Many people aren’t aware that sweating is actually good for you. Working up a sweat can release built up tension, refresh your skin, boost your endorphins, and release toxins from the body! There’s also other more unknown benefits such as health benefits and decreased recovery times. We’ve put together some of the scientific benefits of sweating to encourage you to build up a sweat this week!
What is Sweat?
The human body contains around 4 million sweat glands! These excrete a mix of water, salt, proteins, amino acids - aka sweat. The composition of this can change based on a number of things, such as hormones, bacteria and viruses in the body. Sweat can tell us a lot about our health, and how our sweat glands function. We sweat mainly to regulate temperature, to cool the body in heat and in stressful situations. This can be triggered by anxiety, elevated body temperature and working out. Sweat also detoxes the body.
The Benefits of Sweating
Detox the Body
The secondary function of sweat is for detoxification. There’s a lot of evidence that shows that detoxing through sweat is a real thing. For example, in one study, sweating sessions reduced levels of mercury toxicity to a safe level. With modern living and industrial pollution, detoxing is an important part of our bodily functions. Exercising more and building up a sweat can help eliminate heavy metals and toxins from the body.
Clear Skin
Did you know that your skin has its own microbiome balance? These are trillions of microbes living on the skin. Sweat can act as a prebiotic to help healthy skin bacteria grow - just like drinking prebiotics to help bacteria in your gut. Sweating also stimulates skin cell turnover and can remove unhealthy bacteria that leads to acne.
Reduces Stress
The de-stress response, or parasympathetic response to give it it’s proper name, allows us to relax and recover and its activated by sweating. By breaking a sweat, we allow our bodies to boost endorphins, the happy hormones which relieve anxiety, stress and depression. Sweating also reduces cortisol, a stress hormone, and adrenal hormones are active to maintain this de-stressed reaction.
Strengthens the Heart
Sweating can increase circulation and strengthen the cardiovascular systems. A study following a group of people who had weekly sessions in a sauna found that this group were the least likely to have heart problems.
Helps Recovery
If you’re a regular exercise bunny, sweating lots can help you to reduce your recovery time. Sweating stimulates and increases blood flow to your skeletal muscles. This helps you bounce back quicker from illnesses, injuries or strains. Sweating also boosts the body's growth hormones, which helps it to repair itself from damage.
Reduces Eisks of Kidney Stones
When you sweat, you expel salt from your body, and retain calcium in your bones. This will limit the amount of salt and calcium that can accumulate in your kidneys and in your urine. It’s this build up of calcium and salt that causes kidney stones. Also, the more you sweat, the more you drink, and drinking water is also a great way to prevent kidney stones. Something as simple as working up a sweat with a brisk walk can reduce the risk for developing kidney stones.
Prevents Colds
Sweating can reduce the risk of catching a cold or the flu by a third. This is because our sweat contains antimicrobial proteins, which help to flush out toxins, bacteria and viruses in the body, and attack germs. These proteins attack the bacteria and viruses, and break them down., Sweating can also help you fight certain illnesses. Our sweat composition can change depending on what toxins and diseases are in our body. For example, a study following people suffering from tuberculosis found that their sweat contains proteins that are key to improving their immune system to fight the disease. These natural proteins are effective in fighting off illness long term, as bacteria cannot develop resistance to them.
Reduce Risk of Alzheimer’s
As mentioned, sweating detoxes the levels of heavy metals in your body, which in turn improves the blood flow to the brain, which is a great tool to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. One study showed that a group of men who used a sauna more than once a week saw a reduction of risk of Alzheimers by up to 65% compared to those who didn’t.
Hair Growth
Did you know sweating can help your hair grow? Sweat from your scalp will unclog your hair follicles, letting new hair grow through. It also opens up pores, which further allows your hair to grow more. However, it’s important to keep your head clean and not allow sweat to build up. This can eventually cause damage to the hair follicles, so sweat away but make sure you wash your hair after working out.
How to Gain the Benefits of Sweating
If you want to reap the above benefits, that’s great! Get your sweat on. It’s important to allow your body to sweat, so using less antiperspirant is the first step. These can contain the heavy metals you’re trying to detox, and also can block your pores. Natural deodorant can be a great alternative to chemical antiperspirants.
Try and fit in a workout a day, just something that's active enough to get you sweating. You’ll also reap the benefits exercising has on your health, both physically and mentally. Try our classes this week - all designed to get you working up a sweat.
Finally, you can relax and head to a sauna. Your body will sweat more in a sauna, and you’ll notice the positive benefits immediately.
By Amy Cavill
Work up a sweat with power yoga right now!
Have you ever met somebody who does not like chocolate? I remember meeting one girl who was not fond of it years ago, but this is also the only time I have seen anybody who does not like it. As a general rule, every dessert that has chocolate in it vanishes from the table within minutes.
Chocolate in itself is not unhealthy at all. Having a little square of dark chocolate a day even has proven health benefits. However, the chocolate really needs to be dark to be healthy. Most of the chocolate bars, loaded with sugar and different additives, do not qualify as healthy. I usually choose the chocolate that contains at least 75%, sometimes even more than 90% of cocoa!
The chocolate mousse, usually, is full of everything unhealthy – heavy cream and white sugar. But here is good news – the recipe I share with you today only contains ingredients good for you and I let you be the judge of the taste, but in my humble opinion, it is just perfect.
A secret ingredient that makes the mousse extra light is something that you would otherwise throw out. The liquid from the tin of chickpeas is called aquafaba, and it resembles egg whites when whipped up. This is what gives this mousse its incredible lightness, just be very careful while folding it through the chocolate mixture as it collapses pretty easily.
So anyway, next time you prepare hummus, keep the liquid and use this up in a dessert!
Light Chocolate Mousse
Serves: 4
Cooking time: 15 minutes + 3 hours to set
Ingredients:
3 ½ oz dark chocolate
5 oz very ripe avocados (cleaned weight)
15 ½ oz tin of chickpeas (You only need the liquid, use the chickpeas in a different recipe)
A pinch of salt
Instructions:
Melt the chocolate.
At the same time start whipping up the aquafaba, it takes about 10 minutes and you want to get very firm foam.
Once the chocolate is melted, add the avocado and a tiny bit of salt, and mix with the stick blender.
Now it is time to mix everything together. At first, take about half of the foamy aquafaba and mix carefully in the chocolate mixture. Then add the other half of the foam and really gently fold. You want to keep as much air in the mixture as possible.
Divide the mousse between 4 serving bowls and glasses and let them set for at least 3 hours in the fridge.
By Kadri Raig
Kadri is a food blogger and yoga teacher from Estonia. She loves healthy food and cooking and for her, these two are often the same thing. Cooking meals from scratch, you know exactly what goes in it and even without holding back with sugar or fat we end up using a lot less compared to ready-made frozen stuff from the supermarket.
She does love to spend time in the kitchen, but most of her recipes are simple and don’t take more than 20 minutes of active cooking time. She thinks that everybody can find time to cook healthy food at home, it is just a question of planning. "I work in an office full time, teach yoga 7-8 hours a week and write a blog. So if I manage to cook most of my meals, then so do you!"
Connect with Kadri and enjoy many more of her delicious healthy recipes on her website here: http://www.kahvliga.ee/.
Enjoy some enlivening yoga before your delicious chocolate mousse!
I recently bought myself a new computer and became so caught up in the frustration of trying to transfer information from the old to the new that I almost found myself in tears. I am mostly a calm and balanced person, who does lots of yoga and uses breathe to get through life’s tougher times and yet when a little piece of technology doesn’t play according to plan, all that practice seemed to go out the window. Feelings of frustration and lack of control ruled as I did what the manual said to do, waited hours, and the desired effect never came. What did come, was clenched fists, shoulders around my ears, a sore jaw from clenching, back stiffness from sitting too long and a very agitated mind and mood. I felt jumpy as I lost connection with my breathe. I then got annoyed when I tried to breathe perspective back in and moments later lost the awareness. Does this sound familiar to any of you, when technology seems not to work how we want it to?
I was so far from the grateful girl I try to be. Hours spent scratching my head from my computer malfunctioning, certainly was not going along with the idealistic plan that I had created of my perceived future. Rather than being present, letting go of the ideals and attachments and accepting the truth of the situation, I was going into a tailspin of frustration.
Then, I started to see things began to work technologically, and I started to have lightbulb moments about what computers can teach us as humans.
Similar to computers, we don't always work optimally, but there are always simple things we can do to function better. Hitting buttons in frustration does not make us or computers function better and get us what we want.
I ran a computer clean up on my old laptop and was in the process of virus scans, duplicate file finders, uninstallers and more. It was then that I had an epihany about life. In the simple press of a button and a moment of time, your computer is analyzed, problems are identified, rectified, deleted and restored.
What if you could do the same in your life? What if in the moment of highest agitation at my tech problems (which let’s be honest are first world problems and so insignificant in the scheme of life and love and world peace), I could have pressed a button, waited all but a minute, completely let it go and return to the task at hand with higher efficiency?
Then I started to think of more unique functions of computers, and how they can symbolize actions we can take as humans, to function better and thrive more.
What if the things that stress us out the most and make our blood boil, could be deleted with the press of a button? The good news is we can do this. While these are metaphorical, these lessons I learned from my computer reboot, are lessons on how we can re-program ourselves and our lives to live optimally. We all possess an in built virus scan called awareness.
Negativity can have a detrimental effect and corrupt our highest efficiency, but awareness allows us to scan ourselves, find these pockets (or thought patterns) of negativity, and clear them out. The practice of meditation or yoga, is simple and similar to the way your computer does it. Technological devices close all other applications and then look at every file to identify any that are affecting the optimum performance of the machine.
Likewise, sit in stillness and look at every cell to recognize anywhere that is hindering your performance. Notice tight and tender areas and offer expansive space on your breathe. Use your exhale like the trash bin on your computer and move any unhelpful stored data out with your breath. The duplicate finder, is another computer function I appreciate. If my laptop finds any files that in my laziness or haste, have been saved more than once, it can delete them to stop taking up unnecessary space. Do you have old tendencies, repeating behaviours, repititive habits that are chewing up storage in you? Grudges and anger can actually be erased in an instant if we want them to be.
Another favorite feature of the computer clean up is the archive feature, in putting things behind us, from the past, that don't need to take up space as we move forward. Rather than being tainted by the past, we could live with more connection to the moment. Old experiences shape our perception, and are valuable, but they don't need to weigh us down, and it's more important to stay open to the present and future.
