Featured in the Kansas City Wellness Magazine April 2003 Issue:

She has been teaching ashtanga yoga for the last thirteen years and is also the owner of Maya Yoga, in Kansas City, MO: www.mayayoga.com

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

Think about this quote for a second and ask yourself, does this quote apply to the way you treat your body?

I get several questions from people asking if they can replace lifitng weights with yoga.
Before I give my thoughts on the subject, I like to ask people two important questions:

1. Do you enjoy lifting weights?
2. Does weight lifting give your body the shape you desire?

If the answer is an enthusiastic “no,” to both questions, which is usually the case for many people at this point in their lives, then I love liberating people from pressing metal plates, by saying, “JUST DO YOGA!”

Before I was introduced to yoga, I lifted weights three times a week for fifteen years. My body was toned, but my muscles looked bulky, not lean, which had been my natural body type growing up. I was frustrated because it seemed the more I lifted weights, the bigger my muscles appeared, I just looked and felt thick, not good.

It didn’t help that I was also doing an hour of intense cardiovascular exercise every day, which sent my appetite through the roof, so my eating habits ended up countering all my hard work spent at the gym. Two hours at the gym, equaled three hours of eating the house down when I got home at night-ugh!

However, when I got the opportunity to open my first yoga studio in 1999, I decided to do a pilot study with myself: I quit lifting weights and just practiced ashtanga yoga, 6 days a week. I had been a personal trainer for the last six years, so it was a big deal for me to let go of something that had not only been a part of my personal life for so long, but had also been my professional life. I had been educating people on the benefits of lifting weights for years and now I was going to JUST do YOGA?! My personal trainer friends thought I was nuts! One guy said to me, “Shouldn’t you supplement your triceps with some tricep curls?” I said, I’m not sure, but I’m going to find out …

I want to make it clear, that I chose to do this study with myself, because I was very bored with lifting weights and loved my yoga practice way more than my gym routine. I did not switch to yoga, because I wanted to change the shape of my body. I switched to doing just yoga, because I wanted to do a practice that would fulfill me on all levels, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. If I was going to work out 1-2 hours a day, I wanted to do something I loved, and not something that my mind and society told me that I needed to do to stay in “shape.”

After one month of just doing ashtanga yoga daily, I felt stronger and leaner than I ever had in my life. I have never lifted a weight since that liberating day over tens years ago! Over the tens year of doing just yoga, I have become vegan, quit drinking alcohol and caffeine and have lost ten pounds.

Ashtanga, Vinyasa and Power Yoga are all forms of weight bearing exercise. There is nothing more weight bearing than being able to press your own body weight!

When I started yoga after lifting weights half of my life, I thought it was very interesting that I couldn’t do one chaturunga (tricep yoga push-up) to save my life! This really made me question my old workouts: “Why hadn’t the weights prepared me to press my entire body weight?” Well, if you think about it, most weight lifting exercises are isolated to individual muscle groups in the upper body, such as triceps, shoulders, lats, biceps, etc. They do not focus on pressing the body as a whole, which is the way yoga works the body.

When people tell me they are going to start lifting weights, in order to get stronger for yoga, I just tell them if they want to get stronger for yoga, DO YOGA! Every form of exercise is sport specific, meaning tennis prepares one for tennis, and not for golf. If you want to improve in a certain style of yoga, practice that particular style of yoga, because even yoga can be “sport specific.” My ashtanga practice doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to be good at a Bikram yoga practice, make sense?

If you enjoy your weight lifting routine and it is still fulfilling and giving you the results you desire, keep it up. However for those of you who are ready to make the transition from weights to yoga, here are my suggestions:

Yoga Homework

1. For four weeks, do Ashtanga and Vinyasa yoga, 3-6 times a week, without lifting a single weight.
2. I encourage you to walk briskly 30 minutes outside on your days off from yoga, if you are wanting to lose weight.
3. REMEMBER: Food is everything, so be conscious of what you are eating, why you are eating and how much you are eating. Eating a vegan diet, no animal-products, meat dairy, eggs or fish, is VERY effective for weight loss.

VegSource Video

Kathleen Kastner
Exercise Physiologist M.S.
Maya Yoga
Kansas City, MO

Kaden, Kaiah and Holly the turkey

We believe that the first precept of Ashtanga Yoga, ahimsa (non-harming) applies not only to fellow human beings but  includes all of the members of the animal kingdom.  Not just the loyal ones or the cute cuddly ones that purr but all of the sentient beings, beings that feel, even the ones that we as a society have decided are acceptable to kill and consume just to appease our taste buds!  If you have ever considered a vegan diet, you may still be clinging to the 80’s question, “But where do you get your protein?”  There is protein in just about every grain and vegetable we eat and pound for pound their is more protein in spinach and broccoli than there is in beef, chicken, pork, or fish and with absolutely no cholesterol.  Think about the largest and strongest land animals on the planet, Elephants, Giraffes, Horses, Cows, they are all herbivores!  From a practical standpoint consider this; It takes one hundred pounds of grain to generate one pound of beef.  Imagine how many starving children right here in the United States you could feed with all that grain or other crops that could have been planted on that same farm land.  Remember when the saying used to be, “the starving children in Africa? ” Well it’s a lot closer to home now with all the “food like” substances we are feeding our children as well as ourselves. The nation is starving from malnutrition even as two-thirds of the population is over weight.  Watch Dr. McDougall’s Video to see a man who has been crusading for a vegan diet for 40 years.

