Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

Jo Schaalman of the Conscious Cleanse provides five greatly beneficial practices to achieve mindful eating. Taking time to eat in general can be somewhat of an inconvenience to busy schedules; not to mention actually concentrating on the act. The benefits of this practice, however, range from increased energy, brighter mood and improved mental capacities. Who doesn't have time for that?

The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers. – Thich Nhat Hanh

I love food. I like to be on the go. Sometimes that’s a bad combination for my health goals…unless I prepare.

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures and beauty that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” ~ Jawaharlal Nehru

Summer is just around the corner and that means it’s time to fire up the grill! As the resident vegetarian in my household, I’m always looking for veggie options to throw on the grill. I love me some grillin’ season because it’s fast, easy and the best part–there is little to no clean up! Can I get an Amen!

After battling my own weight for years, I’ve come to realize that the harder I try to lose weight the less weight I actually lose. Sound familiar?

Through my practice of yoga and during my yoga teacher training program, I learned so much about how to be more neutral and open-minded. The biggest yoga lesson that allows my marriage to help me learn about myself and life is to allows have a beginners mind. At no point will I believe to "have this down" or "be an expert on marriage". However, I will know what feels right at that moment and how I can get better at my relationship with myself and my partner. I look forward to seeing what my marriage lessons will be like in 5 more years when experiencing it each day with a beginners mind.

We hear it all the time. “I don’t have time to spend all day in the kitchen making my own food.” I get it. Not all that long ago, 4 years to be exact, “cooking” in my world used to mean swinging by the Whole Foods’ salad bar. Frankly, I didn’t think I had the time to cook for myself, nor did I really want to put forth what seemed in my head to be so much effort.

Want to change the world? “Be the change you wish to see.” Mahatma Ghandi said that. Don’t try to change the world, just change yourself. Sounds familiar right? I’m sure you’ve seen quotes like this everywhere. Seems easy enough right?

When we begin working towards a new health or fitness goal, we often consider what we’ll need to do physically and sometimes even what we might change in our eating habits. But rarely do we consider what needs to change in our minds. The reality is however, without serious consideration to how you feed or exercise your mind; you are setting yourself up to repeat previous patterns of results. Fine if your results have equaled success, but not so good if they’ve not gotten you to where you want to be.

Think you have an open heart? Can you backbend like there’s no tomorrow? See the row of yogis behind you in Ustrasana? Fabulous … now dig deeper. Can you talk about emotions? I mean really be vulnerable with someone you love – not knowing if they love you back. Or say it like it is when your feelings are hurt and there is an obvious injustice. Can you honestly say that you do not project any old hurt in any new relationship? That you have let go of it all (including your issues with your mom, dad, teachers and old lovers), and have created all new patterns in every relationship that comes across your radar? If so ... fabulous. I bow deeply to you.

Kids today are more stressed than ever before. Loaded with schoolwork, extra curricular activities, responsibilities and expectations, they experience physical stress from using computers and carrying heavy backpacks, as well as psychological stress from bullying and peer pressure. Technological advancements have introduced stressors into the lives of modern children that previous generations did not experience. Cyber-bullying is a big issue that has received a lot of attention in the media, but the need to always be connected along with the demand for instant gratification also grossly impacts our children’s stress levels.

Surrender is so hard to do. We fight against it. We swear and struggle and resist as if we were a cat being squished in a bag. And yet, and yet...we are called by our life to surrender more often than not.

There’s really nothing that can compare with a simple meal made with all fresh, locally grown ingredients. Imagine a salad: crisp, tender green and purple lettuce leaves, meaty red tomatoes off the vine less than an hour ago, crunchy orange carrots sliced on the diagonal, cool green cucumbers, fresh-toasted, chopped almonds, and a generous sprinkle of freshly grated parmesan. They’re all tossed together and dressed with local balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Can’t you just taste it?

Mantras are an important and essential part of most every eastern spiritual practice. They are sacred sounds and phrases that have their origination in the historical texts of the eastern traditions and it turns out, there is actually a correlative mythology behind them. The function of mantras is to provide a codex that unlocks deeper access into the psyche, just as their mythology provides the context to better understand how our psychology effects our everyday life.

