10 Minute Meditations For a Stress Free Day - It's Easier Than You Think!

I have practiced meditation for the last 22 years, starting when I was a stressed-out teenager facing countless exams. It brought me such a sense of calm and well-being - it was really fantastic as a stress- management tool. There are plenty of styles of meditation around, from Zen to Dru to Vipassana. I teach Dru Meditation in workshops, retreats and teacher training courses around the world.

What is so special about Dru Meditation? I believe in it so strongly because of its ability to arm you with the right tools for relaxation, whatever state of mind you're in. If you're agitated it will bring you calmness, if you're exhausted it will bring you energy, and if you're feeling anxious it will bring you peace. Added to this are the real healing powers and the sense of fullness and contentment that can be achieved through finding that still place that only meditation can lead you into.

Try my top techniques to fit the fantastic benefits of meditation into your busy day.

1. Rise and shine - morning meditation When you wake up in the morning, completely relax your body for one minute, while you're still lying in bed. Then gently sit up and wrap your duvet around you. Bring your attention to your breathing and let it get deeper without forcing it at all. Focus on your heart chakra (in the centre of your chest) and feel warmth spreading through your body as you breathe. Continue for five minutes, then stretch (ideally a Dru Yoga sequence!) and start your day.

2. Relax body and mind Dru Yoga is a powerful tool to help you relax. It systematically stretches and relaxes the muscles using graceful, flowing movements which bring calmness and increased energy. I often teach this relaxation at the end of a Dru Yoga class. Do some stretches then lie down on the floor on a firm yet comfortable surface (a soft carpet or blanket is fine). Cover yourself with a blanket so you don't get chilly. Make sure that your body is aligned in a straight line. Starting from your feet, tense and relax each part of your body. Contract the muscles first in your feet, and then feel each of the toes relaxing as you soften the feet against the floor. Work up the body, through the legs, hips, abdomen, chest, back, neck and head. Then focus on your breathing, and each time you breathe out, let your body release tension. As you breathe in, take peace and calmness into the body. Repeat for 5 minutes. To finish, gradually bring your awareness back to your body and feel how your body is positioned on the floor. Move your toes and fingers gently, then stretch and sit up without disturbing that wonderful feeling of relaxation!

3. Stress busting meditation technique Relax for a few moments and focus on your breathing, watching the natural rhythm of each inhalation and exhalation. Imagine a situation in your life that needs healing. Create an image of that situation in front of you, as if it were on a video screen. As you breathe in, draw some of the stress of the situation into your heart and immediately send it upwards and out of the top of your head as you breathe out.

Feel that above your head is a region of golden light in which you have full access to your healing potential. Imagine the stress entering this region and visualise the situation being completely healed. On an in-breath, draw this new situation into your heart and breathe it out into the scene in front of you, bringing peace and a good solution to that situation. See smiles of relief on the faces of everyone concerned. Continue to repeat drawing each in-breath down into your heart, and each out-breath into the scene in front, in an L shape. Repeat until you feel relaxed and calm.

4. Sunshine bliss This is great for the winter blues! On a sunny day, wrap up warmly and sit comfortably outside, whether on a chair or cross legged on the ground, facing the sun. Make sure your back is tall and upright and relax your shoulders and face. Close your eyes and let the sunlight radiate onto your face. Imagine that each cell is absorbing the sunlight and that you are being filled with energy and positivity. You can do this meditation when it's not sunny by visualising the sun and imagining its rays shining on your face. It's a simple technique but very powerful.

If you are able to practice these meditation techniques daily - you should find that you are better able to cope with life's stresses.

druworldwide.com druworldwide.com/ is the website where you'll find Dru meditation tips, retreats and holidays. Jane Clapham is a Dru Meditation teacher, and trains people to become meditation teachers in the glorious surroundings of Snowdonia, in North Wales, UK. She also leads meditation retreats and holidays in the celtic mountains of Wales and worldwide. Contact her at

20-Rep Squats - Tips For Success - It's All In The Mind

20-rep squats done to a person's absolute limit are so productive that they are practically indispensable to most hard gainers' routines. If you really want to grow without drugs there is no substitute for cycles of full-bore squats. The strength of character needed to push your body through 20-rep squats is not easy to find for most people. It's much easier to be influenced by opinions that advocate far longer workouts done to way less than maximum intensity. Is it all hell, then? No. The satisfaction of breaking further into new poundages is extremely satisfying, not only for itself but also for the physical and mental gains it produces...