In yoga, the direction of your gaze represents your viewpoint and where you are going. Taking your drishti to aim behind you like in Half Lord of the Fishes pose (Matseyendrasana) is gazing into your past. When you look forward like in Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II) you address your future. To archive your attachments, before you release a twist, bid the past farewell, redirect your drishti and gaze bravely forward. Take a fresh new breathe here and then release the twist. The memory booster feature on a computer scan manually improves the systems memory. What a lucky computer! As humans we scatter our attention on multiple tasks, sometimes failling to truly concentrate on the present. To boost your memory, fuel your body well with thoughts, experiences and people that nourish you and be right there in every moment. Removing junk files optimizes your systems speed and is so simple to do the same for yourself. One can easily fill up on junk food, but does it actually nourish and nurture your body? For the same amount of calories, you can consume whole foods with real nutritional benefit to maximize your potential.
Finally, the crash log can help troubleshoot performance and stability problems. From this the inference is that stability is more efficient than highs and lows, mood swings, tantrums and energy crashes. Pay attention, maybe even keep a journal of situations, people and foods that trigger a metaphoric crash in your life, minimizing exposure to these spikes, to improve balance and stability.
While technology doesn't always work how we want it to, if we learn how to use devices for our favor, they are more fun, effective, and efficient to work on. Same goes with our thoughts, habits, and emotions.
If we can adjust and fine tune certain reactions, we can live as happier, more free and grateful people. Sure, we are not as simple as computers and much more complex beings with more of an array of emotions. However, if we're able to see ourselves and our struggles as simply as possible, it can give us a clearer path forward in how to thrive.
By Amy Booth
Amy is a yoga and pilates teacher and personal trainer in Brisbane, Australia, where she runs a cute riverside studio and a personal training business. In addition each year she runs a yoga retreat (Bali, August 2018) and hiking retreat (Australia, 2018). To find out more: Website: www.ambertreeyoga.com.au Instagram: @ambertreeyogaandretreats Facebook: Amber Tree Yoga and Retreats
Give your mind a reboot with the 14-Day Meditation Program, suitable for all levels!
What is the solstice?
If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, the solstice is the first day of Summer, the longest day of the year, and the days will begin to get shorter for the next 6 months until the winter solstice. If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, the solstice is the first day of Winter, the shortest day of the year and the days will slowly start to get longer. When is the solstice?
The solstice occurs on Friday, June 21st.
Why does it symbolize?
Beyond just daylight hours, the solstice is a powerful time for reflection, intention setting, and feeling your place in the natural world as the seasons change.
It is a moment to pause, and take a step back from the routine that the day to day grind can bring, and zoom out to look at the bigger picture of our lives. It is also a potent moment in the yearly cycle to get clear on what it is you want to call in, during the next season.
How to honor the solstice?
Taking a moment to honor this turning point in the year and seasons, that the solstice represents, does not have to be overly involved or time consuming. Simple gestures can go a long way, and have ripple effects for the next 6 months.
You can get creative with how you'd like to honor this occasion also, as there is also no correct way to salute the solstice. This could be a day where you simply feel more connected to nature and the cosmos, or a pivot point where you get clear and serious about your goals and intentions.
Whether you're simply putting your feet in the grass, or taking the day to journal and cast spells, the mere recognition on this day of our place in the solar system, can have profound benefits for your life, or simply make for an enjoyable day.
Here are 6 fun, simple, solstice ritual ideas for you for a happy and healthy season ahead.
Don't feel confined to just these 7 ideas, and you can even use these ideas as inspiration to come up with your own.
1. Honor the sun.
If nothing else, the solstice is a reminder of our relationship with the sun, as residents of the Earth. Without the sun, we would not be here. It is what gives us life, the different seasons, and our energy.
This simple solstice ritual idea will take no more than 1 minute and connect your entire being to the sun's magnificence.
1. Go outside. 2. Face the sun (you might want to close your eyes). 3. Take 3 deeps breaths, and feel the energy of the sun connecting and charging your heart. 4. Feel gratitude and appreciation for the sun, and send good energy back to it.
2. Reflect on the past 6 months' successes and room for improvement.
Take time today to look back for a moment. What has gone well since the last solstice, 6 months ago?
Have there been breakthroughs and areas where you've made positive change and progress? Have there been new challenges or ways you could have done better?
Without beating yourself up about anything, look at the successes and setbacks over the past 6 months, as neutrally as possible. Use these reflections as powerful information, for where you want to put your time, energy, and focus, over the next seasons and months ahead.
This idea, can be combined with idea #3 (but you can also do this one by itself).
3. Create your ideal vision for the next 6 months.
This idea is perfect to combine with idea #2 (reflecting on the past 6 months).
Tell the story of your future, more than you tell the story of your past. There's no better day to start than on the solstice. The solstice is a potent time to set new intentions you'd like to have manifest over the next cycle. Take time today, and create your ideal vision for the next 6 months. If you're newer to law of attraction, the idea is we attract what we focus on.
Take time today to focus on what it is that you want. Dream big and set goals that excite you.
4. Go barefoot in nature or lay in the grass.
Simply taking the solstice to be more with the natural world, is a special way to appreciate the solstice. The beach and sand count here too.
It's easy to forget that we are animals on this Earth, susceptible to it's change in seasons and rhythms. Take time today to be outside.
You could commemorate the solstice by going somewhere new, or one of your favorite places in nature you might not get to regularly. Or, if it's more ceonvenient, you can do this in your backyard, or at the nearest park.
The essence is the same though. Get outside and feel the Earth. There's no easier way to do this, than taking your shoes off, and feeling the Earth beneath your feet! You can even combine the first 3 ideas, with your outdoor time.
5. Make a vision board.
A powerful, fun, and artistic way to get creative, is to create a vision board. While the benefits of intention setting on the solstice have been outlined, if writing is not your thing, you can channel these intentions into an artistic activity.
Making a vision board is simple, creative and fun. Simply go through a stack of magazines, and cut out images of things, feelings, and experiences you'd like to have manifest in the seasons ahead, cut them out, and glue them to your vision board. Have fun arranging everything.
Collaging usually takes a few hours, with some clean up time. All you need to create a vision board collage, are scissors, glue, some magazines or books you're okay with cutting up, and a piece of paper (preferably strong paper) to glue the cuttings onto.
6. Organize a get together.
There's a number of ways your can go about this. If you want to make the gathering intentional, you can bring people together for any of the 5 ideas above, such as a group vision board making night, a solstice ritual of honoring the sun, or journaling together.
Otherwise, solstice does not have to be about ritual or intention setting and can simply be a good excuse to gather your favorite people. Especially in the spirit of summer, it's good to re-connect with people you love that you may not get to see as much as you'd like.
It can be harder to connect with people during the winter also, which is a more introverted time for many, so it's good to spend time with those important to you, before you go into hibernation mode.
Enjoy this day, the constant change of seasons, and planning something special, to honor the sun, your vision for the future, or those you love!
By Keith Allen
Keith is a teacher on YogaDownload.com and teaches yoga internationally. Connect with him by practicing his yoga and meditation classes on YogaDownload, or connecting with him on Instagram or his website.
Practice yoga or meditate to visualize your ideal season ahead, with Keith, now!
Manifestation and Visualization Meditation
Humble Warrior Flow with Keith Allen
Did you know that the first sense we become aware of as babies is touch? More than sight, smell, taste, and sound, touch is what helps us feel a true sense of connection with the people around us. There’s nothing quite like a hug from a friend you haven’t seen in a while, holding hands with your partner or child, or simply receiving a pat on the back.
In certain cultures, kissing on the cheek is a common greeting, while other countries might frown upon even a handshake. Within your family or group of friends, touching could be common or non-existent. No matter the environment, many of us can go through an entire day or days without touching anyone at all. Lack of touch correlates with feeling disconnected, and we’re here with some new ways to change that.
Touch is vital for overall health and wellness on a long-term basis.
Even if you are regularly practicing yoga and have developed a strong mind-body connection, you may still not feel as happy and fulfilled as you wish to be. Yoga helps us quiet our minds, connect with our emotions, and tune into our body’s signals. Sharing how we feel with others via touch takes it a step further.
Ample research exists from psychiatrists to massage therapists, documenting how even a hug or pat on the back can lower anxiety levels, increase serotonin levels in your brain, and increase your mind-body connection. When you feel good, you are in the position to share your positive energy with others. Of course, we’re not suggesting you run up and hug everyone you see whether you know them or not! But if you’d like to learn some different ways to get closer to those you care about, we’re here for you.
This week, we’re offering exciting new classes of Thai yoga massage techniques from yoga therapist Shy Sayar. Acquire new skills to harness all the benefits of the power of touch and see how you can become more connected with those around you. Treat yourself and the people you love will benefit from you practicing on them!
1. Shy Sayar Therapeutic Yoga Massage: Lower Body
2. Shy Sayar Therapeutic Yoga Massage: Upper Body
3. Shy Sayar Therapeutic Yoga Massage: Harmonics
4. Shy Sayar Therapeutic Yoga Massage Techniques
Sometimes the simplest meals are the best, and this bowl full of goodness is a perfect example. The recipe is even simpler to prepare when you have cooked your soba noodles in advance. I often cook a larger batch of chickpeas, lentils, or rice over the weekend and then use throughout the week for my meals. I would never consider cooking pasta in advance, because pasta cooked yesterday…. well, it is just not very nice.
Soba noodles, on the other hand, work very well cooled down and in fact, I sometimes deliberately cook soba in advance for chilled salads on hot summer days. It is important not to overcook the soba and mix it with a drop of oil, so the noodles would not stick together. For this recipe, however, you do not need to chill the noodles – they are just as good warm.
The rest of the dish is also as simple as it can be – just some slicing, mixing and searing and you are good to go.
Make sure you do not overcook the salmon. Most of the cooking should be skin side down because you do want this crispiness. After flipping over it takes no more than 2 minutes cooking and the fillet should be ready. The salmon filet should still be moist and dark pink, just starting to flake away.
Simple Soba Bowl with Seared Salmon
Serves: 1
Cooking time: 10 minutes
½ portions of soba noodles (they usually come tied together with a cute ribbon, but 1 ½ oz in case yours are loose)
1 salmon fillet
Oil for frying
Salt
½ fresh cucumber
1 spring onion
A handful of fresh cilantro leaves
Fresh chili, to taste
½ tsp sesame oil
2 tsp soy sauce
The juice of ½ limes
Black sesame seeds and lime wedges, to serve
Cook the soba noodles following the instructions on the package, but definitely do not overcook! You can also use leftover soba noodles from the previous day.