There was a time when yogis in India held the cow as sacred and kept them for their milk and chickens for their eggs, with conditions that were kind and humane. Unfortunately, those days are long gone in all but the rarest of cases.  Now, factory farming is big business and over 10 BILLION farm animals are slaughtered each year in the U.S. alone! Have you ever witnessed a factory farm in action? Animals are given special feed and drugs that boost milk and egg production. They are overcrowded to the point there is no room to lay down, forced to stand ankle deep in their own feces and urine. These are just a few of the atrocities at a factory farm.  All of this harm for the sake of the mighty dollar, all at the expense of the animal’s health and in turn, human health.  If you think the “organic” stamp on the carton will protect you, think again. The Food and Drug (Aberration) Administration  is in bed with the food industry and has been since it’s inception.  Even if you could get wholesome milk and eggs, they’re still loaded with cholesterol! (We make our own cholesterol by the way.) There are numerous studies that show dairy products cause everything from diabetes and cancer to obesity.  Cow’s milk  by its’ nature is intended to double the size of a baby cow in just three months and it can do the same to you if you consume enough of it!  Read The China Study, by T. Collin Campbell for the largest health study ever done to see where we get our health facts. The bottom line is; If you kill and eat enough animals they will eventually kill you right back with a heart attack, stroke, or even cancer.  The science is out there and this has been known and ignored for decades.   Below are a number of other links to back up what we are saying.

Finally if ahimsa for the animals isn’t enough to motivate you and ahimsa for your health doesn’t motivate you either, how about ahimsa for the environment?   Urine and feces run off from factory farms spills into nearby streams and leach into the ground polluting our water ways and wells.  Did you know that a good number of farmers can’t even drink the water from the wells on their farms due to the high nitrate levels?  They will however let their livestock drink it, which in turn could end up in your system, if you eat their contaminated meat.  One last fact from the E.P.A:  Animal agriculture produces 60% more green house gasses than all forms of transportation combined. This icludes ships, trains, planes and automobiles. One study showed the average person would have a bigger impact on the environment by switching to a vegan diet than switching to a hybrid car!

These are just some of the reasons that the owners of Maya Yoga and many of the teachers and students are vegan, choosing not to consume any animal products.  Feel free to ask us any questions you might have as we are advocates of a healthy life style and would love to help you find one as well!

Namaste’
Wade  Mortenson

VEGAN You tubes:  VegSource Video Farm Sanctuary “Peaceable Kingdom“ Engin 2 Diet

VEGAN RESOURCES:
www.vegan.com – Vegan site
www.farmsanctuary.com – Sanctuary for rescued farm animals in NY and LA
www.animalacres.com – Farm animal rescue in Los Angeles
www.madcowboy.com – Former cattle rancher Howard Lyman, Oprah’s guest on Mad Cow’s Disease.
“Skinny Bitch” and
“Skinny Bitch in the Kitch” by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin
“The Kind Diet” by Alicia Silverstone
“Quantum Wellness” by Kathy Freston
“The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell
“Eat More, Weigh Less” by Dr. Dean Ornish
“Diet for a New America” by John Robbins
“The Mad Cowboy” by Howard Lyman
“Animal Theology” by Dr. Andrew Linzey

“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we would all be vegetarian.” -Paul McCartney

I am grateful that on a soul level, I was born a vegetarian. I loved and respected animals as a young child, even though I was raised in a meat eating family in the middle of Kansas! I remember getting violently ill, after eating a bite of roast when I was 6 years old, which lead me to stop eating beef and pork. Unfortunately for the chickens, I continued to eat them until my late 20’s. However my 21 year old cat, Samantha, helped me see the light that stopped me in my tracks from eating meat once and for all. Samantha was dying from kidney failure and I made the choice to end her suffering, by having my vet put her out of her toxic misery. As I held her precious body in my arms, because I wanted my face to be the last thing she saw before passing on from this life, to more life, I watched as the Vet pricked her frail body with the needle and in an instant I felt her soul leave her body. In that defining moment, I felt in my heart the deepest connection to all animal souls and that I had no right to be eating them, so I made the conscious decision to stop eating all forms of meat once and for all.

