Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

Trees are symbols of long life and strength. One of the oldest forms of life on the planet, they are not only well-grounded but flexible. Without trees, we could not live. Modern medicine tends to separate the mind and body, but trees with their roots firmly planted in the ground and their branches reaching up to the sky, remind us of how connected we can be to both. These eight lessons, are things we can learn from trees, and beneficial ways, we as humans, can embody their strength, power, and health. 1. Nourish Your Roots

Keeping to healthy sleep habits can be one of the best goals to give yourself for the new year. A good night’s sleep can improve your physical and mental health, reduce stress, improve weight loss and much more! It’s one of the basic human needs that a lot of us don’t get enough of. If you’re finding yourself perma-tired, here’s a few habits to help you sleep to pick up in 2019, so that you can start to get a good night’s sleep. Here are 10 effective habits to help you sleep better! 1. Keep a consistent sleep schedule Your body’s circadian rhythm is it’s 24hr cycle, and it functions on a set loop based on when the sun rises and sets. If you keep a consistent schedule with your sleeping and waking times, your sleep quality will improve. An irregular sleeping pattern can cause long-term sleep problems, and can also affect your body’s natural circadian rhythm. This helps signal your brain to sleep too. If you’re struggling to drop off at night, or waking up throughout your sleep, an easy habit to help you sleep better is to start waking and sleeping at the same times.

It isn’t hard to see that a healthy diet and exercise can help a person look and feel better, but did you know that being healthy is also a great way to save money? If you have been thinking about hitting the gym, practicing yoga, walking more often or making a lifestyle change so you can feel better, no time is better to do so than right now. Think about all the ways that a healthy life can improve your financial status by saving money. Here are 8 ways that being healthy saves money. 1. Family Outings Being healthy saves money when it comes to family outings. There is nothing wrong at all with taking your family out to see a movie or to sit and watch a ball game. When you’re working on leading a healthier life however, you may want to ditch the expensive movie tickets and opt for a walk in the park, a hike to a waterfall or taking a swim in a nearby lake. The average cost of a movie ticket for one person is nearly $10 and that adds up when you take your whole family. Once you figure in the cost of popcorn and drinks along with the tickets, a family movie night can cost upwards of $100. Heading to the great outdoors is FREE to do and guaranteed to be fun. 2. Medical Expenses

Are you ready to leave 2018 behind? For many of us, it’s easy to let our usual routines fall to the wayside when the holidays are upon us. If you are one of the virtuous yogis who maintained your practice, congratulations! If you’re like a few of us here at YogaDownload.com, you may have let your best intentions slide and now it’s time to turn it all around. So, if you’re ready to reset and rejuvenate and enter 2019 feeling incredible, we’ve got the perfect solution. We’ve created a slightly different challenge for you, so no excuses! Each class is 30 minutes or less, so all you have to do is wake up early and get it done or squeeze it in somewhere in your day. Consistency is key when creating a new habit and we’ve made it easier for you by shortening the time needed. Although the classes are shorter, they aren’t short on benefits. We want to empower you to complete the entire challenge so, we’ve assembled a variety of classes from some of your favorite YogaDownload.com instructors. Mastery has been described as doing something you've committed to, even on days you don't feel like it. If you still aren’t convinced to jump onboard, here are 4 reasons to tip you over the edge and join us.

It’s the time of year when many of us will be thinking about the year ahead, and setting some goals and resolutions to achieve in the next twelve months. It can be easy to just think “I want to achieve…”, but if you want to actually succeed in your resolutions, you need to set achievable goals. If you don’t have a goal to work towards, you can lose focus and direction, and be further from achieving the challenges you set yourself. Goals also help you set a benchmark for determining your success! There are steps you can take to help you set and achieve your goals. It takes some careful thought into what it is you want to do, and how you’re going to go about achieving it. Here’s our top tips for setting and achieving your goals. 1. Set yourself a motivational goal It’s very important that your goals are motivational to you.

