Yoga Blog

Articles

The Most Powerful Benefits of Yoga

Yoga’s one of the best practices you can add to your routine. It gives you a way to strengthen and sculpt your body, remove unwanted body fat and increase flexibility without the impact of traditional exercise. Not to mention there’s many other physical, spiritual and emotional benefits that can be achieved in very little time. We go into detail below but we’ve also wrapped the benefits into an infographic for fun. Check it out. Click here to read full article.

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Bringing Heart to Life

For me, it all started when I started to let go of the mental thought-processes of doubt, worry, and fear, and allowed myself to fall into heart-centered feelings of unconditional love and deep faith in a higher power. For me, it was a process of realizing that life was much more than using my intellect to figure things out, or even just having a positive-based belief system. For me, it was learning to follow a path that included diving more deeply into my yoga practice – being more deeply devoted to the ideal of oneness, of One Love, of Christ consciousness, of learning to live in the eternity of each moment. For me, it was about embodying with wholeheartedness a lifestyle of loving awareness and authentic presence. Of course, these awakenings usually come about in our darkest moments, right? It was no different for me. I remember the moment specifically

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Bob Speck
Articles

Awakening A Deeper Sense of Home

Yoga is a practice to re-awaken the natural loving-kindness that rests deep in our souls. We re-vitalize feelings of love for all beings and all of Earth. We direct awareness both inward and outward to feel deeply connected and at One with all of life. We realize the gift of the present moment. We feel humbled by the sacredness of Life, and empowered by our abilities to serve with integrity and dignity. Practice might take the form of the classical methods of posture practices, breath work, and meditation; it could also take the form of service work, intellectual study, or devotional practice. When we take care of our bodies and our own way-of-living, as well as how we live our lives in our communities and in service of the greater good, we each lay the foundation of a deeper yoga practice… and a healthier, more fulfilling and sustainable lifestyle. When

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Significance and Magic of 108

Why are there 108 beads on a Mala? Why do  we chant mantras (repetitive prayers) 108 times? Why in the most ancient traditions is 108 considered a holy number? There are many meanings describing the significance of the number 108. Some of the scientific, mathematical, astrological and spiritual explanations are: The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth. The distance from the Sun to the Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Sun. The average distance of the Moon from the Earth is 108 times the diameter of the Moon. There are said to be 108 earthly desires in mortals. The first manned space flight lasted 108 minutes. The sacred River Ganga spans a longitude of 12 degrees (79 to 91), and a latitude of 9 degrees (22 to 31); 12 times 9 equals 108. There are 108 stitches on a regulation baseball. The list goes on.

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How Yin Yoga Can Help Us Heal

By Biff Mithoefer –  The practice of yin yoga is a return to yoga’s ancient meditative roots. It’s a very simple practice; in its simplicity lies its quiet power. There are two things that make a yoga asana more yin. First, the posture must allow muscles to relax. It is only when the muscles relax that we may access the deep yin parts of the body, the connective tissue. Perhaps most importantly, the asana must be done with an attitude of yin acceptance. To understand what this means, we must have some understanding of the Taoist concepts of yin and yang. Yin Yoga Can Help Us Find Equanimity In Our Lives Taoist tradition speaks clearly of the unity of all things. From the Tao–that place before and beyond duality–came the whole manifested universe, the realm of yin and yang. The polarities of yin and yang began when the universe separated

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Hand Counting Meditation Practice

Counting on the fingers is an ancient Indian ritual used for breathing exercises and meditation. One does so by placing the thumb in various positions each time we breathe in. Move the thumb around the knuckles in a circular manner. See the diagram below. Doing so, you take 12 compete breaths. Consider that one round. You can keep track of your rounds with your other hand. When sitting down to meditate, I like to breathe 10 rounds of 12. When accessing this method to calm down, become centered and grounded anywhere, anytime, one complete round of 12 breaths can be practiced. Don’t worry if you lose count as you go around. Just begin again. If you can, practice this hand counting meditation every morning when you get up. If successful there, you may add it into your day at noontime and before bed. Set realistic goals. Start slowly. Soon you

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