It was a stressful weekend. An article I handed in six months ago came back for edits. Again. It's a story about love and yoga. It's supposed to be helpful and happy and light. Not saccharine, but, you know, not grim reaper stuff. But I and the editor and her editor realized the problem: 3,500 words and not much joy. I finally confessed that I've been in love sucks and is hard mode for months. It was clear that despite my attempts, this was tinting things.
So then I did what every good writer does: Procrastinated. Worried. Stressed myself out by staring at the computer screen, canceling fun plans, and not going to yoga. And once that was all in place, I spent lots of time berating myself for being such a procrastinating, non exercising fraud of a yogi and a terrible writer with the efficiency skills of a meth head on crack.
Sometimes when I start setting myself up like this I can catch it. Some loving part of my brain goes, 'Oop, honey, watch out, you're spiraling into some dangerous territory.' And then I go for a walk or call a friend or write in my journal to exorcise the inner haters. But sometimes the self punisher just takes over. 'Nope!' he says, hovering over me, large and leather clad, giant paddle in hand, 'No light for you! You deserve to be this miserable, you procrastinating wretch!'
And then I'm in the Bad Place. And last night that Bad Place was my bedroom floor, me propped on a bag of undone laundry (more proof of my horrible, unfit for humanity ness), sobbing and saying mean things to myself about my fundamental unloveablity, cataloging all of the good evidence to support the notion that anyone I would ever love could never possibly love me because look, this IS me, at core. A crying, needy, dirty laundried, procrastinating wreck. 'Ha!' I thought. 'People think I'm so together (well, some), but this is the REAL me. If only they knew that I'm just a swirl of pathetic darkness.' Yadda, Ibid, etc. Ad infinitum. You get the idea.
By Valerie Reiss
THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
YOGA FOR EVERYONE
To some, yoga can seem intimidating (I have to twist my body how?). To others, it might seem silly (How could something called Downward Facing Dog really help my health?).
Yoga is a science that has been practiced for thousands of years for a reason: It works. Research has proved there are many benefits to yoga. And the best part? Yoga is accessible to and can be attempted by anyone and everyone, age, sex, or physical conditions play no part here.
Yoga, by definition, means 'union.' Its practice simply is a science of exercises to promote control of the body and mind to bring one to a state of peace, a state of union. There are many different styles of yoga, but all yoga incorporates two key components: poses and breath.
Poses can be modified based on your needs. People do yoga for a number of reasons: Some people look to achieve improved health, peace of mind and flexibility, while others seek enlightenment, a strong body or just quiet time.
No matter the motivation for practicing yoga, everyone has the opportunity to benefit tremendously, physically and mentally, from the discipline.
If you are an athlete, you can benefit from the increased flexibility, strength and muscle tone yoga can provide. Yoga also helps you learn improved breathing techniques, which help tremendously while you perform in other workouts and athletics.
If you are being treated for cancer, yoga can help relieve the stress that you are feeling. The American Society of Clinical Oncology released a study that found yoga could significantly improve the quality of life of breast cancer patients.
In the study, the women who participated in yoga reported significantly better physical functioning scores in activities such as walking long distances, climbing stairs and lifting groceries, as well as significantly higher overall health scores, and had lower levels of fatigue and less difficulty sleeping than the women who did not participate in yoga.
By JANET LONG
THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
Yoga is a science that has been practiced for thousands of years for a reason: It works. Research has proved there are many benefits to yoga. And the best part? Yoga is accessible to and can be attempted by anyone and everyone, age, sex, or physical conditions play no part here.
Yoga, by definition, means 'union.' Its practice simply is a science of exercises to promote control of the body and mind to bring one to a state of peace, a state of union. There are many different styles of yoga, but all yoga incorporates two key components: poses and breath.
Poses can be modified based on your needs. People do yoga for a number of reasons: Some people look to achieve improved health, peace of mind and flexibility, while others seek enlightenment, a strong body or just quiet time.
No matter the motivation for practicing yoga, everyone has the opportunity to benefit tremendously, physically and mentally, from the discipline.
If you are an athlete, you can benefit from the increased flexibility, strength and muscle tone yoga can provide. Yoga also helps you learn improved breathing techniques, which help tremendously while you perform in other workouts and athletics.
If you are being treated for cancer, yoga can help relieve the stress that you are feeling. The American Society of Clinical Oncology released a study that found yoga could significantly improve the quality of life of breast cancer patients.
In the study, the women who participated in yoga reported significantly better physical functioning scores in activities such as walking long distances, climbing stairs and lifting groceries, as well as significantly higher overall health scores, and had lower levels of fatigue and less difficulty sleeping than the women who did not participate in yoga.
