Embrace and love your body. it's the most amazing thing you'll ever own. -Anonymous
It has been some time since I've taken the time to muse online. Even though things are expanding beautifully at the studio, and my 3 little angels are keeping my husband and I on our toes, I still find time to write in my journal each and every day. Inspiration to write hit during a quiet moment at the studio and I decided to take full advantage!
While sitting at the front desk I noticed that someone put a copy my book Yes! Yoga Has Curves to the side in order to purchase it after class. Immediately I was taken back to the great times I spent with all the beautiful women in both volumes. Even though many didn't know me they trusted me to share their story and beauty with the masses. The book not only serves as inspiration for yogis of ALL beautiful sizes to practice yoga but also as a personal reminder for me to stay the course.
Seeing the book was no coincidence. A few weeks ago I found myself feeling disconnected from my asana practice. As I tried to go deeper into some of my favorite asanas I was reminded quite a few times that I had a (BIG) baby via C-section 9 months ago and my body was still in recovery. I decided to take an asana break (well, more like a strike) and wondered if I would ever be able to enjoy some of the poses I once did.
My third trip into motherhood changed my body in many ways. Though I was proud of this life bearing vehicle I was worried if I would ever be able to practice without the self-critical dialogue. Yoga is all about uniting and my thoughts were creating a huge divide. I took it to my meditation cushion for answers. I closed my eyes and began to breathe deeply and said to myself over and over - "I am ready and open to my healing right now and in a way that supports me."
The answer came to me softly. I had to leam how to work with my body and I had to tune back into unconditional love. Soon atter I got back on my mat and instead of giving my body a list of demands I allowed my body to guide my practice.
I believe that all bodies are beautiful and that health and wholeness comes in all shapes and sizes.
The most important relationship we have is with our body. Instead of comparing ourselves to others, or even our previous selves, we should set the intention to honor and take care of our bodies from the inside out
And just in case you haven't heard it today or you need a reminder - you are beautiful!
By Dana Smith
Dana is a certified yoga teacher and trainer, Master Life Coach and Holistic Health Practitioner. Considered a “Jane of all Holistic Trades” she specializes in Thai Yoga Massage, Reiki and is a gifted Intuitive Counselor. She has practiced yoga for several years and is registered with the National Yoga Alliance. To keep classes creative and fun, she continues to seek inspiration through workshops and advanced studies. Dana believes that yoga is a powerful tool on the path of total wellness. Her style of teaching draws from Ashtanga, Iyengar and Vinyasa roots.
Practice loving your body through yoga, with Dana right now!
News alert: If a yoga instructor reprimands you because you don’t look a certain way in an asana or physical pose, that teacher may be in the wrong profession.
A good teacher will emphasize that how you feel in a pose is what’s important, not what shape you are creating on the mat. If you are finding sensation and breathing fully, then you are in the right place. Despite the barrage of Instagram filtered images crafted by tall thin yogis in advanced yoga poses, you do NOT need to be a skinny pretzel to be a “real yogi.”
We’re here to tell you there is no such thing as a yoga body. With the explosion of yoga’s popularity in the Western world over the last few decades, a huge focus on appearance has overshadowed what yoga is truly about. Yoga is for every body and there’s a style and type of practice that works for each individual. It’s adaptable. Accessible. Don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t.
No matter who you are, whether you are thin or heavy, tall or short, in a wheelchair or an Olympic athlete, yoga is for you.
Let’s start with straightforward anatomy. A vital principle to understand in asana practice is that everyone is different. We are born with differently shaped skeletons—long bones, short bones, heavy bones, light bones, mobile joints, stiff joints, and that’s just your frame.
For example, a student with loose hamstrings has short arms and long legs and reaching their toes in paschimottasana (seated forward fold) is almost impossible. Another student may have less muscular flexibility, but has long arms and shorter legs and can grasp their feet with minimal effort. Same pose. Different result. We all have our inherent limitations, which impact what our personal yoga practice looks like.
You wouldn’t judge a person or stereotype them because of their anatomy, right? Well, the same principle applies to everyone who doesn’t fall within the narrow window of social media yoga star. Sometimes people feel intimidated and avoid showing up on the yoga mat because they aren’t naturally flexible or model thin. We want to help make yoga available to anyone who wants to practice.
This week, we are thrilled to introduce a 5-class program for Body Positivity Yoga. Designed and taught by Dana Smith, author of Yes Yoga has Curves, these classes are accessible to everyone. Dana is passionate about breaking down stereotypes preventing people from stepping onto their mats because of fear or insecurity. So join us today and celebrate the body you are in!
Enjoy the program now!
The program classes include:
1. Dana Smith - Find Your Strength 2. Dana Smith - Blissful Balance 3. Dana Smith - Flow with the Go 4. Dana Smith - Open Your Heart 5. Dana Smith - Shifting Paradigms
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. It’s hard to feel negative about yourself when you’re channelling all your strength, and staying strong and powerful in your poses. Channelling your inner strength to push your body that little bit further will help you gain confidence and feel good about yourself! Look at your body, and notice the strength you have gained and how powerful it makes you feel. Warrior pose is a great pose to help your body feel strong and capable, and ready to take on anything!
2. Focus on Your Breath
Breathing deeply has a wealth of benefits for our bodies, but it mostly calms our nervous systems an allows us to take stock of what’s happening within us. Deep breathing allows us to identify any areas of pain or tightness during our practice, and allows us to release all that tension. This release can also release all those negative emotions, allowing us to connect to ourselves in a happier and balanced way.
3. Practice Self-Love
It’s easy to get caught up with that negative voice in our heads, telling us we can’t do something or we shouldn’t feel body positive. But that voice that points out perceived flaws is actually your own. It’s easy to forget we can control our own thoughts and change that negative voice into a positive one. When we realise we can change this we can start to practice self-love. Try to catch yourself if you’re ever thinking negative thoughts, especially if you’re struggling to master a new pose. By changing the narrative to focus on the positive aspects, you can start to practice self-love, and only think positive thoughts about yourself. Set yourself a body positive mantra if it helps, to think over in your head while you’re going through your yoga flow.
4. Appreciate Your Body
If you’ve managed to master a pose you’ve been working on for a while - take the time to congratulate yourself and your body for reaching your goal! Perhaps you’re finally able to get into crow pose, or you’re progressing into more advanced binds and moves, but it’s important to take a moment to recognise how far you’ve come. We’re so wired to move onto the next challenge or task, and taking some time to appreciate your body and the journey it’s taken is a great way to change your mind set to be more body positive.
5. Be Present
Negative thoughts stop us from being present and appreciating our lives and bodies in the moment. It’s easy to go down a negative thought spiral when we’re focusing on the past or future, and feel shame. This loses our connection with our bodies and makes it even harder to feel body positive. Yoga can help us to practice staying present. Next time you’re on the mat, try to sit and breathe, without thinking about anything else. Just focus on your breath, and your body, and how breathing affects how you move. This helps you to use your body to help calm your mind - an amazing tool to help you feel more body positive and appreciative of your body.
If you’re curious about body positivity in yoga, our program this week comes from Dana Smith, author of Yes, Yoga has Curves. This is a program to help break down barriers and stereotypes and helps you get on the mat, regardless of your body type - to help you reap the benefits and feel body positive!
By Amy Cavill
Happy Thanksgiving from our families to yours!
This is a wonderful time of year filled with gatherings of loved ones around the dinner table. Why not pick the healthiest options for your holiday spread?
Jo, prefers to stay on a low-sugar eating track. So her family has developed a lower-sugar spin on the Thanksgiving classic — cranberry sauce! This tart and delicious recipe will win over even your pickiest family members.
Looking for more healthy and delicious Thanksgiving options? Check out our Conscious Thanksgiving spread.
What’s YOUR go-to Thanksgiving dish and does it need a Conscious Cleanse makeover? Let us know in the comments below!
With love and holiday gratitude,
Low Sugar Cranberry Sauce
Yield: about 3 cups
Ingredients:
12 oz. fresh cranberries ½ cup Lakanto monkfruit sweetener ¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
Instructions:
In a saucepan over medium heat, mix the Lakanto sweetener in the orange juice until dissolved. Stir in the cranberries and cook for about 10 minutes or until the cranberries start to pop. Pour sauce into a bowl. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools. Garnish with orange or lemon zest.
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.
Want to have some yoga ready for the day after Thanksgiving to get back on a healthy track? The Yoga for Detox from Overindulgence package is perfect, if you've eaten too much in your holiday festivities.
