Did you know that practicing certain styles of yoga is an excellent way to build not only flexibility and balance, but also strength? Hatha yoga, specifically styles of Vinyasa, Power, and Ashtanga work like a functional fitness program with your own body weight. In a well-rounded yoga practice, you work your body in all planes of motion and utilize not just the large muscles, but the small ones too.
When you feel strong physically, there’s a direct correlation to how you feel emotionally and mentally as well. It’s all connected.
Let’s focus on the physical aspect and how yoga builds strength. Many of the standing postures you know and love are weight-bearing exercises, like Virabhadrasana (Warrior) I and II. By practicing them regularly, you are building strength in your glutes, thighs, and calves, as well as your bones. When you add in balancing postures where you stand on one leg or on your hands, you’re also incorporating your core stabilizer muscles. Think Vrksasana (Tree Pose) and Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand.)
In Vinyasa classes, you generally begin with Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutations), which are a flowing full body strength workout. Moving through Uttanasana/Forward Fold to Chatarangua to Urdhva Mukha Svanasana/Upward Facing Dog to Adho Mukha Svanasana/Downward Facing Dog engages every muscle in your body in a balanced, integrated way.
You aren’t just getting stronger; you’re also becoming more flexible. This combination is excellent for preventing injury and also enhancing your performance for sports and everyday life.
Creating a strong stable core through yoga will protect your spine and help alleviate or prevent back pain. Strengthening your center is key for excellent posture and also helps keep your digestive system moving freely and effectively. Many poses require a balancing element and your core works directly to assist your stability. And who doesn’t love Navasana (Boat Pose) and Phalakasana (Plank Pose)?
Building physical strength will boost your confidence because you’ll feel invigorated and ready to face any challenge. Working to get stronger requires discipline or tapas and stokes your inner fire. Because everything is connected, whatever you do for your physical self directly benefits to your inner self.
Try any or all of our new classes this week for a power boost!
1. Dana Hanizeski - Core strength the Iyengar Way (FREE class)
2. Claire Petretti Marti - Pilates Yoga Fusion Express
3. Keith Allen - Yoga Fix: Healthy Backbends
4. Pradeep Teotia - Deep Like Pradeep
If you ever need to change somebody’s opinion about cauliflower, then this is the recipe for it. It is crispy, spicy, sticky, and delicious. Of course, you can adjust the spiciness level according to your taste, but I love the spice, and I have listed the amounts of chili I used.
The sauce is one of the things that makes the dish enjoyable and gives it a lot of flavor, but the most essential part is the crispy-battered cauliflower itself. The secret in the batter is vodka!
Don’t worry, there will be no alcohol left after frying, but it gives the batter extra crispiness that can stand the sauce and will not be soaked within 5 minutes. In fact, since I had some leftovers the last time I cooked this dish, then I had it for breakfast the next day, and it was still crispy in some parts, even after standing in the fridge overnight.
I always love to serve steamed rice with this cauliflower, but it is also good on its own as a snack.
Crispy Cauliflower in a Sweet & Spicy Sauce
Serves: 3-4
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
For the cauliflower:
1 medium cauliflower
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup cornstarch
½ tsp baking powder
½ cup water
½ cup vodka
A pinch of salt
Oil, for frying
For the sauce:
1 tsp grated ginger
1 red chili, chopped
1 tsp sesame oil
½ cup soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
¼ cup mirin
2 tbsp coconut sugar
2 dried chilies
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water
Spring onion, to serve
Instructions:
Cut the cauliflower to bite-sized pieces.
Heat the oil in a bottom of a small saucepan. The oil should be about 2 inches deep and very hot, so that the cauliflower wouldn’t absorb too much of it during cooking time.
Mix the cornstarch, flour, baking powder, and salt, then add water and vodka and mix everything to a batter. It will be quite runny, don’t worry about it.
Dip the cauliflower pieces into the batter, let the excess drip off and fry the pieces for 5-6 minutes. Do not overcrowd the pan while cooking and turn the pieces around occasionally, so they would cook evenly. Using the slotted spoon, transfer the cauliflower pieces to drain on paper towel.
At the same time, you can already start preparing the sauce. Fry the ginger and onion in the sesame oil on the medium heat. After 5 minutes add soy, rice wine vinegar, mirin, and sugar straight to the pan, also crumble up the dried chilies.
In a small bowl mix 1 tbsp cornstarch with 2 tbsp water, add it to the sauce and stir until the sauce thickens.
If all of the cauliflower is fried and the sauce ready, then mix them and sprinkle with chopped spring onion. Serve just like that as a snack or as a main with steamed rice.
By Kadri Raig
Kadri is a food blogger and yoga teacher from Estonia. She loves healthy food and cooking and for her, these two are often the same thing. Cooking meals from scratch, you know exactly what goes in it and even without holding back with sugar or fat we end up using a lot less compared to ready-made frozen stuff from the supermarket.
She does love to spend time in the kitchen, but most of her recipes are simple and don’t take more than 20 minutes of active cooking time. She thinks that everybody can find time to cook healthy food at home, it is just a question of planning. "I work in an office full time, teach yoga 7-8 hours a week and write a blog. So if I manage to cook most of my meals, then so do you!"
Connect with Kadri and enjoy many more of her delicious healthy recipes on her website here: http://www.kahvliga.ee/.
Practice Yoga for Detox, Cleansing, & Vitality now to complement this healthy recipe!
Cannabis-enhanced yoga is a thing. Whether popping up in classes across the country, being mentioned alongside other forms of athleticism in articles about CBD-fuelled fitness, or made into fashion with weed-themed yoga leggings, the pairing of the ancient practice and healing plant has become quite the conversation topic in yoga studios across the world.
Many people are enjoying the anti-inflammatory, relaxation, and creative benefits of cannabis on yoga. As the first moderner to offer public enhanced-yoga practice, I am so happy to see the marriage of humanity’s oldest methods for relaxation and spiritual insight gain momentum and increased acceptance. Ten years ago, when I started offering a yogic setting for people to get high and do yoga, I googled and found no other mention of the two, other than Chris Bennett’s insightful writing on the history of yoga and cannabis in ancient spiritual practice in India.
We’ve come a long way baby! (five thousand years or more, to be exact...).
As more people turn to THC and CBD to enhance their yoga, it’s important to know a few things that people often get wrong. That way, you you can make sure you are getting the most of out this sacred, awesome pairing, no matter if you’re going to a canna-yoga class in your city, doing my ganja yoga videos online, or smoking up and doing your own stretching at home.
Myth #1 - Yoga is athletics, hard, and only for certain bodies.
It’s been awesome to see all these articles about weed-fuelled fitness coming out. Ganja Jogging, Weed Weightlifting, and Marijuana Muay Thai are the talk of the town, (okay, I made that last one up…). With former NFL athlete Ricky Williams and other professional sports stars talking about how going green making their work-out even better, it’s all about the athletic advantage that cannabis can offer.
I have nothing wrong with this of course, except when the articles mention yoga alongside all the other workouts, and show images of fit-AF people doing very hard yoga poses, perpetuating the idea of a hard practice and a specific type of “yoga body.”
In our culture, we unconsciously run an internal, unconscious program of contraction as we go about our busy lives. Many of us are more rushed, tired, stressed, distracted and unsatisfied than we know we should be. Everyone knows that stress the leading cause of premature death, yet anxiety disorders, depression, frustration, and feelings of disconnection (the symptoms of stress and disconnection), - are all too common.
Yoga can be, should be, a balm to soothe all that.
It’s a place for letting go of our mass cultural contraction, … a time for surrendering and softening the muscles, an occasion to drop the mind and all the grasping and depleting over-thinking we do.
Yoga wasn’t really meant to be a work-out in the way we think of workouts. It certainly doesn’t have to be something you dread, or something you think you should do after eating too many carbs. Yoga doesn’t even have to make you break a sweat.
And, while we’re on the topic, yoga is about so, so much more than the poses.
So, knowing this, your weed-yoga class will probably (if the teacher knows what’s up as most weed-yoga teachers, do) be a lot easier than most yoga-studio yoga. And that’s a good thing.
I hear the real athletic types out there yawning in boredom at the thought of doing low-dub grandma-friendly yoga. If you like yoga classes with the word “power” in the title, and find the softer version of the ancient practice boring, see if you can be up for the internal challenge. Not of working your muscles, but of tapping into a more relaxed engagement with your body. Be still. Relax. Especially when high. Instead of brutalizing your body in yoga, see if you can you just be with it, - where it is now, - in simpler, more basic poses.
Evoke yogic sensitivity, which cannabis engenders, by doing less on your mat, not more. No grunting, no punishment, no contraction, just bliss and yummy relaxation, which is available to anyone who has a body.
Myth #2 - Cannabis-Enhanced Yoga is Dangerous
When people think Ganja Yoga is a bad idea, usually it’s because they think something about it may be dangerous. Often that’s because they don’t smoke pot all that much, saw a Cheech and Chong movie once, and assume me and my students will be hot boxing the room and then stumbling around like intoxicated goofs on our sticky mats.
A few things: First, you don’t have to get super baked to practice cannabis-enhanced yoga. It’s always an option, but sometimes it feels right to do a smaller dose before a practice (or even a microdose, where the effect is only-barely-felt). CBD and topicals are a way to use cannabis and not get high at all.
Second, weed doesn’t actually make you all that clumsy. States with legal cannabis don’t have higher cannabis-related car accidents. Sometimes balancing postures might become slightly harder when under the influence, but my students actually tend to report greater embodiment and awareness.
It really depends on how much you consume. Start low and go slow, you can always add more as you go.
My last point on the potential dangers: A good cannabis enhanced yoga teacher is not going to instruct you to do something that may be dangerous to fall out of. A good yoga teacher, - enhanced with cannabis or not, - doesn’t make the mistake of taking a mixed-level class into poses that aren’t safe.
So, you won’t be doing any potentially-dangerous inversions with me, stoned or not, unless we’ve had a few private sessions and I’ve known you for a good long time. Your teacher (and your common sense) should make sure what you get up to in your yoga practice is safe, relaxing, and fun. In that order.
