This time of year, it can be hard to find a dinner that doesn’t take too long and is healthy and filling. As busy moms with hectic work schedules, we totally get it! It can be all too tempting to grab your favorite take-out and call it a night.
That’s why we’ve come up with this recipe! And trust us, it’ll beat your take-out any day :)
This is a warming, nourishing curry that you can enjoy over steamed kale or cauliflower rice.
It’s filling and hearty while still being cleanse-friendly AND vegan-friendly (meatless Monday, anyone?). Plus, it doesn’t take long to make, and is a one-pot meal so you’ll save time on dishes, too!
Looking for other easy weeknight recipes? Check out our Weeknight Turkey Broccoli Stir Fry.
With love and yummy vegan curries,
Vegan Chickpea Curry
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
1 tsp. coconut oil 1 onion, diced 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1 TB. fresh ginger minced 2 carrots, diced 1 TB. curry powder 2 cups of cooked or canned chickpeas 1 can full-fat coconut milk Juice of ½ of fresh lime Cilantro or green onion, for garnish (optional) Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions: In a dutch oven or large skillet over medium high heat, melt coconut oil and sauté onion for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, carrots, and curry powder and cook stirring frequently until the carrots start to soften. Stir in the chickpeas and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a medium low. Simmer curry for about 10 minutes or until slightly reduced. Stir in fresh lime juice. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with fresh cilantro and/or green onion. Serve hot over steamed kale or cauliflower rice.
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 with Jo right now!
Conscious Cleanse Detox Flow with Jo Schaalman
Can you really manifest your dreams? Make your deepest desires come true? An ideal starting point is taking the time to clarify what exactly will fulfill you, what will make you content, and define what type of life you want to lead. If you don’t know what you want, how can you find it?
Visualizing your ideal world is the first step and action is the second.
In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Eight Limbs of yoga outline a practical path to finding your highest self and learning to become happy in the present moment. In the second limb, the Niyamas or five personal observances, Svadhyaya is defined as self-study.
“Sva” means self and “Adhyaya” means study or education. In this context, svadhyaya is a constantly evolving, life long learning process. In the quest to understand our truth, svadhyaya encourages us to reflect, meditate, and study sacred texts. By reading enlightened authors, we can learn from the wisdom of the great people before and around us. By stepping onto our yoga mats, we learn about ourselves. Through dedication and practice, the answers will appear and enable us to define our dreams and clear the path to manifest them into reality.
Once you’ve visualized your dreams, follow up your intentions with action.
Yoga is a practical discipline, so the action toward your dreams is key to success. Each day is a new opportunity to live from a place of gratitude and savor growth and transformation. While staying grounded in the present moment and appreciating it, we can continue to evolve and live the life of our dreams.
This week, we are happy to offer four classes to assist you on your journey to positively manifesting your desires.
We are all on our own unique path, so choose the class or classes that resonate with you most today. Whether it be understanding where you get in your own way, envisioning an ideal daydream in your future, using your physical body to get your thoughts in a beneficial place, or getting yourself motivated to take action, practice with us and step closer to manifesting your dreams.
Manifest your dreams with these four classes, right now!
1. Manifestation and Visualization Meditation - Keith Allen
2. The 5 Kleshas (Self-defeating Attitudes) - Bhavani Maki
3. Jackie Casal Mahrou - Morning Manifestation Meditation
4. Kylie Larson - Stop Dreaming, Start Doing
Manifestation works on the principle that the thoughts we have can attract desires we have. The idea is each thought we have then creates an energy flow around our bodies. The energy flowing around us attracts similar energies. So, for example, if you’re thinking negative thoughts, your energy will be negative and you’ll attract negative experience.
However, we can harness this principle to bring positive vibes into our lives. When we realise we’re in control of the experiences we manifest, we can in turn, think positive thoughts and attract positive experiences. Each thought we have influences the energy we exude, and this energy manifests into our life experiences.
Here’s some easy ways to get started with manifestation.
1. Stay General
An easy way to get started with manifestation is to start to think generally about how you would like to feel. Once you have this clear in your head you can be more specific with your desires. Think about your tasks at hand and how you would like to feel about them. Question what you would like or enjoy about each task. For example, would you prefer to wake up early, or late? Do you like to wake up to an alarm or naturally? Think about how you would like to feel when you go about your day to day like, and evaluate your day. When you have a sense of what you’d like to feel, you can start making the little changes to feel that way, changing the energy flowing around your body, and attracting more of those feelings. It’s important to take this first step to understand how you want to feel, to begin to access those feelings. These feelings are what will make your manifestation appear.
2. Make a list
If you feel like you have a blank space when you think about what you want, just make a list. Write down how you want to feel and your desires. Maybe you want to feel happy, or healthy or loved. The specific things we think we need, like those new shoes, are just the delivery mechanism of those feelings we desire. Making a list of the feelings you want to feel will give you some clarity on what it is you actually want.
Clarity is very important when it comes to manifestation. You need to be very clear about what your desires are, lest you manifest things you don’t actually want! Think about what you truly desires, and add to your list the things that come along with it. If you’re thinking you want a new job, write down everything from the office environment to the work you want to do, the pay, your dream colleagues. Writing down the little things that go along with how you want to feel can help you gain more clarity. Remember it’s important to be completely unapologetic about what it is you want. These are your desires!
3. Practice feeling
Now it’s time to put this into practice. Take your clear desire or intention, and spend time each and every day feeling the feelings you desire. This could be done through meditation, yoga, or through vision exercises. While you’re in this state, let your thoughts guide the feeling, and let it take over the energy flowing through your body. The more you feel these feelings you desire, the more you’ll be positive that they’re on their way to you. Experiencing the happiness, gratitude or love we believe our desires will bring us is key to manifestation.
You can use a physical vision board to meditate in front of, if this help you stay focused in the feelings you want to manifest. A board can be a useful tool to remain hopeful of the things you want in your life. It’s a good way to redirect thoughts of sadness and depression into optimism and happiness.
4. Relax and wait
To truly manifest your desires, you need to chill out, relax, and wait for them to appear. This may mean waiting for longer than you expected, but if you remain certain of a positive outcome, you can wait without feeling anxious. Allow yourself to believe your desire is on the way, and trust that the universe has a plan for you. All you can do is be clear in your desires, and accept that you cannot control the timing of when it comes, or the form it will come in. So relax and trust that your desires are on their way!
5. Allow your desires in
Now you’re clear about what you want, and have started to consciously feel the feelings associated with your desires, you have to be open to allowing those desires in. This is important. You have to be open in the belief that your desires are on the way to you, without negative emotions. If you’re questioning if something is on its way, or asking over and over without belief, this can hinder you manifesting your desires.
It’s key to remove any negative feelings or frustrations that you don’t have your desires yet, as this will allow them into your life. Stay strong by practicing the positive feelings, and focusing on how good you will feel when your desires manifest. Use your list or vision board to experience positive emotions, and practice meditation or yoga when you feel those negative emotions creeping in.
This will help your feelings of ‘want’ turn into a knowing feeling that your desires are on their way to you. This is a healing process that helps you accept that you are exactly where you need to be, and the universe will soon catch up with you.
By Amy Cavill
Begin the process of manifestation right now with these classes!
Manifestation & Visualization Meditation with Keith Allen
Morning Manifestation Meditation with Jackie Casal Mahrou
Jo here! Happy Hanukkah!
What’re dreidel games without chocolate gelt?
Unfortunately, the gelt you buy in the store is usually highly processed and packed with sugar and dairy. So why not make your own at home? It’s easier than you might think!
Besides the added sugar and dairy, the main nutritional difference between store-bought gelt coins and my recipe is that my recipe uses raw cacao instead of roasted cacao. Cacao is naturally high in essential minerals like magnesium, chromium, iron, zinc, copper and manganese, plus it is the one of the highest natural sources of antioxidants. The roasting process destroys these key nutrients by changing the chemical structure, so raw cacao is the better health option.
I hope you enjoy this healthy take on a holiday classic! For more holiday favorites we’ve given the Conscious Cleanse makeover, download our FREE Healthy Holidays eCookbook!
With love and raw cacao kisses,
Raw Cacao Gelt Coins
Yield: 9 coins
½ cup of raw cacao butter 2 TB. olive oil 2 TB. raw honey ¼ cup + 1 TB. raw cacao powder Edible Gold Dust Gelt Candy Mold
Instructions: Place a medium sized bowl in a double boiler. Add the cacao butter, olive oil, and raw honey to the bowl and whisk to melt. Ideally you want to keep this mixture at below 110 degrees F so as not to overheat it and destroy some of the nutrients. Once these ingredients are melted, whisk in the raw cacao powder. Whisk until no lumps remain and mixture is smooth.
Set the bowl with the cacao mixture over a separate bowl of cold water, being careful to not get any water inside the bowl, and continue to whisk this constantly until the mixture starts to thicken. The raw honey and the oil tend to separate so keep mixing them until the mixture has cooled off a little bit.
