Tips From The Trainer/Power Yoga
Meditation takes a backseat to pure strength in power yoga sessions, says
Annie Okerlin, owner of Tampa’s Yogani studio. Power yoga is a vigorous
high-energy workout that also incorporates yoga’s breath-centered
approach.
“It’s harnessing your inner power with your breath,” she says.
Okerlin, a certified Bikram yoga method instructor, teaches people of all
ages and abilities. Her Exalted Warrior Foundation provides yoga therapy
to wounded veterans at Tampa’s James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and
Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
This exercise focuses on developing core strength.
EXERCISE: YOGA CRUNCHES
Lay down, knees bent, feet on the floor, hands folded behind the head.
Squeeze a block or book between the knees. Inhale to expand the belly.
Exhale and lift the upper body, pointing underarms up to the sky. Pull the
belly down.
Don’t use your hands to pull the neck.
Repeat as long as you are able.
Is this yoga for you?
Learning to let go is good spiritual exercise
Just Breathe
Today I will be attending Jason Mueller’s wake. A friend I meet guy during my freshman year of college. We were a group of four. Jason, Angel, Chris, and I. We tried to get into parties, walked around campus, laughed ourselves silly…. Attended foam parties (ha ha…). Always having a good time. Jason ALWAYS had a smile on his face. He was ALWAYS kind. He was ALWAYS thoughtful. He was quiet but full of life. His picture and story was one the front page of my mom’s newspaper today. As I took it to read I had a rush of feelings and memories. Friendships remembered. Times recalled. This friend was murdered. He was taken from his loved ones for reasons unclear. I feel like the only thing that I can do is breathe. He will be buried a day before his 30th birthday. May you live today and every day to the fullest…. We will miss you Jason!
A Message
By Shyam Mehta
A Message to All Sincere Yoga Students.
The objective of yoga practice is to wake up each morning and want with all your heart for the following thoughts to arise first thing:
” Lord, may You always be happy
May whatever you wish always come true
Please let me always be there, for You ”
In the case of a married woman, her sincere desire should be directed to her husband. For everyone else you need to ask your teacher whom you should pray to.
There are four aspects to yoga practice :
- Developing a tranquil mind, see my article “Quietness in Your Life”
- Tapas, developing purity of your body in mind through everything you do, see “tapas”
- Svadhyaya, studying the scriptures, specifically the Bhagavad-Gita and Ramayana, see my Loving Heart Centre articles on how to get started with these.
- Ishvara Pranidhana, doing all your actions for God. To start with this you need to resolve each day to help your husband [for a married woman] OR nice people you encounter in your life [for a married man] to become happy. Single people needed in the first instance to focus on finding a nice marital partner and making them happy.
All who follow this simple path will succeed in their true life mission, which for all of us is Bhakti, constant permanent loving remembrance of God.
May all sincere students of yoga get this message.
Courtesy: http://www.healthandyoga.com A popular website that helps you find natural solutions for complete health and detoxification.
Yoga quotes and sayings
Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.
Yoga is bodily gospel
Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are.
Yoga is invigoration in relaxation. Freedom in routine. Confidence through self control. Energy within and energy without.
The most important pieces of equipment you need for doing yoga are your body and your mind.
Yoga is the cessation of mind.
You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state.
Yoga is possible for anybody who really wants it. Yoga is universal.... But don't approach yoga with a business mind looking for worldly gain.
Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind.
This yoga should be practiced with firm determination and perseverance, without any mental reservation or doubts.
The meaning of our self is not to be found in its separateness from God and others, but in the ceaseless realisation of yoga, of union; not on the side of the canvas where it is blank, but on the side where the picture is being painted.
The Self in you is the same as the Self Universal. Whatever powers are manifested throughout the world, those powers exist in germ, in latency, in you.... If you realize the unity of the Self amid the diversities of the Not-Self, then Yoga Will not seem an impossible thing to you.
You can enter yoga, or the path of yoga, only when you are totally frustrated with your own mind as it is. If you are still hoping that you can gain something through your mind, yoga is not for you.
Yoga is really trying to liberate us from ... shame about our bodies. To love your body is a very important thing -- I think the health of your mind depends on your being able to love your body.
The yoga mat is a good place to turn when talk therapy and antidepressants aren't enough.
By embracing your mother wound as your yoga, you transform what has been a hindrance in your life into a teacher of the heart.
Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one's being, from bodily health to self-realization. Yoga means union - the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one's actions.
Anyone who practices can obtain success in yoga but not one who is lazy. Constant practice alone is the secret of success.
In Karma-yoga no effort is ever lost, and there is no harm. Even a little practice of this discipline protects one from great fear of birth and death.
