Yoga, Health, and Wellness Articles + Recipes

Worrying happens to the best of us. We all will endure stresses in our lives, whether it's through work, our personal lives, our relationships, or even just irrational intrusive thoughts. This worry can get into our brains and can make our day-to-day lives and daily tasks that little bit harder. It would be great if there was some kind of off switch we can press to turn off these worries, but stopping or reducing worry is a little bit harder than that. However, there are habits that you can bring into your day-to-day life that can help your worries to slip away, freeing you to focus on the positive and productive things in life. Set Yourself Worry Time

We’ve all experienced stress in our lives, when the unexpected happens and we can’t control it! That’s when our brains decide to send out stress hormones - the hormones which trigger our ‘fight or flight’ response. This can cause heart racing, quicker breathing and tense muscles. Our stress responses are designed to protect you in an emergency by getting your body ready to react quickly. But, when our stress responses are triggered too often, it can cause some serious health problems.

Do you often start practicing yoga but then find yourself stopping after a few days or months? This is a very common occurrence for people starting out in their yoga journey - it starts out strong and then yoga can take a backseat to other requirements in life. Here are some top tips for staying consistent in your yoga practice. 1. Set an intention Intentions are things that you want to cultivate more of or amplify - basically like your ‘why’ or your purpose. If you’re finding it hard to stay consistent with yoga, think about why you want to practice it in the first place.

Choosing a fitness or yoga routine is very important if you want to maximize results and make the most out of your time. Sometimes people quickly start working out without thinking through what they are looking for from exercise. A full-body workout or yoga practice is a great way to get results all over and maximize the time you have. Here are 10 benefits of doing a full-body workout: Less time commitment

We’ve all heard the phrase - in order to love others, you first of all need to love yourself. And, it’s actually true. It’s so important to show unconditional love to yourself, without that you can’t allow others to truly love you back. The problem - these days our lifestyles are so focused on achievement and comparing ourselves to others and a motivation to push ourselves constantly to do more. The result of this is that we’re so critical of ourselves these days, and we focus on the things we’ve done wrong or haven’t done rather than our successes and achievements.

Working with your chakras can be highly healing. If you are interested in holistic healing, you’ve probably heard of the concept of chakras and know a little bit about chakra healing. The chakra system has origins in India, over four thousand years ago. Knowledge of chakras came to the western world through the practice of yoga. Chakra literally translates as ‘wheel’ or ‘disk’ and refers to the sphere of bioenergetic activity emanating from the nerves branching from the spine. There are seven of these wheels or chakras, and they are stacked in a column of energy that spans up from the base of the spine to the top of the head.

The latest guidelines by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services say that physically able adults should aim for 150 minutes of exercise every week - a combination of both cardio and strength training spread throughout the week. This could translate into 30-minute workouts 5 days a week, but there are other ways to get your exercise that don’t take up quite as much time every day. Research has shown that actually taking shorter periods of activity can be spread out throughout your day to meet the recommended total. Actually, sometimes quicker workouts can be better for you than one longer workout.

Humans are designed to be connected with nature. And even in our modern world we are still synced to the natural world. If you’re feeling burnt out, tired, or unhappy, reconnecting with nature can help to bring you a sense of calm and refresh yourself. There are a few things that we can do to feel connected with nature, and pause, refresh and notice the world around us. Bring the Outdoors Inside

Happy Earth Day 2022! On April 22nd, the fifty-second Earth Day, join us to commemorate this year’s Earth Day theme of Invest in Our Planet. Yoga practice, comprised of the earth’s elements of earth, air, fire, water, and ether, naturally honors our planet and is embodied in the yogic concept of Ahimsa or non-harming. To celebrate, YogaDownload is offering our biggest sale of the year so you can maintain a consistent yoga practice and feel connected to the earth beneath us. Sometimes we can get caught up in the day-to-day and forget to express gratitude for the planet that sustains us with air, water, food and all that nourishes us. We’ve got a few suggestions for you to try this Earth Day to honor this universal worldwide celebration.

If you are trying to be healthier, you might find that a quick fix or a fad diet never lasts and you find yourself slipping back into old habits. This is because as humans, we are creatures of habit, and if we want to see and make long-lasting positive changes in our daily lives, we need to work on improving habits one at a time. However, this way to a healthier and happier life doesn't need to be difficult or overwhelming. Making one small change every day for two weeks can be the secret to transforming your habits. Here are 14 simple habits you can add to your day, over the course of two weeks. Feel free to add these daily intentions to your daily yoga, in YogaDownload's upcoming FREE 2-Week Yoga Challenge: Root and Rise.