I am a vegan first and foremost for the animals, for their protection and safety, to help them live their lives free of pain and suffering. I do not feel God put them on the planet to live a life of confinement, fear, pain and being slaughtered, so that people can get their “protein” fix for the day. Plants, nuts, beans, vegetables and even rice, believe it or not, have protein. Plus the human body does not need as much protein as the media would like to convince us. Excess animal protein in your diet can lead to cancer, kidney stones, high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

When I shifted from being vegetarian to vegan, by eliminating dairy and eggs from my diet, my body began to heal itself of acne, allergies and asthma. Why my doctors never asked me about my diet, is beyond me … Instead they gave me lots of prescriptions for these conditions, when all I really needed to do was change my diet!

Going vegan is great for your health, the animals and the environment! If you can just start by having one vegan meal a day or week and slowly start retraining your taste buds, to the joys of a plant based diet, I trust in time you will begin to crave foods with more prana or life force and not want as much meat that has been stripped of all life force, in the rearing and slaughtering process. Ask your soul what it would like to eat at each meal and really listen to the answers … remember on a soul level we are ALL ONE.

Namaste’ – the divine in me, honors the divine within you and in all beings.

VEGAN RESOURCES:
www.vegan.com – Vegan site
www.farmsanctuary.com – Sanctuary for rescued farm animals in NY and LA
www.animalacres.com – Farm animal rescue in Los Angeles
www.madcowboy.com – Former rancher Howard Lyman’s website
“Quantum Wellness” by Kathy Freston
“The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell
“Eat More, Weigh Less” by Dr. Dean Ornish
“Diet for a New America” by John Robbins
“The Mad Cowboy” by Howard Lyman
“Animal Theology” by Dr. Andrew Linzey

“I heard Shiva came down on your yoga studio, “ my friend said, after hearing that my yoga studio had burned down in a fire.  ‘”What a positive perspective,” I thought to myself. With all the tragedy surrounding the studio fire, I hadn’t stopped to think of it as a positive sign of transformation and rebirth.

Three years ago, I co-owned a yoga studio in Kansas City, MO, that burned up, literally, overnight at the height of its’ success.  At the time of the fire, in February 2002, the studio offered four classes a day, with an average of 400 students per week. This was amazing, considering the awareness of yoga in the midwest, was fairly limited at that time.

What I didn’t realize at the time of the fire, or during the months leading up to it, was that my business partner and I really weren’t congruent with our approach and philosophies in teaching yoga and running the studio. In turn, the fire did for us, what we weren’t capable of doing for ourselves, it dissolved our partnership.

After the fire, I went to Los Angeles, believing that God truly did not want me to be teaching yoga anymore.  After all, the fire had eerily been contained to just the yoga studio space, without burning the spaces that were above, below, or on either side of the studio. (The studio resided on the 4th floor of an old warehouse.)

In addition, investigators never determined the cause of the fire, which really made me wonder, “Is spontaneous combustion a possibility?”  Looking back now I believe that when God is in charge, anything is possible!  I felt divine intervention was telling me to pursue a different path other than teaching yoga.   How little did I know at the time, however, that the Universe was actually nudging me to open a yoga studio of my own.

After a week- long visit in Los Angeles and much soul searching and weighing my options about what to do next, I found myself feeling very lost and distraught. I looked at my friend and said, “Do you think I’m supposed to go back to Kansas City and open my own yoga studio?”  She nodded her head, “yes,” like she had known all along that is what I would end up doing.  It is interesting that the thought of opening my own studio had never entered my mind, until that defining moment.

During the flight back to Kansas City, I wrote in my journal for three hours about what I wanted in a new yoga studio space, including rent price, square footage, view and the type of landlord I desired.  I knew I wanted a very urban and raw space with lots of character and history.

My best friend picked me up from the airport and I asked her to drive me downtown to the art gallery district, where my old studio was located.  Immediately, I saw a big canvas banner that said, “Lofts for Rent,” attached to a warehouse known as the “Art’s Incubator Building.”  I went inside to see what types of spaces were available to rent.

The friendly landlord walked me up to the top floor of a 100 -year- old warehouse and showed me 10,0 00 square feet of extremely raw space that hadn’t been used in 14 years.  I took one look out the front windows, which overlooked the Kansas City downtown skyline, and I thought, “This is exactly what I have been journaling about all the way home on the plane.’”

“This is it,” I exclaimed with joy, “this is going to be the home for Maya Yoga!”  I started jumping up and down and hugging my potential landlord and thanking him for being the answer to my prayers.  ( I’m surprised my enthusiasm didn’t scare the poor guy away, but thank goodness he believed in me and my intentions for spreading the word of yoga and he rented me the raw space of my dreams.)

The space of my dreams, however, needed a lot of work, as it had been abandoned for the last fourteen years.  I was unemployed at the time, due to the fire, so I did not have an income, nor did I have any savings, and to tops things off, the insurance company never gave my business partner and me a dime on the $100, 000 fire insurance policy.  It claimed that it was “liability only,” which would cover the spaces next to the studio, just not the studio space itself- go figure.  (A note to all studio owners: PLEASE make sure you have a supplemental fire insurance policy in addition to your yoga studio liability insurance.)