Yoga is a science, and not a vague dreamy drifting or imagining. It is an applied science, a systematized collection of laws applied to bring about a definite end. It takes up the laws of psychology, applicable to the unfolding of the whole consciousness of man on every plane, in every world, and applies those rationally in a particular case. This rational application of the laws of unfolding consciousness acts exactly on the same principles that you see applied around you every day in other departments of science.
Yoga is about clearing away whatever is in us that prevents our living in the most full and whole way. With yoga, we become aware of how and where we are restricted -- in body, mind, and heart -- and how gradually to open and release these blockages. As these blockages are cleared, our energy is freed. We start to feel more harmonious, more at one with ourselves. Our lives begin to flow -- or we begin to flow more in our lives.
What yoga philosophy and all the great Buddhist teachings tells us is that solidity is a creation of the ordinary mind and that there never was anything permanent to begin with that we could hold on to. Life would be much easier and substantially less painful if we lived with the knowledge of impermanence as the only constant.
Yoga does not remove us from the reality or responsibilities of everyday life but rather places our feet firmly and resolutely in the practical ground of experience. We don't transcend our lives; we return to the life we left behind in the hopes of something better.
The word yoga comes from Sanskrit, the language of ancient India. It means union, integration, or wholeness. It is an approach to health that promotes the harmonious collaboration of the human being's three components: body, mind, and spirit.
Together may be be protected
Together may we be nourished
Together may we work with great energy
May our journey together be brilliant and effective
May there be no bad feelings between us
Peace, peace, peace
Lead us from darkness to light
From ignorance to truth
And from death to eternity
Let peace prevail everywhere
You can search the whole universe
and not find a single being more worthy of love than yourself.
Since each and every person is so precious to themselves,
Let the self-respecting harm no other being.
I’ve learned to trust what I call the Braille method of living – relinquishing grand plans and schemes in favor of an intuitive approach, feeling my way from tree to tree, relinquishing my attempts to control the world and learning, instead, to trust a discerning surrender.
When you’re experiencing peace, it’s coming from within you, you’re ‘doing’ peace. And this is true of anything else you might be looking for. Love, happiness, contentment, well-being come from within. Nothing external needs to change for you to have what you want…..If you want to be happier – be happier. If you want to be more relaxed – relax. If you want more friends – be friendly. Sounds simple. It is.
I practice now not so much with ambition as with gratitude. And I ask myself frequently, ‘How can I express kindness right now?’ whether I am in a headstand of washing dishes.
In truth, it matters les what we do in practice than how we do it and why we do it. The same posture, the same sequence, the same meditation with a different intention takes on an entirely new meaning and will have entirely different outcomes.
Without intention, all these postures, these breathing practices, meditations, and the like can become little more than ineffectual gestures. When animated by intention, however, the simplest movement, the briefest meditation, and the contents of one breath cycle are made potent
Through practice, I’ve come to see that the deepest source of my misery is not wanting things to be the way they are. Not wanting myself to be the way I am. Not wanting the world to be the way it is. Not wanting others to be the way they are. Whenever I’m suffering, I find this ‘war with reality’ to be at the heart of the problem.
These days, my practice is teaching me to embrace imperfection: to have compassion for all the ways things haven’t turned out as I planned, in my body and in my life – for the ways things keep falling apart, and failing, and breaking down. It’s less about fixing things, and more about learning to be present for exactly what is.
I was caught in the conundrum of believing that I needed to be different, that the way I was right now was not all right….Eventually I came to understand that it was this very non-acceptance that was keeping me stuck in my patterns.
The way that we see things today does not have to be the way we saw them yesterday. That is because the situations, our relationships to them, and we ourselves have changed in the interim. This notion of constant change suggests that we do not have to be discouraged.
Whether things get better or worse depends to a considerable extent on our own actions. The recommendation of a yoga practice follows the principle that through practice we can learn to stay present in every moment, and thereby achieve much that we were previously incapable of.
I feel certain that the change wrought by my practice also changes the world. I don’t see how it can be otherwise. Everything is interconnected in the fabric of oneness. Awakening affects the entire world.
Practicing asanas began to teach me about myself. The body is such a great school of learning. It makes you pay attention.
The challenge, and the opportunity, that Yoga presents to us is the possibility of breaking the conditioning cycle. We do this by becoming aware of the depth and pervasiveness of our patterns and, at the same time, by working to change them. And true transformation begins at the moment that we become aware of our actual condition.
What I want to say is that there is a strong relationship between yoga on the mat and yoga off the mat. I’ve really come to believe that the energy accumulated in practice has a lot to do with my ability to get clarity about the reality of things.
People sometimes ask me what difference practice has made in my life. The answer is it’s changed everything for me. And, in a funny way, it’s changed nothing.
