Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, known affectionately known as “Amma,” is a world-renowned spiritual leader and humanitarian. Throughout her life, she has embraced more than 40 million people worldwide, sometimes sitting nearly 24 hours to do so. Amma’s humanitarian organization, Embracing the World, is an NGO with consultative status with the United Nations’ Economic Social Council, providing compassionate service to those in need around the world. Amma’s life is the embodiment of love, compassion and selflessness.

She recently returned to the United States for the first time since 2019. Public programs will be held in the LA Area this week.

Amma Appears in Kerala, India

During 1952’s monsoon season in Kerala, Southern India, a young lady named Damayanti had a series of auspicious dreams about the Hindu deities Krishna and Kali. In the dreams they had piercing black eyes and blue skin. In the last dream, she saw herself giving birth to baby Krishna, who then suckled at her breast. The next day, Damayanti realized she was pregnant. It was an uncomfortable pregnancy, and her husband, Sugunandan, feared the worst. However, the birth itself was quick and painless. The family doctor worried about the child, for she had not cried during birth and rarely made any sounds. Moreover, her skin was blueish. But in the end, the child, with piercing black eyes, was fine. They named her “Sudhamani,” which is Sanskrit for “ambrosial jewel.”

Young Sudhami c. MAM

Sudhamani could stand, walk, and sing long before developmental standards. She worshipped cows and cried in devotion for Krishna, humming his hymns and reciting his name. Her family was disturbed, having never taught her such things. Sometimes her brothers and sisters would find her in the coastal backwaters in a meditative state, lost to the world. Amma’s family were convinced the strange Sudhamani would bring shame to their family. She was severely punished for her odd behavior.

Amma In Ecstacy c. MAM

At nine, they stopped her schooling in order for her to cook, clean and care for her younger brothers and sisters. As part of her chores, she would walk to more than 30 homes a day, asking the inhabitants for vegetable scraps to feed to the family cows.

The young girl couldn’t understand why the ocean provided the same opportunities of abundance to every fisherman in and yet the circumstances in each home were so far-ranging. In one thatched-roof hut, a family would be well-provided for—healthy, happy and grateful—while next door a similar family would be hungry and hopeless. Next door to them, could be an elder, riddled with illness, with no one to provide care.

Sudhamani Contemplates c. MAM

So upset by this disparity, Sudhamani considered throwing herself into fire out of protest. As she contemplated these conditions, she heard an answer from within: “It is because of the individuals’ past actions that they suffer.” But she was not satisfied with this answer. She pondered further and said, “If a person falls into a ditch, isn’t it my responsibility to help them out? So, if these people are meant to suffer because of their previous actions, isn’t it my duty to also help them?” 

Show Us A Miracle

One day, Sudhamani and her little brother Satish were gathering grass for their cows when they walked past an open courtyard gate. The Big Sis stood perfectly still as she heard people reading the Srimad Bhagavatam (the stories of Krishna). When a bhajan (devotional song) began, she dropped her bundle of grass and charged past the gate. Her body vibrated out of control, as her posture and expression and way of moving began to assimilate those associated with Krishna’s. So shocked by what they were seeing, some of the attendees ran into town to tell the neighbors. Naysayers yelled out, “If you really are Krishna show us a miracle!” Sudhamani said, “You have the real gem inside you. Why do you want to see an imitation?” They ganged up, “Prove to us that you have manifested Krishna. Show us a miracle!” 

Young Sudhamani/Amma in Krishna Bhavana c. MAM

News spread through the series of Southern Indian fishing villages, and after some convincing, Sudhamani agreed to attend the next reading of the Srimad Bhagavatam. This time, Sudhamani asked a well-known skeptic to empty a copper pot and fill it with fresh spring water. She prayed over it before instructing the skeptic to stick his fingers in the water. They came out covered in yogurt. Again, she had him dip his digits into the copper pot. This time they came out covered in panchamritam—one of Krishna’s favorite puddings! The crowd murmured in wonder as the thousand were served from a quart-size container.

Amma’s mother, Damayanti, who had previously been a strong disciplinarian with her daughter—regularly scolding her and even beating her—later said of the evening, “Changing water into pudding couldn’t be done by an ordinary person. After that, I saw her as God.” 

News of Sudhamani spread, and seekers started to come.

Amritapuri Early Days c. MAM

Soon the backyard banyan tree wasn’t big enough for the followers so Amma’s father donated the family cowshed to be used as a temple. Sudhamani would welcome worshippers with a warm hug. People started calling her “Amma” because of her motherly manner, and in return Amma would whisper into their ears, “My darling, darling daughter” or “My darling, darling son.”

Embracing The World

People from around the planet came for Amma’s embrace. By 1987 the demand for her darshan-embrace was so high that, at the request of devotees in America, a world tour was arranged. At first it was in private homes and small church halls. Now, there’s a line outside New York City’s Javits Center practically all the way down to the Lincoln Tunnel. Longtime devotees, sincere seekers, and first-timers have ranging experiences from the karmic and profound, to the understated and subtle. There are extreme stories, like Dattan the Lepper—whose wounds, sores, and puss Amma sucked until his symptoms subsided. And then there’s this particular curmudgeonly gent of name and fame in Los Angeles who swears, “Nothing happens when I hug her,” yet year after year he keeps coming back. Something that always sticks out, is the worn-out widow who was contemplating suicide when someone handed her an Amma flier. The Hilton Hotel hosting Amma was on her way home, so she checked it out as a final stop here on Earth. The worn-out widow sobbed uncontrollably in Amma’s lap until it seemed like something inside her seemed to crack. Seven years later, she has the most radiant smile, while doing endless seva (selfless service) at Amma’s public programs.

Amma’s Children c. MAM

 Awaken Children

For three decades Amma toured endlessly through London, Paris, Barcelona, Munich, Milan, Tokyo, Toronto, Nairobi, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, all throughout India, and in the United States: Seattle, San Ramon, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, New York City and other cities. In each of these cities there are free programs that consist of discourse, bhajans [devotional songs], a prayer for world peace, and the blessing of darshan [Amma’s embrace]. Amma often leads the massive halls in an English bhajan called “Everyone in the World”

Everyone in the world should sleep without fear,
at least for one night, sleep without fear…
Everyone in the world should eat ‘til they’re full,
at least for one day, eat ‘til they’re full…
Everyone in the world there should be one day when here is no violence,
no one is injured, no one is hurt…

All people young and old should serve the poor and needy,
at least for one day, serve selflessly…

This is my dream, this is my prayer,
love is the answer,
love is the way.

Amma doesn’t just wish and pray for compassion and change, she leads by example.

 In a book written by one of her most senior disciples, Swami Krishnamrita Prana, Opening to Grace, a woman recalls, “Every day my father sharpened a butcher’s knife and kept it ready to kill my mother. Not one night did we sleep without fear. My sister and I shivered in fear if we ever saw our father’s shadow. Each day we would pray, “May night never come.” The father murdered the mother, whose body was returned home from the morgue in the middle of the night. The woman continues, “I drew the sheet back and saw my mother covered in stitches, totally unrecognizable. I don’t know what happened after that, When I regained consciousness people were sitting around me, fanning.”

Embracing The World, And The Next Generation c. MAM

The girls were brought to Amma’s orphanage where she held them close and encouraged their studies. Since many in the hostel had come from challenging circumstances the camaraderie became like that of a family they’d never known. Children learned of comfort and kinship. The girl got good grades, and graduated with honors, when Amma asked her to enroll in the Bachelor’s of Business and Management School of Amrita University. She graduated, worked for a few years, completed her Master’s degree and was offered a job at Amrita University. The girl (now a woman) is responsible for the sustainable development of some of the 101 villages adopted by Amma’s ashram. Eight weeks into the job, she met her future husband. He had a similar sad background and the two have found so much healing in one another. She says, “Thanks to Amma’s care and love, the family we will create together will be much happier than the ones we were raised in.

Love Is The Answer, Love Is The Way: Amritapuri Ashram

From the humble family hut where Amma’s darshan began, a booming metropolis has sprung. The original cowshed remains next to the Kali Temple, but the rest of the area is almost unrecognizable. Aside from the rooms for the monastic disciples, Amma’s Amritapuri Ashram includes apartments for householder devotees residents, hostels for students, and guest quarters for visitors. Temples and worship halls, clerical offices, classrooms and places to get food. Approximately 3,500 residents in total.

Amritapuri Ashram Kali Temple c. MAM

Across the river is the Amritapuri campus of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham NAAC (an autonomous accreditation agency under the Indian government’s University Grants Commission) has granted Amrita an A++ grade, the highest it can offer. Amrita has consistently found a place among the top 10 universities in India. It has nine campuses in total, multidisciplinary teaching and research institution with a student base of approximately 24,000+.

In nearby Kochi is the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (Amrita Hospital), a state-of-the-art teaching hospital that serves has provided completely free treatment to more than 5 million patients—more than $105 million in charitable medical care since 1998. And in 2022, a second such hospital was built near Delhi in northern India.

Rainbow Over Amritapuri + Kerala Backwaters c. MAM

Embracing the World: Love as Service Work

In his 2013 New York Times piece, Jake Halpern explains: “In 2003, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, then the president of India, was so impressed with Amma’s charitable work that he donated almost his entire annual salary to her organization. His enthusiasm may stem from the simple fact that Amma appears to do what politicians cannot. Mr. Chandy, the chief minister of Kerala, told me rather dejectedly, “The government has so many limitations, but Amma gives an order and next day the work will start.”

Amma’s umbrella charity “Embracing The World” have a diverse steams of focus including education, health care, gender equality & women’s empowerment, environmental protection, disaster relief, research, food, water & shelter. Her practical philanthropy helps to enrich each aspect of someone’s life. Examples include the following.

Earthquake in Gujarat

When the 2001 earthquake that struck Gujarat claimed 20,000 lives, Amma immediately dispensed disaster-relief teams and psychological support. Her volunteers constructed a total of 1,200 earthquake-proof houses, community centers, schools, temples, and even a church and a mosque. When the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami hit Kerala, villagers from Gujarat travelled to Kerala to return Amma’s kindness. They joined Amma’s teams who were offering food, housing, medical and counseling services to those effected. Children who survived the tsunami were give art classes to draw about their experiences, and swimming lessons to overcome their fear of water, which they had seen wash away their homes and loved ones. Together, Amma, her sevites built more than 6,000 new homes for victims to start their new lives.

Support for Farmers and Families

Crop failure and debt has caused hundred of thousands of farmers to commit suicide since 1997. With no hope for future generations, often entire families end their lives together. Amma’s charities have provided advanced farming, and environmental education to adults, while more than 100,000 children have received school scholarships and stipends. More recently a homestead garden project was launched. Seeds were distributed to upwards of 5,000 families who now sustain themselves.

Embracing The World Participants

Self-Relience, Education & Employment

Amma’s Amrita SREE program (Self-Reliance, Education & Employment) has provided 300,000+ women with vocational education, assistance in creating sustainable business plan, access to micro-credit loans and micro-savings accounts from government-regulated banks.

And much, much  more…(For a full list click here ). 

Mangala Arati c. MAM

Amma Amma Taye: Staying up All Night With Amma

Meanwhile, in America, the final night of Amma’s programs in each city—called Devi Bhava—Amma stays up all night until about 9 or 10:00 a.m. the next morning, embracing one and all, giving mantras, performing weddings, baby’s first feedings and other auspicious acts.

The standard scene is as follows: You arrive at the location and get a darshan token. Your darshan token is sort of like a deli-counter number, signifying when you’re up for your embrace. While extremely organized, no two experiences are the same. On the rare occurrence someone will arrive to no line, immediately receive a token and be whisked to the front of the hall for their hug.

Offering flowers and receiving hugs

The Experience with Amma

Most will wait for a some hours, receive their token, enjoy the program and enchantment, receive their hug and happily return home. Others will wait and wait and wait. Receive a token. Accidentally lose it in the bathroom. Walk to the parking lot defeated. Only to bump into the long-lost loved one they’d always hoped to reconnect with, an elder needing assistance who drops the most prescient pearl of wisdom, the stranger with the ideal job opportunity, or similar. They return to the hall to see their token is being called, find it on the floor, receive Amma’s darshan, feel like every cell of their body has been recharged, and return to their daily lives, a more authentic version of themselves.

And yet another group may travel, work and serve Amma never asking for a hug, knowing that to be in her presence is the blessing itself. The lilas [divine plays] are infinite, intricate and specific to each soul. As the tour staff says, “Amma knows you’re here!”

Giselle Receives An Embrace From Amma c. MAM

In the time between receiving a darshan token and being held in the arms of the Amma, there can be the aforementioned programs as well plenty of space to wonder and discover. Rooms, halls, and floors are filled with a carnival of activity. There is music, mediation, videos of Amma’s extensive humanitarian work. Service opportunities and sacred shopping to financially support it.

Available for purchase—with all proceeds going to Amma’s charitable mission—are Indian meals and snacks, coffee, sweet, snacks and chai. Books, audio, traditional India saris, Western T-shirts and sweatshirts, bath and body products (including aromatherapy oils), home, temple and worship items, Ayurvedic herbs, personalized chiropractic care and massage, radiance healing, astrological readings and much much more.

Engaging with the sevites who pour their heart into these products and projects is as educational as it is inspiring. They are quick with an Amma anecdote that speaks directly to your current (unmentioned) circumstance. Seeing many of the same faces year after year brings its own form of comfort — joyful and familiar. Deep and transformative.

My Religion Is Love

At the heart of Amma’s life and teachings is her message of universal oneness. It is rooted in that fundamental concept of Indian spirituality, that Amma embraces and dedicates her life to uplifting one and all. 

As Amma says, “My religion is love.”

Amma’s Embrace c. MAM

See Amma on Tour *Now*

July 13-16, 2024
Hyatt Regency Irvine
17900 Jamboree Road
Irvine, CA 92614

For more info click here.

July 19-22 Albuquerque, NM
July 25-29 Washington, DC
July 31-August 2 Boston, MA
August 5-7 New York, NY
August 9-11 Chicago, IL

For more information on the tour click here.

For more information about Amma go to Amma.org

Author’s Note; All photos are copyright of Mata Amritanandamayi Math and Amritapuri.org.

Amy V Dewhurst

To Check Out Amy’s Work Go To; Sense + Color, You Can Reach Her At IG:  Amy_V_Dewhurst  + AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #PutYourGoodWhereItWillDoTheMost

www.senseandcolor.co

The post Free Hugs; Amma Returns To America appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Venerable Thubten Chodron is a pioneering American Buddhist nun, and founder of Sravasti Abbey. She has been working on The Library of Wisdom and Compassion book series with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet now available through Wisdom Publications.

LA YOGA was lucky to get an early look at this extraordinary undertaking, and an audience with the beloved Bodhisattva behind it.

Each Heart

Cheryl Greene grew up outside of Los Angeles, during the Vietnam War. Like many confronted with the mortality of youth, she questioned the purpose of life (and death). “I couldn’t find any answers really in any of the theistic religions, and so, I figured it must have something to do with helping people,” she explains. The seeker became a teacher and got married. The couple returned their weddings gifts to travel through Europe, North Africa and Asia.

Back at home, the newlywed saw a flyer for a Buddhist course. The Tibetan lamas advised students, “You don’t have to believe anything we say. Think about it, if it makes sense to you, accept it. If it doesn’t, leave it aside.” The revered scholar reflects, “What they said really touched my heart.” She started meditating, became Buddhist and realized,  “I wanted to become a nun…I thought oh, I really want to devote my life to this.”

The aspirant studied in Nepal, and India, landing in Dharmsala. In 1977, she was given permission to be ordained, and took the novice precepts. In the years since she has studied, taught and started dharma centers in Italy, Singapore, France and the US. She has become known to many as Venerable Thubten Chodron, respectfully referred to in the familiar as “Venerable.”

But First

In 1979, Thubten started attending talks by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet. She would have appointments to ask him dharma questions, “So that kind of established a personal relationship,“ she says. In the early 90s, there was a conference of Western Buddhist teachers. Chodron recalls, “I had the idea that because we’ve been receiving teachings from Tibetan lamas who didn’t know about Western culture, and yet his Holiness did. And so I thought ‘Gee, it would be really nice if his Holiness wrote a very short text that the Tibetan lamas could use as a root text to teach the Dharma.’ Because Westerners, there’s a lot of Buddhist ideas that we need to become acquainted with.”

Venerable Thubten Chodron and His Holiness The XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet

Chodron continues, “So I went to his Holiness and requested that he write that, and he said ‘Oh, very good, but first, we have to write the long version’. And so, he sent me away with a transcript of a teaching he had given, I edited it, that was the start of the book.”

Venerable would collect questions from Westerners, transcribe talks, and be sent off to monasteries and libraries, for years at a time. “So the manuscript kept getting bigger and bigger” she laughs, “by this time it was 2,000 pages.”

The original idea of a “small book” has sprawled into ten large ones now known as The Library of Wisdom and Compassion book series. It’s a compendium of Buddhist teachings, the ninth volume entitled Appearing and Empty  released this week.

Known for her depth, quick wit, and wide smile, Ven summarized each of the books for us.

1. Approaching The Buddhist Path

“When his Holiness starts teaching in the West, he goes on two planes. One plane is compassion and teaching everybody about the kind heart. The other plane that he gives to people in the West, because he says these are educated, intelligent people– is he starts talking about a cause and effect, and what we call the two truths; the conventional truth, the ultimate truth.

So in this first volume, we have a combination of talking about compassion, and service to society, how to help people here and now. So that’s volume one.”

2. The Foundation Of Buddhist Practice

“The Foundation Of Buddhist Practice talks more about rebirth, what is mind, the continuity of mind. It has a nice section about how to select spiritual teachers, the qualities to look for, and how to relate to spiritual teachers, because there’s been a lot of scandals. Here’s where His Holiness’s mind is so practical about; you have to check out people, you’re the one who determines if somebody’s one of your teachers or not. You have to look; do they have good ethical conduct? Do they have meditation experience? Do they teach the regular Buddhist path? Or are they making something up? How are they with their teachers? With their students?
Do they ask for a lot of donations? Or are they sincerely interested in their student’s path and helping them to attain awakening?

Then there’s a whole section also about karma, because Westerners are very interested, what is karma? How does it operate? And this whole thing about the idea of God who creates the world, and then either rewards them or punishes sentient beings, and how Buddhism is very different from that. So that’s the second volume.”

3. Samsara, Nirvana And Buddha Nature

“The third is Samsara, Nirvana and Buddha Nature. So there we go into more depth about what is our present situation as beings who are afflicted by distorted concepts, and by unrealistic and disturbing emotions, and how does that create rebirth. Is taking one rebirth after the other really a happy occasion or not?