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.
The Yoga Sutras provide practical advice on how to be your best self by learning to shift your thought patterns. Yoga Sutra 2:33, Pratipaksha Bhavanam, encourages us to replace negative thought patterns with positive ones. So if you catch yourself being judgmental, critical, or negative, pause and reframe with compassion, kindness, and positivity. What we focus on expands and what we remove our attention from diminishes. Focus on the positive in each day and begin to cultivate your patterns of appreciating everything in your life
Like yoga, gratitude is a practice. Choose to find something to be thankful for, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem in the moment. It could be the beauty in a child’s smile, the pleasure of a delicious meal, or cruising through every green light on the way to work. Once you settle into a daily pattern of focusing on thankfulness, eventually, your perspective will shift and gratitude becomes your default.
This week, we’re excited to offer you four new classes aligned with increasing your gratitude in different areas of your life. Each practice is designed to help you feel thankful for life, love, your body, your purpose, life's pleasures and what holds meaning in your world. Enjoy!
Here are this week's four new yoga classes to have you feeling grateful!
1. Keith Allen - Feel Amazing Flow
2. Elise Fabricant - Joyful Joint Release
3. Claire Petretti Marti - Yoga for Better Sex
4. Kylie Larson - Anytime Gentle Flow
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. Did you know that increased stress levels can affect things like your cardiovascular and nervous systems? By taking some time to feel grateful just once a week, you can reduce stress and studies have actually shown that this can reduce blood pressure. Take this one step further and write down everything you have to be grateful for, and you can reduce blood pressure by 10%. Another study in 1998 proved that the stress hormone cortisol can be reduced by practicing gratitude, and can also make you more resilient to trauma.
2. Practicing gratitude improves brain power
Research on gratitude in 2009 showed that the part of the brain that regulates our bodily functions, the hypothalamus, is activated when we feel gratitude. This means processes like sleep, metabolism, temperature regulation and appetites are literally powered by thoughts of gratitude and acts of kindness! Gratitude also affects our brain by releasing the feel good hormone dopamine. This natural high can make acts of kindness feel addictive and motivates us to practice gratitude further, be thankful, and be kind to others.
3. Practicing gratitude helps us sleep better
We’re all always looking for hacks for a better night’s sleep, and practicing gratitude could be the answer. There are loads of studies that have shown how being grateful can help increase our sleep quality, as well as sleep duration and helps us fall asleep faster. As gratitude activates our hypothalamus, which is the part of the brain that controls our sleep. When we are thankful, we can fall asleep quicker and for longer, meaning we wake up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated! Better sleep can increase our general health and relieve stress, pain and anxiety as well as boost our immune system.
4. Practicing gratitude reduces anxiety
As mentioned, being thankful can help us get a better night’s sleep, which in turn can help to relieve anxiety. But did you know that keeping a journal of gratitude, or even saying ‘thank you’ more often can increase long-term happiness by over 10%, and reduce depression by over 30%? This is because we’re better able to manage emotions such as sadness and guilt when we feel helpful and kind.
5. Practicing gratitude decreases pain levels
This one can be hard to believe, but being thankful can actually reduce physical pain levels. A study in 2003 showed that patients with physical symptoms who kept a gratitude journal actually showed reduced symptoms as well as a decrease in pain. This could be due to the increase in dopamine when we’re thankful.
6. Practicing gratitude increases our energy
There’s a lot of health benefits to being a little thankful, so it’s no surprise that you’ll notice an increase in energy alongside the other benefits. Longer and better sleep, reduced stress and generally feeling optimistic can make us feel more sprightly and energetic - and more likely to get up and moving.
Practice the Yoga for Gratitude package, to experience these benefits now!
Happy Thanksgiving from our families to yours! This is a wonderful time of year filled with gatherings of loved ones around the dinner table. Why not pick the healthiest options for your holiday spread? We wanted to take this opportunity to share some of our family favorite recipes that we love to make for Thanksgiving. These dishes are healthy, delicious, and are sure to delight the whole family.
Jules, as a vegetarian, finds holiday meals frustrating since they are so frequently centered around a meat dish. So she’s come up with a hearty salad featuring roasted beets. It works well as both a main dish or side dish, perfect for the veggie lovers in your life!
Roasted Beets and Arugula
Yield: 4 servings
8 golden beets (you can also use red beets if preferred) 5 TB. olive oil (reserve 1 TB. for drizzling) ½ cup red wine vinegar 1 shallot, thinly sliced ¼ cup parsley, chopped 2 cups fresh arugula Sea salt Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place golden beets in a baking dish and drizzle with a little olive oil. Cover with aluminum foil, and bake for about 25 minutes or until soft. In a small bowl, combine remaining olive oil and the red wine vinegar. Remove beets from the oven and toss with sea salt and black pepper. Place cooked golden beets, shallot, and parsley in a large salad bowl, and toss with oil and vinegar mix. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days. Serve beets over arugula and garnish with additional fresh parsley.
If you're worried about eating too much on Thanksgiving, have the Yoga for Detox from Overindulgence package ready, for the day after, to get back on track!
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. Treatment. Stepping into treatment, I was convinced I was entering a cult of some sort. How were these people so happy? I vividly remember the first time I was introduced to meditation. I was sitting in group when the therapist told us we were going to practice mindfulness meditation. Ultimately, we were going to SIT STILL for 5 minutes and “just be”.
At this point, I knew this must have been initiation day into the cult. The corny timer bell chimed and the guide on the tape led us into a field, bringing awareness to every inch of our physical bodies. I found myself distracted by the slightest sounds and thoughts of dinner plans flooded my mind. I was frustrated and then the meditation guide calmly said “Don’t let your thoughts distract and frustrate you, let them freely come and pass.”
Trivial as this statement may sound, it has been the pinnacle turning point for me. Surrender. I would cringe every time I heard this word. I naturally had this misconception that to surrender was a sign of weakness. My distaste for authoritative figures and ideas played a major role in my prejudice against this concept. It was quite the contrary, and I would learn the hard way. I was convinced that I wasn’t the real addict.
Surrounded by addicts whose experience was far different from mine, I immediately separated myself as “different than”. Afterall, I was suffering from PTSD and chronic pain, my diagnosis came from a doctor I trusted. I’m not like them, I am prescribed opiates, I need them.
My jaded thought process ultimately led to my relapse.
I thought I could “drink like a lady” and this defiance catapulted me right back into full-blown addiction. It wasn’t until I surrendered to the idea that I was no different from the next addict, that I got to taste the blissful promises of recovery. In order to be freed from addiction (or the bondage of my indisposed thoughts) I have to completely surrender to a new way of life. Acceptance. When I look back at the last two years of my life and the lives of those that journey down the road of recovery, I see how much more pleasant the outcome is when I accept people, places, and things exactly as they are. For years I thought if the people in my life would conduct themselves the way I saw fit, things would go much smoother. Perhaps everyone else was not the problem, but I was. Learning to practice acceptance in my daily affairs has only proven to be successful when it follows suite to surrender. At least once a day, I encounter a situation that doesn’t align with my plan of action.
When I refuse to accept things as they are, chaos ensues. From the aggressive drivers on my commute to work to the unplanned cancer diagnosis of a family member, there’s an overwhelming weight and stress lifted when I accept the outcome of any and all circumstances looming over me. Healing. This is a practice I utilize daily. Taking time to quiet the noise and calm the chaos, meditation has become a huge component of my daily routine. It’s so easy to get caught up in the painful memories of the past and obsess over the anxieties of the future. How quickly I let chaos overwhelm my life rather than shifting my energy into a peaceful solution. It seems so simple, yet my unhealthy habits and thinking say otherwise.
The core issue of an individual struggling with addiction, is the fundamental inability to process emotion.
Mindfulness meditation has been an ever evolving tool that I utilize when I find myself drowning in seemingly unwarranted stressful emotions. Meditation requires surrender and acceptance of what was, what is, and what’s to come. Practicing meditation has set the tone for being present and slowing down to think before I react. Before I make any major decision, I always take time to pray and wait quietly for a response. Thus far, I’ve found myself practicing patience, being mindful of how I may affect others, and avoiding an abundance of unnecessary pain.
By Tricia Moceo
Tricia Moceo is an Outreach Specialist for Recovery Local, a local addiction/recovery based marketing company. She advocates long term sobriety by working with other websites like Tulip Hill Recovery, that provides meditations and resources to recovering addicts and shedding light on the disease of addiction. Tricia is a mother of two, actively involved in her local recovery community, and is passionate about helping other women find hope in seemingly hopeless situations.
