Thursday 29 January 2009

Seven Reasons To Choose Yoga For A Better Body And A Calmer Mind

Yoga has been around for centuries. Embraced equally by film stars, rock stars, high powered CEOs and New Age gurus, yoga’s stress-relieving, strength-building, low impact poses appeal to a wide range of individuals and body shapes. Even beginners can see and feel a difference after just a few short weeks of practice. All arguments aside, yoga works. So why haven’t you tried it? Here are seven really good reasons why you should:

7.) Symptom Relief - Several scientific studies have proven that yoga practice can greatly reduce the frequency and duration of asthma attacks, as well as the amount of medication needed to control or prevent attacks. Yogic breathing, pranayama , helps to strengthen the lungs and build breath control while back-bending poses open the chest and help increase air flow. Carpal tunnel syndrome can be alleviated with certain yoga poses. The lengthening and strengthening of the tendons offered in many yoga poses aids in relieving the pain, and in restoring the grip. The slow, low-impact nature of yoga exercise lends itself perfectly to arthritis sufferers. Joint pain and swelling can be reduced from the gentle exercise and from the stress relief granted tight, tensed muscles. The stress relieving nature of yoga has been shown to reduce the severity and frequency of headaches for migraine sufferers, as well.

6.) Disease Prevention – The stress relief offered through yoga practice can reduce the risk of heart disease, the number one killer of women in the US and Canada. Of further interest to women is yoga’s ability to strengthen and build bone density, preventing osteoporosis. It’s believed that yoga may reduce cortisol, and thereby aid in keeping calcium in your bones. The meditative nature of yoga can help raise levels of GABA in the brain, preventing the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Lastly, yoga has been known to stimulate the pancreas in its production of insulin, lowering blood sugar levels and helping in the treatment of Type II diabetes.

5.) Good Form of Exercise – Not all forms of exercise are good for all of you. Yoga is low-impact, providing a safer way to stretch and strengthen. Yoga is non-competitive, allowing you a stress-free, introspective work-out. Yoga can be practiced indoors or out, so that it fits in with all climates and lifestyles. Beneficial yoga practice can be completed in as little as 10 minutes a day, making it the ideal exercise routine for today’s busy, on-the-go world. Yoga builds balanced muscle tone, strengthens the body’s core, and improves dexterity, hand-eye coordination and reaction time. It has also been clinically proven to increase joint range of motion and flexibility.

4.) Improved Body Chemistry – Yoga can have drastically good effects on your body’s inner workings. The increase in movement and blood flow offered in yoga practice can lower cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood stream. It is believed that yoga actually increases the amount of red blood cells in your blood, providing better oxygenation of the body, as well as increasing energy and reducing the risks of anemia. The lymphatic and endocrine systems also get a boost from yoga. The lymphatic system boosts immunity and raises your body’s disease fighting ability, while the endocrine system regulates hormones, and through yoga, both systems help increase the overall health and balance of your body.

3.) The Inner You – Much has been made of yoga’s effects on the psychological and emotional health of its practitioners. Yoga reduces stress through its slow movements and controlled breathing. It elevates and regulates your mood with its mind-body consciousness, its ability to improve your health overall, and its introspective nature. The attention required in yoga causes one to focus inwardly, reducing stress and anxiety, building a sense of calmness, alertness and even improving your memory.

2.) The Overall Inner You – Let’s recap a bit here. Yoga reduces stress, which lowers blood pressure. It stimulates your endocrine system, balancing hormone levels and lowering blood sugar. It helps increase the overall functioning and health of your circulatory and respiratory system. It lowers your heart rate. It raises your tolerance to pain. It relives certain chronic problems. It improves brain chemistry. Your internal organs receive a “yoga massage,” improving their functioning and disease fighting abilities. Your gastrointestinal health improves. Overall, there isn’t a body system not impacted positively by regular yoga practice.

