Striving4Zen

Type of Yoga	Personality
Ashtanga	Type A, competitive with yourself, high energy, can't sit still, strict, rigid, likes order, likes knowing the right and wrong way to do things, needs to move in order to de-stress
Anusara	Scientific, interested in body alignment and how your body moves internally, introspective, creative, likes to use props, in touch with your emotions

Type of Yoga	Personality
Bikram	Type A, extreme, over the top, needs discipline, loves heat, loves to sweat, craves order and strictness
Iyengar	Strict, rigid, interested in body alignment, likes to be told the right and wrong way to do things, likes to use props
Kripalu	Easy-going, slow-moving, meditative, spiritual, introspective
Kundalini	Meditative, slow-moving, spiritual, likes to be physically and mentally challenged, likes to focus on breath and chant, interested in the chakras and awakening the energy (kundalini) that resides in the base of the spine
Jivamukti	Spiritual, meditative, creative, likes to move, needs to de-stress, likes to be physically and mentally challenged, likes to chant
Vinyasa	Creative, spontaneous, up for a challenge, likes to move quickly, likes to sweat

Labels: anusara yoga, benefits of yoga, bikram, jivamukti, yoga

BEFORE WE START

(1) Take your index finger and put it underneath
your nose like this:
http://www.yogabodynaturals.com/yoga-breathing-101

(2) Exhale through your nose quickly a few times.

(3) Notice which nostril is MORE open (more air comes
out).

RIGHT NOSTRIL DOMINANCE* is associated with the left
brain activity and is conducive for active states like working,
eating, exercising, etc.

LEFT NOSTRIL DOMINANCE* is associated with the right
brain activity and is conducive for meditative states, relaxation,
sleep, and creativity.

HOW NOSTRIL PREFERENCE WORKS

As your brain activity changes throughout the day, so
does your dominant nostril. And simply sticking your
finger under your nose is the easiest way to get an instant
read on where your head is at.

When you're super hungry, for example, you'll almost
always be in your right nostril.

When you're about to fall asleep, almost always it'll
be your left (and if you're not, you should get there...
more on how to do that later).

Naturally, your body will switch every 90-120 minutes
(there's no rule on this). So our breath tells us which side
of our brain is most active; and the cool thing is that we
can turn around and use the breath, control the breath, 
to influence our brain.

It really does work.

This is why people get so excited about pranayama,
or yoga breathing. It's a very powerful tool for "mind
control."

Labels: breathe, breathing deeply, pranayama, yoga

Anusara (a-nu-sar-a), means “flowing with Grace,” “flowing with Nature,” “following your heart.”

Developed recently by John Friend, anusara yoga is described as heart-oriented, spiritually inspiring, yet grounded in a deep knowledge of outer- and inner-body alignment. Each student's various abilities and limitations are deeply respected and honored, and in an Anusara class the instructor asks you to literally move from your heart.

Anusara yoga's remarkable growth is due in large part to its uplifting philosophy, epitomized by a "celebration of the heart" that looks for the good in all people and all things. Consequently, students of all levels of ability and yoga experience are honored for their unique differences, limitations, and talents.

The practice of Anusara Yoga can be broadly categorized into three parts: Attitude, Alignment, and Action. The principle aspects that define Anusara are:

• a belief that all beings are intrinsically good
• a vinyasa-style practice that emphasizes heart-opening through backbending and physical alignment, including the use of props
• an emphasis on bringing the lessons learned in yoga class into daily life

Labels: anusara yoga, benefits of yoga, living holistically, mind-body, yoga

When it comes to working out, all hours of the day are not created equal.

Check it out:

MORNING:
Best for: Yoga. Your ability to perform is lowest in the morning; better to keep your exercise less intense in the a.m. hours.
Going long: When your core temperature gets high, fatigue sets in. Your inner thermometer is lowest now, so you will take longer to overheat.