When the mixture has slightly cooled but is still liquid pour it into the candy mold.
If the cacao mixture starts to harden too much put the bowl over hot water again and melt to the correct consistency.
When finished place the raw cacao coins in the freezer for about 20 minutes, pop them out of the molds, and dust with the edible gold dust. The easiest way to do this is with a clean, small paint brush. The coins can be stored in the freezer or refrigerator for 1 week.
In the Northern Hemisphere, winter is upon us. Outdoor enthusiasts are flocking to the mountains to ski and snowboard. We here at YogaDownload.com want to support winter athletes and help you have the healthiest, most exciting season ever. Yoga can enhance your performance and help keep you injury-free so you enjoy your best days this season and for years to come. If where you live it is springtime, you’ll still benefit from our targeted classes this week. Water-skiing anyone?
When you’re careening down a snow-covered mountain at the speed of light or even at the speed of a sloth, it’s important for your mind to be in the game. Honing your mental focus to a razor sharp edge will enable you to not only enhance your downhill skills, but will also help prevent avoidable injuries.
Athletes agree that a clear attentive mind is the key to success on the slopes. Learning to stay focused and centered through uncomfortable poses by concentrating on even inhalations and exhalations helps you concentrate during a challenging workout. The mind-body connection in yoga is essential to helping develop mental acuity and concentration. Dedicated breath work or Pranayama eases anxious and overstressed minds, which comes in handy on those Double Black Diamonds and even on the bunny slopes.
Of course, you need to strengthen and stretch your muscles to reach your peak form and prevent injuries on the slopes.
Your legs and core need to be in top form. Skiing and snowboarding consist of repetitive movements, mostly in one plane of motion, which can cause imbalances in the joints and muscles over time. A well-rounded yoga practice includes dynamic flexibility training, core stabilization and strengthening and balance work to create mobility, a strong center, and a healthy spine. Yoga goes beyond simple stretching by working the muscles and joints through all ranges of motion—activating the little-used muscles that support the primary movers.
By focusing on these vital elements, yoga can help you recover faster after sessions, open up the tight areas that hinder performance, and improve range of motion. This week we have four classes by two of our most popular teachers, designed specifically to enhance your time on the slopes. These classes are short, specific, and spot on whether you’re new to winter sports or a pro.
Try them all this season!
1. Sharpen your Edge: Skier Flow Claire Petretti Marti
2. Avant Ski Yoga Denelle Numis
3. Après Ski Yoga Denelle Numis
4. Power up for Powder Days: Snowboarder Flow Claire Petretti Marti
Yoga has lots of benefits for those who love to hit the snow. It can increase strength, flexibility and even balance - as well as helping prevent injury. Our classes this week focus on yoga poses for skiers and snowboarders, and here’s some ways practicing yoga can make you better on the slopes.
1. Yoga will give you a strong core
You’ll need a strong core for a good skiing or snowboarding posture. Keeping your core engaged, especially while skiing is important, as otherwise you will fold your upper body and put pressure on your back, making it harder to move and turn. The stronger your core, the easier you will find this. Yoga poses all require core strength, and you can practice poses such as plank and chair to give your core some extra strength before your skiing trip.
2. Yoga will help your focus
You need a strong focus if you’re skiing or snowboarding, but the same can also be said for when you hit the yoga mat. Practicing your focus for long stretches while you’re in your yoga flow can help you concentrate during snow sports too. Yoga helps to calm your mind, and when you’re focusing on your movements, everything else seems to melt away and you enter a meditative state - perfect for skiing or snowboarding.
3. Yoga can help you balance
A strong sense of balance is essential for snowboarders and skiers. If you have balance, you’ll have to use your muscles less, and you’ll ache less and reduce risk of injury. To improve your balance, try standing yoga poses such as Tree Pose, or practice your handstands - this will all help you stay on your skis on the snow.
4. Yoga helps your coordination
Keeping your body and muscles coordinated is essential in both skiing and yoga. You have to move your body in sync, which can be quite hard if you’re not used to it. Taking some time on the yoga mat to think about where your body goes in each pose can help improve your natural coordination, and help you keep your skiing posture.
5. Yoga improves your flexibility
Flexible muscles are key to helping your body move in cold temperatures. Cold weather can make you stiff and slow- not what you need when you’re boarding down the slopes! Twisting and stretching your body in yoga will stretch your muscles and increase your range of motion and flexibility. This makes it much safer to ski and snowboard, and greatly reduces the risk of injury.
6. Yoga can prevent injury
The best way yoga can make you a better skier and snowboarder is that it reduces the risk of injuries. If you’re not hitting the mountains that often, the physical intensity can shock your body, making it more susceptible to aches and injury. Yoga can make you fitter in general, which will help you with any physical sport. Yoga also helps to keep muscles such as your hamstrings strong and loose - these are the key muscles you use in skiing or snowboarding.
Enjoy these yoga classes to make you better at skiing, now!
Après Ski Yoga with Denelle Numis
Avant Ski Yoga with Denelle Numis
Embrace and love your body. it's the most amazing thing you'll ever own. -Anonymous
It has been some time since I've taken the time to muse online. Even though things are expanding beautifully at the studio, and my 3 little angels are keeping my husband and I on our toes, I still find time to write in my journal each and every day. Inspiration to write hit during a quiet moment at the studio and I decided to take full advantage!
While sitting at the front desk I noticed that someone put a copy my book Yes! Yoga Has Curves to the side in order to purchase it after class. Immediately I was taken back to the great times I spent with all the beautiful women in both volumes. Even though many didn't know me they trusted me to share their story and beauty with the masses. The book not only serves as inspiration for yogis of ALL beautiful sizes to practice yoga but also as a personal reminder for me to stay the course.
Seeing the book was no coincidence. A few weeks ago I found myself feeling disconnected from my asana practice. As I tried to go deeper into some of my favorite asanas I was reminded quite a few times that I had a (BIG) baby via C-section 9 months ago and my body was still in recovery. I decided to take an asana break (well, more like a strike) and wondered if I would ever be able to enjoy some of the poses I once did.
My third trip into motherhood changed my body in many ways. Though I was proud of this life bearing vehicle I was worried if I would ever be able to practice without the self-critical dialogue. Yoga is all about uniting and my thoughts were creating a huge divide. I took it to my meditation cushion for answers. I closed my eyes and began to breathe deeply and said to myself over and over - "I am ready and open to my healing right now and in a way that supports me."
The answer came to me softly. I had to leam how to work with my body and I had to tune back into unconditional love. Soon atter I got back on my mat and instead of giving my body a list of demands I allowed my body to guide my practice.
I believe that all bodies are beautiful and that health and wholeness comes in all shapes and sizes.
The most important relationship we have is with our body. Instead of comparing ourselves to others, or even our previous selves, we should set the intention to honor and take care of our bodies from the inside out
And just in case you haven't heard it today or you need a reminder - you are beautiful!
By Dana Smith
Dana is a certified yoga teacher and trainer, Master Life Coach and Holistic Health Practitioner. Considered a “Jane of all Holistic Trades” she specializes in Thai Yoga Massage, Reiki and is a gifted Intuitive Counselor. She has practiced yoga for several years and is registered with the National Yoga Alliance. To keep classes creative and fun, she continues to seek inspiration through workshops and advanced studies. Dana believes that yoga is a powerful tool on the path of total wellness. Her style of teaching draws from Ashtanga, Iyengar and Vinyasa roots.
Practice loving your body through yoga, with Dana right now!
News alert: If a yoga instructor reprimands you because you don’t look a certain way in an asana or physical pose, that teacher may be in the wrong profession.
A good teacher will emphasize that how you feel in a pose is what’s important, not what shape you are creating on the mat. If you are finding sensation and breathing fully, then you are in the right place. Despite the barrage of Instagram filtered images crafted by tall thin yogis in advanced yoga poses, you do NOT need to be a skinny pretzel to be a “real yogi.”
We’re here to tell you there is no such thing as a yoga body. With the explosion of yoga’s popularity in the Western world over the last few decades, a huge focus on appearance has overshadowed what yoga is truly about. Yoga is for every body and there’s a style and type of practice that works for each individual. It’s adaptable. Accessible. Don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t.
No matter who you are, whether you are thin or heavy, tall or short, in a wheelchair or an Olympic athlete, yoga is for you.
Let’s start with straightforward anatomy. A vital principle to understand in asana practice is that everyone is different. We are born with differently shaped skeletons—long bones, short bones, heavy bones, light bones, mobile joints, stiff joints, and that’s just your frame.
For example, a student with loose hamstrings has short arms and long legs and reaching their toes in paschimottasana (seated forward fold) is almost impossible. Another student may have less muscular flexibility, but has long arms and shorter legs and can grasp their feet with minimal effort. Same pose. Different result. We all have our inherent limitations, which impact what our personal yoga practice looks like.