Heat up a drop of oil on the pan and sear the salmon, seasoned with salt from each side, skin side down, for 4 minutes until the skin is crispy. Then flip it over and fry for 1-2 more minutes. The exact cooking time depends on the size of the fillet and the temperature of the pan, but the goal is crispy skin and nice juicy fish.
Slice the cucumber and chop the spring onion and chili.
Mix the sesame oil, soy and lime juice, have a taste and adjust if needed.
Once everything is cooked, mix the noodles with the sauce, serve in a bowl and add all the other components on top.
Enjoy some enlivening yoga before your delicious Salmon Soba Bowl meal.
Having a peaceful mind despite a sometimes chaotic environment while driving, is a hard job. But, with the right techniques, you can gain composure more than you realize. A yoga practice and pranyama can help you to stay calm and focused on the road.
Getting stuck in traffic is one of the most displeasing situations to find yourself in, especially, if you’re late. In such an occasion, at the slightest provocation, you can easily insult your fellow drivers, or even raise your middle finger at them, or at the least, feel stressed, stuck or frustrated. Yoga can help alleviate such stressful moments and work to get back into a place of love and compassion, to replace any negative feelings the arise because of traffic and road rage.
Yoga and pranyama are recommended as remedies for stress in general, and can help with car related stress. With practice, you can be in a position to be elevated, and the stress caused by traffic experience can be transformed into a joyous and healthy driving experience. While being in a state of joy and love while driving or stuck in traffic, might sound impossible, it is possile, and feels much better than feeling mad or stressed in your car.
Here are 5 tips to help stay calm and focused on the road.
1. Get Rid of Your Disruptions
As you drive, you need to abolish any form of distractions and remain focused on the road. Make sure that you have cleared all disruptive tasks before embarking on your journey. An example can be your playlist; make sure that it is well updated before driving so that you can avoid shuffling through your phone for your radio.
Cell phones in this modern age, have become gadgets that are both useful and dangerous when it comes to driving. They are distractors, and for you to stay focused, ensure that your phone is far away from you as possible. In case you need to make an urgent call, ensure that you do it before you begin driving.
2. Take Deep Breaths
Deep breathing and pranyama techniques are excellent for drivers, especially when they are stressed out because of various conditions. According to research, breathing consciously can be used as a remedy to stay calm and improve your alertness on the road. In case of a traffic jam, not all techniques of yogic breathing are helpful but here, are some of the practices which are considered safe behind the wheel.
These two are well designed to soothe your nerves and calm your brain by enabling you to refocus your frustration to calmness.
Ujayi (Triumphant) breath
Dirga (Three-part) breath
3. Be Kind, Compassionate and Loving
Through the teachings of yoga, we learn to be kind to other people, even when you are in a vehicle. This can be quite simple to forget when you are interacting with other humans in the comfort of your car, battling with other cars to get where you're going as quickly as possible.
Practice love and compassion with your fellow drivers, adhere to the rules of the road and be courteous to other drivers, just like how a friend is polite to you. Give it a try and you may find yourself feeling better behind the wheel.
4. Sitting Posture for Safe Driving
As you are driving, you need to be aware of your sitting position, as it may affect your calmness and focus. An example can be when you are leaning forward; you might strain your spine and shoulders and put your body in a more stressed position. Postures that subtly make you take shallow and short breaths are not ideal for relaxed driving
By sitting upright with your head parallel to the roof, you can feel your ribcage widen and contract with ease, allow for deep breathing, and generally feel more calm and focused on the road.
5. Kapalabhati Breathing
This breathing technique is so effective in blowing off steam, it deserves it's own category. This is technique is designed to remove toxins in you body and either create or release internal heat (exhaling out of the nose creates heat, while exhaling out of the mouth releases heat). This type of breathing involves an inhale that is natural and passive, followed by a forced, quick exhale.
When you are in traffic, if your tension builds up to levels that you begin to get angry, try this. You may start to notice that your anger slowly gets replaced by calmness.
By doing this procedure for about 30 seconds, you will begin to feel a change in your body and a lessening of stress. If this method causes you to feel dizzy, it is best not to try it while driving and you can do it briefly before you get in the car. For most, it will be safe.
Conclusion
Yoga is mainly meant for calming the mind regardless of life's circumstances. Driving with a calm mind is quite difficult, but with yoga, things can be more peaceful and joyous. With the right methods, even if the road is boring and stressful, your mind will remain focused and surprisingly calm. In case you lack sources for yoga and pranyama practices, you can use helpful yoga apps, like YogaDownload's app, that you can use just before embarking on your drive.
Have you ever lost focus or experienced stress while driving? How did you handle the situation? Feel free to share with us in the comments.
By Scott Pine
Scott Pine is a teacher and a writer who loves to explore absolutely new areas of writing about yoga, travel and lifestyle. Scott is also the owner of AutoExpertGuides. Follow him on Twitter.
Busy and stressed? The 2-Week Yoga Challenge for Busy People will help, featuring classes that are all 30-minutes or less.
Yoga is well known as a calming and relaxing practice, so if your fitness goals are more performance and aesthetically based, you might have dismissed yoga as not being useful to you. There is a common misconception that yoga is purely for those looking for spiritual or relaxing exercise practice.
However, more and more gyms, studios and trainers are incorporating yoga into their everyday fitness practice, as it’s a great exercise to add to your regime to see results.
Yoga is a very important part of strength training.
When used in combination with other more high impact exercises, yoga can help you to increase your endurance, increase your strength, improve your posture and technique, and improve your balance as well as your flexibility. Adding yoga to your strength training will help you achieve your peak performance, as well as calm your mind and improve your mental balance. Still need convincing?
Here’s our top reasons why you should add yoga to your strength training.
1. Increased Flexibility
A lot of the muscles you use in strength training are agonist and antagonist muscles groups. These muscle groups come in pairs. The agonist muscles are the muscles that cause movement, the muscle that provides the force to move. For example, in a bicep curl, the biceps muscle is the agonist. An antagonist muscle is the muscle that opposes the agonist. AGain, in a bicep curl example, the tricep muscle is the antagonist. The antagonist muscle relaxers or creates tension to allow the agonist muscles to move.
These muscles require flexibility to help increase their strength, which will then improve your performance. Yoga will help you stretch these muscles and increase their flexibility. You’ll soon find it’s easier to get a full range of motion in exercises like pull-ups.
2. Quicker Recovery
Muscles actually don’t grow and get bigger while you’re training but rather during rest and recovery. Strength training is tough on your muscles, and so you need to give them a thorough rest and rehabilitation after working out. This is the time that they will grow.
Yoga is a perfect way to rest and rehabilitate your body, and it will actually improve your recovery process. This is because yoga allows your muscles to stretch and relax, increasing the blood flow to the muscles. In turn, this allows more oxygen to the body, which lets it heal. Through deep breathing in yoga, you’ll allow your body to relax and balance out your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, which lets to body heal more quickly.
3. Reduces Injury
Strength training can actually hinder your range of motion, especially in your shoulders and hips. Reduced range of motion can lead to tight and shortened muscles, reduced muscle functionality, reduced joint functionality and loss of joint alignment. All of this can add to the stiffness and tightness you feel after working out. If you practice yoga you can improve this range of motion, helping to reduce injury when you work out.
4. Improves Balance
If you only work out certain muscles, your body can actually become really imbalanced. The shorter, stronger muscles you’re working out can start to overcompensate for your longer and weaker muscles. This can create further imbalance left unchecked, and actually be the cause of a lot of injuries and pain.
Yoga is great to help you identify which parts of your body are unbalanced, which muscles feel tight and which feel weak, by allowing you to be in tune with your entire body. You can then start to correct your imbalance, and bring your body back to a perfect balance. Practicing yoga can address the muscles that are underdeveloped, restoring balance and creating full body strength.
5. Improves your Form
If you lift weights, you’ll know that correct posture and form is essential. Bad posture and form can lead to serious injury. Yoga can help you become aware of your posture, and improve it over time. This will help you to be aware of your form and technique when weight lifting, and will reduce your risk of injury. Keeping yourself aware of your body is a key skill you gain in yoga, and one that will improve your technical form off the matt too. The more you practice, the less you’ll find yourself slouching, and you’ll transform your strength training ability.
6. Improves Breathing
Lots of people tend to hold their breath while strength training, even without realising. This is especially common when you’re struggling or lifting heavy. Focusing on your breathing in yoga can help you become more aware and present in your breathing for other exercise. Learning to breathe deeply will also help you to reduce your recovery time between sets, and clears your mind, as well as bringing oxygen to your body and muscles.
Practice a 3-week regimen yoga and strength training bootcamp, now, to get your body into top shape!
Are you ready to feel revitalized?
When we feel our personal best, we are more confident, have more energy, and have a clear calm mind. When we exercise vigorously, we release bloating, heaviness, and stagnant negative energy. The lighter we feel physically, the more free we feel in our minds and hearts. Check out our new 3-week bootcamp if you are ready to take your health to the next level.
What: If you are nodding your head in agreement, join us for a 3-week bootcamp specially designed for you. Challenge yourself and commit to daily yoga and fitness for 21 days. This boot camp program is physical with classes intended to make you stronger and more supple. But don’t mistake this plan for simply a physical one. It is less about what you look like and more about what you feel like. We’ll participate as a community and blast through your personal barriers to ultimate fitness.
Why: You can transform your life when you feel your best on every level. A lifestyle change is often started on the physical level, which is a great launching point to achieving vital health. We know you are disciplined and dedicated: you’re already practicing yoga and fitness at home or on the road with us. In order to progress to the next level in your personal mind-body fitness, use the power of your online community to boost your motivation.
How: Committing to this quest to find your personal best, will help you stay focused because you know the benefits are real and you’re capable of achieving them. Leave comments to inspire other yogis around the world taking part in the bootcamp, to know that you are all experiencing obstacles and triumphs, but it feels easier knowing others are supporting your efforts.
Working out consistently as part of a program will help keep you motivated, especially on those mornings when you’d rather hit the snooze button or those evenings you’d rather hit happy hour. You have the power to achieve your fitness goals.
We’re excited about this program, which is full of varied, fun workouts designed to challenge you and keep you motivated. So, hop on the YogaDownload train and discover just how strong and powerful you are.