Struggling and think meditation can help? Practice meditating now, whether you're experienced or brand new to it.
Meditate and Cultivate Calm with Keith Allen
Learn to Meditate with Alanna Kaivalya
Here at YogaDownload.com, we love to help make yoga available to as many people as we can, all over the globe. This week, we are thrilled to introduce our first dedicated Spanish Language Yoga Program: Yoga en Español. According to the World Economic Forum, the world’s most spoken languages are Chinese, Spanish, and English. As of 2018, that means Spanish is the second most spoken language, by roughly 437 million people, primarily in Spain, Latin America, and parts of the United States.
Currently, most yoga classes are offered in English, Sanskrit, or some combination of the two. Many students find learning the Sanskrit names for the yoga asanas or postures to be a daunting challenge. Sanskrit isn’t a spoken language, only existing in written form, so it takes a great deal of memorization to learn the pose names.
If English isn’t your first language, practicing yoga can be even more challenging due to language barriers.
When you throw in touching your toes, or standing on your head, the obstacles to starting or advancing in a yoga practice can be steep. We can’t promise you’ll stand on your head anytime soon, but if you are one of the hundreds of millions of Spanish speakers, you’ll appreciate practicing in your native tongue. Also, if you are learning Spanish, practicing in the language is a great way to improve your comprehension skills.
Three expert Spanish language yoga teachers from different regions around the world, including Spain, Ecuador, and Mexico, will be your guides in this well-rounded program.
Whether you are a beginner or advanced practitioner, there’s plenty of variety so you’ll have a solid program of classes for your home library. You’ll have access to everything from Basic Yoga, Yin, Vinyasa flow, to deeper practices on the Bandhas, and even a Chakra meditation. Check it out today!
Classes in the Yoga en Español program, include:
1. Noemi Nunez - Herramientas Básicas de Yoga
2. Noemi Nunez - Familiarizarse con las Bandhas
3. Noemi Nunez Meditación y Escaneo de Chakras
4. Michelle Smith - Balance
5. Michelle Smith Moviendo las Caderas
6. Michelle Smith - Siembra y Cultiva Intenciones
7. Uxia Alonso-Ellerby - Yin Yoga para Caderas Felices
8. Uxia Alonso-Ellerby - Buenos Dias
9. Uxia Alonso-Ellerby - Yoga para el Dolor de Espalda
10. Noemi Nunez - Yoga Para Todos
Si estás leyendo este texto seguramente te interesa o hayas practicado alguna vez yoga. Pero probablemente sólo conozcas una parte muy pequeña de lo que esta práctica milenaria implica.
Imagina que estamos en India, hace unos dos mil años, y quieres aprender sobre la práctica del yoga. Los maestros de aquella era te hubiera enseñado primero los Yamas y Niyamas, antes de las asanas y Pranayama (posturas de yoga y control de la respiración).
El maestro Patanjali (No está muy claro en que año. Algunos libros lo citan en el 400 ac, otros en la era común, otros en los 300 d.c.) escribió los Yoga Sutras, una recopilación de 196 aforismos o enseñanzas.
En estas enseñanzas describe lo que él llamó “8 ramas del yoga”, o guía o pautas para la práctica del yoga como forma de vida:
1. Yamas: Literalmente significa “restricciones” . Lo podemos describir como Código de conducta social, orientados a como tú te relacionas con el mundo.
2. Niyamas: Código de conducta personal, o como tú te relacionas contigo mismo.
3. Asanas : Posturas de yoga: casi lo único que conocemos en occidente sobre esta antigua práctica.
4. Pranayama: control de la energía vital o prana a través de la respiración.
5. Prathyahara: Observación interna. Literalmente es algo como “recogimiento de los sentidos”. Aislamiento sensorial de estímulos externos, para observar y escuchar en tu interior.
6. Dharana: concentración, calma mental.
7. Dhyana: meditación.
8. Samadhi: super consciencia, unión con lo divino.
Wow! Cuantas tareas eh?
No te preocupes, no necesitas seguirlas todas para sacar provecho a tu clase de yoga! Puedes empezar solo con asanas (posturas) y pranayama (control de la respiración), y una vez sientas en tu cuerpo, mente, y alma, los resultados de esta maravillosa práctica, entonces igual quieras profundizar sobre las otras 6 ramas.
Es más, incluso si no estás interesado en la práctica del yoga, estos 5 principios o yamas te ayudarán a tener una vida más plena y feliz.
Voy a intentar explicar de una manera fácil que son los Yamas. Y quien sabe, si este tema te interesa, quizás el próximo sea sobre los Niyamas!
Yamas: Como hemos comentado antes, Yamas significa literalmente “restricciones” relacionadas con tu conducta social. Qué no hacer. Podemos definirlo como la guía moral, ética y social para el yogui o yoguini. Son 5 :
Ahimsa: Literalmente “no dañar”. Podemos describirlo como No violencia. Ni con los demás, pero tampoco contigo mismo. Parece muy obvio, pero Ahimsa, tiene muchas más implicaciones: No solo se refiere a violencia física (matar o dañar a un ser vivo), también se aplica a tus pensamientos (ojo con esos pensamientos negativos, hacia tu cuerpo, hacia ti, o hacia otro ser humano…), y a la manera que tienes de reaccionar en tus experiencias del día a día: como reaccionas ante un atasco de tráfico cuando llegas tarde, eterna línea para pagar en el supermercado, etc.
Puedes empezar a aplicar este primer yama en tu práctica de yoga: No violencia con tu cuerpo: no lo fuerces, practica honrando a tu cuerpo, amando a tu cuerpo, escuchando sus necesidades. Después, llévalo a tu vida diaria: en tus reacciones ante los desafíos de la vida cotidiana. En tus pensamientos sobre los demás, y sobre ti mismo. Quizás siendo más compasivo, más benevolente…
Satya: Literalmente significa “verdad.” o “ no mentir”. Forma parte de los Yamas (restricciones) así que podemos entenderlo como decir la verdad con “moderación”. Es sobre ralentizar, filtrar, y cuidadosamente considerar nuestras palabras, para cuando las elijamos, estén en armonía con el primer Yama, Ahimsa.
Si decir esa verdad va a herir a alguien, y realmente no es necesario, es mejor evitar esa verdad. Esto es lo complejo de entender la práctica de Satya. Va sobre decir la verdad, pero contenida. También sobre ser sinceros y honestos con nosotros mismos.
Patanjali dictaminó que no hay palabras que puedan reflejar VERDAD a no ser que fluyan desde el espíritu de la no violencia.
Así que la próxima vez que quieras compartir una opinión con alguien, pregúntate antes:
-Es verdad?
-Es necesario?
-Es útil?
-Es amable o bondadoso?
Como aplicar Satya en tu tapete de yoga? Fácil, empezando por ser honesto contigo mismo y conocer los límites de tu cuerpo en ese momento. Céntrate en seguir el ritmo que tu cuerpo necesita, no el que tu vecino de tapete siga. Se honesto también con lo que quieres conseguir de esa práctica: igual tiene en mente una práctica fuerte, pero al sentarte en tu tapete sientes que tu cuerpo necesita otra cosa…
Comprométete con una práctica regular realista: cuantos días y cuanto tiempo puedes practicar
Asteya: significa no robar, no tomar lo que no nos pertenece. No solo se refiere a a quitarle a alguien lo que posee a nivel material, moral o intelectual, sino también a respetar sus derechos a la vida, su religión, creencias y cultura, sus ideas, méritos, etc.
Asteya nos enseña honestidad como forma de vida. Honestidad que consiste en contentarse con la justa retribución de tu labor y asegurarse de actuar de forma íntegra en cualquier circunstancia.
Asteya nos invita a vivir con integridad y reciprocidad.
Robamos a otros (robamos su tiempo, sus ideas, robamos la atención que merecen cuando por ejemplo alguien nos cuenta que un familiar acaba de morir, y nosotros encaminamos la conversación a la pérdida de un ser querido que hemos tenido recientemente…)
Robamos la la Madre Tierra. No sólo agarramos lo que no es nuestro. Sino que también nos creemos dueños de los que nos rodea. Desde le momento en el que naceos estamos en deuda con este sagrado regalo llamado vida, esta experiencia en nuestros cuerpos de humanos, y en esta maravillosa Madre Tierra.