You wouldn’t judge a person or stereotype them because of their anatomy, right? Well, the same principle applies to everyone who doesn’t fall within the narrow window of social media yoga star. Sometimes people feel intimidated and avoid showing up on the yoga mat because they aren’t naturally flexible or model thin. We want to help make yoga available to anyone who wants to practice.
This week, we are thrilled to introduce a 5-class program for Body Positivity Yoga. Designed and taught by Dana Smith, author of Yes Yoga has Curves, these classes are accessible to everyone. Dana is passionate about breaking down stereotypes preventing people from stepping onto their mats because of fear or insecurity. So join us today and celebrate the body you are in!
Enjoy the program now!
The program classes include:
1. Dana Smith - Find Your Strength 2. Dana Smith - Blissful Balance 3. Dana Smith - Flow with the Go 4. Dana Smith - Open Your Heart 5. Dana Smith - Shifting Paradigms
We all have our own body hang ups, that can be hard to get past. The great thing about yoga is how it relaxes you, and lets you focus on your breath, and how your body is moving. This makes it a great practice to boost your body positivity. Yoga is a practice that all body shapes and sizes can take part in, however it can be hard sometimes to focus when we’re thinking about our body hang ups. Here’s our top tips for practicing body positivity when you’re on the yoga mat.
1. Channel Your Strength
Feeling strong is a great way to instantly reap the benefits of body positivity. It’s hard to feel negative about yourself when you’re channelling all your strength, and staying strong and powerful in your poses. Channelling your inner strength to push your body that little bit further will help you gain confidence and feel good about yourself! Look at your body, and notice the strength you have gained and how powerful it makes you feel. Warrior pose is a great pose to help your body feel strong and capable, and ready to take on anything!
2. Focus on Your Breath
Breathing deeply has a wealth of benefits for our bodies, but it mostly calms our nervous systems an allows us to take stock of what’s happening within us. Deep breathing allows us to identify any areas of pain or tightness during our practice, and allows us to release all that tension. This release can also release all those negative emotions, allowing us to connect to ourselves in a happier and balanced way.
3. Practice Self-Love
It’s easy to get caught up with that negative voice in our heads, telling us we can’t do something or we shouldn’t feel body positive. But that voice that points out perceived flaws is actually your own. It’s easy to forget we can control our own thoughts and change that negative voice into a positive one. When we realise we can change this we can start to practice self-love. Try to catch yourself if you’re ever thinking negative thoughts, especially if you’re struggling to master a new pose. By changing the narrative to focus on the positive aspects, you can start to practice self-love, and only think positive thoughts about yourself. Set yourself a body positive mantra if it helps, to think over in your head while you’re going through your yoga flow.
4. Appreciate Your Body
If you’ve managed to master a pose you’ve been working on for a while - take the time to congratulate yourself and your body for reaching your goal! Perhaps you’re finally able to get into crow pose, or you’re progressing into more advanced binds and moves, but it’s important to take a moment to recognise how far you’ve come. We’re so wired to move onto the next challenge or task, and taking some time to appreciate your body and the journey it’s taken is a great way to change your mind set to be more body positive.
5. Be Present
Negative thoughts stop us from being present and appreciating our lives and bodies in the moment. It’s easy to go down a negative thought spiral when we’re focusing on the past or future, and feel shame. This loses our connection with our bodies and makes it even harder to feel body positive. Yoga can help us to practice staying present. Next time you’re on the mat, try to sit and breathe, without thinking about anything else. Just focus on your breath, and your body, and how breathing affects how you move. This helps you to use your body to help calm your mind - an amazing tool to help you feel more body positive and appreciative of your body.
If you’re curious about body positivity in yoga, our program this week comes from Dana Smith, author of Yes, Yoga has Curves. This is a program to help break down barriers and stereotypes and helps you get on the mat, regardless of your body type - to help you reap the benefits and feel body positive!
Happy Thanksgiving from our families to yours!
This is a wonderful time of year filled with gatherings of loved ones around the dinner table. Why not pick the healthiest options for your holiday spread?
Jo, prefers to stay on a low-sugar eating track. So her family has developed a lower-sugar spin on the Thanksgiving classic — cranberry sauce! This tart and delicious recipe will win over even your pickiest family members.
Looking for more healthy and delicious Thanksgiving options? Check out our Conscious Thanksgiving spread.
What’s YOUR go-to Thanksgiving dish and does it need a Conscious Cleanse makeover? Let us know in the comments below!
With love and holiday gratitude,
Low Sugar Cranberry Sauce
Yield: about 3 cups
12 oz. fresh cranberries ½ cup Lakanto monkfruit sweetener ¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
Instructions:
In a saucepan over medium heat, mix the Lakanto sweetener in the orange juice until dissolved. Stir in the cranberries and cook for about 10 minutes or until the cranberries start to pop. Pour sauce into a bowl. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools. Garnish with orange or lemon zest.
Want to have some yoga ready for the day after Thanksgiving to get back on a healthy track? The Yoga for Detox from Overindulgence package is perfect, if you've eaten too much in your holiday festivities.
Everything in life can be considered a practice, whether it’s working out, practicing yoga, honing your hobby of choice, and even learning to operate from a place of gratitude each day. Just as you need to work your biceps and quadriceps to keep them strong, toned, and supple, you need to train your brain and your heart to move from a place of appreciation.
Sometimes, it’s tough to be positive and grateful. As the Buddhists teach, life is hard. We don’t have much control over external events, but we do have control over our own reaction to them. One of the greatest benefits of a consistent yoga practice is that it allows you to create more space in your reaction time.
It isn’t always easy, but being content is worth it.
The Yoga Sutras provide practical advice on how to be your best self by learning to shift your thought patterns. Yoga Sutra 2:33, Pratipaksha Bhavanam, encourages us to replace negative thought patterns with positive ones. So if you catch yourself being judgmental, critical, or negative, pause and reframe with compassion, kindness, and positivity. What we focus on expands and what we remove our attention from diminishes. Focus on the positive in each day and begin to cultivate your patterns of appreciating everything in your life
Like yoga, gratitude is a practice. Choose to find something to be thankful for, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem in the moment. It could be the beauty in a child’s smile, the pleasure of a delicious meal, or cruising through every green light on the way to work. Once you settle into a daily pattern of focusing on thankfulness, eventually, your perspective will shift and gratitude becomes your default.
This week, we’re excited to offer you four new classes aligned with increasing your gratitude in different areas of your life. Each practice is designed to help you feel thankful for life, love, your body, your purpose, life's pleasures and what holds meaning in your world. Enjoy!
Here are this week's four new yoga classes to have you feeling grateful!
1. Keith Allen - Feel Amazing Flow
2. Elise Fabricant - Joyful Joint Release
3. Claire Petretti Marti - Yoga for Better Sex
4. Kylie Larson - Anytime Gentle Flow
Practicing gratitude is not just saying ‘thank you’ when someone opens a door for you. Feeling gratitude for all positive aspects in your life is a great way to shift your perspective from any problems and imperfections, and help you appreciate the little things.
Taking some time to be thankful for your health, friends, family, or job can all help you change your perspective, especially in challenging times. Practicing gratitude can bring a wealth of benefits to your day to day life.
Here are 6 of the best benefits practicing gratitude can have on your life:
1. Practicing gratitude relieves stress
Anything that relieves stress is going to be beneficial not only to your mental health, but also your physical health too. Did you know that increased stress levels can affect things like your cardiovascular and nervous systems? By taking some time to feel grateful just once a week, you can reduce stress and studies have actually shown that this can reduce blood pressure. Take this one step further and write down everything you have to be grateful for, and you can reduce blood pressure by 10%. Another study in 1998 proved that the stress hormone cortisol can be reduced by practicing gratitude, and can also make you more resilient to trauma.
2. Practicing gratitude improves brain power
Research on gratitude in 2009 showed that the part of the brain that regulates our bodily functions, the hypothalamus, is activated when we feel gratitude. This means processes like sleep, metabolism, temperature regulation and appetites are literally powered by thoughts of gratitude and acts of kindness! Gratitude also affects our brain by releasing the feel good hormone dopamine. This natural high can make acts of kindness feel addictive and motivates us to practice gratitude further, be thankful, and be kind to others.
3. Practicing gratitude helps us sleep better
We’re all always looking for hacks for a better night’s sleep, and practicing gratitude could be the answer. There are loads of studies that have shown how being grateful can help increase our sleep quality, as well as sleep duration and helps us fall asleep faster. As gratitude activates our hypothalamus, which is the part of the brain that controls our sleep. When we are thankful, we can fall asleep quicker and for longer, meaning we wake up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated! Better sleep can increase our general health and relieve stress, pain and anxiety as well as boost our immune system.
4. Practicing gratitude reduces anxiety
As mentioned, being thankful can help us get a better night’s sleep, which in turn can help to relieve anxiety. But did you know that keeping a journal of gratitude, or even saying ‘thank you’ more often can increase long-term happiness by over 10%, and reduce depression by over 30%? This is because we’re better able to manage emotions such as sadness and guilt when we feel helpful and kind.