The most profound benefit of yoga and meditation for me has been a natural relaxing into my life. Obstacles are not so scary. I am more fluid, more curious, and at the same time more patient. I have more options for happiness because I don’t require specific conditions. It is a relief to discover that I can be happy even if the world doesn’t revolve around me or my agenda.
After asana & pranayama are perfect, pratyahara, sense control [the fifth limb of ashtanga yoga], follows. The first four limbs are external exercises: yama, niyama, asana, pranayama. The last four are internal, and they automatically follow when the first four are mastered. Pratyahara means that anywhere you look, you see God. Good mind control gives that capacity, so that when you look, everything you see is Atman (the God within). Then for you the world is colored by God. Whatever you see, you identify it with your Atman. The scriptures say that a true yogi's mind is so absorbed in the lotus feet of the Lord that nothing distracts him, no matter what happens in the external world.
Then there are those moments that make it all worthwhile. I’m carried on my breath like a leaf on the wind: folding, arching, twisting, bending, leaping lightly from one posture to the next. My body tingles with energy; my mind is quietly absorbed in the hypnotic rhythm of practice. The poses seem strung on the breath like prayer beads on a mala; I enter each one to the best of my ability, savoring the silky stretches, the pleasurable ache of muscles taxed to their edge.
Yoga is possible for anybody who really wants it. Yoga is universal.
Yoga is not mine. But don't approach yoga with a business mind -
looking for worldly gain. If you want to be near God, turn your mind
toward God, and practice yoga. As the scriptures say "without yoga
practice, how can knowledge give you moksha liberation?
If we practice the science of yoga, which is useful to the entire human community and which yields happiness both here and hereafter - if we practice it without fail, we will then attain physical, mental, and spiritual happiness, and our minds will flood towards the Self.
Finding Balance On and Off the Yoga Mat
Elka’s story
Yoga is an ancient practice that creates a sense of unity between the mind, body and spirit. It brings balance that we can take to other parts of our daily lives. Recognizing the distinct connection of the mind, body and spirit is the first step in yoga. It’s the philosophy.Elka Hauck is the owner of Namaste Yoga Center in San Diego. But she wasn’t born a yoga guru. “I used to be a ‘gym girl.’ I would push my body when working out and had no recognition that the mind and body were even connected. I never cared what I put into my body, nor did I properly take care of myself,” she said. “I didn’t eat right, was always stressed out and had loads of anxiety.”
Seven years ago she took her first power yoga class. “I started with power yoga because it grabbed my attention. I wasn’t interested in the spiritual elements of yoga,” said Elka. “I wanted a tough workout and a good stretch.”
Power yoga gave her just that — and much more. She began attending class regularly and soon realized that the benefits of yoga went well beyond its physical advantages.
“It made me a better person and brought me perception in life,” she said. “When I started practicing yoga, I started thinking before acting. I started living in the present moment, instead of worrying about the past and the future.”
“Yoga brings the awareness that the present is the most important thing to appreciate and recognize,” said Elka. “Too often we look outside ourselves for peace and happiness. But it is present within us — we just need to learn to live in the present.”
As her time in the studio increased, she decided to train to be a teacher. After rigorous practice, she got her license and students followed her around town. “I started teaching yoga outside on the bay,” Elka said. “When summer was over and the temperatures began to drop, my students begged me to find a place to teach indoors. Three months later, Namaste Yoga Center opened.”
As yoga became a huge part of Elka’s life, she began studying other forms of holistic healing to complement her practice. She will graduate this year from the International Professional School of Body Work, where she will receive her license to practice massage and various forms of energy healing, including reiki, a non-invasive form of Japanese energy healing.
Elka enjoys how these practices complement one another. “Massage and energy work bring me more connected to a person. I facilitate healing through touching the body and releasing energy. It’s really connected to yoga.”
What Do You Have to Lose?
Yoga offers a myriad of physical, psychological and spiritual benefits. Besides the inherent physical benefits that yoga creates — overall strength and flexibility — yoga also improves sleep quality, alleviates pain, prevents injury and balances metabolism. Yoga also trains us how to quiet the mind, create positive energy, relieve stress, eliminate depression and develop awareness of ourselves and the world around us.
“Yoga is overflowing with rewards. It opens our minds. It teaches us how to better deal with ourselves and others,” said Elka.
“More than any other reason, students tell me that yoga helps them deal with stress.” she said. “This ultra-fast pace world offers so much stress — yoga brings people the calmness they need. Even those people that only come to work out recognize they are now able to cope with their emotions better and handle stress.”
You can practice yoga everywhere, not just in a class. This is especially true of breathing. Learning to breathe properly is an important tool. Once you learn to breathe when faced with anxiety, depression or a stressful situation, you learn how much it can calm you down.