Myth #3 - Certain Strains or Consumption Methods Are Better For Yoga
I often get asked what strain is best for Ganja Yoga, and this is a tricky question. In the age of a quick-fix solution, people want a few strains, not a long diatribe about how each strain works individually with one’s unique biochemistry...
However, I can’t not. Cause when you combine the various cannabinoid constellations with the various terpene profiles, you can get easily thousands of different strains to choose from.
The best strain for yoga is the one that serves you in that moment.
Perhaps you’re sluggish for yoga today, so a strain with a lot of the terpene (aka - aromatherapy oil), called “myrcene” (which brings about relaxation), might not be the best for you. Better to get a pick-me-up with a strain containing the terpene limonene, which is like a zesty lemon to wake you up.
Lots of strains of limonene though, so do you want one with high-THC to help with pain and get you trippin, or one with more CBD to reduce anxiety? Keep in mind that THC and CBD are only two of dozens of cannabinoids to consider. Like I said, strains are a lot more than meets the eye.
What strain you choose today might not be the strain you choose tomorrow. Play around with both strains and methods so as you begin your daily yoga routine, you can start to have a sense of what works best for you, depending on the time of day, your yoga practice, and your health needs and goals.
I recommend keeping a journal so you can refer back to the strains that really brought the “Mmm” to your Om.
On top of strains, there’s the vast array of consumption methods. Edibles give the best body-buzz so I often recommend them for yoga. However, the onset is rather slow, so you need to consume about an hour before you hit your mat, and it’s easy to over-consume, so be sure to go slow and eat more later if needed.
Tinctures are faster-acting than edibles, and can be placed under the tongue so they get absorbed into the bloodstream. Smoking is an ancient practice that connects you to the spirit of fire, but consuming burnt particles of any kind may not keep those yogic lungs happy for long. Vaping is a safer alternative, though it can sometimes be hard to tell just how high you are from a vape, and it doesn’t feel particularly sacred in the way smoking does. Lastly, topicals are great for rubbing onto sore muscles before stretching them out, but of course don’t change your state of consciousness.
Each method has its pros and cons for yoga and for life.
There you have it, the top three misconceptions about weed-inspired yoga, and how you can beat them: Don’t think of yoga as a workout, keep your practice safe, and be open to various strains, - and you’re well on your way to making the most of the pairing that got ancient Indian yogis flying high thousands of years ago. Whether you get high and watch easy yoga videos online, toke before making up your own stretches and dance moves, go to a regular yoga class baked, or find a teacher in your city that offers classes where you can get high together, keep it chill and customize it to you, modify and rest as needed, and, most awesomely, know that you’re part of a movement of hundreds, if not thousands of yogis, - all across the world doing the very same thing.
Bom Shiva!
By Dee Dussault
Dee Dussault is the yoga first teacher to offer public cannabis yoga classes. Over the past decade, she’s brought her classes, which she calls Ganja Yoga, to thousands of students in over a dozen US cities.
A seasoned yoga practitioner of twenty-three years, Dee is also an international speaker and the author of the Harpercollins book by the same name. Ganja Yoga has been featured in publications like The New York Times, Business Insider, Newsweek, and LA Yoga, as well as major International media from India to France.
A lover of bliss, Dee also works as a sex coach who specializes in tantra yoga and cannabis-enhanced intimacy. She works with singles and couples in Los Angeles and San Francisco, helping them tap into their radiant embodied selves. Her training was in the Tantric tradition of Swami Satyananda Saraswati.
www.ganjayoga.com @ganjayoga on Instagram
Practice yoga now to feel amazing, whether or not it's infused with cannabis!
Evening Relaxation Yoga with Jackie Casal Mahrou
Feel Amazing Flow with Keith Allen
Practicing yoga at night or morning- which is right for you?
Yoga, like any exercise, gives you the greatest benefits when you regularly incorporate it into your routine. However you might be wondering which is better, yoga in the morning or the evening.
With yoga and getting into a regular practice, it’s important to practice at the time that is best to you. There’s no perfect time that suits absolutely everyone the same, but there’s one golden rule - find a time where there’s no distractions between you and your yoga mat.
Whatever time of day is the time that you’ll be the least distracted is the best time of day for you to practice - regardless of whether it’s in the morning or in the evening.
Try to practice when you are still feeling awake however! Sleepiness and tiredness will hinder your ability to reap the benefits of your yoga practice. You should also wait a while after eating to work out, just like any activity, to avoid any discomfort.
The time that you practice is ultimately not as important as practicing yoga regularly and consistently. The more you practice yoga, you will notice the benefits and changes take a hold of your body and your daily life. With consistent practice, you’ll be able to progress deeper into the poses, and take on harder variations over time. Disciple and determination are key in taking on a regular yoga practice, so finding a right time where you’ll be able to focus on your body and movements is very important.
Choosing the time you practice yoga depends on a lot of different external factors, such as your schedule, your space, class timings.
The time of day you practice can affect which postures you practice, so it’s important to consider what’s right for you. For example, everyone has different body clocks and schedules. If you are a morning person, you may need certain asanas to stimulate you and get you ready for the day ahead, while if you are a night owl, you may want to use your practice to unwind before bed.
Is morning yoga right for you?
Generally, morning yoga practice consists of gentle movements to start to ease you into your day after you’ve woken up. They might have a few more long stretches at the start, such as forward folds and cobra to help ease you into the day.
Morning asanas might also consist of a lot of sun salutations, to help wake up your body, so you might want to incorporate some inversions and heart openers such as camel and wheel. These poses will wake you up and make you feel rejuvenated for the day ahead. It’s also good to add a head or shoulder stand to help send oxygen into your head, helping you to face the day ahead of you.
The time before the sun rises is considered a very spiritually charged time of day, and it is a great time to start your practice, if morning yoga is for you. Practicing yoga the first thing in the morning can help you to clear your mind and boost your body for the day, as well as warm up your body if you’re prone to waking up feeling stiff. This is why energizing poses like sun salutations are ideal for morning practice.
It’s also good to take advantage of the coolness of the morning, so you don’t overheat in warm climates. If you practice your yoga before eating your breakfast, you’ll also benefit from having an empty stomach, and you might find challenging poses a little easier when your body is not digesting any food.
Ultimately, morning yoga is ideal if you wake up early and like to set your tone for the day. It gives you the space and quiet to reflect on the day ahead of you and set any goals you may have for your day. If you practice yoga in the morning, you’re also more likely not to skip your practice and get it done for the day. Throughout the day other distractions and conflicts may come up, meaning you miss your yoga time.
Is evening yoga right for you?
Yoga at night is ideal to soothe and relax after a hard long day. Try to resist big heart openers and inversions that you might practice in a morning yoga session, as these are energizing moves and not idea for just before heading to bed.
Surrender poses are great to soothe you in your evening practice, with poses like half pigeon. Twists and other relaxing poses can help you unwind after a heavy day. Yoga in the evening helps you unwind and process the day just gone, so choose poses that will help you destress such as child’s pose, which will aid digestion and help you get a good night’s sleep.
If you just can’t get up in the morning, evening practice might be for you. It can help you wind down after a busy day, and you might be able to spend more time on your practice as you don’t have anywhere to be after (apart from your bed!).
If you incorporate it into your nighttime routine, yoga can help you fall asleep quickly by getting your mind and body ready to rest. You might even want to add in a meditation to your practice to help you further de-stress.
When it comes down to it, the time you practice is up to you. Thankfully, if you’re struggling to find a routine that works, this week's classes are all selected, to help you create healthy routines for yourself to stick to. Whether your best moments for routine, are in the morning, middle of the day, or the evening, this week's classes have you covered.
By Amy Cavill
Ready to explore which time of day is right for you? Try these classes, designed either for morning or evening time!
Get Your Day Started with Robert Sidoti
Yoga Ritual: Evening Practice with Mark Morford
These days, life seems to only get busier and often it’s easy to let your yoga practice fall by the wayside when work deadlines, family obligations, travel, or fill-in-the-blank, get in the way.
Staying healthy physically, emotionally, and mentally can be a challenge when you feel pressed for time. What’s important to remember is a consistent yoga practice will keep you healthy. When you feel your best, everything else falls into place.
We’re here with a few tips and tricks to help you solidify your yoga habit. Remember there isn’t a one-sized fits all method––what’s key is having a game plan. Whether you prefer practicing first thing in the morning, later in the evening, or anytime you can squeeze in a yoga break, creating an individualized schedule will make the difference. Once you feel the benefits of a clear mind, supple and strong muscles, and a softer heart, sticking to your yoga practice becomes second nature.
Here are 4 effective ways online yoga can make yoga a natural part of your routine!
1. Write it Down
One of the most powerful tools in creating a routine is writing it down. Schedule your yoga in your planner at the beginning of your week. Commit to practicing yoga daily. When you take the time to make yoga an official part of your day and your week, you’re setting yourself up to create a habit that becomes as second nature as brushing your teeth with many more benefits.
2. Consistency
Worry less about how long your yoga session is and focus more on making time for some yoga each day. You don’t always have to practice for an hour or longer. Some days you might only have fifteen minutes and we’ve got a class for that! Consistency is key and it’s better to do a little yoga every day than only practice once a week.
3. Mix it Up
Many of us have varied schedules and no two days are the same. Don’t worry if you can’t always practice at the same time. We’ve got classes suited to Monday Morning, Tuesday lunchtime, Wednesday on the road, Thursday evening, and Friday whenever the heck you want. Mix it up!
4. Set Up Favorites
One of the beauties of an online practice is you can practice when and where you want. One way to make sure you fit in your yoga is to have favorite classes saved. This way, you don’t have to browse through to find something that fits your mood and schedule. Prevent the possibility of losing steam and motivation. If you find a class you love, take a second to save it and you’ll be able to return to it quickly.
There’s no need to get stuck in a rigid schedule if that isn’t the right fit for you. But if you don’t have a game plan set up to get your practice in each day, often you can miss it. And missing one day can snowball into losing your practice.
