Liberated Yoga
Yoga is for everyone!
Archives: 2013
Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.
God grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change (exhale), courage to change the things that I can (inhale), and the wisdom to know the difference (hold). With a regular breathing practice you can alter the blood chemistry and literally change who you are. When we are stressed and the mind is agitated, we take short, shallow breaths and the blood becomes too oxygentated from over breathing and hyperventilating. This causes other problems, such as more stres...
Savasana - The Relaxation Response
Our society does not value doing nothing. There is no built-in time for rest allowed for us. When we have free time we seek to fill it up with activity. Many think that stress can be remedied by sleep, but one can sleep and wake up not rested. The best remedy for stress is rest, and Savasana can be a wonderful tool for that. Savasana is a deliberate attempt to be still and it should be an important part of our lives, because it allows blood pressure to go down, ...
Yoga in America - Sensory Overload
Americans like their food too salty or sugary. It is a culture that prefers strong flavors that make an impact. Beer? The more bitter, the better. TV? The more violence, the more popular. Triathlons, anyone? Bootcamps? Survival in the wilderness? Those things are expensive to participate in, and yet - there is a waiting list! Yoga? Americans like their Yoga hard. They like to sweat it out on the mat. Nowhere else in t...
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The Five Winds of Prana
The ancient Yogis called the life force that permeates all existence Prana. Prana cannot be controlled directly, but it can be affected by your Yoga practice - and one of the definitions of a Yogi is "one who has all his Prana within." Due to poor posture, our Prana constantly "leaks" out, leaving us drained, tired, in foul mood. By manipulating the body into a better alignment we re-direct energy in the body, concentrate it, build it, and in turn, Prana in the body is increased....
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Mindfulness Meditation - Orchids
Taittirya Upanishad in the ancient Yogic Vedas uses a bird as an analogy to describe the subtle and multi-dimentional complexity that is a human being. Birds have been revered in Yoga because of their ability to fly high and be closer to God. The bird has a head, two wings, the trunk, and the tail to help it fly. The head shows direction, the wings (think of them as your right and left sides of the body) help move it forward, the trunk ties it all together and the tail facilit...
The Universe Within - Microbiome
Your gut has three-and-a-half to four-and-a-half pounds of bacteria, which is about equivalent to the size of your liver! There are more bacterial cells in your body than there are human cells, ten times more, actually. And only recently research has been showing what these little bugs do and what kind of role they play in our health. New research shows that an unhealthy gut may be the source of seemingly unrelated physical and mental disorders, like diabetes, heart dise...
Liberated Yoga
Traditionally, Yoga is described as a moksha-mârga or “path to liberation.” The word moksha derives from the verbal root muc meaning “to liberate.” Yoga is that discipline which is designed to liberate us from spiritual ignorance ( avidyâ ) and its fateful consequences. What first attracted me to Yoga many years ago was the idea of freedom, of liberation. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (YS2:18) tell us that the purpose of Life is to provide us with...
In the Winter, when the Roots Grow Deep...
...is the time when we must take a moment and remain grounded. Yoga can help - take your shoes off and spread your toes, lift them, deepen the arches of the feet. Our feet have about a quarter of all the bones in the body - and the Earth element is especially strongly represented here. How we walk, stand, and place weight on the feet will have consequences for the rest of the body. I certainly feel grateful to Yoga for giving me such awareness of my feet. In your Y...
The Truth about Aging
New research by Japanese scientists into the nature of aging reveals that what has been confused with "aging", "frailness" or "undiagnosed illness" is in reality the "result of disuse syndrome as an accumulated effect of inactive life". In a study of people with poor functioning, forty percent were people who suffered physical decline simply because over time they did a little less, moved a little less. Use it or lose it, indeed. It happens so slowly that it goes unnoticed and...