So here are the four truths; our present situation, what causes it, and then, the path, and what the result is the true cessation. It talks about Buddha nature because we all have the potential, we have incredible potential to really practice and get out of samsara. So that’s volume three.”

4. Following In The Buddha’s Footsteps

“Volume four is Following In The Buddha’s Footsteps. The first part is talking about refuge in the Buddha, dharma and sangha. What is the Buddha? Are there many Buddhas? What is the dharma? What are the sangha?

Second part of the book is going into the three higher trainings. So ethical conduct, how to develop concentration, and then wisdom. Okay, so that’s volume four.”

5. In Praise Of Great Compassion

“Volume five is one of my favorite volumes. I mean, the whole thing I love all the topics, but this one especially, it’s called In Praise of Great Compassion talks about what is compassion from a Buddhist perspective. So again, this is very different than secular compassion. Secular compassion, you feel sorry for somebody. Buddhist compassion, you don’t feel sorry for them. You want to help them alleviate their pain and their misery, but it isn’t oh, you poor little baby, let me save you, okay? Because in Buddhism, you can’t save anybody people have to practice and create the causes themselves.

Then it talks about how compassion is spoken of different traditions, it talks about how to develop compassion and so on, and it’s a beautiful book.”

6. Courageous Compassion

“Volume six is called Courageous Compassion. This is talking about once you’ve generated compassion, once you’ve generated Bodhicitta, the aspiration to become a Buddha in order to benefit other living beings, then what do you practice? So here it explains generosity, ethical conduct, a fortitude, as many people call that patience, I call it fortitude, because it means you have to have inner strength, yea..? Then joyous effort. So to have effort, you need to have joy. Then meditative stability, so your meditation practice and then wisdom.

The second part of the book talks about the paths and stages that bodhisattva’s practice. Bodhisattvas are those who are aspiring to become Buddhists for the benefit of all beings and have a certain level of realization of compassion and Bodhicitta. And how the path is for them, what kind of realizations they get at different levels of the path.

And it can be really inspiring if you have a sense of your Buddha nature and you think oh, if I keep practicing, not expecting to be Buddha by next Tuesday, or even 10 years from Tuesday. But if I have a long view and it’s going to take many lifetimes, I can actually attain these amazing states where I can, I have the compassion, the wisdom, the skillful means, the power to benefit others as much as I am capable of. So it talks about those stages of development.

So that’s volume six.”

7. Searching For The Self

“Volume seven is called Searching For The Self, and volume seven, eight and nine are all about the nature of reality, emptiness, the lack of inherent existence. And how the ultimate nature and the conventional nature both exist. And you need to be able to posit both.

So Searching For The Self is a kind of like an introduction to emptiness. It talks about some of the different philosophical views of what selflessness or no self means, what emptiness means. Because there’s different views, Buddha taught different things to different people because it was his way of being skillful and teaching people according to their own level. It talks about that, and it talks about yes, just the realizations that they gain along the path.

So volume seven gives a lot of that introductory material. What is emptiness? What are the different philosophical views? Why do we study different views? How do they help us really realize the point of it? And how it doesn’t mean that nothing exists, and still exists.”

8. Realizing The Profound View

“Volume eight carries on from that, and it goes into a lot of the, what goes into the prominent arguments that are used to refute inherent existence. Because emptiness isn’t just close your eyes and empty your mind. If it would just get rid of all thoughts and empty your mind, then a cow would be enlightened. Because it doesn’t have a lot of conceptual thought. Maybe that’s why they say holy cow, I don’t know.

Realizing the nature of reality isn’t just blank-minded meditation, it’s not stopping our thoughts. It’s generating a very astute focused mind, that can really say here’s how I think things exist, can they actually exist in the way that I think they do?

So volume eight really gets into that, and really makes you look at well, how do I think things exist? And then, it also talks a lot about dependent arising, because we say on the ultimate level, which is analyzing how things exist, they lack any inherent nature. They are empty of inherent existence.

The more you understand emptiness and selflessness, the more you understand dependent nature. And this is like super profound. So that’s volume eight, and that’s the second of my favorite, most fun.“

9. Appearing And Empty

“Then volume nine, it continues on about emptiness. But here, we’re talking about what’s called the two truths. Okay, so the ultimate truth that things are empty of inherent existence, and the conventional truth or another way of saying it the veiled truth. Truth for somebody whose mind is ignorant, in other words, our minds. It doesn’t mean people who vote for the opposite.

All of our minds, even on the conventional level, we don’t perceive things accurately. We perceive them with the degree of accurateness and the sense that we can tell a car from a table, and we know if you plant carrot seeds, you get carrots.

So we can identify the things in our environment, we can work on a conventional level and have court cases, and all this kind of thing, but we don’t really, so that’s on the level of appearances. So that’s the first part of the title, appearing. But all these appearances that appear to exist out there from their own side, actually, are empty even here in existence.

In other word, they exist in relationship to our mind. They don’t have their own nature that makes them what they are. They depend on how we cognize them, and how we designate them. So that’s volume nine.”

The tenth and final volume will likely release next year.

Dharma In Action

When asked the benefits of this series for lay people, spiritual seekers and practiced Buddhists alike, Venerable responded, “What all this does is it softens our mind up, and it opens our mind up. So instead of wanting to put everything in a category, give it a label and then think we know everything about it. It’s calling us to be much more flexible, much more open-minded, much more realizing that every single person is a combination of well, every single organism I should say, is a combination of contradictory thoughts and contradictory emotions. So they’re all basically alike. So who’s the enemy? And who’s the friend?” A topic she regards as timely, as our country once again contends with the division and upheavel of her youth.

Venerable teaches at a Buddhist Center

Convictional Faith

These days, Venerable and her community are celebrating 20 years of Sravasti Abbey an American Buddhist monastic community on a 300-acre property in Washington State. Founded by Venerable (and her two cats) in 2003, Sravasti Abbey is now home to twenty-eight monastics who engage in dharma, community and service daily.

During a recent Q+A there someone asked about the concept of “faith,” Venerable responded; “In the West, when we use the word ‘faith’, we usually think ‘blind faith’. In Buddhism, faith means trust, confidence. And this convictional faith is really important because it’s through thinking about things, and coming to your own conclusion that then you say, ‘Oh, that makes sense, that’s how I’m going to act.”

The Library of Wisdom and Compassion

Appearing and Empty was released this week, and is now available through Wisdom Publications here.

The Library of Wisdom and Compassion book series is available through Wisdom Publications here.

To learn more about Venerable Thubten Chodron click here.

To learn more about Sravasti Abbey click here.

Amy V Dewhurst

To Check Out Amy’s Work Go To; Sense + Color, You Can Reach Her At IG:  Amy_V_Dewhurst  + AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #PutYourGoodWhereItWillDoTheMost

www.senseandcolor.co

The post His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet and Venerable Thubten Chodron; Two Truths appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Who is Yogiraj Siddhanath SatGurunath?

My Miracle Summer of 2022

SoCal Devotee

siddhanath.org/events/events-usa/

The post  Yogiraj Siddhanath SatGurunath:  My Guru and My Miracle appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

When I think back to my teen years and early twenties, it boggles my mind that I was able to maintain the lifestyle I did. I moved fast, stayed up late, worked a high-intensity job in the film industry, lived on caffeine and cigarettes, and partied a lot. I was young and didn’t have kids. I was still a kid myself in a lot of ways, but when I got an ulcer, I knew it was time to make some adjustments. Or more accurately, my older sister told me I needed to.

Late one night, in a steamy room in Santa Monica, my sister, Jennifer, took me to my first power yoga class. I had done asana many times up to that point, but it was mostly on video at home or in gym settings. I had never done fast-paced and strong yoga like this. Sweat was pouring out of me from my first Downward-Facing Dog, and even though it was ten at night when class got out, I was buzzing. It was the best I had felt in years, and after just a few weeks of attending classes almost every day, I quickly became aware of the discordances between my old life and my desired new one.

Naturally, as someone with an addictive personality, I overcorrected at first. Rather than going out drinking five nights a week and chain-smoking all day, I discovered Ashtanga yoga and centered my entire life around it to the point that I had no room for anything or anyone else. Instead of living on microwaveable meals, I became so austere about my food choices that I decided I should be vegan and gluten free (even though I’ve never been diagnosed with a gluten intolerance). Also, it is worth noting that I am naturally anemic; multiple providers have begged me to eat meat. Not to mention that I was still actively bulimic during this period, so despite my strict “healthy” diet Monday to Friday, when Saturday or Sunday would roll around, I continued to binge and purge, which many times included over-exercising like doubling up on super strong movement classes.

I managed to get away with this “healthy” lifestyle for years, but as I began assisting and eventually leading teacher trainings, I started educating myself more deeply on the study of Ayurveda and I realized that just because my choices appeared good on paper or worked for others did not mean they were the right choices for me or my body. The clearest indicators that things were amiss were my high anxiety, insomnia, extraordinarily dry skin and hair, my quick-to-anger impulses (particularly on Los Angeles’s freeways), and my absentmindedness and lightning speed, which led to multiple car accidents on those same aforementioned freeways.

It also included my constantly upset tummy and hypersensitivity to everything around me. Oh, and let’s not forget to mention the fact that I hadn’t had a menstrual cycle in years.

As I sat in a lecture on Ayurveda one training, the master teacher listed off these very traits. She said that people who experience this are likely “vata types” and that when these traits were active, it was actually an indicator that the person was off balance. She spoke of the fact that many of us are attracted to the very things that send us off balance (hence my love for Ashtanga yoga and caffeine), but that in the Ayurveda system, opposites are what heal.

Over time, with the help of friends who intensively study Ayurveda and many, many books on the matter, I started to course correct. I adjusted my eating, adding in way more fats and oils and reintroducing meat. (Please note, I’m not advocating that you eat similarly. These were just the changes I needed to make at that point in time.) I adjusted my asana, favoring a much more grounded and slower pace to my obsessive and austere Ashtanga yoga habit. I started to let in a little more pleasure, including dating.

Fatefully, my menstrual cycle returned right before I met my husband (like, literally weeks before), and I was able to get pregnant and give birth to two healthy boys. I am no expert on the subject of Ayurveda, but even the little that I practice has helped me find the balance I have been seeking my entire life.
Ayurveda is an incredibly rich and extensive subject that people dedicate their entire lives to following and understanding. I have barely scraped the surface’s surface in my studies thus far, but it has given me a lens through which I can understand myself more deeply.

Something as simple as paying attention to when I should stop consuming caffeine during the daytime so I don’t disrupt my sleep can have a tremendous effect on my overall well-being and my relationship with my kids.

My practices of Ayurveda and yoga have helped me be a better parent, because when I feel my best, I parent my best.

The Yoga of Parenting

From The Yoga of Parenting by Sarah Ezrin © 2023. Reprinted in arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc. Boulder, CO. www.shambhala.com

Sarah Ezrin

Sarah Ezrin is the author of The Yoga of Parenting: Ten Yoga-Based Practices to Help You Stay Grounded, Connect with Your Kids, and Be Kind to Yourself. She is a freelance writer, yoga educator, and content creator based in the Bay Area. Her willingness to be unabashedly honest and vulnerable along with her innate wisdom, make her writing, teaching, and social media great sources of healing and connection for many people.
Sarah brings a wide spectrum of life experiences into everything she does. She is unafraid of sharing all sides of herself. She does so in the hope of giving others permission to be their most authentic self. At this time, when honest self-awareness is so important, Sarah’s is an essential and exemplary voice.
Sarah writes extensively on the subjects of yoga, parenting, and mental health, often interweaving these themes. Her work ranges from heavily-reported assignments to personal essays to blog content for brands. She is a regular contributor for Yoga Journal Magazine, Motherly, Yoga International, Healthline, Scary Mommy, Mind Body Green, Mantra Magazine, and LA Yoga Magazine. She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, Bustle, LA Weekly, and NBC News.

Sarah is a well-respected yoga teacher and a leader in the wellness community. A world traveler since birth, she has led trainings, workshops, and retreats locally and across the globe.

www.sarahezrinyoga.com

The post Thoughts on Practice: an Excerpt from The Yoga of Parenting appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

You Can Do It! Remove these 5 Obstacles to Your Fitness Goals!

As we head into 2023 and set our goals for a healthier new year, we all know within a few months those well-thought-out plans may not get the continuous attention they need to reach our goals. You may need some support to remove and move through the obstacles to your fitness goals.

If you’ve ever struggled to keep up a diet or fitness routine for more than a few weeks, you already know that staying motivated and having mental strength can be the hardest part of sticking with it.

Trust me, I get it! When I was a teenager, everyone said girls needed to be skinny to be happy, but even though I was thin, I was miserable. When I discovered strength training in my 20s, I realized that feeling strong and capable is what actually made me feel great.

But then I got pregnant with my first baby and my body changed drastically. I was so worried I’d never feel strong or fit as I had been – it was completely new territory for me.

Many years and two beautiful kids later, and I’m now stronger, fitter, and healthier than ever. I know my body can handle any challenge and transformation life throws at it, and I want other women to know they can too!

The right mindset is so important to reach your goals.

So here are 5 tips to keep in mind as your set out in 2023.

Don’t let these five mental challenges and obstacles to your fitness goals hold you back.

1. Dwelling on Negatives and Mistakes

Replaying embarrassing or negative things in your head, over-analysing every situation and focusing on things you do wrong (instead of right), it’s NOT helpful. This toxic behavior will hold you back and will stop you from achieving happiness and success.

So I beg you: Let go of the past, focus on the future and start envisioning everything you want and CAN achieve. When you feel that negative thought spiral starting, cut it off straight away.

2. Not Believing you Can Do It

You’re only as successful as you believe you can be. However, you’re worthy and capable of ANYTHING – you’ve just got to believe in yourself. As soon as I stopped doubting myself and allowed myself to get uncomfortable, I started achieving my goals and turning dreams into reality. It takes work and practice, but you’ve got to look at what you’ve got and how that can help you move forward. It’s time to call out your inner critic, stop comparing yourself to others and embrace the fear. I promise, you are worth it.

Believe in yourself!

3. Not Rewarding Yourself

Maybe you think you need the ‘tough love’ approach to get things done, or you punish yourself for slip-ups. Instead, reward yourself for the things you do right. Smashed a week of workouts? Get a facial! Meal prepped like a champ? Spend a bit of that extra time catching up on your fave TV series or read a book instead.

4. Thinking you don’t Deserve it

Firstly, you do! And if you need people to remind you, let my Facebook community support and encourage you. It’s made up of strong, loyal and inspiring members.

Self-worth is so important to both your mental health and your ability to achieve great things.

Honestly, self-confidence and motivation go hand in hand. As soon as you believe in yourself, you’re gonna smash every workout and reach your fitness goals – which will have its own extra positive effect.

5. Not Valuing your own Time

• A lot of time-wasting and procrastination actually comes down to not seeing your time as a valuable resource. That’s why you scroll mindlessly through social media or binge on Netflix for hours.
• Time-wasting can make tasks take longer than they need to be, and the longer something drags out, the more you lose motivation to get it done. (Sound familiar?)
• Moving forward, start setting timers for tasks and even your social media use until it becomes habitual. It’s time to take back control and get things done!

You have it in you, so why not just do it!

Check out the Emily Skye FIT App for more Inspo!

If you’re interested in working out alongside me, now’s the time to try out my Emily Skye FIT app. From December 23-January 31 I’m offering an extended 1-month trial of my app, it’s normally only a 7-day trial! I’m also offering 50% off a 12-month plan so you can keep your fitness momentum going – that means the ESF app is only $10 a month! Start 2023 strong with a free month of workouts that build strength in confidence both at home and in the gym (I also offer workout programs for your entire pregnancy and post-pregnancy journey). Emily Skye FIT also includes specialized programs, recipes, meditations, tips, and more!

Emily Skye

Emily Skye is a mother of two, strength training expert and the face of FIT, the digital fitness app that helps women worldwide build strength and confidence, stay active through pregnancy and rebuild post-pregnancy. Emily holds a Certificate IV in Fitness and Master Trainer qualification from the Australian Institute of Fitness.

emilyskyefit.com/join-us

The post Remove These 5 Obstacles to Your Fitness Goals appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Polish your mind to deflect the negative influence of ill wishes

Today, we live in a very stressful society. To add to the stress of everyday life, the world has become increasingly unstable due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Russo-Ukrainian war, and inflation, to name a few. It seems as if problems and troubles constantly appear, assailing us with worries, fear, and doubts. Although life’s events seem to befall us randomly, everything that happens in this world is subject to the law of cause and effect.

Because there is a cause for everything that happens in this world, we may be able to stop a negative circumstance from doing harm to us if we can discover its cause. Believe it or not, a lot of the pains, sufferings, and misfortunes that we encounter in life are actually caused by curses. A curse is a wish to bring other people unhappiness. Curses are everywhere around us, and we may not only be on the receiving end, but also be cursing someone without realizing it. How then, can we protect ourselves from these negative influences called curses?

Protect Yourself from Curses by Realizing that Like Attracts Like

The law of the mind we should be aware of when considering curses is that we attract those who are on the same spiritual wavelengths. Humans are like magnets; our thoughts attract spirits with similar vibrations. So, if you feel that you are being cursed–in other words, if you feel that other people have negative thoughts or feelings about you- you may want to check to see if you have any thoughts that are attracting them. Only when you know the cause, can you discover the solution. Once you know what is attracting the negative thoughts and emotion aimed at you, you will be able to find a way to repel them and protect yourself from harm and misfortune.

Polish the Mirror of Your Mind

What should we do if we feel that we are influenced by curses? Buddhism teaches that we can repel curses and protect ourselves by polishing our mind. Your mind works like a mirror reflecting the world and people around you. When your mind is like a clear and clean mirror, you can see the thoughts and feelings of other people just as they are. Those with negative or ugly thoughts would hate to have their honest thoughts come to light. By having a clear and clean mind like a polished mirror, not only can you tell what others are really thinking, you can also deflect any negative thoughts that are targeted at you.

But you won’t be able to repel them if the mirror of your mind is dirty. To maintain a clear and clean mind, take time to examine the state of your mind every day and wipe out any dirt or dust that may be sullying the mirror of your mind.

Removing Three Poisons of the Mind

Buddhism teaches that Three Poisons of the Mind, namely, greed, anger, and ignorance, stain our mind. To maintain a clean and clear mind, check to see if any of your thoughts and deeds arise out of these poisons, and remove them.

1. Greed

The first poison is greed. Greed is an insatiable desire for more than we deserve- status, fame, beauty, money, or reputation, for example- even at the cost of other people’s unhappiness. Greedy people usually do not realize they are being greedy, while it is quite obvious to other people. So if you want to know if greed is poisoning your mind, try to see yourself objectively by observing the words and reactions of the people around you.

