Yoga in a Hurry

How to Become a Great Public Speaker

Connie — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:25:48 +0000

After having a very interesting interview with Saskia Shakin about public speaking I started to think about Yoga Teachers and public speaking. At first I thought that all of us would be great public speakers simply because we speak, move and put ourselves into all sorts of unusual positions in front of any number of people all the time. Then again, we might be hiding behind our poses and explaining the technicalities of the postures.

If we were put up on stage to give a theoretical talk about yoga it might be a different story and we need to consider a lot of different things. Fear of public speaking is a very powerful fear and it might affect us when we are taken out of our usual environment. We are better equipped than most to deal with the fear through breathing, relaxation and mind control but it is much better to have some expert advice and tuition on how to present ourselves in the best possible manner when we are called upon to give a talk.

There are lots of books and courses that teach how to present a “winning presentation” or deliver a “dynamic speech” and most of them focus on how to organise and deliver great content. Some might also teach you how to “dress for success”.

Saskia Shakin has been a coach for the past 30 years teaching people how to become an exciting keynote speaker. Her clients have worked in the White House; appeared before Congress; run global corporations; written Broadway plays;managed prestigious law firms; and held chairs at major universities.

She shared some great insights with us during our interview. Especially when you are an expert in your field and spend a lot of time within your area of expertise it is very easy to lose sight of the fact that others may not understand what you are talking about. Consider the following points when called upon to make a speech or give a presentation:

start from square one (beware: what you consider square one might be square 5 for your audience)
get crystal clear on what you want to get across to your audience – define your message and your mission
separate any “fluff” from your “mission”
treat your audience with respect and ensure that they feel smart
when you try and show off your knowledge (or your most fantastic advanced postures) you may come across as arrogant
make sure you have fun when delivering your talk – your audience will have fun too (don’t take yourself too serious).
remember that your audience only retains about 7% of what you say but 93% of your non verbal messages
your non verbal messages are extremely powerful and include things like body language, tone of your voice, attitude etc.
you may not be aware or conscious of your non verbal messages
your words and your body language have to “mesh”, in other words be congruent

All of the above points are crucial when you want to become a successful and sought after keynote speaker. You need to know your content really well so you can become relaxed with your audience. When you are relaxed you can relate to your audience and think about connecting and not lecturing. I think as yoga teachers we have some advantage there – the relationship with our students is of utmost importance so we will hopefully be able to translate this to a wider audience.

Saskia shared a lot more insights with us, click on the player below to listen to the full interview.

Saskia’s book “More Than Words Can Say: The Making of Inspired Speakers” is a collection of stories and wisdom taken from her vast experience as a coach to speakers in positions of leadership. It will not only help you to become a better speaker but also a better communicator in general.
You may want to look at her book today.

One final thought from Saskia: Remember that everything that comes from you – you can control. We create our world by the way we speak and think. Anyone can become a great speaker – if you can speak to one person you can speak to one hundred. It is all about how you view yourself and the expectations you hold.

Till next time

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

www.yogainahurry.com

Sound Therapy

Connie — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:12:41 +0000

Yoga and sound are very much intertwined. There is chanting, there are mantras and of course a very intricate sound system linked to the chakras. Sound is a great healer and plays an important role and calming and balancing mind and body. Traditional cultures sing while working. Some of the songs are designed to make the work easier – the rhythm may help the digging motion when working in fields. Songs are part of everyday life as well as special celebrations. Western culture has done away with song during everyday life to a large extent. I am convinced that this has lead to a number of problems with hearing, speaking, voice projection and the way we feel about ourselves.

Sound Therapy is a very powerful tool and healing modality for a huge variety of seemingly unrelated problems. The beauty of sound therapy is that it has been evolving and growing over the past 25 years or so. Therefore a large amount of testimonials and empirical evidence is available that show its effectiveness. A lot of the original work was done by Dr. Tomatis and you may have heard about the Tomatis Method.

