Yoga in a Hurry

Something for You to Relax

Connie — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:32:23 +0000

Here is something for you to relax and just have a few minutes of bliss. I hope you enjoy it is much as I do.

Till next time,
Connie
Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

Breathing for Stress Management

Connie — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:27:14 +0000

How long could you survive without breathing? About four minutes before serious, irreversible damage occurs to your brain and body.

Some sports people (free divers) have extended these limits while at the same time slowing their heart beat quite drastically, to about 4 beats per minute. To compare, our normal pulse rate is between 60-70 beats per minute. Breath (or oxygen to be more precise) is the most vital thing for our bodies.

We can do without food for quite a while and we can do without water for some time but lack of oxygen will kill us within minutes. I am a firm believer that chronic, shallow and fast breathing leads to a continual under supply of oxygen which over time will lead to various problems.

Stress and breathing are closely linked:

* when we are stressed, we breathe fast and shallow

* fast, short, shallow breaths =lack of oxygen in the body and brain which in turn leads to tiredness, “fuzzy” thinking processes and low energy - all of these create more stress

* when we are relaxed, our breathing is slower and deeper

* long, slow, deep breaths = good oxygen supply to the brain, clear thinking, good energy levels, feeling good in general, feeling relaxed

Our breath consists of an inhalation and an exhalation. These two parts of the breath have different qualities. Most of us are too busy to pay any attention to our breathing, let alone to the fact that our breath consists of two different parts. Once you pay attention, you will discover a number of interesting things.

Let us start with the basics:

* Inhalation is active, creating activity, movement and it brings about an expansion of the chest. It is the “yang” part of the breath.

* Exhalation is passive, relaxing, about letting go and just being and letting be. It is the “yin” part of the breath.

Are you getting the picture? The logical conclusion is that you need to pay very close attention to your exhalation as it is the “relaxing” part of the breath. This is where you can make an impact quickly and effectively.

You can achieve instant relaxation by making your exhalation a focal point for your mind and exhaling in a particular way. Here is what you need to do:

1. observe your exhalation

2. ask yourself: is it long or short, slow or fast, smooth or jerky?

3. compare the length of your inhalation to the length of your exhalation

4. ask yourself: which one is longer? You may not be sure - so you need to start counting each one silently in your mind.

5. attempt to make them both even by silently counting how long each one takes and adjusting the time it takes to inhale and exhale

6. create a minimum 4 count exhalation and a minimum 4 count inhalation to begin with (your numbers might be higher, this is perfectly ok)

7. continue breathing, keeping both breaths the same length

8. increase your exhalation in relation to your inhalation - make the exhalation 5 counts - take about 5 breaths in that manner

9. Increase your exhalation to 6 counts, keeping the inhalation at 4 counts, again take 5 breaths in that manner

9. keep your mind focussed on the breathing, the sound of the breath, the coolness or warmth of the air, the way it touches the inside of your nostrils

10. if your mind wanders, keep bringing it back to your counting and breathing, let any thoughts simply drift away

11. Your eyes should be closed if possible

12. sit or lie with your spine nice and straight

Your stress will be greatly reduced by now, your mind is thinking clearer and your body is feeling a lot better. Apply this breathing technique whenever stress is starting to mount or you want to wind down at the end of the day, before having a meal, before facing an important decision.

You can also practise the breathing with open eyes (like in a meeting or so, when it is impossible to close your eyes).

The main point is to remember that your breath is your best ally to manage your stress instantly.

Gayatri Mantra

Connie — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:39:17 +0000

Here is something you might enjoy:

The Gayatri Mantra is at least 2000-3000 years old, maybe even older. It is originally written in Sanskrit. there have been many attempts to translate it. Here are a couple of translations, but there are many more!

Swami Shivananda’s translation of the Gayatri Mantra is:

We meditate on the glory of the Creator
Who has created the Universe
Who is worthy of Worship
Who is the embodiment of Knowledge and Light
Who is the remover of all Sin and Ignorance
May He enlighten our Intellect.

Another translation by S. Krishnamurti is:

We meditate upon the radiant Divine Light
of that adorable Sun of Spiritual Consciousness.
May it awaken our intuitional consciousness.

The title Gayatri Mantra could be translated as “Prayer of praise that awakens our energies and leads to liberation”.

Find this topic intriguing and fascinating? Have a look around the internet and you will find many more interesting facts, the orginal Sanskirt text and many different attempts of translation.

