By Bhavan Kumar Our aging bodies often betray us by presenting an annoying array of pain and physical impairments, which prevent participation in athletic endeavors that we once took for granted. Being physically active is essential for our well-being, so it is crucial to find a way to clear the hindrances blocking our path to good health.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed As we rapidly approach the zenith point of the Summer Solstice, the temperatures are rising steadily and the deep-green color of the leaves is expanding into its fullness. By aligning yourself with the expansive and abundant energy of summer, you will feel energized and rejuvenated. The warmth of the sun's healing rays also helps to increase the function of the immune system, lower inflammation throughout the body and boost your mood naturally. By exercising out in nature under the warmth of the sun's rays, you will increase the benefits of your exercise regime substantially.

By Junaid Ghouri Yoga is a holistic practice that has been around for thousands of years. There are many of us who have given up of the spiritual side of the yoga exercise program, and have used its methods to embrace many physical, emotional, and mental advantages. You will notice that there are ways in which you'll be able to use the stretches and strength building exercises for you to improve upon your self-image.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed As we enter into the heart of the summer, many Yoga practitioners are beginning to enjoy a challenging and vigorous outdoor exercise regime. Those of us who spend a lot of time indoors during the colder winter months often participate in a variety of outdoor activities during the summertime. Depending on where you live and the availability of different outdoor activities, you may choose to go backpacking, play in a tennis league, surf, or even learn how to rock climb. You may even choose to do several of these activities over the course of the summertime, in addition to your regular Yoga practice.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed With the advent of the warmer weather, many Yogis and Yoginis incorporate a diversity of outdoor athletic activities into their fitness regime. Some of these activities may include rock climbing, mountain biking and hiking. Other popular summertime activities are swimming, jogging and tennis. According to sports physiologists, it is important for an athlete to cross-train because by engaging in a variety of different sporting activities, he or she will strengthens different muscles groups in the body. Additionally, by becoming involved in a competitive sport, an individual will experience a clear sense of purpose and will easily formulate a set of concrete fitness goals to strive towards.

By Ishrattasleem Tasleem Research and clinical studies about Yogic therapy seem to indicate that the mind and body are connected with each other in a holistic way. In turn, yoga works to reduce suffering from mental distress, depression and anxiety, with daily practice. Everyone experiences feelings of stress and anxiety at times in his or her life. When the level of stress reaches the highest degree of tolerance, it pushes us into a state we call: "panic attacks."

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed In the United States, we have just celebrated our independence from English rule. We are a country of fierce independence. However, our society is also set-up to foster dependency on almost everything around us. The sense of dependency is so ingrained in our culture that many of us would be at a complete loss if we didn't have clean, running water or electricity for more than a day or two. In the same way, many of us are also psychologically dependent on the diversity of electronic stimuli that is available to us at all hours of the night and day.

By Kimaya Singh Yoga can be a great way for someone to recover from a variety of painful and debilitating injuries, such as pulled muscles, torn ligaments, and broken bones. The gentle, low-impact movements of yoga can help strengthen muscles, soothe the mind, regain full use of limbs, and reduce overall pain. However the practice, if done incorrectly, can exacerbate current injuries and even lead to new ones. It is all too easy for an inexperienced yoga practitioner to push him or herself too far or get into a pose incorrectly. As a yoga teacher, it's important to stay up-to-date on how to prevent student injuries in the classroom. There are many continuing education options for this topic, and they can help any yoga instructor avoid having student injuries occur in their classes.

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 Azahar Aguilar Life breath, life energy, life force. Pranayama is the vital energy behind a yoga asana practice, and instructors have the opportunity in every class to make time for the basics, if not more advanced techniques as well. Wonderful moments exist at the beginning, middle or end of a practice, no matter the style of class, which offer space for the instructor to speak on the importance of pranayama, and the tools that guide prana energy.