5. Practicing gratitude decreases pain levels
This one can be hard to believe, but being thankful can actually reduce physical pain levels. A study in 2003 showed that patients with physical symptoms who kept a gratitude journal actually showed reduced symptoms as well as a decrease in pain. This could be due to the increase in dopamine when we’re thankful.
6. Practicing gratitude increases our energy
There’s a lot of health benefits to being a little thankful, so it’s no surprise that you’ll notice an increase in energy alongside the other benefits. Longer and better sleep, reduced stress and generally feeling optimistic can make us feel more sprightly and energetic - and more likely to get up and moving.
Practice the Yoga for Gratitude package, to experience these benefits now!
Happy Thanksgiving from our families to yours! This is a wonderful time of year filled with gatherings of loved ones around the dinner table. Why not pick the healthiest options for your holiday spread? We wanted to take this opportunity to share some of our family favorite recipes that we love to make for Thanksgiving. These dishes are healthy, delicious, and are sure to delight the whole family.
Jules, as a vegetarian, finds holiday meals frustrating since they are so frequently centered around a meat dish. So she’s come up with a hearty salad featuring roasted beets. It works well as both a main dish or side dish, perfect for the veggie lovers in your life!
Roasted Beets and Arugula
8 golden beets (you can also use red beets if preferred) 5 TB. olive oil (reserve 1 TB. for drizzling) ½ cup red wine vinegar 1 shallot, thinly sliced ¼ cup parsley, chopped 2 cups fresh arugula Sea salt Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place golden beets in a baking dish and drizzle with a little olive oil. Cover with aluminum foil, and bake for about 25 minutes or until soft. In a small bowl, combine remaining olive oil and the red wine vinegar. Remove beets from the oven and toss with sea salt and black pepper. Place cooked golden beets, shallot, and parsley in a large salad bowl, and toss with oil and vinegar mix. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days. Serve beets over arugula and garnish with additional fresh parsley.
If you're worried about eating too much on Thanksgiving, have the Yoga for Detox from Overindulgence package ready, for the day after, to get back on track!
Chaos. For as long as I can remember, my life was fundamentally altered and eventually comforted by chaos. If chaos did not physically surround me, it was ever present within my thinking. Experiencing trauma at a young age, I survived by internalizing my pain. I had no tools nor advocate to validate my experience.
This shifted my thinking into total victimization. I was engulfed with symptoms of complex PTSD and I was a tourist in a foreign city with no map. Through my adolescent years, up into my early 20’s, I had no coping skills and avoided all discomfort. My mother passed away unexpectedly January 10, 2010 and my life was forever changed.
Crippled by grief and overwhelmed by the inability to face the permanence of the situation, eventually lead to my full blown addiction. After years of self medicating, unfathomable consequences, and self sabotaging I finally accepted help and chased after recovery. Treatment. Stepping into treatment, I was convinced I was entering a cult of some sort. How were these people so happy? I vividly remember the first time I was introduced to meditation. I was sitting in group when the therapist told us we were going to practice mindfulness meditation. Ultimately, we were going to SIT STILL for 5 minutes and “just be”.
At this point, I knew this must have been initiation day into the cult. The corny timer bell chimed and the guide on the tape led us into a field, bringing awareness to every inch of our physical bodies. I found myself distracted by the slightest sounds and thoughts of dinner plans flooded my mind. I was frustrated and then the meditation guide calmly said “Don’t let your thoughts distract and frustrate you, let them freely come and pass.”
Trivial as this statement may sound, it has been the pinnacle turning point for me. Surrender. I would cringe every time I heard this word. I naturally had this misconception that to surrender was a sign of weakness. My distaste for authoritative figures and ideas played a major role in my prejudice against this concept. It was quite the contrary, and I would learn the hard way. I was convinced that I wasn’t the real addict.
Surrounded by addicts whose experience was far different from mine, I immediately separated myself as “different than”. Afterall, I was suffering from PTSD and chronic pain, my diagnosis came from a doctor I trusted. I’m not like them, I am prescribed opiates, I need them.
My jaded thought process ultimately led to my relapse.
I thought I could “drink like a lady” and this defiance catapulted me right back into full-blown addiction. It wasn’t until I surrendered to the idea that I was no different from the next addict, that I got to taste the blissful promises of recovery. In order to be freed from addiction (or the bondage of my indisposed thoughts) I have to completely surrender to a new way of life. Acceptance. When I look back at the last two years of my life and the lives of those that journey down the road of recovery, I see how much more pleasant the outcome is when I accept people, places, and things exactly as they are. For years I thought if the people in my life would conduct themselves the way I saw fit, things would go much smoother. Perhaps everyone else was not the problem, but I was. Learning to practice acceptance in my daily affairs has only proven to be successful when it follows suite to surrender. At least once a day, I encounter a situation that doesn’t align with my plan of action.
When I refuse to accept things as they are, chaos ensues. From the aggressive drivers on my commute to work to the unplanned cancer diagnosis of a family member, there’s an overwhelming weight and stress lifted when I accept the outcome of any and all circumstances looming over me. Healing. This is a practice I utilize daily. Taking time to quiet the noise and calm the chaos, meditation has become a huge component of my daily routine. It’s so easy to get caught up in the painful memories of the past and obsess over the anxieties of the future. How quickly I let chaos overwhelm my life rather than shifting my energy into a peaceful solution. It seems so simple, yet my unhealthy habits and thinking say otherwise.
The core issue of an individual struggling with addiction, is the fundamental inability to process emotion.
Mindfulness meditation has been an ever evolving tool that I utilize when I find myself drowning in seemingly unwarranted stressful emotions. Meditation requires surrender and acceptance of what was, what is, and what’s to come. Practicing meditation has set the tone for being present and slowing down to think before I react. Before I make any major decision, I always take time to pray and wait quietly for a response. Thus far, I’ve found myself practicing patience, being mindful of how I may affect others, and avoiding an abundance of unnecessary pain.
By Tricia Moceo
Tricia Moceo is an Outreach Specialist for Recovery Local, a local addiction/recovery based marketing company. She advocates long term sobriety by working with other websites like Tulip Hill Recovery, that provides meditations and resources to recovering addicts and shedding light on the disease of addiction. Tricia is a mother of two, actively involved in her local recovery community, and is passionate about helping other women find hope in seemingly hopeless situations.
Struggling and think meditation can help? Practice meditating now, whether you're experienced or brand new to it.
Meditate and Cultivate Calm with Keith Allen
Learn to Meditate with Alanna Kaivalya
Here at YogaDownload.com, we love to help make yoga available to as many people as we can, all over the globe. This week, we are thrilled to introduce our first dedicated Spanish Language Yoga Program: Yoga en Español. According to the World Economic Forum, the world’s most spoken languages are Chinese, Spanish, and English. As of 2018, that means Spanish is the second most spoken language, by roughly 437 million people, primarily in Spain, Latin America, and parts of the United States.
Currently, most yoga classes are offered in English, Sanskrit, or some combination of the two. Many students find learning the Sanskrit names for the yoga asanas or postures to be a daunting challenge. Sanskrit isn’t a spoken language, only existing in written form, so it takes a great deal of memorization to learn the pose names.
If English isn’t your first language, practicing yoga can be even more challenging due to language barriers.
When you throw in touching your toes, or standing on your head, the obstacles to starting or advancing in a yoga practice can be steep. We can’t promise you’ll stand on your head anytime soon, but if you are one of the hundreds of millions of Spanish speakers, you’ll appreciate practicing in your native tongue. Also, if you are learning Spanish, practicing in the language is a great way to improve your comprehension skills.
Three expert Spanish language yoga teachers from different regions around the world, including Spain, Ecuador, and Mexico, will be your guides in this well-rounded program.
Whether you are a beginner or advanced practitioner, there’s plenty of variety so you’ll have a solid program of classes for your home library. You’ll have access to everything from Basic Yoga, Yin, Vinyasa flow, to deeper practices on the Bandhas, and even a Chakra meditation. Check it out today!
Classes in the Yoga en Español program, include:
1. Noemi Nunez - Herramientas Básicas de Yoga
2. Noemi Nunez - Familiarizarse con las Bandhas
3. Noemi Nunez Meditación y Escaneo de Chakras
4. Michelle Smith - Balance
5. Michelle Smith Moviendo las Caderas
6. Michelle Smith - Siembra y Cultiva Intenciones
7. Uxia Alonso-Ellerby - Yin Yoga para Caderas Felices
8. Uxia Alonso-Ellerby - Buenos Dias
9. Uxia Alonso-Ellerby - Yoga para el Dolor de Espalda
10. Noemi Nunez - Yoga Para Todos
Si estás leyendo este texto seguramente te interesa o hayas practicado alguna vez yoga. Pero probablemente sólo conozcas una parte muy pequeña de lo que esta práctica milenaria implica.