Rafaele Joudry is one of the world’s experts on sound therapy. She has been winvolved with it and studied it over the past 20 years. You can find her at:

www.stretchyourmindandbody.com/blog/soundtherapy

It all started many years ago in Paris when she met one of the doctors who studied under Dr. Tomatis.

Rafael’s mother had problems hearing in a crowded room and was extremely sensitive to noise. When sound therapy was established in Canada her mother was one of the first clients and had great results.

Most humans are what is called “right ear dominant” because the sound travels faster along that pathway than from the left ear (the heart is “in the way” so to speak) and the sound takes longer to reach the left ear.

Left ear dominance leads to all sorts of auditory processing problems. This difficulty in making sense of sounds and what is being said leads to things like stuttering, difficulty expressing thoughts or feelings, dyslexia and it also seems to play a role in Asperger’s syndrome and autism.

Interestingly enough we can only reproduce sounds (whether this is singing or speaking) that we can physically hear with our ears. We also have to be exposed to these sounds.

Due to some technical difficulties we only spent half an hour with Rafaele. She has a lot more to share and we will invite her back.

The first half of the call is a discussion amongst Charly, Lenore from www.outrageouslyhealthy.com , Liz from www.thewaytoblissnow.com and myself about mindset, how to stay in control even when things are not going so well.

The second half of the show is our interview with Rafaele Joudry. Click on the player below to listen.

You find Rafaele at:

www.stretchyourmindandbody.com/blog/soundtherapy

Beautify Yourself Naturally

Connie — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:12:10 +0000

Shampoos, soaps, lipsticks, bubble baths, perfumes – we all have our favourites. They make us feel good, give our self confidence a boost and we can indulge a little without feeling guilty about putting on weight.

Unfortunately a lot of our favourite products contain lots of “nasties” which affect our health in adverse ways. Some chemicals in cosmetics are highly toxic and have been linked to cancer and other illnesses.

Robin Adler has made it her mission to educate everybody about the dangers of cosmetics and self care products. To get her free ebook entitled “Beautify Naturally – 10 Non Toxic Ways to a More Beautiful You” go to: www.stretchyourmindandbody.com/blog/beautifynaturally

The history of using toxic chemicals in cosmetics goes way back. In ancient Egypt lead was used to make the colours look brighter. One of the benefits of the lead content of the make-up was the fact that it prevented ear, nose and eye infections which were very common and quite dangerous in those days.

Nowadays toxic chemicals are used because they are cheap and to a lesser degree also because we as consumers have come to expect a certain “behaviour” from our products. How would you feel about a shampoo that doesn’t foam or a soap or toothpaste that doesn’t produce any lather?

For the sake of our health we might have to make different choices. To find out more about the products you are using right now you can go to www.cosmeticsdatabase.com

One drawback of the site is that the assessment of the product can only be as good as the labelling. In a lot of countries cosmetic labelling requirements are not very strict so we really don’t know what exactly is in the products.

To listen to our interview with Robin Adler go here:

Don’t forget to get your free ebook here:

www.stretchyourmindandbody.com/blog/beautifynaturally

Robin’s blog is here:

www.toxicbeauty.com

One word of wisdom from Robin Adler: “If you can’t pronounce it, don’t put it on your skin!” I would even go further and agree with the person who said: “If you can’t eat it don’t put it on your skin”.

There are some good hints in Robin’s ebook. I would like to add that beautiful skin has a lot to do with nutrition, hydration and the amount of sleep you get. Natural cosmetics and skin care products are important and beautiful to use but if the basics are not in place the best product will not help your skin.

Make an effort to change one product at a time (when it runs out) and slowly eliminate all those toxins. Once you get used to the subtle, very complex and beautiful aromas of natural peronal care products and perfumes you will not want to go back to chemical products.

Till next time

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

www.yogainahurry.com

Beautiful Fruit and Vegetable Carvings

Connie — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:49:46 +0000

It is Chinese New Year again and this time the year of the Tiger has started. Tonight I attended celebrations in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney and saw some great fruit and vegetable carvings. Have a look yourself an take particular note of the pumpkin buddha. Enjoy!