Through the grace of God, good friends and good credit, the new space was refurbished in two months and Maya Yoga, Kansas City, specializing in ashtanga and vinyasa yoga,  opened on April 28th, 2002, just three months after the fire had occurred.  ( A statue of Shiva sits tall on the altar at the studio as a symbol of the transformative cycle of death and rebirth.)

Maya Yoga is still rising above the ashes almost three years later, thanks to an incredible staff of instructors and an amazing and loyal student base.  My deepest gratitude goes out to my wonderful yoga family for supporting and loving me through all the the trials, tribulations and joys of being a yoga studio owner.

Featured in Yoga Magazine May 2005

Original Format of this article can be seen here:
Page 1, Page 2, Page3

“I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being.” -Abraham Lincoln*

What do Abraham Lincoln, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Leonardo da Vinci and Gandhi all have in common?

They were all vegetarians!

Isn’t it refreshing to know that the leaders of previous generations had the consciousness and compassion to love and respect the animal kingdom?!

For years, I have pondered the following questions:

-Is having reverence for animals something that one is born with, or is it something that is acquired, or taught, over the years of a lifetime?

-Why would a person want to eat an innocent animal? A person wouldn’t eat his cat or dog, so what is the difference between a dog and a cow and a chicken and a cat?

-Why do human beings think they are superior to animals, when animals are the ones who are so spiritually evolved in their ability to love unconditionally, forgive and be loyal? (Think about how loving, loyal and forgiving your pets are to you…)

-Why do human beings feel it is ok for animals to be tortured?

“As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battle fields.*-Tolstoy

-Why do humans think that animals do not feel fear and pain? (Or do people just chose to bury their heads in the sand, because they feel that meat “tastes good”, or they “need the protein”?)

I have been a vegetarian since I was a little girl, due to my love and devotion to my animal friends. Like many people, I believe I was born a vegetarian on a soul level.

At the age of six, I was forced me into one of those “last bite” routines, with a bite of roast, that sent my stomach into convulsions and caused me to get sick, while my mom was ironically reading me the book, “Curious George the Monkey.” Needless to say, my meat eating days ended right there and then in front of my friend, George the Monkey. ( I think he sensed my angst!)

Right about now, you might be asking yourself, “Well, what does she eat, if she doesn’t eat beef, pork, chicken or fish?” My answer is, “The other hundreds of food sources on the planet.”

In addition to ethical reasons, if you suffer from high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, stress, or if you smoke, I highly suggest cutting meat out of your diet for the sake of your health. Meat and animal fat can block your arteries and constrict the blood flow to your heart and brain, which can increase your risk for stroke, heart attack, high blood pressure and arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

Also, the human body has a difficult time digesting meat and when meat is left in the body for an extended period of time, it can become toxic and contribute to colon cancer.

On an energetic and emotional level, “Meat is dead,” says Dr. Deepak Chopra, because it does not have any prana (life force) remaining in it, which can contribute to depression, anger, mood swings and lethargy.

When I moved to Kansas City from California eight years ago, I initially had a very hard time getting vegetarian food when I went out to eat. However, I am thrilled to say that things have greatly changed in favor of saving the animals over the years, and that Kansas City now has many restaurants that offer delicious vegetarian and vegan dishes to accommodate your dining needs.

I have compiled a list of my favorite Kansas City vegetarian restaurants and veggie dishes in hopes of increasing the awareness of these options for those of you interested in cutting meat out of your diet:

Eden’s Alley, located in the basement of Unity Temple on the Plaza, offers a full menu of vegetarian and vegan dishes, more than any restaurant in K.C., bless them! The spinach loaf with sweet potatoes is my favorite entree on the menu and their veggie burger, with garlic mashed potatoes, has more than enough flavor to help the hamburger lover gracefully make the shift to being a vegetarian. In addition, their garnets and greens salad and the Betty Bailey salad are the perfect choice for a side salad, or as an entire meal. The portions at Eden’s Alley are very generous and reasonably priced.

Blue Koi, located on 39th Street, just east of State Line, offers many vegetarian and vegan dishes as well. My favorite main course is “ants on a tree” with tofu and my favorite soups are the vegetarian won ton and the vegetarian noodle, with little corn on the cobs and tofu. Their “crispy tofu with awesome sauce” is one of the best things I have ever tasted in my life! I also love their vegetarian dumplings.

Blue Bird Bistro, located at 17th and Summit, has many vegetarian dishes, including a green curry dish with many fresh vegetables, organic coconut milk, served over jasmine rice. They also have two different salads, made of organic mixed greens with lemon or blueberry vinaigrette dressings. In addition, they serve edamames, which are a fun source of soy, and black bean quesadillas.

