As the year winds down, your body is likely giving you clues about what it needs next. In this reflective episode, yoga therapist Mikah Horn invites you to pause, look back on the rhythms that shaped 2025, and notice how your habits, intentional or not, landed in your body.

This gentle, grounding check-in helps you understand the patterns that created your current mobility, strength, energy, and ease so you can step into Your Yoga Year 2026 with clarity and compassion.

• Why subtle stiffness or shifts in energy are often messages rather than problems
• How daily habits, movement, breath, stress, rest, quietly shape your long-term well-being
• Three simple reflection questions to understand what your body has been adapting to
• How yoga philosophy explains patterns (samskaras) and why noticing them matters
• Why small, steady inputs create lasting change, especially for aging bodies
• How this reflection becomes the foundation for a strong, supportive year ahead

Take two minutes today to jot down your answers to the three reflection questions from the episode. These insights become your roadmap for Your Yoga Year 2026.

• YouTube: Lifelong Yoga with Mikah
• Instagram :@lifelong.yoga
• Free Facebook Community: Yoga at Home

If you’ve ever worried that you’re “too stiff” or “not flexible enough” for yoga, this episode will help you breathe a little easier. Yoga therapist Mikah Horn breaks down one of the most common misconceptions in the yoga world: the idea that flexibility is a prerequisite. It isn’t. In fact, stiffness is often one of the best reasons to begin a gentle, therapeutic yoga practice, especially as we age.

In this grounded beginner-focused episode, you’ll learn why your stiffness is less about “tight muscles” and more about your nervous system doing its job to protect you. You’ll explore what actually matters when starting yoga later in life, and why simple movement variety, support, and slow pacing can open up more freedom in your body than you might expect.

Whether you’re totally new to yoga, coming back after time away, or simply feeling locked up in your joints, this conversation offers clarity, reassurance, and a practical path forward.

• Why stiffness is a normal part of aging and not a barrier to yoga
• How your nervous system, not your muscles, is often behind that “locked up” feeling
• Why therapeutic yoga focuses on mobility, strength, balance, and posture alongside flexibility
• The five things beginners truly need: movement variety, support, slow pacing, consistency, and a curious mindset
• How small, simple practices create meaningful mobility over time
• Why props are tools of wisdom, not weakness
• The value of predictable, short home practices for long-term progress

Explore the Yoga to Ease Joint Stiffness & Improve Mobility playlist on YouTube. These beginner-friendly classes help you move gently, build confidence, and start feeling better in your body.

• YouTube Playlist: Yoga to Ease Joint Stiffness & Improve Mobility
• Lifelong Yoga Online (membership)

• YouTube: Lifelong Yoga with Mikah
• Instagram: @lifelong.yoga
• Free Facebook Community: Yoga at Home

Most people begin yoga in a class setting, motivated by community, guidance, and the energy of moving together. But at some point, every practitioner wonders what it might feel like to make the practice their own. In this episode, yoga therapist Mikah Horn explores the quiet strength of a home yoga practice and why short, consistent sessions can make such a meaningful difference in how you feel day to day.

You’ll hear how yoga was traditionally taught one-to-one, why modern research supports the benefits of home practice, and how to weave simple movement and breath into real life without adding pressure or perfectionism. This is a thoughtful reminder that your practice doesn’t need to be long or complicated, iit just needs to be yours.

• Why home practice is the heart of yoga and where true personal transformation begins
• How even brief, simple sessions can improve sleep, energy, mindfulness, and overall well-being
• What modern research reveals about the power of practicing at home
• How consistency (not intensity) supports mobility, balance, and stress regulation
• Ways to build a sustainable rhythm that fits your real life and changes with your seasons
• How Lifelong Yoga Online supports a personalized, therapeutic home practice through short, approachable classes

Start a sustainable home practice with the free 14-day trial of Lifelong Yoga Online and explore short therapeutic classes designed to fit your life.

• Frequency of Yoga Practice Predicts Health: Results of a National Survey of Yoga Practitioners

• YouTube: Lifelong Yoga with Mikah
• Instagram :@lifelong.yoga
• Free Facebook Community: Yoga at Home

Most people begin yoga in a class setting, motivated by community, guidance, and the energy of moving together. But at some point, every practitioner wonders what it might feel like to make the practice their own. In this episode, yoga therapist Mikah Horn explores the quiet strength of a home yoga practice and why short, consistent sessions can make such a meaningful difference in how you feel day to day.