Anyone who perseveres diligently with a cycle where they are breaking personal records every week on the 20-rep squat, whatever the weight they are lifting, deserves serious respect. The trouble is, too few people want to push themselves that far, and most beginners give up at their first taste of just how hard it is.

I'd like to share some of the ideas I've applied in order to keep people at intensive 20-rep squatting, and keep their gains coming. Most of these I devised for myself, as I've no natural willpower. I've had to devise tricks to keep me from giving up cycles short of my maximums, and to keep me from putting the bar back after 15 or even 10 reps!

I lifted my first weight at age 29 and never had a huge desire to be big. Strangely enough that attitude is what actually led me to the correct way to work out. After following routines designed for the steroid heads for a couple of years, and getting nowhere, I read Hardgainer and Brawn and the ideas there made sense. A lot of my acquaintances decided that they didn't want to chance these abbreviated workouts "in case they lost their muscle"! I wasn't really bothered about muscle, but I knew I was only really interested in the major barbell movements. I followed the principles of abbreviated training, and finally started to grow. Then I got interested in muscle!

In early 1997 I took over a gym in my hometown that I used to train at before I bought a power rack and did my training at home. I was a bit nervous at first as many of the trainees there have been training longer than me and are stronger. I was worried that they would not be receptive to abbreviated workouts. I needn't have worried as many of them seemed tired of conventional stuff and were gagging for a change. I've now had experienced, intermediate and novice trainees on abbreviated programmes, and the results have been phenomenal.

Many who hadn't had any arm growth for years put an inch or more on their arms - and this was without any specific arm training, just heavy routines based on the squat, deadlift or stiff-leg deadlift, bench press, a row or pulldown, maybe a shoulder press, and some grip work. Curls are only allowed if somebody is new to the routines and absolutely insists on training arms. They usually happily drop the curls after a few weeks when they get into the spirit of things. It's so gratifying to have more and more people asking me to write out routines for them once they see the gains that some of the others are piling on. I now have total confidence in putting people on these workouts, however experienced they may be. Because I believe that the squat is one of the main cornerstones of training, if not the main cornerstone, here are some of the ways I have found to encourage people to get their sets and cycles finished.

I have a slightly different view of the 'Iron Game' to most trainees because prior to getting into weights my only form of exercise was yoga, and I only used that as a preparation for meditation. Some of my way of thinking about squats has come from the experiences I had then, and I'd still say the best training aid anyone could have is to learn to meditate. The focus and visualization powers it gives you are worth ten thousand dodgy food supplements!

Tips To Squat By

The first thing to get out of the way is that a set of full-bore 20-rep squats should begin the night before. It goes without saying that your eating and sleeping should be in order generally, but it is particularly important to be well rested the night before tackling a heavy set. Eat well, too.

When you are doing one set of 20 near your maximum you need to cut out as many variables as you can in order to track your progress as accurately as possible. This could come down to wearing the same shoes, using the same equipment at the gym, and performing each set from week to week in the same manner for a whole cycle, i.e., taking squats to parallel. There is no point adding to the weight lifted if you are not going down as far into the squat. Progressive resistance is the key; make sure you know it is progress and not cheating.

A good idea is to set yourself up for squats in a power rack in front of a mirror with no weight on the bar. Get somebody to tell you exactly when your thighs are parallel to the ground, look in the mirror and see where the bar lines up on the rear uprights. Mark the spot so that you know for sure that every rep is the same even when there's so much discomfort late in a set that it feels like you are parallel even when you're only halfway down. There are other ways of ensuring you don't cheat reps, but this way works a treat if you have the appropriate equipment.

Before beginning a cycle it is a good idea to set some rules for all your sets. The two I insist on are:

a. If you take the bar onto your shoulders to start a set, the full 20 reps must be completed unless you get trapped at the bottom on the failing bars, or you feel that you sustained some injury (which should not happen if correct form is observed). The bar must never be put back on the rack just because you are suffering mere discomfort.

b. Every rep must be to parallel - no cheating. The proviso here is that your lower back must not round. If your lower back rounds at the parallel depth, try a wider stance with toes turned out more. That stance change may enable you to go a bit deeper without your lower back rounding.