Till next time

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

Self Esteem Building with Dr. Joe Rubino

Connie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:42:52 +0000

Today Charly and I talked to Dr. Joe Rubino about Self Esteem and why he is so passionate and committed to help people increase their self esteem. Joe shared an incredible amount of information during this call and we really recommend you take the time to listen to it. It is the sort of information you can listen to a number of times and pick up something new every time you listen to it. It is full of what we call “gems”.

Listen here:

Dr. Joe Rubino is one of the world’s foremost experts on the topic of Self-Esteem and best-selling author of “The Self-Esteem Book: The Ultimate Guide to Boost the Most Underrated Ingredient for Success and Happiness in Life.” He has put together an awesome list of no cost bonuses to reward those who purchase his life-changing Self-Esteem System.

He’s also offering you a free insightful audio called “7 Steps toSoaring Self-Esteem” and a complimentary 1 year membership in The Success Achievers’ Club ($129 value) just for checking it out.

To read about these bonuses valued at more than $10,000, go to http://www.cprsuccess.com/sebonuses and learn how you can help raise the consciousness of the planet by elevating your own self-esteem or the self-esteem level of those you love.

Then pick up your Audio and Club Membership for free at
http://stretchyourmindandbody.com/blog/selfesteemsystem

Let us tell you a little about this life-enhancing Self-Esteem System. It’s being called the most comprehensive guide to simply and almost effortlessly raise anyone’s level of Self-Esteem. This 3 part program will benefit everyone - from those with deficiencies in particular areas to those with more pervasive self-esteem challenges.

THE Self-Esteem System will support you to:
1. Heal and Complete Your Past
2. Properly Assess Your Present Situation to Determine What’s Working Optimally and What’s Missing in Each of the 6 Areas of Your Life
3. Design a Compelling Future that Honors Your Most Important Values and Champions You in Manifesting Your Gifts and Living Your Life Purpose

To claim your f^ree bonuses, check out Dr. Joe’s life-changing work now at
http://stretchyourmindandbody.com/blog/selfesteemsystem

You’ll automatically receive an email with all the information needed to claim all your complimentary gifts.

Till next time,

Connie Your Yoga Partner,

from

http//:wwwyogainahurry.com

PS: If you do nothing else, do yourself a favour and listen to our show, you will never look at life the same way again! Here is to great self esteem for all of us!

Our Voice - an Interesting Article by Chris James

Connie — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:39:11 +0000

Many years ago I did a workshop with Chris where we did chakra toning and spent a whole weekend exploring our voice. I have very fond memories of this weekend. Here is an article he wrote recently:

THE GENTLE VOICE
By Chris James

We ARE all born with beautiful and in–tune voices, and it is possible for us ALL to return to the full expression of this instrument that can express truth and beauty within us.Remember that your body is your instrument. When a wooden musical instrument is first built, tuned, and played, the wood will align and reform within its structure to this ‘in-tune-ness’. Conversely, if the instrument is played out of tune, or not played at all there is no opportunity for harmonious alignment.It is the same with our voices. If we are not expressing our truth, what is the vibration that is aligning our bodies? When people are expressing being nice or apologetic, contracted or frustrated, angry, jealous, or malicious, this is not their true voice. Our heart does not get to express truth, our throat doesn’t get to express truth, and our ears don’t get to hear truth. Connecting to our ‘IN-TUNE’ voice is important.Over the many years I have been teaching the world has changed and so what I present has also changed. The awareness that has energetically developed for me is that what really helps everyone in their self-expression, creativity, singing, and in speaking their truth and being heard, is GENTLENESS.

The awareness and presence of true gentleness is very significant. I know, I practised and taught meditation for many years, but it NEVER took me into gentleness and my inner heart and thence to truly know my self. There was always an intermediary, a guru or a deep conditioning of transcendent awareness, which meant I was always looking outside of myself for something. Even though all the words were saying ‘look within’ the energetic message was, you can’t do it yourself. So now in my presentations on voice work I introduce an awareness of gentleness, and the very first place where this can be introduced is within our breath. Breath carries our voice, and so the first place we express ourselves IS our out-breath, so we first learn how to allow our breath to be gentle.

Now this sounds simple and it is but I would like you to try something. Close your eyes and allow yourself to breathe gently through your nose, with no pushing or pulling of the breath… A cool breath comes in from the tip of the nose, at the top of the nostrils, and leaves, warmer, on the bottom of the nostrils. Allow it all to slow down so the rhythm becomes natural, and eventually allow yourself to rest at the bottom of your breath, and allow yourself to pause and rest there before the next in-breath… simple? What usually happens is that your mind will rebel at that point of pausing because it is no longer running the show. It is also at this point that we can start to make a choice about letting go of the NEED to CONTROL.Note: to experience a deeper, clear process of The Gentle Breath meditation email me and I will send you the mp3 file.