“Giving yourself a moment just for yourself — just to focus on your own being — helps us solve internal struggles,” Elka said. And it doesn’t take long to learn. “Start with meditating just 10 seconds a day. Keep yourself in the present for just those 10 seconds. Little by little, increase your meditation by 10 seconds a day. That’s all it takes.”
She read a passage by Thynn Thynn from her book of inspirational quotes that she often reads from at the end of her classes. “Why do we think we have no peace of mind? Experiencing peace is like looking at our hands. Usually, we see only the fingers — not the spaces in between. In a similar manner, when we look at the mind, we are aware of the active states, such as our running thoughts and the 1,001 feelings that are associated with them, but we tend to overlook the intervals of peace between them.”
“We all need to look at that space — in life — look at the missed perceptions. Be conscious of what we do everywhere…on and off the yoga mat,” Elka explained.
“The world we live in today is challenging. There will always be struggle,” she continued. “Our purpose is to find peace amongst the struggle. Yoga can help us reach this goal.”
As her voice trailed off, students came in and began setting up their mats and towels. Elka welcomed each student with a hug, a smile and some positive energy.
Difference between east and west
When it comes to healing here are some differences:
East– Focus on the emptiness, feel dissatisfaction and imperfection, go deeper into the painful places.
West– Heal and feill the emptiness, develop character, strengthen the ego…
What do you think?
Yoga and Mental Health
Yoga is a four-thousand-year-old psychology developed in India. It is the oldest system of personal development in the world. Yoga is an effective, natural remedy for mental health issues.
Through a combination of simple breathing techniques, postures, movements and deep relaxation, you can help your patients become calmer and more centered. Basic mindfulness helps cultivate strong minds that live in the moment and tolerate difficult emotions. Understanding how to work with our energy flows allow us to heal disturbances within.
Recent research indicates that thought can actually occur in the body, and molecules of emotions can be stored away in the form of peptides. Yoga has the ability to affect the quantity and quality of the peptide production in the body through the stimulation of physical movement. More than eleven million Americans are currently practicing yoga on a regular basis. Yoga is steadily gaining popularity in the west as a holistic healing modality. The practice of yoga and mindfulness helps reconnect individuals to the natural world through awareness, organic movement and sound…. OM.
According to Dr. Herbert Benson, MD, and his colleagues, their extensive research indicates that mind/body medicine is so effective, that it is becoming the third healing modality in healthcare, taking the place of surgery and pharmaceuticals.
Empower your clients to believe that they have the capacity to influence what is happening inside of them. Learn to create a simple, effective plan to treat the whole person-mind, body and spirit.
Yonna Swingholm– “Treating the Whole Person- Practical Yoga and Mindfulness for Clinicians”
One little word…
How is it that one little word can produce so much anxiety, excitement, joy, sadness, peace, and hatred. For the past few weeks, I have been thinking of this word, more specifically this one sentence, roughly 75% of the time. It plays out in my head over and over and I almost feel like I say it out loud, one time I think I did say it to him but it could have just been a dream… This sentence has never given me so much anxiety in the past. I think that yoga is to blame…
If any of you have just started a training course or begun to deepen your yoga off the matt then maybe you can relate. Now that I look at the world through energetic or “yogic” lenses ways I feel much more in tune with my dharma. Before I might have felt the need to say “it” to realize anxiety. I think I thought that it would make everything perfect or make some of the “not so perfect” better. Because when you have this…. then life is perfect… Right? So connecting with my dharmic path has allowed me to realize and let go of some of the anxiety and just be in the moment. Trusting that each moment we are given is a time to make choices and that if we connect with that sensation of making a choices that is so pure and true then we made the choices that is right for our dharmic path. So how does this relate to my hesitation?
All I know is that I feel this overwhelming desire to say “it” but in the moment, my teeth clench up and I hesitate. I’m scared. Ahh but I am who I am and I feel how I feel so just because I have said it before shouldn’t mean that I should hesitate now. Nor does it mean that I don’t truly feel it. I do love him.. And when he left today I felt this crazy desire to tell him because I wanted him to know. I wanted him to hear it and know that I felt that way about him. But I didn’t. And truth be told, I actually think that I wasn’t following my dharma but listening to my fears instead. Its my heart that can only say and mean these words and if my head won’t let my heart speak then the words won’t be uttered. But I will say this… he makes my whole body tingle and when he is around I feel fluttery. Like butterflies are on my chest and tickling my insides. When he turns away from me to sleep at night, I stare at his back and lightly brush my nose on the nap of his neck. I love that place. I just want to throw my arms around him and squeeze him till he pops! Sometimes I go into spontaneous laughter because of how happy I am and how awesome it feels to be in this relationship. I giggle like a 7 year old girl sometimes. Its great.. It brings my inner child a lot of happiness. Actually, I have a slight urge to go into laughter at this moment… He is what makes me smile and I do see a future with him.