yoga for life

Yoga Positions For Beginners

Yoga positions for beginners are so easy to learn. If you have not experienced any yoga session or have not seen one, that is not a problem.

Practitioners have talked about the unification of the mind, body and spirit. They claimed that this will be acquired through the practice of yoga exercises and techniques.

If it is your first time to hear of yoga, you will of course wonder how these exercises are done and how it looks like. Since you are a beginner, you will also definitely ask what kind of positions will be best for you.

Yogis have believed that the mind and the body are bonded into a unified structure. This belief has never failed and changed through time. Yoga has extensively performed an amazing procedure of healing oneself through harmony. This can be successfully done if you are in a proper environment.

With the great effects of yoga, the doctors have been convinced that yoga has some therapeutic results and can be recommended for people who have illnesses that is hard to cure.

If you have some illness that has been with you for a long time, you can practice the yoga positions for beginners and apply it to yourself.

If you want to practice the yoga positions for beginners, you must believe that yoga is effective and will help you to be cured or be refreshed.

Yoga is not just a recent application. It has been practiced and applied a long time ago and up to the present, the people are benefiting a lot from it.

Those of you not familiar with the latest on Yoga Positions for Beginners now have at least a basic understanding. But there’s more to come.

Investigations and researches have been implemented to prove that yoga can be helpful in the healing process.

Therefore, it has been proved that the yoga positions for beginners are extremely effective and useful when it comes to maintaining a high level of joint flexibility. Although the yoga positions for beginners are just simple and basic, it can slowly bring up a healthy lifestyle and bring more when it is practiced over and over again.

The yoga positions for beginners are very interesting and exciting to perform. Beginners will never find it hard to keep up with the exercises because it is just simple. The technique of yoga gives a very big contributing factor to our internal glands and organs. It also includes the parts of the human body which is barely stimulated.

If you want to learn the yoga positions for beginners, you can learn it easily at home or at school where yoga is taught.

Some basic yoga positions for beginners include standing poses, seated poses, forward and backward bends, balance and twisting. These yoga positions for beginners are not that far from those who are used to practicing yoga. Only that the extreme poses and positions are handled at the latter part of the exercise.

The time duration in executing the positions are also lessened because a beginner cannot fully cope up with a longer time exposure in practice. Rest is required of the beginner so that he will not be drained easily to prepare the body for further positions.

Since you are a beginner, the most important thing you should understand is self discipline. Yoga is not just doing yoga and executing the poses. If you haven’t mastered the basics yet, do not jump into the complex stages and positions because you will not feel the essence of executing the yoga positions for beginners.

That’s how things stand right now. Keep in mind that any subject can change over time, so be sure you keep up with the latest news.

Copied with permission from: http://plrplr.com/33396/yoga-positions-for-beginners/

easiest and quickest way to lose weight

There are many ways to lose a lot of weight fast.

However, most of them will make you hungry and unsatisfied.

If you don’t have iron willpower, then hunger will cause you to give up on these plans quickly.

The plan outlined here will:

There are many ways to lose a lot of weight fast.

However, most of them will make you hungry and unsatisfied.

If you don’t have iron willpower, then hunger will cause you to give up on these plans quickly.

The plan outlined here will:
- Reduce your appetite significantly.
- Make you lose weight quickly, without hunger.
- Improve your metabolic health at the same time.
Here is a simple 3-step plan to lose weight fast :

Book Review - Stop the Diet, I Want to Get Off!

A review of registered dietitian, Lisa Tillinger's Johansen's book regarding dieting: 'The Paleo. The Zone. The Gluten-free. Another day, another diet, weight loss plans, fueled by celebrity endorsers, TV doctors and companies.'

from Book-Reviews:Weight-Loss-Diet Articles from EzineArticles.com http://ift.tt/1NMRIVe
via IFTTT

online yoga sessions

Teaching yoga can be both rewarding and relaxing. The important part is to prepare yourself before your first lesson. Learning about teaching online yoga sessions is something that should begin within your own practice.

More than Asanas

Yoga is a holistic practice that encompasses much more than just the physical movements. Even if you never incorporate the other aspects of yoga into your personal classes you should be aware of them. There are eight limbs to yoga. The positions are just a single aspect.

