Yoga and Meditation
"Asteya": The Yoga Practice of Non-Stealing
The physical practice of yoga is one of eight parts of a total system, the goal of which is enlightenment (i.e., transcending all “thought” to connect with the “self” – a universal state of being that exists beyond thought). The eight “limbs” of yoga were codified in the...
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YOLO: Mantra for the Yoga Lifestyle or Excuse to Indulge?
If you’re over the age of 30, “YOLO” may mean nothing to you (unless you’re a fan of Katie Couric, who asks viewers of her talk show to tell her “What’s Your YOLO”. “YOLO” is an acronym that stands for “You Only Live Once”, and it caught fire (and its own Twitter #hashta...
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What is Meditation? Am I Really Doing It?
Over time, meditation can be credited with transforming the mind, encouraging concentration, clarity, and emotional positivity. Through a daily practice, you can learn the patterns and habits of the mind, specifically, observing the mind think. By observing the mind think ...
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To Be Perfectly Honest: The Yoga Practice of Satya
As discussed in “Are You A Poser: Get Enlightened With the Eight Limbs of Yoga”, the physical practice of yoga is one of eight parts of a total system with the goal of enlightenment (i.e., transcending “thought” to connect with the “self” - a universal state of being ). T...
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First Do No Harm: The Ahimsa Principle in Yoga
As discussed in “Are You A Poser: Get Enlightened With the Eight Limbs of Yoga”, The physical practice of yoga is just one of eight parts of a total system with the goal of enlightenment – where enlightenment refers to the transcending of the mind to connect with the univ...
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Are You a Poser? Get Enlightened with Yoga!
Some people think of yoga as a physical practice consisting of poses including: Warrior, Triangle, Downward Facing Dog and Upward Facing Dog. In fact, the physical practice is one of eight parts of a total system, the goal of which is enlightenment (which refers to the tr...
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Home Sweet Ommm: Sequencing Your Home Yoga Practice
You don't have to have completed a yoga teacher training in order to structure a delightfully juicy home yoga practice. In fact, a little bit of self-confidence, drive and guidelines can be enough to get you started today…so get out your mat! To begin, find a...
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Your “Perfect Fit” Guide For Yoga
No matter what your story, there’s a yoga that will fit you. The challenge is finding it. Although yoga is more than just a physical practice, it is based on the notion that a quiet mind can be cultivated through exercising the body. Of course, the wrong exercise can...
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5 Best Meditation Apps
With meditation becoming more and more popular, app developers all around the world have flooded the market with a variety of different apps for the iPhone and Android operating systems. We've done our research and found the 5 best ones: 1. Mindfulness ...
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Spring Rebirth With Meditation and Awareness
Most of us in the west come from a culture that does not breed or cultivate awareness. We tend to subscribe to an ethic that equates success of one kind or another with personal value and worth.Naturally this creates an inherent and deep internal antagonism that per...
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Heart Chakra Meditation
An open heart touches the whole universe. The human energy system has seven primary energy centers often called chakras. Meditation and awareness are potent tools for clearing the chakras and releasing blocked, dense or frozen energy patterns that are preventing us from ...
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Movement As Meditation
Although meditation is often seen as a practice that we do sitting still, and there is great value in this, true meditation (being our natural state) is available to us anytime, anywhere. Anything that we do with awareness allows us to touch into the place within us that exist...
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Meditating On Relationships
True meditation is simply resting in our natural state. Our natural state is expanded and relaxed, at peace and in harmony with the world around us. There is an overall sense of fluidity, joy and lack of conflict. Meditation is the anchoring of our awareness in this deepest pl...
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5 Tips for Natural Stress Management
Stress is a normal part of everyday life, and a little stress is good for our bodies because it helps stimulate us to achieve our goals. But overwhelming stress, also called distress, is a big problem.Stress is the bodys response to a threat. The fight or flight response ...
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Developing Your Intuition
Our intuition is one of our deepest links to our spirituality. To me it is part of a cosmic language that links us not only to each other, but to everything else and to the very pulse of the universe. The language of intuition is one of our greatest gifts. Over the yea...
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Meditation for Deep Physical Healing
As a health practitioner and meditation teacher, I love to help people to heal physically using both physical health principles and spiritual principles. Meditation is the foundation for connecting to the place where the laws of physical health reside in our beings, as well as...
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Spiritual Growth Through Meditation
Life is chalk full of potential for spiritual growth. How you choose to take these lessons and deal with them is what determines the speed in which you spiritual evolution will unfold. Meditation is the best vehicle I know of to get you there.Every day each of is confront...
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Meditation & Stopping
What would happen if we just stopped? What would happen if we stopped trying to fix our bodies, stopped trying to fix the world? Stopped trying to figure out what we’re going to do a minute from now, an hour from now, a week from now? Stopped trying to piece this moment together ...
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Finding Truth through Meditation
When we sit in meditation, we need to be willing to experience ‘truth’ in order to get to the ‘Truth. Let me explain. The big ‘T’ Truth is ultimately what we are looking for as seekers. Our teachers can point to the direction of the Truth, but ultimately it is something we need ...
