Yoga Benefits For All

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Yoga is considered an art that helps with the development of your spirit, mind, and body. If you continue practicing yoga over a period of time, it will give you the contentment you have been searching for. Yoga is achieved through exercise, breathing, and meditation.

Practicing yoga helps to improve many body systems such as circulatory, digestive, skeletal, metabolic, respiratory, muscular, nervous, and lymphatic. Yoga also helps to stabilize your emotions and keep your mind clear. It not only focuses on your physical being, but also your mental and spiritual growth.

You do not have to be a certain age to practice yoga. Yoga can be practiced by anyone, but is most beneficial to people 30 years and older. Yoga gives you the energy you need for a healthier and more vigorous future.

To be successful at yoga, you must perform the exercises on a regular basis, start out slowly, and most of all stick with it. Yoga is best practiced under the guidance of a certified teacher. The instructor can correct you if you are not performing the poses to gain maximum benefit and he or she can also help you work out at the right pace.

When practicing yoga, be sure to dress comfortably. Many yoga students prefer to go barefoot. A typical yoga outfit consists of leotards or a body stocking. You can find these outfits in a variety of colors at your local sports store.

For indoor exercises, find a comfortable room in your home. If you are doing your workout on a carpeted floor, you will not need equipment, even though some people prefer to use a mat.

Types of Yoga

Today there are many types and styles of yoga. You may find a style you prefer from the two listed below.

Hatha yoga ("Ha" meaning sun and "Tha" meaning moon) is the yoga type better known in the west. This style is preferred among new yoga students. With so many benefits including simple poses and the option to perform at your own pace, Hatha is just what you need to help you relax at the end of a hectic day. In addition, Hatha yoga is a great means for clearing your mind and giving you a longer, healthier life.

Kundalini yoga, introduced to the West in 1969, is fairly new to the United States.This type of yoga focuses on healing and cleansing the mind and body. It involves poses, breathing, chanting, and meditation. Kundalini yoga also releases energy at the base of the spine and draws it up through the body. This energy is often referred to as a snake coiled up at the end of the spine.

Beyond the physical benefits, Kundalini yoga is considered one of the most spiritual types of yoga exercise. Individuals who are truly devoted to this type often wear white robes and head wraps.

Thai Yoga Massage

Besides using yoga as an exercise, did you know that this ancient practice can also be used in massage? The origin of Thai Yoga Massage can be traced back thousands of years to India and the spread of Buddhism.

The Thai Yoga Massage consists of gentle movements given by the therapist with the hands, feet, knees, and legs, along with a massage that releases the energy and helps it to flow freely. This free-flow of energy helps to relieve back pain, menstrual pain, headaches, stress. Also, this oriental massage increases energy and improves circulation. Both the giver and receiver are blessed by this massage and each one reaps the benefits.

Yoga as a Healing Tool: Reiki Energy

Many students today who are interested in yoga may have heard of Reiki energy healing or medicine. The word Reiki means Universal Life Force Energy. It is a form of healing through the use of natural forces, given the name Chi by ancient Chinese mystics. This form of yoga is known as a hands-on art. Practitioners use the laying of the hands as well as gestures in the air to channel the energy. Reiki brings back and balances the energy in your body.

Experts normally agree that Reiki is very simple to use and can be learned easily. In order for the life force energy to work, the recipient has to be willing to accept change and turn away from their old habits. Such is the case in most healing methods.

Which Yoga Practice is Right for You?

Whether you want to participate in yoga, have a massage, or try energy healing, remember it is your decision. Everyone is different and you must decide for yourself. If you are still hesitant, do some research online or check with your local yoga instructor to find more answers.

Creating A Life You | Love

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Imagine that right now, right here, today… there is within your grasp not one but several opportunities to redesign specific aspects of your life so that the sum total is a life you absolutely love. Then imagine that the only thing standing between you and your opportunities is a closed mind, fear, habits, concern, worry, drama, or perhaps mental, physical, and emotional clutter. Do you know what a default is? It’s what you get when you don’t choose to get something else and for most of us a default life is average and mediocre with sprinkles of joy in between. A default life is living for the weekend. A default like is hanging on ‘til retirement. A default life is waiting for the kids to grow up, move out, and finish college. A default life is waiting, and waiting, and waiting for things to get better someday…one day.

Most people don’t accidentally have a great life, a great job, a great marriage, a great body, or great children. I don’t know about you but I am not touched, moved, or inspired by mediocrity. I don’t aspire to live an average life, with an average job, and celebrate twenty-something anniversaries in an average marriage. My spirit longs for relationships and experiences that cause me to love deeply, grow profoundly, and see the magnificence in all of life. I can’t have that kind of life if I am settling for the default. My name is Robin Harris and I am a coach, an author, a certified Highlands Natural Abilities Counsultant, and I am the CEO of DesignerLife, a transformational business dedicated to helping individuals live by design; not by default. And today I just want to talk to you about designing a life you absolutely love. I call it the DesignerLife.