PF Chang’s, located on the Plaza, has wonderful vegetarian offerings, such as their tofu lettuce wraps, vegetable dumplings, veggie fried rice and coconut curry tofu and vegetables. The sugar snap peas sautéed with garlic are tasty as well.

New Peking, located in Westport, behind Chilies, has my favorite vegetable fried rice and they will add fried or steamed tofu to the rice, and edit the egg if you are a vegan. I love to add their sweet and sour sauce to this dish as well. They serve very GENEROUS portions of veggie rice, which I greatly appreciate, because I am a lousy cook, so this way I always have enough food to take home with me for lunch the next day. (Oh the joy of left -overs in a lonely fridge!)

Cafe Seed, KC’s only ALL vegan restaurant! The veggie burger and fries are my favorite dish and they have great salads and vegan cupcakes, joy! Great weekend brunches as well: 2932 Cherry: www.cafeseed.com: 816-561-7333. Please call in your order in ahead of time.

Chipolte: Main Street and 39th Street: Vegetarian Burrito, make it vegan with no cheese or sour cream. Add extra guacamole and salsa for more flavor.

I appreciate you being open minded to my suggestions and for allowing me the opportunity to be a voice for the animals who can not speak for themselves. I feel it is our responsibility as human beings to take care of the animals who can not defend themselves, as we would care and protect a baby, a puppy, or a kitten. I hope and pray that you will open your hearts to acknowledging the divinity within all living beings and the practice of ahimsa (nonviolence), by adding more vegetarian and vegan dishes to your lifestyle.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”** -Gandhi

A Prayer for Loving Kindness (Metta):
May all beings be filled with loving kindness,
May all beings be well,
May all beings be peaceful and at ease,
May all beings be happy.

Namaste
Kathleen Kastner
Owner of Maya Yoga
Exercise Physiologist M.S.

.*www.choices.cs.uiuc.edu/~f-kon/vegetarian.html
** “Peace to All Beings- Veggie Soup for the Chicken’s Soul,” by Judy Carman of Lawrence, KS.Missouri

“Everything else can wait, but your search for God cannot wait.” -Paramahansa Yogananda

Patanjalim defines yoga as: “yogas citta vrtti nirodaha”, yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind.  Notice he does not say, “He who does handstand best is the most enlightened!”  However, instead of adopting a regular meditation practice, we spend hours on the mat doing more asana, in search of clarity, self -acceptance, and a deeper meaning to our lives. Because the ego mind, which is full of fear, worry, and doubt, is threatened by meditation, it therefore encourages us to do MORE physical activity, whether it be asana, jogging, or cleaning our house, anything to distract us from our meditation practice.

As yogis, many times we forget that being strong and flexible isn’t the cure all to a happy and peaceful life.  In fact, sometimes we feel even more lost and confused after an asana practice, because all kinds of questions begin to surface from our being.

My first yoga teacher once said, that her greatest goal in life was to know God better.  I remember thinking what she said was very commendable, but I definitely didn’t understand the magnitude of what she was saying at the time. However, fourteen years later, I think I am beginning to understand what she was seeking in her relationship with God.

When we cease the chatter of the mind thru meditation, we create space for the Divine to connect with us. God is always trying to communicate with us, but are we listening, or are we too busy trying to get somewhere on the mat, or in our lives?

Many times we are reluctant to sit down to meditate, due to a perceived lack of time, or maybe the fear of the unknown; the fear that maybe God has something to tell us that we aren’t ready to face, like the end of a relationship or a career that is not aligned with our highest good anymore?   So in turn, we resist being still and miss an opportunity to change our lives for the better.  We would rather stay feeling confused, frustrated, and physically “fit,” instead of seeking personal growth thru a quiet mind.

The habit of jumping out of bed in the morning, turning on the radio, tv, coffee maker, and reading the newspaper, only creates more vrttis (chatter) in the mind.  I suggest doing your meditation practice first thing upon waking up, and spending some quality quiet time deepening your connection with God.

Quiet time in the morning, before you leave your house, will help you be kinder to yourself and everyone you come into contact with throughout your day. In turn, every time you meditate you are helping to align your mind with Divine mind, which are thoughts based on love, patience, forgiveness, gratitude and service to the planet.

Meditation, like asana, just takes PRACTICE and dedication.  The effects are accumulative, so even 5 minutes daily, can help you to have a more peaceful and purposeful life.  I suggest doing your meditation practice before you leave your house in the morning, so your thoughts are aligned with Divine Mind throughout your day.  You will have a greater ability to make more conscious choices in your life, with less stress and drama, and more kindness and patience, towards yourself and others.

The use of mantra in meditation can be very helpful as well. The Sanskrit word “mantra”, means “instrument of the mind,” and the mantra I have found to be the most effective for my meditation practice is: ”Be Still and Know.”

This mantra comes from Psalm 46, “Be still and know that I am God.”