All you need to do is press play every day!
When you’re looking to build muscles, strength training is the first thing on the list. When you’re looking for a six pack or bigger arms, you’ll go straight to the weights. But even if you’re not looking to bulk up, strength training can still massively benefit your health.
Many people avoid strength training because they don’t want the bodybuilder look. However, if the only exercise you do is aerobic, you might be missing out on huge health improvements.
1. Reduces belly fat
In 2014, a study published found that strength training was far more effective at reducing and preventing abdominal fat than aerobic exercise. Strength training not only burns your calories, but it also increases the amount of lean muscles, which then stimulates your metabolism. This will help to prevent increase in belly fat. Muscle mass will also help your body burn more calories, in your basal metabolic rate.
2. Improves your cardiovascular health
Another benefit related to abdominal fat is an improvement to your cardiovascular health. Abdominal, or visceral, fat sits around the vital organs. So by reducing the levels of visceral fat, you can improve the health of your heart. Additionally, a study published in 2013 showed that regular strength training can improve cholesterol levels in young men.
3. Controls your blood sugar levels
If you suffer from type 2 diabetes, strength training is something you should definitely incorporate into your regime. As well as building muscles, strength training also improves muscle ability to take in glucose. Muscle cells contain transporters that collect glucose from the blood and deliver it to the muscles. Strength training improves the ability of these transporters and allows them to collect higher levels of glucose, decreasing the blood sugar levels.
4. Reduces risk of cancer
Visceral fat can not only affect your heart health, but can also increase the development of cancer. Visceral fat has been shown to produce high levels of a protein called FGF2, which can trigger cancer. Additionally, muscle wasting can be complication in cancer treatment, and can be associated with chemotherapy toxicity, tumour progression and low survival rates.
5. Lower risk of injury
A strong muscle base is vital for all movement and to help prevent injury. Weak muscles can put stress on connecting tendons, resulting in tendonitis. Strength training also increases collagen fibrils in tendons to increase their strength and to help prevent injuries.
6. Improves mental health
Like most exercise, strength training has been shown to improve the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Uniquely, strength training helps to increase mental resilience, through overcoming obstacles in a controlled environment.
7. Improves your flexibility
If flexibility is something you're working on, you can incorporate strength training to help you achieve your goals. A specific type of exercise called eccentric exercise will provide the biggest improvements in flexibility - up to double what static stretching can do! These exercises are any that will focus on lengthening the muscles, instead of shortening. For example, the movement you make when you are lowering during a squat. Flexibility is important to give you a full range of motion. This will improve your fitness and quality of life, and you can keep on top of it with strength training.
8. Protects bone health and muscle mass
As we age, we lose our muscle mass. In fact, as early as age 30, we start to lose up to 5% of lean muscle mass per year. However, if you incorporate strength training into your schedule, you can combat this loss. Just 30 minutes twice a week of strength, high intensity, resistance or impact training can help to improve performance, and increase lean muscle mass and bone health. This muscle mass and bone health is vital for our health and ease of life as we age. Any weight bearing exercise will strengthen your bones, by stimulating your cells to produce structural proteins. Squats and lunges in particular will help with increasing bone mineral density.
9. Helps chronic disease
Many studies have shown that strength training can help people with certain chronic diseases. In fact, strength training has been shown to be as effective as medication in people suffering from the pain associated with arthritis.
10. Increases brain power
While strength training can improve anyone's brain power, the effects are shown the strongest in adults suffering from cognitive decline. A 2016 study showed that men and women who were aged fifty five to eighty six and also had mild cognitive impairment significantly improved when training twice weekly over six months.
This could be due to the way strength training increases blood, oxygen and nutrient flow to the brain.
If you want to incorporate more strength training into your regime, this weeks classes are focused on building up power and strength through yoga. While the flexibility of yoga sometimes earns more attention, the power and strength of this practice is what makes it truly special. Without strength, yoga poses are missing an important ingredient. Yoga makes you more toned, strong, and powerful. The metaphor of this powerful practice, is that if you find inner strength and power on your mat, you can tap into your strength and power off your mat and into your day to day life as well. Enjoy this week's 4 classes that emphasize strength in the practice.
Make yourself stronger, with these yoga classes for strength, right now!
Happy (almost) summer for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere! We’re so excited for the sunny weather and all the fresh veggies coming into season this time of year. One of our favorite warm-weather treats is sushi, so we’ve made a cleanse-friendly version to share with you all!
People ask us all the time what kinds of foods they’ll be able to eat on the Conscious Cleanse. The answer is lots and lots! We have a wide variety of recipes you can enjoy while cleansing, from bison burgers to vegan curry, and even dairy-free, egg-free gelato if you want dessert. The possibilities are endless!
This vegan sushi hand roll is the perfect recipe to switch up your menu this week. It’s grain-free (bye bye, belly bloat!) and ready to eat in minutes. Plus, it’s easy to eat or pack on-the-go and easily customizable – you can substitute any fresh veggies you’ve got on hand. It’s a great way to add variety to your Conscious Cleanse meal planning!
With love and veggie sushi,
Veggie Sushi Hand Roll
Yield: 2 servings
1 avocado, mashed 2 nori sheets 1/3 english cucumber, cut into matchsticks 1 carrot, cut in matchsticks 1 daikon, cut into matchsticks 1 cup purple cabbage, shredded 2 green onions, trimmed and sliced in half Handful of your favorite sprouts ¼ cup Gomasio ½ cup coconut aminos Sriracha (to taste, optional) Lemon or lime juice, to taste Sea salt, to taste
Mash your avocado in a bowl with a squeeze of lemon or lime juice and a dash of sea salt. Cut your nori in half. Place the shiny side of nori sheet down on a flat work surface. Evenly divide cucumber, carrots, daikon, cabbage, avocado, green onions, and sprouts among nori sheets, sprinkle with gosemo and roll. Seal nori sheets by taking a wet paper towel across the inside edges. Serve with coconut aminos and a splash of sriracha to taste (if using).
If you’re looking for a healthy start to the summer season, join us for our LIVE June 12 Cleanse.
Jo Schaalman and Jules Peláez are co-authors of the book The Conscious Cleanse: Lose Weight, Heal Your Body and Transform Your Life in 14 Days, a best-selling, step-by-step guide to help you live your most vibrant life. Together they’ve led thousands of people through their online supported cleanse through their accessible and light-hearted approach. They’ve been dubbed “the real deal” by founder and chief creative director Bobbi Brown, of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, beauty editor of the TODAY show.
Practice Yoga for Detox, Cleansing & Vitality, now!
People have been drinking infusions of tea for many years, starting in China and India. Today, tea is devoured more generally than some other beverage on the world aside from water. Billions of people drink tea and an extensive number of studies show tea have numerous medical advantages.
Green tea is one of the most advantageous drinks you can consume.
It's without sugar, doesn't have any calories, and is loaded with antioxidants prevention agents that give plentiful health benefits. Examine the infographic underneath to recognize why you should start drinking this remarkable green tea right now.
Defining Green Tea and Understanding Its History
Green tea is made by lightly steaming leaves from a plant called Camellia Sinensis, which is a similar plant used to make black and oolong teas. Tea-drinking is a ritual people have been rehearsing for quite a long time, going back to 2737 B.C. in Asia. Even in those days, people perceived the healing properties of tea.
What's in Green Tea? A Look at Its Nutrition Facts
Brewed green tea is principally water-based, which implies it's free of the typical macronutrients found in different foods and beverages. It doesn't contain any fat, carbohydrates, or protein, and there aren't any calories in unsweetened tea. It gets its solid notoriety from mixes called catechins, explicitly epicatechins, epicatechin-3-gallate, epigallocatechin, and EGCG.
Caffeine and Health Benefits of Green Tea
There is a ton of buzz right now pretty much all the health benefits of green tea, and the lower caffeine levels. At this moment it is too soon to capably say that cutting edge logical investigations demonstrate the health benefits being guaranteed. Because green tea grows in such a significant number of districts and can be prepared in such a significant number of various courses, tests on one tea do not prove the effects of all tea. Indeed, even your brewing method will change the chemical compounds implanted, and their rate of retention.
How to Brew Green Tea
The best green tea on the planet is rich, sweet and full in flavor with waiting for lingering aftertastes. Sadly, many people try green tea first when it is either no longer fresh, or when it is brewed improperly. This prompts the recognition that green tea bitter or extremely grassy.
Precautions
Green tea contains tannins, which can decrease the retention of iron and folic acid. In that capacity, it might be better for ladies who are pregnant or breastfeeding to avoid. Individuals who are weak should be cautious drinking tea around mealtime. Those taking anticoagulant drugs, for example, warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven) should drink green tea with alert because of its nutrient K content, which is necessary for blood coagulation.
By Soveet Gupta
Soveet works for Udyantea. They are based out of Darjeeling district, the homeland of all-things-tea. They bring the high-quality tea from their lands, sourced out directly from the best gardens, directly to you by cutting out all middlemen, and in the process, reducing the timeframe between production and consumption. Every week, their expert tea tasters sample a variety of teas collected from different gardens and choose the top quality tea for you.
Treat yourself to yoga or meditation, from the comfort of your own home, before enjoying your green tea!
Meditate and Cultivate Calm with Keith Allen
Freedom Flow with Jackie Casal Mahrou
Did you know that practicing certain styles of yoga is an excellent way to build not only flexibility and balance, but also strength? Hatha yoga, specifically styles of Vinyasa, Power, and Ashtanga work like a functional fitness program with your own body weight. In a well-rounded yoga practice, you work your body in all planes of motion and utilize not just the large muscles, but the small ones too.
When you feel strong physically, there’s a direct correlation to how you feel emotionally and mentally as well. It’s all connected.
Let’s focus on the physical aspect and how yoga builds strength. Many of the standing postures you know and love are weight-bearing exercises, like Virabhadrasana (Warrior) I and II. By practicing them regularly, you are building strength in your glutes, thighs, and calves, as well as your bones. When you add in balancing postures where you stand on one leg or on your hands, you’re also incorporating your core stabilizer muscles. Think Vrksasana (Tree Pose) and Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand.)
In Vinyasa classes, you generally begin with Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutations), which are a flowing full body strength workout. Moving through Uttanasana/Forward Fold to Chatarangua to Urdhva Mukha Svanasana/Upward Facing Dog to Adho Mukha Svanasana/Downward Facing Dog engages every muscle in your body in a balanced, integrated way.
