Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

Lately I have come to appreciate the power of positive affirmations. Simply speaking a sentence aloud a few times can change our state of mind. Once we change our state of mind we can start to feel the positive emotion behind our words. When we harness the emotion our energy shifts and so does our reality.

Treat yourself to a pumpkin facial this Fall! Every year I save the fresh pumpkin after carving our Jack O' Lantern and make myself this special treat. It's so fresh and fabulous! Whether it's fresh or canned pumpkin that you use, you will feel renewed as your skin soaks up all the many nutrients of this seasonal squash.

In honor of Earth Day, I thought I would put out some reminders/ideas on how to love, nurture, and appreciate our planet more. Please feel free to share your own ideas of ways you celebrate and save our Earth in the comment box below!

From an orphanage in Moracco, to a ship on the China seas, to a military base in Iraq, to an elementary school in Thailand, Peace Corps volunteers and U.S military personnel are practicing and teaching yoga thanks to YogaDownload’s Yoga for Peace program. Through this program, active U.S military and Peace Corps volunteers receive a free unlimited membership to YogaDownload, which gives them access to hundreds of downloadable yoga classes and meditations. The founder of YogaDownload, Jamie Kent, created Yoga for Peace in 2006 as a way to give back to those who devote their lives to the service of others. With over hundreds of Peace Corps and Military members, this program has helped each person involved thrive, and also given each member tools to transform the lives of others all over the world.

Recently I attended a commitment seminar (Landmark Forum), and we were asked to make a list of what we are committed to in our lives. "Easy enough," I thought, so I wrote down things like, health, yoga, teaching, being a good wife, love, contentment, learning, saving money, and a few others.

I sat down yesterday to write my shopping list of what to buy my loved-ones for the holidays, and to think about what to tell my mom that I needed this year. But I got sidetracked by a welcome epiphany. I was awakened to the true abundance that I live in. I have a Mac computer, an iPhone, a closet overflowing with clothes, and plenty of snacks in the fridge. “What might it be like not to have all this,” I thought. Some families might spend their holiday in a hospital or shelter. Most likely, they won't have the luxury of choosing whether to eat turkey or ham or both for their holiday dinner. Many kids won’t experience the joy of a pile of wrapped presents to wake up to Christmas morning, or a chewy bite of iced sugar cookie to nibble on as I have every year since I was a kid.

Living a healthy life is very simple, inexpensive, and accessible. While you may have heard all 12 of these ways before, you may or may not be actually practicing them. Allow the following list to serve as a call to action to carve time out of your day or week for your own health and wellness:

While going to a yoga studio to practice is an enlightening experience, it can often be a challenge to get there. The truth is that we can practice yoga (postures) anywhere. We don't have to be by the ocean, a mountain stream, or in front of a mirror at a studio. All we need is enough space for a yoga mat. Practicing yoga at home is a convenient way to maintain a committed yoga practice in the comfort of your own space. Here are five tips to make your home practice effective:

Yoga will change your body, and it will also change your life. This could seem like a bold statement for those who have never experienced yoga beyond the physical element. So often when I mention that I teach yoga, people respond, "Oh I'm terrible at yoga! I can't touch my toes!" I smile and let them know that yoga is so much more than stretching, but I usually get a confused look in return. I laugh at the thought that I would have based my whole life and career as a yoga teacher around just getting people to touch their toes. Yoga is not that boring. Like many others, I began yoga for physical reasons, but quickly learned that the true practice could transform me from the inside out. Regardless of what initially brings us to yoga, the reasons that we keep returning to our mats are far more awesome.

We were all born with flexibility. It is life experience and stress that tightens up our bodies, rounds our shoulders, and gives us neck and back pain. Imagine if you would have learned yoga postures and deep breathing techniques when you were a kid. How might your body and mind be different today? While we cannot go back in time to change our own lives, we can offer the opportunity of learning yoga to our children. These days children live a fast paced life of school, homework, sports, music lessons, and other activities that combined together can cause stress. Kids yoga can provide an opportunity for children to slow down, stretch, and connect to their inner joy so that they can learn to cope with stress, and stay flexible. Here are more ways that children can benefit from yoga:

If there is one yoga posture that tests our patience, flexibility, and dedication, it is Hanumanasana, or the forward splits. Unless you are a dancer or gymnast, it can seem ridiculous to even attempt such a huge stretch that can take years to achieve, but therein lies the magic of the pose. While I doubt Hanumanasana is anyone’s favorite pose, we cannot ignore the physical, mental, and spiritual power that this posture can evoke.