Robamos a nuestro futuro: y el de nuestros hijos, y el de los hijos de nuestros hijos, etc. El exceso en nuestras vidas son señales de que estamos viviendo como si no hubiera un mañana, y nadie fuera a vivir aquí después de nuestra generación o la de nuestros hijos.
y nos robamos a nosotros mismos: robamos tiempo de descanso y contemplación, tiempo de reflexión, Robamos amor propio y auto-compasión. Robamos nuestra vitalidad con pensamientos negativos. Robamos la posibilidad de expansión poniéndonos barreras. Y así podemos seguir largo y tendido…
Como podemos aplicar Asteya en nuestros tapetes de yoga?
Brahmacharya: Moderación, auto-control, no excesos. En este yama vas a encontrar diferentes interpretaciones. Algunos lo han interpretado como celibato. La abstención de tener sexo, para centrar y focalizar toda la energía en tu práctica espiritual. Esto puede ser ciertamente uno de las aplicaciones de Brahmacharya, pero también implica mucho más: moderación en la comida, trabajo, ejercicio, entretenimiento, horas de sueño, posesiones materiales..
Nuestra sociedad es una sociedad de excesos. Estamos muy lejos de distinguir lo que es “suficiente”. En ayurveda (medicina india) se dice que cuando comes la cantidad “suficiente” de comida, obtendrás energía. Pero si te pasas de cantidad, entonces tu cuerpo entrará en en letargo. Si escuchas a tu cuerpo, podrás darte cuenta de cuando llega ese momento de “suficiente”.
Brahmacharya nos enseña que cuando tomamos control sobre nuestros impulsos y excesos, ganamos en sabiduría y aumentamos nuestra energía o vigor. Cada vez que superamos esos impulsos de excesos, nos volvemos más sabios, más sanos, y más fuertes.
Una de las principales metas de la práctica del yoga es encontrar y mantener equilibrio en nuestras vidas. La práctica de Brahmacharya te ayudará a equilibrar tu vida.
Aparigraha: Austeridad, no acaparamiento.
La época que viví en México, practicando y aprendiendo de mi maestro Michael Stewart, fue una de las más felices de mi vida. Después de haber estado trabajando en el mundo de la moda, ganando mucho dinero, y poseyendo muchos bienes materiales, me encontré que con mi práctica espiritual y una única mochila pude vivir lo más plenamente posible durante 6 meses. Ahora, viviendo el momento más feliz de mi vida aquí en Colorado, con mi amado esposo, y mi bebé, reconozco que envidio aquella mochila como única posesión. Cada vez que veo todo lo que estamos acumulando (viviendo en una casa grande, con un garaje grande) me entra una sensación de ahogo. Y lo único que me gusta de las mudanzas es todo lo que dejo ir.
El exceso de bienes materiales, y el apego que les tenemos, nos distrae de lo realmente importante en la vida.
Aprarigraha nos invita a dejar ir lo que ya no necesitamos, y preparar una mochila ligera para nuestro viaje de la vida, y poder ser capaces de disfrutar plenamente de este sagrado regalo que es la vida.
Vamos a usar un ejemplo: En Pranayama, (control de la respiración) usamos Kumbacas (retenciones de la respiración) como algo mágico para nuestra salud física y mental. Que pasa si esas retenciones son excesivas? Que se convierte en todo lo contrario, en veneno para el cuerpo. Esto mismo lo puedes aplicar a la posesión de bienes. Hay cosas que serán imprescindibles para cierto momento de tu vida. Pero si intentas retenerlo más tiempo del debido, se convertirá en una losa, en un veneno para tu libertad y tu felicidad.
Así que si quieres ser más feliz, deja ir lo que ya no necesitas, y mantén solo lo necesario para este momento de tu vida! Verás que alivio… Y lo mejor, tu próxima mudanza será mucho más fácil!
Cuando llevamos a la práctica estos 5 Yamas, nos estamos encaminando a una vida más sana, más ética, con más paz, más plena… No es una tarea fácil, pero paso a paso, iremos forjando nuestro carácter, mejorando nuestras relaciones con nosotros mismos y con los demás, y podrás seguir profundizando sobre tu práctica de yoga como estilo de vida.
Harás del mundo un sito mejor.
Namasté. Namaste es una forma de honrar a la otra persona, un modo de mostrar respeto, y agradecimiento desde la parte más profunda de nuestro ser: Lo divino en mí honra/saluda lo divino en ti.
By Uxia Ellerby
www.slowlife-uxiayoga.com
¡Practicar yoga con Uxia ahorita!
Stop and take a moment to consider the current state of your yoga practice. Have you fallen into a rut or are you in the process of growth? When is the last time you tried a new class or teacher––maybe one you’ve heard is challenging or different? Have you attempted a new asana lately, perhaps the one that scares you a little bit? If you’ve been practicing for a while, maybe it is time to step out of your comfort zone.
The best way to become a more advanced practitioner is to continue to learn about yourself and understand your strengths and your limitations. Remember we are all different: physically, mentally, and emotionally. According to the Yoga Sutras, in the eight-limbed path of yoga, self-study is called Svadyaya and it encompasses seeking within as well as learning from texts and books. Awareness is the sign of an advanced practitioner and one of the greatest indicators of it is your breath.
As you seek to become an “advanced yogi,” use the tool of calm steady breath to progress. An instant sign of a beginner is someone huffing and puffing to force themselves into a posture they aren’t ready for and that can lead to injury. Greater awareness also allows you to understand when you need a challenge and when you need to back off. Your breath is powerful and keeps you firmly planted in the present moment.
This week, we’re bringing you four of our top rated advanced yoga classes. Each instructor offers a new challenge for you and we want you to take the opportunity to test yourself. To access what may have seemed unattainable. Try each one of these classes with a discerning mind. Observe your breath. Work to understand your reaction when you are asked to do something you don’t want to do. Open yourself to trusting your breath and the sensations in your body as you move.
This week's top advanced classes 1. Align and Flow: Ashtanga Inspiration - Jack Cuneo
2. Apex Fusion Inversions: Up, Under, Down & Across - Shannon Paige
3. Absolution Flow: A Call to Arms - Mark Morford
4. Feel the Heat - Pradeep Teotia
Feeling a little unchallenged by your yoga practice? Perhaps you’re finding that you can do each pose without struggle, and you’re finding it all a little tedious. It’s time to shake up your practice!
With yoga there’s always more advanced variations, or different ways to change up your routine. While you might have seen some advanced yoga poses and instantly thought you’d never achieve them, if you’re finding yourself in a yoga rut, giving yourself a more difficult pose to aim for is a great way to bring some purpose back into your practice.
Here’s our run down of some trickier poses to aim for over the long term. Whether you're a master yogi, or a new beginner, there are always new poses to aim for to keep your practice inspiring.
1. Eka Hasta Vrksasana - One Handed Tree Pose
One handed tree pose, or Eka Hasta Vrksasana is a pose that requires tremendous determination, not to mention some seriously strong core muscles! This pose is essentially a one handed handstand, with your legs pointed out - so you look like a tree, as the name suggests. This is one of the advanced yoga poses that’s great for those who’ve already nailed the regular handstand. If you’re still working your way up to it, practicing inversions and poses leading up to a handstand, as well as working on your core strength will help you get to this pose eventually.
2. King pigeon
King Pigeon is a great pose if you’re working on backbends, and regular pigeon pose just isn’t doing it for you anymore. This advanced variation requires plenty of hip and back flexibility however, so make sure these areas are warmed up first. Lots of yogis like to incorporate this pose at the end of their practice, to work their bodies up to it. This is a great stretch for the lower body, while also increasing back strength. If you’re not quite there yet, keep practicing your pigeon pose, and incorporate a strap to help you slowly stretch your hands back towards your back foot.
3. Gandha Bherundasana - Formidable Face Pose
Ganda Bherundasana, or the Formidable Face Pose is an advanced yoga pose for those familiar with backbends - ideal for intermediate or advanced yogis. Not one to be attempted your first time on the matt! Work your way up to this pose by practicing backbends and strengthening your back and spine, and when you first attempt it use a block underneath your shoulders to ease any neck strains. The benefits of this pose make it a great goal to aim for - as well as strengthening your shoulders and arms, it also increases balance and opens your throat chakra.