To remove the poison of greed from our mind, we need to learn how to be content. When you are greedy, you tend to focus on what you don’t have. Try instead to focus on your gifts, be grateful for what you have, and find positive meaning in your life. Next, nurture a generous spirit by thinking about how you can give to the people around you and the world. This will help you get rid of attachments or cravings.

2. Anger

The second poison is anger. Anger is an animal instinct wanting to protect us from harm. When you fly into a rage, you lose control in the turmoil. The flame of anger hurts others, destroys relationships, and taints your own divine nature. When anger arises, take a deep breath. Try to find goodness in the person you are upset with and think objectively about whether there is anything you could have done or can do to improve the current situation. Restoring peace of mind is the key to curbing anger.

The world is full of people who don’t agree with us or listen to us, but we need to try to patiently cultivate understanding for those who criticize us. It is the spirit of patience, tolerance, and kindness that can help us understand each other. We can take the first step by aiming to cultivate a peaceful mind. If everybody were to find peace within, this world would naturally become a peaceful and beautiful place.

3. Ignorance

The third poison is ignorance, or lack of knowledge and understanding of the spiritual truths. Even those who are known to be keenly intelligent in the fields of science and technology cannot scientifically answer life’s basic questions, such as ‘Where do we come from before birth?’ and ‘Where do we go after death?’

Without a spiritual perspective, it becomes difficult to find the purpose and meaning of life.

One of the most important truths we should understand is that human beings were created by God and that we are born into this world to learn lessons and to cultivate our souls. Try to see your life from this perspective and see if you are making the right decisions every day in that regard. Practicing self-reflection, meditation, and prayer is the key to changing knowledge to wisdom, which removes foolishness from our mind.

Cultivating Peace and Clarity of Mind

We may not be able to completely avoid misfortunes, difficulties, and hardships in life. But if we take care to constantly polish our minds and fill our hearts with good thoughts toward others, our minds will tune with heavenly spirits, receive the light from God, and deflect the negative spiritual energy of others’ curses. By protecting ourselves from curses in this manner, we will bring more peace and happiness to ourselves and others.

Dramatization of the Release of Curses in The Divine Protector: Master Salt Begins

Mia Tomikawa is a consultant on The Divine Protector: Master Salt Begins, a new film from Japan about the Divine Protector, Master Salt, who is summoned by three young high school students to help them decipher the mysterious incidents that have plagued them recently. Master Salt expels the curse laid on one of the students by a jealous schoolmate, and the trio call her back to protect the other people in their lives who have been afflicted by others’ poisonous thoughts. Learn more about The Divine Protector:Master Salt Begins https://mastersaltmovie.com 

Mia Tomikawa

Mia Tomikawa is a producer on “The Cherry Bushido,” a film from Japan about a young Kendo (Japanese swordsmanship) devotee and group of friends who unite to protect Japan from the threat of extinction by its neighboring country. She is also a consultant on The Divine Protector: Master Salt Begins.

Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Mia Tomikawa moved to the United States in her late teens and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a BA in Communications Studies. She has a decade of experience in TV production in the US, overseeing all phases of video and film production, including casting, scheduling, and booking locations, as well as translation services.

In 2007, Ms. Tomikawa became Editor-in-Chief of IRH Press, a publishing arm of Happy Science, where she worked on the translation and publication of more than 30 titles. In 2018, she joined Happy Science’s media division to produce the award-winning film, The Real Exorcist. Happy Science is a global spiritual and religious movement founded by Ryuho Okawa. Its goal is to bring greater happiness and harmony to all people by integrating different religions and cultures.

mastersaltmovie.com%20

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What Exercises Are Actually Safe During Pregnancy?

Isn’t it funny how when you’re pregnant, everyone’s suddenly an expert? “Sign your kid up for a good school now.” “You should never eat cheese.” “You can’t run when you’re pregnant!” Yup, people love to dish out advice, and that leads to a lot of conflicting information and outright myths.

To keep you moving safely and with confidence during your pregnancy, I’ve rounded up the most common pregnancy fitness myths that need busting – now!

Myth #1: You shouldn’t exercise at all

Pregnancy is not an illness. For most women, continuing to exercise is completely safe.

The pregnancy programs in my app, Emily Skye FIT, follow recommendations laid out by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RANZCOG), who recommend that pregnant women do 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week.

Not only is it safe to exercise during pregnancy, doing so has so many benefits for you and your baby. These include  helping you get better sleep, keeping you strong for labor, and preventing hypertension.

Myth #2: You can’t lift weights

When it comes to women lifting weights in general, wow, people have opinions. Add pregnancy to the mix and it can get even more heated – I received many comments and DMs during both my pregnancies from people who were shocked that I was still lifting weights while pregnant and told me it was dangerous.

But you know what? As an experienced lifter and qualified personal trainer who worked with women’s health experts to develop my FIT Pregnancy program, I knew that strength training within my limits was actually a good thing. And in fact, strength training is a recommended part of the ideal 150-300 minutes of exercise per week.

Want to keep lifting to stay strong? Take a look at my guide to lifting weights during pregnancy.

Myth #3: Don’t start exercising now

This one can be a little confusing because there are some forms of exercise that you shouldn’t attempt for the first time during pregnancy. For instance, if you haven’t regularly lifted weights in the past, now is not the time to grab the dumbbells.

However, if your pregnancy (or perhaps even the process of getting pregnant) has made you question your inactivity and overall health, you shouldn’t be afraid to begin introducing regular, moderate exercise to your life.

If you’re currently inactive but want to start moving during pregnancy, RANZCOG recommends starting with 15 to 20 minutes of light exercise at a time, and slowly building up to 30 minutes per session.

If you are inactive, I don’t recommend starting with FIT Pregnancy, as this program is designed for already active women to maintain fitness and strength. You might want to try brisk walking, riding an exercise bike or swimming. Just remember to warm up and cool down, and stop if anything doesn’t feel right.

Myth #4: You shouldn’t raise your heart rate

Love to run? You don’t have to stop! Back in the olden days, the advice given to pregnant women was to not raise your heart rate above 140 bpm – but that is no longer the case. These days, the experts now point to the Borg Rate of Perceived Exertion and suggest you reach a 12-14 on the scale when exercising – that means your breathing is at the point where you can still talk to someone, but you’re too out of puff to sing.

Before you start any exercise, familiarize yourself with the warning signs you should stop exercising when pregnant.

Good nutrition is never more important than when you’re pregnant. What you eat doesn’t just support the development of your baby, it fuels your increasing energy needs, too. But while you’re upping your calories to keep up with your growing bub, you also need to make sure that the foods you consume are nutrient-dense, well-prepared and safe for the both of you.

Try my Honey Lime Salmon dish for a healthy and tasty dinner option from the FIT Pregnancy meal plan.

Important: Always consult your healthcare professional before beginning any new exercise program, as there are some situations where exercise may not be advised. This information should be used as a guide only and should not replace the advice of your medical practitioner.

Learn More About Fitness

Check out the Emily Skye FIT app and emilyskyefit.com for more information and to start your 7-day free trial of the programs.

Emily Skye

Emily Skye is a mother of two, strength training expert and the face of FIT, the digital fitness app that helps women worldwide build strength and confidence, stay active through pregnancy and rebuild post-pregnancy. Emily holds a Certificate IV in Fitness and Master Trainer qualification from the Australian Institute of Fitness.

emilyskyefit.com/join-us

The post 4 Pregnancy Fitness Myths appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Emily Skye works her pelvic floor.

Menopause may signal the end of your periods, but does it mean the end of smashing a strong workout? Not a chance!

I’m here to tell you that women can and should continue to train, feel strong and crush their workouts into their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond!

If you’re already experiencing it, you’ll know that there’s more to menopause than no more periods. There are different phases and symptoms, and the journey won’t be the same for everyone. That’s why I’ve teamed up with Dr. Jessica, physical therapist and part of my FIT crew, to show you how you can keep moving your body and benefiting from training as you move through perimenopause, menopause and beyond.

What is Perimenopause?

Perimenopause occurs when your body is nearing the end of its reproductive years and starts transitioning to menopause. This phase occurs at different ages for different women, starting as early as the late 30s for some, and (more often) in the early 40s for others.

What happens during Perimenopause?

As you go through this phase, your ovaries will start producing different levels of estrogen, which can make your menstrual cycle erratic or irregular.

Some signs you may be experiencing perimenopause include:

• Night sweats.
• Hot flashes.
• Mood changes.
• Incontinence.
• Vaginal dryness or pain with intercourse.

Dr. Jessica says it’s important to be aware of the changes you’re experiencing so you can remain proactive with your health.

“Remember, the contraceptive pill can mask the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause,” Dr. Jessica says. “As you get into your 40s, it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor about the best time to stop taking the pill or switch to a different form of contraception.”

Can exercise help with Perimenopause Symptoms?

According to Dr. Jessica, hormone changes during perimenopause will affect your musculoskeletal system.

“That means it’s more important than ever to stick to a regular strength training routine in order to slow down the rate of muscle and bone loss,” she says.

These changes can also spark weight gain and change.

Continuing to exercise will help you to do the following.

• Maintain muscle.
• Regulate cortisol (the stress hormone).
• Reduce fat storage.
• Minimize diabetes risk.
• Prevent aches and pains or future injuries.

“This phase is also a good time to introduce pelvic floor exercises into your routine, especially if you start to notice bladder leakage,” says Dr. Jessica.

“If you do experience incontinence or vaginal pain, you should seek help from a women’s health specialist or pelvic physiotherapist as soon as possible to prevent and reduce any future concerns. Unlike hot flashes or mood swings, these two symptoms often don’t go away on their own.”

Yoga (including pelvic floor work) is a great addition to any menopause exercise routine.

What if I don’t feel like exercising during perimenopause?

It might not always feel like it, but maintaining a regular training routine is one of the easiest ways to prevent and manage the mood changes that can come with perimenopause.

“Any form of exercise that increases endorphins and reduces stress or negative feelings will help you to manage the transition,” says Dr. Jessica. “It could be a sweaty strength session or taking a walk outside. Breathing exercises, meditation and listening to relaxing music can help, too.”

Changing sleep patterns during perimenopause can also feed into mood changes (and vice versa). Again, it’s crucial that you take a proactive approach for your mental health.

“Multiple studies show that light to moderate exercise before bed can actually help with restorative sleep,” Dr. Jessica adds.

Aim to do a lighter session at least 90 minutes before bed, keeping the more vigorous workouts for earlier in the day. (Unless you’re naturally a night owl, in which case you should work out when it works for you!) If you find yourself dealing with lethargy or sleep limitations, it’s important to try and identify the root cause. If it’s from poor dietary choices, lack of exercise or stress, focus on forming good habits in those areas to keep yourself feeling healthy and energized.

How Do I know when I’ve reached Menopause?

Once you have gone through a year without menstruation, you’ve fully transitioned to menopause. Most women will reach this phase between 45 and 55.

What’s the Best Kind of Exercise for Menopause?

Increasing evidence shows just how important regular physical activity is for increasing quality of life in general, but especially in middle age and beyond.

“During menopause, it’s even more important to stay regular with your strength training and focus on bigger muscle groups, doing activities you enjoy, and including restorative options like yoga or pilates,” Dr. Jesscia says.

“Moving your body also is shown to decrease pain for people with osteoarthritis and lower back pain.”

Emily Skye performs dumbbell deadlifts, a compound movement recommended for women going through menopause.

By continuing with proper strength training, you are able to put your muscle fibers under strain to help them adapt and maintain a level of strength that you won’t otherwise naturally have at this stage.

According to Dr. Jessica, your menopause exercise plan should focus on the following.

• Glutes.
• Quads.
• Back muscles.
• Compound movements such as squats and deadlifts.

Why are these areas so important to exercise?

“Loading your bones through resistance exercises also increases your body’s ability to create stronger bones to prevent the onset of osteoporosis,” Dr. Jessica says.

“The loading process triggers cell activity in the bones to keep reforming tissue, which reduces bones’ ability to bend or break.”

What if I don’t have the Energy to Exercise during Menopause?

Decreased energy or increased fatigue is common as your hormones change. However, one of the many well-researched benefits of exercise is the fact that it aids in reducing fatigue and increasing energy – yes, even in menopausal women. This is why sticking with a balance of strength training and restorative exercise is a great goal for menopause.

“In a recent study of physical activity levels and the effects of menopause on women, it was found that those who do moderate or vigorous levels of exercise regularly (3-5 days per week) experience less severe menopause symptoms,” Dr. Jessica says.

Whatever stage you’re at, don’t stop if you want to stay fit as you age!

In order to prioritize future well-being, it’s important that you create a lifestyle of healthy habits that you truly enjoy. It’s never too late to start (or enhance) your fitness goals.

“A regular strength training routine will continue to benefit you during post-menopause, reducing the effects of age-related illnesses such as arthritis and diabetes,” Dr. Jessica says.

“Training is also crucial to maintaining balance and coordination, which will reduce falls and prevent fractures, so you are able to retain your independence.”

How you feel can change from day to day, so keep moving with my Made to FIT workouts. It’s easy to filter for a low, medium or high intensity workout to suit your energy levels and strength. Having a high quality of life is so important, so don’t let any age-related changes make you feel like you can’t live and feel your absolute best!

Release the Pressure with this 7 Minute Meditation!

Emily Skye FIT

Check out the Emily Skye FIT app and emilyskyefit.com for more information and to start your 7-day free trial of the programs.

Emily Skye

Emily Skye is a mother of two, strength training expert and the face of FIT, the digital fitness app that helps women worldwide build strength and confidence, stay active through pregnancy and rebuild post-pregnancy. Emily holds a Certificate IV in Fitness and Master Trainer qualification from the Australian Institute of Fitness.

emilyskyefit.com/join-us

The post Menopause & Exercise: How to Stay Strong and Fit as You Get Older appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

How You Can Enhance Circulation and Blood Oxygen Levels with Electromagnetic Therapy

While yoga is an ancient practice that can be performed with no special tools or equipment, new technology is offering benefits to the yoga practitioner who is looking to supercharge their practice.

Technology is changing the way we think about our health, challenging our understanding of the human body, and empowering us to reach optimal physical condition. Fitness and recovery tools like Fitbits, cryotherapy, and dynamic air compression are making massive waves in the health and wellness world. But recently, a relatively new yet proven technology has exploded onto the scene and won the love of professional athletes, extreme sports competitors, and fitness influencers from all over the world.

A safe, user-friendly device that anyone can use in the comfort of their own home to optimize their health, performance, and recovery in minutes. A device that sends a low-intensity pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) into the body to safely stimulate healthy muscles, which temporarily enhances local blood flow, resulting in better disbursement of oxygen within the target tissues while supporting the elimination of carbon dioxide.

A Revolution of Recovery

There’s a revolution happening in the world of injury prevention, recovery, and performance right now that has important applications for yoga. The revolution is centered around a heavy focus on optimizing the body to prevent injury, maximize performance, and encourage mindfulness, and there’s one driving factor that can make all the difference: improved circulation.

During a yoga session, the body works hard to supply the muscles with oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to fuel your practice. Afterward, it sends vital resources to the exhausted muscle tissue to repair and help it grow stronger. Electromagnetic therapy plays a big role in this process by stimulating muscles, helping to increase blood flow, and therefore oxygen, to the target tissues. With an increased supply of oxygen and nutrients, your muscles can recover faster, perform better, and help you take your yoga practice to the next level.

Speaking of elevating your practice, the ability to do increasingly-complicated yoga poses requires optimal flexibility, and optimal flexibility relies on enhanced circulation. Stimulating healthy muscles with an electromagnetic pulse temporarily improves local blood flow and facilitates muscle performance, resulting in an amplified yoga practice.

Besides optimal flexibility, enhanced circulation means oxygenated red blood cells carry oxygen and nutrients through the arteries and capillaries to all the organs of the body more efficiently. An advanced yogi benefits from enhanced blood oxygen and nutrient delivery to the cells because this also translates to a faster turnover of carbon dioxide and waste products to the red blood cells, and an efficient elimination and detox process through the venous system and out of the body.

Reducing Stress Through Electromagnetic Therapy

Yoga isn’t just about the time you spend on the mat. The core principles of yoga serve as a guide to living a balanced, healthy life, and interacting with the world around you in an honorable and peaceful way. That being said, both your mental and physical health have a huge impact on how you show up in the world. If you’re weighed down by stress, health issues, or low energy, you may find it difficult to follow the yogic path. But with daily use, this recovery technology can help improve your energy levels, vitality, relaxation, and overall well-being. When you’re feeling (and performing) your best, you can better embody the core values that fuel your practice as a yoga practitioner.

With all the other warm-up and recovery methods yogis might try — hot and cold therapy, stretching, foam rolling, sports massages, et cetera — what makes electromagnetic therapy special? Think of it like a wireless phone charger for your body. A pulsed electromagnetic field stimulates electrical activity within the cells and increases muscle blood circulation, temporarily boosting nutrient and oxygen delivery.

When you add this therapy to your yoga practice, you may notice significant improvements in your physical strength and conditioning, recovery, strength, flexibility, and a heightened sense of relaxation. Not to mention, it’s refreshingly easy to use at home or on the go, allowing you to access these benefits wherever your journey takes you.

Yoga Practice as part of a Wellness-Based Lifestyle

What’s your idea of a great yoga practice? For many, it’s practicing mindfully, enjoying movement, and developing a healthy body and spirit. With electro-magnetic therapy, you can empower your body to recover faster, free your mind from stress, and re-energize your spirit. That way, you can be present and enjoy each moment of your yoga practice to the fullest.

Bryce Wylde

Bryce Wylde graduated with a B.Sc. Hons. (BioPsyc) from York University in Toronto. He went on to pursue a career in complementary alternative medicine and nutrition. He graduated with a Diploma in Homeopathic Medicine and Health Sciences (DHMHS) from the Ontario College of Homeopathic Medicine. Known as one of Canada’s leading alternative health experts, Bryce is a highly knowledgeable and respected natural healthcare practitioner whose specialty is homeopathy, clinical nutrition, supplementation, and botanical medicine and whose focus is routed within functional medicine.In a clinical setting, he blends the latest in human biological and genomic screening, science and technology, and uses new, traditional, and ancient remedies. Along with a team of allied health professionals he works closely with his patients, informed by the genetic make-up of that patient in order to customize care, lifestyle and functional therapeutic interventions for health promotion, disease prevention and longevity.

wyldeonhealth.com/

The post Enhance Circulation with Electromagnetic Therapy appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Bob Roth c. Alexander Berg courtesy DLF

Bob Roth is America’s favorite Transcendental Meditation teacher

For more than 45 years he has brought Transcendental Meditation (TM) to millions of people through his role as CEO of the David Lynch Foundation, as host of SiriusXM radio show, Success Without Stress, through his podcast Stay Calm, available on the iHeart radio network, and as the New York Times best-selling author of Strength Into Stillness. (Now available in paperback!)