The holiday season is a busy time for everyone. There always seems to be so much rushing, stressing, planning, and preparation to do, which may lead to feelings of being overwhelmed, tired, and stressed. That’s why it’s so important to stay stress-free over the holidays, otherwise, you run the risk of feeling worn out and tired. We’ve got 10 tips for everyone to try and keep calm and as stress-free as possible over this festive season. Let go of high expectations

Anyone who has experienced a jolt in their back when trying to get on with their day to day life understands how bad lower back pain can be and how it can debilitate us.If you’re not careful it can become a chronic problem that will lead to serious issues in life. But you don’t have to let it become an issue that ruins your life! Here’s some tips to protect your lower back and protect your spine Movement is Medicine You might think that resting is best and that exercise is counterproductive to help prevent back pain, but regular exercise can help - although don’t do it if you’re in pain already!

Yoga is an extremely popular practice around the globe, and that’s because it was made to be accessible to everyone, to heal, strengthen, calm and empower whoever wants to try it, regardless of age, gender, race, size, shape, background and fitness level! Everyone should try yoga at least once in their life, and here are just a few reasons why this practice is for everyone. Stress Relief Yoga relieves stress for everyone from any walk of life. Yoga helps to bring attention to our breath, which is the quickest and easiest way to change our mindsets and emotional states. Deeper, fuller breaths help to relax our parasympathetic nervous systems, which in turn helps to alleviate anxiety and tension. Whoever you are, once you try connecting and controlling your breath through yoga, you will notice your stress levels reducing. The mind-body practice of yoga allows for meditation and relaxation and gaining some knowledge of how your mind works is a great long-term stress management technique.

Iyengar Yoga is a style of yoga that was developed and named after someone called B.K.S Iyengar, in the 1960s. This style of yoga is very meticulous and places importance on precision and alignment. Iyengar yoga is about breath control and posture and is great to build strength and flexibility, as well as teaching the correct alignment of the body. B.K.S Iyengar was born in 1918 in Bellur, India. He studied and practiced yoga for over 85 years. He studied under T. Krishnamacharya - who is often referred to as ‘The Father of Modern Yoga’. He brought his style of yoga to the west in the 1970’s and wrote his book: Light on Yoga, which has been a source for yoga students all over the world. B.K.S Iyengar taught for over 75 years in the 5 continents, bringing yoga to many people around the world. He even invented a lot of the yoga props we still use today and helped explore how yoga can treat medical conditions.

Around the world, COVID-19 restrictions are lifting in various stages, and in some places, they're getting tighter again as the pandemic continues. In some parts of the world, people are coming out of lockdown and recent months have been a time of being allowed to see family again, to go out for dinner, and even festivals and nightclubs. This can be quite overwhelming after months of restrictions in place. While you might be excited for some sense of normalcy, feeling uncertain and anxious is a normal reaction to the world changing once again.

Bad days can happen to anyone, even the most positive of us. Anything from a stressful day at work, something you love breaking, getting caught up in traffic - somethings, things go wrong and we feel like life just well, sucks. While we can’t manage absolutely everything in the world to ensure we never have a bad day, we can do some small things everyday to boost our mood, no matter what life throws at us. Start the Morning Right If you don’t start you first 20 minutes of the day by getting up and doing something, it’s been said it can have an impact on the entire rest of your day. To avoid your whole morning, afternoon and evening being an uphill battle, try and do something productive in those first 20 minutes, if its meditation, going for a walk, making a healthy breakfast, or catching up on some positive news, it will boost your mood and start you right for the rest of the day. Drink Water Drinking water can help to energise your body, support healthy weight, improve your brain function and also improve your sleep. Sounds great! Try and drink between 2-3 litres of water a day, and try and drink some first thing in the morning - yes this means before your morning coffee! Top tip - try to drink room temperature water to help it be absorbed more quickly to rehydrate you faster.

A lot of us suffer from bad posture, but having good posture is extremely beneficial to our health and general wellbeing. A good posture can help do a number of things such as prevent back and neck pain, decrease wear and tear on your joints, increase your energy levels, and increase your spine’s durability. So quite a lot of benefits from having a good posture! Our posture is so important as our other bodily organs, tissues, nerves and bones rely on it as our spine absorbs shock, leverages movements and protects the spinal cord - an extension of your brain and the way your brain sends messages to the rest of your body. Having a slumped posture curves the spine, and puts a lot of stress onto the spines supporting body parts, which can degrade the strength of the spinal cord.