Life is here to be celebrated. It’s full of both small and big joyful moments, which should be appreciated and acknowledged. Celebrating life, in however small a way, can help us have a more positive outlook, feel happier and feel healthier. It’s really important to take time each day to celebrate life in all its intricacies, especially when life is busy with work and responsibilities. Here’s 20 little ways to celebrate life every day. 1. Start the day by giving thanks When you wake up each morning, try to take a couple of minutes to celebrate your life. Perhaps when you have your morning coffee or tea, just take a moment to thank the universe for the day ahead of you. Starting your day with a sense of gratitude can open your mind up in a positive way. 2. Acknowledge the small achievements

Meditation has often been touted as the road to true health physically, emotionally, and mentally. While it has become quite popular in the West in the last few decades of the 20th century and has remained so as we head well into the 21st century, it is really an age-old practice that has been observed by the wisest and healthiest of men throughout time. At the heart of it, meditation (whether seated meditation, or writing meditation) is all about being in touch with yourself. Many of us simply rush through life, letting events pass us by without taking a moment to pause and reflect about the reality and magnificence of our existence. Meditation seeks to remedy that. It enables you to get in touch with your inner self through the art of introspection. A lot of forms of meditation focus on being able to regulate your breathing, slowing it down to the point where your mind is at peace and quiet enough to really look inward. That is when you process your thoughts and feelings in a way that you can truly connect to them.

We all have our own body hang ups, that can be hard to get past. The great thing about yoga is how it relaxes you, and lets you focus on your breath, and how your body is moving. This makes it a great practice to boost your body positivity. Yoga is a practice that all body shapes and sizes can take part in, however it can be hard sometimes to focus when we’re thinking about our body hang ups. Here’s our top tips for practicing body positivity when you’re on the yoga mat. 1. Channel Your Strength Feeling strong is a great way to instantly reap the benefits of body positivity.

Everything in life can be considered a practice, whether it’s working out, practicing yoga, honing your hobby of choice, and even learning to operate from a place of gratitude each day. Just as you need to work your biceps and quadriceps to keep them strong, toned, and supple, you need to train your brain and your heart to move from a place of appreciation. Sometimes, it’s tough to be positive and grateful. As the Buddhists teach, life is hard. We don’t have much control over external events, but we do have control over our own reaction to them. One of the greatest benefits of a consistent yoga practice is that it allows you to create more space in your reaction time. It isn’t always easy, but being content is worth it.

Practicing gratitude is not just saying ‘thank you’ when someone opens a door for you. Feeling gratitude for all positive aspects in your life is a great way to shift your perspective from any problems and imperfections, and help you appreciate the little things. Taking some time to be thankful for your health, friends, family, or job can all help you change your perspective, especially in challenging times. Practicing gratitude can bring a wealth of benefits to your day to day life. Here are 6 of the best benefits practicing gratitude can have on your life: 1. Practicing gratitude relieves stress Anything that relieves stress is going to be beneficial not only to your mental health, but also your physical health too.

Chaos. For as long as I can remember, my life was fundamentally altered and eventually comforted by chaos. If chaos did not physically surround me, it was ever present within my thinking. Experiencing trauma at a young age, I survived by internalizing my pain. I had no tools nor advocate to validate my experience. This shifted my thinking into total victimization. I was engulfed with symptoms of complex PTSD and I was a tourist in a foreign city with no map. Through my adolescent years, up into my early 20’s, I had no coping skills and avoided all discomfort. My mother passed away unexpectedly January 10, 2010 and my life was forever changed. Crippled by grief and overwhelmed by the inability to face the permanence of the situation, eventually lead to my full blown addiction. After years of self medicating, unfathomable consequences, and self sabotaging I finally accepted help and chased after recovery.

Depression can be enfeebling, and it is not in any way the same thing as being unhappy. Being unhappy can often be connected to a reason that we can trace, but depression is not the same. Many times we cannot determine it back to its cause; it is like swimming in dark water. A feeling of hopelessness sinks in and all the things that we used to enjoy no longer interest us. Depression can cause severe impairment in our daily life. It affects not only our mood but also various other aspects of our life like low energy levels, sexual dysfunction, insomnia, lack of concentration, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes and so on. A chronic case of depression may require someone to see a therapist. However, if detected at an early stage, there are several ways by which one can come out of it on their own and fight depression before it becomes overbearing. Here are 5 powerful ways you can fight depression!

When someone mentions meditation to a very active student, this is the usual reaction: “I could never sit still and do nothing.” If that’s how you feel about meditation, then that’s exactly why you need it! Throughout your studies, you can be subjected to more stress than you ever anticipated. You get one class to take after another and one paper to write after another. In between studying and friendships, it could feel like you can’t get time for yourself. Meditation will give you that time. Even if it’s just for 10 minutes per day, meditation helps you calm down and learn more about yourself. There are tremendous benefits of meditation for students. Still not sure? Check out this list of 7 real benefits you’ll get from meditation, especially for students!