You’ll hear how yoga was traditionally taught one-to-one, why modern research supports the benefits of home practice, and how to weave simple movement and breath into real life without adding pressure or perfectionism. This is a thoughtful reminder that your practice doesn’t need to be long or complicated, iit just needs to be yours.

• Why home practice is the heart of yoga and where true personal transformation begins
• How even brief, simple sessions can improve sleep, energy, mindfulness, and overall well-being
• What modern research reveals about the power of practicing at home
• How consistency (not intensity) supports mobility, balance, and stress regulation
• Ways to build a sustainable rhythm that fits your real life and changes with your seasons
• How Lifelong Yoga Online supports a personalized, therapeutic home practice through short, approachable classes

Start a sustainable home practice with the free 14-day trial of Lifelong Yoga Online and explore short therapeutic classes designed to fit your life.

• Frequency of Yoga Practice Predicts Health: Results of a National Survey of Yoga Practitioners

• YouTube: Lifelong Yoga with Mikah
• Instagram :@lifelong.yoga
• Free Facebook Community: Yoga at Home

Gratitude is more than a fleeting feeling, it’s a full-body experience that can transform how your brain, heart, and nervous system function. In this episode, yoga therapist Mikah Horn unpacks the science behind gratitude and how it strengthens the mind-body connection. You’ll discover how this simple practice rewires your brain for positivity, calms your stress response, and even supports heart health and immunity. Then, Mikah guides you through a short embodied reflection to help you feel gratitude in your body, so it becomes more than a thought, it becomes a lived state.

• How gratitude reshapes your brain through neuroplasticity and boosts mood-regulating neurotransmitters
• Why appreciation activates your parasympathetic nervous system and lowers stress hormones
• The surprising ways gratitude supports heart health, sleep, and immune resilience
• How an embodied gratitude practice can help you rest in sufficiency and soften striving
• A short guided exercise to feel gratitude in motion and bring calm to your day

👉 Your Next Step

Put gratitude in motion with mindful movement. If you’re ready to deepen your practice and bring calm, strength, and steadiness into daily life, start your 14-day free trial of Lifelong Yoga Online.

💌 Stay Connected

• YouTube: Lifelong Yoga with Mikah
• Instagram :@lifelong.yoga
• Free Facebook Community: Yoga at Home

Research Sources: The physiological benefits discussed in this episode are supported by peer-reviewed studies in neuroscience, psychology, and health science. Full citations are listed on my website for listeners who want to explore the research further. 

If you’ve ever caught yourself holding your breath mid-pose or wondered whether you’re breathing “right” during yoga, you’re not alone. In this episode, yoga therapist Mikah Horn unpacks how the breath transforms simple movement into mindful yoga and why this connection changes everything. You’ll explore how to breathe functionally, understand the science behind nasal breathing, and learn a gentle, nervous-system-calming technique called longer, smoother, softer breath.

Breath isn’t just oxygen, it’s information, a reflection of how you move through the world. Discover how to breathe in a way that supports your spine, posture, focus, and emotional balance, both on and off the mat.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why nasal breathing supports your nervous system and energy levels
• How to practice diaphragmatic (functional) breathing for stability and ease
• A simple breath technique that calms stress without forcing deep breathing
• How to coordinate breath and movement in yoga for flow and awareness
• Why awareness of your breath, more than any specific technique is the essence of yoga

👉 Your Next Step

Experience the power of mindful breathing in motion. Start your free 14-day trial of Lifelong Yoga Online, where every class begins and ends with the breath.

🔗 Mentioned in the Episode

• Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor

💌 Stay Connected

• YouTube: Lifelong Yoga with Mikah
• Instagram :@lifelong.yoga
• Free Facebook Community: Yoga at Home

If you’ve been waiting for the “right” time to get back to your yoga practice, this is it. In this short but powerful solo episode, yoga therapist Mikah Horn reframes what it really means to begin again, not with a perfect plan or a fresh calendar, but with a single moment of choice.

Mikah shares how to overcome the guilt, hesitation, and perfectionism that keep so many of us from returning to what nourishes us most. She explains the yogic principle of Abhyasa, or steady practice, and how this simple mindset shift can transform how you move through the rest of the year. Whether your mat’s been rolled up for weeks or months, this episode reminds you that your practice is always waiting for you, with patience, compassion, and zero judgment.

• Why you don’t need to wait for January (or Monday) to start again
• The “Fresh Start Effect” and how to create your own version any day of the year
• How to use Abhyasa, steady, consistent practice, to rebuild rhythm and ease
• Five practical steps to reestablish your yoga habit before the new year
• Simple mindset shifts to move past guilt and resistance
• How small, consistent effort compounds into lasting change

👉 Your Next Step

Sign up for Lifelong Yoga Online to join us for the upcoming Gratitude in Motion challenge!