1.) The Outer You – After examining all the things that yoga can do for the inside of you, let’s see what yoga can do for you that you can actually see. Yoga can reduce the signs of aging through its detoxification of the body. Increased blood flow and oxygenation can also improve skin tone and color. Yoga helps to induce better sleep, improving overall health, awareness and skin and muscle tone. Yoga poses build strength, lengthen muscles and get the body moving, all of which cause a reduction in weight, prevent cellulite from forming and improve posture. Lastly, yoga can boost your energy, and not just your everyday, running hither and thither and yon type energy. Yoga has been proven to improve your energy and performance in the bedroom, as well. You look better, you feel better, your body is more in tune with itself and you with it - all of which leads to an increased confidence that can’t be kept all to yourself.

Yoga may not be the cure of all ills, but it certainly can improve many. It’s an overall workout – inside as well as outside – that shows in your face, your eyes, the way you stand, the way you move, the way you live. What are you waiting for? Give yoga a try today!

By: Craig Perkins

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Tuesday 27 January 2009

How Bikram Yoga Can Change Your Life

Yes it is true, the advantages that Bikram Yoga will give you can ultimately change your perspectives and change your whole life completely. Bikram yoga is also known as Bikram Method Yoga and sometimes called the ‘hot yoga’. This yoga method builds both your physical and mental strength and also improves your flexibility and balance, all of which are very important in your overall health.

Bikram yoga was founded by Bikram Choudhury and has roots from Hatha yoga, which helps to heal the mind and body. Bikram suffered an injury in a weightlifting accident and it was as a result of this injury that he developed this type of yoga. He discovered some healing benefits within some of the exercises he practised and then went on to share his discovery and Bikram yoga has since gone on to be practised by many, many people.

This type of yoga helps to bring holistic benefits to those who practise it and it is usually practised for its healing benefits. Many people have found that their ailments have reduced significantly after practising Bikram yoga for a a few weeks.

It does take some devotion to Bikram yoga to really get the full healing benefits from it. You can’t just do the poses once and expect to be healed, it is a process that takes time, but it is definitely worth doing and once you begin to feel the benefits you can continue to practise the method to maintain your health.

Bikram yoga helps to repair tissues and cure chronic ailments. This has been studied by scientists from the University of Tokyo and found to be true and it was stated that this method does have the ability to affect the body internally.

This method works by replenishing the cells and flushing toxins through our body. It also helps to oxygenate blood through our body helping to keep it clean and healthy. The method will be much more effective on a healthy body than it would on a body that is weak so it is beneficial to practise the method regularly to maintain that good health.

There are twenty six posture exercises in Bikram yoga which should be practised every day for optimum health. These focus on stretching muscles, tendons, nerves, glands, organs and ligaments.

Anyone of any age can practise Bikram yoga and will find that it could help to assist and perhaps even overcome some medical problems and I am sure that if you are devoted to your yoga practise you will enjoy a very healthy life.

By: Sheryl Polomka

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Sunday 25 January 2009

Kundalini Yoga: The Be All And End All Of All Yoga Forms

If you have life energy within, then it is possible for you to get maximum benefit and well as meditation. It is the power of the Divine as embodied in the Mother. Kundalini yoga is a form of yoga that requires a lot of care and you should ensure that you practice it under the tutelage of a teacher; otherwise it could be problematic.

Concentrate On the Heart Center

According to the learned teachers of Kundalini yoga, you need to concentrate on the heart center so that you can enjoy the beauty and strength of being one, and experience pure joy. In the heart center lays significant purity which can be harnessed in order to illume the lower and other centers. It means having to concentrate your entire being on one center of energy and to also invoke the main deity of that center.

If you want to experience the rich benefits of Kundalini yoga you need to get complete control over your thoughts and you must focus on a single point and place all your concentration on your spiritual practice. You won’t have the opportunity of taking short cuts and thus you need to develop a discipline of the spirit as well as properly master how to concentrate the self.

The practice of Kundalini yoga will help in developing psychic powers which may either be put to a positive or negative use, and it is often prone to being misused. It is not uncommon for a person to use the immense powers of Kundalini yoga to bolster the ego instead of putting it to proper use. You must also be completely sincere in your practice of Kundalini yoga and there should be no deviation from the proper path.