As you may know, most voice work is based on getting the voice OUT, projecting out, and breaking through the resistance. Yes this will get ‘a’ voice out of your body, but it cannot bring with it any of your true essence, and is definitely not healing or nurturing. This is not about being compliant or softly spoken. You can come from gentleness and still have volume, clarity, and strength in your voice and yourself.

So once people have an understanding of gentle breath then they can start to feel what gentle toning is like. What this does is allow the body, in its own natural rhythm, to express in gentleness without imposing any IDEA or CONCEPT of what the voice ‘SHOULD’ sound like. It is at this point where we can start to HEAR the control in our lives, manifesting in a forced, controlled and false tone within our voice, and THEN we have the opportunity to work with and release this.

What is possible then is start to reconnect with our bodies, our stillness and our hearts. With this unfolding awareness we can build new relationships with our bodies, our voices, the rhythms that our bodies love to move to, and each other. This whole process of allowing the voice to emerge with no force and no expectation, enables us to reconnect to ourselves, recognising, knowing and being all that we are.So NOW what is able to be brought up and revealed are some of the very old patterns of separation and self-doubt, fear and contraction. These patterns are always reflected in our voice and in what we say, and how we express in our lives. When these old patterns are exposed and cleared, what is left is the start of true joy and a union with our true selves. This doesn’t have to be ‘big’ and ‘traumatic’, we learn to just observe and let go. What is great about working with our voice in this way is that we can have great insight into where we have been, have the opportunity to start to be honest, recognising and releasing some old patterns, and then take a gentle breath or two and return to our hearts, singing together again.© Chris James 2009

Chris James teaches internationally about the healing power of sound, song, voice and meditation.” Everyone is born with a beautiful voice”. Through discovering our natural voice, we learn to trust our creativity and intuition, speak our truth…and be heard. Founder of The International School of Sacred Sound and Patron of The UK College of Sound Healing, Chris is renowned for his ability to unite audiences of thousands in song, facilitate intimate groups and corporate conferences. He has led singing at concerts, festivals and seminars for over 20 years. Teacher Training Programmes are conducted internationally.

Creating harmonious tones with our voices is really quite magical. It creates a joyful feeling of oneness, and brings with it profound healing. There is a sense of union, where we let go of feelings of separation and comparison, and also grow to nurture and cherish our individual path of return to our inner heart

Sounds Wonderful Pty. Ltd. PO Box 4219, Goonellabah, NSW 2480. AUSTRALIA
TEL. +61 (0)2 66283308
cjames@chrisjames.net http://www.chrisjames.net

Bodytalk - a Gentle, Effective and Wholistic Therapy

Connie — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:21:53 +0000

Today Charly and I talked to Lilo Kunz who is a Bodytalk practitioner and BodyTalk Access teacher. BodyTalk is an energy healing modality that bridges the gap between western medical expertise and ancient eastern healing wisdom to effectively help support the body’s own ability to heal itself.

About 1995 Dr. John Veltheim came up with the Bodytalk concept and it has been evolving and growing ever since. BodyTalk Access is a “healthcare package” - 5 powerful energy techniques - to empower everybody, anywhere to help themselves, their families and communities to better health, more clarity and peace of mind. These techniques are also a tool for emergency situations.

It is very popular in Asia, Europe, the USA and South Africa. In Australia it is just starting to emerge even though Dr. John Veltheim originally came from Brisbane. He now lives in the USA.

To find out more about Dr. John Veltheim and to learn one of the basic and most commonly used techniques called the “Cortices” technique, go to http://bodytalksystem.com and watch the videos on that site. You also can find out about courses. There is a basic course that teaches the most commonly needed techniques to anybody who is interested. Even children can learn these safe and effective techinques and use them on themselves and others as required.

Bodytalk can be used in conjunction with any other treatment you might be having, whether it be conventional or alternative. It will enhance any other treatment and accelerate healing. This is the reason it is so appealing to a large number of practitioners from many different backgrounds because they can integrate it with their knowledge and expertise.

Bodytalk is completely safe to use at any age, literally from the “womb to the grave”. In a nutshell it is about rebalancing your energy flow, making sure all the connections in the body work well. There must not be any “kinks in the hose” so the energy can flow freely and communication between cells and all the sytems in the body function optimally.