Imagina que estamos en India, hace unos dos mil años, y quieres aprender sobre la práctica del yoga. Los maestros de aquella era te hubiera enseñado primero los Yamas y Niyamas, antes de las asanas y Pranayama (posturas de yoga y control de la respiración).
El maestro Patanjali (No está muy claro en que año. Algunos libros lo citan en el 400 ac, otros en la era común, otros en los 300 d.c.) escribió los Yoga Sutras, una recopilación de 196 aforismos o enseñanzas.
En estas enseñanzas describe lo que él llamó “8 ramas del yoga”, o guía o pautas para la práctica del yoga como forma de vida:
1. Yamas: Literalmente significa “restricciones” . Lo podemos describir como Código de conducta social, orientados a como tú te relacionas con el mundo.
2. Niyamas: Código de conducta personal, o como tú te relacionas contigo mismo.
3. Asanas : Posturas de yoga: casi lo único que conocemos en occidente sobre esta antigua práctica.
4. Pranayama: control de la energía vital o prana a través de la respiración.
5. Prathyahara: Observación interna. Literalmente es algo como “recogimiento de los sentidos”. Aislamiento sensorial de estímulos externos, para observar y escuchar en tu interior.
6. Dharana: concentración, calma mental.
7. Dhyana: meditación.
8. Samadhi: super consciencia, unión con lo divino.
Wow! Cuantas tareas eh?
No te preocupes, no necesitas seguirlas todas para sacar provecho a tu clase de yoga! Puedes empezar solo con asanas (posturas) y pranayama (control de la respiración), y una vez sientas en tu cuerpo, mente, y alma, los resultados de esta maravillosa práctica, entonces igual quieras profundizar sobre las otras 6 ramas.
Es más, incluso si no estás interesado en la práctica del yoga, estos 5 principios o yamas te ayudarán a tener una vida más plena y feliz.
Voy a intentar explicar de una manera fácil que son los Yamas. Y quien sabe, si este tema te interesa, quizás el próximo sea sobre los Niyamas!
Yamas: Como hemos comentado antes, Yamas significa literalmente “restricciones” relacionadas con tu conducta social. Qué no hacer. Podemos definirlo como la guía moral, ética y social para el yogui o yoguini. Son 5 :
Ahimsa: Literalmente “no dañar”. Podemos describirlo como No violencia. Ni con los demás, pero tampoco contigo mismo. Parece muy obvio, pero Ahimsa, tiene muchas más implicaciones: No solo se refiere a violencia física (matar o dañar a un ser vivo), también se aplica a tus pensamientos (ojo con esos pensamientos negativos, hacia tu cuerpo, hacia ti, o hacia otro ser humano…), y a la manera que tienes de reaccionar en tus experiencias del día a día: como reaccionas ante un atasco de tráfico cuando llegas tarde, eterna línea para pagar en el supermercado, etc.
Puedes empezar a aplicar este primer yama en tu práctica de yoga: No violencia con tu cuerpo: no lo fuerces, practica honrando a tu cuerpo, amando a tu cuerpo, escuchando sus necesidades. Después, llévalo a tu vida diaria: en tus reacciones ante los desafíos de la vida cotidiana. En tus pensamientos sobre los demás, y sobre ti mismo. Quizás siendo más compasivo, más benevolente…
Satya: Literalmente significa “verdad.” o “ no mentir”. Forma parte de los Yamas (restricciones) así que podemos entenderlo como decir la verdad con “moderación”. Es sobre ralentizar, filtrar, y cuidadosamente considerar nuestras palabras, para cuando las elijamos, estén en armonía con el primer Yama, Ahimsa.
Si decir esa verdad va a herir a alguien, y realmente no es necesario, es mejor evitar esa verdad. Esto es lo complejo de entender la práctica de Satya. Va sobre decir la verdad, pero contenida. También sobre ser sinceros y honestos con nosotros mismos.
Patanjali dictaminó que no hay palabras que puedan reflejar VERDAD a no ser que fluyan desde el espíritu de la no violencia.
Así que la próxima vez que quieras compartir una opinión con alguien, pregúntate antes:
-Es verdad?
-Es necesario?
-Es útil?
-Es amable o bondadoso?
Como aplicar Satya en tu tapete de yoga? Fácil, empezando por ser honesto contigo mismo y conocer los límites de tu cuerpo en ese momento. Céntrate en seguir el ritmo que tu cuerpo necesita, no el que tu vecino de tapete siga. Se honesto también con lo que quieres conseguir de esa práctica: igual tiene en mente una práctica fuerte, pero al sentarte en tu tapete sientes que tu cuerpo necesita otra cosa…
Comprométete con una práctica regular realista: cuantos días y cuanto tiempo puedes practicar
Asteya: significa no robar, no tomar lo que no nos pertenece. No solo se refiere a a quitarle a alguien lo que posee a nivel material, moral o intelectual, sino también a respetar sus derechos a la vida, su religión, creencias y cultura, sus ideas, méritos, etc.
Asteya nos enseña honestidad como forma de vida. Honestidad que consiste en contentarse con la justa retribución de tu labor y asegurarse de actuar de forma íntegra en cualquier circunstancia.
Asteya nos invita a vivir con integridad y reciprocidad.
Robamos a otros (robamos su tiempo, sus ideas, robamos la atención que merecen cuando por ejemplo alguien nos cuenta que un familiar acaba de morir, y nosotros encaminamos la conversación a la pérdida de un ser querido que hemos tenido recientemente…)
Robamos la la Madre Tierra. No sólo agarramos lo que no es nuestro. Sino que también nos creemos dueños de los que nos rodea. Desde le momento en el que naceos estamos en deuda con este sagrado regalo llamado vida, esta experiencia en nuestros cuerpos de humanos, y en esta maravillosa Madre Tierra.
Robamos a nuestro futuro: y el de nuestros hijos, y el de los hijos de nuestros hijos, etc. El exceso en nuestras vidas son señales de que estamos viviendo como si no hubiera un mañana, y nadie fuera a vivir aquí después de nuestra generación o la de nuestros hijos.
y nos robamos a nosotros mismos: robamos tiempo de descanso y contemplación, tiempo de reflexión, Robamos amor propio y auto-compasión. Robamos nuestra vitalidad con pensamientos negativos. Robamos la posibilidad de expansión poniéndonos barreras. Y así podemos seguir largo y tendido…
Como podemos aplicar Asteya en nuestros tapetes de yoga?
Brahmacharya: Moderación, auto-control, no excesos. En este yama vas a encontrar diferentes interpretaciones. Algunos lo han interpretado como celibato. La abstención de tener sexo, para centrar y focalizar toda la energía en tu práctica espiritual. Esto puede ser ciertamente uno de las aplicaciones de Brahmacharya, pero también implica mucho más: moderación en la comida, trabajo, ejercicio, entretenimiento, horas de sueño, posesiones materiales..
Nuestra sociedad es una sociedad de excesos. Estamos muy lejos de distinguir lo que es “suficiente”. En ayurveda (medicina india) se dice que cuando comes la cantidad “suficiente” de comida, obtendrás energía. Pero si te pasas de cantidad, entonces tu cuerpo entrará en en letargo. Si escuchas a tu cuerpo, podrás darte cuenta de cuando llega ese momento de “suficiente”.
Brahmacharya nos enseña que cuando tomamos control sobre nuestros impulsos y excesos, ganamos en sabiduría y aumentamos nuestra energía o vigor. Cada vez que superamos esos impulsos de excesos, nos volvemos más sabios, más sanos, y más fuertes.
Una de las principales metas de la práctica del yoga es encontrar y mantener equilibrio en nuestras vidas. La práctica de Brahmacharya te ayudará a equilibrar tu vida.
Aparigraha: Austeridad, no acaparamiento.
La época que viví en México, practicando y aprendiendo de mi maestro Michael Stewart, fue una de las más felices de mi vida. Después de haber estado trabajando en el mundo de la moda, ganando mucho dinero, y poseyendo muchos bienes materiales, me encontré que con mi práctica espiritual y una única mochila pude vivir lo más plenamente posible durante 6 meses. Ahora, viviendo el momento más feliz de mi vida aquí en Colorado, con mi amado esposo, y mi bebé, reconozco que envidio aquella mochila como única posesión. Cada vez que veo todo lo que estamos acumulando (viviendo en una casa grande, con un garaje grande) me entra una sensación de ahogo. Y lo único que me gusta de las mudanzas es todo lo que dejo ir.
El exceso de bienes materiales, y el apego que les tenemos, nos distrae de lo realmente importante en la vida.
Aprarigraha nos invita a dejar ir lo que ya no necesitamos, y preparar una mochila ligera para nuestro viaje de la vida, y poder ser capaces de disfrutar plenamente de este sagrado regalo que es la vida.