Bob’s work has improved the lives of students in underserved schools in 35 countries; military veterans and their families who suffer from post-traumatic stress; women and children who are survivors of domestic violence, incarcerated and homeless populations and more. He has taught titans of industry, government, sports and entertainment, including Oprah Winfrey, George Stephanopoulos, Martin Scorsese, Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern, Katy Perry, Hugh Jackman, Robin Roberts, and many more.

Roth’s contagious compassion, exceptional intelligence, and light-hearted humor are always an honor to be around. In the following exchange we learn more about this proven practice.

What Is Transcendental Meditation?

Amy: First can you just tell us what Transcendental Meditation is?

Bob Roth: Transcendental Meditation is a very simple, easily learned, effortless practice that allows any person to access a field of calm and science that already exists underneath all the noise, deep within everyone. Just like an ocean has choppy waves at the surface but is silent at its depths, every human being has a silence deep within. We’ve just lost access, we’re stuck up here [points to his head].

It’s practiced for 20 minutes, twice a day, sitting comfortably in a chair, you don’t have to sit in any strange position. You’re given a mantra which is a word or sound that has no meaning in TM, just a couple of syllables. Then you’re taught by a teacher to dive within.

It’s easy, it’s effortless, it’s so tender and gentle and kind and compassionate a meditation. It’s not a strain. It has huge health benefits.

TM For Better Health

Amy: What are some of the benefits?

Bob Roth: Benefits of the meditation, according to research, are very significant. I’ll give you an example: it takes about five and half or six hours of a good night’s sleep for your body to take your metabolic rate to drop about 8%, so that’s a good night’s sleep. In 20 minutes of TM your metabolic rate drops 16%, twice as deep, in just a few minutes.

You know what cortisol is? Too much of it is a bad thing. What they’ve found is if you get a good night’s sleep, cortisol drops about 10 %. During 20 minutes of TM they drop 30-40%. So the first thing that happens is a huge reduction of stress, improvement in sleep, much less anxiety because cortisol goes down.

Sorry about all the science here.

Amy: I love it…! The facts help eradicate that outdated “woo woo” stigma around these proven practices.

Bob Roth: Right.

There’s a neurotransmitter called serotonin. Serotonin is called the happiness neurotransmitter or the well-being neurotransmitter. When a person is depressed – and people are that way now during this whole thing – there’s a real decrease, a sharp decline in serotonin.

TM courtesy DLF

Antidepressant medications like Prozac mimic serotonin. During TM just as there’s a decrease in the anxiety hormone cortisol, there’s an increase in the happiness neurotransmitter serotonin. They both maintain that through the whole meditation and afterwards, through the rest of the day. A person feels stronger inside, happier inside, less anxious, less stress. Research shows that they sleep better at night, that they feel better throughout the day. The research on the brain shows that they think more clearly, and are more resilient. Lots of real good things that we would all love to have.

This is important. It’s not a philosophy, not a religion, nothing you have to believe in. Just a lovely simple technique. It’s not in opposition to anything. People can do other forms of meditation, they can do prayer, they can do exercise – TM fits in nicely with everything.

TM For Clarity of Mind

Amy: I love the old joke, “If you think you don’t have time to meditate for 20 minutes then you need to do it for 40.”

Bob Roth: The reason that is, is because your mind is not clear. There are 1,440 minutes in a day. If you don’t have 30 minutes, or 20 minutes out of that 1,440 minutes to take care of your brain for self-care, then your life is not well-organized and your brain is not clear. That’s why they say you need 40, because you’re in serious trouble!

Meditate American courtesy DLF

Amy: Yet, our society seems to run on this bigger, better, faster, more syndrome. In the ‘80s and the ‘90s it was actually “cool” to be stressed out. Where do you think we are with that now?

Bob Roth: The fact of the matter is, it is a crazy world! To be successful, to succeed, to pay your bills, to grow the way you want to grow, to feel like you’re expanding; in your career you want to do more, you want to be more creative, have more influence, then we want to do more. But what TM does is give us an inner equanimity and an inner steadiness so we can do all of that and not get all tied up in knots.

I use the ocean analogy. The ocean is both active and silent. The mind is both active, dynamic but inside silent, quiet, calm. What TM does is give us the energy, the clarity and the inner balance so we can do all of those things and not go crazy.

TM For Sports + Performance

Amy: We’re now seeing a rise in professional athletes turning to TM for performance enhancement. Can you tell me about your experience in sports franchises?

Bob Roth: Oh yes…! There are two aspects to performance. One is what happens biochemically with cortisol. If I am anxious, then my adrenal glands secrete cortisol which is a stress hormone. I need a little cortisol to get going in the day but not too much. My body secretes cortisol if I’m worried about something, then I get more anxious and secrete more cortisol and it becomes a vicious cycle. Two of the problems with cortisol is it affects my immune system, so it weakens or compromises my immune system so I get sick more often. The other thing that it does – it floods my hippocampus which is the memory center. Now, say you have a 10-year-old child and they’re a sensitive soul and they study very hard for the test. Then they get anxious before the test, the test comes, their body secretes cortisol. It floods the hippocampus and they can’t remember anything.

MLB’s Barry Zito, David Lynch, Russel Brand and others at DLF Quiet Time in Schools Event – San Francisco courtesy DLF

Amy: That happens to a lot of people. Geniuses in their field, but terrible test takers.

Bob Roth: A lot of people. When you talk about the athlete who choked under pressure. It’s that. The athlete knows how to shoot a free throw, to catch a ball. But when the cortisol floods the hippocampus they freeze, they choke. So when you have a way to reduce your anxiety levels dramatically during TM then you’re not constrained, you’re not having that reactive thing.

The second thing that it does is it speeds up mind/body coordination. It wakes up part of the brain for focus, reactivity, quickness. It calms the part of the brain, the amygdala, which gets very anxious. So this is a dream come true for any athlete.

Amy: Makes sense, an obvious, proven way, to sharpen skills and performance.

You mentioned a sensitive 10-year-old child. I know you’ve taught many children over the years, who have grown up into amazing adults, who have then taught more children. They’re some of the steadiest people I know. How have you witnessed these generations, sort of re-wire reactions to outside circumstances?

Bob Roth: You just said it right there. Re-wire. There are neural pathways in the brain. They’re pathways in the brain – like when you’re young and you’re learning to tie your shoe. It takes a while. You try and you fumble, and you try and then you keep trying and all of a sudden ‘click’ you got it. And you don’t forget it. Or you’re learning to ride a bike, wobble wobble wobble and then you’ve got it. Or a stick shift or something.

Those are neural pathways in the brain doing something that became familiar. What the problem is with kids, is that they become neural pathways for anxiety, tension, fear, fear of failure, stress. Anything that comes up, there’s a test that’s two months away or a paper, already those pathways, those highways are there.

Children meditating in school courtesy DLF

What happens when you do TM is that it establishes new neural pathways in the brain. Healthier neuropathways. Calmer. All the different parts of the brain are now, instead of going crazy, are now functioning in an integrated, more communicative way. So then the brain is functioning more efficiently. So as far as academic performance, or in business, just being able to stay steady when everything is crazy. In your profession with deadlines. We need that. We need to have that equanimity. We can’t go the old route of, “Somebody pushes my buttons and I overreact.” No! Then we’re a victim of the past.

It’s like, “I had a bad relationship with someone five years ago and I have reactivity to that. Now I’m in a new relationship and I’m still in five years ago. I can’t trust the person. But that person did nothing – I’m in five years ago.” So the ability to meditate and have your mind settle down to that unboundedness inside and have your brain, all the different parts of the brain connect together. Then that forges new neural pathways and then you’re freed from the past, you’re yourself. And it allows you to see maybe this guy is a loser too! So you can see it fresh rather than just reacting. This guy may be great! But if you’re only reacting from the past you’ll never know.

TM For Trauma

Amy: How have you seen this benefit trauma survivors?

Bob Roth: Same thing – the healing. We work with veterans. PTSD is contagious. With veterans they have serious hyperarousal of the amygdala, which is that ‘fight or flight’ area of the brain. So they’re overreacting to everything and that area of the mind for equanimity and calm is offline. High levels of cortisol. Such high levels of anxiety that they start self-medicating and it becomes a downward cycle.

Veterans Mediating On Retreat

Research that was conducted in the San Diego VA Medical Center a few years ago showed that TM was, in many ways, better than anything that the VA is using right now to help veterans in reducing the symptoms of PTSD. We’re working on a new thing called “Healing the Healers,” which is bringing meditation to doctors and nurses on the front lines who are suffering from PTSD themselves.

Active Duty Military Meditating courtesy DLF

Amy: In recent years we saw so many doctors and nurses go through significant trauma, as though they were in a warlike environment with astronomical death tolls. The stories from family members who work in ERs in the New York/New Jersey Area are horrific.

Bob Roth: Totally. This whole field is called ‘Moral Injury’. That is – you’re a nurse. You have one ventilator and there are two people that are dying. And you have to decide. YOU have to decide, with the families behind the glass wall looking, who lives and who dies, who gets the ventilator and who doesn’t. That is horrible trauma. Our Heal the Healers  is the initiative in which we’re working with hospitals to serve all the healthcare workers on the front line.

Heal the Healers in hospitals courtesy DLF

What we want to do is take TM away from the “Oh that’s for celebrities, for rich people who can mess around.” This is a medical intervention that has to go to everybody. That’s what we’re working on – to have the research done that shows how effective it is so that the government and Medicare and insurance companies will reimburse it.

TM To The People

Amy: I heard you now have an office in DC to help with these kinds of initiatives?

Bob Roth: Yes, right near Capitol Hill. Before the lockdown happened, we were teaching a lot of members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to meditate. So that they can help move these things … and not just TM. Other evidence-based integrative approaches to healthcare. It is clear medicine isn’t going to do it all – they’ve got to look outside the box. But it should be proven to work, not just new age mumbo jumbo. I know I shouldn’t say that with you in LA. [laughter].

Amy: [Laughs] Ha, I know, the epicenter of the new age. Now, what about the marginalized communities DLF has gone into? There can be a lot of trauma and scarcity in those environments to work through.

Bob Roth: They say that the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, from conception to the second birthday is the most impactful 1,000 days that person will ever have. So if they grew up with trauma, neglect – did you know that neglect is more traumatizing for an infant than physical abuse? You’re just left there. Alone. Neglect is more traumatizing. A lot of these youngsters have that kind of trauma from birth. In Washington DC, we’re in community centers. We’re teaching, for free, great-grandchildren all the way up to great-grandparents. So whole families are learning to meditate. Again, all religions, all backgrounds. It’s the tool of the times, we need it now more than ever.

Meditators at the David Lynch Foundation, Washington, DC

Amy: It’s said that if one person is healed that it heals seven generations back and seven generations forward.

Bob Roth: That’s true. American Indians say that and the Vedic literature also says that.

Amy: Sounds like you’re doing a lot of clearing there!

Bob Roth: It’s a wonderful thing on so many levels to do.

If You’re Going To Change The World, Start With Yourself

Amy: How did you come to TM? It seems to be a magic carpet for you.

Bob Roth: [laughs] It’s been!!!

I started as a college student. I was 18 years old. I had worked for Senator Bobby Kennedy in high school and I saw him speak in San Francisco at San Francisco Civic Auditorium on June 1st 1968 and I thought, “Oh we’re going to change the world!” It wasn’t that I was a Republican or a Democrat, it was just that we were 2,000 people and we were going to change the world. And, Amy, four days later he was killed. That had a huge impact on my life.

I vowed when I went to college that I would go to law school and become a United States Senator and change the world, like Bobby Kennedy was going to do. I thought the way to change the world was through legislation, through laws. It took me about one month in college in 1968 to realize that politics is important, but it’s not going to be my path to change the world.

Bob Roth early in his career on the Larry King Show courtesy DLF

Then I thought, “Well, my mom was a school teacher, so what if I write educational curricula? What if I give tools at a very early age, kindergarten, that they could use to help them navigate?” What I saw even then was going to be a stressful, traumatic world. I was going to school full-time, I was working full-time, there were riots in the streets because of the Vietnam War.

I’m a skeptical guy by nature, I’m stressed, I’m not sure what to do, I wasn’t a druggie. I had this one friend who I really trusted of all the people I knew, who was so normal and down to earth and smart and awake and funny and clear. And he was doing something called Transcendental Meditation and I didn’t know what it was. I decided to find out what it was. I said, “I don’t believe in any of this stuff.” And he held up a pen, and he dropped the pen in my hand and he said, “You don’t have to believe in gravity for the pen to fall.” You don’t have to believe in meditation.

So I learned it. From the first meditation it was so natural and profoundly relaxing. One of my first thoughts after I learned it was, “Oh. So this is the tool I’m going to teach those kids.” June 28, 1969. 50 years later I worked with David Lynch on the Foundation. We brought it to over a million kids and we want to bring it to 10 million kids in the next five years.

Amy: I think you’ll do it .

Bob Roth: Thank you. From your lips to God’s ears.

Everything Is As It Should Be

Amy: Something I ask everybody is, where do you think dharma meets free will? Like, you listening to your friend, and going to that first TM class.

Bob Roth: There’s a wonderful story that I’ll tell you, that relates to that then I’ll answer it. I was with Maharishi somewhere, a big conference. They had been talking about cause and effect. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. People were saying you can see some cause somewhere, whether it’s genetic or whatever.

A reporter asked him, “Why is there so much suffering in the world?” And Maharishi said, “Everything is as it should be.” Which seemed kind of harsh. The reporter then said, “Then why are you working so hard to change it?” And he said, “Because everything is as it should be.”

I think what you have is: we have our dharma, we have our path. Built into that path is the opportunity to change that path. The opportunity. You have that opportunity to make a choice. Now you might say that is also driven by dharma. That gets too complicated for me!

I am sort of a simple guy, I just want to make a better world. I meditate twice a day. It gives me the energy.

Bob Roth In His Element courtesy DLF

You know. It’s life. You can get knocked down a lot. You have to pick yourself up. In relationships. In jobs. You have to pick yourself back up.

Independent of that, I’m teaching TM, the meditation for me has helped me maintain my resilience. I have more energy now than I had when I was 25. I sleep better now, I feel healthier now than ever. I think it’s just we have free will. we can take care of ourselves, we don’t have to let our bodies just wear down like they inevitably could.

The World Is My Family

Amy: What are some of the other projects the David Lynch Foundation is working on right now, and how can we, the readers of LA Yoga Magazine help?

Bob Roth: There’s a beautiful ancient Vedic proverb that says “Vasudaiva Kutumbakam” which means “The world is my family.” That child that is suffering down the street, or Rwanda, or anywhere, is our child. We can’t. I could cry. We can’t ignore that child. Obviously, we have our own children and we have to feed them and take care of them, but that doesn’t release us from our commitment, our dharma, our responsibility, to do everything we can to make the whole world family. A rising tide needs to lift all boats.

DLF Quiet Time Around The World – Bali courtesy DLF

One thing that can be done through the David Lynch Foundation is help us bring the meditation to the people who need it, in some regards, the most, who are so vulnerable. That 10-year-old child living in the Bronx or – I just came back from Israel and then I was on the West Bank, and I was talking to little Muslim children and Palestinians, the fear that they have.

DLF Quiet Time Around The World – Uganda courtesy DLF

I think one thing is, educate yourself. Go to the David Lynch Foundation.org website. See if there’s something there that resonates with you. If you have the finances to be able to support us, 100% of it goes just to bring TM to the people who need it the most. You can learn to meditate yourself.

One time someone asked Maharishi, “What can a person do to create peace in the world?” He said, “Learn to meditate and become a light unto yourself.” We should all become a light unto ourselves.

Learn More About Bob Roth, the David Lynch Foundation and Transcendental Meditation

Purchase the new paperback version of Strength Into Stillness

Listen to “Stay Calm with Bob Roth”

Learn more about The David Lynch Foundation for Transcendental Meditation.

Watch a TM Intro Video By Bob Roth Here.

Follow Bob Roth on his social media channels, IG, FB, Twitter, LinkedIn.

Author’s Note; Thanks to DLF-LA Regional Director Lynn Kaplan, for her help with this article.

Amy V Dewhurst

To Check Out Amy’s Work Go To; Sense + Color, You Can Reach Her At IG:  Amy_V_Dewhurst  + AmyVDewhurst@SenseAndColor.co #PutYourGoodWhereItWillDoTheMost

www.senseandcolor.co

The post DLF’s Bob Roth: Become a Light Unto Yourself appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Gratitude is a Healing Power; Gratitude is a Spiritual Practice

As I lay on the massage table under the palm leaf ceiling, the curandero walked around me saying, “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” in between phrases spoken in Spanish and other languages I didn’t recognize. He sometimes moved part of my body in what felt like a mix between a chiropractic adjustment and an assisted stretch, sometimes sang what sounded like a child’s lullaby. Mostly he said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you” throughout my healing session.

Miraculously, the next morning I woke up pain-free for the first time in five years. I was deeply relieved and grateful to be free of the chronic low back pain that had affected my daily life for so long. I hoped the healing would last.

Later that day, after teaching a yoga session on the retreat I was leading, I slipped and fell flat on my back on hard concrete in the pouring rain. My first thought was, “Oh, great, just when I finally felt better.” I wanted to cry.

The curandero’s words came to mind and immediately countered my fear of back pain returning. I repeated, “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” in my mind. I stood up and slowly walked upstairs to my hotel room to rest, and simply reflected on giving thanks. I felt sincerely grateful for all of the beautiful moments I was experiencing that week, including the moment when I woke up pain-free. My logic: If the curandero’s main prayer was “thank you,” and it seemed to work a miracle, I could continue to pray in this way and hope to stay pain-free.

When I got up to join the retreat group for dinner, my back was totally fine and the healing of low back pain seemed to be intact. Thank goodness! You can bet I was grateful for the healing power of giving thanks!

Expressing Gratitude: A Life-Enriching Spiritual Practice

I was familiar with gratitude as a psychological tool and as a spiritual practice. In fact, the psychotherapists I had worked with over the years recommended keeping a gratitude journal, which I did. Growing up in a metaphysical religion, I felt closest to the Divine when I was feeling grateful for all the blessings in my life, which I attributed to God’s benevolence and care.

I later learned a new form of affirmative prayer which included Gratitude and Thanksgiving as one of the five key steps. The teaching emphasized that it was important to not only give thanks, but to energetically and emotionally feel gratitude for the good result being visualized.