How Are Your New Year’s Resolutions Going?

Connie — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:52:37 +0000

It is February 2010 and I am guessing that by now some of your New Year’s resolutions are already starting to look shaky. We had a most interesting guest on our blog talk radio show last week, her name is Doris Helge, nicknamed the “Joy Coach”. She gave us some great insights about New Year’s resolutions. Here they are:

the word “resolution” implies that there is a problem
in an attempt to solve the problem we focus on the problem
intention and focus are pure power
what we focus on we perceive
by focusing on the problem we magnify it
we attract more of what we focus on – in this case more of the problem

The answer to this dilemma is NOT to just give up. Instead of looking for a “resolution” the way to go is to set a positive intention. One example might be the positive intention of getting fitter. Then start asking yourself a number of questions:

How can I have fun accomplishing this goal?
How can I enjoy getting to where I want to be?
How can I enjoy doing what I do?
Is this a stepping stone? (useful question when problems arise of obstacles start to appear)
What is the smallest step I can take right now to improve my situation and lead me to my goal?
What is the tiniest thing I can do to turn this around?
Say to yourself: I am starting right now to….and take some action, however tiny it might be

The questions above might seem really simple or even trivial, but they will lead to some great insights and solutions. The power is (as always) in applying this knowledge and taking action. It is fun to look at the theory but only by doing can we grow, learn and gain experience. The key is to take tiny steps, not to set so huge a goal that you are doomed to fail before you even start.

If you want more guidance from Doris, go and download her free ebooks from:

http://www.freejoyonthejobebooks.com

Doris’ own supply of joy springs from her own personal growth, so she’s a natural at assisting her clients as they transform emotional pain into peace and personal power. They discover happiness at work and relish the rich rewarding relationships they’ve been craving. They learn how to use chaos, uncertainty and “mistakes” to their advantage. Doris also provides unique Mastermind Groups that empower her clients

Listen to the full interview here:

Till next time,

Connie,

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

What is Techno Stress?

Connie — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:22:34 +0000

When I first came across the word “techno stress” during our conversation with Doris Helge my mind conjured up images of tight bodies, sore necks and shoulders, overload from loud music and simply having too much stimulation and being inundated by technology in general.

I also thought about the frustration that a non-tech person experiences when technical matters go wrong, the computer plays up and the feeling of powerlessness that goes with that experience.

After our discussion with Doris I came to see ”Techno Stress” in quite a different light. See for yourself whether you fit into some of the categories! Has your behaviour changed from being exposed to too much technology?

Watch out for:

being a personality type that is ambitious, high achieving, competitive
taking on far too much responsibility because that is just the way you are
mental fatigue
eyestrain, neck pain, shoulder pains, wrist problems, back problems
always expecting “yes-no” responses from people
becoming impatient when people elaborate or weigh up different points of view
becoming intolerant to long winded information or even stories
expecting everything to be instant
expecting others to perform on command (like a computer)
forgetting that others can see things that we can’t see and that reality is not black and white
expecting everyone to perform like a computer (usually without you even realising it)

I am sure the list could go on. One of the big “aha” moments for me was that technology and computers affect our behaviours and the way we interact with each other.

I suspect in the future, as more people spend more and more time staring at computer screens and interacting with them all day long, some of these behaviours might become acceptable or “mainstream”. I already can see the beginning of a chasm opening up between people who live in the cyberworld most of the time and those who don’t….

I have friends who are 6-15 years older than I am and all this technology is just too much for them. They have no computer and no internet and the only way we can communicate is by phone or meeting up in person. A phone call takes a lot longer than sending an email and so I am guilty of putting these phone calls off for a long time….

How to stay happy and joyful despite spending a lot of time in the cyberworld? How can you combat “Techno Stress”?

