Living the Wisdom of Yoga in Modern Times

Why Yoga's Roots Don't Matter

I used to be the yoga purist screaming with a bull horn on a soapbox about what yoga is and is not.  After a few years of teaching in what I call "non-denominational" yoga studios , I noticed that no matter what the lineage all the students left happy.

Results is What Matters

There are many roads that all lead to one place. It doesn't matter if you take back roads or highways, plains, trains or automobiles, walk, run or bicycle, if you have a destination in mind, you will get there.

This realization came to me one day after I had taught an ass kicking Hot yoga class that the X-Men would have had trouble making it through. It was  at least 100 degrees and Kayne West, Jay-Z and Little Wayne had been blasting through the stereo.   A student walked out with a big smile on her face and proceeded to tell me about how relaxed and blissful she felt. 

I also teach Ashtanga, Deep Stretch, Yin Yoga,Beginners Yoga, Yoga Basics and those students walk out the same way. I have attended Iyengar, Anusara, Kundalini, Pranayama, and Meditation classes and they all walked out that way too.

It doesn't matter if Hindu's, Martial Artists, Tibetan Monks, Gymnasts or Pee Wee Herman came up with it. It has been proven to work either way. As long as their is mindful instruction with safety and the students physical and spiritual development in mind, we will all reach our destination even if we take different roads.

Yoga Therapy Manual Giveaway Still in Effect. Check Here For Details

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Thoughts on Gratitude

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6 Pack Abs #2

Who doens't want 6 pack abs. Might as well get it from yoga. For more, check out Dashama's Channel.

 

 

Yoga Journal Yoga Therepy Giveaway still in effect. Check here for details.

 

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Bonus Video: Angelique Doing Some 3rd Series Ashtanga Postures

 

 

Giveaway Still In Effect.  Yoga Therapy book from Yoga Journal. Go Here For Details

 

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Totally Hilarious Video shared by Ricky Tran.

 

Giveaway Reminder: "Yoga As Medicine" Book Giveaway. Great Info on treating common ailments with yoga.  Check it out here

New Giveaway: Yoga As Medicine-The Yogic Prescription for Health and Healing

 

Description From  Book:

The definitive book of yoga therapy, this groundbreaking work comes to you from the medical editor of the country's premier yoga magazine(Yoga Journal), who is both a practicing yogi and a Western-trained physician.  Dr. McCall describes the many techniques in the yoga took kit.  Yoga as Medicine offers a wealth of practical information including how to:

• Utilize postures, breathing techniques,meditation, and other yogic tools, for symptom relief as well as prevention and healing of illness. 
• Adopt therapeutic yoga practices as a complement or alternative to surgery,medications,and traditional healing systems such as Ayurveda an Chinese medicine
• Practice safely, and find an instructor and a style of yoga that are right for you

With twenty chapters devoted to the work of individual master teachers, including such well-known figures as Patricia Walden, John Friend and Rodney Yee, Yoga as Medicine shows how these experts have applied the wisdom of this ancient holistic practice to twenty different conditions ranging from arthritis to chronic fatigue, depression, heart disease, HIV/AIDs, infertility, insomnia, multiple sclerosis, and obesity. 

To Win:

You Must be a Subscriber(Use links at the top and left of the page). 

Leave a Comment on how yoga has positively impacted your life OR leave a comment on what you hope to gain from practicing yoga. End Date December 7

Thanksgiving Quotes-Thoughts on Gratitude

 

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.  ~G.B. Stern

Go to foreign countries and you will get to know the good things one possesses at home."- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

 At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. — Albert Schweitzer

Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic- John Henry Jowett

There is no such thing as gratitude unexpressed.  If it is unexpressed, it is plain, old-fashioned ingratitude.  ~Robert Brault

Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary. -Margaret Cousins

No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks. — Unknown

What you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it. Opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life.- Oprah Winfrey

 

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.  ~Epictetus

Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.- Doris Day

You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach

Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more.- David Steindl-Rast

There is no greater difference between men than between grateful and ungrateful people.  ~R.H. Blyth

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.- Melodie Beattie

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.— Albert Einstein

The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.- William James

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.  ~Eric Hoffer, Reflections On The Human Condition

[D]on't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.-New York Post, October 4, 1959

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings. — William Arthur Ward

Real life isn’t always going to be perfect or go our way, but the recurring acknowledgement of what is working in our lives can help us not only to survive but surmount our difficulties.— Sarah Ban Breathnach

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.  ~H.L. Mencken

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. — Cynthia Ozick

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.  ~William Arthur Ward

Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.— The Hausa of Nigeria

I-Tunes + CSN Giveaway Winners

The winner of the $35 CSN Gift Certificate is Lovely Domestic Diva. 