The first limb is Yama, or the universal mortality. The second limb is Niyama, your personal observances. The third limb is Asanas. This is the physical part of yoga that most know. The fourth limb is Pranayama, the breath of life. These are also practiced in many online yoga sessions. The fifth limb is Pratyahara, the control of your senses. The sixth limb is Dharana, the cultivation of your inner awareness. The seventh limb is Dhyana, one's meditation on the Divine forces. The eight and last limb is Samadhi, your individual connection with the Divine.

Read a little on the other limbs of the practice. Be knowledgeable about the historical and cultural important of the practice. It won't seem to be knowledge that is useful in day-to-day teaching. This is not the case. You will have students ask questions about the practice. You will also find the deeper understanding helps you in your own teaching.

Poems for Easter Season

THOU WENT TO THE CROSS

Thou went to the cross

to appease our collective ego.

What more proof do we need

of Thy great love for us ?

What appears as a supreme sacrifice

was no sacrifice for Thee --

for in Thy greatest magnanimity

Thou tried to show a way.

It reflects not an iota on Thee

that we, ignorant as we were

could not perceive but simply see

what it was all about !

It was again Thy immence magnificence

to descend once more

amidst the same dark bleakness

to show us where we went astray.

Lord, it could be only Thee who could

show us the futility of empty pray.

O Mother of mine, let Thy flock

who now see the light

remain forever at Thy Lotus Feet

and therefrom help to spread Thy light

to quarters yet in dark.

Armaity.

THE RESURRECTION WITHIN

The resurrection within is my message for all times

Forgiveness and pure love my teachings

Those who could see beyond the cover

and had eyes to see, saw

and had ears to hear, heard.

But those who could neither see nor hear

were lost in this illusory sphere.

Among the ones who watched me hung on cross

were those with tender quivering hearts,

helpless in front of mighty those

shedding tears of blood and pain inside.

My message was lost on those who had me interred

rejoicing my death with relief and cheer.

But those loving sheep from my very own flock

who were seeking the comfort of their own true self

were the ones I chose to reveal the ultimate truth.

Mary Magdalene, who along with others some

on the third morn came in to tend to my tomb

was blessed with my sight as I chose

to reveal myself rising from the dead.

Mary, the truest of my disciples,

blessed by her faith and belief

I designated as apostle to the apostles

to carry forth the tidings of hope and eternal life.

But those who were false and not worthy of me

chose to forget all my teachings and instead

raised grand Cathedrals and Churches in my name

singing my paeans of glory as they sought only their own.

My promise to all to redeem them with my love

stands strong and unshaken till today.

Those who will have eyes to see, will see

Those who will have ears to hear, will hear.

armaity.

from Sahaja Yoga Blog http://ift.tt/1gEst4l

Starting to Move Again, Part 2 (A Progress Report)

by Nina

Daffodil by Melina Meza

As some of you may remember, during this last winter, Baxter and I became concerned about people we were hearing about who were afraid of leaving the house because they were worried about falling on the winter ice. Even worse, we heard about a couple of people who had fallen and who had then lost all their confidence in their physical abilities. The real problem here is that loss of confidence can lead to inactivity, and that inactivity in turn leads to stiffness, weakness, loss of balance and/or loss of agility. But we knew that yoga could help these people so we got started blogging!

First, Baxter wrote a general post about how you can use yoga to cultivate balance specifically for dealing with icy conditions (see Winter Ice, Fear of Falling and Yoga).

But I decided that I wanted to help a specific individual, a women who had left a comment on my post Regaining Stability for Free. Here is the original comment:

“Omgosh. I ....this took my breath away. This is exactly what happened to me! I was this vibrant, moving being....then a stupid, nasty fall (via a piece of gravel on the sidewalk) ended all that. And my subsequent life mirrors your friend's. Thank you SO much for giving us hope!”

So I followed up with this reader to find out more about her particular issues, and with Baxter’s help I came up with three short yoga sequences for her to practice as a way to regain both her physical abilities and her confidence (see Starting to Move Again ). The three sequences were:

1. Baxter’s classic Low Back Care Practice. Because our reader was having back problems in addition to fear of falling, I hoped this sequence would help relieve back pain and restore a feeling of physical wellbeing.

2. Baxter’s classic Mini Restorative Practice . Because our reader was feeling anxious, I hoped this sequence would help relieve stress. And because she was stiff from lack of exercise, this sequence would allow her to gently and passively regain flexibility.

3. My Gentle All-Around Practice. Because the standing poses in this sequence build strength in the lower body and improve balance and stability, I felt this sequence would be helpful for our reader as well as for anyone who is afraid of falling.

