Like you're standing inside a giant jar of peanut butter...

If you've been to one of my yoga classes you may have heard me refer to a move otherwise known as "hip circles" as "like you're standing inside a giant jar of peanut butter, scraping out the sides." And it's funny because I can remember the first time I heard it and it still seems to do the trick.

At the time I heard it, Yoganand was a "renunciate" and was wearing orange robes at the front of the class of SLTs (spiritual lifestyle trainees). I took him pretty seriously and when he said that about the hip circles I cracked up. Years later we were across the hall from each other in yoga training in India and weren't as serious but I'll never forget that day.

One time recently I was teaching a private lesson with someone and trying to describe to her how to get the hip circles going and it seems she wasn't getting the hang of it. So I suggested that she imagine that she was standing inside a giant jar of peanut butter, scraping out the sides and then she totally got it.

When I teach kids I don't use the peanut butter reference because many of them don't get it. My daughter won't eat peanut butter on principle - it's dangerous and can kill people. The Costco purchase of a big jar of organic peanut butter is going to last for years at my house at the rate it's going...