It is purity as well as love that you should seek and more particularly Divine Love pertaining to the Mother. There is no place for experiencing worldly pleasures and one must give ones all to the practice of Kundalini yoga.

Unique Yoga Form

There is however scope for choosing other paths as well that are not so difficult as Kundalini yoga is not the only path to follow. It is however, striving for unity through the path of bringing alive the psychic forces, and thus Kundalini yoga is also thought of as being the be all and end all of all forms of yoga. Even though, from a cursory glimpse of it, you may think that it is the same as Hatha yoga; there is however importance laid on mantras and meditation as it is really quite unique.

Published At: www.Isnare.com
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Tuesday 20 January 2009

Traditional Thai Yoga Massage Training – Rejuvenate Your Life

individual. Today there are several people who are interested to learn more about traditional Thai massage, how the massage therapy of Thailand came into existence and the benefits of such therapy. Traditional Thai massage as the name suggests, is quite old. This is one of the oldest forms of manual medicine that dates back to almost 2500 years. There are a number of elements that are combined in this massage such as shiatsu and acupressure, along with different forms of yoga. Thai oil massage is quite popular and is considered to be very effective for entire body massage and is known to be a soothing relief for all kinds of pain related to bones and muscles. This is popular with young, old men and women alike and those suffering from joint pains are specially benefited by this.

The TTC Spa School is a renowned government accredited Thai massage school situated in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It offers several courses including therapist training after which students receive certificate from Ministry of Education, Thailand. This is one of the most popular and reliable places where you can learn about therapist training course which consists of traditional Thai massage, Thai oil massage, foot reflexology among many other types of massage. This is considered to be one of the best schools that impart Thai massage training. There are many kinds of Thai massage courses available for the learners and are available in many levels and of different duration. You can learn more about traditional Thai massage and other forms of massage through these courses. If you enroll for any of these Thai massage training courses you will learn more about the techniques of massaging and the benefits associated with each of the forms of massage.

By: Kanokwan Thapech

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Thursday 15 January 2009

Peaceful Kids - The Effect of Children's Yoga

Yoga for Children is great, the combination of special yoga moves, breathing exercises and relaxations will energize, strengthen, loosen and balance little bodies, while helping to calm and control and relax little minds. Regular attendance provides a wonderful opportunity for the child to learn life skills that can be incorporated into their daily routine.

The skills they improve take place across a very wide range they are all useful and almost all are uniquely well taught within yoga, from breathing and relaxation techniques, helping the child to focus, concentrate or be calm, and this extends into postures that will help their endurance, flexibility, balance and coordination.

Yoga for children is most successful if the children are encouraged to use their imagination. A dynamic, creative and stimulating approach grabs the children's attention.

Kids get to prowl, growl and wiggle through yoga animal poses from Alligator to Zebra! Certified children's yoga instructors are available, and they are well able to introduce stretching, breathing, standing poses and simple meditation to their young pupils.

Kids yoga also provides away into the psyche of children who are harder to reach and may not respond well to less physically based tuition, although we do apply our creed which states that every child has an good heart down inside them. There is a great capability within yoga to allow a child to deal with daily stress, and this speaks very deeply to them. Kids need a way to manage all of their stress and anxiety and yoga definitely helps in buckets with that. It is not healthy for a child to feel so much anxiety over any given situation and thank heavens for yoga to be able to match the challenge.

Yoga for children is certainly one way to ensure that our children grow up healthy and happy. There many schools of yoga. For example, the principles Yama and Niyama reinforce the universal values such as Truth, Non-violence, Cleanliness and contentment. The Asanas help a growing child develop physically, emotionally and psychologically.

Yoga for children comprises of dynamic movements, postures, breathing exercises and meditations and many more. Is it any surprise that the easy and simple stages of yoga tuition for children has proved to help the attention-deficit and hyperactive child far more than you would expect..
At its best yoga for children employs varied imaginative exercises, games, stretches, relaxation and breathing techniques to enable your children to become more confident and more aware of themselves and their bodies.

