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Friday, December 27, 2013

Deep Breathing

A unique characteristic of breathing is that it normally takes place subconsciously without thought or effort. However, at any moment you can consciously control your breathing by controlling the amount of air you breathe or the pace you breathe at.

So what makes breathing so special? Well, for one, it is what helps keep you alive. The air you breathe in is filled with oxygen (O2) that your blood carries to all the parts of your body including your brain. The air you breathe out is filled with carbon dioxide (CO2) which is a waste product that the blood takes from your body parts and is released by the lungs via exhalation.

Breathing serves many other purposes other than supplying the body with oxygen and ridding it of carbon dioxide. But many take breathing for granted. Breathing is what helps relieve one from anxiety. The saying, "Take a deep breath" is common to many people because it is what helps relax a person who is under a lot of stress.

Take yoga for an example. If you have ever done yoga or taken a yoga class before, the warm-up in the beginning is conscious, controlled deep breathing. Therefore, just because breathing on a regular basis subconsciously does not mean that you never have to think about or control your breaths every now and then. There is an importance to taking deep breaths every now and then.

How is deep breathing helpful? The air you breathe in is filled in the tiny alveoli sacs in your lungs. When we breathe regular the alveolar sacs do not fill up to its maximum potential. If you are not athletic and you jog or run a long distance, you will find yourself out of breath very quickly. It is because the sacs are not used to expanding as much. It can be comparable to a rubber band. A new rubber band is more resistant to stretching than one that has been stretched for longer periods of time. The more stretch in your alveolar sacs, the better you can endure longer lasting activities.

Another beneficial reason for deep breathing is allowing sufficient amounts of oxygen to all the organs of your body. Regular breathing only gets the minimum amount of oxygen to all the organs in your body. Deep breathing allows for more oxygen to go through your system and more importantly, it allows an abundant amount of oxygen to go to your brain.

Now you know why regular deep breathing exercises are beneficial to your body's organs and your brain. It also aids in provided endurance when performing long-lasting and/or strenuous activities. So the next time you are stressed...take a deep breath!

Note: Breathing while exercising should be control, especially during strength training workouts. You should inhale when exerting a force and exhale when releasing the force. For example, a during a bicep curl you would inhale when lifting and exhale when releasing or extending the arm.

effectiveexercising.com Exercises for Women

Practice Hatha Yoga, For Chronic Stress Relief, to Save Your Life

Yoga can break the cycle of continual stress. We know that chronic stress is linked to a variety of health problems and can cause death. When you are stressed out, hormones, such as - Cortisol and Adrenaline, are released into your body to give you extra strength in an emergency situation. However, long term affects of releasing cortisol and adrenaline, into your body, can result in heart disease and potential suicide.

Among the most necessary reasons, to practice Yoga, is the resulting state of inner peace during and after a session. Multi-tasking, stress, worry, and negative thoughts work against obtaining peace of mind. How can Yoga help people who are worried about their families, employment, and health care? Let's discuss the healing powers of Yoga, and how you can reap the rewards of inner peace.

If you have problems that are blended with chronic stress, it is difficult to sort out the origin of your anxiety. Most people worry when they see an impending problem. Worrying is only a natural reaction to stress overload. However, have you ever met one person who claimed that worrying solved a problem?

Problems are much easier to solve when we train our minds to focus on solutions. This is where a regular Yoga practice helps us to take control of fear and worry. It is hard to see reality when we are consumed with fear. Many times, the amount of worrying people do has nothing to do with reality. People often worry about potential problems.

On the other hand, if the problem is real, time spent practicing Yoga will allow one to find inner calm and solutions. Hatha Yoga helps people of all ages learn to cope with stress. Most beginners are attracted to the physical postures (asanas), or the flowing of physical postures, with breath, in a sequence (vinyasa).

While there are much deeper practices to be realized within Hatha Yoga, the physical postures tend to be the main attraction on this journey of self-discovery. As time passes, the practitioner becomes much more aware of pranayama (Yogic breathing), niyama, yama, and the many variations of Yogic meditation.

When we read Patanjali's "Yoga Sutras," we begin to notice that our superficial view of Yoga is much like a child's view of the world. Our view of Yoga is a fresh start. Most of us easily believe in what we see and what we feel. This is the reason why the Hatha style became so popular when it was exposed to the world. Physical benefits are easier to realize than mental, spiritual, or emotional benefits.

