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07Mar 2019 by admin No Comments

IYF 2019 – Vinyasa

Fitness, Health, Wellness, Yoga, Yoga Blog

International Yog Festival 2019 Vinyasa with Yogini Mimi At the end of each of my classes, I have the habit of singing “It’s a beautiful day!” Today lived up to the song. I had a wonderful experience teaching a Vinyasa class at the International Yog Festival, organized by the Government of India, Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN). The participants were enthusiastic, warm and friendly, eager to take part in the activities; and came from all over India and the world. There were bus loads of students from Maharastra, Garwal, Delhi, and participants from Rishikesh, Dehradun, Israel, Canada, Philippines, Australia. The staff was accommodating and provided the teachers with a yoga mat and gift bag with a bunch of goodies, among them a copper water bottle emblazoned with the IYF 2019…

08Sep 2018 by admin No Comments

This Too Shall Pass

Yoga, Yoga Blog

This Too Shall Pass When I was growing through my teenage years, with the misguided belief that my suffering was greater than anyone who ever lived, my mother would remind me, “…and this too shall pass.” I never believed her. But the present became the past and along with the passage of time, so too did those imbalanced-hormone-induced emotional meltdowns slip away. Years later, some smell, sound or taste would send me plunging back to those long ago moments and the time, place, sensations would all come rushing back to me in a tidal wave of emotional memory.It fascinated me for some time how I could relive those moments in such detail. Until recently, when I began attending 10-day silent sitting residential courses called Vipassana once a year, where the late…

04Oct 2017 by admin No Comments

4 REASONS TO PRACTICE PRANAYAMA

Fitness, Health, Wellness, Yoga, Yoga Blog

Pranayama, loosely translated, means breathing techniques; and, is one of the eight limbs of yoga that sage, Patanjali, explains in the Yoga Sutras, written circa 150 BC.Pranayama is comprised of two root words: prana (vital energy or life force) and ayama (extension or expansion). Pranayama, therefore, means to extend the vital energy. Pranayama provides a way to activate the life force and expand it beyond one’s normal limitations to attain a higher state of vibration.Through a series of breath retentions, known as kumbhaka, pranayama can be described as a method of voluntary hypoventilation, which allows us to normalize our breathing by normalizing the oxygen supplied to brain cells.There are eight distinct varieties of pranayama practices discussed in Hatha Yoga Pradipika to control one’s breathing. These eight pranayama varieties differ based on how kumbhaka is incorporated into…

16Apr 2017 by admin 36 Comments

SPICY KALE SALAD RECIPE

Health, Nutrition, Raw Food, Recipes, Wellness, Yoga Blog

A couple of years ago, I embarked on a 45-day raw vegan journey, where I ate nothing but raw, vegan foods, and fresh vegetable juices and spirulina. I experienced a variety of dishes in this fashion that I hadn't even known would satisfy hunger, let alone, delight the senses. The journey was one of exploration and self-inquiry; asking, "What else is possible?" I discovered a lot about myself along the way. The transformative experience taught me a lot about my palate as well; and, I fell in love with kale. Prior to the raw vegan experience, I understood very little about kale. What I did know, didn't excite me or attract me in any way. Throughout my life, I had the opportunity to try this remarkable dark green leafy vegetable in a variety…

13Apr 2017 by admin No Comments

Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh, India — Arogya Yoga School

Health, Wellness, Yoga, Yoga Blog

Source: Yoga Teacher Training in Rishikesh -Arogya yoga school India Arogya Yoga School offers residential 100 Hour, 200 Hour, 300 Hour and 500 Hour Hatha and Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training Courses in Rishikesh, India affiliated by Rishikesh Yogpeeth and registered with the Yoga Alliance, USA. Arogya Yoga School is dedicated to maintain the reputable levels of service and education that our students have come to expect from Affiliated Yoga schools. Arogya Yoga School traces its roots to Rishikesh Yog Peeth. Founded in 2005, Rishikesh Yog Peeth is the brainchild of two visionaries who pioneered the first yoga teacher training school in Rishikesh, designed to preserve the ancient and traditional values of yoga. Our school has designed courses in the most comprehensive and unique way, empowering you to stand apart as…

