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By Sanjeev Patel It is often sad that the ancient Yogis would be saddened by the fitness-based styles we see today. It is also contended that Indians do not practice physical forms of Yoga. My answer (question) to that is: Have you ever been to India? I can appreciate the attention Yogic philosophy and methodology are getting, but there are many different forms of Yoga that are practiced in India. I contend that the ancient Yogis would be pleased about the number of practitioners who gain physical benefits today. If you desire to become a Yoga instructor, you should feel free to embrace the physical benefits and explain them to your students.

By Amruta Kulkarni, CYT 500 How does Yoga help one to channel anger? According to Buddha, "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." For centuries, Swamis, Gurus, and Buddhist monks have been teaching spiritual practices for overcoming anger, and recent research has affirmed the validity of these ancient teachings.

By Sangeetha Saran There are numerous benefits of practicing power yoga. You can depend on this ancient exercise to help you shed off some weight. Power yoga is an effective form of exercise for caloric burn. Practicing frequently can help you improve your physical and psychological well being. Within a typical power yoga class you are performing cardiovascular exercise at a fair pace and resistance training with your body weight.

By Sangeetha Saran Yoga is a practice that yields great benefit, no matter your age. Thanks to the rising popularity of chair yoga, even seniors with limited mobility can experience the conditioning and strengthening effects of this ancient practice. With modification comes new considerations, and there are some special precautions yoga instructors should keep in mind when teaching this style of yoga.

By Grata Young The Yoga Therapy or 'yoga-chikitsa' refers to the treatment of diseases by means of yogic exercises which may be physical or mental or both. It is a specialised form of yogic culture. This mode of treatment has been practised in India from very ancient times. Many references to yoga have been made in the Upanishads. It was, however, Maharishi Patanjali who in about the first century B.C. gave a systematic account of the traditional yogic teaching.

By Faye Martins How do we start to train the mind and body? Many people practice yoga for its fitness benefits. However, this ancient system of complete health maintenance should be comprehensive when we train the mind and body. If you take specified yoga teacher courses that focus on training the mind and body, then you can help your students obtain the complete art from their practice.

How can Yoga help us release anger? According to ancient Vedic philosophy, human suffering stems from the inability to see the true nature of life...

Scientific studies from leading universities have recently shown that the ancient art of yoga may help people cope with PTSD.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed Creating healthy habits can be difficult for many of us. Establishing a regular time to practice Yoga is one of the primary keys to benefiting fully from this ancient system of physical postures, pranayama exercises and meditation techniques. For instance, engaging in a thirty-minute practice several times a week, or even daily, will benefit you much more fully than a longer Yoga practice of two hours or more, once in a blue moon. When I was first starting to practice Yoga on a consistent basis, I didn't believe that this was true! I would wonder to myself why a practice that is 2 to 3 hours in length, once a week, would not benefit me more fully than a 30-minute practice on a daily basis?

Clearly, a balanced practice of Yoga postures, breathing exercises and contemplative techniques lends itself quite easily to improving one's physical capabilities and mental outlook on life. By weaving some of the timeless wisdom of Yoga into your classes, you will further support your students in applying the wisdom of the ancient scriptures to their practice and to their lives off the mat. Furthermore, if you teach your Yoga classes in a disciplined manner, with a higher goal in mind, your students will pick up on how you approach your own professional role as their teacher, and they will quite naturally apply the same dedication to their own practice.

Yoga sometimes looks like an art, and at other times appears to be a science that stems from ancient wisdom and insight. In yoga, there...

Although the history of meditation dates back to ancient Vedic texts, the Beatles introduced the healing art to the United States in the...

By Kimaya Singh Yoga is an ancient physical and spiritual practice that has become a part of the western mainstream culture. A regular practice of Yoga has many physical, emotional and spiritual benefits. A Yogic workout is also quite easy to customize to a particular group of people. Since a regular practice is so beneficial and easy to modify in order to accommodate different flexibility and strength levels, Yoga training has become one of the most popular offerings in the fitness industry today. Many health clubs offer at least a few Yoga classes per week, if not per day. This popularity makes Yoga much more accessible to the general public and also creates many positions for certified Yoga instructors in gyms, spas and health clubs.

By Rachel Holmes Yoga is broadly recognized all over the world as a complementary system of health care and healing. Although yoga is an ancient discipline, having its origin in the Eastern countries and mainly in India, the benefits of yoga for all societies have been well recognized by now. Yoga is also a vast system of tools that helps its practitioners develop self-empowering abilities and abilities to cope with different situations in their daily lives in a creative and productive manner.

By Faye Martins The ancient practice of yoga, which dates back more than 5,000 years, improves skeletal health through skillful selection and consistent application of a variety of exercises. Yoga poses for skeletal health are chosen for their ability to improve posture, increase flexibility and relieve skeletal system tensions. Yoga assists in maintaining bone density. It also helps minerals that are stored in the bones, as well as the blood cells produced in bone marrow, to be released to the bloodstream for the body's use as needed.

By Faye Martins How do we start to train the mind and body? Many people practice yoga for its fitness benefits. However, this ancient system of complete health maintenance should be comprehensive when we train the mind and body. If you take specified yoga teacher courses that focus on training the mind and body, then you can help your students obtain the complete art from their practice.

By Faye Martins Considering the many physical styles of Yoga, not to mention the diverse philosophies considering its practice, it is little wonder that there is controversy over the use of props. According to some purists, ancient Yogis never used props, and neither should modern ones. While opinions vary, mats are props and most Yoga instructors agree that props can be helpful. After all, most western contemporary Yoga enthusiasts do not spend long hours practicing in ashrams, these days. How many modern Yoga students would like to go back to the past and practice Yoga in dirt, mud or on grass?

By Jenny Park Ironically, quantum physicists are now telling us the same thing that sages have said for thousands of years. We are living in a sea of energy that connects us to everything else in the universe. Ancient healing arts, such as Yoga, Reiki, and qigong, are all methods of harnessing this vital life force and bringing it into the body to promote wellness and healing. In recent years, many medical professionals and scientists have recognized the importance of energy work as a viable complement to traditional therapies, and the knowledge of these practices is no longer a mystery.

By Jenny Park As yoga continues to gain ground and popularity, we can look forward to seeing more variations and interpretations of the basic ancient wisdom. The following are four modern yoga styles with their own unique focus, methodology, and philisophy.

By Tanja Henderson Why would a modern person take up such an ancient thing as yoga? We already have everything we need: t.v., internet, phone, and countless other modern luxuries, as well as basic living necessities, food, running water, electricity, a roof above our heads etc. We work out at the gym and we're in tip top shape already, aren't we? We don't need yoga, now do we? Well, I would like to contradict this.