You aren’t just getting stronger; you’re also becoming more flexible. This combination is excellent for preventing injury and also enhancing your performance for sports and everyday life.
Creating a strong stable core through yoga will protect your spine and help alleviate or prevent back pain. Strengthening your center is key for excellent posture and also helps keep your digestive system moving freely and effectively. Many poses require a balancing element and your core works directly to assist your stability. And who doesn’t love Navasana (Boat Pose) and Phalakasana (Plank Pose)?
Building physical strength will boost your confidence because you’ll feel invigorated and ready to face any challenge. Working to get stronger requires discipline or tapas and stokes your inner fire. Because everything is connected, whatever you do for your physical self directly benefits to your inner self.
Try any or all of our new classes this week for a power boost!
1. Dana Hanizeski - Core strength the Iyengar Way (FREE class)
2. Claire Petretti Marti - Pilates Yoga Fusion Express
3. Keith Allen - Yoga Fix: Healthy Backbends
4. Pradeep Teotia - Deep Like Pradeep
If you ever need to change somebody’s opinion about cauliflower, then this is the recipe for it. It is crispy, spicy, sticky, and delicious. Of course, you can adjust the spiciness level according to your taste, but I love the spice, and I have listed the amounts of chili I used.
The sauce is one of the things that makes the dish enjoyable and gives it a lot of flavor, but the most essential part is the crispy-battered cauliflower itself. The secret in the batter is vodka!
Don’t worry, there will be no alcohol left after frying, but it gives the batter extra crispiness that can stand the sauce and will not be soaked within 5 minutes. In fact, since I had some leftovers the last time I cooked this dish, then I had it for breakfast the next day, and it was still crispy in some parts, even after standing in the fridge overnight.
I always love to serve steamed rice with this cauliflower, but it is also good on its own as a snack.
Crispy Cauliflower in a Sweet & Spicy Sauce
Serves: 3-4
Cooking time: 40 minutes
For the cauliflower:
1 medium cauliflower
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup cornstarch
½ tsp baking powder
½ cup water
½ cup vodka
Oil, for frying
For the sauce:
1 tsp grated ginger
1 red chili, chopped
1 tsp sesame oil
½ cup soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
¼ cup mirin
2 tbsp coconut sugar
2 dried chilies
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water
Spring onion, to serve
Cut the cauliflower to bite-sized pieces.
Heat the oil in a bottom of a small saucepan. The oil should be about 2 inches deep and very hot, so that the cauliflower wouldn’t absorb too much of it during cooking time.
Mix the cornstarch, flour, baking powder, and salt, then add water and vodka and mix everything to a batter. It will be quite runny, don’t worry about it.
Dip the cauliflower pieces into the batter, let the excess drip off and fry the pieces for 5-6 minutes. Do not overcrowd the pan while cooking and turn the pieces around occasionally, so they would cook evenly. Using the slotted spoon, transfer the cauliflower pieces to drain on paper towel.
At the same time, you can already start preparing the sauce. Fry the ginger and onion in the sesame oil on the medium heat. After 5 minutes add soy, rice wine vinegar, mirin, and sugar straight to the pan, also crumble up the dried chilies.
In a small bowl mix 1 tbsp cornstarch with 2 tbsp water, add it to the sauce and stir until the sauce thickens.
If all of the cauliflower is fried and the sauce ready, then mix them and sprinkle with chopped spring onion. Serve just like that as a snack or as a main with steamed rice.
Practice Yoga for Detox, Cleansing, & Vitality now to complement this healthy recipe!
Cannabis-enhanced yoga is a thing. Whether popping up in classes across the country, being mentioned alongside other forms of athleticism in articles about CBD-fuelled fitness, or made into fashion with weed-themed yoga leggings, the pairing of the ancient practice and healing plant has become quite the conversation topic in yoga studios across the world.
Many people are enjoying the anti-inflammatory, relaxation, and creative benefits of cannabis on yoga. As the first moderner to offer public enhanced-yoga practice, I am so happy to see the marriage of humanity’s oldest methods for relaxation and spiritual insight gain momentum and increased acceptance. Ten years ago, when I started offering a yogic setting for people to get high and do yoga, I googled and found no other mention of the two, other than Chris Bennett’s insightful writing on the history of yoga and cannabis in ancient spiritual practice in India.
We’ve come a long way baby! (five thousand years or more, to be exact...).
As more people turn to THC and CBD to enhance their yoga, it’s important to know a few things that people often get wrong. That way, you you can make sure you are getting the most of out this sacred, awesome pairing, no matter if you’re going to a canna-yoga class in your city, doing my ganja yoga videos online, or smoking up and doing your own stretching at home.
Myth #1 - Yoga is athletics, hard, and only for certain bodies.
It’s been awesome to see all these articles about weed-fuelled fitness coming out. Ganja Jogging, Weed Weightlifting, and Marijuana Muay Thai are the talk of the town, (okay, I made that last one up…). With former NFL athlete Ricky Williams and other professional sports stars talking about how going green making their work-out even better, it’s all about the athletic advantage that cannabis can offer.
I have nothing wrong with this of course, except when the articles mention yoga alongside all the other workouts, and show images of fit-AF people doing very hard yoga poses, perpetuating the idea of a hard practice and a specific type of “yoga body.”
In our culture, we unconsciously run an internal, unconscious program of contraction as we go about our busy lives. Many of us are more rushed, tired, stressed, distracted and unsatisfied than we know we should be. Everyone knows that stress the leading cause of premature death, yet anxiety disorders, depression, frustration, and feelings of disconnection (the symptoms of stress and disconnection), - are all too common.
Yoga can be, should be, a balm to soothe all that.
It’s a place for letting go of our mass cultural contraction, … a time for surrendering and softening the muscles, an occasion to drop the mind and all the grasping and depleting over-thinking we do.
Yoga wasn’t really meant to be a work-out in the way we think of workouts. It certainly doesn’t have to be something you dread, or something you think you should do after eating too many carbs. Yoga doesn’t even have to make you break a sweat.
And, while we’re on the topic, yoga is about so, so much more than the poses.
So, knowing this, your weed-yoga class will probably (if the teacher knows what’s up as most weed-yoga teachers, do) be a lot easier than most yoga-studio yoga. And that’s a good thing.
I hear the real athletic types out there yawning in boredom at the thought of doing low-dub grandma-friendly yoga. If you like yoga classes with the word “power” in the title, and find the softer version of the ancient practice boring, see if you can be up for the internal challenge. Not of working your muscles, but of tapping into a more relaxed engagement with your body. Be still. Relax. Especially when high. Instead of brutalizing your body in yoga, see if you can you just be with it, - where it is now, - in simpler, more basic poses.
Evoke yogic sensitivity, which cannabis engenders, by doing less on your mat, not more. No grunting, no punishment, no contraction, just bliss and yummy relaxation, which is available to anyone who has a body.
Myth #2 - Cannabis-Enhanced Yoga is Dangerous
When people think Ganja Yoga is a bad idea, usually it’s because they think something about it may be dangerous. Often that’s because they don’t smoke pot all that much, saw a Cheech and Chong movie once, and assume me and my students will be hot boxing the room and then stumbling around like intoxicated goofs on our sticky mats.
A few things: First, you don’t have to get super baked to practice cannabis-enhanced yoga. It’s always an option, but sometimes it feels right to do a smaller dose before a practice (or even a microdose, where the effect is only-barely-felt). CBD and topicals are a way to use cannabis and not get high at all.
Second, weed doesn’t actually make you all that clumsy. States with legal cannabis don’t have higher cannabis-related car accidents. Sometimes balancing postures might become slightly harder when under the influence, but my students actually tend to report greater embodiment and awareness.
It really depends on how much you consume. Start low and go slow, you can always add more as you go.
My last point on the potential dangers: A good cannabis enhanced yoga teacher is not going to instruct you to do something that may be dangerous to fall out of. A good yoga teacher, - enhanced with cannabis or not, - doesn’t make the mistake of taking a mixed-level class into poses that aren’t safe.
So, you won’t be doing any potentially-dangerous inversions with me, stoned or not, unless we’ve had a few private sessions and I’ve known you for a good long time. Your teacher (and your common sense) should make sure what you get up to in your yoga practice is safe, relaxing, and fun. In that order.
Myth #3 - Certain Strains or Consumption Methods Are Better For Yoga
I often get asked what strain is best for Ganja Yoga, and this is a tricky question. In the age of a quick-fix solution, people want a few strains, not a long diatribe about how each strain works individually with one’s unique biochemistry...
However, I can’t not. Cause when you combine the various cannabinoid constellations with the various terpene profiles, you can get easily thousands of different strains to choose from.
The best strain for yoga is the one that serves you in that moment.
Perhaps you’re sluggish for yoga today, so a strain with a lot of the terpene (aka - aromatherapy oil), called “myrcene” (which brings about relaxation), might not be the best for you. Better to get a pick-me-up with a strain containing the terpene limonene, which is like a zesty lemon to wake you up.
Lots of strains of limonene though, so do you want one with high-THC to help with pain and get you trippin, or one with more CBD to reduce anxiety? Keep in mind that THC and CBD are only two of dozens of cannabinoids to consider. Like I said, strains are a lot more than meets the eye.
What strain you choose today might not be the strain you choose tomorrow. Play around with both strains and methods so as you begin your daily yoga routine, you can start to have a sense of what works best for you, depending on the time of day, your yoga practice, and your health needs and goals.
I recommend keeping a journal so you can refer back to the strains that really brought the “Mmm” to your Om.
On top of strains, there’s the vast array of consumption methods. Edibles give the best body-buzz so I often recommend them for yoga. However, the onset is rather slow, so you need to consume about an hour before you hit your mat, and it’s easy to over-consume, so be sure to go slow and eat more later if needed.
Tinctures are faster-acting than edibles, and can be placed under the tongue so they get absorbed into the bloodstream. Smoking is an ancient practice that connects you to the spirit of fire, but consuming burnt particles of any kind may not keep those yogic lungs happy for long. Vaping is a safer alternative, though it can sometimes be hard to tell just how high you are from a vape, and it doesn’t feel particularly sacred in the way smoking does. Lastly, topicals are great for rubbing onto sore muscles before stretching them out, but of course don’t change your state of consciousness.
Each method has its pros and cons for yoga and for life.