By JANET LONG
THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
Monday, 23 February 2009
NEW YOGA TEACHINGS
By race, by language they were not same; by religion, they did not worship the same Gods; politically, they were never one, but still the land south of the Himalayas was referred to as Bharat Varsha. So somewhere, there was some sense of unity because of the common spiritual ethos they carried in them.
Spiritual ethos means, no matter what you are doing, whether you are a king or a peasant, whatever is the nature of your activity, there is only one ultimate goal for everybody, liberation. Even today, even the simplest farmer in this country will talk about mukti. This is a result of the phenomenal amount of spiritual work done in this country. One person who is largely responsible for this, who is of paramount significance in shaping the human consciousness is Shiva.
In the yogic culture, Shiva is not known as a God, but as the first Guru or the Adi Guru. He is the Adi Yogi or the first Yogi. Out of his realisation, he became ecstatic and danced all over the mountains or sat absolutely still. He was constantly into bouts of stillness and bouts of mad dancing. All the gods who saw him, saw something was happening to him that they themselves did not know. Suddenly heaven felt like a bad place, because this guy is having such a good time! They felt, 'We are missing out on something.' When they finally got him to teach the method, Shiva expounded various types of yogas depending upon the level of preparedness of the person who was sitting in front of him.
The first part of Shiva's teaching was to Parvati, his wife. It was taught in a certain intimacy. In great detail, and in very gentle ways, Shiva expounded the ways of yoga to Devi. The yoga sutras of Shiva are such that almost in every sutra , he refers to her as the resplendent one, the gracious one, the beautiful one. So this teaching transpired between two people with utmost intimacy. Intimacy should not be understood as sexuality. It means there is no resistance; this person is absolutely open to whatever is being offered.
The second set of yogic teaching was expounded to the Sapta Rishis , or the first seven sages. When we use the word yoga, you should not think of twisting your body or holding your breath or anything like that we are not talking about a particular exercise or a technique. We are talking about the very science of creation and how to take this piece of creation (you) to its ultimate possibility. We are looking at gaining mastery over the fundamental processes of life; the very process of creation and dissolution. It doesn't matter at what level of evolution a person is right now, for him also, there is a way. For every being on the planet, there is a certain way that is the advantage of yoga. This teaching happened on the banks of Kanti Sarovar, near Kedarnath. This is when the world's first yoga programme happened.
Today, yoga is said to be the world's fastest growing wellness regimen because it presents spirituality as technology. Mahashivratri is a festival that was chosen to honour Shiva, the Adi Guru, from whom yoga originated. On this night the planetary positions in the northern hemisphere are such that there is a natural upsurge of energies. If one just stays awake and keeps one's spine erect throughout the night, it naturally pushes a person towards his spiritual peak.
By SADHGURU
THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
Spiritual ethos means, no matter what you are doing, whether you are a king or a peasant, whatever is the nature of your activity, there is only one ultimate goal for everybody, liberation. Even today, even the simplest farmer in this country will talk about mukti. This is a result of the phenomenal amount of spiritual work done in this country. One person who is largely responsible for this, who is of paramount significance in shaping the human consciousness is Shiva.
In the yogic culture, Shiva is not known as a God, but as the first Guru or the Adi Guru. He is the Adi Yogi or the first Yogi. Out of his realisation, he became ecstatic and danced all over the mountains or sat absolutely still. He was constantly into bouts of stillness and bouts of mad dancing. All the gods who saw him, saw something was happening to him that they themselves did not know. Suddenly heaven felt like a bad place, because this guy is having such a good time! They felt, 'We are missing out on something.' When they finally got him to teach the method, Shiva expounded various types of yogas depending upon the level of preparedness of the person who was sitting in front of him.
The first part of Shiva's teaching was to Parvati, his wife. It was taught in a certain intimacy. In great detail, and in very gentle ways, Shiva expounded the ways of yoga to Devi. The yoga sutras of Shiva are such that almost in every sutra , he refers to her as the resplendent one, the gracious one, the beautiful one. So this teaching transpired between two people with utmost intimacy. Intimacy should not be understood as sexuality. It means there is no resistance; this person is absolutely open to whatever is being offered.
The second set of yogic teaching was expounded to the Sapta Rishis , or the first seven sages. When we use the word yoga, you should not think of twisting your body or holding your breath or anything like that we are not talking about a particular exercise or a technique. We are talking about the very science of creation and how to take this piece of creation (you) to its ultimate possibility. We are looking at gaining mastery over the fundamental processes of life; the very process of creation and dissolution. It doesn't matter at what level of evolution a person is right now, for him also, there is a way. For every being on the planet, there is a certain way that is the advantage of yoga. This teaching happened on the banks of Kanti Sarovar, near Kedarnath. This is when the world's first yoga programme happened.