My hope was that practicing these sequences on a regular basis would, over time, restore our reader’s flexibility, balance, and feelings of self confidence, and allow her to be a “vibrant, moving being” once again.

Now that it’s spring, I decided to check back in with her to see how the program had worked for her. The news was so good, I decided I had to share it with you. Here’s what she said:

“The moment I started practicing, I knew that I had the tools to positively effect a change, and that translated, almost immediately, into regaining my confidence. And once I got my flexibility back, it was as if there was a mind-body reconnection as well. Although I sometimes backslide, when I do attend to the poses and sync my mind with my body, I feel pretty much invincible!”

I’m partly sharing this with you simply because it makes me so happy! But there is also an important takeaway: having a home practice, however basic, is empowering.

from YOGA FOR HEALTHY AGING http://ift.tt/1itE5eu

Papaji - Quiet

from Life after joining Isha Yoga http://ift.tt/1hYSEC0

Where, there is witnessing, and nothing to judge, life becomes celebration

Witnessing....

Some people abused and threw stones at Ramateertha when he was in New York. When he returned home, he was dancing.

A disciple asked, ”What happened, why are you so happy?”

Ramateertha replied, ”It is a matter of joy. Today Ramateertha was in great difficulty. Some people started abusing him, ridiculing him and some people started throwing stones at him. It was great fun seeing Ramateertha being harassed and trapped. He was badly trapped!”

His disciples were puzzled and they asked, ”Who are you talking about? Who is this Ramateertha?”

Ramateertha replied, keeping his hands on his chest, ”This Ramateertha was badly trapped and I was just watching and enjoying seeing him trapped. I saw those who were abusing him and I also saw that man Ramateertha who was trapped and being abused.

I kept watching the whole scene.”

from Life after joining Isha Yoga http://ift.tt/1j6EsIx

The Om Yoga Show 2014

Yoga Mama will be exhibiting on stand F21 at the Om Yoga Show at Olympia from 24-26 October.

Like us on Facebook to keep up-to-date with news and promos.

from Yoga Mama http://ift.tt/1h6yGVW

"Viaje al fondo de Ramiro (y de mí mismo)" artículo completo de Joaquín G Weil próximamente en yogaenred.com

El artículo completo de Joaquín G Weil Viaje al fondo de Ramiro (y de mí mismo) será publicado próximamente en yogaenred.com.

from Yoga Sala Málaga http://ift.tt/1hOPhna

Absurdity of life

In my previous post, a reader pointed out that my emotional mood swings sounds like the definition of 'Borderline'. I have observed other people to be of borderline personality, but never consider myself to have borderline tendencies. In my "defense", I blame my education to cause me to become this way.

The thing is, after realizing the world has always been a hugely unfair place, that hard work does not always get rewarded, that people who are the most eager to give you advice on life lessons tend to know less than the people who keep their silence, that successful people seem to possess a truckload of tricks and strategies that I have never come across in my life before (since these skills are not taught in school or written in textbooks), that it's my own fault that I buried my head in books for decades and didn't bother to lift my head and take a good look at the rest of the world, I am still buried under my strict expectations my minimal definition of how life should be for a hardworking woman in her 30s.

At this point I should just admit that I got the rules of the game of life all wrong. I wagered all my attention, brain resources, and youth on studying; I put little effort into interpersonal relationships, not with friends, family, or the opposite sex. This blinder approach got me tremendously off track.

So now that I am completely off the expected track (due to a lifetime of hardcore studying and many weekends put to unpaid work and a good amount of volunteer work): mid-30s, no marriageable partner, no stable job, shitty career path, few friends in the city where I live, no family around, pretty much nothing to show for my hard work because none of my friends and family understand or care about what it is I work on, of course I am feeling quite desperate and borderline.

The alternative, which I hadn't considered lately, as mentioned in Zee's blog, is that life is empty and meaningless anyways. I should stop taking myself so seriously and just laugh at the whole absurdity of it all. Look at the situation in Crimea. Look at climate change. Economic booms and busts. Entertainment, processed food, and pharmaceutical industries being super dominant in the world. Hedge funds. Banking crisis. Anusara yoga (lol). WhatsApp worth 19 billion US dollars. Priorities all f***ed up. Yet we teach our children to be honest, moral, diligent and they shall succeed?

I should just be happy I have enough money to feed myself today. Marriage? Forget about it. Friends? Most are not dependable anyways (as I have learned over the years). Family? Their absurdities make funny party stories I guess.