Vamos a usar un ejemplo: En Pranayama, (control de la respiración) usamos Kumbacas (retenciones de la respiración) como algo mágico para nuestra salud física y mental. Que pasa si esas retenciones son excesivas? Que se convierte en todo lo contrario, en veneno para el cuerpo. Esto mismo lo puedes aplicar a la posesión de bienes. Hay cosas que serán imprescindibles para cierto momento de tu vida. Pero si intentas retenerlo más tiempo del debido, se convertirá en una losa, en un veneno para tu libertad y tu felicidad.
Así que si quieres ser más feliz, deja ir lo que ya no necesitas, y mantén solo lo necesario para este momento de tu vida! Verás que alivio… Y lo mejor, tu próxima mudanza será mucho más fácil!
Cuando llevamos a la práctica estos 5 Yamas, nos estamos encaminando a una vida más sana, más ética, con más paz, más plena… No es una tarea fácil, pero paso a paso, iremos forjando nuestro carácter, mejorando nuestras relaciones con nosotros mismos y con los demás, y podrás seguir profundizando sobre tu práctica de yoga como estilo de vida.
Harás del mundo un sito mejor.
Namasté. Namaste es una forma de honrar a la otra persona, un modo de mostrar respeto, y agradecimiento desde la parte más profunda de nuestro ser: Lo divino en mí honra/saluda lo divino en ti.
By Uxia Ellerby
www.slowlife-uxiayoga.com
¡Practicar yoga con Uxia ahorita!
Stop and take a moment to consider the current state of your yoga practice. Have you fallen into a rut or are you in the process of growth? When is the last time you tried a new class or teacher––maybe one you’ve heard is challenging or different? Have you attempted a new asana lately, perhaps the one that scares you a little bit? If you’ve been practicing for a while, maybe it is time to step out of your comfort zone.
The best way to become a more advanced practitioner is to continue to learn about yourself and understand your strengths and your limitations. Remember we are all different: physically, mentally, and emotionally. According to the Yoga Sutras, in the eight-limbed path of yoga, self-study is called Svadyaya and it encompasses seeking within as well as learning from texts and books. Awareness is the sign of an advanced practitioner and one of the greatest indicators of it is your breath.
As you seek to become an “advanced yogi,” use the tool of calm steady breath to progress. An instant sign of a beginner is someone huffing and puffing to force themselves into a posture they aren’t ready for and that can lead to injury. Greater awareness also allows you to understand when you need a challenge and when you need to back off. Your breath is powerful and keeps you firmly planted in the present moment.
This week, we’re bringing you four of our top rated advanced yoga classes. Each instructor offers a new challenge for you and we want you to take the opportunity to test yourself. To access what may have seemed unattainable. Try each one of these classes with a discerning mind. Observe your breath. Work to understand your reaction when you are asked to do something you don’t want to do. Open yourself to trusting your breath and the sensations in your body as you move.
This week's top advanced classes 1. Align and Flow: Ashtanga Inspiration - Jack Cuneo
2. Apex Fusion Inversions: Up, Under, Down & Across - Shannon Paige
3. Absolution Flow: A Call to Arms - Mark Morford
4. Feel the Heat - Pradeep Teotia
Feeling a little unchallenged by your yoga practice? Perhaps you’re finding that you can do each pose without struggle, and you’re finding it all a little tedious. It’s time to shake up your practice!
With yoga there’s always more advanced variations, or different ways to change up your routine. While you might have seen some advanced yoga poses and instantly thought you’d never achieve them, if you’re finding yourself in a yoga rut, giving yourself a more difficult pose to aim for is a great way to bring some purpose back into your practice.
Here’s our run down of some trickier poses to aim for over the long term. Whether you're a master yogi, or a new beginner, there are always new poses to aim for to keep your practice inspiring.
1. Eka Hasta Vrksasana - One Handed Tree Pose
One handed tree pose, or Eka Hasta Vrksasana is a pose that requires tremendous determination, not to mention some seriously strong core muscles! This pose is essentially a one handed handstand, with your legs pointed out - so you look like a tree, as the name suggests. This is one of the advanced yoga poses that’s great for those who’ve already nailed the regular handstand. If you’re still working your way up to it, practicing inversions and poses leading up to a handstand, as well as working on your core strength will help you get to this pose eventually.
2. King pigeon
King Pigeon is a great pose if you’re working on backbends, and regular pigeon pose just isn’t doing it for you anymore. This advanced variation requires plenty of hip and back flexibility however, so make sure these areas are warmed up first. Lots of yogis like to incorporate this pose at the end of their practice, to work their bodies up to it. This is a great stretch for the lower body, while also increasing back strength. If you’re not quite there yet, keep practicing your pigeon pose, and incorporate a strap to help you slowly stretch your hands back towards your back foot.
3. Gandha Bherundasana - Formidable Face Pose
Ganda Bherundasana, or the Formidable Face Pose is an advanced yoga pose for those familiar with backbends - ideal for intermediate or advanced yogis. Not one to be attempted your first time on the matt! Work your way up to this pose by practicing backbends and strengthening your back and spine, and when you first attempt it use a block underneath your shoulders to ease any neck strains. The benefits of this pose make it a great goal to aim for - as well as strengthening your shoulders and arms, it also increases balance and opens your throat chakra.
4. Sayanasana - Scorpion Pose Variation
Scorpion Pose is also known as Sayanasana, and works by balancing on your forearms and stretching your feet towards your head. This advanced yoga pose requires serious arm strength and spine flexibility. You can work your way towards these poses by practicing dolphin pose and dolphin plank to strengthen your shoulders, and camel pose to open up the spine and create that flexibility that’s essential to Scorpion. Headstands and handstands are also good to work on in preparation for attempting Scorpion and getting your body used to being inverted! REmember, you can always start off against a wall for balance when you’re starting out in Scorpion - this pose takes practice! When you’ve mastered it you’ll benefit from spine flexibility, strong arms and shoulders and increased balance.
5. Taraksvasana - Handstand Scorpion
If you master Scorpion, take it up a notch by progressing into Taraksvasana, or Handstand Scorpion. This pose takes the Scorpion pose off your forearms, and as the name suggests, takes it up onto the hands. A variation on this pose can take one leg raised straight up, instead of having both feet resting on the head. If you can work your way up to this pose, it helps to strengthen your ab, shoulder and back muscles and gives you a better sense of balance.
6. Yoganidrasana - Yoga Sleep Pose
Yoga Sleep Pose may look uncomfortable, but it’s supposedly lets you reach a state of deep relaxation. Yoga Sleep Pose, or Yoganidrasana, triggers a state of pratyahara, a withdrawal of the senses which helps you reach inner peace and shake off the day to day stresses in your life. Yoga Sleep Pose also helps stretch those deep deep muscles in your back and spine, as well as ease tension in the neck. This pose requires flexibility in your hips and hamstrings, so work on hip openers and hamstring stretches to work your way up to this complicated pose.
7. Chakra Bond Pose
The Chakra Bond Pose is a variant on the Chakrasana, which can be attempted by any yoga level. This backbend is great for stretching the chest and expanding the shoulders, while strengthening your whole body. If you’re bored of the basic Chakrasana, work your way up to Chakra Bond by backbending to hold the ankles. This is one of the most advanced variations of Chakrasana and requires a lot of flexibility in the back. Be patient and slowly work your way up to the full variation of this pose - it’s not one to try straight away!
8. Pungu Mayurasana - Wounded Peacock
Wounded Peacock, or Pungu Mayurasana is the peacock pose, while balancing on one arm. It requires plenty of arm, shoulder and wrist strength as it balances all of your body weight in on hand. This pose is a great pose to massage the abdominals, and improve your digestion, as well as easing stomach conditions. It’s important to practice this pose on both sides, for digestive balance! Work your way up to wounded peacock by mastering the peacock pose with two arms. You can spread your legs apart if you’re struggling with your balance, or you can spread your other arm to the side too.
Inspired to take your practice to another level? Practice these advanced classes now!
It’s that time of year – sweet treat time! Over the next few months, it’s likely that you’ll be attending holiday parties, cookie exchange, or just have a hankering to do some baking. And, as you know, we’re on a mission to enjoy life while making it healthier.
So our cookie recipe today is low sugar, but also nut, seed, grain, dairy, egg, and gluten free. My 2-year-old daughter is allergic to all of the above, so I’m continually looking for ways to make something that she’ll love, as well as any of her friends. That’s a tall list of no-no foods, so finding a flour that checks all of those boxes has made my life so much easier.
The secret ingredient in our Raw Cookie Dough Balls is tigernut flour, which is not a nut but a small root vegetable. This little tuber is chock-full of fiber, protein, magnesium and zinc and has a slightly sweet and nutty flavor.
It’s my new favorite go-to flour when baking, because it actually replaces typical flour in a 1:1 ratio! Isn’t that the best news ever? Now there’s no need to do any conversions when baking.
Last Thanksgiving, I made a sweet potato bar with a tigernut crust and it was out of this world! If you want to see this mouthwatering treat, check out our Instagram page. I also made our Banana Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Frosting recipe from tigernut flour for my nephew’s 1st birthday.