The body has lots of different systems that need to be in top condition for us to be well and healthy. These systems include the nervous system, circulatory system, endocrine (glandular) system, our organs and of course our brain.

To find out more, listen to our show here:

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

Pre and Post Natal Fitness

Connie — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 11:45:07 +0000

I was listening to an interesting radio programme about pre- and post natal fitness. One of the main points was that our core strength virtually disappears as the pregnancy progresses because everything around our abdominal area gets stretched so much that there is no strength left.

One of the main things to do during pregnancy are pelvic floor exercises. Do lots of them every day. It is like depositing money in the bank - you are building strength so it is easier to rebuild it all after the birth. After your baby is born you may feel that your core strength will never come back and that your pelvic floor will not return back to normal. Don’t give up - every muscle in our body responds to exercise not matter how weak it feels when you start out. You just need to persevere.

Yoga is great during pregnancy but you need to use your common sense - no strong twists, no strong side bends, no back bends and obviously you must not pressure on your abdomen under any circumstances. No holding of the breath and no inversions whatsoever.

I am very conservative with my pregnant students and I would prefer to have a special pre natal class rather than have the pregnant students mixed in with my other ones.

In case you are pregnant and considering going to a yoga class and have never done any yoga before you would be better off in a pre natal class. A lot of yoga studios and even gyms are offering special classes for pregnancy - take advantage of them if you can, it will be a much more pleasant experience for you and it is safer for you and your baby.

Till next time,

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

As an aside back injuries were discussed as well and depending on the severity of the injury one of the first things to do is to start with pelvic floor exercises - they are gentle enough to be safe and yet they are very powerful to start reconnecting to your body and activate some of your muscles.

Outrageously Healthy with Lenore Miller

Connie — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:12:04 +0000

I am so pleased Charly and I were able to interview Lenore Miller once more -now you have chance to listen to her talk. Last time the change to daylight saving time caused us to miss out on recording our call. Lenore’s energy, enthusiasm and passion are contagious!

Lenore talked about creating an outrageously healthy life for yourself - don’t put it off till you lose that weight or till you feel better - start today by looking at things you can be grateful for or happy about.

Lenore offers an mp3 called “Feeling Great for No Good Reason” on her site, go and get it here: http://stretchyourmindandbody.com/blog/outrageoushealth

Everything starts with a decision first - decide to become healthy and then create a toolbox for yourself that will help you along the way. One of the items in your toolbox should be the ability to create positive questions. Instead of asking - “Why am I so fat?” ask yourself something like: “What is great about today?” This will change your focus.

Lenore had a lot more gems to share, don’t miss out, listen to our show, I promise it will be well worth your time.

To help you along Lenore has made an incredibly generous offer. The first 10 people to listen to the call will get a free consultation with Lenore! Just email Lenore at: lenore@outrageouslyhealthy.com and mention the above blogtalk radio show! Don’t miss this great opportunity.

Till next time
Connie Your Yoga Partner
from
http://www.yogainahurry.com

Hildegard of Bingen - her music

Connie — Sun, 31 May 2009 01:41:20 +0000

I love Hildegard von Bingen’s music. In case you haven’t come across it before, here are a couple of youTube videos you might enjoy:

Till Next time

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

Was Hildegard of Bingen a Yogi? (0)

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois has Passed Away

Connie — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:56:09 +0000

One of the great yogis of our time, Shri K. Pattabhi Jois died on May 18, 2009, aged 93. To view the official announcement, go here: http://www.kpjayi.org/

I was fortunate enough to see Pattabhi Jois twice when he came to visit Australia. He was a happy and gentle person with a nice sense of humour. The first time he came, he was with his wife. By the time of his second visit, his wife had died. He was accompanied by his grandson who performed an amazing series of Ashtanga Yoga poses.

Ashtanga Yoga is a “flowing” form of yoga where you move from one pose to the next during your practice. In traditional Ashtanga Yoga there are a number of sequences and you practice the same sequence of poses till you perfect it (if you can call it that - it is always a work in progress). To my knowledge all the modern day forms of “vinyasa” or “flow” yoga have been derived from the Ashtanga style.

Traditional Ashtanga Yoga is a strong form of yoga, it is also a great detoxifier as you start to perspire profusely when practising. It takes a lot of dedication and very regular practice to make progress. You will feel the benefits of your practice very quickly. In my opinion it is not suitable for everybody in its original form, some of the poses may need to be modified, especially if you suffer from knee or back problems.

Pattabhi Jois made a huge contribution to the yoga world - may he rest in peace.

Till next time,

Connie Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

Yoga in a Hurry

Something for You to Relax

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