Therefore, a stressed-out person will find complete relief by finding a competent Yoga teacher, learning the Yogic methods for obtaining inner peace, and will be reassured when the physical and mental benefits are realized. The deeper benefits will be revealed, as the practitioner continues on the Yogic path.

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.org/index.html Yoga Teacher Training at: Aura Wellness Center, in Attleboro, MA. He has been a certified Master Yoga Teacher since 1995. To receive Free Yoga videos, Podcasts, e-Books, reports, and articles about Yoga, please visit: yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

Mantra Yoga Focuses On Using Chants To Achieve A Spiritual Balance And Peace Of Mind

The term 'mantra' literally means chanting of words, phrases or syllables. From mantra comes Mantra Yoga, which is a type of meditation that involves the chanting of mantras. The chanting continues until the attention span of the chanter surpasses the physical environment and enters a stage of super consciousness. In this stage, the emotions and thoughts of a person get elevated to a high degree of clarity and revelation.

Mantras are an effective way to reach super consciousness because they help the mind to calm down and move away from daily distractions. The sole object of meditation is then fully realized and achieved. Chanting mantras have a soothing effect, and the combination of the meaning and rhythm of the mantra helps your thoughts to settle into the meditative state. This ritualistic chanting helps bind the mind to a single thought until it attains the state of samadhi or self-realization, which is at the peak of the practice of Yoga.

Achieving Samadhi through meditation is a slow process, and requires great patience, concentration and practice. Mantra meditation usually proceeds in three stages. First, you begin by chanting the mantras out loud, ideally in an isolated space. Saying the words and phrases out loud draws your attention away from other distractions and trains your body to sit still in a single place while meditating. Once the body is relaxed and the mind serene, the chanter automatically switches to whisper chanting. In whisper chanting the prana, the vital life force in the body, is balanced and harmonized, preparing the way for the balance of mind and emotions. At this stage the person is highly relaxed and calm.

Once the chanter is completely comfortable with whisper chanting, the prana flows deeper through the energy channels or nadis, and you move to the stage of mental chanting. This highly advanced stage helps you get rid of all forms of distractions because as soon as unwanted thoughts and distractions crop up, the mantra is simply chanted in the same area of the mind where the distraction is occurring. Soon also the distractions melt away and the mantra then begins to reach the border of super consciousness or samadhi. At this stage, chanting becomes a free flowing process that gives the chanter pleasure and peace.

The highest stage of mental chanting is called the ecstatic stage, whereby you experience total peace and a feeling of 'returning home'; you are in a state of continuous joy, which lasts for about 15 to 20 minutes after which you return to the 'outer world'. The words of the mantra filter-out in the mind and you reverse the whole process, going into whisper - and then out loud - chanting.

Learn to experience the soothing powers and hot-yoga-tips.com/Benefits-of-Yoga.html benefits of yoga by visiting hot-yoga-tips.com, a popular yoga websit ethat provides yoga related tips, advice and resources to include information on yoga for men, yoga for women, yoga for elders and the BlogThis!Share to X Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Back Pain - Can Yoga Cure My Back Pain?

I recently finished six weeks of physical therapy after my back surgery. The therapist sat me down for a "discharged interview". We discussed a variety of things that would help me continue my recovery. One of the questions I asked him was "Can yoga cure my back pain"?

His short answer was "yes" followed by a "but". This question lead to a lively discussion of yoga that I believe would be helpful to other back sufferers.

Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years. Yoga is well known for increasing flexibility, strength, breathing, circulation, etc. there are several different types of yoga and each type has many exercises or positions. Some positions are easy and gentle to perform and others difficult. So which are the best yoga exercises for a bad back? Here are some steps you can take to determine if yoga is right for your aching back.

1. First talk to your doctor. Get his okay. He/she may even recommend a yoga instructor.

2. Contact a couple of yoga instructors. Tell them your specific condition. Most will allow you to attend a class before signing up and paying a fee.

3. Hatha Yoga is known for it's gentle movements and is usually the best type of yoga for a person with a back condition.

4. Start with learning correct breathing techniques. This will help you relax. Relaxation is a key to managing your pain and lowering stress.