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Listening to Your Body with Meditation
Healing the body requires the need to recognize the importance of creating an intimate relationship with the body. The foundation of all good relationships is listening, and the way the body communicates with us is through sensation. One of the ways to create a healthy, deep, rea...
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A Guided Meditation for Energy Flow
The following text is a transcript of a guided meditation practiced for a group that was spending time together exploring the energy field and using awareness in stillness and movement to allow energy to follow its natural course. Here are a few of the principles w...
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Meditation Methods & Awareness
If meditation could be summarized in one brief sentence, it would be “rest as awareness.” Meditation is not something that we do, it’s what we are. It allows us to access and enjoy our true nature without the usual distractions of activities, thoughts, sounds, emotions, sensation...
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Meditate and Leave Everything You Know Behind
Many of my friends who are students come to meditation with the idea that it will help them to stop their minds, or at the very least control their thoughts. This is a common misperception of the outcome of a regular meditation practice. In fact, true meditation is a complete let...
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Meditation: Who Am I?
There are some spiritual and meditation teachers who guide almost entirely from the place of encouraging students to pose the question, "Who am I?"—or as one of my teachers Adyashanti puts it, "What am I?"—as a means of spiritual inquiry in our practice. The ...
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Clearing the Mind’s Compartments
The human mind is constantly separating its experiences into two primary categories: that which it likes and that which it dislikes. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than when we sit in the stillness of meditation. As details of our moments come into our awareness, we immediate...
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More Techniques for Weight Loss and Wellness
In Techniques for Weight Loss & Wellness, you learned about five relatively quick techniques to help you relax and think with your “thinking brain.” I discussed the importance of adding these relaxation exercises to your routine, and how beneficial they are for weight loss an...
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Techniques for Practicing Meditation
True meditation is a living practice that can’t be defined in terms of steps to take. First of all, there is nowhere to go but to be right here in this moment; so it’s helpful to let go of thinking that you just need to find and master the right technique for peace to happen. Th...
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Techniques for Weight Loss and Wellness
Empowerment. Willpower. Discipline. When it comes to weight loss, many of us would be in a position to celebrate long term success if we had willpower and discipline when choosing our food, because weight loss is as much about how you should think as it is about what you shoul...
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The Key to Meditation: Just Do It
When it comes to teaching meditation, it's all about sharing the experience. As a meditation teacher I often wish I could hand over to my students the experience of peace and wholeness that I feel in meditation so that they would be encouraged to practice regularly and bene...
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Obstacles to Meditation: The Five Hindrances
Letting your mind go blank is easier said than done. Luckily, ancient Buddhist monks figured out centuries ago to shut out the noise around them and concentrate on the stillness, and we can learn from them. Oftentimes what we encounter in the course of our meditation is a far cr...
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Meditation and the Power of Yes
Each moment that we live is made up of diverse components that are in a constant state of change. This is often most evident to us when we sit quietly in the silence of meditation. We notice sounds all around us and realize that the truly quiet moment is rare indeed. The humming...
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Meditation: Awareness and Attitude
"Go in and in and turn away from nothing that you find." So reads the last line of a poem by the great Danna Faulds. I love this line because it expresses one of the most important aspects of the attitude that should be brought to our meditation practice. All too often...
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Making Effortless, Life-Affirming Choices
Life is all about keeping it simple. At this point in my career as a holistic health practitioner, I have come to learn the importance of spending time teaching clients and students how to recognize and move through emotional patterns so that nurturing food and lifestyle choices ...
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Meditation: Establishing Your Practice
Just like anything worth doing, meditation is worth doing right. In order to be effective, meditation should be practiced regularly and although it is simple, it’s not easy. It requires sincere commitment. Generally, it's advised to sit twice a day—once in the morning and o...
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Meditation: The Foundation For Good Health
Ever wonder what meditation really is? Although most people think meditation is something that we must work to achieve, in reality, meditation is actually our natural state.Our usual state—which can be characterized by effort, resistance, and a feeling of separateness—is actually...
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'Yoga to the Rescue' Brings Humor to Yoga
In this often hectic world in which we live, facing heavy issues like the harsh economy and upcoming presidential election, it is no wonder many may well be stressed on a daily basis. While meditation and yoga will reduce stress levels and help maintain a healthy cortisone hormon...
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Hara Meditation Helps Bring Balance
Back in the 1950s and '60s, meditation was frequently described as "contemplating your navel." It didn’t seem like a very satisfying spiritual practice. In fact, the idea of contemplating one's navel seemed so silly that the phrase was popularly used to der...
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Yoga Then and Now
Yoga is an ancient practice that has become an important part of today’s mainstream fitness vocabulary. Everyone has heard about yoga and there are millions of practitioners in North America with new people joining every day. Most people practice yoga several times a week whil...
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Should Yoga Be an Olympic Sport?
As the 2008 Beijing Olympics approaches, discussions arise about the possible addition of an exposition event featuring yoga. The Ashtanga News, a website dedicated to this branch of yoga, stated in a recent blog, "Yoga has been considered for a long time, but due to its non...
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Treat Insomnia with Yoga
Millions of people suffer from insomnia. As many as one in 10 Americans suffer from insomnia and one in four has trouble falling asleep on occasion. The Department of Health and Human Services defines insomnia as too little or poor quality sleep caused by one of the following:...
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