29Mar 2017 by admin No Comments

1 Billion W.A.T.C.H.ers – H (Habit)

Yoga Blog

This week we discussed 1 Billions Watcher, the first of the 7 Awakenings of the YourDay Balance Game, explaining each letter of the acronym, W.A.T.C.H. (Independent Will, Self-Awareness, Thoughts (Imagination), and Conscience). Stephen Covey describes these as the four human endowments in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” which is recommended reading for anyone seeking to understand how they can be more effective in their lives. “H” - Habits The fifth letter of the first awakening of the Game, “H” (Habits), is the foundation of one’s character, and ultimately one’s destiny. Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson According to Covey, our character, is a composite of our…

28Mar 2017 by admin No Comments

1 Billion W.A.T.C.H.ers – C (Conscience)

Yoga Blog

We live in a world of watchers, as I alluded to in an earlier post: we watch our peers, whom we admire and respect from having observed them perform their jobs with integrity; we watch family members perform their responsibilities dutifully throughout the year; we watch our friends as they make important life choices moment by moment. We are either inspired by those we watch or we are not. In either case, we are influenced. When we watch other people living their lives the way they choose, our minds pick up on the subtlest vibrational energies that result from these choices. We observe, on a subconscious level, the consequences of the choices and we are impacted by the choices in gross and subtle ways. An intricate algorithm forms in our brain mapping cause…

27Mar 2017 by admin No Comments

1 Billion W.A.T.C.H.ers – T (Thought, Imagination)

Yoga Blog

I was watching the movie, “And Then There Was You,” a few months ago. There was a child birthing scene, and in it, Marisol (portrayed by Trilby Glover) tells Natalie (actress Garcelle Beauvais) she is having a home birth and to call the midwife. I burst into tears at the memory of my own experience of child birth, at home, twenty-two years earlier, contemplating how his 22nd birthday is coming up and recalling how I birthed him at home surrounded by my mother, nurse midwife, graduate school classmates and college friends. The process was truly a magical experience, one that remains forever etched on my memory. Beauvais responds to Glover with complete shock, startled to learn her friend is giving birth at home. It seems like these days so few people choose to give birth…

26Mar 2017 by admin No Comments

1 Billion W.A.T.C.H.ers – A (Self-Awareness)

Health, Wellness, Yoga Blog

"Observer’s Effect: That which is observed, modifies the behavior being observed." -- Roshan Singh In this blog post, we resume our discussion of the First Awakening of the Game: 1 Billion W.A.T.C.H.ers. Continuing with the second letter of W.A.T.C.H., which stands for "Self-Awareness." A - Self-Awareness According to Stephen Covey, in his book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," humans are bestowed with four endowments that enable us to have a multitude of choices. Among these gifts is self-awareness; and, these choices differentiate us from other lifeforms on the planet. Within the endowment of self-awareness is a fundamental principle about the nature of humanity that reveals: between stimulus and response, we have the freedom to choose. We get our social cues from observing others' patterns of behaviors. Therefore, people are always watching…

25Mar 2017 by admin No Comments

1 Billion W.A.T.C.H.ers – W (Independent Will)

Yoga Blog

I shared a series of Facebook posts with my readers a while back that introduced the YourDay Balance Game, a powerful and effective tool that teaches a new way of relating to yourself, others and life through health, fitness, love and balance. This blog repurposes that information here on my website, so that you can have unfettered access. So, what does "1 Billion Watchers" mean? That’s a big number, right? I'll break it down over the next five blog posts. In the Balance Game there are two types of athletes: Watchers and Players. Watchers are athletes who play the Game without getting measured. They take advantage of a number of the free play times available to the community at the YourDay Playground, such as the Saturday Fun Run; Play Camps (similar to boot…