With those rules established you need some mental techniques to get you through each set. Squats are largely a head game. You can do those last two reps; you aren't really at failure; it's just your head crying out for you to stop because the general discomfort is so intense. But how do you convince your body of that?

In watching many people on a 20-rep squat routine I've seen how different characters cope with the intense discomfort, but there are some things that can help all types. When the temptation to put the bar back is becoming almost unbearable here are a few things you can try. These principles can be adapted for any exercise.

1. Retreat

This is where experience of meditation can be helpful. There is a place inside us where we are the witnesses of what is happening to our bodies, and retreating there can lessen the discomfort of squatting. Just watch yourself as if you were watching a film. Become disconnected from the pain, observe it, react to it, but don't get overwhelmed by it. Now direct all your muscular effort to the target muscles instead of squirming and losing the form with potentially dangerous results.

2. Regroup and set up

You have just completed a rep and your head is scrambled. This is not the time to rush the next rep however quickly you'd like the set to end. This will just set you up for injury. Instead of focusing on the pain, breathe, regroup your thoughts, focus on your form checklist to keep the next rep as good as possible. "Back straight, midsection tight, lower under control, drive up in good form, no squirming." Right, go for the rep and get back to the top with your head scrambled again. Regroup your thoughts again, and "enjoy" the next rep.

3. Life or death

What about if the rep just won't go up? Providing you are sure you have applied the previous two steps, you can now turn it into a life or death situation. Convince yourself that you are trapped under a car or lorry and you have to lift it up or you'll be crushed. Puts a sense of urgency on the rep that will make you realize that you have reserves when needed. Got any kids? A morbid variation of this is to imagine one of them is trapped instead - works for me every time! Ever heard about mothers lifting cars to get their children out from underneath? This is the intensity we need in order to trigger the growth process!

The more I see people succeeding or failing in 20-rep squat routines, the more I believe it is a test of character as much as a test of physical strength. No matter how much character we may possess, though, failing on a weight can be very demoralizing and blow a cycle before its natural end. Sets can be blown late in a cycle for various reasons - bad eating, not enough rest, lack of motivation or preparation, or poundage increases that are too great. Keep the gains coming for as long as you can by keeping all these bases covered.

Cycling The Workouts

Cycling weight training is a fairly straightforward affair. Once you feel you have got to the limit of your training capabilities, you stop and rest for a week or so. This is far better than going on regardless, as this can lead to major loss of progress and motivation. If your body says, "Stop", then stop. When you are rested you can resume your training at around 70-80% of your previous maximum. Increase the weights slowly until you are at your previous best, and if everything has gone according to plan the momentum gained from the rest and gradual build-up will carry you beyond your previous best to new levels of strength and size, until again you reach a new limit and have to rest for a while.

All athletes cycle their training through the year in much the same way, attempting to reach their peak during the competitive season for their particular sport. A far more natural way to do it would be to follow the seasons according to Ayurveda and plan your yearly training around those principles.

And don't forget to take care of those muscles joints and keep them limber with regular Hanna Somatic Movement sessions! Good luck!

Philip Escott, author of 'Pure Activity: Eat Better - Exercise Better - Feel Better', in partnership with Hanna Somatics Educator Brian Ingle N.D, D.O., invites you to visit the following link for FREE videos and newsletter and to find out more about how the combination of Ayurvedic diet and exercise and Somatic Movement Education can supercharge your health and fitness... holistic.pureactivity.com holistic.pureactivity.com/

Ten Small Things That Can Add Big Years to Your Life

People have a will to survive, a desire to live a long and meaningful life. While there are certain things we can't control, there are many that we can. From little things like wearing a seatbelt to eating a piece of fruit, many of us have the keys to our own survival in our hands. And, most of the time, engaging in a few of these life preserving acts is sure to keep us afloat for a little bit longer than usual.

Daily Workouts

You don't have to be a fitness expert to know that regular exercise can increase physical health. But, as it adds weight to muscle mass and adds strength to the cardiovascular system, it also makes one of the most important additions of all: years to life.