5. Be ready to stop if any movement becomes painful. Forget the old saying "No pain no gain"

6. Modify the movements to suit you. A good instructor will be happy to help you modify a movement.

Finally remember you are a "work in progress" be patient and gentle with yourself.

Yoga can be a way to relieve back pain and prevent it from ruining your life. But it's critical to find a capable instructor who understands and has training in helping people with a sore back. I have practiced yoga for many years both before and since my back injury although yoga can be very beneficial I believe there are other alternatives that could better serve you. One program you might also want to explore is designed especially for back sufferer. The Healthy Back Institute has developed a program called "The Lose The Back Pain System". This system has helped thousands with customized individualized programs designed specifically to lose your pain and prevent it from coming back.

The Buck Stops Here! Find relief from your back pain and live pain free. There are alternatives to suffering and the risks surgery. As someone who has suffered with debilitating back pain, surgery and months of physical therapy; I believe you owe it to yourself to know all the facts. Take the first step achingbackblues.blogspot.com Click Here for more FREE information, reports and videos.

Coach Pete Turner is a life and success coach who combines sixty-two years of living with solid methods, techniques, coaching tools and tips helping his clients ride from the ordinary to the extraordinary

Advanced Yoga: Becoming An Advanced Yoga Practitioner Through Teacher Training

One of the simplest ways to go about becoming an advanced yoga practitioner is to take part in a reputable happinesslifetime.com yoga teacher training program. "But I don't want to teach yoga," you may think to yourself. Even if you never wanted to become a professional yoga instructor, a training program can offer you the opportunity to learn more about yoga as a practice and, more importantly, yourself as a person.

They say you can never fully understand something unless you teach it to someone else. Practicing with your fellow teacher trainees helps open your eyes to things about your practice you may never have been aware of. It's like having 20 private instructors over the course of a few months. During teacher training, along with the lectures on the history of yoga, benefits of meditation, healing science of Aryuveda, and alignment classes, there are one-on-one asana spot labs and practice teaching. The more you practice the more your awareness of your own body and breath grows. Teaching also gives you a different perspective on yoga. When you watch people struggle to get into positions that are not right for their bodies, doubt their own abilities or not connect with their breath, it gives you some insight into your own practice and how aware you may or may not be of your own limitations.

This journey can have a profound impact on your life. The most fascinating thing I've found in my teacher training at has been how closely related the way I practice and the way I live really are. The way someone practices speaks volumes about their disposition in life. I became aware of the fact that I was judging myself harshly in my practice and comparing myself to other people in class. I was also treating the mat as a means to an end and not as an end in and of itself. I would always opt for the more difficult pose in order to get a better "work out" and build up more of a sweat. I would become frustrated at my inability to come into certain poses.

My football coach always said, "you play like you practice." If, as a yogi, your aim is to bring your practice off the mat and into your life, what does it say when you compare yourself to others on the mat? How does the desire to push yourself to the point of exhaustion in your practice translate into your life? When you practice, do you look for the joy in the poses? These are the questions that I was able to probe more deeply in my happinesslifetime.com yoga teacher training program. The practical application of this understanding can help one to become an ishtayoga.com/advanced_yoga advanced yoga practitioner with relative ease.

Roque L. Rodriguez III is a poet and yoga instructor in New York, NY. He is currently taking the 300-hour yoga teacher training and ishtayoga.com/advanced_yoga advanced yoga classes at ISHTA Yoga NYC.

Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Yoga Teaching Service, Part 2

Natural Search engine ranking presence, on multiple keywords, also requires significant knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Although you are a Yogi, you should look at SEO as a hobby because good and reputable SEO experts cost big money.

Therefore, stay away from SEO services that will "get you ranked with 12,000 search engines for $9.95." Those services will usually get your Yoga website "blacklisted," if they continuously submit every month. The search engines just ignore your continuous submissions as SPAM. If you want to save significant money, and do some of it yourself, buy a book which explains SEO in simplistic terms.

One last point to bring up about SEO: There are only a few search engines that you really need to submit to. Start with these: Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Ask, Netscape, Dog Pile, and Alta Vista.

The above-mentioned eight search engines receive over 90% of all the traffic on the internet. Currently, Google easily gets more than half of all the Internet traffic. Some statistics claim that Google gets over 75% of all the web traffic.

