how much you are willing to spend. Price is no small matter in digital printing and the answer to each of the former questions will determine the price of the priner. The price of a printer itself can range from under $100 to a few thousand (more if you plan to print 16x20in prints). If you plan to only print on photo paper, or you are a novice at printing, I recommend looking at dye-based printers because they are generally much less costly than their pigment-based counterparts, offer great color, are more robust, and can give you decent archivability (this varies depending on the choice of paper, of course). If you want to print on digital fine art papers (DFAs), you may find some limitations in the print quality and will very likely have to treat your print with a protective spray (something you will have to experiment with as not all sprays work with all papers and inks). If you have more experience with printing, dye-based printers can still meet your needs. But if you want more flexibility in the types of papers you use, or you are particular to DFA papers, then pigment-based printers will typically be a better option. These printers have faced some historical challenges both in print quality (with colors not being as bright a dyes) and maintenance (they are more likely to clog than their dye counterparts) but in recent years advances in the technology have made strides in addressing these. In any case, the best way to approach your printer purchase is the same as how you would approach your camera purchase: begin with what you need at this moment, your expected usage, determine your budget, then look for a printer that meets these needs.

There is much talk in digital printing about archival inks and archival paper and some of this can get very confusing. Archivability essentially looks at the longevity of a print. How long will it last without degrading? This concern has been present since the early days of photography. In the days of the wet lab, the paper itself determined the archivability: non-archival RC papers were used while learning to print your photos, but the archival fiber-based papers were used to print the work you planned to show or sell. In digital printing, we have an added complication: the paper is not the only contributor to archivability. Ink is an important contributor to how archival your prints are. In general pigment-based inks will be more archival than dye-based inks, though the latter can achieve impressive longevity with certain photo papers. Because of the history of the photographic process, papers today are sold as "archival." This generally means that the paper won't degrade substantially, maintaining much of its initial brightness and hue over time. There are papers that experience fading when exposed to light and even "dark fade," which involves chemical breakdown that is not light exposure related. Compatibility of the ink and paper is paramount, however. Using archival papers with inks that don't have good durability will not give you great results, and will certainly not achieve the durability that the paper promises. So it is necessary to look closely at the claims the paper makes about durability and what specific inks/printers are recommended. This works both ways: a printer can also suggest it produced excellent archival prints with 200 years of durability, but if you do not use the right paper, you won't get those results. So you must look closely at the archival claims and see what papers are recommended to achieve them. The simplest way to put it then is, if you have a printer already, look at the recommended papers that help achieve good durability and either stay clear of others or be prepared to experiment with spray coatings.

Today, résumés are typically one single-sided page to a full page (front and back) long. Because a résumé is meant to be skimmed, making it too long brings diminishing returns. The exception here is in academic résumés (or CVs), which are meant to be much more comprehensive, and typically will run the length of a few pages. The shorter, single-sided page résumés are typical of graduates entering the workforce for the first time. Because they have less experience, their résumés are naturally expected to be shorter. Candidates who have substantial professional experience typically fill up the front and back of a letter-sized page. Now, with more experience, you would think your résumé would need to keep growing over time. But a résumé is not expected to keep more than the last 10-15 years of professional experience in it. What is most important in a résumé is to make sure that all (and only) relevant information is included and that this be expressed in the most simple and targeted way possible. The easier it is for a hiring manager to skim your résumé and find the information that is most important, the more likely you will get an interview out of it.

There are a few resume formats to choose from and they each aim to relay information in a way that makes you most appealing as a candidate. The three main formats are: 1. Chronological - This format shows your professional and educational experience in reverse chronology (from most recent to oldest) 2. Functional - This format highlights your strongest skills and experience, regardless of date (it is often used by candidates who are looking to change careers and industries) 3. Combination - This format has a summary section that highlights your strengths and skills but still commits much of its space to showing your professional and educational experience in reverse chronology. 4. Targeted - This kind of resume isn't a format as much as it is an approach. It most often uses the Combination format but focuses on information that is relevant to the company and position the candidate is pursuing. Today, the most typical (and often expected format) is the Combination format, though the Chronological format is still broadly in use. The Combination format offers the best of both worlds, with a summary section that lets you highlight your strengths and prior contributions, while still displaying clearly the continuity of experience in the chrological segment. The Functional format, unfortunately, has been overused by candidates trying to conceal irregularities in their work experience and this has made hiring managers suspicious of this format. This does not mean that there are no merits to this format, but it should only be used in specific circumstances. The Targeted approach is not used very often because job seekers generally find it laborious to keep a resume for every job application they submit. From a success standpoint, this is typically the most effective approach, though, as it most clearly matches the candidate's skills to the job's needs.

If you are starting your résumé from scratch, it can seem like a daunting task. This is a great opportunity, however, to buid an advertisememt for yourself that is timely and feels fresh. I often recommend a two-pronged approach to people in this situation: 1. Collect your information on previous roles and projects, awards, achievements, trainings, certifications, etc. 2. Peruse job search sites for the kind of job you're after and see what kinds of skills and experience the companies are requesting. This approach helps you build your résumé while keeping in mind what information is the most critical to include.

It is ideal to keep your résumé a living document, meaning you update it regularly with new information, whether that is a new role at work, a new project, or additional education and skills. This way your résumé is always ready to go if you need it. In our digital age, this also means keeping information on networking sites (such as LinkedIn) and job sites (such as Monster) up to date. I have run into many cases where someone has not updated their résumé in many years, is suddenly faced with a layoff, and then has to spend days tracking down information on projects and roles to accurately update their résumé. This just adds to the stress of the situation and leads to a rushed job. I find that changes in our careers generally happen slowly (with some exceptions), so you're safe if you're at least reviewing your résumé every 6 months and updating it with new relevant information. And definitely look at it the moment you think there will be a change in your employment (you're unhappy with your job, there's a change in management, or rumors of layoffs). Don't wait until the last minute. These abrupt changes bring a lot of stress as it is. Having your résumé ready to go means there's one less thing to worry about.