Recently I’ve started receiving organic produce delivery from Door to Door Organics. It saves me a trip to the grocery store, which is always a good thing! If you live in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York or Delaware, I’d highly consider trying it out.

Fifteen million Americans practice yoga today. They set foot inside yoga studios, roll out their mats and move to their breath in a ritualized action that lasts usually between 60 - 90 minutes. Whether they practice Ashtanga yoga, Bikram yoga, Kundalini yoga or another variant of hatha yoga, these students are all participating in a modernized physical form of a millenia-old philosophical technology, which originated in India. Within the last 100 years, yoga’s face has changed dramatically as it has migrated and settled into the west with its modern day practitioners. Its evolution has led to a focus on the physical practice, known as asana, and for many who practice today’s version of yoga, the asana practice has become a powerful ritual in their lives. They honor their practice by carrying around yoga mats, drinking out of water bottles with their favorite studio name on it and wearing yoga pants from the studio out to their social events. The hallmark of the modern day yoga practitioner is that we commonly see the trappings of their practice extending into their lives, but there is a deeper and more elevated result of their practice that also extends its way into their lives, which is that yoga practitioners will commonly achieve an elevated state of mind that allows their ritual to manifest itself as a view of themselves and their life-experience as sacred.

If you’ve never heard of a “Buddha Bowl,” let me start with a quick explanation. Simply stated, a Buddha Bowl is anything you want to toss into a bowl topped with a “special sauce.” It’s said that the bowl gets its name from the Buddha’s belly, which is packed so full it bulges with goodness.

People often ask us if we could only do one thing for our health everyday what would it be. Now this is a toughie, and we might have a tie for first place, but topping the charts is our favorite morning beverage of choice – hot water with lemon.

There is a Hindu myth where Ganesha attends a lavish dinner party hosted by Kubera, the Lord of Wealth. In this story Kubera throws extravagant parties to display his riches. The elephant-headed Ganesha eats the meal and is unsatisfied. Ganesha asks for more, then more and more until Kubera is out of food. Ganesha proceeds to eat the tableware, linens, furniture, and walls. Kubera panics and summons Shiva for help. Shiva satisfies Ganesha with a simple bowl of rice and asks Kubera if he gave the food to impress Ganesha or to selflessly serve him. Kubera truthfully responds he gave the food to flaunt his fortune. Shiva tells Kubera that when we act from ego no one is satisfied. Only when we give with a devoted heart are we, and those we serve, content.

What if the true key to your health was not counting calories, stressing over carbs, or exercising for hours each day? What if the true key to your health was a simple as knowing your body type and how it affects your digestion?

This thing called a yoga practice is not about the postures or even the sequencing. It could be about the playlist, but even that is questionable.

Check out this beautiful yoga sequence in the stunning backdrop of Australia brought to us by Masha Yoga.

Do you have Sochi fever, YogaDownloaders? Seeing the world gather in one place, in a global celebration of fitness and human potential, has been truly inspiring. We've been watching all of it: the figure skating, the snowboarding, the luging, even the curling. And what we've seen in almost every event is YOGA. Maybe we’re watching the games through yoga-colored lenses, but every event reminds us of the asanas. Yoga is not about competition, but what we practice on the mat – strength, balance, focus, flexibility, awareness, stillness – will help make us more potent and powerful skaters, skiers, lugers, curlers. So without further ado, please enjoy this round up of Sochiasana, with YogaDownload classes to help you reveal these poses in your own practice.

The lotus flower grows (and grows and grows, possibly for more than 1,000 years) through the mud and deep murky waters. Its roots hold steadfast into the dank dark dirt far beneath the surface of the water on which the lotus flower appears to float. One simple lotus flower can evolve for hundreds of years, stretching upwards at its own pace until its perfect center and delicate petals rest above the surface of the water, its divine little face peering towards the sunshine, perfectly vibrant, with not even the slightest marking of the mud from which it grew. If not for the murkiest of water, the thickest of soil, this sacred flower could not thrive, would not be as beautiful and unique as it is.