4. Sayanasana - Scorpion Pose Variation
Scorpion Pose is also known as Sayanasana, and works by balancing on your forearms and stretching your feet towards your head. This advanced yoga pose requires serious arm strength and spine flexibility. You can work your way towards these poses by practicing dolphin pose and dolphin plank to strengthen your shoulders, and camel pose to open up the spine and create that flexibility that’s essential to Scorpion. Headstands and handstands are also good to work on in preparation for attempting Scorpion and getting your body used to being inverted! REmember, you can always start off against a wall for balance when you’re starting out in Scorpion - this pose takes practice! When you’ve mastered it you’ll benefit from spine flexibility, strong arms and shoulders and increased balance.
5. Taraksvasana - Handstand Scorpion
If you master Scorpion, take it up a notch by progressing into Taraksvasana, or Handstand Scorpion. This pose takes the Scorpion pose off your forearms, and as the name suggests, takes it up onto the hands. A variation on this pose can take one leg raised straight up, instead of having both feet resting on the head. If you can work your way up to this pose, it helps to strengthen your ab, shoulder and back muscles and gives you a better sense of balance.
6. Yoganidrasana - Yoga Sleep Pose
Yoga Sleep Pose may look uncomfortable, but it’s supposedly lets you reach a state of deep relaxation. Yoga Sleep Pose, or Yoganidrasana, triggers a state of pratyahara, a withdrawal of the senses which helps you reach inner peace and shake off the day to day stresses in your life. Yoga Sleep Pose also helps stretch those deep deep muscles in your back and spine, as well as ease tension in the neck. This pose requires flexibility in your hips and hamstrings, so work on hip openers and hamstring stretches to work your way up to this complicated pose.
7. Chakra Bond Pose
The Chakra Bond Pose is a variant on the Chakrasana, which can be attempted by any yoga level. This backbend is great for stretching the chest and expanding the shoulders, while strengthening your whole body. If you’re bored of the basic Chakrasana, work your way up to Chakra Bond by backbending to hold the ankles. This is one of the most advanced variations of Chakrasana and requires a lot of flexibility in the back. Be patient and slowly work your way up to the full variation of this pose - it’s not one to try straight away!
8. Pungu Mayurasana - Wounded Peacock
Wounded Peacock, or Pungu Mayurasana is the peacock pose, while balancing on one arm. It requires plenty of arm, shoulder and wrist strength as it balances all of your body weight in on hand. This pose is a great pose to massage the abdominals, and improve your digestion, as well as easing stomach conditions. It’s important to practice this pose on both sides, for digestive balance! Work your way up to wounded peacock by mastering the peacock pose with two arms. You can spread your legs apart if you’re struggling with your balance, or you can spread your other arm to the side too.
Inspired to take your practice to another level? Practice these advanced classes now!
It’s that time of year – sweet treat time! Over the next few months, it’s likely that you’ll be attending holiday parties, cookie exchange, or just have a hankering to do some baking. And, as you know, we’re on a mission to enjoy life while making it healthier.
So our cookie recipe today is low sugar, but also nut, seed, grain, dairy, egg, and gluten free. My 2-year-old daughter is allergic to all of the above, so I’m continually looking for ways to make something that she’ll love, as well as any of her friends. That’s a tall list of no-no foods, so finding a flour that checks all of those boxes has made my life so much easier.
The secret ingredient in our Raw Cookie Dough Balls is tigernut flour, which is not a nut but a small root vegetable. This little tuber is chock-full of fiber, protein, magnesium and zinc and has a slightly sweet and nutty flavor.
It’s my new favorite go-to flour when baking, because it actually replaces typical flour in a 1:1 ratio! Isn’t that the best news ever? Now there’s no need to do any conversions when baking.
Last Thanksgiving, I made a sweet potato bar with a tigernut crust and it was out of this world! If you want to see this mouthwatering treat, check out our Instagram page. I also made our Banana Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Frosting recipe from tigernut flour for my nephew’s 1st birthday.
You can find tigernut flour online and most likely at your natural grocer. I’ve seen it at Whole Foods in several places across the country.
We hope you enjoy our little bite-size chocolate chip cookies that was inspired by our love of raw cookie dough. This cookie is guilt-free and filled with chocolatey goodness. It’s so simple that you can make it in 10-min or less!
If you’re looking for other healthy sweet treats this season, be sure to check out more of our recipes on our website!
To sweet treats without the sweet hangover,
Raw Cookie Dough Balls
Yield: 12 balls
1 ½ cups tigernut flour ¼ tsp sea salt 2 TB. raw honey or maple syrup 1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract 4 TB. olive oil 4-6 TB. Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips or cacao nibs
Instructions: Place the tigernut flour, sea salt, honey, vanilla extract, and olive oil in a small bowl. Using your hands or the back of a wooden spoon rub all the ingredients together until they form a coarse meal and are distributed evenly. Add the chocolate chips (or cacao nibs) and mix. Scoop a heaping tablespoon of the mixture and roll until it holds together into small balls. You may need to add a splash more olive oil to get the mixture to the correct consistency. Chill/freeze for up to 1 week. (if they last that long!)
Have you eaten too many non-healthy cookies? Practice the Yoga for Detox from Overindulgence package to have you feeling refreshed!
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!
1. Practice Mindfulness: When you feel depressed, everything around you seems incorrect. You start to see things negatively and undermine your capabilities. For example, you may end up feeling that you are not competent enough to perform a job or task. This may make you feel demeaned.
You need to practice mindfulness by focusing your attention on your ambition. Have a strategized plan and engage yourself in working towards achieving your goals and leave no room for worries or negative thoughts. 2. Listening to Music: Music is food for the soul. It helps you soothe when you are feeling low, hopeless or heartbroken. The distraction provides maybe temporary, but for some time it calms you and enables you to become thoughtless, giving a break to your mind. When you feel negative emotions, try listening to soothing and positive music and get your groove back. 3. Avoid Negative Talk: Give value to your thoughts and the way you talk. Usually, if you talk and think in a certain way over a period, it automatically becomes your way of life. If you give less value to yourself and talk more negatively, then you will certainly feel depressed. Avoid negative conversations and people with a negative outlook. 4. Gratitude: Practice the art of gratitude. Every morning when you wake up, jot down five blessings (this will become easier with practice) and every night before you sleep, thank god for these blessings. This practice will help you shift your mindset towards becoming more positive. 5. Exercise and Meditation: That’s right. Exercise results in endorphins (happy hormones) being released in your brain, whereas meditation helps you relax, release stress and regain focus. Both are good cures for depression, and this has been medically proven. If you're feeling depressed, try forcing yourself to get moving to help fight depression.
Conclusion: Depression has become a thorn in our flesh in today's fast evolving world. Everyone from young to old is prone to depression. The death toll caused due to depression has increased.
We need to start taking depression seriously and take the right approach to end it before it ends us. It is very important that we understand when we need help and take steps to overcome depression rather than succumb to it.
By Anubhav Verma Anubhav works with Amayaan. Amayaan helps you motivate and prepare for a healthy living through a 360-degree approach to wellness. This includes physical,mental,spiritual,emotional and environmental well being which is essential for your overall welfare.
Not feeling your best? Practice yoga to help fight depression now!
Yoga for Depression: Flow into Happiness with Maria Garre
We don’t know about you, but sometimes if we don’t have time for a full yoga practice, we find it is easy to skip it altogether. Often life becomes hectic and you simply can’t make it onto the mat as frequently as you’d like. Don’t throw in the proverbial towel, instead shift your perspective to seeing how a quickie practice is better than none. We’ve got some great classes to help you squeeze in some yoga on your lunch or workday break. Even a few minutes a day will help you maintain your flexibility, strength, and mental focus.
Depending upon the type of work you do, you may need to counteract the effects of sitting at a desk for hours or standing on your feet.
Here’s what a quick break can do if you’ve been sitting too long: open up your spine from tailbone to crown, loosen your shoulders, and release your hip flexors. Sitting for long periods can compress your spine and leave you vulnerable to back pain. If you’ve re-read the last sentence on the document you’re working on five times and it still doesn’t make sense that means you need a break. In as little as five minutes, you can change how you are feeling and find clarity.
If you stand or are active during the day, you also need to hit the reset button and make sure to get off your feet and recharge. With the right mini-practice, you’ll increase your stamina and ability to stay focused on the job at hand.
What we love about these quick classes is they allow you to maintain your regular practice when you are short on time.
A little effort reaps great rewards. No more excuses! Enjoy these four excellent practices that are designed to create productive, happy, and healthy workdays. Whether your need to move your body, want to improve your focus and concentration, need some de-stressing from your to-do list, or simply want to add some healthy habits in the midst of your routine, these classes are ideal. Add one, or all of them into your routine.