“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” –Meister Eckhart

Gratitude as a Spiritual Practice

Reverence and Faith

Sages and teachers throughout the ages and across cultures have included expressing gratitude as a spiritual practice. People practicing earth-based wisdom traditions often give thanks with offerings to nature. The Four Directions or Seven Directions Prayer, an invocation made by many North American indigenous peoples from Iroquois to Mayan, typically includes giving thanks in each verse.

In this beautiful rendition attributed to Seneca Elder, Grandmother Twylah Nitsch, giving thanks is an essential step in opening sacred space.

To the East, to the new day… Thank you for the moving airs, for the awakening of life.
To the South, sacred fire of creativity… Thank you for the teachings of … those things that carry joy and communion.
To the West, to the Dark Waters of Looking Within… Thank you for those things that teach compassion and nourish understanding.
To the North, the wisdom place… Thank you for the gifts of lodge and sustenance.
I pray to live upon this gracious earth with remembrance of gratitude and with respect.

The Teachings of Gratitude

Gratitude, as an act of sincere appreciation, makes one aware of the good in life, and promises to bring more good. This is reflected in the popular saying, “Where your attention goes, energy flows.” Whether taught through the lens of Law of Attraction or Yoga philosophy, the teaching emphasizes that when we focus on the good, we will likely see more good coming into our lives. In this way, expressing gratitude can be an act of faith.

Appreciation=Increased Returns

One way to express gratitude is appreciation, seeing and voicing thanks for the good aspects of something or someone. Another definition of appreciation is an increase in value–which again suggests that expressing gratitude for something good in life effectively brings more good!

Mindfulness and Gratitude are Connected

Gratitude offers an inspired approach to mindfulness. When you cultivate mindful awareness of your present moment, you can actively appreciate your ordinary daily experience. Washing dishes can be an act of appreciation and mindfulness when you give thanks for the warm water, the food you enjoyed, the beautiful pottery, or the person by your side.

Going for a walk can become a mindfulness and gratitude practice. You can say “Thank you,” with each step and give thanks for the weather, your able body, the scenery, or community surrounding you.

Elevate Your Life through Mindfulness and Gratitude

Gratitude elevates everyday existence just as mindfulness does. You become aware of the beauty in the ordinary and the goodness of the present moment. Take time to do something like notice your cup of coffee, tea, or water. Notice the good in things both small and big. Giving thanks increases this awareness. We learn in mindfulness practice that, rather than being caught up in thoughts or worries, present-moment awareness helps us savor and appreciate the precious once-in-a-lifetime experiences that make up a lifetime.

Modern Psychology and Neuroscience Weigh in on the Benefits of Gratitude

Gratitude Feels Good

Gratitude has its own intrinsic reward. It simply feels good to be grateful. Gratitude empowers you and gives a positive boost to your energy.

Expressing gratitude is not just an action. It also creates other positive emotions that benefit mental health and emotional wellness. People who practice giving thanks regularly feel more content, fulfilled, and balanced in life. Gratitude creates further expressions of kindness, compassion, and lovingness, helping us relate to others in more positive ways.

Cultivate a Positive Outlook on Life

Psychologists and neuroscientists confirm that daily gratitude contributes to feelings of general well-being and helps us sustain a positive outlook on life.

A 2015 study found that people who kept a daily journal of things for which they were grateful reported feeling more optimistic than others, and were also more physically active and healthy than those who wrote about negative experiences (Neurohealth Associates). They also confirmed the following benefits of gratitude.

Documented Benefits of Gratitude

• Gratitude and positive outlook improves sleep.
• Gratitude reduces anxiety and depression.
• The habit of giving thanks correlates to lower inflammation.
• Higher levels of gratitude reduces the risk of heart failure.

Enjoy Better Relationships through Practicing Gratitude

Giving thanks results in positive interactions and behaviors–for yourself and others. Imagine if, when the next conflict arises between you and a loved one, you were able to pause and access a feeling of appreciation or gratitude for the loved one and for the opportunity to grow. Gratitude expressed brings out the best expression of ourselves and others!

A person who appreciates others more often has more harmonious and joyful relationships with family, friends, and colleagues.

Gratitude Fosters Resilience

People who appreciate the good in life tend to cope better when inevitable challenges arise. Gratitude increases resilience when facing uncertainty or fearful situations.

Adolescents, particularly girls, have been shown to be “psychologically protected” from bullying and have lower suicide risk when they maintain a grateful mindset.

Gratitude Leads to Positive Expectations and Empowering Outcomes Follow

Appreciation and gratitude create positive emotions and expectations, which lead to empowered actions and decision making. When people express gratitude, they tend to be more proactive, which leads to more empowering outcomes.

The practice of gratitude creates a positive feedback loop which sets the stage for more growth and opportunity in one’s life. (Much like the practice of positive affirmations.)

Our Brain Benefits from Giving Thanks

In addition to our emotions benefiting from gratitude, studies show that our brain also gets activated in healthy ways, even “rewiring” the neural network to promote greater levels of happiness. Our brains grow with gratitude. One study correlated increased gray matter volume with proneness to gratitude. Another study found that people who express gratitude release oxytocin, the hormone which plays a key role in social bonds.

A study at UCLA revealed that feelings of gratitude activate areas of the brain associated with moral and social cognition, empathy and value judgment. Charged with gratitude, the brain helps us have positive feelings and less stress in our interactions with others.

Who doesn’t want more pleasure in life? Give thanks! Gratitude increases dopamine, the hormone associated with pleasure and rewards.

How to Make Gratitude a Daily Spiritual Practice

Wake up Grateful

When we first wake up, our subconscious mind is receptive to positive conditioning, a perfect time to practice gratitude. Give thanks for a new day, a good night’s sleep, your comfortable bed, your home, the cup of tea or coffee that awaits you, and the day ahead.

Practice Gratitude in Advance

In addition to giving thanks for each day, give gratitude in advance for things which you desire or plan to experience.

Mindfulness and Gratitude

Let your appreciative mindset keep you in the practice of present-moment awareness, or living in the moment. An “attitude of gratitude” helps you elevate ordinary experience into something pleasurable and cultivates a sense of wonder, a beautiful spiritual quality. Admire a blooming flower, appreciate the “magic” of a butterfly or sunset, feel grateful for your free-flowing breath or strength as you exercise, and appreciate the fact that you can easily turn on a faucet and enjoy a hot shower! With mindfulness, you take nothing for granted, and feel gratitude for everything.

Keep a Gratitude Journal

In the evening or right before bed, take a few minutes to write down three or more things you are grateful for, as an overview of your day.

Express your Appreciation to Others Whenever Possible

Tell the people close to you specifically what you appreciate about them and give thanks when others enrich your life. This can take place both in small everyday acts and in the big things. Besides thanking others, share your appreciation and positivity in general. Telling others what you are grateful for in your life models this practice and makes everyone feel better.

Let Gratitude Reframe Negative Experiences

When you can, express gratitude for a challenge and look for the good in difficulties. You may need to feel and express other emotions that don’t always feel good before you can glean the positive; gratitude for your own resilience and growth may be enough.

Say Thank You

You can even do this out loud; at the beginning and/or end of your spiritual practices. Use your words to elevate your prayers, affirmations, meditation, yoga practice to conscious sincerity with feelings and the expression of gratitude.

Are you ready to increase your baseline for a more enjoyable, pleasurable, and healthy life and mindset? Find ways to add gratitude practices to your days.

Practice Gratitude on Retreat Over Thanksgiving

If you’d like to dive into the joys of gratitude as a spiritual practice, join me on my Thanksgiving-themed retreat in the beautiful Mayan Riviera, Mexico in November.

Retreat with Gratitude!

https://retreats.layoga.com/pages/come-home-to-aia-thanksgiving-retreat-with-enicia-fisher

Enicia Fisher

Enicia Fisher loves to hold sacred space for healing and transformative experiences by guiding people to come home to their body, breath, Nature, and Spirit. She has been curating, hosting, and offering healing retreats since 2012 in the US and Mexico. Founder of Sanadora Sanctuary Retreats and Sanadora Yoga International Teacher Training Program, Enicia has taught yoga since 2005 and has been practicing yoga personally since 2000. She loves yoga because of its mind-body approach and because of the healing power of integrating all aspects of being through the wide range of yogic practices: body, emotions, mind, soul, spirit, philosophy and mindset, and lifestyle practices.

Enicia created and leads Heart Alignment Yoga? and “heartfulness” meditation with an emphasis on Divine heart qualities and life-affirming yoga philosophy that inspires people to live with a deeper connection to their own heart, body, and spirit.
Enicia has a Master’s degree in Education, founded a small private school in Southern California, and is registered with Yoga Alliance as a highly trained and experienced teacher, E-RYT 500.

Enicia is a mother to two wonderfully creative and grounded young adults and is also an author currently preparing her first novel for publication. A Southern California native, Enicia now divides her time between her family base in Los Angeles and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Enicia began leading retreats in the Riviera Maya in 2015, and has offered ten retreats in the region since then. She lived in Akumal/Tulum for three years and continues to collaborate with local healers and ceremonialists on all of her retreats, in honor of the indigenous traditions and cultures being incorporated.

Enicia wishes to honor the Mayan guardians of the sacred lands of Tulum (Ekab), and her teachers who have shared their wisdom and practices:  Leon Xochitl Coatl, Adrián Salas Xopan, and Devi Chandra Ma from Quintana Roo, and Ashley Fiala, Doreen Madison, and David Kutruff from Shraddhaa Yoga School.

www.eniciafisher.com/

The post The Power of Gratitude as a Spiritual Practice appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Why You Need to Vary Your Workouts and Include Medium Intensity Workouts

Has anyone else noticed how their energy levels and mood fluctuate throughout the month? You may want to vary up between high, low, and medium intensity workouts.

Since that is something that so many women experience, I’ve designed new workouts that are Made to FIT – fit your mood, your energy levels and your strength. How you feel can change depending on your cycle and stage of life, but I want to help you keep moving no matter what.

You can now choose your FIT workout on the Emily Skye FIT app intensity based on how you’re feeling: up the intensity on those strong days, lift yourself with mood-boosting exercise, or stick with slower, stress-relieving sessions on the days your body needs it.

Let’s take a look at how each level of intensity in my Made to FIT sessions works and for fun, I thought you’d like to try one of the medium intensity workouts!

High Intensity Workouts

What are they? These workouts will spike your heart rate, help you achieve strength and endurance goals and smash your personal bests. Expect HIIT/HIRT and advanced strength training workouts incorporating big lifts and compound moves.

When to use them: When you’re feeling super strong and full of energy, it’s time to take on a high-intensity challenge!

Medium Intensity Workouts

What are they? Increase your heart rate and work your muscles without pushing yourself to the limit. Expect HIRT and strength workouts designed to maintain lean muscle and cardio fitness.

When to use them: These workouts are great for days when your energy levels feel stable and standard. If menopause or PMS has you feeling down, these moderate-intensity workouts are perfect for boosting your mood.

Medium Intensity Workout with Emily Skye Fitness

Low Intensity Workouts

What are low intensity workouts?

Sessions to focus on recovery and flexibility, plus low-intensity strength exercises using slow and controlled movements.

When to use low intensity workouts.

Fighting fatigue? A low-intensity workout is a great way to keep moving and stay consistent when you can’t manage a high-octane workout.

Train to Win

Training has always been the one thing that makes me feel better. Whatever your starting point, with Made to FIT you can now find the exercise that helps YOU feel better too.

Post Workout Nutrition

After your workout try this:

Chocolate Coffee Snack Smoothie

Ingredients

• 3/4 tsp instant coffee
• 2 tbs (1 1/2 fl oz) water boiling
• 1/2 medium banana sliced & frozen
• 3/4 cup (6 1/2 fl oz) almond milk (or dairy alternative)
• 1 1/4 tbs cocoa powder (or cacao powder)
• 1 tbs rolled oats (or brown rice flakes or quinoa flakes if gluten-free)
• 1 cup ice

Method

(based on 1 serving)
Blend all ingredients together until smooth and ENJOY!

Practice A Variety of Workouts with Emily Skye FIT

Check out the Emily Skye FIT app and emilyskyefit.com for more information and to start your 7-day free trial of the programs.

Emily Skye

Emily Skye is a mother of two, strength training expert and the face of FIT, the digital fitness app that helps women worldwide build strength and confidence, stay active through pregnancy and rebuild post-pregnancy. Emily holds a Certificate IV in Fitness and Master Trainer qualification from the Australian Institute of Fitness.

emilyskyefit.com/join-us

The post Why You Benefit from Medium Intensity Workouts appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Accept the Challenge to Raise Your Personal Bar

Today’s world presents new opportunities for growth. Many aspects of our lives are over, or are leaving our awareness. We have a new world before us where great things are possible for living our highest potential.

We are living in the era of a New Earth. This requires us to see beyond what has been or who we have been individually or collectively.

Gifts We Experience When Raising Our Personal Bar in Life

• Alignment with our true selves: Our Divine Presence.
• Clarity of purpose.
• Inspired action to create our hearts’ desire.
• Co-creative support from our unseen team of angels and guides.
• Peace, harmony, abundance and joy within our selves and in our world.

Our Inner World is Connected to the Outer World

The world we live in, and how what we see as “our ” world as individuals includes both our perceptions as well as our projection of thoughts, beliefs based on personal experiences and external influences.

Going forward as aligned individuals, we can take steps–and often leaps–forward gaining momentum and achieving new heights as determined by raising your personal bar. You–and your new world– influences the collective.

Remember: You are that powerful. When you are in alignment with your divine presence and Source. Your gifts and skills, your loving heart and meaningful intentions are a piece of the puzzle that is our new earth, our new world, and our new collective consciousness. Individual and collective consciousness made of inspired action produces results you may only dream of now, but are yours and ours for receiving and sharing.

Raising your bar means aiming higher and manifesting beyond limits that no longer align with your personal and spiritual goals.

What is Your Personal Bar and Where is It?

• Where is your personal bar? Is it self-imposed, or perhaps determined by external influences?
• Where would your bar be if you were to raise your bar unhindered, unbound and completely free? Can you feel it?

Check in with your guidance, perhaps through meditation or prayer, and ask for clarity to understand the steps you will need to take to go higher and attain more. Don’t play small, no one is going to judge you!! You are safe in this space to dream.

Open up Your Journal and Meditate on or Write Answers to the Following Questions

1. What needs to be healed within me to accept more from life?
2. Is my sense of self-worth where it needs to be to do this?
3. Are there relationships in my life to heal or release to move forward?
4. Am I willing to let go of my own will and accept the guidance of my Soul?

These are more than questions. They are opportunities for reflection and growth.

Challenges are allies and will show us where we need to heal, where we can go, and how high we can aim.

When you are happy, fulfilled, and achieving your personal goals you contribute to the collective emotional field.

When your soul is in alignment to the actions of raising your personal bar, your victory is in your grasp, you are aligned with spirit, and you are literally making a difference in the world.

We are all coded to be united in the energy, frequency, and vibration of heart-centered and empowered living. This is the way in which Light wins. It is your win and everyone’s victory.

Imagine your bar so high that your are in alignment with your Soul’s purpose, your life is on point, and you are living a beautiful and fulfilling life. Know, that without a doubt, when you are living this way and reaching new heights, that the whole world benefits.

What’s not to like about that? How could you not love that? We believe in living these principles ourselves. For example, our Compass Rose bar is set high, and has been for over 17 years. We have grown as healers and our community and clients benefit from this every day. Our calling is to continue to level up to meet the opportunities given to us as healers, teachers, coaches and mentors. Our personal lives are enriched as we serve others and celebrate their individual victories for empowerment. We know the effects of our intentions extend beyond the people we serve. For each person we can serve, ten more benefit.

Make a Commitment to Upleveling Your Life

Through a commitment to asking yourselves these questions often and raising your personal bar, you, too, can contribute to a best world. The world needs your Light, and your task is to unveil the beautiful being you are.

Share this journey, share your dream! Find another like-minded person to share the path as an accountability partner or work with a mentor, or go on retreat with a supportive group. For difficult challenges, consider working with a skilled healer who is fully present and in alignment with Source.

We invite you to reach out to us at Compass Rose for guidance and insight. We applaud you for taking the risk, raising your bar, and for the courage to engage with others for a new world.

Stacia Zadra and Daniel Naccarato

Stacia Zadra and Daniel Naccarato are Master Healers of Source Healing, Teachers, Coaches and Mentors of awakening, healing and ascension. They share their gifts and skills at Compass Rose Healing Arts in Spokane Valley, Washington. They can be reached via their website at changeyourcompass.com or by phone at 509-926-9803

www.changeyourcompass.com

The post Raising Your Personal Bar Serves the World appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

What You Need to Know about Vision Boards

Vision boards, Affirmations and Intentions. My close friends raised eyebrows when I got into all this “woo-woo” stuff years ago. Now these practices are becoming more mainstream (and sometimes even backed by research). It’s become easier to articulate and experience why they are worthwhile and actually make an impact in daily life. You may no longer be met with raised eyebrows when you want to learn how to create a vision board that really works.

In fact, my life has transformed dramatically (in good ways) since I started making vision boards for myself. I’ve been doing this along with setting intentions and writing affirmations. These techniques have supported the process of bringing my heart’s desires to life.

I have a particularly amazing and magical vision board story to share. After this, I’ll share with you some of the reasons why vision boards “work.” Take this inspiration to heart to understand how and why you might create some fun and magic in your life by making a vision board (or two or three!) for yourself.

My Vision Board Story

Back in 2012, I was ready for some life changes but I was not sure what needed to change. I was working on a “good” but unhappy marriage, raising and educating my two children, and seeking my “true calling” all at the same time. (Some might say “midlife crisis.”)

So, I made myself a vision board that included images of a happy couple driving in a car through lush tropical vegetation, smiling kids body-boarding in Hawaii, some sacred nature sites including Mayan temples in the jungle, images of women doing yoga in nature, lush green gardens, and a stone-built dream home. (I still haven’t been to Sedona’s red rocks with women doing yoga accompanied by Tibetan singing bowls, but I’ve practiced a lot of yoga with women and bowls in other locations!)

The image from the center for my vision board

In the center of my vision board I glued a very specific image. This was an image of a Thai Buddha sculpture sitting on a wooden cabinet with candles on either side. Behind this was a beautiful hand-built stone wall with a circular opening behind the Buddha. To me, this represented the sacred space of a yoga studio where I’d like to lead a retreat.

I didn’t read the captions of the images I was pasting on my board. So I didn’t know where this studio was, or where in particular any of the other images were. They represented things I wanted to do and experience. Or feelings I wanted to experience, as well as ways of being in the world that I wanted for myself.