By Avalon Hicks For years, yoga has been praised as a spiritual and physical practice able to increase flexibility in the body and help reduce stress. However, there are specialized programs that use yoga as a form of mental exercise designed to increase focus and clarity of thought. This type of Yoga has been used in several studies and has been shown to have significant results in both adults and children.

By Azahar Aguilar Unrealistic yoga claims. As teachers, you've all been there before. Either to overhear others or to hear the words come out of your own mouth, "Yoga is like a natural sleeping pill, an anti-anxiety medication, a weight-loss goldmine, prevents heart attacks, and will make you live past 100 years-old with the face of a 20 year-old. It's true! My sister's best friend's brother's neighbor is 101 and swears by it."

By Azahar Aguilar "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry Adams A yoga student will ideally have many yoga teachers in his or her lifetime. One teacher cannot act as an expert in all styles, modalities and afflictions, especially with the diversity of the human population, the human body and the number of options in yoga styles today.

By Avalon Hicks The practice of yoga is essential for many aspects of physical, mental and spiritual health. Yoga is known as a Hindu spiritual practice that includes controlled breathing, meditation, mantras and holding many different body postures in order to aid in relaxation and promote health benefits. Many benefits of yoga can include self-awareness, mental calmness and even strength and flexibility. If you have been practicing yoga for some time and want to teach others there are some points that you need to keep in mind while you begin the road to teaching others about your practice.

By Avalon Hicks Addictions in one form or another can help to slowly destroy anything and everything. From destroying relationships to destroying health and wealth, addictions have been notoriously found, to be at the center of all kinds of negativity. Most addictions start off as simply being part of a social experiment or a teenage dare, and for some, it stops at just this, but for the vast majority, the simple experiment eventually evolves into something more sinister and nasty. There are addictions that could have started out as medications necessary to treat certain health or mental conditions. There are also addictions that could have been a means or an immediate solution to a dedicate problem or a stressful work situation. Either way, any addiction usually spirals out of control and in more severe cases could result in death.

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed Deeply restorative and refreshing sleep can be quite elusive for many Yoga practitioners. With the frenetic pace of many Yoga teachers and students' lives, winding down for a good night's sleep is frequently challenging, if not impossible. As we all rush to squeeze in one appointment after another during our already fully scheduled days, the fight or flight response is often locked on overdrive and anxiety and stress levels can stay high well into the night. When this happens, the body and mind are physiologically unable to unwind and ease into a peaceful state of being, rather than constantly doing.

By Azahar Aguilar As a yoga instructor, you are there to challenge your students into new spaces mentally and physically from what they may never thought possible for themselves before. However, you are also there to keep your students safe and injury free. How to establish this balance between challenge and safety?

By Faye Martins Yoga is good for you, and we all know that. As a yoga teacher, you have the ability to help people deal with a lot of health problems, and heart problems are no different. According to Dr. Suzie Bertisch, a medical instructor at Harvard, the benefits of yoga for the heart are quite immense. In addition to making the body healthy, it helps to improve the symptoms of heart failure, ease palpitations, enhance the rehabilitation of the heart and reduce blood pressure.

By Kimaya Singh As a yoga teacher, you are going to accept many students, who are all going to be of different weights, heights, body frames, levels of flexibility, and more. Typically, you don't have to worry too much about the average student you teach because most can practice the techniques, but when dealing with pregnant women, you should consider changing up your class.

By Kimaya Singh Like any workplace, yoga studios must always have policies in place for dealing with harassment problems of a sexual, verbal, or physical nature. These policies should be made available to every yoga teacher and student that participates in classes at the studio. Having these policies already written out and readily available will ensure that appropriate action is taken swiftly if a harassment issue does occur between teachers or students at the yoga studio. If a problem does arise during yoga practice, the policies in place will ensure they can be handled efficiently, quickly, and legally. Every yoga studio should have some concrete policies in place to avoid confusion and disorder when dealing with harassment situations.