On the inhalation, say internally, “Be still,” and on the exhalation say, “And know.”

It is as if God is saying to our minds, “Be still and know that I AM GOD, and that I am taking care of all the details of you life, if you would just be willing to release them to me.”

In turn, our life’s challenges always work themselves out, maybe not the way we planned, but they always work out for the highest good of our soul’s journey, and for the highest good of all involved. We must remember this during times of deep despair and crisis-God ALWAYS has a plan.

I encourage you to make time daily for the most important relationship in your life, the one with God, and experience the unconditional love, acceptance and guidance that resides within you, in every moment.

Meditate for yourself and as an offering for all beings everywhere.

“In the final analysis, it is all between you and God.” -Mother Teresa.

Kathleen Kastner teaches yoga at Maha Yoga and Mark Blanchard’s Power Yoga, in Brentwood, CA.  She is also the Owner of Maya Yoga, in Kansas City, MO.

www.kathleenkastner.com
www.mayayoga.com

Peace to you,
Kathleen Kastner

An Emotional and Spiritual Approach to Weight Management

“Love yourself first and the rest of your life will fall into place.” -Lucille Ball

I worked in the weight management and fitness industry for 6 years as an Exercise Physiologist and a Personal Trainer, prior to owning a yoga studio in Kansas City. Surprisingly, I have seen more people lose weight by practicing yoga, than I did when I was working in the fitness field.

Over the years, I have often asked myself the question, “Why does yoga help people lose weight more than any other form of exercise I have witnessed?” After teaching yoga for 7 years, I feel I finally know some of the answers.

Weight loss is traditionally approached as a physical “issue” and tends to be addressed only in that manor focusing on physical means, diet and exercise education, without attention to the individual’s emotional and spiritual needs. Diet and exercise are valuable information, of course, but they do not get to the ROOT issue of why a person is overeating. I believe weight loss is an emotional and spiritual issue, and needs to be approached with emotional and spiritual means. Otherwise, it is like putting a square key (diet and exercise education only) into a round hole (emotional and spiritual well-being), the two just don’t fit, at least not for long term weight loss.

Yoga is an exercise that stimulates and fulfills people mentally, emotionally and spiritually, as well as physically. When individuals are feeling fulfilled on ALL these levels, it increases their sense of self worth, so therefore they have less of a need to overeat or abuse their bodies, as they might have in the past. Weight loss begins to occur naturally due to an increase in self-esteem and self love that is cultivated on the yoga mat

The definition of yoga, according to Patanjali’s yoga sutras states: “Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind,” meaning that if we can quiet the chatter of the mind, union (yoga) between mind, body and spirit can be attained. Notice how Patanjali doesn’t say, “He who does a handstand best wins!” Yoga is all about quieting the MIND, so that you can learn to concentrate in the present moment, on and off your mat. The ability to concentrate can help you improve all areas of your life, especially your health.

I believe weight loss begins by ceasing the chatter in the mind as well, the negative self talk that was developed as a self loathing habit over the years, usually stemming in early child hood.

Be very aware that your thought patterns (consciousness) aren¹t just in your mind, they are in every cell in your being, from head to toe. However, YOU have the power to change them thru continuous effort and awareness, to create new, positive, self affirming and loving thought patterns. Remember, your thoughts create your reality!

In Louise Hay’s book, “You Can Heal Your Life”, she suggests saying, “I love and accept myself exactly as I AM,” 100 times a day, especially while looking at yourself in the mirror with your finger on your throat chakra, which is the seed for transformation.

In addition she suggests affirming, “I AM the perfect weight,” for weight loss.

The words, “I AM”, represent the divine within you, your Higher Self, so be very aware that you are not using these words in a negative context such as, “I AM fat!”, “I Am stupid!”, and “I AM so lazy!” Do not defame your “I AM”, your body and spirit are listening!

Your body follows your mind, not the other way around. I think the saying, “think yourself thin,” actually has a lot of validity.

I can¹t even begin to tell you the power of saying affirmations, they truly can produce miracles in your life, sometimes even instantaneously! Say them in the shower, while your getting ready for work or at bed at night, AND say them in your car!!! People may think you’re nuts, but WHO CARES, this is your life, not theirs!

In addition to your affirmations, your yoga practice can help you control the thoughts in your mind.

Through the powerful sound of deep ujjayi breath and the yoga postures, the mind is quieted, basically distracted from its’ routine way of thinking. The breathing and the postures help to produce deep states of concentration and relaxation, so the mind is trained to stay present in the moment, instead of dwelling in the past or fearing about the future.

What makes yoga, yoga, is the breathing, otherwise it would just be exercise. The breath is the bridge of the body, mind, Spirit union.