Maybe I should stop worrying about how to get back on track (I'm too far off the mainstream path to get back on it anyways) and just appreciate the funny parts of life more from now on.

from A Skeptic's thoughts about life.. and yoga http://ift.tt/1tbF0oy

April 15 Restore Series

Southeast Texas Family magazine and Yoga classes in Nederland, Texas

Wow! Since January of 2014, the Southeast Texas Family magazine has been listing the yoga classes that I teach at Wesley United Methodist Church. That is so nice!

Free chair yoga class on Thursdays at 10:15 am

Mondays at 6:15pm for just $5

from Yoga with Gaileee, Registered & Certified Yoga Teacher. Beaumont & Nederland Texas, Tx. http://ift.tt/1qKbYKH

Chair Yoga at Wesley United Methodist Church Nederland Texas

Chair Yoga at Wesley United Methodist Church Nederland Texas Thursdays at 10:15 am. 3515 Helena Avenue Nederland, Texas 77627 Held in the most northern building on the church property.

from Yoga with Gaileee, Registered & Certified Yoga Teacher. Beaumont & Nederland Texas, Tx. http://ift.tt/1hK3SiI

La Terre-Mère absorbe nos problèmes

How Not to Practice Ahimsa, Non Violence

Devprayag Temple

During our last stop before coming back to Rishikesh, after a nice long road trip that I did with some friends from the Swami Rama Ashram, we decided to have our lunch at the temple in Devprayag, the town where the rivers Alaknanda and Bhagirathi meet to form the river Ganges and where we had just taken a nice cold bath. We sat in a portico just outside the temple where some locals where resting and opened our bags with the sandwiches and fruits that we had brought with us.

Devprayag, Uttarakhand, India

Crossing of rivers Alaknanda and Bhagirathi to form the river Ganges

The smell of the food attracted some monkeys from around the temple. They kept their distance but there was one monkey that decided to sit in a fence just about three meters from us. I thought that he was getting too close and that at any time he might just jump between us to steal our food, so I stood up with my chest lifted pretending to be tough, I looked straight into his eyes hoping that he would be intimidated but instead he intimidated me. He looked straight back at me like he was saying “What? You talkin' to me?” He opened his mouth, showed me his teeth and in a fraction of a second he jumped and ran in my direction.

Probably not the same monkey, the one that attacked me looked bigger and meaner

At the same time my survival instinct kicked in so I jumped inside the portico almost crashing into the wife of one of my friends. I think a part of me thought that the monkey was going to follow me wherever I would go but he just stopped at the fence, looked at us with his angry face and then continued in another direction. He clearly showed me who the boss was.

This reminded me of one of the principles that the ancient yogis have taught us, ahimsa or non-violence which I wrote about before in "How can we attain world peace? Ahimsa: the philosophy of love." The yogis say that a wild animal will abandon its aggressive behavior in the presence of one who has mastered ahimsa or non violence. I obviously need a lot more practice, instead of calming down the monkey I made him angry. I wonder if the monkey would have reacted differently if instead of pretending to be tough I would have behaved with a more loving, fearless and non aggressive attitude.

Surely sometimes we do need to make a show of tamas, pretending to be angry or aggressive but without experiencing that anger within, remaining calm and steady instead. I guess I started with the wrong foot. One of the guards of the temple came a minute after with a big stick and with one shout he scared all the monkeys away, then he asked us with a smile in his face, "Which country?"

Well, this is just part of yoga practice, this is sadhana. It doesn't matter how many times we fail, to put in practice the teachings of the yogis in our daily lives we just need to continue practicing over a long period of time, with faith and determination. To become aware of our actions and of the motive behinds those actions it's already a big step.

from Path to Yoga http://ift.tt/1l0LZQ0

what are your rituals...

these are mine...

from rachel.and.yoga http://ift.tt/1iovGJ4

Beginners drop backs against the wall

A useful beginners guide to dropping back.

from Yoga Mama http://ift.tt/1p9fTDc

Erwin Wurm

Erwin Wurm's One Minute Sculptures make me think of mini rituals.

from rachel.and.yoga http://ift.tt/1hKnl3D

Inspiring Reality to learn, for those, whose body is not supporting them

Osho : One very great mystic of India – I have spoken on him for almost half a year continuously. His name was Ashtavakra. And what he has written is tremendously important; each sentence has so many dimensions to be explored, but the man himself was in a very difficult situation.