Halloween is approaching and many of us will dress up like vampires and ghouls, work to scare people, celebrate the horror genre and watch scary movies. What are you afraid of? Well, besides that scary clown who may or may not be hiding underneath your bed? On a more serious note, have you examined the concept of fear and how it impacts you? Fear is a necessary part of life. If we didn’t have healthy fear of dangerous activities like jumping off cliffs or walking down dark alleys in sketchy neighborhoods, we might get injured or worse. One of the biggest human drives is to protect ourselves from pain and loss, but sometimes we hold ourselves back because we are afraid of being hurt. According to Patanjali, the author of the Yoga Sutras, the biggest fear we face is the fear of death, referred to as abhinivesha. In theory, all our fears stem from this all-encompassing one.

Ok world, I’ve done it! No drinking for a month. It actually wasn’t very hard. I still went out and just had soda water. I wasn’t a hermit. I still had fun with friends. I also realize that I prefer a balance of this yogic lifestyle and also living and enjoying this physical and by nature material world. I’m right in the middle of Dharma Mittra’s 500Hr Teacher Training. If I thought not drinking would be a challange...well, let’s just say I didn’t really know what I signed up for. No coffee, no caffeine, no eating before noon, no eating after 6pm, 45 minutes of breathwork and meditation daily, 1 hr of practice daily, no salt, no tree nuts, no coconut, basically no fun. Kidding! Kind of.

“To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle.” -Walt Whitman In the last article, we discussed how to jumpstart your morning routine with a journal and utilize yoga philosophy off the mat. In order to balance the jumpstart, we also need the wind down night time routine to balance. Instead of preparing for an active day, we can now prepare for a restful and calm night, perhaps even right before sleep. Like yoga, journaling is a powerful tool for self-discovery and impetus for positive change in your life. A night time journaling ritual can be a powerful All you need is a writing utensil and a journal. A basic notebook is fine, but there are also journals specialized for yoga practitioners. Here are 5 ideas for an evening or night time journaling ritual. 1. Give yourself space to find flow.

“The more free time we devote to shaping our minds, the better off we will be. I recommend waking up early to use the morning to meditate “. -Dalai Lama Journaling daily has surprising benefits, many of which intersect with and complement a yoga practice. Journaling, like anything, takes dedication, consistency and practice, but the benefits are well worth the work. Use these tips and ideas below to explore and support your life, mornings, and yoga practice! Journaling is an amazing ally, as you can do it anywhere and all you need is a writing utensil and a book with paper. Basic notebooks do the trick, however there are also more specialized journals for everything from goal setting to journal's for yoga practitioners. Here are 5 morning journaling ideas that can jumpstart you towards amazing days. Have fun with them and explore which work best for you. 1. Get Grateful

Can I tell you a secret about my work as a health coach? There’s a misconception that health coaches prescribe a diet plan or exercise regime to their clients. In fact, that’s not what I’m up to at all. The reality is that most (not all) people come to me knowing exactly what they should be doing to have a healthy, vibrant, powerful life. And yet they just aren’t doing the things they know would propel them towards their goals. They are getting in their own way. So then my job becomes to help my clients not with a meal plan but with motivation, not with diet but with discipline, not with exercise ideas but with overcoming self-sabotage. Have you ever been all hell-bent and determined to change something in your life and initially attack it with passion then somewhere along the way drop it to the side, perhaps looking back at it every so often with regret or shame? Think New Year’s Resolutions. The honest truth is that improving one’s life and health takes work and often that work can be uncomfortable and unfamiliar. It can be easier to get in your own way, and not move forward towards the goals you're apsiring to. When faced with discomfort it’s absolutely normal for we silly humans to interfere with their own progress.

We all have that one place we dream about and long to go back to, whether it is home, for those of us that live life away from home, or maybe just be an unexpected place that stole your heart. For me it is definitely the latter, a tiny little island called Koh Phangan in Thailand known for its crazy full moon parties (which I still have not attended), vast jungle, beautiful water, warm people, great food, and all things yoga. It's been the most inspirational travel destination I've been fortunate enough to experience. The island place stole my heart when I first unexpectedly ended up there in 2016 before my big move to Singapore. I stayed there for a month and quickly fell in love with the community and the infinite love and ability that existed in this retreat to have whatever you desire.