Every time you INHALE with awareness, you are drawing in higher states of consciousness, thru the prana (universal life force), helping you to cultivate your Higher Self into being more prevalent in your life. Your Higher Self is the part of you that wants the very best for you and knows without a shadow of a doubt, that you are divine, perfect, whole and complete, just as you are in this moment. This is yoga’s greatest gift, divine love, which is non judgmental and unconditional. Basically, yoga helps to teach you to love and knows yourself as God loves and knows you.

In turn, when you EXHALE with awareness, you are being liberated from tension in the the body and fear based (ego) thoughts patterns, experiences and behaviors that are no longer serving your highest good. So the metaphor for yogic breathing can be summed up as follows:

Inhale – drawing in new life force (prana), new physical well being, new life experiences, new career opportunities, new relationships, improved self-esteem, a deeper connection to Spirit, and the courage to live out your heart’s desires.

Exhale- releasing and WILLING to let go of the following: negative self talk, draining relationship, careers without passion and purpose, tension in the body, stress in the mind, unhealthy habits and addictions such as, overeating, not eating enough, drinking alcohol, obsessive exercise, compulsive shopping, smoking and drugs, just to name a few.

There is a saying in yoga that states: “Your bad habits will lose you.” I have experienced this personally and have witnessed it in many of my students as well. More self love equals less bad habits!

In conclusion, every time you walk out of a yoga class you are a different person than you were before you started the class, whether you want to be or not, change is eminent. In just 1-2 hours, a powerful rebirthing of some sort has taken place on your yoga mat, leaving you feeling joyful, calm, content, connected and more clear about your purpose on the planet.

If you are new to yoga, think of yourself as a chrysalis in a cocoon, going thru the powerful process of metamorphosis, waiting to emerge and embrace the person you desire to be. Yoga can help you facilitate this transformative process, by helping you to shed the layers of your being and your life, that are no longer serving your highest good.

I wish you much success in your new lifestyle changes.

You DESERVE the BEST!

Kathleen Kastner
Exercise Physiologist M.S.
Owner of Maya Yoga
Kansas City, Missouri

Styles of Yoga:
Hatha – Physical (Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Bikram, Iyengar, Sivananda, Viniyoga, Kripalu)
Raja – Mental
Bhakti – Devotional
Kundalini – Energy
Karma – Selfless Service
Jana – Knowledge

1. Ashtanga and Vinyasa yoga continuously flow from one posture to the next, in a vinyasa style of movement. This style of movement helps increase the efficiency of the cardiovascular and respiratory system, giving the practice an “aerobic” quality.

   Other styles of hatha yoga, like Iyengar yoga and Bikram Yoga (Hot yoga), traditionally do not flow from one pose to the next, and use more of a stop start form of movement.

2. Ashtanga yoga holds most postures 5-7 deep breaths, with the exception of a few postures, which are held longer.

   Other styles of hatha yoga tend to hold postures longer than 5-7 breaths.

3. Ashtanga yoga primarily focuses on the invisible or internal aspect of the practice, the deep ujjayi breath and energy locks called bandhas, adding a strong element of kundalini yoga (energy) to the practice.

   Keep in mind that one of the many definitions of yoga states: “Yoga is the CESSATION of the fluctuations of the mind.” -Patajali’s Yoga Sutras.

   Therefore, yoga is not about adding more chatter to the mind.

4. Ashtanga and Vinyasa yoga produce an INTERNAL heat thru the utilization of vinyasa movement, ujjayi breath and the bandhas, which help to detoxify the body from the inside out. This internal fire (agni) purifies the internal organs and increases metabolism, thyroid function and muscular strength, flexibility and endurance. This fire also acts as a spiritual fire to help clear the mind and body of any stress, tension and fear based thought patterns, allowing for a more peaceful sense of well-being, on and off the mat.

   Bikram yoga (Hot Yoga) uses EXTERNAL heat in its’ system of yoga.

5. Ashtanga and Vinyasa yoga have a strong emphasis on increasing upper body and core strength continuously throughout the class, more than other styles of hatha yoga.
6. Ashtanga, Sivananda and Bikram Yoga are all SYSTEMS of yoga, which utilize a SET series of postures in a sequential order. Vinyasa yoga does not use a set series of postures, therefore the practitioner does not know which pose is next in the sequence, which can add a sense of variety to the practice.

At Maya Yoga in Kansas City, we offer Ashtanga classes and a few Vinyasa Flow classes.

Kathleen Kastner,
Exercise Physiologist M.S.
Owner of Maya Yoga
Kansas City, Missouri

“Mankind is engaged in an eternal quest for that “something else” he hopes will bring him happiness. Complete and unending, for those individual souls who have sought and found God, the search is over. He is that something else.” – Paramahansa Yogananda

I used to be a full-time personal trainer twelve years ago and I would moonlight at night, teaching yoga. I soon realized my yoga students were losing more weight than my personal training clients. More importantly, not only were my yoga students going through a physical metamorphosis, their lives were transforming as well. Their self-esteem was also improving and they had more peace of mind and seemed happier about life in general.