Ashtavakra – the name was given to him, because he was almost like a camel. In eight places he was distorted in the body – one leg was longer, one arm was shorter, his back was bent – in eight places he was distorted. That’s how he was born, with a crippled, distorted body. But even in a crippled and distorted body the soul is as beautiful as in the most beautiful body.

He became enlightened, but his body was too rigid to change with his inner change. His eyes started showing something of the beauty, but the whole body was in such a mess.

The story is that the emperor of India in those days was Janak and he was very much interested in philosophical discussions. Each year he used to call a big conference of all the scholars, philosophers, theologians or whoever wanted to participate. It was a championship competition.

One very famous philosopher, Yagnavalkya came a little late. The conference had started and he saw standing outside one thousand beautiful cows. Their horns were covered with gold and diamonds. This was going to be the prize for the champion. It was a hot day and the cows were perspiring.

He told his disciples, ”You take these cows. As far as winning the competition is concerned, I am certain. Why should the cows suffer here? You take them to our place.” They had their own place in the forest.

Even Janak could not prevent him, because he knew that he had been the champion continuously for five years, and he would be the champion this time, because there was nobody else who could defeat him. It is not right to take the reward before you have won, but his victory was so certain to everybody that nobody objected. And his disciples took away all the cows.

While Yagnavalkya was discussing, a very unknown scholar was also present in the conference. Ashtavakra was this unknown philosopher’s son. His mother was waiting for her husband to come home. It was getting late and the meal was getting cold. So she sent Ashtavakra to bring his father home, because he could not win the competition. Why should he unnecessarily waste his time? He was a poor scholar and there were great scholars there. Ashtavakra went. There were at least one thousand people in the conference, the highly cultured and sophisticated scholars of the country.

As Ashtavakra entered, looking at his distorted body they all started laughing. But Ashtavakra was a man of tremendous integrity. As they started laughing, he laughed even louder. Because of his loud laugh they stopped. They could not believe that he was laughing.

Janak asked him, ”I can understand why they are laughing – because of your body; but I cannot understand why you are laughing. And you stopped all their laughing with your laughter.” A single man stopped one thousand people’s laughter.

Ashtavakra said to Janak, ”I thought this conference was for scholars and philosophers, but these are all shoemakers. They can understand only the skin. They cannot see the inner, they can only see the outer.”

There was a great silence. What he was saying had a great truth in it. Janak dissolved the conference and said, ”Now I would like to inquire of Ashtavakra only. He has defeated you all just by his laughter and his statement that, ‘You can’t see the inner, you can only see the outer; you are all shoemakers.’ Shoemakers work with the skin of different animals. I dissolve the conference and, Yagnavalka, return those one thousand cows, because you also laughed. And when Ashtavakra laughed, you also stopped!”

It was a very strange situation; it had never happened before. And then began the long inquiry of Janak, the emperor. He asked questions and Ashtavakra answered them. Each answer in itself carried so much meaning and significance.

Because his body was in such a bad shape he could not get identified with it. Sometimes blessings come in such disguise. He could not go out, because wherever he went people would laugh, ”Look at that man! Have you seen anything uglier than this?”

So most of the time he was in the house, meditating, figuring out, ”Who am I? Certainly I am not this body, because I can be aware of this body, I can observe this body from within. Certainly that awareness has to be different from the body.”

Because of his crippled body he experienced enlightenment. The only barrier is identification with the body. But he could not identify, the body was so ugly. He never looked in a mirror; it would have been such a shock.

But Yagnavalkya had to return those one thousand cows to Ashtavakra’s house. He was young and he defeated one thousand old philosophers, well-versed in the ancient scriptures.

It is one of the strangest things in this country that on every book written by any prominent mystic there have been hundreds of commentaries, but nobody has commented before me on Ashtavakra.

And he must be at least five thousand years old. For five thousand years nobody has bothered to look into his statements, which are so significant.

But his inner enlightenment, his inner understanding could not change his outer appearance. And yet for those who are going deeper into themselves, the outer does not matter. They would have seen even in Ashtavakra tremendous beauty, but it would not have been of the outer circumference, but of the center.

Most often the inner change changes the outer, if the outer is not too rigid. But the outer never changes the inner.

You need to have eyes, going deep into people’s beings, which is possible only if you are going inwards yourself. The deeper you go into yourself the deeper you can look into other people’s beings. And then a totally new world opens its doors.

OSHO

from Life after joining Isha Yoga http://ift.tt/1eHrHsf