There you have it, the top three misconceptions about weed-inspired yoga, and how you can beat them: Don’t think of yoga as a workout, keep your practice safe, and be open to various strains, - and you’re well on your way to making the most of the pairing that got ancient Indian yogis flying high thousands of years ago. Whether you get high and watch easy yoga videos online, toke before making up your own stretches and dance moves, go to a regular yoga class baked, or find a teacher in your city that offers classes where you can get high together, keep it chill and customize it to you, modify and rest as needed, and, most awesomely, know that you’re part of a movement of hundreds, if not thousands of yogis, - all across the world doing the very same thing.
Bom Shiva!
By Dee Dussault
Dee Dussault is the yoga first teacher to offer public cannabis yoga classes. Over the past decade, she’s brought her classes, which she calls Ganja Yoga, to thousands of students in over a dozen US cities.
A seasoned yoga practitioner of twenty-three years, Dee is also an international speaker and the author of the Harpercollins book by the same name. Ganja Yoga has been featured in publications like The New York Times, Business Insider, Newsweek, and LA Yoga, as well as major International media from India to France.
A lover of bliss, Dee also works as a sex coach who specializes in tantra yoga and cannabis-enhanced intimacy. She works with singles and couples in Los Angeles and San Francisco, helping them tap into their radiant embodied selves. Her training was in the Tantric tradition of Swami Satyananda Saraswati.
www.ganjayoga.com @ganjayoga on Instagram
Practice yoga now to feel amazing, whether or not it's infused with cannabis!
Evening Relaxation Yoga with Jackie Casal Mahrou
Feel Amazing Flow with Keith Allen
Practicing yoga at night or morning- which is right for you?
Yoga, like any exercise, gives you the greatest benefits when you regularly incorporate it into your routine. However you might be wondering which is better, yoga in the morning or the evening.
With yoga and getting into a regular practice, it’s important to practice at the time that is best to you. There’s no perfect time that suits absolutely everyone the same, but there’s one golden rule - find a time where there’s no distractions between you and your yoga mat.
Whatever time of day is the time that you’ll be the least distracted is the best time of day for you to practice - regardless of whether it’s in the morning or in the evening.
Try to practice when you are still feeling awake however! Sleepiness and tiredness will hinder your ability to reap the benefits of your yoga practice. You should also wait a while after eating to work out, just like any activity, to avoid any discomfort.
The time that you practice is ultimately not as important as practicing yoga regularly and consistently. The more you practice yoga, you will notice the benefits and changes take a hold of your body and your daily life. With consistent practice, you’ll be able to progress deeper into the poses, and take on harder variations over time. Disciple and determination are key in taking on a regular yoga practice, so finding a right time where you’ll be able to focus on your body and movements is very important.
Choosing the time you practice yoga depends on a lot of different external factors, such as your schedule, your space, class timings.
The time of day you practice can affect which postures you practice, so it’s important to consider what’s right for you. For example, everyone has different body clocks and schedules. If you are a morning person, you may need certain asanas to stimulate you and get you ready for the day ahead, while if you are a night owl, you may want to use your practice to unwind before bed.
Is morning yoga right for you?
Generally, morning yoga practice consists of gentle movements to start to ease you into your day after you’ve woken up. They might have a few more long stretches at the start, such as forward folds and cobra to help ease you into the day.
Morning asanas might also consist of a lot of sun salutations, to help wake up your body, so you might want to incorporate some inversions and heart openers such as camel and wheel. These poses will wake you up and make you feel rejuvenated for the day ahead. It’s also good to add a head or shoulder stand to help send oxygen into your head, helping you to face the day ahead of you.
The time before the sun rises is considered a very spiritually charged time of day, and it is a great time to start your practice, if morning yoga is for you. Practicing yoga the first thing in the morning can help you to clear your mind and boost your body for the day, as well as warm up your body if you’re prone to waking up feeling stiff. This is why energizing poses like sun salutations are ideal for morning practice.
It’s also good to take advantage of the coolness of the morning, so you don’t overheat in warm climates. If you practice your yoga before eating your breakfast, you’ll also benefit from having an empty stomach, and you might find challenging poses a little easier when your body is not digesting any food.
Ultimately, morning yoga is ideal if you wake up early and like to set your tone for the day. It gives you the space and quiet to reflect on the day ahead of you and set any goals you may have for your day. If you practice yoga in the morning, you’re also more likely not to skip your practice and get it done for the day. Throughout the day other distractions and conflicts may come up, meaning you miss your yoga time.
Is evening yoga right for you?
Yoga at night is ideal to soothe and relax after a hard long day. Try to resist big heart openers and inversions that you might practice in a morning yoga session, as these are energizing moves and not idea for just before heading to bed.
Surrender poses are great to soothe you in your evening practice, with poses like half pigeon. Twists and other relaxing poses can help you unwind after a heavy day. Yoga in the evening helps you unwind and process the day just gone, so choose poses that will help you destress such as child’s pose, which will aid digestion and help you get a good night’s sleep.
If you just can’t get up in the morning, evening practice might be for you. It can help you wind down after a busy day, and you might be able to spend more time on your practice as you don’t have anywhere to be after (apart from your bed!).
If you incorporate it into your nighttime routine, yoga can help you fall asleep quickly by getting your mind and body ready to rest. You might even want to add in a meditation to your practice to help you further de-stress.
When it comes down to it, the time you practice is up to you. Thankfully, if you’re struggling to find a routine that works, this week's classes are all selected, to help you create healthy routines for yourself to stick to. Whether your best moments for routine, are in the morning, middle of the day, or the evening, this week's classes have you covered.
Ready to explore which time of day is right for you? Try these classes, designed either for morning or evening time!
Get Your Day Started with Robert Sidoti
Yoga Ritual: Evening Practice with Mark Morford
These days, life seems to only get busier and often it’s easy to let your yoga practice fall by the wayside when work deadlines, family obligations, travel, or fill-in-the-blank, get in the way.
Staying healthy physically, emotionally, and mentally can be a challenge when you feel pressed for time. What’s important to remember is a consistent yoga practice will keep you healthy. When you feel your best, everything else falls into place.
We’re here with a few tips and tricks to help you solidify your yoga habit. Remember there isn’t a one-sized fits all method––what’s key is having a game plan. Whether you prefer practicing first thing in the morning, later in the evening, or anytime you can squeeze in a yoga break, creating an individualized schedule will make the difference. Once you feel the benefits of a clear mind, supple and strong muscles, and a softer heart, sticking to your yoga practice becomes second nature.
Here are 4 effective ways online yoga can make yoga a natural part of your routine!
1. Write it Down
One of the most powerful tools in creating a routine is writing it down. Schedule your yoga in your planner at the beginning of your week. Commit to practicing yoga daily. When you take the time to make yoga an official part of your day and your week, you’re setting yourself up to create a habit that becomes as second nature as brushing your teeth with many more benefits.
2. Consistency
Worry less about how long your yoga session is and focus more on making time for some yoga each day. You don’t always have to practice for an hour or longer. Some days you might only have fifteen minutes and we’ve got a class for that! Consistency is key and it’s better to do a little yoga every day than only practice once a week.
3. Mix it Up
Many of us have varied schedules and no two days are the same. Don’t worry if you can’t always practice at the same time. We’ve got classes suited to Monday Morning, Tuesday lunchtime, Wednesday on the road, Thursday evening, and Friday whenever the heck you want. Mix it up!
4. Set Up Favorites
One of the beauties of an online practice is you can practice when and where you want. One way to make sure you fit in your yoga is to have favorite classes saved. This way, you don’t have to browse through to find something that fits your mood and schedule. Prevent the possibility of losing steam and motivation. If you find a class you love, take a second to save it and you’ll be able to return to it quickly.
There’s no need to get stuck in a rigid schedule if that isn’t the right fit for you. But if you don’t have a game plan set up to get your practice in each day, often you can miss it. And missing one day can snowball into losing your practice.
To make it even easier this week, we’ve got four new classes arranged by time of the day to get you started. Go ahead and hit ‘Play’ today and see how powerful you can be with a regular, consistent practice.
1. Mark Morford - Yoga Ritual: Evening Practice
2. Robert Sidoti - Get Your Day Started
3. Kylie Larson - Qi Yoga Lunchtime Flow
4. Bhavani Maki - Suryanamaskara C: Moving Meditation
As you probably know by now, we at the Conscious Cleanse L-O-V-E green smoothies. They’re the perfect, nutritionally-dense breakfast that takes less than 5 minutes to make and can even be enjoyed on the go! For a collection of our favorite green smoothie recipes, be sure to grab our Green Smoothies eCookbook here.
Part of what make green smoothies so amazing is they can be easily customized to fit your individual health needs by adding superfood boosters! Whether you need to add extra protein and healthy fats to your diet, or you’re looking for help with detoxification or blood sugar regulation, we’ve got a booster for you! Check out our list below for some of our top superfood picks to boost the health value of your green smoothie.
Here are 9 of our favorite smoothie boosters and their individual health benefits:
Maca Root
Maca is a Peruvian root known for its ability to help balance hormones and stabilize mood. It’s also an adaptogen, which means it can help manage stress levels, enhance strength and stamina, and increase energy and endurance. Add 1-2 TB. of maca powder to your smoothie to enjoy these health benefits.
Chia Seeds
Chia seeds are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, which support heart and brain health. They also contain fiber, which supports gut health, and energy-sustaining protein. For best results, soak 1-3 TB. of chia seeds in water for at least 15 minutes before adding them to your smoothie.
Hemp Seeds
Hemp seeds are nature’s perfect protein powder. They’re also one of the only plant-based complete proteins, meaning they contain all 9 essential amino acids. Add 3 TB. to your green smoothie for 14 grams of plant-based protein.
Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is rich in healthy fats, which support energy levels and healthy skin. Adding healthy fat to your diet can help reduce cravings, too! Use 1 TB. of oil to give your smoothie a boost. Olive oil is a good alternative if you are allergic or sensitive to coconuts.
Spirulina and Fresh Cilantro
Spirulina, which comes from algae, and fresh cilantro both help the body detoxify, especially from heavy metals like mercury or lead. Add about half a bunch of cilantro and/or 2 tsp. of spirulina powder to your smoothie to aid in detox.
Ceylon Cinnamon
Ceylon cinnamon is a specific variety of cinnamon that has been known to aid in blood sugar regulation. If you are sensitive to sugar or have other blood sugar-related issues, 1-2 tsp. of this booster is a great addition to your daily smoothie!
Avocado
Avocados are a great source of healthy fats to help increase energy and reduce cravings, fiber to help digestion and gut health, and contain more potassium than a banana! Add ¼-½ of an avocado to your smoothie for these great health benefits.