What’s a DesignerLife? Think of a piece of art that is not only beautiful but extremely functional. Just like a beautiful warm and cozy home provides sanctuary and focus for a family, a DesignerLife provides sanctuary and focus for the soul. Just like each room in that house has its own motif and purpose, each area of the DesignerLife has its own motif and purpose. Just like all of the rooms together, even the hallways and pantry make up the house, all of the areas of our lives make up the DesignerLife. A DesignerLife has been lovingly designed and architected to honor your best and your highest good and it includes spiritual hallways and pantries, too. Mmm, it sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?

I want you to consider a show home that has never been lived in. Everything is just so beautifully pristine and sterile. That’s because it’s for show but when the family moves in they bring their energy, their style, their nuances, their touch and the house becomes a home. It’s not perfect…but it is. It’s not immaculate buts it’s naturally inviting. The DesignerLife is a life you design that is natural, expanding, and very, very inviting not only to you but to other sojourners, also. We have so long been looking to the system, the companies we work for, the businesses we have built, the country we live in to sustain our way of life. Today is a new day, and the comfort of what we knew has passed away, it’s time to excavate, renovate, and develop our most precious resources: our soul’s dreams, our natural gifts, and our talents. It’s time for us to evolve to the next level and some sojourners are going to go kicking and screaming, and some won’t go at all. You probably thought the creation was completed millions of years ago, oh no. Human’s are still in process and every so often life says “hold on, wait a minute, it’s time to shift and leap baby”. You can plod along for only so long before life demands that you run fast or get eaten. The new paradigm is not for survivors, it’s for thrivers; people who are ready to unleash their potential into the world.

You see, the magnificent being that you are is not your doing. You didn’t design it, you didn’t create it, so there no reason to be arrogant about it. It’s a gift. Don’t just say thank you. Gratitude is only the beginning, there’s also a measure of responsibility and accountability that fall on the shoulders of the gifted. And we all are gifted. It is our responsibility to nurture our magnificence, to develop it, and express it profoundly in the world that we live in. Your magnificence is not only going to give you a life you love, it’s going to touch, move and inspire others. Divine intention will have your be great in ways you cannot even imagine. Divine intention will have your biggest mistakes sow seeds of wisdom and contribution to other. Divine intention will have you become the student and the teacher in life’s next evolution. The next evolution will have human beings manifest the Creator’s abundant, loving, creative nature.

What would it look like to have a life you absolutely love? When you really think about it, I mean see it with your minds eye, in living Technicolor, it should be so awesome it sends chills up your spine. I’m not talking about a superficial life where people are pretending to be happy, pretending that the marriage is working, pretending that the kids aren’t driving them crazy, pretending that life is in order when chaos is actually the king. I’m not talking about having more, more, more while feeling less, less, less. I’m talking about a life where your soul is satisfied. This is a life where you have peace of mind, finances in order, and a healthy mind, body, and spirit. This is a life with relationships that inspire and stimulate you, intimacy that heals and thrills you, and family and community for mutual love and support. This is a life complete with meaningful and fulfilling work that uses your gifts and talents and honors your uniqueness. This is a life where there is adequate time for self-nourishment, self-investment, fun and relaxation. And… this is a life where you receive an abundance of joy by contributing to the well being of others who are on the planet with you now, as well as those who will be coming in the future.

I can’t tell you the details of your DesignerLife. I can’t tell you how living a life you absolutely love will show up for you. I only know that the process of designing that kind of life will rock your world. I know somebody out there is saying, pfff you must be dreaming… and my response is “yes, and your point is…”

You see if it were left up to the practical people, the realists of the world, we’d still be huddled in a cold cave without a fire to warm us. I’m not just a dreamer, oh no: I’m a possibility chick with a plan. You see a designer life is not just about dreaming about it, thinking about it, longing for it, hoping for it, praying for it. A DesignerLife is about intention; the kind of intention that produces action, the kind of action that produces results.

The road less traveled is full of uncertainty, but the other road, the popular one can only take you where you’ve already been. Having an extraordinary life, a life you absolutely love is gonna seem like way too much work to the average person. It’s not going to appeal to the person courting mediocrity. It’s not going to excite the person who is content with waiting for some day, one day. It doesn’t call to the practical or the realist. So if you fall into one of these categories, cover your ears cause this message isn’t for you. I’m talking to the people who caught a glimpse of possibility for their own life, for the sojourners who are ready to unleash their potential out in the real world, and for the people who can’t stand the thought of settling for the default life.

The message I want to bring to you is simple. Your most challenging obstacle is not the present or past circumstances of your life, the things you did or didn’t do, it’s not your age, your gender, your race, it’s not the naysayers or critics or the practical realist who are convinced your dreams and aspirations are a waste of time, oh these are all challenges to be dealt with on their own terms but by far the biggest challenge you will face is your own self doubt, lack of commitment, and fear. Getting over yourself is the single most forwarding action you can take to move toward your own magnificence. I want to ask you for a huge favor and here it is…Get over yourself and just be magnificent.