AFTERNOON:
Best for: Smashing the competition.
Time for the smackdown: Some moves requiring accuracy, like your tennis serve, are most precise around 2 p.m., when it's easiest to get energized and your focus is sharpest.
EVENING:
Best for: Getting strong. Your core body temp is highest in the early evening, so your muscles will warm up more easily and you can work harder.
Scoring: For the same reason, this is also when you have the most power to make explosive movements, such as those used in soccer or volleyball.

Source

Labels: exercise, Holistic Health, muscles, tennis, working out, yoga

In case you hadn't yet read the recent Harvard Mental Health Letter, they've nicely rounded-up the latest medical research on yoga.

The short take?

Yoga helps lower stress and can ward off depression. Good news, though no giant surprise. But here's something: It also makes you tougher. In a study of "stress response" that Harvard calls "intriguing," researchers compared various study populations' sensitivity to pain: "The yoga practitioners had the highest pain tolerance and lowest pain-related brain activity during the MRI." I give Urdhva Dhanurasana all the credit.

Source

Labels: benefits of yoga, depression, stress, study, yoga

This is a very challenging pose since it requires both flexibility in your back and strength in your upper body and core. So take it at your own speed and raise your feet as high as you can. With practice and patience, you'll soon be able to lift your legs even higher.

• Begin lying on your belly. Roll over to one of your shoulders so you can bring both arms underneath you. There are two hand positions you can try, so see which one feels the most comfortable. Either interlace your fingers, clasp your palms together, and straighten your arms. Or keep your hands apart with either your palms facing up or pressed into the mat. Then roll your body so it's resting on your extended arms. Make sure your chin is on the mat as well.

• As you inhale, press into your arms with all your strength and lift both legs up as high as you can. If your upper body is strong and your back is flexible, lift your hips off the floor, so your spine is as upright as possible. Press your feet and thighs together.

• Stay like this for five deep breaths. Then slowly lower your body back to the floor. Release your lower back by coming into Child's Pose.

Thanks FitSugar!

Labels: Inverted Locust, locust pose, salabhasana, yoga, yoga pose

Before you say anything, let me go first. As far as fitness gear goes, the Sacro Wedgy is not exactly elegant, it has a stupid name, and its Web site

is so low-rent it looks almost pornographic.

Nevertheless, those in the know (read: those who can afford to see a private trainer once or twice a week) love this hot-pink plastic tool. And at $29, you can’t afford not to check out. No matter how many yoga classes you take or massages you book, it's still hard to open tight hips and release the pressure on the muscles and joints in your lower back and booty.

Enter Sacro Wedgy: Place the triangular pink mechanism midway under the sacrum (located at the base of your spine) and just lie there for up to 20 minutes on a hard surface. By minute two, you’ll notice your hips relax, your back loosen, and any pain in your glutes melt away. Seriously. If there’s a way to describe Sacro Wedgy bliss, "pornographic" comes to mind.

Thanks for the Find!

Labels: hip opener, new product, Sacro Wedgy, yoga

Sitting Mountain
This pose is done best from a chair.

• Sit tall in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and your shoulders relaxed under your ears.
• Place your hands palms up on your lap.
• Cross your wrists in front of your solar plexus.
• Interlace your fingers and raise your arms as high as is comfortable and look at the back of your hand (make sure that you do not hyper-extend your neck).
  
• Repeat once.
  

Joint-Opening Exercise
This pose can be done in a chair or on the floor.

• Return to the first phase of Sitting Mountain.
• Extend both of your arms out to your sides, palms facing the floor.
• Inhale as you bring your right arm over your head, bending slightly at the waist. Exhale as you return to center.
  
• Repeat with the right side.
  

Peaceful Warrior
This pose is done best from a chair.

• Return to the first phase of Sitting Mountain
• Turn to the right side of your chair and extend your left leg behind you, pressing the heel back.
• Raise your arms above your head, arch as much as is comfortable and look up, taking care not to hyper-extend your neck.

Cat Cow Pose
This pose is done best from a chair.

• Return to the first phase of Sitting Mountain
• Exhale, pressing your spine to the back of the chair
• Inhale, pulling your abdominal region forward, lifting the chest and chin up (remember to take care not to hyper-extend the neck)
• Repeat as desired.