Through Yoga they are also encouraged to think in a caring, sharing way about each other and the world around them.

Yoga for children should always be at its simplest level a safe, fun and easy stretching class using the principles of yoga. Each class teaches the participants about the benefits of physical activity, how the body functions and the importance of posture and balance.

Children could start learning yoga from the age of five. Initially, it could be a session of fifteen to twenty minutes that could be gradually increased to thirty minutes for older children. Children who bring their own model tractor for the tractor parade will receive free admission to the museum. Children's yoga however do give a thought to whether yoga may not be suitable for your child if it suffers from physical illnesses or physical defects.

Yoga is one of Steve Evan's favourite subjects. We encourage you to go to his Yoga for Children web site where he writes about the fact that kids yoga mats franklin tn.

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Tuesday 13 January 2009

Yoga For Stress Relief, Beat Stress With Yoga

Yoga practice has realistic solutions for stressed-out teenagers. Young people need to take time out for non-competitive and wholesome activities, such as Yoga. When teens have a chance to explore themselves from within, this is time well spent.

Yoga is considered to be an extremely effective method for relieving stress. Many people avoid yoga with the idea that they either can’t or don’t wish to maneuver their body into a pretzel. However, these positions are for advanced practitioners. Yoga has many postures that are simple to perform.

Looking for ways to beat stress? Yoga makes it easy. Even five minutes spent doing yoga will give you stress relief. In these tough times it’s only natural to feel stress. However constant unrelieved stress will lead to health problems. It’s vital that you spend some time each day getting rid of the stress hormones in your system and discovering relaxation.

Yoga allows you to build up a natural response to stress and bring a relaxed state more easily into your daily life. Some people go to yoga or meditation centers or take retreats regularly at such centers in order to learn and to be around people who are positive and taking care of themselves. And while none of us can avoid stress, but we can return to a state of balance and regulation through a variety of means, including deep breathing, meditation, and exercise.

Practice yoga poses for stress relief and keeping the body in shape. Have you been searching for a program or practice to help make a healthier and better you? Yoga has been practiced for many years and found to be very effective in stress reduction as well as keeping the body fit. This is a wonderful and fulfilling way to build a foundation of inner peace when experiencing difficult times and at the same time transform the body to have more range of movement and strength.

The body’s natural relaxation response is a powerful antidote to stress. Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, and yoga can help you activate this relaxation response. When practiced regularly, these activities lead to a reduction in your everyday stress level and boost your feelings of peace and calm. They also help by teaching you how to stay calm and collected when life throws you a curveball.

Now more that ever, yoga exercise as a method for stress relieve makes more sense than ever. Stress, from just trying to keep pace with the hustle and bustle of everyday life, is killing us. There is more heart disease, strokes and other illness caused by stress than at any time in our history. Stress is the culprit in many health related problems from migraines to insomnia. It is a leading cause of weight gain, high blood pressure, poor digestion and other diseases.

There are various simple yoga routines which one can engage in right before the start of the day. For example, an exercise which is used and widely recommended for every start of the day to ease off the stress and tension of the body is the thirteen routine, it involves a gentle forward bend, backward bend, and a little routine that looks like pushups

By: Hutch Peter

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Thursday 8 January 2009

Yoga Exercises - What Has Cannabis Got In Common With Yoga

What has yoga exercises and cannabis got in common - well that is simple they both relate to joints. Cannabis is smoked in a joint and yoga exercises help relax the joints. Let us focus on the how the natural way is the legal way to ease troubled minds, aches and pains.

The Natural way comes with no prison sentence.

Yoga exercises - moves and postures are easily practiced but most importantly should be supervised under the guidance from a master in the field of yoga. Tutorial videos are quite popular among the housebound. People with an illness that prevents them leaving the house can still follow the thousands of Yogis world wide by practising yoga exercises in the comfort of their own home.