Yes, there are thousands of other search engines, but what is their geographic reach? Many of them are specialized search engines for a particular country or language. If you have a local Yoga studio, do you have to be listed in a search engine on the other side of the planet? For example: Let's say you teach Yoga in a suburb of Denver, Colorado and are listed in a Korean search engine. That's nice, but I doubt you will get any walk-ins, from that listing, in your next Yoga class.

Pay-per-click campaigns can get your Yoga business a space on the front page of most search engines. Google has more than half of all the internet traffic, so their Adwords program, alone, is worth looking into for a start.

Here's an idea: Start your Yoga web site, or Blog, ASAP (as soon as possible!), keep it running, and expand when you grow. Do not get hung up on perfection; that's what causes procrastination. If we did that in Yoga, none of us would become Yoga teachers.

I don't care if you're teaching Yoga in a cellar, barn, loft, garage, in the woods, at the beach, or just thinking about it. People won't know you are a Yoga teacher, if you don't announce it.

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. riyoga.com riyoga.com He has been a certified Master Yoga Teacher since 1995. To receive a Free e-Book: "Yoga in Practice," and a Free Yoga Newsletter, please visit: yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

Laughter Yoga - A Revolutionary Concept That Can Improve Your World

Laughter Yoga is really a new idea - simple and profound. An exercise, it's mopping the world and is actually a total wellness exercise. Laughter Yoga (Hasyayoga) is a kind of yoga utilizing self-triggered laughter. The "laughter" is physical in nature, and does not necessarily entail sense of humor or comedy. The style was developed by Indian master Jiten Kohi. It was made well-liked as an exercise routine developed by Madan Kataria, a physician in Mumbai, India. He was able to clearly show real preventive and healing benefits from a laughter regime.

This particular yoga exercise is a exceptional idea of unconditional laughter with yogic breathing (Pranayama) and simple yoga asanas (postures) while going through loud, liberating "HO, HO, HA, HA" sounds. Unlike popular belief, Laughter Yoga has demonstrated that you don't need to need a sense of humor, to have a good laugh. Any individual can giggle for no cause, not depending on antics, hilarity or comedy. Laughter can be learned and designed into the body, to bring about a whole change. Studies have proved that simply ten-twenty minutes of fake or real laughter offers a profound advantage on the human body.

This particular yoga is physically-oriented, as it uses "a perfect blend of playful, empowering and otherwise "tension-releasing" basic laughter routines, interwoven with mellow breathing, warm up and stretching exercises, rhythmic clapping as well as chanting in unison. This successful combination brings about multiple health benefits, mainly increasing the supply of o2 and boosting the body's defense mechanism. In addition, it stimulates and restores the metabolism, making one feel fresh and enthusiastic. Many participants of this yoga have felt a reduction in the regularity of respiratory infections like common cold and influenza, and a few others revealed alleviating depressive disorders, relief/cure from long-term medical conditions. With people's fully committed participation, Laughter Yoga has helped many people become healthier.

The goal of LYoga is to bring a healthy body, pleasure and world peace by means of laughter. Laughter is universal with no dialect and cultural limitations. Laughter Yoga Clubs are fast developing into a worldwide community of like-minded people who believe in unconditional love, laughter and fellowship. Every first Sunday of May is formally well known as World Laughter Day. In the year 2000, approximately 10,000 individuals laughed together in Copenhagen, Denmark to set a Guinness Book Record.

In some areas of India, LYoga has been presented earlier to school children as element of their day-to-day school exercises, specifically in early morning ceremonies. Laughter Yoga International accounts that in educational institutions where LYoga was incorporated in their everyday program, school children's behavior became vibrant. They turn out to be more alert and mentally brighter. Some school principals in fact reported zero absenteeism, as students were desirous to be present at classes. Laughter yoga, in addition, is utilized in business environments to alleviate tension and develop friendship and also in jails to temper chaotic tendencies.

Yoga, especially laughter yoga, without a doubt enriches one's life. This new form of yoga exercise relaxes the mind, entire body and spirits as it releases endorphins -- the feel-good human hormones in our body. With a great deal of positive factors, people enthusiastic about Laughter Yoga continue to keep snowballing.

There are lots of practitioners online who offer informative advice in yogafit.com yoga and everything else about yoga. Only a known yogafit.com yoga guru can provide you with the best services.