Check out these classes this week, perfect for fitting yoga into your lunch break!
Brain Break with Ellen Kaye
Midday Reset with Caitlin Rose Kenney
Qi Lunchtime Flow with Kylie Larson
Yoga for Focus & Concentration with Jackie Casal Mahrou
While we hear a lot about how yoga is great for winding down and relaxation, you may not know that yoga can help productivity. Yes, yoga is a great escape from our busy working lives, but there are many ways that practicing yoga can help us get more work done, increase concentration and send your productivity levels soaring.
Here’s 10 ways yoga can help productivity at work.
1. Yoga Relieves Stress
Stress is one of the major factors that can affect your health and work productivity. When we’re feeling stressed we sleep less, any illnesses or physical conditions can be exacerbated, and our mental health suffers too. If you’re stressed at work, you can find it hard to focus, and you may even need to take time off sick. Practicing yoga, even just for ten minutes daily can help release any tension in the body, and allows you to feel more relaxed, beating the work stress and letting you go back to your desk with a clear, calm mind.
2. Yoga Improves your Concentration Levels
One of the biggest hurdles on the path to a more productive workday is procrastination. It’s so easy now to get distracted while you’re sat at your desk, and you might find your to-do list never seems to get shorter despite the hours spent in the office. Practicing yoga allows you to take some time to focus on your breathing. The deep breaths you take during a yoga flow regulates oxygen in your blood. This will make you more alert and helps you concentrate on the tasks at hand.
3. Yoga Makes you More Creative
Taking time out to practice yoga not only improves your concentration levels, it can also open your mind to more creative and out of the box ideas. The emotional release yoga can give the mind can boost creativity. This is because when the mind is calm, the relationship between our emotions and rational train of thought can work together, helping us work through mental blocks and look at things from a different frame of mind.
4. Yoga eases physical ailments
The aches and pains that come from hard work can actually affect our productivity. If you work in a desk job, you’ll no doubt be no stranger to back aches, neck soreness, and eye strains. Untreated, these aches and pains can get worse and worse, and turn into headaches, stiffness, arthritis or carpal tunnel. Heading to the matt can keep physical problems away, and loosen our muscles from sitting over a computer everyday. And when you feel relaxed physically, you’ll be able to be much more productive than if you’re sore and stiff.
5. Yoga can fight fatigue
You may not think it, even sitting at a desk working can cause fatigue. You may think because you’re not being active you won’t suffer from fatigue from working. However, even if you work at a desk, fatigue can build up over the days and weeks, causing you to feel exhausted, and impacting your production levels. Stretching and gentle exercise like yoga can help increase your blood circulation, which reduces fatigue and gives your body higher energy levels.
6. Yoga increases positivity
A positive mindframe is key in being a productive, happy employee. And yoga helps in calming your mind and giving you an optimistic outlook. Yoga helps improve your physical and mental health, leading to a high morale; as well as improving your energy levels and creativity to increase your positivity. Taking even just 10 minutes during your work day to practice yoga stretching or breathing exercise can hugely increase workplace morale, meaning more work gets done.
7. Yoga boosts your immune system
Yoga can be used alongside medicine to help ease, treat and fight off a range of illness, such as colds, flu or arthritis. Not only does yoga practice increase your overall health levels, but regular practice can also improve the function of your cardiovascular, respiratory and digestive systems. This helps your body stay strong and healthy to fight off viruses and infections. Practicing yoga can also improve your lymphatic circulation - the lymphatic fluids are a very important part of your immune system, working to fight bacteria and destroying old and abnormal cells in the body.
8. Yoga reduces depression and anxiety
Yoga can help fight off depression and anxiety, which in turn can do wonders for your production levels. Maintaining strong mental health is just as important for your physical health, especially in the workplace. Yoga reduces stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, which can cause anxiety and depression. AS well as this, practicing yoga can help you focus on something as simple as your breathing when you are feeling overwhelmed, helping the negative feelings pass and keeping your mind present.
9. Yoga improves sleep
A tired mind is not a productive mind, and if you’re consistently not sleeping well, chances are your work is going to suffer for it. We’ve already explained how yoga reduces stress - which is a number one suspect when it comes to sleepless nights. Yoga can also regulate your nervous system. If you’re prone to lying in bed with your mind racing, your nervous system is working in overdrive. Yoga can help to activate the side of your nervous system that controls resting (your parasympathetic nervous system), helping you fall asleep, and more importantly, stay asleep.
10. Prefrontal stimulation
Finally, yoga works to stimulate the part of your brain that controls critical decision making. This is called the prefrontal lobes of the brain. This can help your brain work quicker, and as an added bonus, it’s also the part of the brain where your ‘happy’ hormones are released!
Need yoga at your desk in the middle of your workday? Practice Yoga for Desk Jockeys now!
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!
1. Meditation Improves the Capacity of Your Working Memory
When you’re studying, you feel like you’re just glimpsing through the information without actually remember anything you read? That’s because your mind wanders. You’re thinking about that party you’re about to go to while you study. When you go to that party, you feel guilty about not studying enough, so you can’t even have fun like you’re supposed to do.
Your mind is prone to distractions of all kinds. It randomly wanders away. Meditation can help you train it. That’s not just a claim; it’s a fact.
One study showed that mindfulness (with meditation as its integral part) is an effective way to improve cognitive functions and improve the capacity of working memory. The scientists noticed reduced mind wandering among participants who were prone to distractions prior to the mindfulness training.
2. Meditation Helps You Focus
Maintaining focus is one of the biggest struggles for most students. The classes are just too long and the papers are just too boring to keep your attention. With proper and regular meditation, you can improve your ability to focus.
A research study proved that. This one is called Meditation increases the depth of information processing and improves the allocation of attention in space. To get to those findings, the researchers observed meditation practitioners in controlled environment. The meditators showed enhanced depth of processing information and were able to allocate and relocated their attention in a much faster way.
3. Meditation Relieves Stress
This is probably one of the most important benefits you’ll experience from meditation. You’ll notice it as soon as you start practicing, but meditation will have long-term effects if you’re consistent in your practice.
Meditation makes you more resilient to stress. With regular practice, you train your mind how to stay calm under challenging circumstances. You could certainly use such a superpower during exam week.
4. Meditation Reduces the Feeling of Fatigue
Life is too tiring right now? It clearly is when you have so much to do within a single day!
Researchers showed that brief meditation sessions reduce fatigue and boost your ability to pay attention. The participants of the study had no prior experience in mediation, but they reported feeling less tired and more attentive after only 4 days of meditation training.
So after an extremely challenging day, just sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes, and meditate. You can choose any style of meditation as long as you know how to do it. This practice will help you deal with fatigue, but you’ll still need your healthy sleep every night.
5. Meditation Boosts Your Immunity
You know that you have to stay healthy, so you’ll be able to study and attend classes. When you’re getting frequent colds, that’s an impossible goal to achieve.
As it turns out, meditation also improves your body’s immune functions. Researchers found a significant boost in antibody titers to influenza vaccine among the subjects who practiced meditation.
6. Meditation Keeps Your Brain Young
The human brain is getting weaker as it ages. For example, it’s much easier for a 7-year-old child to learn a foreign language than for a 50-year-old person to learn the same language. It’s not because the child has more time; it’s because they have a younger, more perceptive brain.
With all that information your brain processes during your studies, it’s important to keep it in shape. Meditation helps with that.
7. Meditation Boosts Your Self-Confidence
Do you feel nervous about taking part in discussions during class? Are you hesitating to ask or answer questions? That’s because you lack self-confidence. Even when you know something, the thought of speaking up in front of all those people may be terrifying.
If you suffer from social anxiety and fear of public speaking, meditation can help you become more self-confident. One study showed that practitioners with social anxiety experienced increased self-esteem and decreased anxiety as effects of mindfulness-based meditation.
For whatever troubles you experience at college, meditation may be the answer. The good news is that it doesn’t take much of your time and it’s easy enough for anyone to practice it. You only need to try. There’s nothing you could possibly lose and you have a lot to gain!
By Silvia Woolard
Silvia Woolard is a professional writer at UK Best Essays and a novice entrepreneur from Phoenix. In her free time, she writes and works in a field of popular psychology and marketing. Read Silvia at her Twitter.
Sitting at a desk all day studying? Practice the Yoga for Desk Jockeys package to keep you focused!