One of the top reasons for why yoga exercises are performed on a wide scale is due to stress related concerns. Anxiety and sufferers of depression have seen the difference in themselves after learning yoga. Doctors are now referring their patients to join local yoga classes. Doctors realize that this is a safe natural mental medicinal medication which can ease symptoms of different types of illnesses and disorders. (Depending on the illness)

For beginners who are attending a class for the first time you can expect your yoga exercises to be light movements. This may entail short workouts on twists, balance, sit up poses and different other moves. You may also find that there is a time limit on how much you do in the first few stages of your yoga exercises due to you being a novice.

Once you have become familiar with what ever type of yoga you have chosen to practice - it is then you will begin to notice the change in your whole approach towards practice sessions. Yoga and the people who exercise this exercise become very devoted to an extent that it becomes a passionate piece of their life and why wouldn`t they when it helps them to keep in shape and lead a healthier life

Remember what is on the inside needs as much nurturing like that on the outside - in other words muscles joints and internal organs. There are many types of yoga exercises carefully structured to loosen the bones taking away stiffness or any other discomforts that can cause bouts of stress. By practicing yoga exercises on a regular basis you will notice the flexibility of how the body alters in a very relieving manner.

If you are not sure of the type of yoga that best suits your needs then talk with a yoga master. The Practice of yoga exercises due to health matters should not go ahead until you speak with your doctor - this goes for any exercises you intend on taking up.

Yoga is not a cure and has no magical powers where you regain sight after years of living in darkness nor can it cure the deaf from their world of silence but one thing it can do is work MIRACLES on the mind. This is done by positive thoughts inserted into the mind by your own way of thinking where you take what is rightfully yours and that is contentment.

Published At: www.Isnare.com
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Wednesday 7 January 2009

Yoga, Health, and Wellness

Ancient, fascinating and sometimes mysterious, this ancient science originated in India at the dawn of our civilization and is indeed a precious treasure for our physical and mental health. Although it is often described as an alternative health branch, Yoga is a science in itself with complexities that only the very advanced teachers can explain clearly. Although there are true masters in the West, born and educated in India, they have had the wisdom to develop a kind of "yoga for Westerners" that can be adapted perfectly to our lifestyle, our food, sexuality, temperament and social life.

All those who practice this discipline can assure you, that if you practice with a qualified teacher, you'll start to notice very nice changes in your life, not only physical but also on mental level too. Wherever you live there are schools of yoga and the prices are always very accessible.

The other advantage is that it is suitable for people of all ages, and there are different practices and special yoga routines for hypertension, hypotension, stress, depression, obesity, and so on. Although there are many variations and schools of yoga, the most famous in the West is called hatha yoga, which is mainly based on physical postures called "asanas". Every yoga asana or posture affects one or more organs, endocrine glands and muscle groups, making a very effective job of harmonization that prevents and relieves many physical ailments.

Each session ends with a profound relaxation that provides a neuromuscular rest, much deeper than the sleep that harmoniously distribute the flow energy mobilized during the session. For more advanced practitioners there are also concentration and meditation exercises, but the mere practice of the asanas is a dynamic meditation, because the practitioner must keep the mind focused on the specific body posture and breathing. This science is also based on a very complex system of energy centers called chakras, but this is something that we will develop in future deliveries. There are many websites that can give you a lot of information for free, so you can begin this way improving your life and knowledge with hatha yoga.

The author is the owner and CEO of an herbal supplements website and a contributor for Male Enhancement themes.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pedro_Daniel

Monday 5 January 2009

Ethics For a Follower of the Path of Yoga

We possess the consciousness: we realize that we are, and we realize the things around us. Let us assume - and it is very obvious - that the realization of existence is meant for realizing new, unknown things. Yoga, which is the science of joining the consciousness with the supreme consciousness, the God, can be well understood in the light of this assumption.

See, according to this assumption, we ought to pursue the truth and perform creative actions in our life. For the pursuit of truth leads to the realization of unknown (however, already existing) things and creative actions lead to the realization of new things. In Yoga, there is a term Satya, which means Truth. There is another term Brahmcharya, which means God-like-Conduct. Now the God is assumed to be the Creator. So God-like-Conduct means Creative actions. Thus, these two terms of Yoga, convey the message that we ought to pursue the truth and perform creative actions in our life.