💌 Stay Connected

• YouTube: Lifelong Yoga with Mikah
• Instagram: @lifelong.yoga
• Free Facebook Community: Yoga at Home

As your body and life change, your yoga practice should too. In this gentle and grounding episode, yoga therapist Mikah Horn explores how to honor your evolving body without judgment—whether you’re recovering from surgery, navigating midlife transitions, or simply noticing shifts in energy and ability.

You’ll learn how yoga can adapt to every season of life, how to reframe “limitations” as opportunities for wisdom, and why letting go of how your practice used to look opens space for deeper connection and ease.

• How to adapt poses for injury recovery or limited mobility
• Why non-attachment (Aparigraha) is essential to sustainable yoga practice
• How grief and acceptance can both be part of evolving with your body
• Simple ways to modify practice for aging joints and shifting energy
• How to redefine strength, progress, and “doing enough” in your practice
• Practical examples of adapting Child’s Pose and other shapes with props or support

👉 Your Next Step

Start your 14-day free trial of Lifelong Yoga Online and explore classes designed to evolve with you—no matter your age, energy, or experience level.

🔗 Mentioned in the Episode

• YouTube video: Child’s Pose Alternatives for Your Knees
• Lifelong Yoga Online Membership – Start your 14-day free trial

💌 Stay Connected

• YouTube: Lifelong Yoga with Mikah
• Instagram: @lifelong.yoga
• Free Facebook Community: Yoga at Home

If you’ve ever found yourself struggling to relax, whether in Shavasana or lying awake at night, this episode is for you. Yoga therapist Mikah Horn unpacks the science behind why rest can feel uncomfortable even when you want to relax, and how your body can relearn the art of letting go. Discover what’s happening in your nervous system when you can’t seem to unwind, why forcing calm doesn’t work, and four gentle yoga-based practices that retrain your body to recognize safety and ease.

• Why your body resists stillness (and how it’s not your fault)
• How chronic stress “resets” your baseline to stay on alert
• The role of the vagus nerve in signaling safety
• Four simple, science-backed tools to help your body downshift naturally
• Why true rest is essential for healing, not a luxury or reward
• How yoga builds nervous system resilience over time

Mikah shares how relaxation is not something to achieve but something your body remembers. Through slow breathing, mindful movement, grounding sensations, and small pauses throughout your day, you can gently reeducate your nervous system to feel safe enough to rest. Instead of pushing harder for calm, you will learn how to create the right conditions where calm arises naturally.

👉 Your Next Step

Start your own relaxation retraining with a 14-day free trial of Lifelong Yoga Online. Experience guided practices that help your body shift from tension to ease at your own pace.

💌 Stay Connected

• YouTube: Lifelong Yoga with Mikah
• Instagram: @lifelong.yoga
• Free Facebook Community: Yoga at Home

Posture is so much more than “standing tall.” In this episode, yoga therapist Mikah Horn takes you behind the scenes of the recent 7-Day Yoga for Posture Challenge and shares why working on posture is energizing, empowering, and anything but boring.

You’ll hear real stories from Lifelong Yoga members who discovered less stiffness, easier breathing, and even pain relief through simple posture-focused practices. Mikah explains how yoga unlocks the spine, hips, shoulders, and breath so posture feels natural, not forced, and why consistency matters more than perfection.

Whether you are brand new to yoga or have been practicing for years, this episode will help you reimagine posture as a living, breathing system that supports your whole body and daily life.

• Why posture is about more than appearance and supports energy, mobility, and breath
• How yoga helps you feel more upright without forcing alignment
• The variety of ways posture can be improved through simple daily practices
• What members experienced during the 7-Day Challenge, including less pain and more ease
• Why structure and consistency matter more than motivation
• How small daily practices add up to long-term transformation

👉 Your Next Step

Ready to experience the benefits yourself? The 7-Day Yoga for Posture Challenge is still available on demand. If you are a Lifelong Yoga Online member, dive deeper this month with Path to Posture. Not a member yet? Start your 14-day free trial and join us today.

🔗 Mentioned in the Episode

• 7-Day Yoga for Posture Challenge
• Path to Posture program inside Lifelong Yoga Online

💌 Stay Connected

• YouTube: Lifelong Yoga with Mikah
• Instagram: @lifelong.yoga
• Free Facebook Community: Yoga at Home