Ginger Root
Fresh ginger can help with mild indigestion, and also helps support a healthy immune system. Plus it adds a great spicy flavor to any smoothie recipe! Use a 1-2” piece of peeled fresh ginger root to your morning smoothie.
Flaxseeds
Flaxseeds are super high in fiber, which aids in healthy digestion and can help relieve constipation. They also contain the omega fatty acids that specifically aid in skin health. Add 1-2 TB. to your morning smoothie for glowing skin and smooth digestion.
What’s your favorite smoothie booster? Let us know in the comments below!
With love and superfood smoothies,
Is it true that doing yoga can really improve the quality of your sex life? Of course!
If you practice yoga regularly, you have probably already seen this for yourself. Just do not know exactly how yoga does it.
Here are 8 amazing ways how yoga can improve the quality of your sex life.
1. Yoga Improves Stamina
Yoga increases stamina over time. If you practice yoga regularly, your body gradually becomes accustomed to physical activity. In the long run, you become more resilient. The higher the stamina, the more successful you are in bed.
2. Yoga Develops Flexibility
Yoga makes the body more flexible. In addition, yoga practitioners can keep a good balance. Both flexibility and the ability to keep balance are important skills, as they allow you to take various interesting sex positions that are beyond the power of those who do not practice yoga. We can say that yoga is very similar to the Kama Sutra.
3. Yoga Promotes Magnificent Orgasms
Seriously! People who regularly practice yoga declare that they have very intense and prolonged orgasms. Yoga contributes to some processes in the body and mind that we are not yet ready to fully understand, but this is somehow connected with text relaxation of muscles.
4. Yoga Teaches Breathing Correctly
An important part of the practice of yoga is training proper breathing, which helps to maximize the effectiveness of each breath. But what does this have to do with sex? You may not be aware that proper breathing plays an important role in improving the quality of intimate life. Properly breathing during sex, you can increase your efficiency, endurance and, perhaps, the most important thing is to achieve pleasure (and deliver it to your partner).
5. Asanas Can Be Done During Sex
Have you ever heard of such postures in yoga as the “dead beetle”, “dog snout down”, “kiss the chakras”, “ears between the knees”, “tree”, “recumbent”, “inverted slat”, “side slat”, "wheel "," cobra "? If not, we suggest you re-read the book or review the video on yoga - all the listed asanas (and many others) are amazing and well suited for sex! The simple and sad truth for most of us is that by rejecting yoga, we at the same time deprive ourselves of true pleasure during intimacy.
6. Yoga Protects from Stress
It turns out that sex and stress are inextricably linked! Stress can cause many problems. For men, the most common problem is the inability to maintain an erection, and for women, the inability to relax and reach orgasm. Regular yoga classes will help to avoid such problems.
7. Yoga Strengthens Muscles that Play an Important Role in Sex.
And what specific muscles are we talking about? For women, these are pelvic muscles, gluteus and core muscles, and for men, bark muscles, chest and arm muscles. Some of these muscles have aesthetic value when they are in good shape, but most of them also have a direct bearing on the most common postures. Strengthening these muscles helps to make sex better, more enjoyable and longer.
8. Yoga Helps You Find Yourself
Practicing yoga, we widen our mind, we are learning about ourselves, searching our inner “I” and revealing the resource of our sexual desires. When we comprehend our sexuality, we will learn to hear our body and understand what it tells us. So, we can more easily enjoy the intimacy!
By Dylan Menders
Dylan Menders is a psychologist and sexologist. He is a huge yoga and vegan diet enthusiast and the main editor at PotencyUp resource. His ultimate goal is to share his passion for self-development and to help them to become the greatest version of themselves. He believes a healthy body and successful social interactions are two main keys to happiness.
Enjoy better sex, from your yoga practice now, with Yoga for Better Sex with Claire Petretti Marti!
Yoga for Better Sex with Claire Petretti Marti
Feeling empowered and positive doesn’t come easy to everyone. It’s especially hard if we’ve had a challenging day, full of stressful moments like running late, being stuck in traffic, making small mistakes at work. It’s easy to let moments and days like this get you down, however, you can become more positive and practice by making small changes in your day.
These small changes can help you gain from negative experiences, and become more empowered by them.
Here’s 9 quick tips to help you on your way to feeling empowered, even on the most stressful day:
1. Don’t do anything
Yes, the first tip on this list is to simply ‘do nothing. That is, to take a few minutes each day to not focus on anything else except yourself, and to give yourself some undivided and positive attention. Take up to 15 minutes to be quiet, away from noise and distractions and connect with yourself, listening to your wants and needs. Knowing what you truly need in order to take care of yourself can be very empowering.
2. Help others
Once your own needs are taken care of, you can start to look outwards for ways you can help other people. Thinking about yourself always can be a little disempowering, and people tend to be more empowered by helping others out when they can. Take some time to think about what you’ve done to help others and to make someone else feel better. When your relationships are strengthened, you’ll feel much better about yourself and feel more connected to others.
3. Fake it till you make it
You can use your imagination to boost your feelings of empowerment. A quick tip is to imagine yourself as someone self-confident and empowered, this could be someone you know or someone completely fictional! Whenever you need to feel empowered, imagine yourself as this person. Over time, you'll naturally take on those positive and self-empowered traits, and you won’t need to fake it anymore.
4. Cross things off your to-do list
If you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed by the weight of just everything you need to get done in one day, write all the tasks down, even the little ones. Being able to cross something off your list - even if it’s as simple as ‘brush teeth’ will give you a little boost of confidence as your goal is achieved. This will help you to feel more empowered to cross some of the bigger tasks off your list.
5. Regular Exercise
Engaging in regular exercise will help you to raise your endorphin levels naturally. Try and pick something you know you like, so you will be more motivated to do it regularly. Just seven minutes of moving your body can help you feel fresh, focused and present.
6. Give to a worthy cause
Helping others can also extend to giving help to a worthy cause. Volunteering is a great way to empower yourself, and it also is proven to have both physical and mental benefits. Volunteering to a cause you care about can even help to lower your blood pressure and help you live longer! However if you’re time-poor, you can donate to a charity you admire, to give yourself that feeling of empowerment and positivity in helping others.
7. Stop comparing yourself
Comparing yourself to your peers can do harmful things to your sense of self-empowerment. Why? Because you’re not focusing on yourself and the positive things that make you ‘you’. Once you start understanding that comparison is futile, because we are all so different, you’ll feel more self empowered. There’s no one else like you, so there’s no comparison!
8. Make yourself some nourishing food
Taking the time to provide your body with something filling and nourishing is a great way to boost your self-esteem. When you eat junk food with no nutritional value, you can feel tired and powerless, with a lack of energy. Making and eating something that's truly nourishing can
Make you feel more energetic, and feel empowered that you’ve provided something beneficial for your body.
9. Learn when to give up
A big source of feeling unempowered is spending time and effort on something that just isn’t working, whether it’s a project, relationship or a job. If you find yourself in a fruitless endeavour, it could be the kindest thing to yourself to just give up. Focus on what you have to gain from letting go, rather than what you’d lose- whether it’s more time, or less stress, to help you decide if it’s worth powering through.
If you’re looking to feel empowered through yoga, take a look at this week’s classes. These are 5 consecutive intermediate classes from expert teacher Jackie Casal Mahrou, to empower you in the Empowerment Flow Program: Self-Confidence Overhaul. These rigorous flows will have you not only sweating and getting stronger, but also increase your feelings of confidence, willpower, and belief in yourself. Enjoy becoming empowered!
Stop what you are doing and close your eyes. Well, close your eyes after you read this article, of course.
Take a hard look at your life. Would you say you are living your life to its fullest potential and operating from your highest self?
If not, are you ready to make a true personal breakthrough? We’re here to help with a new program from beloved YogaDownload.com teacher, Jackie Casal Mahrou: 5-Day Empowerment Flow Series.
First, consider whether you are tapping into your well of inner strength, listening to your inner voice, and expressing your authentic self. Or have external events and global challenges dimmed your radiance? Bouncing back after unforeseen challenges rock your world isn’t always easy. Don’t forget your power exists inside of you. Resilience is the ability to stay strong through times of adversity; to prevent obstacles from destroying your spirit, and to continue to forge your path.
In yoga, we learn that we can’t control external events; we can only control our reaction to them.
When your life feels out of control, yoga can help by empowering you to trust yourself, build your confidence, and maintain your spirit no matter what’s happening around you. Yoga helps us to improve our thoughts and feel more comfortable in our own skin. Trust that each time you step onto the mat, you are empowering yourself by improving your health and well-being. When you feel stronger physically and your mind is calmer, you are able to tap into your highest self.
Being pro-active with your own health creates a sense of independence, hones your self-discipline and abilities, and enables you to live life in the deepest, most meaningful way for you. Don’t hold back from following your dreams because you question your talents or abilities. Release insecurities, self-doubt, and past failures and step into your most empowered self. Start today!
Empower yourself now, with this 5-Class Empowerment Flow Yoga Program: A Self-Confidence Overhaul with Jackie Casal Mahrou!
I challenge you to find a simpler recipe than this cucumber soup! With a beautiful summery weather spending long hours in the kitchen is not my idea of a good time. I’d rather spend it out enjoying the sun, hiking, cycling, doing yoga or just reading a good book. At the same time, I refuse to lower my food standards just because I don’t want to spend too much time cooking.
And this is precisely the type of recipe that is quick, seasonal, healthy and super delicious! Just perfect for warm weather. As a bonus, it is also light on calories, so you don’t need to feel guilty having a dessert after!
I always like to decorate my food, but this is, of course, not required. If you don’t feel like playing around with balling avocado, slicing cucumber super thinly or organizing edible flowers neatly, this is absolutely fine, but I still recommend to cube up some cucumber for some texture.
Otherwise, the whole meal reminds me of a smoothie instead of a soup. I do enjoy a nice smoothie too, but smoothie for me is rather a snack and soup is more like a full meal. And I like to have chewing as a part of a meal.
I guess you actually could call this a savory smoothie bowl instead of a soup, at least to attract your kids to try this too.