To make it even easier this week, we’ve got four new classes arranged by time of the day to get you started. Go ahead and hit ‘Play’ today and see how powerful you can be with a regular, consistent practice.
1. Mark Morford - Yoga Ritual: Evening Practice
2. Robert Sidoti - Get Your Day Started
3. Kylie Larson - Qi Yoga Lunchtime Flow
4. Bhavani Maki - Suryanamaskara C: Moving Meditation
As you probably know by now, we at the Conscious Cleanse L-O-V-E green smoothies. They’re the perfect, nutritionally-dense breakfast that takes less than 5 minutes to make and can even be enjoyed on the go! For a collection of our favorite green smoothie recipes, be sure to grab our Green Smoothies eCookbook here.
Part of what make green smoothies so amazing is they can be easily customized to fit your individual health needs by adding superfood boosters! Whether you need to add extra protein and healthy fats to your diet, or you’re looking for help with detoxification or blood sugar regulation, we’ve got a booster for you! Check out our list below for some of our top superfood picks to boost the health value of your green smoothie.
Here are 9 of our favorite smoothie boosters and their individual health benefits:
Maca Root
Maca is a Peruvian root known for its ability to help balance hormones and stabilize mood. It’s also an adaptogen, which means it can help manage stress levels, enhance strength and stamina, and increase energy and endurance. Add 1-2 TB. of maca powder to your smoothie to enjoy these health benefits.
Chia Seeds
Chia seeds are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, which support heart and brain health. They also contain fiber, which supports gut health, and energy-sustaining protein. For best results, soak 1-3 TB. of chia seeds in water for at least 15 minutes before adding them to your smoothie.
Hemp Seeds
Hemp seeds are nature’s perfect protein powder. They’re also one of the only plant-based complete proteins, meaning they contain all 9 essential amino acids. Add 3 TB. to your green smoothie for 14 grams of plant-based protein.
Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is rich in healthy fats, which support energy levels and healthy skin. Adding healthy fat to your diet can help reduce cravings, too! Use 1 TB. of oil to give your smoothie a boost. Olive oil is a good alternative if you are allergic or sensitive to coconuts.
Spirulina and Fresh Cilantro
Spirulina, which comes from algae, and fresh cilantro both help the body detoxify, especially from heavy metals like mercury or lead. Add about half a bunch of cilantro and/or 2 tsp. of spirulina powder to your smoothie to aid in detox.
Ceylon Cinnamon
Ceylon cinnamon is a specific variety of cinnamon that has been known to aid in blood sugar regulation. If you are sensitive to sugar or have other blood sugar-related issues, 1-2 tsp. of this booster is a great addition to your daily smoothie!
Avocado
Avocados are a great source of healthy fats to help increase energy and reduce cravings, fiber to help digestion and gut health, and contain more potassium than a banana! Add ¼-½ of an avocado to your smoothie for these great health benefits.
Ginger Root
Fresh ginger can help with mild indigestion, and also helps support a healthy immune system. Plus it adds a great spicy flavor to any smoothie recipe! Use a 1-2” piece of peeled fresh ginger root to your morning smoothie.
Flaxseeds
Flaxseeds are super high in fiber, which aids in healthy digestion and can help relieve constipation. They also contain the omega fatty acids that specifically aid in skin health. Add 1-2 TB. to your morning smoothie for glowing skin and smooth digestion.
What’s your favorite smoothie booster? Let us know in the comments below!
With love and superfood smoothies,
Jo Schaalman and Jules Peláez are co-authors of the book The Conscious Cleanse: Lose Weight, Heal Your Body and Transform Your Life in 14 Days, a best-selling, step-by-step guide to help you live your most vibrant life. Together they’ve led thousands of people through their online supported cleanse through their accessible and light-hearted approach. They’ve been dubbed “the real deal” by founder and chief creative director Bobbi Brown, of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, beauty editor of the TODAY show.
Practice Yoga for Detox, Cleansing & Vitality, now!
Is it true that doing yoga can really improve the quality of your sex life? Of course!
If you practice yoga regularly, you have probably already seen this for yourself. Just do not know exactly how yoga does it.
Here are 8 amazing ways how yoga can improve the quality of your sex life.
1. Yoga Improves Stamina
Yoga increases stamina over time. If you practice yoga regularly, your body gradually becomes accustomed to physical activity. In the long run, you become more resilient. The higher the stamina, the more successful you are in bed.
2. Yoga Develops Flexibility
Yoga makes the body more flexible. In addition, yoga practitioners can keep a good balance. Both flexibility and the ability to keep balance are important skills, as they allow you to take various interesting sex positions that are beyond the power of those who do not practice yoga. We can say that yoga is very similar to the Kama Sutra.
3. Yoga Promotes Magnificent Orgasms
Seriously! People who regularly practice yoga declare that they have very intense and prolonged orgasms. Yoga contributes to some processes in the body and mind that we are not yet ready to fully understand, but this is somehow connected with text relaxation of muscles.
4. Yoga Teaches Breathing Correctly
An important part of the practice of yoga is training proper breathing, which helps to maximize the effectiveness of each breath. But what does this have to do with sex? You may not be aware that proper breathing plays an important role in improving the quality of intimate life. Properly breathing during sex, you can increase your efficiency, endurance and, perhaps, the most important thing is to achieve pleasure (and deliver it to your partner).
5. Asanas Can Be Done During Sex
Have you ever heard of such postures in yoga as the “dead beetle”, “dog snout down”, “kiss the chakras”, “ears between the knees”, “tree”, “recumbent”, “inverted slat”, “side slat”, "wheel "," cobra "? If not, we suggest you re-read the book or review the video on yoga - all the listed asanas (and many others) are amazing and well suited for sex! The simple and sad truth for most of us is that by rejecting yoga, we at the same time deprive ourselves of true pleasure during intimacy.
6. Yoga Protects from Stress
It turns out that sex and stress are inextricably linked! Stress can cause many problems. For men, the most common problem is the inability to maintain an erection, and for women, the inability to relax and reach orgasm. Regular yoga classes will help to avoid such problems.
7. Yoga Strengthens Muscles that Play an Important Role in Sex.
And what specific muscles are we talking about? For women, these are pelvic muscles, gluteus and core muscles, and for men, bark muscles, chest and arm muscles. Some of these muscles have aesthetic value when they are in good shape, but most of them also have a direct bearing on the most common postures. Strengthening these muscles helps to make sex better, more enjoyable and longer.
8. Yoga Helps You Find Yourself
Practicing yoga, we widen our mind, we are learning about ourselves, searching our inner “I” and revealing the resource of our sexual desires. When we comprehend our sexuality, we will learn to hear our body and understand what it tells us. So, we can more easily enjoy the intimacy!
By Dylan Menders
Dylan Menders is a psychologist and sexologist. He is a huge yoga and vegan diet enthusiast and the main editor at PotencyUp resource. His ultimate goal is to share his passion for self-development and to help them to become the greatest version of themselves. He believes a healthy body and successful social interactions are two main keys to happiness.
Enjoy better sex, from your yoga practice now, with Yoga for Better Sex with Claire Petretti Marti!
Yoga for Better Sex with Claire Petretti Marti
Feeling empowered and positive doesn’t come easy to everyone. It’s especially hard if we’ve had a challenging day, full of stressful moments like running late, being stuck in traffic, making small mistakes at work. It’s easy to let moments and days like this get you down, however, you can become more positive and practice by making small changes in your day.
These small changes can help you gain from negative experiences, and become more empowered by them.
Here’s 9 quick tips to help you on your way to feeling empowered, even on the most stressful day:
1. Don’t do anything
Yes, the first tip on this list is to simply ‘do nothing. That is, to take a few minutes each day to not focus on anything else except yourself, and to give yourself some undivided and positive attention. Take up to 15 minutes to be quiet, away from noise and distractions and connect with yourself, listening to your wants and needs. Knowing what you truly need in order to take care of yourself can be very empowering.
2. Help others
Once your own needs are taken care of, you can start to look outwards for ways you can help other people. Thinking about yourself always can be a little disempowering, and people tend to be more empowered by helping others out when they can. Take some time to think about what you’ve done to help others and to make someone else feel better. When your relationships are strengthened, you’ll feel much better about yourself and feel more connected to others.
3. Fake it till you make it
You can use your imagination to boost your feelings of empowerment. A quick tip is to imagine yourself as someone self-confident and empowered, this could be someone you know or someone completely fictional! Whenever you need to feel empowered, imagine yourself as this person. Over time, you'll naturally take on those positive and self-empowered traits, and you won’t need to fake it anymore.
4. Cross things off your to-do list
If you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed by the weight of just everything you need to get done in one day, write all the tasks down, even the little ones. Being able to cross something off your list - even if it’s as simple as ‘brush teeth’ will give you a little boost of confidence as your goal is achieved. This will help you to feel more empowered to cross some of the bigger tasks off your list.
5. Regular Exercise
Engaging in regular exercise will help you to raise your endorphin levels naturally. Try and pick something you know you like, so you will be more motivated to do it regularly. Just seven minutes of moving your body can help you feel fresh, focused and present.
6. Give to a worthy cause
Helping others can also extend to giving help to a worthy cause. Volunteering is a great way to empower yourself, and it also is proven to have both physical and mental benefits. Volunteering to a cause you care about can even help to lower your blood pressure and help you live longer! However if you’re time-poor, you can donate to a charity you admire, to give yourself that feeling of empowerment and positivity in helping others.
7. Stop comparing yourself
Comparing yourself to your peers can do harmful things to your sense of self-empowerment. Why? Because you’re not focusing on yourself and the positive things that make you ‘you’. Once you start understanding that comparison is futile, because we are all so different, you’ll feel more self empowered. There’s no one else like you, so there’s no comparison!
8. Make yourself some nourishing food
Taking the time to provide your body with something filling and nourishing is a great way to boost your self-esteem. When you eat junk food with no nutritional value, you can feel tired and powerless, with a lack of energy. Making and eating something that's truly nourishing can
Make you feel more energetic, and feel empowered that you’ve provided something beneficial for your body.