A recent study at the Erasmus M.C. University Medical Center surveyed and tested over 5,000 men and women, finding that those who engaged in exercise - running, aerobics, yoga - almost daily added up to 3.7 years to their life. This was largely due to the fact that exercising decreased stress and interrupted the development of heart disease, the leading killer of Americans.

Not Smoking

We all know that smoking is bad, with "No Smoking" signs recently evolving into more of a life saving plea than a simple suggestion. However, for those who have routinely engaged in use of tobacco, quitting can still sustain life, allowing longevity to butt in.

US and Canadian Researchers recently found that even after the onset of tobacco induced lung diseases, quitting smoking can still increase lifespan, adding up to five years. This was based on the findings that the mortality rate of middle-aged heavy smokers was cut in half once they decided to extinguish their cigarettes, and their habit.

Yoga, because it produces many of the calming affects of nicotine, while teaching you discipline, perseverance, self-awareness, and allowing your body to be a conveyor of positive emotions, has actually helped smokers quit.

Owning Pets

Dogs may truly be man's best friend. They are loyal, happy, and rarely borrow things without returning them. And, going beyond the call of a "true friend," they also increase a person's life.

Several studies have shown that owning a pet lowers a person's blood pressure, increases self-esteem in children, decreases the mortality rates of heart attack victims, decreases cholesterol, decreases depression, relieves stress, and increases family happiness. Pets also make people, particularly younger people, more likely to participate in extracurricular activities. On a whole, research predicts that those who own pets will outlive those who don't by an average of seven years.

Eating Wisely

Eating wisely may seem like an improbable goal, with eating poorly often cheaper and more convenient. But, eating wisely doesn't have to be that hard. All it takes is a little planning, a little discipline, and little portions when the food is unhealthy.

Because most things are good in moderation, eating healthy doesn't mean you can never indulge in a piece of pie or a fast food hamburger; all it involves is eating fruits, vegetables, fish, and fiber most of the time, and making lapses in food judgment only occasionally.

Eating dark chocolate and drinking red wine in moderation, as recent studies have shown, may even increase your lifespan. This is because both contain ingredients that have a positive affect on the heart and the arteries.

Having Good Friends

Human beings have an innate desire to be needed and be wanted. Because of this, having friends and close confidants can increase a person's well being, and their life. The reasons for this lie in the fact that friends and partners are people we can use to reduce stress, boredom, and sadness.

This seems to be particularly true for older people. An Australian study involved researching 1400 elderly men and women for a period of ten years. The findings concluded that those who had the most close friends ended up living the longest.

Laughing

The phrase "Laughter is the best medicine" may seem like little more than an old saying. But, like many old sayings, this one seems to have a bit of truth.

Studies indicate that laughter is a natural medicine, with the ability to decrease stress-related hormones. Laughing also possesses many of the physical and mental benefits of yoga, making it seem like yogic training for your funny bone. The benefits laughter offers include boosting the immune system, regulating blood pressure, increasing the flow of blood and oxygen to muscles and organs, and internal massaging.

Being Nice and Positive

Oftentimes, situations are merely what we think that are. If we think they are dire, then that thinking makes them so. Because of this, being positive and cheerful, and maintaining an optimistic outlook, can add years to life and life to years. Being nice, when it comes to life, does make you finish last, lasting longer than those who aren't.

Recently, two studies were conducted that found older men with angry and hostile personalities more likely to die before those who engaged in an unhealthy lifestyle of smoking and drinking. Along these lines, the second study revealed that those who were giving, helpful, and cooperative with others had a 60 percent chance of outliving those who were selfish and antisocial.

Meditating

Meditation, an activity practiced often in yoga, has been indicated as a factor that can prolong life, health, and happiness. While disregarded as an important aspect in the early years, over the past few decades, meditation has gained ground in the healthcare profession as an activity that can greatly reduce both stress and pain.

Among the things meditation is thought to do is lower biochemical components of stress, lower blood pressure, decrease heart rate, and facilitate positive emotions to the brain. Along these lines, meditation also helps stabilize the immune system, keeping it from being susceptible to illnesses and infections.

From an emotional standpoint, meditation allows people to focus on their minds and their inner beings, arming them with the self-awareness and the mental clarity that is needed to keep us all healthy.