My Vision Board In Real Life

Fast forward three years. In the fall of 2015, I was thrilled to be the lead teacher on a yoga retreat in a five-star, gorgeous boutique hotel on the white sands of Tulum Beach in Mexico. The first day, with the sparkling Caribbean Sea and its delightful breezes at my back, I sat down to teach the opening yoga class on the retreat and was shocked at what I saw. Directly across from me, presiding over the treetop palapa yoga studio, sat the very same Thai Buddha on the very same wooden cabinet in front of the exact hand-built stone wall with the circular opening behind it. I was literally sitting in the exact before-unknown yoga studio that was the central image of my vision board!

The story gets better. Recently, when preparing to lead a Vision Board Workshop on a retreat I was offering in another part of Mexico, I decided to look for the image online to share my story. With a little lucky internet sleuthing, I found the magazine page that included the image, and, lo and behold, it was in LA Yoga Magazine. This is the very same magazine that is now publishing my writing!

There were so many magic moments that I experienced on that first dream retreat. This led to a series of now 11 retreats in the Riviera Maya. Since then, my life has taken many new and “magical” turns. In the past seven years I’ve explored many sacred Mayan temples in the jungle. I’ve taken my kids kayaking in the Caribbean and snorkeling in countless cenotes. And we’ve all enjoyed many scenic drives with the windows down through tropical landscapes. The major difference is that the happy couple now includes a new life partner. (You guessed it–that’s another story!)

Vision Boards Really Work!

Vision boards can change your life, and for the better. The trick is understanding that some of the changes that you visualize will “manifest” in different forms than you may expect. I’ve learned that “The Universe” responds to my intentions. The Universe has the best intentions for me. But this sometimes means something quite different than what I am able to dream up for myself from my current perceptions and expectations.

Quantum mechanics, ancient wisdom, mystics and modern psychology all suggest that we interact with and impact the world through our perception. Physicists observe that they change the behavior of electrons just by looking at them! We interact with and impact the outer world in intricate energetic ways. Our inner work becomes a “blueprint” for our external life and experiences.

Vision Boards as Tools for Visualization

When you create a vision board, you are literally focusing your attention on things that you want to experience and feel. When you look at it often, over a period of weeks or months, you engage in a regular practice of visualization.

Olympic and other world-champion athletes use visualization and mental practices to enhance their performance. They rehearse mentally with highly detailed images and engaging physical senses and emotions. Visualization means literally seeing and feeling that experience (and success) before it happens.

Muhammad Ali was known to enhance his performance in the boxing ring by practicing visualization and mental rehearsals along with affirmations. These mental practices, at the very least, can boost motivation and self-confidence. This directly impacts one’s performance and life experience.

If my experience counts as anecdotal evidence, visualization combined with intentions, affirmations, and an openness to synchronicities which might seem “magic,” can usher in a whole series of life-enriching experiences. These can have the potential to change the entire course of one’s life.

How to Create a Vision Board

Feeling inspired to make a vision board? It’s a wonderful, relaxing activity to enjoy alone, or with a loved one or a small group of friends.

Supplies for Creating A Vision Board

• Stack of magazines with a variety of subjects.
• Poster board or other large piece of cardstock paper.
• Scissors.
• Glue stick or glue.

How to Create A Vision Board

• Give yourself an hour or two free of distractions.
• Pour a cup of tea, glass of wine, or beverage of your choice.
• Put on some relaxing background music.

Set the Mood for Creating a Vision Board

You can sit and contemplate or journal about some areas in your life that you want to include in your vision. Some of these can be the following: vision, career, home, relationships, travel, finances, social life, spirituality, health, and life goals. Or, you can simply start and “randomly” choose images that stand out to you.

Take Action in Creation

• Flip through a few different magazines.
• Stop to cut or tear out images (and words or phrases) that either relate to your heart’s desires and life goals, or speak to you.
• You might be surprised by what you end up being drawn to!
• Allow yourself to choose images that seem compelling to you even if you don’t know why.
• After you’ve amassed a pile of clippings, cut them more neatly and arrange them on the table in an attractive layout.
• Then start gluing them to your poster board, either overlapping or with space between them, as you prefer.
• Most likely not all of your clippings will fit, and it’s a helpful exercise to prioritize what goes on to your vision board.

The Vision Board in Progress as a Tool for Contemplation

• As you work with the images and words you’ve selected, reflect on the feelings, including emotions and senses, that the images convey.
• This “energetic” part of the vision board is just as important as the images you include.
• Imagine yourself in the images, and allow yourself to feel the joy, excitement, freedom and gratitude you would feel in the actual experience.
  (Look for one of my next articles on the power of gratitude in advance!)

Complete Your Vision Board and Make it Your Vision

• Once your vision board is complete, hang it up in a place where you will look at it often.
• You can also take a photo of it and use it for your screensaver on your computer or phone.
• I keep mine hanging over my dresser.
• Try to take a moment each day to look at, smile about, imagine and feel the feelings the vision board elicits.

Ask yourself if there’s one action step you can take each day that relates to working towards or experiencing the heart’s desires that you’ve represented in your vision board.

Create Vision Boards for Different Goals and Moods

You can create just one vision board for your life in general, or create a couple that focus on different aspects of your life. I recently made one for myself envisioning a more rooted home and relationship life, and a separate one focused on the next chapter in my career. Another fun exercise with vision boards is to create one and then pack it away to be opened up like a time capsule 1, 3, or 5 years later to see what has unfolded.

To work with the vision board more directly and intentionally, you might journal about it, meditate after creating it, or even write some related affirmations, intentions, and/or goals and action steps. (Watch for another forthcoming article: The Art  (and Science) of Affirmations and Intentions Done Right.)

Connecting to Our Subsconsious Mind through the Vision Board

Since our subconscious mind influences our actions and bodies in significant ways, just having the images in the “background” or in the back of our minds can have a noticeable impact. What we focus on impacts the world and our experience of it, so we might as well focus our attention on experiences that make us feel good, happy, and expansive.

You may wish to share your vision board with a loved one or trusted friend who you know will “see for you” all the good you’ve included. When self-doubt or nay-sayers try to caution you that your dreams may not come true, simply return to appreciating the feelings that the images invoke for you.

Watch and wait for the surprises and magic! When the synchronicities appear, don’t hesitate to act on your visions and dreams!

Enicia Fisher

Enicia Fisher loves to hold sacred space for healing and transformative experiences by guiding people to come home to their body, breath, Nature, and Spirit. She has been curating, hosting, and offering healing retreats since 2012 in the US and Mexico. Founder of Sanadora Sanctuary Retreats and Sanadora Yoga International Teacher Training Program, Enicia has taught yoga since 2005 and has been practicing yoga personally since 2000. She loves yoga because of its mind-body approach and because of the healing power of integrating all aspects of being through the wide range of yogic practices: body, emotions, mind, soul, spirit, philosophy and mindset, and lifestyle practices.

Enicia created and leads Heart Alignment Yoga? and “heartfulness” meditation with an emphasis on Divine heart qualities and life-affirming yoga philosophy that inspires people to live with a deeper connection to their own heart, body, and spirit.
Enicia has a Master’s degree in Education, founded a small private school in Southern California, and is registered with Yoga Alliance as a highly trained and experienced teacher, E-RYT 500.

Enicia is a mother to two wonderfully creative and grounded young adults and is also an author currently preparing her first novel for publication. A Southern California native, Enicia now divides her time between her family base in Los Angeles and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Enicia began leading retreats in the Riviera Maya in 2015, and has offered ten retreats in the region since then. She lived in Akumal/Tulum for three years and continues to collaborate with local healers and ceremonialists on all of her retreats, in honor of the indigenous traditions and cultures being incorporated.

Enicia wishes to honor the Mayan guardians of the sacred lands of Tulum (Ekab), and her teachers who have shared their wisdom and practices:  Leon Xochitl Coatl, Adrián Salas Xopan, and Devi Chandra Ma from Quintana Roo, and Ashley Fiala, Doreen Madison, and David Kutruff from Shraddhaa Yoga School.

www.eniciafisher.com/

The post How to Create A Vision Board that Really Works appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Ankylosing Spondylitis: What it is, Who it Affects, and How to Address it via Yoga

Research tells us that a healthy diet and regular practice of yoga can help reduce inflammation in your body and reduce Ankylosing Spondylitis symptoms.

Yoga As Treatment For Ankylosing Spondylitis

When it comes to back pain, some conditions are hereditary. Certain genes activate specific conditions in the body, creating uncomfortable physical symptoms. Ankylosing Spondylitis is such a disorder, manifesting in adults between the ages of 17 and 45.

What is Ankylosing Spondylitis?

It is essentially arthritis of the spine, and symptoms can include lower back pain, hip pain, neck pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, and difficulty breathing.

People with Ankylosing Spondylitis may experience stiffness and rigidity, as it causes inflammation between your vertebrae. This condition is genetic, which means it runs in the family. Having the gene doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have the disorder, and it’s more common and severe in men. If you’re experiencing any of the above issues, it’s important to see a doctor and get an ankylosing spondylitis diagnosis, so you can be prepared to alleviate the effects of this incurable disorder.

Yoga for Ankylosing Spondylitis

Despite the lifelong nature of this condition, you can help addressing ankylosing spondylitis symptoms with yoga. By improving and maintaining a healthy range of motion in your spine, you can offset feelings of stiffness and rigidity, and help reduce inflammation.

Yoga works by stretching and strengthening your back muscles and spine, increasing your flexibility and building core muscle. Yoga breathwork can also help reduce symptoms of Ankylosing Spondylitis that cause difficulty breathing. In fact, a 2021 study published in Annals of Neurosciences found that yoga can be used as Ankylosing Spondylitis treatment, and that regular practice could provide numerous positive effects, like relief from pain and improved breathing. Research tells us that a healthy diet and regular practice of yoga can help reduce inflammation in your body and reduce Ankylosing Spondylitis symptoms.

Ankylosing Spondylitis Yoga Poses

In my classes at MyYogaTeacher, there are several poses I like to teach when students are experiencing stiffness and pain in their lower back. These poses are gentle, and if you’re suffering from Ankylosing Spondylitis, they should help you feel relief without any risk or pain.

1. Cat-Cow

This easy pose can help reduce stiffness and give your spine some much-needed flexibility. Start on your hands and knees and begin by inhaling and looking up. Arching your spine, let your front-body fully expand. Exhale and curl your spine, contracting your abdomen, moving your gaze down and toward your belly button.

Continue this gentle motion back and forth between cat and cow for several breaths.

2. Downward Facing Dog

This common yoga pose can provide your lower back some relief. It also stretches and strengthens your legs, and builds core muscles for better physical support. Push up from your hands and knees, lifting your hips until you are balanced on your hands and feet, with your body resembling an inverted “V.”

Keep your head in between your arms, ears balanced over your shoulders, and stay in this pose for several breaths.

3. Cobra Pose

From Downward Dog you can lower yourself to the floor for Cobra pose. This slight back bend can help expand your ribcage, giving your lungs more room to breathe. From the floor, softly push up with your hands, arching your back, straightening your arms, and looking upward. Keep your legs resting straight behind you with the front of your thighs on the floor. Your body will resemble a cobra snake.

Stay in the pose for 1-2 breaths.

4. Mountain Pose

This yoga pose may look deceptively simple, but regular practice can help build the strength and support you need to have a healthy and strong spine. Stand at the front of your mat with your feet hip distance apart. With your arms at your sides, open your chest, keeping your head perfectly balanced with your chin parallel to the floor, and your gaze fixed forward. Widen your collar bones and keep your weight balanced evenly across both of your feet. Soften your gaze and breathe mindfully for 1-2 minutes.

5. Child’s Pose

This beginner yoga pose can give you relief from Ankylosing Spondylitis symptoms, and it’s a great way to help your mind relax. Start with your hands and knees on the floor, and then lower yourself down until your buttocks are resting on the backs of your feet. Extend your arms forward on the mat in front of you, palms down, and rest your forehead on the floor. You will feel a stretch and lengthening in your lower back.

Allow your neck muscles to relax, and breath softly while maintaining this pose for 5-6 minutes.

6. Viloma Pranayama or Against the Wave Breath

While yoga postures can be helpful in alleviating symptoms of Ankylosing Spondylitis, you can also gain relief from practicing yoga breathing techniques.

Against the Wave breath can help improve your ability to breath deeply.

Lie down in a comfortable position on the floor, and pay attention to your breathing. On your next inhale, slowly breathe into the bottom of your lungs. Without exhaling, breathe in again. Continue breathing in without exhaling until you feel like your lungs are absolutely and completely full. Then, slowly exhale. Repeat for 5 minutes.

Practice Yoga for Ankylosing Spondylitis for Relaxation and Benefits

By practicing these beginner yoga poses and breath work, you may notice that pain, stiffness, and difficulty breathing will reduce over time. Keeping your spine flexible and strong is essential in treating Ankylosing Spondylitis. And through a healthy diet and plenty of exercise, you can improve your daily life and reduce chronic pain.

Stuti Asher

Stuti Asher is a practicing physical therapist with 14 years of experience. She completed her master’s degree in kinesiology at Indiana University, and she has completed 900 hours of training at the Yoga Institute Mumbai. Stuti has also trained extensively in prenatal and postnatal yoga under Dr. Nutan Pakhare. She teaches gentle, restorative and Hatha yoga, kriya, pranayama, in addition to leading yoga philosophy and teacher training courses, on the MyYogaTeacher platform. Stuti, who is also trained in sound healing, believes yoga is a tool that makes this complex journey of life easier and simpler to live, while creating special bonds along the way.

www.myyogateacher.com/teacher/stuti-1

The post What to Know about Yoga and Ankylosing Spondylitis appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

It can be SO HARD to appreciate and feel good about your postpartum body, especially if you struggled with body image issues before getting pregnant. But I’m here to tell you that your body is simply amazing, and it IS possible for you to see it that way. We just need to rethink what we talk about when we talk about bouncing back after pregnancy.

When I was creating FIT Post-Pregnancy, I wasn’t where I wanted to be in terms of my fitness, but I had more love and appreciation for my body than ever before. I knew the physical progress would come, but I didn’t want to rush it.

I created my postnatal program because I wanted women to have a safe space to regain their strength and return to fitness after giving birth. A big part of that is about enjoying exercise for how it makes you feel – not just how you look.

I recently shared a reel on my emilyskyefit Instagram account that showed my “Bikini Body” in different forms over the past couple of years. I always want others to feel confident in their bodies too, no matter what shape or size it is. As I said in my post, there’s nothing wrong about being confident in your skin! There’s everything right about it! I’m grateful for what my body has had to go through during pregnancy and postpartum and I work hard to look that way I do now, I feel strong, fit and healthy! And everyone, no matter what size or shape and no matter how much cellulite, wrinkles or stretch marks you’ve got – wear the bikini if you want to! Everyone has a bikini-worthy body!

Health and fitness is a huge part of my life and always will be. Training makes me feel alive, energetic and strong – for myself, and for my family.

It’s time to reject the pressure to ‘bounce back’ and instead embrace your body for the incredible things it has done and is still capable of!

With that being said, my dedicated postnatal program was designed in collaboration with women’s health physiotherapist Phoebe Armfield to help women to recover, progress and rebuild after giving birth.

It’s the same style of training that helped me return to fitness after my babies, and I’m so excited to share this taste of the full program with you, so let’s get started!

Grab a workout mat and a towel, then hit play to try post-pregnancy stage 1: recovery of the program!

Stage 1 – Recovery

This is intended for women who are at least 6-10 weeks postpartum, have received clearance from their doctor to recommence exercise and are ready to start regaining their strength and fitness.

Stage 2 – Progress

This section is intended for women who are ready to do a bit more and slowly up the intensity by using light weights for full-body low-impact strength workouts.

Stage 3 – Rebuild

Rebuild is intended for women who are ready to lift the tempo with low-impact HIIT-style cardio and a more diverse range of strength movements.

Love these workouts? They are just one tiny part of the full FIT Post-Pregnancy program available on the Emily Skye FIT app. Visit emilyskyefit.com for more information and to start your 7-day free trial of the programs.

An important note: Always consult your doctor before beginning any new exercise program, as there are some situations where exercise may not be advised. This information should be used as a guide only and should not replace the advice of your medical practitioner. You can read the full statement on safety here.

I hope you enjoy this meditation from my app that will help you take the focus off what it doesn’t look like or can’t do, and send it some love for all the amazing things it is capable of.

Meditation: Your Body is Your Friend

Emily Skye

Emily Skye is a mother of two, strength training expert and the face of FIT, the digital fitness app that helps women worldwide build strength and confidence, stay active through pregnancy and rebuild post-pregnancy. Emily holds a Certificate IV in Fitness and Master Trainer qualification from the Australian Institute of Fitness.

emilyskyefit.com/join-us

The post Let’s Get Real About Bouncing Back After Pregnancy appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

A cousin of mine died just days ago. Have you noticed a lot of people dying lately?

Why do I mention death? Because so many people die with their music still in them. They have been so distracted by the world, they never found their soul’s purpose or had the courage to follow through with it.

Don’t die with your music still in you.      –Wayne Dyer

What is your soul’s purpose?

Do you know? If you don’t, I will give you two hints.

First, I strongly recommend giving-up the belief “I don’t know.”

Remove this phrase from your vocabulary. Your Higher Self knows exactly what your Soul’s purpose is.

You begin to download the knowing of your soul’s purpose by simply saying, “I choose to know my Souls purpose!”

You may need to say it a few times to open up your circuits.

“I choose to know my Souls purpose!”

And then relax, get on with your day, and you will be subconsciously guided to the next step, the next insight, which could be stumbling across a teacher, book, workshop, et cetera.

I am Joa Janakoayas, founder and senior faculty member of the I AM University of Spiritual Psychology at Mount Shasta California. As another option for you to consider, I invite you to attend online our Discover Your Soul’s Purpose workshop offered on August 29.

A Second Clue to Your Soul’s Purpose

Now, I would like to give you a second big clue of what your Soul’s Purpose is, which my cousin’s life illustrated.

My cousin was the second born after his older brother – who could do no wrong. He was no match for his older brother, who was an outstanding athlete, excellent student, very popular, and a kind of saint of the family.

So this younger brother developed a habit of seeing himself as “not good enough.” Seeing his brother getting all the attention for being “great” was so painful, he discovered “being a badass” at least got him some kind of attention, which was better than no attention, especially from his mother.

So he played out the prodigal son archetype, which I imagine many of us can relate to in ourselves to some degree. I also went through a phase in my early years where I acted out being a rebel without a cause. I was so caught up in being wildly free of establishment I didn’t know what I really wanted and how to attain it. The beauty of the story with my cousin (and myself) is we came back home.

Sooner or later we all come back home to our Loving Selves.

We discover by simply being our Loving Selves we are more than enough.