Source

Labels: living holistically, office, yoga, yoga poses

The twisting motion of this pose helps to stimulate the liver and kidneys.

Get into the pose:

• Sit tall on the floor with your legs extended straight in front of you.

• Keeping the left leg strong, bend your right knee and put the foot on the floor with the heel as close to the right sitting bone as possible.

• Rotate your torso to the right and wrap your left arm around the right thigh.

• Place your right fingertips on the floor just behind your back.

• Continue to gently increase the rotation as your spine becomes more supple and flexible.

• Repeat on the opposite side.

Source

Labels: benefits of yoga, seated twist, yoga, yoga pose

1-Legged Seated Spinal Twist can help get things moving in your belly. It's also a great pose to do after sitting for a long period of time. Bend one knee and cross your opposite elbow over to the outside edge of your knee and look over your back shoulder. As you breathe, continue to deepen the twist. Stay here for five breaths or more, then do the other side.

If you're bloated, having gas pains, or are constipated, bend both knees into your chest and give yourself a big hug. This is affectionately called Wind-Relieving Pose, if you catch my drift. It'll help to massage your abdominal organs.

Another great stretch for digestion is Wide-Legged Forward Bend. This is great at helping relieve gas pains and that uncomfortable bloated feeling.

This is a pretty intense stretch when it comes to aiding digestion so ease into this one called Wide Squat. If you're bloated, this pose can bring relief, but you may want to do this in private.

Thanks!

Labels: benefits of yoga, bloating, digestion, gas, yoga

Cold hands and feet are most often caused by poor circulation or stress. Inverted poses such as Downward Facing Dog, Bridge, Plow, and Legs-up-the-wall pose simultaneously relax the body and improve circulation by dilating blood vessels, so blood can flow more easily to your extremities. To really feel the heat, take full, even breaths as you hold each pose for up to a minute.

Source

Labels: benefits of yoga, circulation, downward facing dog, stress, yoga

Adho Mukha Svanasana
adho = downward
mukha = face
svana = dog

Labels: benefits of yoga, downward facing dog, yoga

Yoga to the People is a unique yoga studio with the goal of recapturing what we consider to be the essence of yoga… simply put, yoga made available to everyone.

There is a suggested donation of $10 a class. Suggested donation means that if you can put $10 in the box, please do. If you are not in a position to do so, contribute what you can.

Classes are taught by certified and highly experienced teachers who are qualified to work with students of every level. Located on 12 St. Marks Pl. between 2nd and 3rd Ave., the studio is easily accessible by subway.

Labels: innovative, NYC, yoga

First-timers pay nothing at Yoga Sutra (501 Fifth Ave., nr. 42nd St.; 212-490-1443), which caters to Bryant Park office workers grabbing some sun salutations on their lunch breaks. Depending on which style of class you choose, you could be sore tomorrow. The Vinyasa course, with its flowing series of chest arches and leg lunges, is especially challenging. Less strenuous: the Iyengar class, filled with slow-moving spine twists and prop-aided stretches.

Newcomers also get a free tryout at Atmananda Yoga Sequence (324 Lafayette St., nr. Bleecker St.; 212-625-1511), where the crowd’s exactly what you’d expect at a Noho wellness loft: fashionable vegans, limber models, and late-rising artists. Classes flow rapidly through 69 movements, focusing on proper alignment and breathing techniques. Occasionally instructors burn incense or massage students’ temples with jasmine oil.

At Integral Yoga Institute (227 W. 13th St., nr. Seventh Ave.; 212-929-0586), free Saturday-morning intro classes (beginning at 10:15) draw a mix of health-conscious hippies, trendy moms, and other West Villagers seeking some slower-paced exercise. Newbies are encouraged to ask questions while learning to sit properly, relieve lower-back tension with gentle torso bends, and experiment with shoulder stands.