We’ve all heard meditation is good for your brain, and with the rollout of meditation apps and courses over the past few years, it’s becoming more and more well known that meditation can benefit us vastly. With this increase in popularity, also comes scientific research into the positive effects of meditation. Now, we can actually see the various neurological benefits that meditation has on the brain, including actual changes in gray matter - or increased activity in certain areas of the brain. Looking at these benefits alongside the psychological effects of meditation on our well-being, it’s easy to see exactly how meditation can change your mind and brain. Meditation Can Help Preserve Aging Brains

If you’re trying to get healthier and improve your body image by losing weight, you might know that the struggle of weight loss needs you to stay motivated and confident across a long period of time. But if you’re trying to lose weight, it can be hard to keep confident and feel happy about yourself if you’re not happy with your body image. It’s really important to give yourself confidence boosts along the way of your weight loss journey. We all know that you’ll feel better about yourself when you meet your weight goals, but if you feel more confident while you’re losing weight, you might find yourself more motivated to stick to it, and finally reach those goals. Here’s some ways to boost your self confidence when you’re losing weight.

If you’ve done even one yoga class, you’ve probably already done at least one twisting pose in your practice, probably more. Twisting has a large number of benefits to the body, however, it’s important to do them safely for the best yoga experience. Here’s some of the benefits of yoga twists, and how to master them. Back Health When we do twists in yoga we rotate the spine and stretch the back muscles, which in turn helps to restore and keep the spine’s range of motion. Not having a strong range of motion can run the risk of our joints becoming hard and inflexible, and the supportive muscles surrounding the spine can shrink. Stretching the muscles regularly with twists can prevent this. Boosting Energy

Earth Day found its beginnings in 1970, in the United States, and years later the environmental movement has gone global. Over a billion people worldwide get involved each year with Earth Day activities and trying to make the world a better place. Here are some small ways you can get involved and give back this earth day. Recycle One of the essential things we need to do to protect the Earth is simply recycling. An easy thing to do is try to reduce the amount of waste you produce by recycling and reusing materials that don’t need to go into the bin. Simple things like recycling cardboard and paper, reusing glass and plastic materials can help, and you can also do things like buying second-hand rather than new. Reduce Meat Consumption

In today’s busy modern world, yoga has evolved over the years to fit into our jam-packed schedules, the most notable of these being - practices are shorter. The traditional yoga class and used to last 90 minutes, which was a standard practice. Nowadays, we see 60, 30, even 5 minutes yoga practices, which while they still have their uses, sometimes can’t compare to the benefits of a longer practice. The main benefit of a longer practice is more time to focus on mindfulness, breathing techniques, and to generally help you relax. Here are 10 ways these benefits can positively impact your life.

We all know that working out can improve our sex lives, as exercise can boost both your energy levels and your self-esteem, but did you know that yoga not only gives those benefits, but lots more? If you’re looking to yoga as your new form of working out, read on to discover how it can also give a boost to your sex life. Yoga Improves Pelvic Floor Muscles When you practice yoga, you can use up all of your muscles in one pose or another, including your pelvic floor. When doing standing poses and supporting your own body weight, you’re also working out your pelvic floor muscles. In an average yoga class, this can add up to half an hour of pelvic floor exercises. If you didn’t know, strengthening these muscles can help to improve your orgasms - a great incentive to get on the yoga mat!

Yoga practice may not necessarily make you think of the word ‘strong’ - but it’s a common misconception that the practice is all about getting bendy and flexible. Yoga can actually be a great addition to strength training, and can make you more powerful and strong both in the gym and your day-to-day life. Combining yoga with strength training can not only make you stronger - it can actually help reduce your risk of pain and injury. Read on to find out how. Yoga is a form of bodyweight training If you’re working on a specific set of muscles, perhaps to increase strength in these areas, or for aesthetic reasons, it can be easy to neglect the other muscles in your body - which can hinder your progress. Yoga as bodyweight training can help to even things out in your body.

Handstands are one of the more impressive poses that you can have in your arsenal, however they can be difficult to pull off. This is a pose that you need to work up to, building the muscles needed and mastering variations of the pose before tackling an unaided handstand. There are lots of ways you can prepare to master the handstand, but they mostly come down to strengthening your core and arm muscles, as well as improving your general strength and flexibility with regular yoga practice. We’ve listed some of the key poses and exercises you can do to help you ace your handstands.