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. When you contemplate how fear impacts you, you’ll realize both courage and fear are housed in the heart. Courage and love are often used interchangeably––being vulnerable is one of the greatest acts of strength. We face the choice to act from a place of bravery or operate from a place of fear every day.
Our yoga practice can help us conquer our fears and shift our attitude off the mat.
On the mat, take a moment to identify what scares you––falling, looking silly, or injuring yourself? When you know exactly what is holding you back, it’s easier to work on overcoming fear to move forward. If it’s ego, let it go. Trust us, nobody is paying attention to what you’re doing on your mat, they are too focused on their own experience. If you have physical limitations, of course be smart and protect yourself, but often we hold back because of a perceived fear, not an actual limitation. Look inward and ask yourself what you are doing.
During a consistent practice, you have time for self-contemplation and that allows you time to understand what fears are hindering you living your fullest, most free life. Greater discernment empowers us. We’re not saying you will live your life fearless at all times. Instead, work toward the understanding that often fear lives in our mind and we have the power to transform fear into freedom.
This week we’ve got four new practices designed to help you face your fears and transcend them through mindful movement, breath, and meditation. Happy Halloween!
Enjoy this four new classes now, to support yourself in overcoming fear!
1. Jackie Casal Mahrou - Empowerment Flow 4: Know Thyself
2. Dia Michelle Smith - Embracing Impermanence: A Death Meditation
3. Bhavani Maki - Fearless Love: Backbending into Freedom
4. Claire Petretti Marti - Overcome Fear: Chakra Balancing Flow
It’s the season to be spooky, even in your yoga practice!
The good news is, you can get the heebie jeebies right from the mat. Some of your favorite asanas are inspired by some rather haunting ideas. Don’t be surprised - yoga is about the balance of opposites: solar and lunar, hold and release, and of course, light and darkness.
So we’ve put together a sequence of the creepiest, crawliest postures to get you exploring your spooky side.
Here are the 7 scariest yoga poses to get you in the mood for Halloween!
1. Cat Pose: arch, hiss and strike fear into the heart of the superstitiously inclined.
2. Warrior Poses: the ancient story of these asanas tells of the warrior Virabhadra raising his sword (Warrior I), cutting off the head of his enemy (Warrior II) and delivering it to his commander (Warrior III). R-rated stuff.
3. Fetus Pose: a great balancing hip opener, unless you’ve just watched Rosemary’s Baby.
4. Noose Pose: the execution of this pose offers a deep, detoxing twist.
5. Locust: a plague upon whatever gets between you and your practice!
6. Dead Bug Pose: also known as Happy Baby pose – but not today!
7. Corpse Pose (Savasana): your final resting place.
Nama-stay creepy!
Happy Autumn (and happy Spring for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere)!
With the school year well under way here in Colorado, we wanted to share a recipe that is a great go-to when you don’t have much time. As working moms with little ones, we know how hard it can be to make sure your family gets a nutritious dinner while trying to juggle all your other responsibilities. That’s where this recipe comes in! This stir fry is healthy, delicious, and best of all, can be on the table in less than 30 minutes.
This recipe is also super versatile – it can be easily modified to use whatever veggies or protein you have on hand.
You could even make it vegetarian or vegan by substituting the turkey with quinoa or cauliflower rice and omitting the fish sauce. So many possibilities!
Do you have a favorite recipe you’d like us to give a Conscious Cleanse makeover? Let us know in the comments!
With love and simple weeknight dinners,
Weeknight Turkey Broccoli Stir Fry
1 ½ TB. olive oil 2 cloves of garlic 1 ½ lb. ground turkey 1 head of broccoli, chopped into bite sized pieces 2 cup snow peas 2 cup shiitake mushrooms 1 TB. grated ginger 3 TB. coconut aminos 3 TB. apple cider vinegar 2 tsp. Red Boat fish sauce 1 ½ tsp. sesame oil ¼ tsp. crushed red pepper 2-3 green onions, for garnish Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions: In a large skillet or wok over medium heat, heat olive oil and garlic for 2 minutes. Add ground turkey, stirring to break larger chunks into small pieces. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes or until the turkey is crumbly and no longer pink. Stir in broccoli, snow peas and shitiake mushrooms and ginger and cook for 5 minutes. Vegetables should be lightly cooked, not wilted. Stir in the coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar, fish sauce, sesame oil and crushed red pepper. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove the skillet from heat, top with chopped green onions for garnish.
Practice yoga with Jo of the Conscious Cleanse right now, from wherever you are!
Conscious Cleanse Detox Flow with Jo Schaalman
“Also, I could finally sleep. And this was the real gift, because when you cannot sleep, you cannot get yourself out of the ditch–there’s not a chance.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
One of the most agonizing states I know is the purgatory of insomnia, when I am exhausted and desperate to sleep but still my mind and body hold me captive in the waking world. If the Centers for Disease Control statistic that one in three adult Americans are not getting enough deep sleep on regular basis is right, you may well know this particular agony also. Sleep, so seemingly simple, continues to allude many of us.
Why does sleep matter anyway? As Liz Gilbert says, we must sleep well enough and long enough in order to stay out of the “ditch.”
Here are some of my favorite practices and tips to set myself up for good sleep.
Design your own unique Power Down Hour by choosing which ones work best for you and practicing them consistently.
Start winding down an hour before the time you’re wanting to fall asleep.
Practice gentle evening yoga – I’ve got a few perfect classes for you right here on yogadownload.com.
Turn your lights down low lights, or light some candles instead.
Stop using TV, computer or handheld device screens two hours before sleep, or if you must be in front of the screen, wear blue light blocking glasses (which make a stylin’ evening yoga accessory!)
Make sure you’re well-hydrated, but try not to drink liquids just before bed so you won’t have to get up in the middle of the night to eliminate.
Take an epsom salt bath or warm shower.
Rub lavender oil into the soles of your feet, or sprinkle a drop onto your pillow case.
Eat earlyish in the evening to be finished digesting before slumbering. Consider taking an evening walk after dinner.
Brew yourself up some turmeric Golden Milk for an after dinner treat.
Write out a gratitude list in your journal, or do a “brain dump” exercise if your mind is still busy from your day.
Ask your doctor about taking Magnesium before bed. Generally helps sleep, muscular relaxation and digestion.
Spend a few minutes rolling around on the floor with Yoga Tune Up Balls.
When you get into bed, take a few deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth, then scan your body for any tension and give it permission to relax.
Consider using an app to help you fall asleep. This NPR piece details which ones work best and why.
Sweet dreams, Elise
By Elise Fabricant
Elise is a life coach and teacher on YogaDownload.com.
Want some more support on getting enough quality rest? Elise's online course REVIVE: 30 Days to Vitality, Health & Ease dives deeper sleeping rituals and other yogic lifestyle habits. I’m also always at your service for one-on-one coaching. If you’re ready to make big changes in all aspects of your life, sign up for a complimentary clarity session here.
Practice the Yoga for Better Sleep program now, for a restful night's sleep.
Do you know anyone who couldn’t benefit from cultivating more patience? We’ve become so accustomed to moving at a breakneck speed in life, from speeding down busy highways to accessing any type of information on our phones in nano-seconds that we rarely hit the pause button. Often we translate that hectic pace into our yoga practice.
While a juicy Vinyasa flow class is wonderful for many reasons, if you are out of balance, this type of Yang or active practice can actually exacerbate feelings of impatience, anxiety, and anger. Sometimes when life is moving too fast, the best thing you can do is slow down to equalize out your energy.
Enter Yin Yoga. What is Yin Yoga? There are three tattvas or principles of Yin Yoga. It is characterized by getting into a posture, becoming as still as you can, and holding it for time, often up to five minutes. If you’re unfamiliar with this style of yoga, read on for all they benefits you’ll receive by quieting down.
In a Yin Yoga class, you will practice a handful of postures, most of them seated or lying down. You won’t sweat or build heat, and that’s the point. Don’t mistake the lack of sweating as a lack of effort, in fact, these deep poses include moments of profound intensity. Holding poses for a longer period of time forces us to tune in to what emotions are coming up for us. There’s nowhere to go.
Different areas of our bodies relate to certain emotions. You’ve probably heard that past trauma or stress sits in our hips. Many Yin postures involve some type of hip opening. If you haven’t held Pigeon pose for five minutes, you haven’t lived! These poses are often uncomfortable and there’s no flowing out of them after five breaths, like in an Ashtanga class.