9. Learn when to give up
A big source of feeling unempowered is spending time and effort on something that just isn’t working, whether it’s a project, relationship or a job. If you find yourself in a fruitless endeavour, it could be the kindest thing to yourself to just give up. Focus on what you have to gain from letting go, rather than what you’d lose- whether it’s more time, or less stress, to help you decide if it’s worth powering through.
If you’re looking to feel empowered through yoga, take a look at this week’s classes. These are 5 consecutive intermediate classes from expert teacher Jackie Casal Mahrou, to empower you in the Empowerment Flow Program: Self-Confidence Overhaul. These rigorous flows will have you not only sweating and getting stronger, but also increase your feelings of confidence, willpower, and belief in yourself. Enjoy becoming empowered!
Stop what you are doing and close your eyes. Well, close your eyes after you read this article, of course.
Take a hard look at your life. Would you say you are living your life to its fullest potential and operating from your highest self?
If not, are you ready to make a true personal breakthrough? We’re here to help with a new program from beloved YogaDownload.com teacher, Jackie Casal Mahrou: 5-Day Empowerment Flow Series.
First, consider whether you are tapping into your well of inner strength, listening to your inner voice, and expressing your authentic self. Or have external events and global challenges dimmed your radiance? Bouncing back after unforeseen challenges rock your world isn’t always easy. Don’t forget your power exists inside of you. Resilience is the ability to stay strong through times of adversity; to prevent obstacles from destroying your spirit, and to continue to forge your path.
In yoga, we learn that we can’t control external events; we can only control our reaction to them.
When your life feels out of control, yoga can help by empowering you to trust yourself, build your confidence, and maintain your spirit no matter what’s happening around you. Yoga helps us to improve our thoughts and feel more comfortable in our own skin. Trust that each time you step onto the mat, you are empowering yourself by improving your health and well-being. When you feel stronger physically and your mind is calmer, you are able to tap into your highest self.
Being pro-active with your own health creates a sense of independence, hones your self-discipline and abilities, and enables you to live life in the deepest, most meaningful way for you. Don’t hold back from following your dreams because you question your talents or abilities. Release insecurities, self-doubt, and past failures and step into your most empowered self. Start today!
Empower yourself now, with this 5-Class Empowerment Flow Yoga Program: A Self-Confidence Overhaul with Jackie Casal Mahrou!
I challenge you to find a simpler recipe than this cucumber soup! With a beautiful summery weather spending long hours in the kitchen is not my idea of a good time. I’d rather spend it out enjoying the sun, hiking, cycling, doing yoga or just reading a good book. At the same time, I refuse to lower my food standards just because I don’t want to spend too much time cooking.
And this is precisely the type of recipe that is quick, seasonal, healthy and super delicious! Just perfect for warm weather. As a bonus, it is also light on calories, so you don’t need to feel guilty having a dessert after!
I always like to decorate my food, but this is, of course, not required. If you don’t feel like playing around with balling avocado, slicing cucumber super thinly or organizing edible flowers neatly, this is absolutely fine, but I still recommend to cube up some cucumber for some texture.
Otherwise, the whole meal reminds me of a smoothie instead of a soup. I do enjoy a nice smoothie too, but smoothie for me is rather a snack and soup is more like a full meal. And I like to have chewing as a part of a meal.
I guess you actually could call this a savory smoothie bowl instead of a soup, at least to attract your kids to try this too.
5-Minute Cooling Cucumber Soup
Serves: 2
Cooking time: 5 minutes
30 oz fresh cucumbers
2 small ripe avocados
0.5 limes
1 green onion
Salt
Whatever you like for garnish (peas, coriander, more onion, avocado, cucumber, edible flowers…)
Directions:
If you wish to make your soup look good, start with the decorations. This way you can use up all the leftover uneven pieces in the soup and don’t need to waste anything. For example, you can use the peeling knife to cut long thin slices from cucumber and melon baller for avocado, spring onion looks good in thin little rounds. Or go crazy and make exactly the shapes you like. Or save your time and skip the decorations altogether – the soup will be tasty anyway!
Cut all the ingredients, squeeze the juice out of lime and throw everything to a blender. Blend on high speed until you have a very smooth consistency.
Have a try and season to taste.
To serve, pour the soup to the bowls and decorate however you wish.
We all want to feel good in a swimsuit on the beach, right?
Have you ever wondered when or if that will ever happen? Is it simply losing weight? Gaining muscle? Is there a certain body type that defines sexy health?
Could you simply choose to change your mentality and feel sexy the way you are now, without changing anything? I have asked myself these questions too.
My weight has fluctuated a lot in my life, and for most of it I have felt extremely self conscious in a swimsuit. You know when I finally started feeling comfortable in a bikini?
When I truly started loving myself.
I don’t mean just saying that I love myself, repeating affirmations in hopes that they become true, etc. But I mean I started acting like I love myself. And of course that meant, I started acting like I love my body.
I had a wake up call when someone once called me out big time on the fact that I wasn’t taking care of my body’s basic needs.
When was the last time I went to a dentist? Why hadn’t I gotten any blood work done to see why I have headaches all the time, or why I have digestive issues? Why had I let a shoulder injury take over my life for over a year, losing a lot of my physical strength and beginning to resemble a couch potato?
Sure, I was going to yin yoga and journaling, but I wasn’t truly acting like I loved my body.
When you love someone, you want to take care of them. It brings you great pleasure to do so. You treasure these moments of caretaking. You want to make it known how much you love this person.
When was the last time you sat quietly and asked your body what it needs?
I mean, sit there for like 15 minutes, asking your body with tender loving kindness, what do you need, my sweetest love? You do so much for me everyday. What can I do for you? How may I serve you today?
I invite you to try this, right now if possible. Sit there, and ask your body the above questions.
If you were able to take a moment, or several, to tune into your body and ask it these questions, how different do you feel?
Now, what is one thing you can do today to support your body? To show your love and deep, genuine appreciation.
Arrange for it. For real, make it happen.
And once you’ve done that, write a love note to your body!
In your journal, so you can read back over it often.
Write about all of the many many things you appreciate about your body that work so well, without you having to do a single thing. Free gifts to you, in every moment, granting you no less than the gift of life.
Our bodies do not receive nearly enough gratitude for all that they are doing right. Once you let this gratitude and deep level of self love truly sink into you bones, it will begin to transform your mind as well.
Then, you might notice yourself eating foods that are going to make you feel good after you eat them. You know, the kind that will fuel your brain, increase your creative juices and give you that zest for life.
You might find yourself craving exercise for the good of this structure you live in everyday. You know, so you can get out and enjoy nature, feed your soul, and twirl your grandchildren around one day without tweaking your back.
You may find that you are in sync with the needs and desires of your body, and begin to honor those from a deep place of appreciation and love.
And because you know you deserve what's best for you! So you begin to eat when you need to eat, drink plenty of water, interact with people who make you feel loved and supported, and sleep when you need to sleep.
Next thing you know, you feel happy as a peach in your bikini!
You feel that delicious sun kissing your skin, and allow the rich minerals of the ocean water to cleanse your system, and you gratefully accept the medicine. Because you know you're worth it!
And the best part of it all? It doesn’t matter one bit how your body looks to other people. All you’re concerned with at that point is how you feel in your skin.
At that point, you’re shining. Everyone wants to be your friend.
Self-Care = Self-Love = Confidence = Sexy.
With Utmost Admiration for Your Insanely Sexy Essence.
Your Soul Therapist,
Dia Michelle Smith
p.s. If you’d like to receive an article like this in your inbox every week, with tips and tricks for how to live your best life from a holistic perspective, go check out soultherapist.co and sign up for the Self Counseling Club! After all, we could all use a therapist, and no one knows you better than...YOU!
P.S. You are so worth it you know. Already. Without needing to change anything. Right now! I promise.
Feel good in your skin and start loving yourself and your body right now, with some yoga and meditation with Dia!
Breathe Your Way into the Perfect Day
Yin Yang for Inspiration
Yoga has a great many physical benefits, and mental too, but some aspects of yoga that can be overlooked in our modern day are the spiritual and mental benefits of yoga.
Yoga helps with happy living by giving us a way to unite our bodies, minds and breath, letting us connect to our inner selves. This is the spiritual aspect of yoga. There are many spiritual and mental benefits of yoga, but here are a few that you can take into your life off the mat, and help you connect with your spiritual side.
1. Mindfulness
The mind will often cause worry and anxiety by focusing too much on the past, or focusing too much on the future, and a great spiritual benefit of yoga is how it can bring mindfulness into your life, and help you focus on the present moment.
Yoga will help to rid you of stress and anxiety, and calm down irritated minds. Regular practice of yoga will help to bring you clarity through mindfulness, which can be taken with you into your day to day life.
2. Overcoming Stress
Yoga can help you to overcome stress in your day to day life and reach a level of calmness through spirituality. The balance and flexibility that your physical body achieves on the yoga mat can also be reflected in your spiritual side off the mat too.
The way you learn to breathe through tension and difficult postures can help you when you’re going through stressful times. The way we take things at our own pace and stretch to our own personal limits in yoga class gives a sense of personal achievement, without comparison to others. This attitude of doing your best can help to overcome stress. Additionally, physical flexibility can transfer to your mind, and help you be flexible in stressful situations.
3. Improves Mental Focus
Regular meditation is important in yoga as it’s a way to keep positive thoughts in your mind. While you meditate, if negative or intrusive thoughts come into your mind, it can be pushed away by refocusing on your breathing and relaxing your body.
This mindset is great to apply to your emotional health and mental processes, as it will help fight causes of stress, anxiety and depression. By pushing away negative thoughts and focusing on the positive, you can guide yourself to the present and be more focused.
4. Improved Self Discipline
By controlling your thoughts and stress responses through breathing in yoga, you can become much more self disciplined. Yoga can help you improve your self discipline both physically and mentally, allowing you to let go of anything that is holding you back from what you want to achieve - on or off the mat.