It’s mostly experienced yogis at Chelsea’s Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center (243 W. 24th St., nr. Seventh Ave.; 212-255-4560), with only one class open to beginners. The first class—usually filled with classic inversions and standing postures—is free. Workouts are strenuous, but there’s ample time for meditation between poses.

And though not technically gratis, classes at Yoga to the People (12 St. Marks Pl., nr. Third Ave.; 917-573-9642) are open to the public for a suggested donation of $10. Expect St. Marks–style serenity: Teachers might pop in some John Lennon during stretching and read inspirational quotes for the after-class warmdown, and classes are often packed toes to fingertips with NYU students.

Thanks!

Labels: free, New Yorkers, NYC, yoga

Just as every snowflake is different, each of us has our own unique bone structure and therefore will experience yoga differently. In order to avoid painful bone-on-bone compression, it is important not to force our bodies into rigid positions, warns Paul Grilley, who has been teaching yoga for 28 years with a specialty in the instruction of anatomy. The angles and rotations of our bones and joints affect how we are able to safely interpret each pose, he explains.
Every bone has natural differences in proportion and orientation. For instance, a petite female and a tall male can both model the twisting triangle pose "correctly" but because of natural anatomical differences in their bone structures, the woman's femur to torso angle might be 45 degree, while the man's might be 65 degrees.
Another example is the ankle flexion differences that can be noticed in a downward facing dog position. One person's heels may touch the ground in the pose while another's are at a 45-degree angle. This does not mean that the person whose heels are flat is performing the pose better than the other person. Both are listening to their bodies and making the necessary adjustments in the pose. Rather than being frustrated by his inability to touch his heel to the ground, the second yogi would have a better experience if he understood that skeletal variations affect our yoga practices.
"A yoga practice is about being content with our bodies, not about competition," Grilley explains. "Don't push beyond what your body can handle without pain and ask your yoga teacher for individual attention if you have a question about how to customize a pose for your body's alignment. People training for sports on any level, from amateur to competitive, could benefit from a greater understanding of their anatomy to improve their performance and reduce the risk of injury."

Labels: individualized health, yoga

Originally part of a millennia-old Indian yogic tradition, the practice of nasal irrigation — jala neti — is performed with a small pot that looks like a cross between Aladdin’s lamp and your grandmother’s gravy boat. The neti pot made its way into this country in the early 1970s as a yoga meditation device, but even as yoga became mainstream, the neti pot remained on the fringes of alternative culture.
That is, until now. Due to a confluence of influences, the neti pot is having what can only be termed a moment, sold in drugstores, health food stores, even at Wal-Mart and Walgreens.
The practice gained wide exposure last spring when it was introduced on Oprah Winfrey’s show by a frequent guest, Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and an author of health books. r. Oz explained that bathing the sinus cavities in a warm saline solution can reduce symptoms of allergies, cold, flu and other nasal problems.
Few if any Western medical schools teach the use of the neti pot. But Dr. Bradley Marple, the chairman of the rhinology and paranasal sinus committee for the American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery, said that nasal irrigation is a well-known remedy for various respiratory complaints.

NY Times

How-To Use A Neti

Labels: Dr. Oz, how-to, living holistically, natural health, natural therapy, neti pot, Oprah, yoga

To Beat Stress at Work Stretch It Out
When under stress, people don't turn to granola for comfort. Instead, they skip the gym, head for a double cheeseburger and fries at the nearest fast food joint and have a smoke, according to a 2006 random national survey of more than 2,000 people conducted by the American Psychological Association. Of those questioned, 59% said work was a leading source of stress and 47% said they were concerned about stress in their lives.
It's also not great for the bottom line, often resulting in absenteeism, lowered productivity, turnover and health claims. Research has shown that people who are stressed out are more likely to experience hypertension, anxiety or depression and obesity.
Just ask Beth Superfin, the senior manager for AOL Media Networks. Beth was skeptical at first about the idea of doing yoga in her office conference room. But she quickly got over it when she saw how easy it was to pop down the hall for a free, hour-long class at 6 p.m. with sought-after instructors, then return to tie up loose ends afterward.
Her company contracts with Balance Integration, a corporation that provides an array of on-site services to foster balance and creativity in and out of work. Fees range from a couple hundred to more than $10,000 a month, depending on what a company wants to accomplish, says Balance Integration president Tevis Gale.
"If I don't have a break to go to the gym, I get very thrown off," Superfin says. "It would impact my stress level, anxiety, focus, and overall I think my well-being."