There is nothing else to do but breathe and cope with whatever comes up for you in the pose.
In addition to digging into your emotions, Yin is excellent for going deeper than the muscular level and benefiting your ligaments, connective tissue, and joints. So, if you’re an athlete and looking to balance out all the work you do training for your sport, Yin can be a great option to help prevent injuries. Physically, emotionally, and mentally, one of the main goals in Yin is to access a sense of surrender in each pose. So, if you are ready to cultivate more patience, lightness, and softness, we’ve got 9 Yin practices with varied lengths and focuses to help you relax.
Treat yourself to this 9-class Yin Yoga package now!
If you haven’t tried Yin Yoga the classic “what are you waiting for?!” question comes to mind. Yin Yoga can be described as a treat to the body, a slowly moving meditation, a way to connect with what’s really going on internally. When I do a lot of cardio and strength training workouts, Yin Yoga is my sanctuary. If I am not that active, Yin Yoga is a relaxing time where I can check in with how my body is feeling.
So, what exactly is Yin Yoga? Let's take a look at this unique and healing practice!
Yin Yoga is influenced by the philosophies of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Yin poses are created with the intent to improve the flow of chi, the subtle and invisibly energy that some believe run through the meridian pathways in the body. Whenever there is an excess or lack of chi, the body is said to become unbalanced. Yin poses are working with meridian lines to help circulate chi throughout the body and release stagnant energy to help the body function optimally. Yin Yoga is similar to acupuncture in theory, both target intersections of meridians to stimulate and restore chi. The belief is that when chi flows freely, our mind, body and soul function much more harmoniously.
The concept of yin and yang
The concept of yin and yang comes from the opposite and complementary principles in nature. Yin is the unmoving, stable and hidden aspect of things; yang is the changing, moving, revealing aspect. Tolerance, reflection, allowance and passivity are yin qualities. Doing, controlling, improving and achieving are yang qualities. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, both are necessary and neither is superior. Balance is found between having both.
Yin Yoga works on slow holds in postures as opposed to more vigorous and fluid yang practices. Yang practices focus on movement, strength, and using a lot of muscle to produce heat. One of the main objective’s of yin yoga is to open and release connective tissues, joints, and ligaments that have become tight from stress, poor posture, injuries and emotional pain stored in the body. Yin Yoga can bring emotions to the surface which helps you process and let them go.
What to expect during a Yin Yoga class
You can expect a Yin Yoga class to generally consist of long-held poses that mainly work the lower part of the body. Parts of the body that are worked on most during yin include the hips, inner thighs, and lower spine because these areas are especially rich in connective tissues.
Opposed to other styles of yoga, Yin Yoga poses are held for up to five minutes. If you’re new to Yin Yoga, it’s not unusual to find this uncomfortable at first. The reason for holding the poses for periods of time in yogi terms is to “find your edge.” Yin poses aren’t about moving too deep but finding your edge and being able to let muscles go in the stretch and access the deeper tissues. Holding poses for a longer period of time is said to help the chi move deeper into the body and start any healing process needed.
Mentally, holding poses and pushing through discomfort increases mindfulness and teaches stillness. It’s helping build your tolerance and push limits of what you can handle on and off the mat.
Benefits of Yin Yoga
Helps promote the strength, vitality, hydration, and mobility of connective tissues
Improves the flow of chi
Calming
Helps bring the mind to a meditative state
Reduces stress and anxiety
Increases circulation
Releases fascia
Improves joint mobility
Yin Yoga is for everyone
One of the great things about Yin Yoga is that it’s for everyone. Regardless of ability or age, Yin Yoga uses very little muscular effort and is safe. Practicing Yin Yoga on a regular basis enhances your natural range of mobility, increases flexibility and helps to strengthen the mind-body connection. Yin Yoga gives you the best of both worlds, a workout for neglected areas of the body and the opportunity to go inward and clear your mind.
By Suzanne Kvilhaug
Immerse yourself in Yin Yoga now, with a 9-class package!
Fall is finally here in Colorado and pumpkin season is upon us! This time of year, it seems like EVERYTHING is pumpkin-spiced! So why not take advantage of the flavor for your skincare routine? We’ve developed a non-toxic Pumpkin Facial Scrub that is not only great for your skin, but will leave you smelling like sugar and spice and everything nice.
Besides being the flavor of fall, pumpkin has many hidden benefits for your skin! When used topically, pumpkin can help brighten dull complexions, is full of antioxidants, and has anti-aging properties. Sugar gently exfoliates dead skin away, while avocado oil and coconut oil help to moisturize and cleanse your skin. Honey is antibacterial, which can help acne-prone complexions, and cinnamon can help increase blood flow and plump skin.
(Note: If you have sensitive skin, make sure to spot test this scrub on your arm before using on your face.)
For more non-toxic skincare, download our free natural skincare guide here.
Are you ready to get your pumpkin-spiced glow on? Try this scrub today!
With love and pumpkin spice,
Pumpkin Facial Scrub
Yield: 1 ½ cups
1 cup raw sugar (the finer the crystals the better!) ¼ cup avocado oil ¼ cup coconut oil, melted ¼ tsp. cinnamon ⅛ tsp. ground ginger ½ tsp. vanilla 1 TB. raw honey 2 TB. pumpkin puree
Instructions: In a small bowl combine the sugar, avocado oil, coconut oil, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, raw honey, and pumpkin puree. Mix until no lumps remain. Place the mixture into a mason jar and cover. Massage 1-2 TB. onto your face and neck. Let sit for a few minutes to let your skin soak in the beneficial oils. Remove using a warm damp wash cloth. Use once or twice a week to help your skin glow! This can be kept unrefrigerated for up to one week, after that store in the refrigerator for up to one more week. If refrigerated, let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour to soften.
Practice Yoga for Detox, Cleansing, & Vitality to help have radiant looking skin!
Handstand is a pose that might seem unattainable or impossible at first sight. However, with persistence, technique, and patience, anyone can learn how to do a handstand with time.
Learning to engage the shoulders, core, and arms properly, will increase and build steadiness over time. From there, handstand becomes easier to refine. They key, in practicing and integrating these simple tips, is patience. Anyone who takes the time and is patient, can learn how to do a handstand, regardless of how hard it may seem in the beginning.
Here are 5 simple and concise tips for learning how to do a handstand:
1. Press down more through inner hands
2. Keep legs very straight and strong
3. Press arms to straight and strong
4. Kick up to handstand at the bottom of an exhale
5. Gaze slightly forward and down
More importantly then how to do the pose, is why is it worth taking the time and energy to learn how to do a handstand?
Here are 5 of the best benefits of handstands:
1. More Patience: It is healthy to practice poses that you may not nail in one class. Chances are, holding a handstand takes considerable time and persistence. In a culture that loves quick fixes, cultivating patience through practicing something like handstand, has value.
2. Upper Body Strength: Even prepping from handstand strengthens the upper body and trapezius muscles. Whereas, many yoga poses fovea flexibility over strength, handstand is more a more strength based posture and will tone your upper body.
3. Better Balance: Handstand is a balancing pose. Balancing postures are meant to help you feel balance inside. To balance in a yoga pose, means needing to use your entire body, in unison, as a connected whole. Through practicing handstand, whether or not you’re able to stay balanced, you’re practicing inner balance.
4. More Confidence: It takes courage to go upside down and learning how to do a handstand is (something that is seemingly impossible to most people), can help cultivate a healthy sense of confidence. While, well-being is never worth assessing based on external circumstances (like how much money we have, or whether or not we can balance on our hands), working towards something intimidating over time, and mastering it, is something to be proud of. The benefits learned on a yoga mat, have the potential to create more confidence and breakthroughs in other areas of life as well.
5. Strong Core: You cannot do this posture without knowing how to engage your core properly. This pose incorporates the use of your lower abdominals in connecting your legs, which must be powerful in the pose, with your arms, that are your source of balance. Doing this pose over time will not only make your core stronger, but also make you more in tune with how to use your core.
By Keith Allen
These 5 handstand tips are taken from Keith's book, The Yoga Fix. Keith teaches yoga internationally, leading teacher trainings, retreats, and workshops. He also teaches on Yoga Download. In addition to yoga, Keith is passionate about traveling the world, producing videos, meditation, skiing, making art, and enjoying music. Connect with him on his website or instagram!
Learn how to do a handstand now!
Upside Down Flow with Keith Allen
Handstand Workshop with Channing Grivas