Meditation and mantras can help with this. If you focus on one phrase during your practice, repeating it outloud or in your mind, it can reach through to your subconscious, making success more achievable with a positive mindset.
Yoga also helps to hone self disciple and helps you achieve success by teaching you about energy flows. If you see the world as a constant source of energy, you can tap into it and use it to manifest your goals. This positive outlook can help you reach success.
5. Improved Self Awareness
Spirituality is being in touch with the unchanging part of yourself. Your spirit is thought to be your higher consciousness and the force behind your thoughts and motivations. When you practice yoga, it can help you connect with your spirit, and become more aware of this part of yourself.
Our day to day lives can be busy, and we get pulled in lots of different directions. This can hinder our ability to know what's best for ourselves, on a deeper level. Yoga helps to connect with your mind and body, helping you improve your self awareness. This can improve your day to day life, and how you make choices and interact with others on a deeper level.
6. Feeling Empowered
For some, the practice of yoga can be a challenge mentally. Being in silence with your thoughts can also cause you to become aware of any stressful or painful situations in your life.
Practicing yoga can sometimes force your to push away any distractions and be aware of these situations. However, facing reality and accepting it is the first step to change and healing.
Yoga can help you to find happiness in small areas, even when your outside life is stressful. This mindset can help you to feel empowered that everything in your life is happening for a deeper meaning, and help empower you to take control of stressful or painful situations.
7. Helps You Quiet Your Mind
A spiritual and mental benefit of yoga is that it helps you quiet your mind in order to connect with your deeper sense of self. While you focus on the movements, breathing and poses, your mind starts to empty, and the small day to day worries ease away. If you find your mind starting to wander in yoga, you lose your breathing pattern and you can slip out of poses.
Yoga forces us to quiet our minds and focus on the present, which is a skill you can take into your day to day life. Practice breathing deeply when your mind starts to feel overwhelming, and you’ll gain a sense of calm and gratefulness that will leave you feeling peaceful.
Want to connect with your spiritual side? This week's classes focus more on the subtle spiritual and mental benefits of yoga.
1. Cicily Carter - Crown Chakra Yoga
2. Caitlin Rose Kenney - Inner Strength: Yin Yoga for Self-Trust
3. Kristin Gibowicz - Metamorphosis: Beauty in the Waiting
4. Mark Morford - Yoga Alchemy: The Two Tools
Do you believe in magic? Not necessarily the kind of tricks you might see at a Las Vegas show, but more the type of magic that manifests as an intangible feeling that can’t be measured with logic or science.
Whatever your initial reason for beginning yoga, you probably know you don’t keep returning simply because your hamstrings are more supple–– there is something more. Let’s call that subtle quality, the magic of yoga.
Perhaps you felt happy for ten minutes, ten hours, ten days, or even ten years after yoga class and you can’t pinpoint why. We often discuss the tangible physical benefits of a consistent yoga practice, like strength, flexibility, and balance. These qualities are wonderful, but not everything about yoga can be quantified.
This week we’re focusing more on what is percolating beneath the surface in the subtle body.
Our subtle body is said to contain more than 72,000 Nadis or energy channels and prana encompasses more than the muscles and the ligaments. It impacts our nervous system, our circulatory system, and our organs, whether we are aware of it or not. When we practice yoga, whatever the style, we are shifting and moving around our prana or life force energy.
The magic of yoga impacts us on a cellular level. How? Why?
In the third chapter of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali discusses how magical powers or siddhis are achieved through a dedicated yoga practice. Superhero powers like levitating, becoming invisible, and achieving the strength of an elephant are laid out as tangible benefits.
Is Patanjali being literal? We will never know, but the point is all of the results of yoga cannot be explained in a practical way. We haven’t levitated lately, but who knows, maybe next week? What about you?
Just like magic, yoga is full of rituals like breathing in certain patterns, moving in particular sequences, chanting, and meditating with mantras and specific techniques.
Although we can’t actually see what’s happening inside of us, change is occurring.
You simply feel happier and more connected with the world around you. Can you accept these benefits without being able to define the path that led you to them?
The only way to explore what unique magic and benefits yoga has for you, is to practice and explore these more subtle and spiritual practices. Try it!
The weather is warming up here in Colorado, and with it comes a new crop of fresh veggies! We love using seasonal veggies in our recipes, and what better way to enjoy nature’s spring bounty than with a meal-sized salad with fresh, homemade salad dressing? That’s where this recipe comes in!
This rich and yummy salad dressing is the perfect complement to all those fresh spring veggies.
Our Sweet Basil Salad Dressing is thick and creamy, adding heartiness to any salad that will help you feel fuller longer. Plus, it can double as a tasty dip for fresh cut carrots, cucumbers, or celery. You could even drizzle it over grilled chicken or your favorite gluten-free pasta.
In addition to being delicious, this dressing also boasts a number of health benefits. Basil is rich in antioxidants and works as an anti-inflammatory. It’s very high in vitamin K, which helps support bone health and healthy blood clotting response. It’s also rich in vitamin A, which helps fight inflammation and damage from free radicals, and is key in eye, brain, and skin health.
We hope you enjoy this quick, easy, cleanse-friendly recipe! Let us know what your favorite spring or summer veggie is in the comments!
With love and fresh veggies,
Sweet Basil Salad Dressing
Yield: 1 cup
1 cup fresh basil leaves, loose ½ of an avocado ½ cup olive oil ½ cup apple cider vinegar 1 clove of garlic, crushed 2 dates, pitted and soaked in hot water to soften (optional)* ½ tsp. coarse salt ½ tsp. ground pepper ½ cup water, to thin as necessary
In a high speed blender, combine basil leaves, avocado, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, garlic, dates (if using), salt, and pepper. Add up to a half cup water to reach desired consistency. Refrigerate in a glass container for 3 or 4 days.
*Note: If you are sensitive to sugar, omit dates.
Having a baby is one of the most incredible things you can do. Unfortunately, babies demand a lot of time and energy and it can be tough to find time for yourself as a new mom. It’s important for all moms to know how to rest and relax though.
With that in mind, here are some great relaxation and meditation tips for new moms.
1. Create a Sacred Space at Home
One of the first things that new moms want to do is create designated space in the house where they are able to retreat and enjoy some quality quiet time if they need it. It can be somewhere you enjoy a nice cup of coffee in the corner, or it could be a full room like a bedroom or the home office. What matters is that you keep this sacred space free from distractions and pack it with things that help you smile.
2. Practice Being Present
Another way to practice relaxation and meditation is to practice being present and grounded at the moment. Studies show that stress and anxiety get worse when people start to worry about the future and things that haven’t happened, and likely won’t happen. It can be difficult to stop your mind when it starts getting away from you.
Calm down your mind by focusing on the here and now, appreciate it and enjoy the small moments you spend with your family and even the things you enjoy about being at work. Stay in the present, let the future worry about itself.
3. Learn to Meditate
Proper meditation begins with knowing how to meditate properly. You want to find a comfortable space without any distractions. You can use candles or incense to really “set the mood” and prepare yourself for meditation.
Some people meditate by focusing on a single image in their mind, while others take in their body and what is happening. Perhaps the easiest way to meditate is through breathing. Just focus on your breathing. Don’t change it though. Breathe naturally as you always do and keep your back straight. If you have trouble with meditating, then there are plenty of guided meditation apps and videos available that can help.
4. Decompress and Take a Moment to Relax
One of the most important things you can do is take a minute to relax and decompress and get away from things. Music is a great way to relax. Good music enhances your mood and helps you to relax, which is why some people meditate to music. Listening to soothing and calming music slows down your heart, reduces blood pressure, and just helps you take your mind off of everything. Find something that helps you relax, and do it when the pressure starts to mount.
5. Practice Simple Breathing Techniques
Breathing can have both positive and negative effects on your state of mind. When you start breathing rapidly, such as due to panic, it makes you feel more stress and anxiety. Similarly, breathing has calming effects that can renew your overall sense of well-being and relax you. From self-awareness to positive thoughts and increasing a sense of calm, conscious breathing has plenty of benefits.
Practice some simple breathing techniques such as breathing in through your nose and out your mouth and see the difference just breathing differently can make.
6. Take up Journaling
Keeping a journal is a great way to relax and unwind. Outside of helping you to stay organized, they help relieve tension that builds up over the week. Writing your thoughts and feelings down and having them on paper (or a document on your computer) is very therapeutic. It’s a great way for a busy new mom to contemplate her experiences, learn from them, and relax.
7. Schedule a Spa Day
Spa days are fantastic for treating yourself and escaping from the stress of everyday life. Taking the time to schedule a spa day helps you recharge and relax. You can find a great deal with services online.
You don’t need to book yourself into a fancy expensive spa to get all of the benefits. You could even create a home spa where you can relax at home without needing to break the bank. Get some essential oils and a face mask and have the most luxurious bath of your life.
8. Do More of What You Love
One of the easiest ways to relax is to just cut back on the stressful things in life and replace them with things that you love. Do you enjoy reading, cooking certain meals, or watching certain shows and movies? Take time out of your day to do those things. Make them a priority and enjoy doing more of what you love in life.
By Liyana Perry
Liyana Perry is a writer at spa-hotels.ie, she has a passion for writing blogs about natural health and spirituality. She enjoys long walks with a breeze and finding ways to make dessert healthy.
Are you a new mom that wants to relax? Practice the Yoga for New Moms program, to get you on your way!
During yoga class, you may have heard that mental and emotional pain can manifest in our bodies as physical pain. For example, an emotional trauma suffered as a child that was never fully processed can show up as pain in the hips and lower back. Samskaras, or shadows of past pain and suffering, exist for all of us. Yoga can assist us in soothing the nervous system and quieting the mind, which helps us process and move through pain.
"Practicing yoga has the opposite effect on the brain as does chronic pain." M. Catherine Bushnell, PhD, scientific director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) says. What an incredible concept!
We can help program our brains to feel better simply by showing up on our yoga mats. In fact, a 2015 study from Harvard Medical School, Annals of Internal Medicine concluded yoga increased mobility for people suffering from chronic low back pain more than the standard medical care did.