Our Purpose is Loving

My cousin proved this by healing his relationship with his mother (which I also did). This was no small task!

According to Spiritual Psychology, the Authentic Self is Loving. And our definition of healing is: Love applied to the hurt.

When we learn to love that part of ourselves that seems unlovable, we come back home to the purity of our core Loving Selves.

Humanity’s Core Issue

Shame is humanity’s core issue. Everybody has it to some degree. Shame says, “I am not fully lovable as I am. But I might at least get some approval if I’m seen as one of the following.

…prosperous and wealthy; good looking; strong; intelligent and knowledgeable; a winner (out competing others); successful; popular.

So we put on a kind of “I’m great” mask to hide what we were really feeling. We set perfectionistic standards or impossible grandiose accomplishments for ourselves to prove we were good enough. This has kept us in a lot of stress, anxiety, and eventually illness.

And when we failed to get that approval from others for being who we thought we should be, we collapsed into despair. This is what shame does. It hinders our Soul’s natural generosity, creativity, beauty, grace, joy, and health; and it eventually destroys our life.

While carrying shame, we eventually give up our big dreams, and settle for a mediocre life at best.

Are your big dreams coming true? Or have you felt stuck on a plateau looking for how to get to higher ground?

Do you have this feeling there has got to be more to life?… more potential in you to express? … and more rewards to receive back from the universe?

The number one reason people struggle with manifesting their dream life is they don’t feel worthy.They don’t feel worthy of unconditional love, and their own natural greatness.

Every human Soul has infinite potential for good.

Dreams do come true when we get free of shame, guilt, and self-criticism. I’ve seen it happen with myself, and every year with our I AM U Masters students.

Your Dream Life is Your Choice For Growth

Your Soul and the Universe is always conspiring for your growth. It will give you big opportunities to step out of your comfort zone to live a grand life of service.

The question is, when you are given a grand opportunity to live beyond survival, will you shrink and cling onto what feels safe or will you seize the moment to feel the cold wind of the unknown sting your face with excitement?

We are either trying to be safe or we are free.    –Anand Mehrotra

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.    –Helen Keller

Will you play at 125% for your victory, or will you sit on the sidelines with all the reasons you can’t. Can’t should be a banned “4 letter word” in every household. If you are in an entrapping situation, know your consciousness put you there, specifically your subconscious beliefs. And only your conscious choices are going to get you out of the life you don’t want and into the life you do want.

Your soul wants you to expand, to live your greater potential, your big dream, your soul’s purpose.

Your programmed human self will tell you why you can’t. It will say things like: “Now is not the right time because I don’t have enough money.” Really, it’s never about time and money because time and money are forms of universal energies that always follow your intention.

When we say, “I don’t have enough time and money to do the big thing,” we are really saying, “I don’t have enough, the universe doesn’t have enough, I’m not enough, and I’m not valuable enough to be supported.”

All of these are lies many people live by that keep them playing small and settling for a meager existence at best.

While these illusions of “not enough-ness” are running in our heads, we tend to go for a compulsive way of numbing the pain of selling ourselves short.With many people today so much of the Soul’s potential is lost in this way. But this need not be you!

There are many influences, but in the final analysis, your life is the result of your choices. To consciously choose your thoughts, words, and actions for the outcome you desire, is to win your freedom.

–Saint Germain

If you are willing, the time to live a grand existence, to be in faith with your Divine Self, and your ability to pull off what you came here to do in this life – is NOW!

Our habitual thoughts, over time, take us to their resulting outcomes. It’s too easy to become comfortable in our old unhealthy habits. For example, “I can’t” can lead to becoming disabled. Spiritual awakening involves making powerful life-changing decisions.

Are you going to wind up disabled, or decide you CAN have all your dreams come true?

Every time you postpone going for your grand vision, you cut a little deeper groove of distrust in yourself and doubt in your higher power, making your life circumstances seem even more impossible to change, But however long you have waited, choosing to be supported with making a powerful decision with sincere faith in your divine support can move mountains!

Climbing the Mountain of Your Full Potential

The mountain of the life we are capable of can look overwhelming to our human minds.

This is the way I feel before I climb to the peak of Mount Shasta. I feel weak-kneed. My doubts come in, “Am I crazy? What was I thinking? Climbing 7,000 feet of vertical at my age?” Most people don’t make it to the top. But I do it anyway, one step at a time. I just don’t stop. I don’t listen to my human mind. I listen only to my soul’s choice. I listen to, “I CAN! One step at a time, I CAN have all my dreams come true!”

And you can too! If you are willing to trust your Self, and keep taking steps. To be honest, I feel overwhelmed now as I choose big changes (like hiring four faculty members) that will allow I AM U to grow. There is so much to manage that is out of the range of my human brain.

Faith shifts me out of fear.

I remember….

Faith got me this far, and will take me the whole distance of my choosing without having to know how.

Whatever your mountain is, that mission with your name on it, of living your Soul’s purpose and your soul’s grand life, don’t let your excuses stop you, Rather than getting frustrated by circumstances, you can find your value in every situation.

Your value is the unique expression of your Loving. There is always a person suffering more than yourself, and by helping others, you forget your so-called troubles – and this is your soul’s purpose!

Whatever you’re committed to, universal energy follows that, and that includes money. Instead of believing you’re insignificant and unsupported, you can choose to believe in your Loving Cause. Doing so, you are profoundly supported – including financially.

If you could use some confidence in your ability to manifest money, I invite you to our Money Flow Magic course at I AM U, starting August 20, 2022. In this course, we open our consciousness to receive unexpected income.

Know you can transcend any negative voices, become inspired in your Soul’s Purpose, and get supported with doing it. The world needs awakened Star Seed Soul’s like you–on purpose!

Your Soul’s purpose is Loving.

Magically – love conquers all apparent challenges.Your life is a miracle in the making – if you are willing to believe in your Soul’s Loving Purpose.

Again, I invite you to say out loud: “I choose to know my Soul’s Purpose.” Then follow the magical breadcrumbs to your Self-Actualization for the highest good of all.

Practice Discovering your Purpose

Imagine what your life would be like if you were free of negative emotions and beliefs about yourself.

Imagine living in your authentic peace, innocence, beauty, and joy, and fearlessly expressing your natural gifts. Imagine devoting one year to completely transforming your entire existence for the better, emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. We believe working on all four levels is required for sustained transformation and growth.

I AM University of Spiritual Psychology

This is what happens at the I AM University of Spiritual Psychology. We educate Spiritual Psychology Counseling, Holistic Health, Quantum Energy Healing, and Life Empowerment Coaching in one life changing year. Our promise is you will be attracting paid clients before you graduate!

Classes start September 2, 2022. Late registration is possible.

It is a profound year of getting free of your human issues, and freeing up your Soul’s Loving gifts.

At IAMU, you are going to be profoundly supported with trusting your Soul’s grand plan, and your ability to pull it off, with help from your classmates, teachers, and divine help from above.

Free of past baggage, your going to have clarity and confidence to do your Soul’s calling. Click here to reserve your free Discovery Session to find out more.

Joa Janakoayas MS

Joa Janakoayas, MA joyfully helps people embody and live the freedom of their Higher Selves. He is founder and senior faculty member of the I AM University of Spiritual Psychology in Mount Shasta California. Joa has earned two Masters Degrees in Spiritual Psychology, is Graduate of the Coaches Training Institute, and is developer of the Freedom-Code Quantum Healing Oracle.

www.iam-university.org

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 Through regular stretching and lengthening of the spine, it is possible to alleviate the effects of stress and gravity on spinal discs.

How To Treat Degenerative Disc Disease With Yoga

What is Degenerative Disc Disease?

As we age, our bodies break down over time, leading to aches and pains that can be chronic if left untreated. Years of wear-and-tear on your joints and spine can take its toll — through physical stress, injury, and illness.

Degenerative disc disease is a condition caused by years of impact and gravity. Affecting the spinal discs in between your vertebrae, these soft cartilage shock absorbers deteriorate over time, causing pain, weakness, and numbness. It’s a form of arthritis in your spine, and it commonly affects most people as they age.

In fact, according to a 2006 study on discs, around 40% of adults over 40 years old have developed one or more degenerative discs, and by the age of 80, around 80% of adults experience multilevel degenerative disc disease. It often manifests as low back pain, and neck and arm pain; however, some people don’t feel any symptoms at all.

What is the Best Treatment for Degenerative Disc Disease?

Even though this condition is widely prevalent, there is good news. You can help prevent degenerative disc disease and treat it through regular practice of yoga. A 2011 study published in the European Spine Journal found that yoga reduced chronic back and neck pain in adults, and in senior men and women suffering from disc degeneration.

Researchers noted that impactful degenerative disc treatment required long-term practice of yoga. Through regular stretching and lengthening of the spine, it is possible to alleviate the effects of stress and gravity on spinal discs. By continually practicing yoga throughout your life, you can actually prevent degenerative disc disease from happening and maintain a healthy spine.

Yoga For Degenerative Disc Disease

In my classes at MyYogaTeacher, I offer students with back problems some basic Hatha yoga poses to help alleviate symptoms from degenerative disc disease. These simple exercises will keep the back flexible and strong, preventing discs from degenerating, and giving some relief if they are suffering from this condition.

I also make sure to avoid any deep back bends. While yoga can be incredibly beneficial for treating degenerative disc disease symptoms, we don’t want to make them worse. Things to avoid with degenerative disc disease are strenuous back bends like Wheel or Camel Pose. They may cause injury if you’re experiencing back problems. Be sure to stick with gentle, Hatha yoga for best results without risk of injury.

Yoga Poses for Degenerative Disc Disease

1. Downward Facing Dog

This elemental yoga pose can give you enormous relief from back and neck pain, along with stretching your hamstrings, thighs, and strengthening your core muscles.

Start with your hands and knees on the floor, and push your hips upward until you are balancing on your hands and feet. Keep your head between your arms, and reach down with your heels. Remain in this pose for several breaths.

2. Thread the Needle

This pose offers a gentle twist that does wonders for your shoulders, neck, and lower back.

Again, start with your hands and knees on the floor. Reach your left arm up, and then down and across in front of you, “threading” it past your right arm until your left arm and the left side of your face are resting on the floor. Stay in this position and relax for a few breaths. Repeat on the other side.

3. Cat-Cow

Cat-Cow pose is a great way to strengthen and stretch your back and neck muscles. Plus, this pose directly alleviates pressure in the spine.

From your hands and knees, gently arch your back and lift your face to look up as you inhale. Then, as you exhale, curl your spine and turn your face down to look toward your naval. Repeat this movement at least 10 times in a fluid motion.

4. Child’s Pose

This resting yoga pose gently stretches your lower back, relaxes your neck, and calms the mind. Start on your hands and knees and then lower yourself down so that your backside is resting on your heels, and your big toes are touching each other. Move your hands forward, palms down, so that your forehead is resting on the floor. Allow your spine to lengthen and your neck muscles to fully relax. Breathe deeply and mindfully while staying in this pose for 5-6 minutes.

Yoga for a Healthy Spine

By practicing these simple, Hatha yoga poses regularly throughout your life, you can keep your spine healthy and prevent discs from degenerating. And if you’re in your senior years and you are a beginner, long-term practice of these yoga poses are still a wonderful way to stay active and reduce chronic pain caused by degenerative disc disease.

Zaeem Zaidi

Zaeem Zaidi is a Senior Research Fellow and PhD candidate in Yoga at SVYASA Yoga University. He teaches Hatha yoga, Power yoga, kriyas, and meditation at MyYogaTeacher. Zaeem has over 14 years experience in the fitness industry, and 8 years experience teaching yoga. He is using his research to help students improve cardiovascular endurance, joint health, and cellular health through the practice of yoga.

www.myyogateacher.com/teacher/zaeem-1

The post How to Address Degenerative Disc Disease with Yoga appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

How to Get Started with Strength Training

Strength training can sound intimidating or feel overwhelming, especially at the beginning of your journey.

• What muscles am I targeting?
• Am I going to bulk up a ton?
• How is this even benefitting me?

When starting a new program, we may feel a bit out of our comfort zone, but if we don’t try or push ourselves, we can also miss out on all the benefits strength training can offer us!

As a certified personal trainer and the founder of the Emily Skye FIT app, I’ve been encouraging women to pick up weights for years.

You probably know that lifting weights makes you stronger, but the benefits don’t stop there.

Regular strength training will burn fat, increase stamina, improve heart health, help you to avoid injury (because stronger muscles protect your joints and bones) and build a sculpted body. As a mother of two kids that are always on the go, I like to spend my time doing a workout that makes me feel better physically and mentally. Strength training ticks both of those boxes!

To make your journey to lifting weights (and loving it) seem a little less scary, I’ve put together a guide on what to expect after you start strength training.

5 Benefits to Look Forward to When You Start Strength Training

1. Newbie gains!

If you’re brand new to training with weights, you’re likely to see serious strength and definition gains quickly – even within the first few weeks. These ‘gains’ in lean muscle are caused by your body adapting to a totally new way of moving.

2. Strength training can transform your shape quite quickly, particularly if your diet is on point.

You may earn a more filled-out booty, a flatter and more defined stomach, improved leg and shoulder definition, and a whole lot more. If you don’t see physical changes early on, don’t despair! Everybody is different – focus on the way strength training makes you feel, not the way it makes you look.

3. You’ll move with more ease!

Within a few weeks, you’ll likely notice that some everyday movements feel easier – e.g. carrying shopping bags, picking up a toddler – and your endurance has improved.

4. Some people experience an easing of chronic pain as supporting muscles get stronger.

For example, lower back pain may be eased by stronger glutes and core, while knee pain can be reduced when your glutes, hip and leg muscles are strengthened.

5. Don’t forget the mental benefits!

It’s not just the ‘me time’ that a workout gives you – many women talk about how confident and strong resistance training makes them feel.

4 Strength Training Challenges

I’m not saying it’s all easy, but the results you get from pushing through will be worth it! Prepare for the following challenges for greatest success.

1. You might experience some DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).

Yes, you’ll likely experience some DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) in the beginning. But don’t worry, this will lessen as your body adjusts.

2. If you’re not used to holding weights, you may have sore hands or calluses when you get started.

If this worries you, look for special workout gloves in your local sports store or online.

3. You may not have full mobility when you start, which can lead to some soreness.

It’s important not to push yourself into uncomfortable positions – only go to a comfortable depth on exercises (such as squats) and use the modifications where necessary to avoid injury.

4. Strength training makes some people not just hungry, but ravenous!

Make sure you’re getting your pre- and post-workout snacks and making nutritious, balanced meals to avoid overeating. My FIT app has you covered here, with meal plans and recipes approved by an advanced sports dietitian.

Why Strength Training Works

3 myths about strength training

Here’s what WON’T happen just because you start lifting weights.

1. You won’t get bulky.

There’s nothing wrong with the visible ‘bulky’ muscle mass that bodybuilders rock, but building that kind of muscle takes concerted, focused effort – especially for women. You won’t get those kind of results from my FIT app.

2. You won’t mess up your fat loss goals.

While cardio might burn more calories in a 20-minute session than lifting weights, building muscle will boost your metabolism, help you burn fat more efficiently, and help you to maintain lean muscle (AKA definition). In fact, research has shown that the muscles of someone who regularly lifts weights can burn up to 50% more calories than the muscles of a regular runner or walker! So if losing fat is your goal, strength training is for you.

3. It’s not just for guys.

The myth that strength training is a male-only pursuit couldn’t be further from the truth! The list of benefits of strength training for women is very long, especially as we get older. One of the biggest reasons to lift weights is for your bone density – weight-bearing exercise can reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

Try this pre-workout breakfast smoothie

You’re definitely going to need some fuel in your body to ensure you have enough energy to get the most out of your workout. Below is one of my favorite breakfast smoothies to drink before a morning training session.

Lemon Turmeric Smoothie

Ingredients (1 serving)

1/2 cup (4 1/2 oz) Greek yogurt (or dairy-free alternative)
1/2 cup (4 fl oz) water
2 tbs vanilla protein powder (or natural protein powder)
1 tbs rolled oats (or brown rice flakes or quinoa flakes if gluten free)
1/2 lemon juiced
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
4-6 ice cubes

Instructions

Blend all ingredients on high until smooth and creamy and serve immediately.

Learn More at Emily Skye FIT

Check out the Emily Skye FIT app and emilyskyefit.com for more information and to start your 7-day free trial.

Emily Skye

Emily Skye is a mother of two, strength training expert and the face of FIT, the digital fitness app that helps women worldwide build strength and confidence, stay active through pregnancy and rebuild post-pregnancy. Emily holds a Certificate IV in Fitness and Master Trainer qualification from the Australian Institute of Fitness.

emilyskyefit.com/join-us

The post Emily Skye’s Foolproof Guide to Starting Your Strength Training Journey appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Why Yoga Benefits Balance and Prevents Falls

As we get older it’s common to experience issues with balance. Changes in our bodies are the cause of this instability, like declining vision, slower reflexes, reduced muscle mass, and degradation of the inner ear vestibular system.  When balance becomes an issue, you may be at risk of falling — which can cause serious injury. In fact, falls are a leading cause of hospitalization among people aged 65 and older. We need to take action to prevent falls. And, you can improve your sense of balance and reduce your risk of falls as you age.

It’s simple — by staying active, you can help your body remain agile and adaptable. The kind of activity you choose is important, since improving balance requires exercise that builds both strength and flexibility. Yoga is an ideal activity for preventing falls, since it maintains and increases your sense of balance.

Yoga postures build both strength and stability while also stretching and often lengthening muscles, giving you the kind of flexibility you need for optimal balance. This wonderful low-impact activity is possible to start doing at any age, even if you’re a beginner.

Yoga is an ideal activity for fall prevention, since it maintains and increases your sense of balance. Over time, your core strength will increase, your coordination will get better, and you’ll gain confidence.

Yoga for Balance and Preventing Falls

In 2015, a study funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia found that by regularly practicing yoga, people ages 60 and over can safely and effectively improve their balance and mobility. Through practice of basic standing and seated yoga postures, participants in the study developed better balance without adverse effects.

By practicing yoga once or twice per week, you may begin to notice incremental gains in your balance and mobility. In the study, researchers found that most participants began to experience improvement in two to three months. They also found yoga to be an approachable activity for seniors of all abilities. With the help of a certified yoga teacher, you can practice yoga for balance safely and effectively. Yoga teachers can give you the support you need while you’re working to improve your balance, and offer adjustments where needed.

What types of Yoga Improve Balance?

To improve balance, it’s important to practice standing, seated, and prone positions. Hatha and Iyengar yoga are two examples of well-rounded styles of yoga that include a wide range of yoga balance poses, and will give you the structural foundation you need to feel steady and stable. And if you are new to yoga, you may want to start with a Gentle Yoga class.