There is such excitement in imagining opportunities manifest themselves. When opportunities arise and we truly believe we deserve them and our ability to create them, we can even start to see and feel ourselves experiencing them. We have the ability to imagine the things we want unfolding. We may even start to communicate to our friends that it is “happening!” Often, this approach works. However, sometimes things don't turn out exactly or even close to how we wanted them to. It feels disappointing. To move through disappointment without allowing an undesired circumstance to cause us low self esteem or despair is challenging. How did this happen when we believed in what we wanted to happen. When we were already planning our future around this! WTF?! How to overcome disappointment is possible, even when it's challenging. With a focused perspective we can accept whatever challenges life throws at us, as important, and valuable in the long run. Challenge teaches us our capacity, our boundaries, our resilience, our passion. There are many possible disappointments life can provide us; job loss, feeling rejected in a relationship, failing a test, losing our ground, death, participating in an unhealthy behavior, etc.

Some days life feels undeniably easier than other days. It’s part of being human. Ever wake up on the “wrong side of the bed”, where one thing after another seems to keep going wrong and your mood is bad and everyone is bothering you? Life can feel like a struggle on these days, instead of something we’re meant to enjoy and savor. Do you appreciate the opposite days? The days where you are in the flow and one amazing thing after another unfolds and you’re in a good mood, are happy, content, and enjoying life. These are the days we live for. Luckily, we have the power to put ourselves into a good mood and create more of these days, even on those days when we wake up in a bad mood. It’s not always by chance whether we're in a good mood or a bad mood. We have the power to create the days and moods we want. While some days feel more challenging than others, we have the power to turn any day around.

I am a dreamer. Head in the clouds, anything is possible, never settle kinda' girl. I believe that the bigger your dreams, the bigger your possibilities. Why would you want to place limitations on this short and fleeting life we have been granted? A life without dreams is like a garden without flowers. Where is the beauty? Plant seeds, create awareness and then focus on finding potential. Voicing your dream whether in words or writing, is like fertilizer, so be prepared to watch the dreams blossom into fruition. They say when the student in ready the teacher appears. I say when the seed is planted the sun will shine. If you aim for the stars even if you fall short, you will land in the clouds. From experience I know there is a much better view from the clouds than there is from the ground always looking up and wondering what if. I grew up conservative in my approach. A planner. I saved money and believed in hard work and long term effort to reach goals over time. Then I realized I was frustrated and impatient. My meticulous planning and attention to detail was preventing action.

"Is there one thing that you know you could be doing that would have a big impact on your health and your life that you just don’t do consistently?” This is one of the questions I ask in my initial Health Coaching Discovery Session. when I was once asked this question a clear and simple answer almost screamed in my head: DRINK MORE WATER. Hydration is something I know the benefits of, and talk to clients about on the daily. So why is it so hard for me to make it a habit? Especially in the midst of cold winter days, my tendency is year for a hot cup of coffee (and later a smooth glass of wine) rather than a glass of water. These tips to stay hydrated make it easier to have to remember to drink water and make it more second nature. Lately I’ve been nothing less than obsessed with habit change (loving this book), and the why and how of creating new habits to support overall life goals. I’m leaning that in order to introduce new habits – like drinking more water – one must keep in mind the overall benefits as motivation, and also to set up cues and rewards to make that habit stick.

Have you ever felt like you are living a Shakespearean play within, conflict and drama a plenty? Romeo and Juliet taking duel inside, the battle of head and the heart? Where courage challenges consideration to a duel and thought stabs thrill in the back? At heart, I am all Romeo, full of passion, love and extremes. Loyal to a detriment, I’m often tempted to act foolishly in defense of those I do love dear. This is an example of the heart winning over the head. Oh, the angst and drama that overtakes my life, where it would be all too easy for my heart to throw away any logical order that exists in my life, and insteads leads me on spontaneous adventures and lust inspired indulgences. Life would be fun and fabulous. My heart sometimes guides me to just ignore the dose of danger waiting in the wings. Many times however, I do give thanks to the dear Juliet who lives in my head, which keeps me level and sane. As independent and loyal as Romeo, she is thankfully more capable and self assured.

We all need an occasional boost in mood and energy! Try these 5 foods for an almost instant energizer to your mind, body, and soul!