Many people suffer from chronic lower back pain, migraines, fibromyalgia, arthritis, and other conditions, and can feel hopeless about finding some long-term relief. Accessible yoga programs can help and empower you to go beyond traditional medicine and take steps to improve your own health.
Yoga delves into finding underlying causes for some of these issues and perhaps unlocking the key to release the pain or at least offer tools to manage it in new ways.
If you or someone you know suffers from chronic pain, we’re excited to share a new program this week that addresses how yoga can provide benefits besides simply a stronger more flexible body, a calmer and clearer mind, and a greater sense of inner peace. These classes are gentle and created specifically to address students who need particular types of relief from their yoga practice.
Practice Yoga for Chronic Pain Relief, now!
Pain can be an awful thing, that can take over our lives sometimes. When we experience pain, the go-to remedy is usually drugs or painkillers. However when experiencing pain often, or suffering from chronic pain, drugs can have some serious long term side effects. If you suffer from chronic long term conditions such as arthritis, backache, or other pain you might be looking for alternative ways to alleviate some of the aches that go along with your condition.
A lot of pain is rooted in brain processes, which can be affected by your mind and emotions. The science behind the mind-body link is still being researched, but we know now that your brain does play a role in how you experience pain.
You can take advantage of the mind-body connection to help alleviate your pain.
As pain involves both body and mind, you can use mind-body techniques to change the way you experience and perceive pain - and therefore alleviate it. If you suffer from chronic pain, you may have rewired your brain to perceive the pain - even when it isn’t there.
There are a range of mind-body techniques that can help to alleviate pain, as well as stress and anxiety. You may want to try a few before you find a technique that's right for you and your pain - everyone is different! You can also combine techniques to come up with your own personal mind-body pain relief.
1. Deep Breaths
Deep breathing is a central theme in relieving stress and anxiety, so it’s no surprise this technique can help pain too. This is a good place to start in trying out mind-body pain relief. Simply inhale deeply, hold your breath for a few seconds, then exhale fully. You can use music or apps to help you maintain a regular breathing rhythm.
Deep breathing works by activating your parasympathetic nervous systems - of which the relaxation response is included. Simple deep breathing works, or you can use a breathing practice designed to relax you. One technique is to place the tip of your tongue against your front teeth, and breathe in through your nose for four seconds. You then hold your breath for three seconds, and breathe out fully for one. This type of breathing technique works to calm your nervous system.
2. Kickstarting the relaxation response
Deep breathing helps to stimulate your relaxation response, but there are other ways to illicite this response in your body to help alleviate pain. The relaxation response counteracts any stress in your body, turning down your heart rate. Muscle relaxation can help you to identify the difference between tension and relaxation, which will help you counteract your body’s natural flight-or-fight response that occurs with most pain and stress. You can do this by tensing and relaxing all your muscle groups one at a time.
3. Meditation
Meditation helps as a pain relief as it reduces the activity in your brain’s somatosensory complex. This is the part of the brain which creates the feeling of pain, and identifies how strong and where your pain is. You can use many guided meditation apps, or simply listen to some calming music and imagine yourself in a restful environment. By observing your thoughts and accepting them through meditation, you can learn to seperate yourself from your stress and pain. Meditation has been proven to lessen pain from migraines, back ache, and even cancer pain. You can reap the benefits after just four days of practicing meditation.
4. Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the practice of being fully immersed in any one activity - taking stock of your senses and emotional responses. You can practice mindfulness in all aspects of your life - it’s basically the practice of being present. There have been studies that show mindfulness has an effect on how we experience pain. It can reduce the levels of inflammation due to stress, which is present in people suffering from conditions such as arthritis, IBS or inflammatory bowel disease, and asthma; as well as other chronic inflammatory conditions.
This works as mindfulness helps to relieve stress and anxiety - and stress and anxiety can heighten your inflammatory responses. Practicing mindfulness can reduce your inflammatory response levels over time.
5. Yoga
Yoga connects your mind and body through use of breath control, meditation and body movement. It’s been proven as an exercise to alleviate pain and stress.It’s especially effective in alleviating back pain. This is due to its calming effects, and it’s especially used as a tool in fighting mental illness, such as mild depression, sleep issues, and anxiety.
6. Positive thinking
Instead of concentrating on your pain, retrain your mindset to focus on the positive. You can do this by writing down everything you are thankful for each day. This helps you remind yourself that your pain isn’t all-encompassing. Laughter also helps to alleviate pain as it releases the endorphins that activate the pain-killing, euphoria inducing brain receptors.
7. Mantras
Repeating a mantra or an incantation - this can be any soothing word or phrase - in a rhythmic way can induce relaxation in a way similar to meditation and mindfulness. This helps to keep your mind worrying and focusing on your pain, and engages the relaxation response. Studies have shown that mantras can help decrease frequency and intensity of migraines.
If you want to explore the link between mind and body, this week we have a 10-part series focusing on yoga for chronic pain. Try the series alongside some of these mind-body techniques to help alleviate your pain.
Help alleviate your pain, through yoga, right now, with the Yoga for Chronic Pain Relief program.
Today’s recipe is Asian inspired, but I couldn’t point a finger to an specific country, and I didn’t use any other recipe for a basis. Instead, I just opened the fridge door, found some beautiful mushrooms and my meal pretty much started to develop itself.
It often happens to me that I just get creative based on the ingredients I have at hand. A tiny bit from here, something from there, soy sauce and chili make everything tasty anyway, and just like that, a beautiful meal is ready in no time and struggle. This system of mine usually works out nicely, and often the recipes turn out so good that I feel the urge to share them with others.
The mushroom dish I share with you today is one of my favorites lately. Since I first made it a few weeks ago, I have cooked it for two more times. Once using champignons so I can peacefully say that they are good in this recipe too, but my personal preference is still shitakes, since they have a little more bite and chew to them.
The crispiness of the mushrooms is really enjoyable with the slightly sweet and spicy sauce, but as always if crispiness meets sauce – have the people waiting for the food and not the other way around – otherwise the meal will still be delicious, but you will lose the texture.
Asian Sticky Mushrooms
Cooking time: 25 minutes
5 oz shitake mushrooms
0.2 cups cornflour
0.2 cups oil
3.5 oz leeks
3.5 oz capsicum
0.2 cups soy sauce
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp chili sauce of your choice (or more if you like it hot)
1 tbsp coconut sugar
1 cup water
Salt-pepper
Fresh coriander leaves to serve
Directions: Halve or quarter the mushrooms to bite-sized pieces, throw them to a bowl with the cornflour and shake, so the shitakes are covered evenly.
Heat the oil, shake the excess cornflower off the mushrooms back to the bowl and fry until they are golden and crispy from each side. This should take around 5 minutes.
In the meantime, chop the leeks and capsicum.
Drain the crispy mushrooms on paper towels, season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Fry the leeks and paprika on the same pan for a few minutes.
Then add the soy sauce, hot water, chili sauce, ketchup, coconut sugar an all the remaining cornflour, mix thoroughly and leave to simmer for a few minutes on low heat. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
Mix the mushrooms with the sauce, sprinkle over some coriander leaves and serve with steaming rice.
Ready to start eating healthy and exercising as part of a healthy routine and lifestyle? Practice this yoga program to get you on track.
Yoga is a beautiful discipline, and yogis can be beautiful students and teachers. But, all too often, we forget sometimes that the practice that unites teacher and student can be muddled by what yoga was created for in the first place: the control of our ego.
Whether as a student or a teacher, we must understand that yoga is not only a sacred activity upheld by prestige and respect, but that it is, ultimately, an invitation to forgive ourselves and love others while we still have them in this short, short life.
We highlight below 15 common mistakes yogis make.
1. Judging yourself
There is always a room for standards when it comes to yoga, but many forget that “yoga” comes from the root word that means to, essentially, “become yoked” with an experience—happy, sad or neutral.
In our real practice, the poses that we see the teacher do, or the poses that other students are able to follow, may not be the poses that our own bodies are able to do (for reasons that are many)—and that is really okay.
It is time that you acknowledge that the limits of your mind and of your body and set your burdened spirit free.
2. Ignoring the Savasana pose
This pose is also known as a “corpse pose”. This is a pose that is often taken to be at the end of yoga practice and one that is associated with relaxation.
But, many people do not value this pose because it is too easy or too trivial. By letting yourself do the savasana, you will teach yourself how to fundamentally relax in your head, shoulders, trunk, legs, hands, and feet—there is no yoga if there is no release.
3. Not letting go (of air)
Many people love to hold their breaths during a yoga pose for a variety of reasons, but mostly because they think they are proving to themselves that they are able to hang with the intensity of the practice.
Learn to let go of your held breath and breathe in and out naturally. The difference you will feel by doing this is a leap in improvement.
4. It is not (just) a cardio workout
Yoga is not swimming, spinning class or military service—and it was never meant to be.
Physically, it is meant to be a daily practice, it is not a workout, it is working in the stretches and poses so that you learn to relax your joints, muscles, and tendons—sweating is a bonus.
5. It is not a fashion show
Wear loose and appropriate clothes for stretching, moving and relaxing. This is not a runway competition or a Cirque Du Soleil rehearsal session, it is yoga class.
6. You don’t have to do it every day
And that is the truth, especially in yoga. If you allow yourself space and time to learn the poses with the right amount of relaxation and grace in each given session, your body will learn to adapt even when you are not doing the practice—quality over quantity.
7. Excusing yourself in doing certain poses
It is true that yoga is not a competition, even within yourself. But, if these weird looking poses that are difficult and annoying reflect the zigzagged, jagged and frustrating positions we have in life, then you should learn to challenge yourself with these poses—life will annoy you less as a reward.
8. Doing the class with an empty or full stomach
A hungry stomach or a full belly is not a good thing when practices begin. It is always a good idea to learn what subtle amount of food you can have so that you are appropriately fueled for poses to come.
9. Going to yoga for all the wrong reasons
Yoga can often be treated as a social event purely or for even more reasons with malicious intent. Do not be like this and treat the practice with respect as you would a temple or a church. You will find more self-respect in the process.