Well, Satya and Brahmcharya are two among the five codes of conduct set for the followers of the path of Yoga. Three others are Ahimsa, Asteya and Aparigraha, which respectively mean 'Non Violence', 'Non Stealing' and 'Non Accumulation of Unnecessary Wealth'. These three are described as following:

(1) Do not hurt a human being if he/she does not hurt you.
(2) Do not take away anything from a human being if he/she does not want to give it to you.
(3) Do not add anything to your wealth if you do not need it.

First two are just the humanitarian values. In fact the third one is too. For adding anything not required to your wealth may cause the scarcity or/and 'the increase in its cost' for the fellow human beings.

If the world has to be made into such a place where the pursuit of truth and the performance of creative actions become easy, then we ought to follow these humanitarian values.

However the most important thing for us human beings is to pursue the truth and perform creative actions in our life. We are then naturally able to have the these three humanitarian values. For the pursuit of truth and performance of creative actions pave the way for the friendship among the fellow human beings - Read the message at the following website:


Saturday 3 January 2009

Dealing With Anger Through Yoga and Meditation

According to Patanjali, the mind (Chitta) is made up of three components - Manas, Buddhi, and Ahamkara. These are the three astral or instinctive-cerebral sheaths or veils of our existence. They make up what is called the manomaya kosha. Anukaratta chitta is the super conscious mind which is free from the lower emotions. It is not ruled by the instinctive-intellectual aspect of ourselves. Patanjali tells us in the yoga sutras that ignorance called avidya, the ego (asmita), passion (raga) and anger or aversion (dvesha) and abhinivesha or clinging to life/the fear of death are all the kleshas or obstacles. These same obstacles appear in Mahayana Buddhism, and we are given similar ways to overcome them. Anger is one of the most powerful and difficult emotions to overcome, as it is fueled by the ego's relentless need to be in charge. Anger can be kept in check, once we are given some insights about its formation and clues to its undoing.

The true mind does not exist as an extension of the emotions alone. Although we may feel that we are our emotions - we can feel so deeply connected to our fear, our anger, and our passions - all of our longings that they become us - this is an illusion. The ego has as much of a modus operandi to keep you in fear and anger as a fortune five hundred company has of keeping its stocks high. It will often lie, steel, cheat and cajole, all to keep us in a place of lesser power. Although anger makes us feel stronger temporarily, we often can feel deflated and frustrated after it has run its course. It leaves an irrevocable trail through the body in a physiological and energetic sense as well, often wrecking havoc on the hormonal system, the digestive system and the mind. If that same fortune five hundred company was Exxon in the 1990s - it would be the same as the dumping of hormonal crud into the bloodstream. It takes a long time to clean up and is quite a mess. Extended bouts of anger even start to rewire synapses in the brain, causing it to be easier for anger to escalate and reason to predominate the thinking in subsequent boughts of emotion. This is one reason why the yogic sutras of Patanjali as well as the writings of Buddha urge us to keep our anger in check.

The first step in lessening the emotional reactions, including and especially anger, is to become aware of it in its earliest stages. Most of us carry small burdens of anger with so little awareness, that when we finally break and scream at a car passing us down the highway too fast or lose our tempers in the presence of those we love, we hardly know where all the emotion came from. Anger begins as small resentments or stress that we hold within the body. If you check your breathing right now, in this very moment while you are reading this article, are you breathing deeply, and fully in a relaxed manner, or are you slightly hunching your shoulders up next to your ears, are you slouched over so that the breath has to work harder to enter and exit the longs and diaphragm? Are you focusing easily on the words in front of you, or are your thoughts rambling towards some small injustice that happened earlier in the day? Did someone forget to refill the coffee pot or take out the trash? Do you feel slighted by the actions of another - even if in some small way? Though we cannot change the behavior of other people, we can take a moment to become aware of our own bodies and breathe. We can take a few moments to become mindful, and release any tension of small grudge which we are holding. Whether you are aware of it or not, that small grudge will soon fester into a seething wound ripe for an explosion if you do not practice mindfulness. Buddha's teachings simply tell us to realize that all things are ephemeral, all are fleeting. There is no guarantee that someone will start taking out the trash or that your boss will finally recognize your sheer brilliance at work, but there is a guarantee, that you can change the way you react to these little injustices.