As promised, you did not have to be a subscriber to get the CSN Gift Certificate but I still want to give away the I-Tunes Gift Card to a new subscriber.  

The winner for the $15 I-Tunes Gift Card is T Cog Bill. 

 

More Giveaways Coming up soon so keep your eye open!!!

Astavakrasana (Scissors or 8 Angle Pose)

Benefits

• Strengthen and tone abs and arms
• Stretch Hamstrings

Preparatory Postures

• Any hamstrings Stretches like standing and seated foreword folds
• Strength building poses like plank
• Ab poses like boat, canoe and sit ups
• A full warm up is needed. 

Contraindications

• Take caution if you have injuries to the hamstrings, shoulders or wrist.

You Tube Instructional Videos

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Day To Get I-Tunes Gift Card and CSN Gift Card. Details Here

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Tips To Fit Yoga In During the Busy Holiday Season

 

The holidays create unique challenges for our yoga practice. A change in schedule due to parties and get togethers, being on the road and entertaining house guests as well as light pockets due to buying presents, travel and entertaining all create road blocks to our practice. Below are a few tips to keep you practicing this upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 

Tips For All Situations

Something is Better Then Nothing

Doing a little meditation,a few sun salutes or easy floor stretches are better then not doing anything at all.

Buy a Yoga Pass With an Expiration Date

  A lot of studios have specials that run out after the holidays. You are more likely to practice if you have already spent $100 bucks on it.

Practice at Home

Use The Internet

If you just can't get out of the house and you have no clue about sequencing, You Tube is a great resource. Check out "Videos" and "Internet Inspirations"  under Categories to the left of this post for video links.

Look For Opportunities To Practice

Those dead times when you are bored sitting around the hotel room or Grandma's house can be used to do a few simple moves.  You can even sneak in stretches in front of the TV.

Choose a Different Time to Practice

You may have to choose a different time of day to practice during the holidays. Give yourself permission to do a lighter practice to make the transition easier.

Stick to Your Guns Approach

Instead of modifying your practice, you may take the stick to your guns approach. This means that you set a schedule and everything else has to work around it. You let family and friends know that yoga is important to you and you have set times for practice. After all,  the average practice is 1 to 1 1/2 hours and the rest of the 12 hours or so you are awake are for your family and friends.

Get Family and Friends Involved

Make going to class into a fun outing. Pick a class suitable for the members of your family and have fun. If class is not possible, take out your mat and show them a few moves. You can also let them know when you will be practicing at home and welcome them to join.

If the Kids Are Home From School

Make it Into a Game

For older kids, reward them for giving you the space to do your yoga. Invite smaller kids into your yoga space and make it fun for them as well as you. It will not be a traditional practice, but at least you did something.

Look For Kid Friendly Yoga Studios

Find a Yoga Studio that  offers Family Yoga, Kids Yoga, Tween Yoga, Teen Yoga and child care. Many of the classes are held at the same time as adult classes so you can practice too.

Tips For Traveling

Bring Your Mat

You never know when an opportunity may present itself to practice. If you have a thick heavy mat, go to Wal-Mart or  something similar and get a cheap light weight mat to travel with.

Look For Opportunities To Practice

Those dead times when you are bored sitting around the hotel room or Grandma's house can be used to do a few simple moves. 

Check out the Local Studios

Use the internet to find studios close to your lodgings. It is fun to see what yoga styles are popular in different regions and how culture effects the practice.

Pick a Space, Any Space

Look around your lodgings and find a space big enough to set up your mat.   You may find yourself practicing in the kitchen, the hotel gym, or beside the Christmas tree but at least you practiced.

 

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Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged

The true intention of yoga is to overcome the ego but the average yoga class is a fertile soil for judgement of others as well as ourselves. Throughout the class there are sighs of frustration when we fall out of a pose.  During the class, we look around and try to pick out the beginners from the advanced and make mental judgments on their practices.  We look at the teachers and seek to judge their intentions for teaching this particular sequence or playing a particular music and get mad if it doesn't suit our expectations. After class, conversations in the halls and locker rooms center around the poses we  sucked at, our long stories for why we didn't do what we wanted and the short comings people find in the studio or teachers.

Through the judging we don't gain anything. It won't get us closer to handstand, it doesn't make the music sound better, it doesn't make the mouth breather with the garlic breath to the right eat a Tic Tac. We just wind up ruining our own practice and experience.  Like sex, you have to get your yoga orgasm regardless of what is going on. You have to accept what you can't change, and change what you can.

What things are you allowing to ruin your practice?

Make a decision right now that you are bigger then any judgement or ill conceived notion that pops into your mind during class. You are in control of your yoga experience.

This  one concept will transform your practice!!

 

I-Tunes Gift Card and $35 CSN Gift Certificate Still Up For Grabs. Check it out here

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