10. Arriving too late and rushing to class
This is more of a pet peeve to a given reality. People will be late, sure. Lateness disturbs the harmony of classes very much, so do not let it start with you.
11. Not using yoga props
We do not have to be tough when we are doing Yoga, that is not the reason why it was created. So, leave your ego at the door and embrace what yoga blocks can give you when it comes to flexibility increases and a good massage as well—your hamstrings, in particular.
12. Hygiene matters
Cleaning your yoga mat, cleaning yourself and better hygiene overall is important for reasons that are beyond bacterial and illness related. If you are able to impose that much discipline and self-worth for your hygiene, such respect will be mirrored in your poses.
13. There is no perfect pose
That is to say, there is no standard pose that will benefit everyone. Yoga, by the method, is about appropriation and finding a stretch-pose for you. So, learn to break down and a yoga pose and learn it in segments, at an intensity that is comfortable for you—that is the point, right?
14. Ask help and guidance
Not limited to pride, we can be quite proud of not asking for help. The teacher can offer much guidance if you allow them to. It will be quite wise of you to learn from them, indeed.
15. Smile
This is not the same as having fun, but an invitation to something more important and far deeper. In yoga and in life, smile because you are happy to be alive—yoked in the egg of life.
It is hoped that this has been of help to you in your yoga journey, and in your journey to be a happy human being—Namaste to you.
By Ryan Canon
I am Ryan Norwood Canon, an article writer for almost a decade and co-founder of getshape.org. As a well- versed in fitness, posting blogs about a healthier lifestyle and quick tips to a body fit to help people achieve their body goals is truly my passion. My real concern is, I want you guys to be more confident of yourself.
Practice yoga know, and learn from your mistakes!
Feel Good Flow with Jackie Casal Mahrou
Flexibility is the capability of your body to achieve its full range of motion. It’s needed in most day-to-day activities, even the simplest ones such as bending and walking. If you’re flexible, your muscles remain mobile.
We take flexibility for granted when we’re we’re younger, but as we age, our muscles will naturally lose strength, and we might notice ourselves become less supple and more stiff. This can affect our range of movement, especially around the joints. This can have the effect of stiffness in the muscles and joints. This loss of tissue elasticity causes our bodies to tighten and we lose that flexibility.
The key reason that we lose flexibility, and we become more at risk of aches and pains is from not being active. This can lead to more permanent issues such as bad posture and lack of muscle function. Keeping flexible is important to avoid this and to keep us in good health and fitness.
The benefits of keeping flexible include:
Preventing injuries such as muscle strains and sprains.
Stretching and holding your positions in exercises such as yoga flows can help reduce muscle soreness and reduce the risk of injury after exercise. Your muscle fibers have a certain length to them, and warm muscles will stretch further than cold muscles. Stretching after a warm up will lengthen the muscles and help to prevent injury. Over exerting cold muscles that haven’t been stretched will increase the risk of tearing and injury.
Improving your posture.
Flexibility helps to improve your posture. Having tight muscles can lead to misalignment of the spine, and over time this can lead to permanent bad posture. Flexible muscles hold less tension, avoiding this misalignment. By stretching and doing flexibility exercises you can realign your muscle tissues and improve your balance. This will increase your ability to maintain a correct posture in your day to day life.
Reducing Back Pain
If you have tight muscles in your lower back, this can cause back pain which can be debilitating. Improving your flexibility can help to both prevent and treat back pain. Tight hamstrings can also pull your pelvis down and create even more pressure on your lower back. When your hip flexors and pelvic muscles have flexibility, there is less stress on the spine and lower back.
Making everyday activities easier
When you have tight and un-flexible muscles, you can suffer from a reduced range in motion, throughout your whole body. This could make everyday activities and movement hard. Flexibility makes everyday activities easier, by improving your range in motion, and letting your body move more easily.
Boosts your confidence
Stretching and opening up your body can bring a feeling of relaxation. This can lead to a relaxed state of mind, letting you unwind and making your feel more positive and confident.
Making cardio activity easier
Flexibility and stretching will help to increase blood and nutrients to your body. Stretching increases the temperature of muscle tissues, which improves circulation and helps make cardio activity easier.
Enhanced performance in sports
Additionally, having flexible muscles and joints will reduce the energy needed to move your body to it’s full range of motion, decreasing risk of injury. Stretching also helps to decrease muscle resistance during movement, improving your performance. Yoga for athletes is an excellent way to reduce injury and increase performance for more victories.
How to improve your flexibility
The number one way to stay flexible is to regularly stretch. Regardless of age or activity level, if you add some stretching into your everyday routine, you will see improvements to your flexibility. You can do simple stretches at home or even at your desk. Try to focus on the muscles where you feel soreness, common areas include shoulders, hamstrings, hips and your lower back. These areas are prone to stiffness as we age.
Your diet can also affect flexibility. Fatty, sugary and unhealthy foods can make your flexibility worse. You can improve your fitness and flexibility by making sure you eat a balanced diet, and you can also take supplements that support healthy joints.
Yoga is also a great way to improve flexibility. Yoga involves both your body and your mind, and all poses work towards the goal of increasing your body’s flexibility. Practicing yoga stretches you into your muscles and joints, and creates greater flexibility, and more ease in your day to day life as a result. This week's 4 classes on yoga download, are focused on creating greater flexibility.
Increase your flexibility, with yoga for greater flexibility, right now!
Hamstrings, Hips & Hanuman with Kylie Larson
Yin Yoga for Flexibility & Relaxation with Elise Fabricant
Ask any yoga teacher what the most common excuse they hear from people who don’t practice yoga is and you’ll probably receive the same answer: “I can’t do yoga because I’m not flexible.”
We’re not sure where the myth started that naturally flexible and bendy people were the only ones who could practice yoga. In fact, it’s really the opposite.
Flexibility looks very different depending on if you are a twenty-year-old former dancer, a thirty-year-old professional athlete, a fifty-year-old desk jockey, or an eighty-years-young retiree. No matter your age, anatomy, or physical abilities, yoga can help you become more flexible. The beauty of yoga is there are several styles and levels of classes and at least one is suited for you. How wonderful is that?
Flexibility isn’t just about looser hamstrings, greater range of motion in your muscles and joints, a supple spine and better posture. Of course, all of these benefits are results of a consistent yoga practice.
What’s important to remember is your progress is individual and not to compare yourself to anybody else.
You might have the goal of touching your toes for the first time and another student might want to learn how to stand on their hands. And yet another student couldn’t care less about the physical results and just wants to create a calmer, steadier state of mind.
Your ‘why’ is your own. But what’s beautiful about yoga is that you garner all kinds of benefits in addition to greater flexibility. For instance, you may have started practicing yoga to prevent injuries for a sport you play. A few months pass and suddenly you realize you aren’t just more mobile, you can navigate rush hour traffic without a spike in your blood pressure. Whatever your initial reasons to practice yoga, you’ll be sure to gain a variety of benefits for your body, mind, and spirit.
Try one of this week’s four classes focused on creating greater flexibility and see how you feel: body, mind, and spirit.
1. Dana Smith - Free Your Hamstrings
2. Robert Sidoti - 5 Poses for Flexibility
3. Elise Fabricant - Yin Yoga for Flexibility & Relaxation
4. Kylie Larson - Hamstrings, Hips & Hanuman
Spring has sprung here in Colorado, and we are thrilled at the start of the growing season! Yay local veggies!
This week, we’re sharing a recipe that features one of our favorite spring veggies: Asparagus! This quick and easy curry takes less than 20 minutes to whip up and is the perfect way to use that beautiful asparagus that’s popping up in your grocery stores or local farmers markets. Plus, it’s cleanse-friendly and packed with a bunch of bonus health benefits!
In addition to being a delicious spring veggie, asparagus is also a nutritional powerhouse. It’s rich in vitamin A, folate, which supports healthy prenatal development during pregnancy, and vitamin K, which supports bone health and strength. It’s a great source of antioxidants to help defend the body from free radicals, and is high in fiber to help aid digestion and gut health.
We hope you enjoy our flavorful, healthy Asparagus Green Curry! Keep it vegan by serving it over brown rice or quinoa, or get an extra boost of protein by serving it with chicken. Let us know what you think in the comments below, or if you have a recipe suggestion or request! We love giving recipes a healthy Conscious Cleanse makeover.
With love and green asparagus,
Asparagus Green Curry
Yield: 4 servings
1 TB. coconut oil 1 leek, sliced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 TB. fresh ginger, minced 1 large bunch of bok choy, chopped 1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed and chopped 2 TB. green curry paste 1 can full fat coconut milk 2 cups spinach Salt and pepper, to taste Juice from ½ lime
Instructions: In a large sauté pan, heat coconut oil over medium heat until melted. Add leeks, garlic, ginger, and a pinch of salt, sauté until leeks have soften, about 5 minutes. Next add bok choy and asparagus, stirring frequently for about 3 minutes. Add green curry paste and coconut milk, reduce heat and simmer until asparagus is tender. Stir in spinach until wilted, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste and juice of half of lime. Serve over brown rice or with sliced baked chicken.
Practice Yoga for Detox, for some fresh Spring time energy, now! This program includes a class from Jo, of The Conscious Cleanse!
Ever since I was a little girl, I felt other people’s emotions strongly. I remember being so confused when family conflicts arose because I could so clearly see each person’s side and how valid it was. I was confused why everyone couldn’t understand that everyone’s intentions were good and loving and then we could just all move on with our lives in harmony!
As I grew older, I remember feeling like I would literally step into someone else’s shoes, and feel the world as if from their perspective. From this place, I could really understand where they were coming from, even if their decisions from the outside might seem strange.
I remember wanting to help every single person in my life through all of their tough times, and beyond that, I sort of felt that it was my duty. I couldn’t just turn my back on someone who was suffering...especially someone that I loved.
As a result, I would give and give and give and, if the person was in a really bad place, I would allow myself to be sucked down to their level, so I could relate and empathize. I didn’t do any of this consciously, I simply didn’t know another option existed.