Taking Time to Relax

It can be hard on the hectic road of life to pull over and relax. But, making a point to do so just might make your journey a little longer. Relaxation, because it relieves stress, and tension - two things that take both a physical and emotional toll - is a great way to keep yourself healthy in mind, body, and spirit.

Relaxation, because it is a calming activity, decreases blood pressure and a person's susceptibility to heart disease. By implementing certain ways of thinking and perceiving things, it helps people to use positive powers and life forces to deal with stress and the roadblocks life may put in place.

Doing Yoga

The majority of above mentioned ways to increase life have a common theme: reducing stress adds years to life. The reasons for this range from stress impacting the strain on the heart to stress making people less likely to engage in positive, life affirming activities. Because of this yoga, a practice that can greatly influence stress levels, can be a major partner in increasing the length of your life.

Yoga isn't simply exercise; it's not a practice that is solely fitness based. Instead, yoga encapsulates activities such as breathing, meditation, self-reflection, and mindfulness, a program that helps you train your brain to focus on the present moment. It also improves the flow of blood and oxygen to organs and muscles, allowing them to function properly and allowing your mind to be enriched with clarity. All of these work together to make you more relaxed, freeing your body of physical tension and emotional stress.

Yoga, additionally, because it is so focused on self awareness, empowers those who take it to not only take charge of their exercise routine, but take charge of their life, leaving them more likely to partake in activities filled with health. Taking yoga may be the first step in making a point to laugh, meditate, take time to relax, and engage in all of the activities that can add years to your life and life to your years.

About us: TWISTED is a medical yoga studio at the Center for Osteopathic Medicine in Boulder, Colorado. Twisted integrates osteopathic medicine, Hatha yoga and mindfulness practices to teach optimal balance between physical, mental, and emotional health. It aims to educate and help people to live a healthy life from the inside out. Rehabilitation programs offer a comprehensive treatment regime for the whole being, empowering each person one breath at a time to stimulate the body's natural healing potential.

Jennifer Jordan is senior editor of yogatwisted.com yogatwisted.com. Specializing in articles that not only teach yoga techniques, but also teach techniques on fulfillment and enrichment, she aims to educate students proudly enrolled in the school of life.

Yoga and Losing Weight

Hatha Yoga instructors must learn to adapt their teaching styles to accommodate students with a variety of health conditions. Obesity is a common, but serious, health risk factor, which has to be addressed by teachers, in a compassionate way.

Any student who walks through the door of your studio is taking a pro-active stance toward his or her health. Compassion and mutual respect are the foundation of the student / teacher relationship. Therefore, adapt and modify to meet any student's needs.

If you are a student, begin your yoga practice with a knowledgeable yoga instructor, who is familiar with your goals. Learn the proper ways to breathe and do the yoga postures. Proper yoga breathing, or pranayama, decreases stress and increases the efficiency of all bodily systems.

Circulation is improved by the breathing, and by the series of poses and stretches, performed during a Hatha yoga class. Improved circulation increases energy levels, dispelling fatigue and allowing you to be more active. After practicing yoga for awhile, you will want to take the stairs!

Yoga improves one's idea of self-worth, and that is the beginning of any path to improved health or appearance. Instructors create a soothing and comfortable, yet challenging environment, to encourage all participants to grow.

The focused meditation, awareness, and visualization, allow you to seek out a healthier mental place for yourself. This also helps you to remember your own significance. No one can really make a beneficial life change without believing they are worth it.

Certain poses stimulate the glands that help the body burn fat. The thyroid gland becomes stimulated when you perform the classic shoulder stand. Other poses that focus on the abdomen, stimulate digestion and the excretion of hormones in the pancreas.

Yoga poses also help you appear slimmer, by improving posture. When you feel better, you'll look better. The muscles in the abdomen, hips, and buttocks, are stretched and strengthened, providing a tighter, firmer core.

For students who are in shape, and in search of higher impact or more calorie-burning types of yoga, try Vinyasa yoga (a faster-paced yoga, which is sometimes practiced in a heated room.) Ashtanga yoga is another fast-paced yoga, which follows the same movements in every class.

Another option is a hybrid form of cardiovascular yoga, an adapted type of cardiovascular exercise involving yoga principles.