You can find tigernut flour online and most likely at your natural grocer. I’ve seen it at Whole Foods in several places across the country.
We hope you enjoy our little bite-size chocolate chip cookies that was inspired by our love of raw cookie dough. This cookie is guilt-free and filled with chocolatey goodness. It’s so simple that you can make it in 10-min or less!
If you’re looking for other healthy sweet treats this season, be sure to check out more of our recipes on our website!
To sweet treats without the sweet hangover,
Raw Cookie Dough Balls
Yield: 12 balls
1 ½ cups tigernut flour ¼ tsp sea salt 2 TB. raw honey or maple syrup 1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract 4 TB. olive oil 4-6 TB. Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips or cacao nibs
Instructions: Place the tigernut flour, sea salt, honey, vanilla extract, and olive oil in a small bowl. Using your hands or the back of a wooden spoon rub all the ingredients together until they form a coarse meal and are distributed evenly. Add the chocolate chips (or cacao nibs) and mix. Scoop a heaping tablespoon of the mixture and roll until it holds together into small balls. You may need to add a splash more olive oil to get the mixture to the correct consistency. Chill/freeze for up to 1 week. (if they last that long!)
Have you eaten too many non-healthy cookies? Practice the Yoga for Detox from Overindulgence package to have you feeling refreshed!
Depression can be enfeebling, and it is not in any way the same thing as being unhappy. Being unhappy can often be connected to a reason that we can trace, but depression is not the same. Many times we cannot determine it back to its cause; it is like swimming in dark water. A feeling of hopelessness sinks in and all the things that we used to enjoy no longer interest us.
Depression can cause severe impairment in our daily life. It affects not only our mood but also various other aspects of our life like low energy levels, sexual dysfunction, insomnia, lack of concentration, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes and so on. A chronic case of depression may require someone to see a therapist. However, if detected at an early stage, there are several ways by which one can come out of it on their own and fight depression before it becomes overbearing.
Here are 5 powerful ways you can fight depression!
1. Practice Mindfulness: When you feel depressed, everything around you seems incorrect. You start to see things negatively and undermine your capabilities. For example, you may end up feeling that you are not competent enough to perform a job or task. This may make you feel demeaned.
You need to practice mindfulness by focusing your attention on your ambition. Have a strategized plan and engage yourself in working towards achieving your goals and leave no room for worries or negative thoughts. 2. Listening to Music: Music is food for the soul. It helps you soothe when you are feeling low, hopeless or heartbroken. The distraction provides maybe temporary, but for some time it calms you and enables you to become thoughtless, giving a break to your mind. When you feel negative emotions, try listening to soothing and positive music and get your groove back. 3. Avoid Negative Talk: Give value to your thoughts and the way you talk. Usually, if you talk and think in a certain way over a period, it automatically becomes your way of life. If you give less value to yourself and talk more negatively, then you will certainly feel depressed. Avoid negative conversations and people with a negative outlook. 4. Gratitude: Practice the art of gratitude. Every morning when you wake up, jot down five blessings (this will become easier with practice) and every night before you sleep, thank god for these blessings. This practice will help you shift your mindset towards becoming more positive. 5. Exercise and Meditation: That’s right. Exercise results in endorphins (happy hormones) being released in your brain, whereas meditation helps you relax, release stress and regain focus. Both are good cures for depression, and this has been medically proven. If you're feeling depressed, try forcing yourself to get moving to help fight depression.
Conclusion: Depression has become a thorn in our flesh in today's fast evolving world. Everyone from young to old is prone to depression. The death toll caused due to depression has increased.
We need to start taking depression seriously and take the right approach to end it before it ends us. It is very important that we understand when we need help and take steps to overcome depression rather than succumb to it.
By Anubhav Verma Anubhav works with Amayaan. Amayaan helps you motivate and prepare for a healthy living through a 360-degree approach to wellness. This includes physical,mental,spiritual,emotional and environmental well being which is essential for your overall welfare.
Not feeling your best? Practice yoga to help fight depression now!
Yoga for Depression: Flow into Happiness with Maria Garre
We don’t know about you, but sometimes if we don’t have time for a full yoga practice, we find it is easy to skip it altogether. Often life becomes hectic and you simply can’t make it onto the mat as frequently as you’d like. Don’t throw in the proverbial towel, instead shift your perspective to seeing how a quickie practice is better than none. We’ve got some great classes to help you squeeze in some yoga on your lunch or workday break. Even a few minutes a day will help you maintain your flexibility, strength, and mental focus.
Depending upon the type of work you do, you may need to counteract the effects of sitting at a desk for hours or standing on your feet.
Here’s what a quick break can do if you’ve been sitting too long: open up your spine from tailbone to crown, loosen your shoulders, and release your hip flexors. Sitting for long periods can compress your spine and leave you vulnerable to back pain. If you’ve re-read the last sentence on the document you’re working on five times and it still doesn’t make sense that means you need a break. In as little as five minutes, you can change how you are feeling and find clarity.
If you stand or are active during the day, you also need to hit the reset button and make sure to get off your feet and recharge. With the right mini-practice, you’ll increase your stamina and ability to stay focused on the job at hand.
What we love about these quick classes is they allow you to maintain your regular practice when you are short on time.
A little effort reaps great rewards. No more excuses! Enjoy these four excellent practices that are designed to create productive, happy, and healthy workdays. Whether your need to move your body, want to improve your focus and concentration, need some de-stressing from your to-do list, or simply want to add some healthy habits in the midst of your routine, these classes are ideal. Add one, or all of them into your routine.
Check out these classes this week, perfect for fitting yoga into your lunch break!
Brain Break with Ellen Kaye
Midday Reset with Caitlin Rose Kenney
Qi Lunchtime Flow with Kylie Larson
Yoga for Focus & Concentration with Jackie Casal Mahrou
While we hear a lot about how yoga is great for winding down and relaxation, you may not know that yoga can help productivity. Yes, yoga is a great escape from our busy working lives, but there are many ways that practicing yoga can help us get more work done, increase concentration and send your productivity levels soaring.
Here’s 10 ways yoga can help productivity at work.
1. Yoga Relieves Stress
Stress is one of the major factors that can affect your health and work productivity. When we’re feeling stressed we sleep less, any illnesses or physical conditions can be exacerbated, and our mental health suffers too. If you’re stressed at work, you can find it hard to focus, and you may even need to take time off sick. Practicing yoga, even just for ten minutes daily can help release any tension in the body, and allows you to feel more relaxed, beating the work stress and letting you go back to your desk with a clear, calm mind.
2. Yoga Improves your Concentration Levels
One of the biggest hurdles on the path to a more productive workday is procrastination. It’s so easy now to get distracted while you’re sat at your desk, and you might find your to-do list never seems to get shorter despite the hours spent in the office. Practicing yoga allows you to take some time to focus on your breathing. The deep breaths you take during a yoga flow regulates oxygen in your blood. This will make you more alert and helps you concentrate on the tasks at hand.
3. Yoga Makes you More Creative
Taking time out to practice yoga not only improves your concentration levels, it can also open your mind to more creative and out of the box ideas. The emotional release yoga can give the mind can boost creativity. This is because when the mind is calm, the relationship between our emotions and rational train of thought can work together, helping us work through mental blocks and look at things from a different frame of mind.
4. Yoga eases physical ailments
The aches and pains that come from hard work can actually affect our productivity. If you work in a desk job, you’ll no doubt be no stranger to back aches, neck soreness, and eye strains. Untreated, these aches and pains can get worse and worse, and turn into headaches, stiffness, arthritis or carpal tunnel. Heading to the matt can keep physical problems away, and loosen our muscles from sitting over a computer everyday. And when you feel relaxed physically, you’ll be able to be much more productive than if you’re sore and stiff.
5. Yoga can fight fatigue
You may not think it, even sitting at a desk working can cause fatigue. You may think because you’re not being active you won’t suffer from fatigue from working. However, even if you work at a desk, fatigue can build up over the days and weeks, causing you to feel exhausted, and impacting your production levels. Stretching and gentle exercise like yoga can help increase your blood circulation, which reduces fatigue and gives your body higher energy levels.
6. Yoga increases positivity
A positive mindframe is key in being a productive, happy employee. And yoga helps in calming your mind and giving you an optimistic outlook. Yoga helps improve your physical and mental health, leading to a high morale; as well as improving your energy levels and creativity to increase your positivity. Taking even just 10 minutes during your work day to practice yoga stretching or breathing exercise can hugely increase workplace morale, meaning more work gets done.
7. Yoga boosts your immune system
Yoga can be used alongside medicine to help ease, treat and fight off a range of illness, such as colds, flu or arthritis. Not only does yoga practice increase your overall health levels, but regular practice can also improve the function of your cardiovascular, respiratory and digestive systems. This helps your body stay strong and healthy to fight off viruses and infections. Practicing yoga can also improve your lymphatic circulation - the lymphatic fluids are a very important part of your immune system, working to fight bacteria and destroying old and abnormal cells in the body.