Today, yoga is said to be the world's fastest growing wellness regimen because it presents spirituality as technology. Mahashivratri is a festival that was chosen to honour Shiva, the Adi Guru, from whom yoga originated. On this night the planetary positions in the northern hemisphere are such that there is a natural upsurge of energies. If one just stays awake and keeps one's spine erect throughout the night, it naturally pushes a person towards his spiritual peak.
By SADHGURU
THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
Friday, 20 February 2009
YOGA IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Outside, the weather was chilly. But the gym at Severna Park Elementary was pleasantly warm for last Wednesday's after school yoga class.
Fourteen children carefully positioned their feet on colorful yoga mats. With eyes closed, they listened to the background music, relaxed and breathed in through their noses.
'Breathing is important because it brings oxygen to our muscles, tendons, and joints so we're able to stretch,' said teacher Jessica Switzman. Beginning with centering exercises, she led the students through several simple postures. Each movement flowed fluidly into the next and, before long; the children were performing more challenging poses.
The Severna Park Elementary School yoga class is one of several sponsored by the PTA's Educational Enrichment Program. Additional EEP classes are available in subjects ranging from science, art and language to chess and even etiquette.
PTA spokeswoman Susan Gamula said the organization initiated the yoga course in response to requests from parents.
By SHARON LEE TEGLER
THE LATEST YOGA YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
Fourteen children carefully positioned their feet on colorful yoga mats. With eyes closed, they listened to the background music, relaxed and breathed in through their noses.
'Breathing is important because it brings oxygen to our muscles, tendons, and joints so we're able to stretch,' said teacher Jessica Switzman. Beginning with centering exercises, she led the students through several simple postures. Each movement flowed fluidly into the next and, before long; the children were performing more challenging poses.
The Severna Park Elementary School yoga class is one of several sponsored by the PTA's Educational Enrichment Program. Additional EEP classes are available in subjects ranging from science, art and language to chess and even etiquette.
PTA spokeswoman Susan Gamula said the organization initiated the yoga course in response to requests from parents.
By SHARON LEE TEGLER
THE LATEST YOGA YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
YOGA AND CURES
About two years ago, Curtis Young began losing his balance, falling over at work. The avid surfer had always kept himself in shape by running and lifting weights, so this sudden vertigo in his early 50s really scared him.
'It got to the point to where I couldn't even walk, hardly,' said Young, who found his cure in yoga for that and so many other ailments.
Alma Miller, co owner of Blue Moon Yoga where Young practices the life healing technique three times a week, said yoga is a very ancient practice, the science of self transformation.
'I think it's something that is a discipline that gets you on your own, little by little, until you become the best person you can be in the best body you can have, very healthy body, very strong, very supple,' said Miller, whose husband Andy also owns the Blue Moon Yoga in Sunrise Corner, 3001 Pablo Kisel, Suite H 3. Classes are held there and at Galeria 409 at 409 E. 13th St.
One recent Saturday morning, 77 year old Blanca Treviño stretched her arm far over her head, leaning forward and supporting herself on her knee as Miller called out instructions.
'Arms up to the chest, arms to the center, rolling shoulders to the back,' Miller called out softly but firmly in the dim lit room while an air purifier and ionizer softly hummed. Subtle lighting cast tranquil shadows; the movements of Trevino and the other students on mats of aqua blue and purple and violet sent sounds of shuffling into the stillness.
By Travis Whitehead
THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
'It got to the point to where I couldn't even walk, hardly,' said Young, who found his cure in yoga for that and so many other ailments.
Alma Miller, co owner of Blue Moon Yoga where Young practices the life healing technique three times a week, said yoga is a very ancient practice, the science of self transformation.
'I think it's something that is a discipline that gets you on your own, little by little, until you become the best person you can be in the best body you can have, very healthy body, very strong, very supple,' said Miller, whose husband Andy also owns the Blue Moon Yoga in Sunrise Corner, 3001 Pablo Kisel, Suite H 3. Classes are held there and at Galeria 409 at 409 E. 13th St.
One recent Saturday morning, 77 year old Blanca Treviño stretched her arm far over her head, leaning forward and supporting herself on her knee as Miller called out instructions.
'Arms up to the chest, arms to the center, rolling shoulders to the back,' Miller called out softly but firmly in the dim lit room while an air purifier and ionizer softly hummed. Subtle lighting cast tranquil shadows; the movements of Trevino and the other students on mats of aqua blue and purple and violet sent sounds of shuffling into the stillness.