© Copyright 2008 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, has written many books on the subject of Yoga. He is a co-owner and the Director of Yoga Teacher Training at: Aura Wellness Center, in Attleboro, MA. aurawellnesscenter.com aurawellnesscenter.com He has been a certified Master Yoga Teacher since 1995. To receive a Free Yoga e-Book: "Yoga in Practice," and a Free Yoga Newsletter, please visit: yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

Best Workout at Home For Fat Loss

  Want to create the best workout at home for fat loss? Then you should try bodyweight training. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you to do the same old boringpushups, pullups , and bodyweight squats. Nope. Actually, I'm going to teach you a way to train with bodyweight exercises so you actually look forward to your bodyweight workouts.

Basic pushups, pulllups, and squats might work in the beginning, but your body adapts very quickly to these basic movements. Instead, the key to continual progress with bodyweight workouts is to introduce brand new, challenging exercises.

So how can you start developing incredibly intense and effective bodyweight workouts at home? Well, you can start off by observing athletes who have built incredible bodies with bodyweight exercises. Some athletes that come to mind are gymnasts, dancers, and yogis (people who practice yoga).

Ever since I began training in this manner, my workouts have become incredibly intense and interesting.  One thing I learned from gymnasts is that your body needs to be trained in a variety of directions. This means performing exercises that make your body go up, down, back, forward, twist, turn, and move side to side.

If you ever see a gymnastics routine, you'll notice that they twist, turn, and move their bodies in a variety of directions. This twisting and turning is difficult, but it what makes their bodies lean and strong. The funny thing is that gymnasts don't even worry about fat loss.

Fat loss is a byproduct of their intense workouts. Their initial concern is making their bodies stronger through challenging movements and improving their athletic performance. So, take a lesson from these incredible athletes and start thinking outside the box.

You know what, speaking of unique exercises, there's a great 3-phase fat loss system called the Bodyweight Blueprint for Fat Loss. You can find out more information about this incredible bodyweight fat loss program on my site workoutwithoutweights.net WorkoutWithoutWeights.Net

You have permission to publish this article in your web sites, ezines or electronic publication, as long as the piece is used in its entirety including the resource box, all hyperlinks (HTML clickable) and references and copyright info

Yoga Releases Tension

Yoga aids the mind as well as the body. All tensions & anxieties reside in the mind. Feelings of anxiety, disappointment, grief, envy, control, avarice, and many more create niches in our minds, which come up again to the surface subconsciously creating mood swings & tensions. There are 3 kinds of tension: muscular tension, emotional tension, & mental tension. These tensions can be dealt with by yoga exercises.

Muscle tension can be found in hormonal imbalances, in digestive problems, in the nervous system, or in any illness. There are some tests that measure them. Muscular tension can be handled most easily. Use a Hatha yoga plan of pranayam & asanas to manage them.

Emotional tension comes from feelings of happiness, success, love, hate, failure, death, and many more. When emotions dominate our wisdom, it makes people run after the material pleasures of life, which takes you on the road to disappointment. Emotions are sometimes unpredictable and hard to control. If you cannot express it clearly and suppress it, it would leave a person high-strung. It is good if these tensions were released thru dreams. Other than that, it should be handled with Bhakti or Karma yoga.

Bhakti yoga is relinquishing all your burdens to a higher force. The higher force could be your God or just someone with authority. It should be recognized that all things that occur is according to his will. It is the love for this higher force that will be your beacon of light.

Karma yoga does not entail physical posturing like asanas. This yoga is of the mental kind, that is disciplining the emotions, the mind, & the senses. It can be observed at your workplace or at home while doing chores. This yoga is developing the attitude of working unconditionally without anticipating any reward. With this mindset, you wouldn't have to worry about excess baggage. This discipline takes years to master.

The real root cause of mental tension is too much brain activity. The mind is a vortex of fantasies and ideas. Through the years, they multiply in power & quantity. This accumulation creates mood swings. Before it starts to affect everything around you, it is imperative that the mind is detoxified. Meditation is the best solution.

There are so many types of meditation and all you have to do is choose the right one for you. Yoga has three varieties of this: Antar Mouna, Mantra Japa, & Yoga Nidra.

Do you need help in releasing the tensions and anxieties in your body? Come visit us and we will tell you all you need to know about yoga. We also offer schoolyogainstitute.com yoga teacher training. Come and get your schoolyogainstitute.com yoga certification now!