Group items tagged

By Shahid Mishra Is Yoga for weight loss possible? Practicing Yoga postures on a regular basis will help you to strengthen and tone your entire body. A regular Yoga practice will also increase muscle mass, which will in turn increase your metabolism. Engaging in a Yoga practice that flows from one pose to the next through a series of postures based on the Sun Salutation will really get your blood pumping and leave you feeling exhilarated, strong and light as a feather. In the West, this type of Yoga practice is known as Power Yoga. Incorporating arm balancing postures into your Yoga practice will further tone your arms, back and torso. Challenging arm balancing postures will also increase your heart rate and metabolism further supporting your weight loss efforts.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed As the coldness of winter begins to recede, you may be noticing that the pulsation of new life all around you is propelling you to dissolve and release stagnant energy. This stagnant energy is often located in the hips, shoulders and throughout the thoracic spinal area. You even find that there is quite a bit of stagnant energy in your home, after several months of spending your time indoors with the windows closed. In the same way that doing a deep spring cleaning of your home lightens up and energizes your living space, dissolving stagnant energy in your body will help to lift your spirits and revitalize your life force energy or prana.

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 When you are mindful, you are alert and active. You recognize the thoughts coming in and out of your head, while noticing how your body is moving and feeling. Mindfulness is a total body and thought awareness that comes with deliberate consciousness. Mindfulness is an important part of Yoga practice because it allows you to let your thoughts come in and out, without focusing too heavily on any one thought. It allows you to be completely present as you move your body, stretch your muscles, and bring a fresh oxygen supply to your organs. Yoga instructors should always model mindfulness for their students.

By Faye Martins Is Yoga for weight loss a reality? Yoga is a great tool for enhancing your weight loss efforts. Yoga tones the entire body. It also helps to keep you limber and, if performed in optimal alignment, the Yoga poses will help to prevent injury and heal injuries that you may have previously suffered. Vigorous Yoga practices, such as Power Yoga, Bikram Yoga and Ashtanga Yoga all increase your heart rate, metabolism and muscular strength. A well-rounded Yoga practice will also enhance your balance, coordination and flexibility. If you integrate Yoga pose that specifically target your abdominal muscles into your practice, you will also tone your entire abdominal area and help to trim resistant belly fat.

By Jenny Park What can you do to boost your metabolism? Is there an optimum time of year for you to boost your metabolism? Many people set weight loss goals for themselves at the beginning of the New Year. This is one reason why so many new faces show up to Yoga classes every January. A regular practice of Yoga asanas combined with a healthy diet, restorative sleep, and a program of stress reduction, will all help anyone reach his or her weight loss goals. A healthy diet consists of a balance of lean protein, whole grains and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. The more colorful your selection of fruits and vegetables is, the more variety of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants your diet will contain. Dietary lean protein may come from a diversity sources. If you are not a strict vegetarian, wild caught fish, such as salmon and mackerel, have a high level of Omega 3 fatty acids that help to protect the health of your heart and brain. Omega 3 fatty acids are also found in flax seeds, flax seed oil, hemp products and eggs. A sufficient amount of Omega 3 fatty acids helps the body function well and the metabolism to work at optimal levels.

By Faye Martins Is Yoga for weight loss a reality? Yoga is a great tool for enhancing your weight loss efforts. Yoga tones the entire body. It also helps to keep you limber and, if performed in optimal alignment, the Yoga poses will help to prevent injury and heal injuries that you may have previously suffered. Vigorous Yoga practices, such as Power Yoga, Bikram Yoga and Ashtanga Yoga all increase your heart rate, metabolism and muscular strength. A well-rounded Yoga practice will also enhance your balance, coordination and flexibility. If you integrate Yoga pose that specifically target your abdominal muscles into your practice, you will also tone your entire abdominal area and help to trim resistant belly fat.

By Sanjeev Patel If you already have a yoga teacher certification, you probably think you know what new students are looking for in your classes. Most instructors have been teaching so long that they forget what it felt like to be a beginner. A new student has his or her senses wide open when visiting your studio. The finger prints on your mirror, the smell of your studio, and your appearance, are all new to first time students. How can you know what students really want, when each one has different expectations? First of all, you can't make everyone happy, but you can make most of them happy by making the best possible impression and looking at your class with a fresh pair 0f eyes, like you once had, long before you decided to become a yoga instructor.

By Kathryn Boland Are you curious about balancing your brain? Do you enjoy taking yoga classes, when you're not teaching? Do you find your instructor "brain" talking to you, even when you're in a student role? Many sources that I've encountered affirm that taking class can greatly expand your skills as an instructor. You can learn new ways to enter into postures, helpful accommodations for certain types of students, and more. On the other hand, not allowing yourself to sometimes be a student can limit your abilities to understand your students' experiences in class, and to otherwise develop as a yoga practitioner. Like many aspects of being a yoga instructor, it's a fine balance that we learn to more skillfully walk with time, experience, and engaging with those in our yoga communities.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed. What is the link between discipline and teaching Yoga? As a professional Yoga teacher, you have a great deal of opportunity to truly influence your students in the way that they move both on and off the mat. Of course, while you are leading a class, your students will practice the asanas according to your guidance. However, what is often overlooked is the impact that you can have on your students, both verbally and nonverbally, through the way that you approach challenges in your classes. Just as a child takes cues from his or her parents about the appropriate steps needed to address problematic situations in their lives, your students will also take cues from you about how to approach obstacles and challenges both on and off the mat, as their practice unfolds and deepens.