Labels: Balance Integration, Holistic Health, innovative, living holistically, stress, yoga

All yoga seeks to awaken Kundalini energy. It’s creativity, soul energy, universal energy and we use it to elevate our consciousness. The practice en-kindles the process of living life to the fullest and maximizing our potential as human beings.
Kundalini was first introduced into the western world in 1969 by Yoga master Yogi Bhajan ph.D. kundalini yoga is an ancient and powerful form of yoga, considered to be the mother of all other forms of yoga. An ancient yoga form - very appropriate for the times in which we are living in- ideal for the active person who needs to lower their stress level, achieve inner peace and calm and improve their health and well-being.
Kundalini Yoga is referred to as the yoga of the consciousness because it works to integrate the glandular system and the nervous system. The benefit is then a balance between the physical, emotional, spiritual aspects of the self. The breath, combined with posture and with mantra (mantra = mind -vibration, a sacred primordial current of sound) focuses the mind and can help to eliminate harmful negative thought patterns, a word or combination of words. It is the scientific use of sound to affect the consciousness.

SOURCE

Labels: KUNDALINI, yoga

Sit on the floor with bare feet.
Stretch your left leg out straight.
Cross your right leg over the left so that your right foot is resting on your left thigh.
Interlace the fingers of your left hand with the toes of your right foot.
Make circular movements with your hand, rotating the foot as much as possible.
Make the same movement but let the foot drive the movement, in opposition with your hand (like your foot is moving and fighting your hand).
Let hand and foot move together (as if hand and foot have made up, and in unison).
Change legs: right leg out straight, left foot resting on the right thigh.
Repeat steps above with the left foot.

Stand up and see how your foot feels. Notice how your connection to the ground changes as you’ve freed up the tightness in the feet.
Do this exercise daily. Give it a spin before your next tree pose and see the difference in the way your foot grounds down into the floor.

Labels: exercise, feet, yoga

Some people have suggested that yoga exercises especially inverted asana postures help to cure dark circles. It is believed that the postures help to increase the blood circulation around the eyes and eventually reduce the dark circles. You can try doing the sarvangasana everyday.
To give you an brief idea how’s sarvangasana can be done, here I’ve included an article about sarvangasana from atoneyoga.

Sarvangasana is best done near the end a full practice. As an inversion it reverses the effects of gravity, decompresses the spine and helps re-align the arms with the shoulders. It also improves energy balance and metabolism by wringing out the thyroid and parathyroid glands in the throat.

A few cautions:
Remember that this is a SHOULDER stand and not a neck-stand. Do not turn the head from side to side in the posture. Many teachers highly recommend beginners use folded blankets under the shoulders with the back of the head on the floor to help preserve a curved space beneath the lower neck. Avoid this posture during menstruation or bouts of hypertension.

Posture Points
Elbows shoulder blade-width apart behind back. Use a blanket or maintain a thick pad of muscle and flesh below the shoulders.
Legs together with balls of feet extending straight to ceiling
Spine long and straight.
Triceps and shoulder blades as close together as possible.
Palms flat on kidneys, fingertips towards feet. Work heels of palms towards scapula.
Legs together, draw navel-point in and reach tailbone towards heels.
Always maintain a calm and even breath.

Sarvangasana: Two legs reach up as one, thighs and knees spiraling inward. Reach tailbone to heels.

Did you Know?
20% of the nerves affecting our vision travel through the neck and shoulders. Looking up at the feet in this posture excites the mind and senses and can even strain the neck. The recommnded “drishti” or gaze is down the nose into the chest, promoting a grounded calmness and effortless extension from your core.

Labels: dark circles, undereye, yoga