8. Yoga reduces depression and anxiety
Yoga can help fight off depression and anxiety, which in turn can do wonders for your production levels. Maintaining strong mental health is just as important for your physical health, especially in the workplace. Yoga reduces stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, which can cause anxiety and depression. AS well as this, practicing yoga can help you focus on something as simple as your breathing when you are feeling overwhelmed, helping the negative feelings pass and keeping your mind present.
9. Yoga improves sleep
A tired mind is not a productive mind, and if you’re consistently not sleeping well, chances are your work is going to suffer for it. We’ve already explained how yoga reduces stress - which is a number one suspect when it comes to sleepless nights. Yoga can also regulate your nervous system. If you’re prone to lying in bed with your mind racing, your nervous system is working in overdrive. Yoga can help to activate the side of your nervous system that controls resting (your parasympathetic nervous system), helping you fall asleep, and more importantly, stay asleep.
10. Prefrontal stimulation
Finally, yoga works to stimulate the part of your brain that controls critical decision making. This is called the prefrontal lobes of the brain. This can help your brain work quicker, and as an added bonus, it’s also the part of the brain where your ‘happy’ hormones are released!
Need yoga at your desk in the middle of your workday? Practice Yoga for Desk Jockeys now!
When someone mentions meditation to a very active student, this is the usual reaction: “I could never sit still and do nothing.” If that’s how you feel about meditation, then that’s exactly why you need it!
Throughout your studies, you can be subjected to more stress than you ever anticipated. You get one class to take after another and one paper to write after another. In between studying and friendships, it could feel like you can’t get time for yourself. Meditation will give you that time. Even if it’s just for 10 minutes per day, meditation helps you calm down and learn more about yourself. There are tremendous benefits of meditation for students.
Still not sure? Check out this list of 7 real benefits you’ll get from meditation, especially for students!
1. Meditation Improves the Capacity of Your Working Memory
When you’re studying, you feel like you’re just glimpsing through the information without actually remember anything you read? That’s because your mind wanders. You’re thinking about that party you’re about to go to while you study. When you go to that party, you feel guilty about not studying enough, so you can’t even have fun like you’re supposed to do.
Your mind is prone to distractions of all kinds. It randomly wanders away. Meditation can help you train it. That’s not just a claim; it’s a fact.
One study showed that mindfulness (with meditation as its integral part) is an effective way to improve cognitive functions and improve the capacity of working memory. The scientists noticed reduced mind wandering among participants who were prone to distractions prior to the mindfulness training.
2. Meditation Helps You Focus
Maintaining focus is one of the biggest struggles for most students. The classes are just too long and the papers are just too boring to keep your attention. With proper and regular meditation, you can improve your ability to focus.
A research study proved that. This one is called Meditation increases the depth of information processing and improves the allocation of attention in space. To get to those findings, the researchers observed meditation practitioners in controlled environment. The meditators showed enhanced depth of processing information and were able to allocate and relocated their attention in a much faster way.
3. Meditation Relieves Stress
This is probably one of the most important benefits you’ll experience from meditation. You’ll notice it as soon as you start practicing, but meditation will have long-term effects if you’re consistent in your practice.
Meditation makes you more resilient to stress. With regular practice, you train your mind how to stay calm under challenging circumstances. You could certainly use such a superpower during exam week.
4. Meditation Reduces the Feeling of Fatigue
Life is too tiring right now? It clearly is when you have so much to do within a single day!
Researchers showed that brief meditation sessions reduce fatigue and boost your ability to pay attention. The participants of the study had no prior experience in mediation, but they reported feeling less tired and more attentive after only 4 days of meditation training.
So after an extremely challenging day, just sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes, and meditate. You can choose any style of meditation as long as you know how to do it. This practice will help you deal with fatigue, but you’ll still need your healthy sleep every night.
5. Meditation Boosts Your Immunity
You know that you have to stay healthy, so you’ll be able to study and attend classes. When you’re getting frequent colds, that’s an impossible goal to achieve.
As it turns out, meditation also improves your body’s immune functions. Researchers found a significant boost in antibody titers to influenza vaccine among the subjects who practiced meditation.
6. Meditation Keeps Your Brain Young
The human brain is getting weaker as it ages. For example, it’s much easier for a 7-year-old child to learn a foreign language than for a 50-year-old person to learn the same language. It’s not because the child has more time; it’s because they have a younger, more perceptive brain.
With all that information your brain processes during your studies, it’s important to keep it in shape. Meditation helps with that.
7. Meditation Boosts Your Self-Confidence
Do you feel nervous about taking part in discussions during class? Are you hesitating to ask or answer questions? That’s because you lack self-confidence. Even when you know something, the thought of speaking up in front of all those people may be terrifying.
If you suffer from social anxiety and fear of public speaking, meditation can help you become more self-confident. One study showed that practitioners with social anxiety experienced increased self-esteem and decreased anxiety as effects of mindfulness-based meditation.
For whatever troubles you experience at college, meditation may be the answer. The good news is that it doesn’t take much of your time and it’s easy enough for anyone to practice it. You only need to try. There’s nothing you could possibly lose and you have a lot to gain!
By Silvia Woolard
Silvia Woolard is a professional writer at UK Best Essays and a novice entrepreneur from Phoenix. In her free time, she writes and works in a field of popular psychology and marketing. Read Silvia at her Twitter.
Sitting at a desk all day studying? Practice the Yoga for Desk Jockeys package to keep you focused!
Halloween is approaching and many of us will dress up like vampires and ghouls, work to scare people, celebrate the horror genre and watch scary movies. What are you afraid of? Well, besides that scary clown who may or may not be hiding underneath your bed?
On a more serious note, have you examined the concept of fear and how it impacts you?
Fear is a necessary part of life. If we didn’t have healthy fear of dangerous activities like jumping off cliffs or walking down dark alleys in sketchy neighborhoods, we might get injured or worse. One of the biggest human drives is to protect ourselves from pain and loss, but sometimes we hold ourselves back because we are afraid of being hurt.
According to Patanjali, the author of the Yoga Sutras, the biggest fear we face is the fear of death, referred to as abhinivesha. In theory, all our fears stem from this all-encompassing one. When you contemplate how fear impacts you, you’ll realize both courage and fear are housed in the heart. Courage and love are often used interchangeably––being vulnerable is one of the greatest acts of strength. We face the choice to act from a place of bravery or operate from a place of fear every day.
Our yoga practice can help us conquer our fears and shift our attitude off the mat.
On the mat, take a moment to identify what scares you––falling, looking silly, or injuring yourself? When you know exactly what is holding you back, it’s easier to work on overcoming fear to move forward. If it’s ego, let it go. Trust us, nobody is paying attention to what you’re doing on your mat, they are too focused on their own experience. If you have physical limitations, of course be smart and protect yourself, but often we hold back because of a perceived fear, not an actual limitation. Look inward and ask yourself what you are doing.
During a consistent practice, you have time for self-contemplation and that allows you time to understand what fears are hindering you living your fullest, most free life. Greater discernment empowers us. We’re not saying you will live your life fearless at all times. Instead, work toward the understanding that often fear lives in our mind and we have the power to transform fear into freedom.
This week we’ve got four new practices designed to help you face your fears and transcend them through mindful movement, breath, and meditation. Happy Halloween!
Enjoy this four new classes now, to support yourself in overcoming fear!
1. Jackie Casal Mahrou - Empowerment Flow 4: Know Thyself
2. Dia Michelle Smith - Embracing Impermanence: A Death Meditation
3. Bhavani Maki - Fearless Love: Backbending into Freedom
4. Claire Petretti Marti - Overcome Fear: Chakra Balancing Flow
It’s the season to be spooky, even in your yoga practice!
The good news is, you can get the heebie jeebies right from the mat. Some of your favorite asanas are inspired by some rather haunting ideas. Don’t be surprised - yoga is about the balance of opposites: solar and lunar, hold and release, and of course, light and darkness.
So we’ve put together a sequence of the creepiest, crawliest postures to get you exploring your spooky side.
Here are the 7 scariest yoga poses to get you in the mood for Halloween!
1. Cat Pose: arch, hiss and strike fear into the heart of the superstitiously inclined.
2. Warrior Poses: the ancient story of these asanas tells of the warrior Virabhadra raising his sword (Warrior I), cutting off the head of his enemy (Warrior II) and delivering it to his commander (Warrior III). R-rated stuff.
3. Fetus Pose: a great balancing hip opener, unless you’ve just watched Rosemary’s Baby.
4. Noose Pose: the execution of this pose offers a deep, detoxing twist.
5. Locust: a plague upon whatever gets between you and your practice!
6. Dead Bug Pose: also known as Happy Baby pose – but not today!
7. Corpse Pose (Savasana): your final resting place.
Nama-stay creepy!