There may come times in your life, as a parent, a friend, a boss an employee, when you need to express yourself sincerely and forcefully. There comes a time when the message urgently needs to be put across. The difference between communicating in a tirade and convincingly and powerfully urging others to follow your lead is all in the emotions. Surely, Ghandi and Martin Luther Kind felt sorrow, regret, anger and fear in the face of their respective obstacles, and though they each communicated in a powerful manner, neither of them lost themselves in the emotions of anger and fear. This would have watered down the effectiveness of their messages. By communicating with their emotions under control, they were able to speak to the similarities between people, convincing those who were not previously inclined to agree with them, that they indeed had something relevant and important to say. They had to use perseverance and fortitude to continue communicating without anger in the face of their marked challenges, but they did so, again through releasing their anger, and redirecting that power in a more effective way.

Patanjali tells us that with yoga, meditation and breathing we can become more mindful. We can mindfully release tension in the body by bringing our awareness to the fact that it is there in the first place. Those of you have practiced yoga for awhile and then take a short break, come back to it to realize that in even the span of a week, the body has stored away a host of tension and frustration. Daily yoga practice is to the body and the build up of anger what a good dose of clean air and sunshine is the environment. Instead of choking on the pollution of our emotions, we can air them out in breathe more deeply.

David Chapman is a certified yoga teacher and operates http://meditationforbeginners.net.

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Friday 2 January 2009

Prenatal Yoga to Reduce Your Stress

Exercising with a prenatal yoga DVD is a great way to reduce your stress levels and get you more in-tune with your baby. While a wonderful time in your life, pregnancy can also be stressful time both on your body and your mind. Your body goes through a lot of changes as you are pregnant, not the least of which is carrying around a whole lot more weight. Doing the exercises on a prenatal yoga DVD can help ease some of those aches and pains that come with pregnancy. Pregnancy can also be mentally stressful. I know that while I was pregnant, I worried about the health and safety of my baby a lot. So how can a prenatal yoga DVD help you get rid of some of that stress?

One of the best ways is through learning to control your breath. All throughout your prenatal yoga DVD, you will be told to focus on your breath, to pay attention to your breath, to listen to your breath. Often the first exercise is one where you sit and focus only on your breathing, on relaxing your breathing and doing something that we in western culture rarely do, breathing deeply and fully. It is a focused, controlled breathing that allows you to focus and calm your mind and body.

Another great stress relief that a prenatal yoga DVD teaches is clearing your mind. Part of any good yoga practice is learning to quiet your mind. If you are fully present in your yoga practice, your mind will become still. This takes practice and patience, but it can be done. We tend to get caught up in our minds a lot and a good DVD will teach you how to get out of your mind and simply focus on your body and it's movements.

And finally, learning to relax your body is another good stress relief that a prenatal yoga DVD provides. This comes both in the form of the great stretching that yoga provides your body and in the relaxation time that comes at the end. Yoga in general is great for stretching your body and with that stretching comes relaxation to those muscles. It helps loosen tight muscles and keep you limber. At the end of a prenatal yoga DVD, you will find a relaxation exercise that helps you fully relax every muscle in your body. But only if you allow yourself to fully relax. This is a great way to help the stress of a hectic day just melt away.

Keeping yourself free of stress while you are pregnant is important to you and to your growing baby. Exercising with a prenatal yoga DVD can help you get rid of stress through controlled breathing, clearing your mind and relaxing your body. Get more free prenatal yoga tips at http://www.PrenatalYogaDVD.net.

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