By Travis Whitehead
THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
Monday, 16 February 2009
NATIONAL YOGA EXPO
For those looking to clear their chakras or tune in to lunar energies, the 5th Annual Bisbee Yoga Expo is the place to be this weekend.
Classes such as 'Building Asana from the Inside Out,' 'Warriors of the Heart' and 'Breath Based Practice' give students both old and new a chance to learn from some of the diverse yoga practices from the more than 20 different instructors at the event.
Sally Weber of Tucson has been practicing yoga for more than 30 years and became certified to teach in 2001.
Her course, 'Yoga for a Healthy Heart,' brings a therapeutic approach to yoga.
'We're working with a physical condition and seeing what tools of yoga can help with that condition,' Weber said Saturday.
'A lot of heart disease comes from stress,' she said.
Some of the exercises in yoga actually lower blood pressure and heart rate, helping to alleviate stress.
Yoga practice helps you stay connected with breath and body, and allows people to remember what relaxation feels like,' she said.
For Betty Maldonado, the expo gave her a chance to try different forms of yoga.
'This is a new one for me,' Maldonado said as she prepared for the class titled 'Sutras, Sound, Self and Sangha.' 'I don't know what to expect.'
Maldonado and her husband began practicing yoga two years ago for the health benefits it can offer.
'I just wanted to tone my body up, be healthier,' she said. 'It's really helped.'
Increased flexibility and muscle strength are some of the benefits she has noticed.
By Derek Jordan
THE LATEST YOGA EXPO NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
Classes such as 'Building Asana from the Inside Out,' 'Warriors of the Heart' and 'Breath Based Practice' give students both old and new a chance to learn from some of the diverse yoga practices from the more than 20 different instructors at the event.
Sally Weber of Tucson has been practicing yoga for more than 30 years and became certified to teach in 2001.
Her course, 'Yoga for a Healthy Heart,' brings a therapeutic approach to yoga.
'We're working with a physical condition and seeing what tools of yoga can help with that condition,' Weber said Saturday.
'A lot of heart disease comes from stress,' she said.
Some of the exercises in yoga actually lower blood pressure and heart rate, helping to alleviate stress.
Yoga practice helps you stay connected with breath and body, and allows people to remember what relaxation feels like,' she said.
For Betty Maldonado, the expo gave her a chance to try different forms of yoga.
'This is a new one for me,' Maldonado said as she prepared for the class titled 'Sutras, Sound, Self and Sangha.' 'I don't know what to expect.'
Maldonado and her husband began practicing yoga two years ago for the health benefits it can offer.
'I just wanted to tone my body up, be healthier,' she said. 'It's really helped.'
Increased flexibility and muscle strength are some of the benefits she has noticed.
By Derek Jordan
THE LATEST YOGA EXPO NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
Sunday, 15 February 2009
YOGA IN BALI
A week long yoga festival is to be organised here in March with a view to promoting spiritual tourism in Bali and Indonesia.
The Bali India Foundation, which is based here, will hold the International Bali India Yoga Festival March 3/10 with the theme 'Yoga for Health and Peace'.
The organisers said the festival will take place in many regions of Bali with the support of the tourism department in an attempt to make the island a destination for spiritual tourism.
The head of the organising committee is Somvir, an Indian academic based here. Several eminent scholars from Europe and India will attend the event, he said.
Among those invited to the event are Jero Wacik, the Indonesian minister for culture and tourism, Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika, H. Utang Ranuwijaya of Majelis Ulama Indonesia, as well as H. Salman Harun of the Islamic State University of Jakarta.
Somvir, who heads the Bali India Foundation and is an expert on yoga and Vedic Philosophy, said the festival would be organised annually to promote Indonesia as a destination for spiritual tourism.
By Turkmenistan News.Net
THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
The Bali India Foundation, which is based here, will hold the International Bali India Yoga Festival March 3/10 with the theme 'Yoga for Health and Peace'.
The organisers said the festival will take place in many regions of Bali with the support of the tourism department in an attempt to make the island a destination for spiritual tourism.
The head of the organising committee is Somvir, an Indian academic based here. Several eminent scholars from Europe and India will attend the event, he said.
Among those invited to the event are Jero Wacik, the Indonesian minister for culture and tourism, Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika, H. Utang Ranuwijaya of Majelis Ulama Indonesia, as well as H. Salman Harun of the Islamic State University of Jakarta.
Somvir, who heads the Bali India Foundation and is an expert on yoga and Vedic Philosophy, said the festival would be organised annually to promote Indonesia as a destination for spiritual tourism.
By Turkmenistan News.Net
THE LATEST YOGA NEWS, FROM IT IS YOGA
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)