If your sense of balance needs improvement, some standing postures may prove challenging for you. However, there are ways to give you support with the use of props — like yoga blocks, straps, and chairs. For many people with stability issues, Chair Yoga is a convenient way to integrate yoga into your life without risking injury. Over time, your core strength will increase, your coordination will get better, and you’ll gain confidence. And before long, your overall stability and mobility will be vastly improved.

9 Yoga Balance Poses to Improve Balance and Prevent Falls

We know that yoga improves balance, and that it’s important to practice standing, seated, and prone positions to get the full benefits of yoga. Balance isn’t just about strength, after all. It also requires flexibility and good coordination. So, what yoga poses are best to use as fall prevention exercises? I like to teach the following eight poses in my classes at MyYogaTeacher.

Tree Pose

In this pose, you practice standing on one foot, which not only builds strength, but it also teaches both your body and brain to balance.

Mountain Pose

The classic standing pose of Mountain builds awareness and strength. It is a wonderful pose to practice anytime (and anywhere) you need to feel more stable.

Warrior I and II

These standing poses increase strength and balance, as well as flexibility and range of motion.

Triangle Pose

Triangle offers an added dose of stability and flexibility through engagement of the legs and hips.

Plank Pose

More than simply inspiration for a social media challenge, Plank is a floor pose that builds core strength, helping you develop the structural support you need to maintain balance.

Downward Facing Dog

Downward facing dog activates the hamstrings and uses your hands on the floor for balance, engaging both your shoulders and your hips.

Yogi Squat

Yogi squat is another great way to work on your stability, since it requires that you shift your weight and adjust in order to balance.

Chair Pose

This essential standing pose builds core strength, and engages both your glutes and your quads.

Practice Cultivates Balance

Through regular practice of these poses, you can gain better balance, and improve your flexibility and mobility in just a few months. A steady yoga routine will also give you greater physical and mental well-being, helping you live a healthier, longer life. #

Shikha Sood

Shikha Sood teaches Hatha Yoga at MyYogaTeacher and has over 500 hours of certified yoga teacher training. She is passionate about the transformative power of yoga and its importance for mental and physical wellbeing. She is determined to share her knowledge and experience of yoga to help people discover its wonderful healing benefits and get relief from stress brought on by a modern lifestyle.

www.myyogateacher.com/teacher/shikha-1

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The simple act of breathing is something we often take for granted, since our body’s nervous system automatically takes care of that for us. We can go about our day without ever having to tell our body to “breathe.” But for thousands of years, the ancient yogic tradition has used mindful breath work to calm the mind, increase mental focus, and improve concentration. Called pranayama, yogic breathing techniques can actually improve your life, from helping to calm feelings of stress and anxiety, to oxygenating your blood and giving you better sleep.

You can also practice this type of yoga to build greater lung capacity.

What Is Yogic Breathing?

Yogic breath work focuses on mindfully breathing in and out while incorporating prescribed techniques that are meant to garner a certain effect. For example, the techniques used in the “humming bee” breath are specifically designed to help you relax and ease tension.

There are many types of breathing exercises in the yogic tradition that have been practiced for hundreds of years, all for the purpose of gaining self-awareness and enlightenment. In our hectic modern-day lives, regular practice of pranayama breathing benefits us by lightening our mental load, balancing our chakras, and giving us a dose of inner peace whenever we need it.

9 Yogic Breathing Exercises You Can Try At Home

In my Yoga Sangrachna classes at MyYogaTeacher, I like to teach the following 9 yogic breathing techniques. You can start by practicing one or more of these exercises in the comfort of your own home.

1. Nadi Shodhana or Alternate Nostril Breathing

This is one of the best yoga breathing exercises for anxiety. And it’s a great way to calm your mind and body if you’re stressed, overwhelmed, or feeling panicked.

First, exhale completely. Then place your right index finger onto your right nostril, and breathe deeply in through the left. Alternate and place your thumb over your left nostril, and exhale through your right. Continue alternating, repeating at least 10 times.

2. Ujjayi or Ocean’s Breath

If you’ve been feeling depressed, Ocean’s Breath offers a quick way to help yourself get unstuck.

Breathe in through your mouth, and as you exhale, pull in your chin and so that your throat is somewhat constricted, and then deliberately and mindfully inhale and exhale through your nose. Repeat at least 5 to 10 times.

3. Shitali Pranayama or Cooling Breath

When things get heated — either emotionally, or when summer temperatures are at their hottest — you can practice Shitali to cool down.

Roll your tongue into an “o” shape and slowly breathe in through it — as if your tongue were a straw. Hold the inhale for several seconds, then exhale through your nose. Repeat.

4. Sitkari Pranayama or Hissing Breath

Sitkari is another yogic breathing technique that can help you cool down and calm your nerves.

Close your mouth but open your lips as if you were smiling. Breath in through your teeth, and attune your mind to the hissing sound of your breath. Exhale through your nose. Repeat.

5. Brahmari or Humming Bee Breath

The humming bee breath is an effective method to use if you want to relax and release tension from your body.

Possibly the simplest yogic breathing exercise, simply inhale deep into the bottom of your lungs and make an audible humming sound as you exhale.

6. Bhastrika or Bellows Breath

Bhastrika pranayama can be used to reduce stress and tension. And it generates a lot of heat which can help your body burn calories.

Sit in lotus position and inhale through your nose. When you exhale, force it out through your belly as if your abdomen were a “bellows.” Do this vigorously for 10 breaths, after which take a long inhale, hold the breath, and then slowly exhale.

7. Surya Bhedana or Solar Breath

Another yogic nose breathing exercise that brings a lot of heat into the body is Surya Bhedana. This pranayama aids your digestive system and gives your parasympathetic nervous system a boost.

Sit comfortably and using the ring finger of your right hand, close your left nostril. Then, breathe in and out through your right nostril only. Repeat 10-20 times. When you are finished, remove your hand from your left nostril and allow yourself to breathe normally.

8. Viloma Pranayama or Against the Wave

This is a wonderful yogic breathing exercise to try if you’re working to increase your lung capacity and oxygenate your blood.

Lie down in a comfortable position and thoughtfully inhale for a couple of seconds. Breathe in again, and again, until you feel like your entirety of your lungs are filled. Slowly exhale. Repeat for five minutes.

9. Active Yogic Breathing

One of the best ways you can increase mental focus, reduce stress and anxiety, and increase your lung capacity is to practice active yoga breathing on a daily basis.

All you have to do is mindfully practice breathing deeply and evenly throughout your day, especially when you’re active.

When you’re out walking, gardening, or just going to the park, pay attention to your breath.

Try walking 5 to 10 steps as you inhale, and then exhaling over your next 5 to 10 steps.

Through incorporating these yogic breathing exercises into your life, you can bring more serenity, self-awareness, and peace to your every day.

Bodhi Abhishek Singh

Bodhi Abhishek Singh has been practicing yoga and meditation for 14 years and teaching for 5 years. He earned a Masters in Science in Yoga and Consciousness from Svyasa Bangalore and has over 500 hours in teacher training. At MyYogaTeacher, he teaches Ashtanga Vinyasa, Kundalini, Meditation, Pranayama, and Yoga Sangrachna, and assists in teaching the 200-Hour Teacher Certification program. He currently resides in Rishikesh, India (aka the yoga capital of the world).

www.myyogateacher.com/teacher/abhishek-2

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When you want to see results from your fitness routine, ‘rest’ can seem like a dirty word: ‘Rest? Who has time for rest? This goal isn’t going to reach itself!’ But in reality, rest days are just as important as regular workouts when it comes to making progress and getting results.

Rest doesn’t have to mean coming to a complete standstill. A rest day for you could mean doing yoga instead of lifting weights, stretching and using a foam roller after a big day of HIIT, going for a walk, or doing a few laps of the pool to work out some of that lactic acid.

As a certified personal trainer and the founder of digital fitness app Emily Skye FIT, I know that rest days can actually play a big role in moving your progress forward.

How are Rest Days Important?

1. Muscle Repair and Growth.

Muscle repair and growth happens when you stop, rest and sleep. And if you’re pushing your body too hard, even a full eight hours’ sleep won’t be enough time for your body to do a full repair job.

2. Avoiding Injury.

Overuse injuries happen as a result of consistently and repetitively putting strain on a specific body part. Resting for a few days will usually help any pain settle down.

3. Sustaining your habit!

Fitness should be a sustainable habit that fits into your life, not an unrealistic drain that you’ll drop in a few weeks. That’s where rest comes in – giving you a good balance and preventing your workouts from turning into a chore.

In general, at least one rest day every 7-10 days is recommended. To make it easy for you, I’ve actually scheduled them into the Emily Skye FIT planner. However, it’s important to learn to listen to your body and know when it needs a break. This involves knowing how your body is speaking to you.

What are some sure signs that your body needs a rest day?

1. You’re exhausted.

If you’re tired even after getting a full night’s sleep, it’s time to take a day or two off. Sleep plays a huge role in your recovery and muscle growth, but if you’re pushing your body too hard even the regular eight hours won’t be enough time for your body to do a full repair job.

2. You’re still sore.

You may have the dreaded DOMS – delayed onset muscle soreness.

This can last a few days after a tough workout. However, if muscle soreness lasts for a longer period of time or you feel like you’re always sore, your body could be telling you that it’s too overworked to recover properly.

If you have trouble releasing tight muscles, try using a foam roller and gently stretching – my Stretch & Roll sessions in your planner on Saturdays are a great starting point. Active recovery such as the new yoga workouts we’ve added to the app can help, too.

3. Your workouts consistently lack intensity.

We all have days where we can’t bring the intensity to a workout – that’s totally normal. However, if you’re finding that this is the case for a few days in a row, your mind and body need a break. Watch out for decreased strength, lack of agility or reduced endurance – they’re all telltale signs of overtraining.

4. Your cycle is out of whack.

Exercise can be great for helping reduce symptoms that come with your period, like cramps, backaches and irritability. But if you exercise TOO MUCH, you can cause a condition known as amenorrhea – in which your period stops or becomes irregular.

If you have been working out intensely and you notice your period has stopped or become irregular, this could be a big, flashing signal that you need to take a break and restore your energy balance. Give yourself a week off from excessive exercise and use that time to talk to your doctor.

5. You have pain in your joints.

There’s a difference between the ‘good sore’ you feel during and after a really tough workout, and the pain that is your body’s way of asking you to take a break. If you have joint problems you can’t shake, talk to a physiotherapist about how you can modify your regular workouts.

6. It’s just not enjoyable anymore.

Remember when workouts were fun? When you’re making excuses to skip workouts, your most epic pump-up playlist isn’t working anymore, or you’re hating every single minute of your HIIT session, it’s time to step away for a day or two.

You don’t have to completely stop moving: do a stretching session or mix up your routine with a completely different form of exercise. Trying something new is a great way to reignite your spark.

What should you do on your rest days?

1. Move!

Just because it’s a rest day, doesn’t mean your butt should be glued to the couch.

Gentle exercise – like walking, yoga or swimming – keeps the blood flowing and prevents stiffness.

This is active recovery: when your body is telling you that it doesn’t want to work out today, but you still feel like you have some energy for movement, a slower-paced and lower intensity active recovery session can give you the best of both worlds.

Your journey towards your fitness goals doesn’t come to a grinding halt, while your body still gets a chance to rest, repair and recover.

2. Stretch.

When you’re new to exercise, it’s normal for your muscles to feel sore. That’s why the rest days in my beginner program FIT Foundations include optional stretch sessions to reduce DOMS and improve mobility and flexibility. You’ll also find active recovery sessions in your FIT planner on weekends – which you can do any time.

3. Nourish yourself.

You still need to eat well on the days you’re not training because your body is hard at work growing those muscles.

4. Enjoy some me time.

There’s more to life than the workout mat, so be sure to look after yourself mentally, too.

Do a meditation, indulge in something you love or learn a new skill.

5. Get solid sleep.

This is important ALL the time, not just on your rest days. Take a look at our tips to help you sleep better, and if you need help switching off, try a calming sleep meditation with me.

Try using this visual guide to make the most of your time out.

Check out the Emily Skye FIT app and emilyskyefit.com for more information and to start your 7-day free trial of the programs.

Emily Skye

Emily Skye is a mother of two, strength training expert and the face of FIT, the digital fitness app that helps women worldwide build strength and confidence, stay active through pregnancy and rebuild post-pregnancy. Emily holds a Certificate IV in Fitness and Master Trainer qualification from the Australian Institute of Fitness.

emilyskyefit.com/join-us

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Why it is Important to Strengthen Your Immune System

• Do you frequently feel tired, or lack enough energy to get through your day?
• Are you always catching a cold or infection?
• Are you experiencing an excess of stress in your life, along with stomach and digestion issues?

These are signs you might have a weak immune system, which can cause a whole host of problems for your mind and body. A poor immune system can cause you to feel tired and stressed all of the time, and leave you vulnerable to viruses and chronic illness. A weakened immune system also makes it difficult for your body to heal itself and prevent infection. You might get lots of headaches, and/or experience poor circulation, problems with your digestion, and develop autoimmune disorders. Basically, a weak immune system isn’t something you want to leave unchecked. It is important for all of us to participate in practices to strengthen the immune system.

Practices to Strengthen Immunity

If you feel you might have a low immune system, don’t worry — there are things you can do to help bring yourself back into good health. Eating right, exercising, and getting plenty of sleep are all good places to start.

Developing a regular practice of yoga can give your immune system a strong boost.

Yoga can actually help improve your immune system by calming your nervous system, oxygenating your blood, increasing your lung capacity, and flushing your organs.

Yoga also supports your lymphatic system, which is why it’s so beneficial to your body’s immunity. Blocked lymph nodes can negatively affect your immune system, and yoga offers us a way to clear and drain the lymphatic system.

Yin Yoga for a Better Immune System

When it comes to balancing the lymphatic system, Yin Yoga can be supportive to effectively drain your lymph nodes and strengthen your immune system. Through regular practice of Yin Yoga poses, you can work with your lymphatic system in a direct way.

Yin Yoga also benefits your mind.

By holding each pose for a longer length of time — allowing your body to sink deeper into the stretch — your busy mind gets the chance to release tension, stress, and anxiety. In my classes at MyYogaTeacher, I will often teach some of the following Yin Yoga postures to help my students balance their lymphatic systems and thereby strengthen their immune systems. Each of these poses help clear and drain your lymph nodes, along with relaxing your body and giving your mind some much-needed rest.

Yin Yoga Sequence for Immunity

These 5 restorative Yin Yoga poses can help you bring your immune system back into balance, and can be practiced at home or in a Yin Yoga class.

1. Seated Neck Stretches

It’s important to address the lymph nodes in your neck, and you can help them release fluid build-up through some simple neck stretches.

Sit comfortably on the floor, or on a block or blanket, and fully relax your shoulders. Gently tilt your head so that you are bringing your right ear down toward your right shoulder. Be careful not to force it, only stretching as far as your body feels comfortable.

Hold for 30 seconds, and then repeat on your left side. Alternate back and forth three times, and finish with some soft head rolls.

2. Cat Cow Pose

After your neck rolls, move your body so that your hands and knees are on the floor. Start the Cat/Cow movement by slowly arching your back and lifting your chin to look upward.

As you exhale, reverse the movement by curling your spine and bringing your chin to your chest, looking down toward your belly button.

Repeat this movement for 2-3 minutes, stretching your back muscles and contracting your abdomen, allowing lymphatic fluid to drain and circulate.

3. Downward Facing Dog

From here, push your hips up and position yourself on your hands and feet in the Downward Dog pose. This simple yoga posture puts your head below your heart, using gravity to drain your lymph nodes. Hold the Downward Dog pose for 1-3 minutes, making sure to breathe mindfully.

4. Low Lunge

Another great way to help flush your lymph nodes is by squeezing them in a lunge. And if you can, turn that lunge into a twist to give your lymph nodes an extra squeeze.

To practice a twisting lunge, bring your left foot forward, and drop your right knee to the floor into a deep lunge. Then, slowly rotate your abdomen so that your right elbow rests on the outer part of your lower thigh.

Bring your hands into a prayer position and hold for 2-3 minutes. Repeat on the other side.

5. Standing Forward Fold

This is one of the most basic yoga postures, and with regular practice it can also help lymphatic fluid circulate throughout your body.

After your lunges, stand at the top of your mat, and fold forward, placing your hands on the floor, or resting them on a block. Hold and rest in this position for 2-3 minutes.

At the end of this practice, you can add one more pose to your Yin Yoga sequence to further assist your lymphatic system.

6. Legs-Up-The-Wall.

Simply lie down next to a wall, place a rolled up towel or blanket under your lower back/hips. Then bring your legs up so that they are resting on the wall in front of you. Stay in this pose for at least 3-5 minutes and let your body fully relax.

Annelise Piers

Annelise Piers specializes in physical and emotional healing, using a combination of Yin Yoga, essential oils and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) metaphor therapy. At MyYogaTeacher, she teaches Yin, Hatha, Pranayama (breathing), and meditation. She is a qualified Hatha and Yin yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance USA, and licensed under co-founder Dr. Richard Bandler and the Society of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (USA & UK).

www.myyogateacher.com/teacher/anneliese-1

The post How to Strengthen Your Immune System With Yin Yoga appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

What Exactly is Vitality? And How Can You Expand Your Vitality?

Are You Excited about building your vitality now?!

Try these 6 practical tools to expand vitality in your life:

1. Regular meditation.

2. Finding times for stillness.

3. Digesting your feelings.

4. Direct your will to your purpose.

5. Eat Sattvic foods to expand your vitality.

6. Preserve your energy by avoiding over-talking and emotional chaos.

In conclusion, think of your vitality as tending the fire inside.

Kimberly Snyder

Kimberly Snyder is a multi-time New York Times bestselling author, spiritual and meditation teacher, nutritionist and holistic wellness expert. She has authored 6 books, including Radical Beauty, which she co-authored with Deepak Chopra. Her highly anticipated 6th book, You Are More Than You Think You Are: Practical Enlightenment for Everyday Life, (Hay House) published on January 25th, 2022.

She is also the founder of Solluna®, a holistic lifestyle brand, Practical Enlightenment Meditation,™ Solluna Circle and the host of her top-rated Feel Good Podcast.  She has worked with dozens of top celebrities to feel their best, including Drew Barrymore, Reese Witherspoon and Channing Tatum, and has been featured by numerous national media outlets, including Good Morning America, The Today Show, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Kimberly resides in Los Angeles and Hawaii with her husband and her sons.

Kimberly Snyder Author Photo by Kevin Estrada

www.mysolluna.com

The post How to Expand Your Vitality: 6 Essential Tools appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.