By Bhavan Kumar, CYT 500 Being a yoga teacher is very rewarding. It's a job where you get to help people physically and mentally, you can be active and moving throughout the day, and you have flexibility and choice in your work schedule. However, like any job, there are going to be days when it's hard to get out of bed and enthusiastically greet the day. This doesn't mean your teaching style and approach has to suffer. By practicing what you teach to your yoga students, you can enthusiastically engage your students even if you are having a rough day. These tips can help you bring your best self to all your classes, whether the day seems bright and sunny or bleary and gray.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed Do you want more tips about how to teach Yoga by example? Like most dedicated teachers, you continually strive to make progress in your practice. Most likely, this drive to succeed comes into play in your life, both on and off the mat. As a professional Yoga instructor, you may find that many of your students will emulate your way of approaching the practice in the way that they, themselves, approach their own practice. In addition, many of your students will also model your psychological approach to difficult poses and other personal challenges that arise during class, in their daily interactions off the mat.

By Kimaya Singh If you're looking for a way to move beyond your sense of self while sharing your passion for yoga with others, you should consider becoming a yoga teacher. During yoga instructor training, you'll learn a variety of important skills that will help you be the most effective teacher possible. One thing that's absolutely crucial is to learn how to check your ego at the door. Without having the ability to do that, your skill as an instructor will be overshadowed by your personal needs.

By Virginia Iversen The practice of Yoga offers us many tools to help manage our internal and physical states of being. One of the most challenging and sometimes debilitating internal states is that of unremitting anxiety. Anxiety can be defined as the fear of being hurt in the future, in one form or another. This internal alarm system can save our lives. For example, if you are alone in a train station late at night, and you begin to experience tendrils of anxiety because you feel like you are being watched, this heightened state of alertness may enable you to save your own life. However, if you are constantly feeling anxious at one level or another, your mental and physical health may be compromised. Anxious thoughts and feelings release adrenalin and cortisol to help you navigate out of a dangerous situation. If these hormonal levels are too high for an extended period of time, the functioning of your immune system will be lowered, your cardiac health may suffer and your serotonin level may decrease, leading to depression and even more anxiety.

By Michael Gleason What can Yoga do to relieve tailbone pain? The objective to yoga is taking the time to realize you are in your body. While sweating and caloric output have their places, yoga is the opportunity to learn what your body is non-verbally conveying to you. In this modern age of working at desks, or being hunched over on squishy coffeehouse sofas, your yoga practice is your chance to address issues brought on by sedentary life. One of the culprits being tailbone pain. Any aches or muscle spasm just south of the lumbar region, therefore, is your body's message that you need a change of pace. Even an hour of yoga every other day or every few days will affect these changes.

In this example, you have the opportunity to model a state of gracious acceptance for your student, by asking the student to pause for a moment and notice how his or her body feels right now. As your Yoga student becomes aware of what his or her body truly needs in the moment, without negating, minimizing or justifying another course of action, you will have the opportunity to model a state of gracious acceptance of "what is" for your student. In this way, your student will feel more accepting of his or her own physical aptitude and level of fitness. This state of open, gracious acceptance will then allow both you and your student the ability to choose appropriate Yoga postures and breathing exercises that will truly nurture the student's strength, flexibility and a deep, inner sense of respectful equanimity.

If you work with and release your own negative patterns of thinking and behaving during a Yoga instructor training program, you will also provide your students with a beautiful role model of the transformative power of the practice of Yoga. In addition, as you "walk your talk" in your own community; your peace, ease, lightness and joy will positively affect those around you.

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.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed. Spring is a quintessential time to detoxify. This means detoxifying the extra items in your car, your closet and, of course, your body! Engaging in a systematic process of detoxification on a seasonal basis will help you to release toxic chemicals, emotions, and experiences from your body and mind. You may even find that you are confronted with a toxic work environment or a relationship that no longer serves your highest good. If this is the case, you may also wish to find a compassionate way to move on from those situations and/or relationships.

yoga is said to be a decent method to remain fit both rationally and physically. What's more, there are numerous yoga styles to look over, contingent upon your capacities and wellness level. One such yoga style which is appropriate for individuals everything being equal and capacities is Bikram Yoga. It is a hour and a half yoga exercise in which the specialist needs to perform 26 amateur stances and 2 breathing activities in a warmed room. Every one of the stances should be performed in the endorsed grouping for the most extreme impact. Every one of these stances helps in fortifying and setting up your body muscles and organs and furthermore empowers the flow of 100% oxygen through your blood. Benefits of Bikram Yoga Make beyond any doubt that you keep your body hydrated before the class, no less than 24 hours preceding it. Additionally, don't eat anything before 2-3 long periods of the class. * Wear fit garments amid the training. Abstain from listing or tight garments as this can ruin the training. * Keep a container of water close you and take little tastes when you feel somewhat got dried out. * Let your instructor know whether you are confronting issue with a stance. Thusly you will know whether you are accomplishing something incorrectly. * Don't try too hard. Take it moderate and unwind in the event that you begin feeling bleary eyed.

Yoga needs few accessories. It implements your own weight instead of dumbbells. No machines are necessary. When you are travelling, it is easy to wrap up your mat with a yoga belt and throw it in the car or tie it to your carry-on bag. Your phone will always be there to provide the soothing music you may want to incorporate into your routine.