5-Minute Cooling Cucumber Soup
Serves: 2
Cooking time: 5 minutes
30 oz fresh cucumbers
2 small ripe avocados
0.5 limes
1 green onion
Whatever you like for garnish (peas, coriander, more onion, avocado, cucumber, edible flowers…)
Directions:
If you wish to make your soup look good, start with the decorations. This way you can use up all the leftover uneven pieces in the soup and don’t need to waste anything. For example, you can use the peeling knife to cut long thin slices from cucumber and melon baller for avocado, spring onion looks good in thin little rounds. Or go crazy and make exactly the shapes you like. Or save your time and skip the decorations altogether – the soup will be tasty anyway!
Cut all the ingredients, squeeze the juice out of lime and throw everything to a blender. Blend on high speed until you have a very smooth consistency.
Have a try and season to taste.
To serve, pour the soup to the bowls and decorate however you wish.
We all want to feel good in a swimsuit on the beach, right?
Have you ever wondered when or if that will ever happen? Is it simply losing weight? Gaining muscle? Is there a certain body type that defines sexy health?
Could you simply choose to change your mentality and feel sexy the way you are now, without changing anything? I have asked myself these questions too.
My weight has fluctuated a lot in my life, and for most of it I have felt extremely self conscious in a swimsuit. You know when I finally started feeling comfortable in a bikini?
When I truly started loving myself.
I don’t mean just saying that I love myself, repeating affirmations in hopes that they become true, etc. But I mean I started acting like I love myself. And of course that meant, I started acting like I love my body.
I had a wake up call when someone once called me out big time on the fact that I wasn’t taking care of my body’s basic needs.
When was the last time I went to a dentist? Why hadn’t I gotten any blood work done to see why I have headaches all the time, or why I have digestive issues? Why had I let a shoulder injury take over my life for over a year, losing a lot of my physical strength and beginning to resemble a couch potato?
Sure, I was going to yin yoga and journaling, but I wasn’t truly acting like I loved my body.
When you love someone, you want to take care of them. It brings you great pleasure to do so. You treasure these moments of caretaking. You want to make it known how much you love this person.
When was the last time you sat quietly and asked your body what it needs?
I mean, sit there for like 15 minutes, asking your body with tender loving kindness, what do you need, my sweetest love? You do so much for me everyday. What can I do for you? How may I serve you today?
I invite you to try this, right now if possible. Sit there, and ask your body the above questions.
If you were able to take a moment, or several, to tune into your body and ask it these questions, how different do you feel?
Now, what is one thing you can do today to support your body? To show your love and deep, genuine appreciation.
Arrange for it. For real, make it happen.
And once you’ve done that, write a love note to your body!
In your journal, so you can read back over it often.
Write about all of the many many things you appreciate about your body that work so well, without you having to do a single thing. Free gifts to you, in every moment, granting you no less than the gift of life.
Our bodies do not receive nearly enough gratitude for all that they are doing right. Once you let this gratitude and deep level of self love truly sink into you bones, it will begin to transform your mind as well.
Then, you might notice yourself eating foods that are going to make you feel good after you eat them. You know, the kind that will fuel your brain, increase your creative juices and give you that zest for life.
You might find yourself craving exercise for the good of this structure you live in everyday. You know, so you can get out and enjoy nature, feed your soul, and twirl your grandchildren around one day without tweaking your back.
You may find that you are in sync with the needs and desires of your body, and begin to honor those from a deep place of appreciation and love.
And because you know you deserve what's best for you! So you begin to eat when you need to eat, drink plenty of water, interact with people who make you feel loved and supported, and sleep when you need to sleep.
Next thing you know, you feel happy as a peach in your bikini!
You feel that delicious sun kissing your skin, and allow the rich minerals of the ocean water to cleanse your system, and you gratefully accept the medicine. Because you know you're worth it!
And the best part of it all? It doesn’t matter one bit how your body looks to other people. All you’re concerned with at that point is how you feel in your skin.
At that point, you’re shining. Everyone wants to be your friend.
Self-Care = Self-Love = Confidence = Sexy.
With Utmost Admiration for Your Insanely Sexy Essence.
Your Soul Therapist,
Dia Michelle Smith
p.s. If you’d like to receive an article like this in your inbox every week, with tips and tricks for how to live your best life from a holistic perspective, go check out soultherapist.co and sign up for the Self Counseling Club! After all, we could all use a therapist, and no one knows you better than...YOU!
P.S. You are so worth it you know. Already. Without needing to change anything. Right now! I promise.
Feel good in your skin and start loving yourself and your body right now, with some yoga and meditation with Dia!
Breathe Your Way into the Perfect Day
Yin Yang for Inspiration
Yoga has a great many physical benefits, and mental too, but some aspects of yoga that can be overlooked in our modern day are the spiritual and mental benefits of yoga.
Yoga helps with happy living by giving us a way to unite our bodies, minds and breath, letting us connect to our inner selves. This is the spiritual aspect of yoga. There are many spiritual and mental benefits of yoga, but here are a few that you can take into your life off the mat, and help you connect with your spiritual side.
1. Mindfulness
The mind will often cause worry and anxiety by focusing too much on the past, or focusing too much on the future, and a great spiritual benefit of yoga is how it can bring mindfulness into your life, and help you focus on the present moment.
Yoga will help to rid you of stress and anxiety, and calm down irritated minds. Regular practice of yoga will help to bring you clarity through mindfulness, which can be taken with you into your day to day life.
2. Overcoming Stress
Yoga can help you to overcome stress in your day to day life and reach a level of calmness through spirituality. The balance and flexibility that your physical body achieves on the yoga mat can also be reflected in your spiritual side off the mat too.
The way you learn to breathe through tension and difficult postures can help you when you’re going through stressful times. The way we take things at our own pace and stretch to our own personal limits in yoga class gives a sense of personal achievement, without comparison to others. This attitude of doing your best can help to overcome stress. Additionally, physical flexibility can transfer to your mind, and help you be flexible in stressful situations.
3. Improves Mental Focus
Regular meditation is important in yoga as it’s a way to keep positive thoughts in your mind. While you meditate, if negative or intrusive thoughts come into your mind, it can be pushed away by refocusing on your breathing and relaxing your body.
This mindset is great to apply to your emotional health and mental processes, as it will help fight causes of stress, anxiety and depression. By pushing away negative thoughts and focusing on the positive, you can guide yourself to the present and be more focused.
4. Improved Self Discipline
By controlling your thoughts and stress responses through breathing in yoga, you can become much more self disciplined. Yoga can help you improve your self discipline both physically and mentally, allowing you to let go of anything that is holding you back from what you want to achieve - on or off the mat.
Meditation and mantras can help with this. If you focus on one phrase during your practice, repeating it outloud or in your mind, it can reach through to your subconscious, making success more achievable with a positive mindset.
Yoga also helps to hone self disciple and helps you achieve success by teaching you about energy flows. If you see the world as a constant source of energy, you can tap into it and use it to manifest your goals. This positive outlook can help you reach success.
5. Improved Self Awareness
Spirituality is being in touch with the unchanging part of yourself. Your spirit is thought to be your higher consciousness and the force behind your thoughts and motivations. When you practice yoga, it can help you connect with your spirit, and become more aware of this part of yourself.
Our day to day lives can be busy, and we get pulled in lots of different directions. This can hinder our ability to know what's best for ourselves, on a deeper level. Yoga helps to connect with your mind and body, helping you improve your self awareness. This can improve your day to day life, and how you make choices and interact with others on a deeper level.
6. Feeling Empowered
For some, the practice of yoga can be a challenge mentally. Being in silence with your thoughts can also cause you to become aware of any stressful or painful situations in your life.
Practicing yoga can sometimes force your to push away any distractions and be aware of these situations. However, facing reality and accepting it is the first step to change and healing.
Yoga can help you to find happiness in small areas, even when your outside life is stressful. This mindset can help you to feel empowered that everything in your life is happening for a deeper meaning, and help empower you to take control of stressful or painful situations.
7. Helps You Quiet Your Mind
A spiritual and mental benefit of yoga is that it helps you quiet your mind in order to connect with your deeper sense of self. While you focus on the movements, breathing and poses, your mind starts to empty, and the small day to day worries ease away. If you find your mind starting to wander in yoga, you lose your breathing pattern and you can slip out of poses.
Yoga forces us to quiet our minds and focus on the present, which is a skill you can take into your day to day life. Practice breathing deeply when your mind starts to feel overwhelming, and you’ll gain a sense of calm and gratefulness that will leave you feeling peaceful.
Want to connect with your spiritual side? This week's classes focus more on the subtle spiritual and mental benefits of yoga.
1. Cicily Carter - Crown Chakra Yoga
2. Caitlin Rose Kenney - Inner Strength: Yin Yoga for Self-Trust
3. Kristin Gibowicz - Metamorphosis: Beauty in the Waiting
4. Mark Morford - Yoga Alchemy: The Two Tools
Do you believe in magic? Not necessarily the kind of tricks you might see at a Las Vegas show, but more the type of magic that manifests as an intangible feeling that can’t be measured with logic or science.
Whatever your initial reason for beginning yoga, you probably know you don’t keep returning simply because your hamstrings are more supple–– there is something more. Let’s call that subtle quality, the magic of yoga.
Perhaps you felt happy for ten minutes, ten hours, ten days, or even ten years after yoga class and you can’t pinpoint why. We often discuss the tangible physical benefits of a consistent yoga practice, like strength, flexibility, and balance. These qualities are wonderful, but not everything about yoga can be quantified.
This week we’re focusing more on what is percolating beneath the surface in the subtle body.
Our subtle body is said to contain more than 72,000 Nadis or energy channels and prana encompasses more than the muscles and the ligaments. It impacts our nervous system, our circulatory system, and our organs, whether we are aware of it or not. When we practice yoga, whatever the style, we are shifting and moving around our prana or life force energy.
The magic of yoga impacts us on a cellular level. How? Why?
In the third chapter of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali discusses how magical powers or siddhis are achieved through a dedicated yoga practice. Superhero powers like levitating, becoming invisible, and achieving the strength of an elephant are laid out as tangible benefits.
Is Patanjali being literal? We will never know, but the point is all of the results of yoga cannot be explained in a practical way. We haven’t levitated lately, but who knows, maybe next week? What about you?
Just like magic, yoga is full of rituals like breathing in certain patterns, moving in particular sequences, chanting, and meditating with mantras and specific techniques.
Although we can’t actually see what’s happening inside of us, change is occurring.
You simply feel happier and more connected with the world around you. Can you accept these benefits without being able to define the path that led you to them?
The only way to explore what unique magic and benefits yoga has for you, is to practice and explore these more subtle and spiritual practices. Try it!