So, I would find my energy was focused on others most of the time, and I wasn’t allowing myself to grow and thrive because I was too busy trying to make sure no one felt left out or left behind. I felt my purpose was to help others; that’s all I could see.
Does this sound familiar to you?
I have noticed many people who are attracted into the yoga sphere happen to be empaths as well! I believe it’s because yoga gives us such a greatly needed respite from the outside world, and from intensely feeling so many energies on a constant basis. During our yoga practice, we quickly come back into our own essence, and that which is true for us.
This can feel difficult to access in the outside world as an empath, with so many other energies swirling around us all the time, especially without knowledge of this superpower and how to harness it beneficially.
If what you read above sounds somewhat familiar, you may be an empath as well.
Here are some common experiences found amongst empaths:
Difficulty in discerning if an emotion is yours or someone else’s
You can see right through a smile if it’s hiding anxiety, depression, etc.
People often feel compelled to share their deepest secrets with you, even if you've just met!
Others gravitate to you for help, and you feel a strong urge to help them
You crave alone time, knowing there’s a limit to how much external energy you can take
You may experience “sympathy pains” for real!
I like to consider Extreme Empathy (as found in Empaths) to be a superpower instead of a weakness! After all, we have the seemingly paranormal ability to apprehend the mental or emotional state of another individual, even if it’s very subtle or hidden. To people who don’t have this superpower, this is seen to be straight up magical. And, it truly is!
We have really been given this gift for a reason. Of course, as with any superpower, we empaths must learn to manage this, and you better believe, we do have our kryptonite.
For empaths, our major kryptonite can be a lack of boundaries - basically, not protecting ourselves. But don’t worry! This is something we can really work with.
Once we recognize our superpower of empathy and learn to work with it, our lives become immensely more manageable!
This is actually such a beautiful gift that I feel we should honor and celebrate within ourselves and each other. There are tools we can learn in order to make this gift remain a cause for celebration, and not become a negative force in our lives that is a constant energy drain.
This way, we can wake up every morning excited to face another day as an enthusiastic empath!
Here are the tools I have found the most useful to manage the day-to-day life of an empath:
What energizes you? What drains you? Identify and adjust your life accordingly.
Grounding: Walk around barefoot out in nature. If you don't have access to the real thing, visualize it. Visualize that there is a tree trunk growing out of the base of your spine, rooting you deep down into the earth.
Create a shield: A bubble or protective white light, that only lets in which will energize you. Know that you're protected from everything else.
Learn to decipher what’s yours vs. what’s somebody else’s: Energy, emotions, moods, thoughts, beliefs. This is a high call, but so well worth it, and once you make the intention to notice, it will begin to shift everything for you.
Feel your feelings: Learn to identify them, and where you feel them in your body? The quicker and more in tune you can become with identifying your own emotions and become familiar with how various emotions send signals to you through your body, the quicker you can decipher what belongs to you vs. what you’ve picked up from someone else.
Find an outlet for your feelings: Breathe, Move, Meditate, Write, Dance, Talk it out with a loved one or a counselor.
Forgiveness: This is an especially important one for us since we may experience a lot of hurt in our lives due to being so sensitive! You are at the top of the list of who to forgive, by the way.
Find Your NO: Love Your NO. It is your best friend, and makes your YES shine even brighter.
Schedule YOU Time: Meditate. Dance. Draw. Take a Bath. Get into Nature. Do something that you feel connects you to your higher self, and nourishes your soul. Since you take in others’ energy so much, it’s extra important to plug back into your own, which can really happen when you have some private time, as an empath.
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE - Be Kind to Yourself. Be Gentle. Have Compassion. You have a pure, giving heart, you’re doing the best you can and everything is OK. You are good, worthy, perfect, so please, go easy on yourself. You can learn lessons without being hard on yourself and in fact, that’s the only way we truly grow. Energy doesn’t move through rigidity and disappointment. It moves through openness and acceptance.
This was a gift you were born with.
We can all be grateful for the empaths in the world, and we can all work together to make sure they take care of themselves. If you know other empaths in your life, feel free to pass this along to them, and see how you can support each other in taking care of yourselves.
Here are some Journal Prompts to help you along your path of Empathic Self Discovery:
I feel the most alive when I….(describe in detail and get all the senses involved!)
I feel the most like my true self when I….
The last time I realized my energy was being drained from my body due to someone else’s energy was when…
Revisit the last time you set a boundary in order to honor yourself, and it was respected in return….How did you feel after? What happened next? Paint the picture with your creativity, and allow it to inspire your future.
To dig deeper into this, I recommend checking out a book called The Empath’s Survival Guide, by Judith Orloff. This book helped me to understand myself at a much deeper level! May you share your gift brightly with the world, remembering always to take care of yourself first.
Thank You For Being You, Dia Michelle Smith
Practice yoga and meditation with Dia, right now!
Breathe Your Way into a Perfect Day (audio meditation)
Hip-opener poses and asanas are some of the most popular and requested types. They bring release to areas of tightness that many people suffer from.
As there are over 20 muscles that work across the hips, such as adductors in the inner thighs, abductors in the outer thighs, hip flexors and lateral rotators, it’s important to give these a good stretch. Any movement that stretches these muscles is a hip opener, but there are certain poses that give these a deeper release.
If you have tight hips, it not only can affect your ability to get into certain yoga poses but can also affect your day to day life. You might find it hard to bend down to pick things off the floor, or experience pain when exercising. Tight hips can also cause over-use and over-loading of the spine, leading to back problems. If you suffer from back pain, hip-openers can help ease this, as well as improve your range of motion and improve your circulation.
Spiritually, the hips are also a storage point for negativity and pent-up emotions. Hip openers let us create space for new ideas and release these negative emotions, giving us freedom of both the body and mind.
With that in mind, we’re going to look into some of the major benefits of hip-openers, and why you should incorporate more into your yoga practice.
1. Hip Openers release stress on the spine
As mentioned, tight hips can increase the load placed on your spine. This can affect everything your spine does - from bending over to more intense weight exercises. If you’re an avid gym-bunny, or not, tight hips can hinder your motion and cause pain.
Overuse and overloading the spine is the most common cause of lower back pain. If left unchecked, this pain can spread to the rest of the body. Hip openers help by increasing the flexibility in your hips, naturally distributing your weight.
Hip opener poses to decrease stress on the spine include cow face pose, where you sit crossed legged, stacking your knees and folding forward. It’s ok to use a block if you can’t get your posture right. This is a great pose to sit in for a while to release the hips.
2. Hip openers can release emotions
You may already know that emotions can be released through yoga. Much like how we hold our stress and anxieties in the neck and shoulders, we hold negative emotions in our hip muscles. Opening up the hips can create a release of pent up emotions and feelings, that we may have been repressing and burying deep - stopping us from feeling freedom, creating space for new ideas.
3. Hip Openers build strength
As we age, the risk of breaking a hip increases. The hip is the largest ball and socket join in the entire body.
As we’ve said, there's a load of muscles working around the hips, that are essential to the movement of this joint. Any kind of movement of this area, including yoga poses can create a stronger frame for the joint - reducing the risk of injury.
4. Hip Openers help alignment
These types of yoga poses and asanas can help all of your joints in the lower body come into alignment. When your hips are tight, this can cause misalignment, affecting your back, knees, and even affecting your feet. Giving your hips more strength and more flexibility can re-align your lower body for greater mobility and added strength.
5. Hip openers expand creativity
The hips are energetically associated with the sacral chakra - which is the creative centre. Focusing on this area and releasing tension helps to unlock the sacral chakra and expand our creative mind.
Want to reap the benefits of hip-openers? These four yoga classes focus on happy and healthy hips.
Take a class today to open your hips and increase your flexibility today!
1. Keith Allen - Hip Opening Heaven
2. Shy Sayar - Posture Therapy: Glutes
3. Bhavani Maki - Yin / Relax: Hip Openers, A Key to Freedom
4. Rob Loud -The Heart & Hips: The Beauty of Assymetry
This week, it’s time to unpack those saddlebags and release the heaviness and stress weighing you down and impeding your emotions. It takes a lot of work to create the tight hips many of us are experiencing these days.
Almost everything we do in our daily lives create tension: from sedentary activities like sitting at a desk and driving to running or even simple everyday stress. We accumulate unprocessed emotions in our hips and we’ve all got one or maybe fifty of those, right? Let’s unpack them.
When your hips are both open and strong, you have a balanced center of gravity and are able to maintain not just a healthy spine, but also a happy heart and mind.
Physically, your pelvis houses several ligaments and muscles. If these are too tight or too weak and your pelvis isn’t stable, issues can arise with your lower back, your legs, ankles, and feet.
The most important flexor is the psoas muscle, which originates in your spine’s thoracic region, extends down the lower back, and attaches through to the top of the femur bone at the front of your pelvis.
Sitting is a huge culprit in creating overly tight hip flexors and this imbalance often manifests as lower back pain and/or knee pain. It’s all connected. Making sure you stretch the psoas properly in yoga poses like Apanasana or Wind-Removing Pose, Low Lunge is vital to keep your hips and spine healthy.
In the Subtle Body, the layer deeper than the physical body in yogic philosophy, the hips are where we store past trauma, stress, and negative emotions. The two lower chakras are housed here: the Muladhara or root chakra is at the base of the spine or perineum and the Svadhistana chakra is located between the hipbones. These chakras are associated with issues of family, survival, sexuality, relationships, and creativity.
So, if you’ve got unresolved problems with one or both parents, if you haven’t forgiven an ex-partner or friend, if you’re struggling to put a roof over your head, for example, your hips may feel tight and uncomfortable until you address the emotions underlying these issues.
When addressing hip health, consider taking a two-pronged approach to feeling your best. Use appropriate asanas and pranayama techniques to open and stabilize your hips and take the time to work through troublesome emotions, which could be causing you physical pain. Happy hips equal a happy heart and mind. We can all benefit from more hip opening in our life.
If you’re not sure where to start, try one or all of these four classes to release stress and tension and open to happy hips.