My students have been a real inspiration to me! Here are just a few people who have made major life changes once they caught the yoga bug:

“LOVELY LAUREN”

Lauren started taking my yoga class when she was 20 years old, diabetic, and weighed 280 pounds. However, she didn’t let her weight stop her. She was extremely fit, disciplined and STRONG-WILLED, like a bull! She did ashtanga yoga with me daily for one year, sometimes even twice a day. She lost 100 pounds! Her weight loss, combined with her yoga practice, also allowed her to stop taking her diabetes medicine.

During that transformative year, Lauren also became a vegetarian, which greatly contributed to her weight loss. Most importantly, her self -esteem grew leaps and bounds and she gained confidence, on the mat and in her personal life.

Lauren is now married and getting a master’s in criminal forensics. She never lets fear or perceived limitations get in her way and is always ready and willing to take on life’s challenges.

“SMOKER-NO-MORE!”

One of my old students had a major chain-smoking addiction when she began yoga. One night, after an intense yoga class and a deep savasana, she drove her usual 30- minute drive home and realized that she had forgotten to light up, as she always had done in her long rides in her car.

“I made my entire drive home without my usual smoke,” she said. The silence of her deep savasana had registered in her mind and body, so she had no longer felt the need for the nicotine. She felt fulfilled from WITHIN and during her long drive home, she didn’t need her usual nicotine fix, this is the power of Spirit.

“IT’S NEVER TOO LATE”

An 81-year old MD, from my hometown, read an article about the benefits of deep breathing and weight loss. He followed the guidelines in the article and began to sit daily, doing deep breathing 15 minutes a day, in thru the nose and out thru the mouth. Over the course of two years, he went from 250 pounds to 204 pounds. He lost fifty pounds just breathing 15 minutes a day! He also reduced his meat intake to just one or two times a week, because he said his appetite had decreased greatly due to his breathing practice, he just wasn’t very hungry anymore.

I suspect the prana, life force in breath, was fulfilling his appetite, like the story of Giri Bala, told by Paramahansa Yogananda in “Autobiography of a Yogi.”  When Yogananda met her, she was 68 and had not eaten nor taken fluids for over 56 years!  Chastised as a young girl for her hearty appetite, she prayed to God for help and he provided her Kriya yoga breathing and meditation techniques, which allowed her to sustain her life force for many years, without food and drink, miraculous!

SO WHAT ABOUT YOU AND ME?

The doctor’s weight loss made perfect sense to me, because as he exhaled consciously, he was releasing ALL that was not serving him. This included self-limiting or addictive thought patterns, emotional blocks and negative life experiences, not just calories. (Releasing childhood memories and a lifetime of resentment and pain, can create a sense of lightness and peace throughout the mind body connection and do wonders for your personal life as well.)

Thru the deep breathing he was aligning his mind with Divine Mind, which is what happens during a yoga class.

Yogic breathing is very powerful, but many of the benefits go unseen to the human eye, because there is so much going on behind the scenes of the physical body, when we practice yoga. This is due to the magic of Spirit!

I was once addicted to exercise, caffeine, sugar, alcohol, cigs and shopping, thank goodness, not all at once, oh my. I was attempting to fulfill feelings of unworthiness with external substances.  As Emmylou Harris sings so poignantly in one of her songs, “addictions hold on tight like a glove.”  To me, that is the perfect way to describe the way our addictions hold on to our minds, like a vise grip. However, I can honestly say through the course of doing daily yoga and meditation for the last fifteen years, yoga has liberated me from the above addictions, by shifting my consciousness about the way I perceive my myself and my life.  God has healed my mind, bottom line, which has helped me heal my life.

There’s a saying in yoga, “your bad habits will lose you.” So how do we work on our bad habits losing us?  My Ashtanga yoga teacher, Tim Miller, once said, “Every time you breathe you are doing a dance with Spirit.” So if you think of Spirit moving thru your mind and body, every time you take a deep breath, you can see how the consciousness of Spirit could change your thought patterns, especially about addictions, self-worth and your body perception. Remember, addictions begin in the mind not the body. Do our lungs really want another cigarette?  Do our livers really want more alcohol?  Do our arteries want more meat in them? No, our minds want these things, not our physical bodies.

With daily time spent in the silence of a quiet mind, you will begin to see yourself as God sees you, as divine perfection and your need to self destruct will begin to lose it’s power over you and you will begin to treat yourself in a more loving and healthy manner.

Weight loss mogul, Jenny Craig, has been quoted as saying, “Self love is the best form of weight loss.” Yoga’s greatest gift is that it helps you to love and accept yourself, just as you are in the moment. This kind of self- love cannot be found on a Stairmaster, but can be found through conscious breathing, yoga poses and time spent in the silence with God, filling the internal void with divine love, not addictions.  You are worthy.

Kathleen Kastner M.S.

Owner of Maya Yoga Kansas City : www.mayayoga.com