Consider the following points and take action!

nurture your inner needs
when irritated and abrupt create a buffer between computer time and interacting with a human “Mirror” (remember – what we dislike in others is something we need to work on ourselves within our own personality)
bond with others
look after your “real life” friends
spend quality time with others
take real breaks from the “screen” – even it is only 30 seconds at a time
limit the total time you spend with your computer
stretch and yawn
get out into nature

Make a start and implement at least one idea. Do you want to know more and get some of Doris’ free ebooks? Please go to:

free ebooks about happiness at work

Doris also provides unique Mastermind Groups that empower her clients

To listen to the full interview during which Charly and I discuss many other things with Doris, click on the player below:

Till next time,

Connie,

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

Learn Yoga Breathing the Easy Way – Use Breathe Aeror

Connie — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:37:47 +0000

We all know how important it is to take long, slow deep breaths. The mental and physical benefits are great and yet most of us get so caught up in our everyday life, the stress and busy-ness of it all, that our breathing becomes shallow and much more rapid than is good for us.

Proper breathing utilising all our lung capacity

Our performance gets optimised – be it while doing yoga poses or something else

Deep breathing energises us

Body control comes from breath control

Breath control comes from mind control

Mind control helps us in many different ways

When teaching my classes I find that a lot of my students have difficulties taking a full breath in and exhaling slowly and in a controlled manner. Often I observe people pulling their shoulders up to their neck when trying to use their lungs fully. Tension and tightness prevents the chest and ribs from moving the way they were intended to.

Jim Efthimiou has invented a very handy little gadget called the “breatheaeror” which takes the guess work out of learning to breathe deeply, effectively and to our full capacity. In case you are looking at the picture: it is the little gadget around his neck, not the large Olympic torch he is holding! Have a look at www.breatheaeror.com

We interviewed Jim on our blogtalk radio show – listen to the whole show to find out more. Jim has also made a very special offer for our listeners, if you buy one of the Breatheaerors together with his book entitled the “Energy Airflow Training Manual” you will get a free training T-shirt. Mention the code “symab” to get this special offer.

Listen to the show by clicking on the player below:

Jim used a great example in our talk – scuba diving. The more excited you are during your dive, the faster you breathe while under water and the quicker your tank empties and you have to come to the surface.

Now just for a moment imagine that the tank of oxygen is the life energy you have been given for your life here on earth – the faster you breathe the quicker it will be empty….

Slow your breath down and you will benefit in many different ways.

Till next time

Connie,

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

Find Out About Tribe Magazine

Connie — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:32:39 +0000

It takes a vision, lots of determination, energy, courage and hard work to start you very own magazine. It is not for the faint hearted but once you got your own publication up and running there are numerous rewards.

One person who took the plunge is Sirrka Wolke, founder and editor of “Tribe Magazine”. You can find it at www.tribemagazine.com.au

Sirrka says: ”I love success and abundance, I just didn’t want to sell-out to get it. There is no point following a path to riches if you are not able to enjoy the riches when you get there. Or the journey itself. Life doesn’t start when… It is now. So I figured I had better be doing something I love today! ”

Sounds like good, yogic advice to follow. We all should take note and take action and live accordingly!

Tribe Magazine is available for free online and offline. To find out more and to get past and current editions, go to: www.tribemagazine.com.au

Here are some of the rewards you get when you have your very own publication:

you control the content
you can state your own opinion, use your own ideas, nobody tells you what you can and can’t write
you don’t need to alter or “water down” your content to please anybody else
you can counter all the fear mongering and gloom and doom of the main stream press
you can educate your readers so they gain knowledge to make informed decisions
you are in a unique position to empower people
you control the advertising that appears in your magazine, especially on the children’s pages
you can get your own and other children/teenagers involved in writing and contributing and teach them valuable skills
you can get direct feedback from you readers and interact with them
you can build a community around your magazine
you can grow your content according to what your readers want and the feedback you receive

These are some of the points we covered in our interview today, if you would like to hear more, listen to the show here:

Sirrka has made a special offer to our listeners: You get 20% off your first lot of advertising in Tribe Magazine when you mention that you found Tribe Magazine through our show.

She has also a passion for children being involved in creating the magazine, so there is a special section devoted to children. Contact:

junioreditor (at) tribemagazine.com.au to find out more. (Replace (at) with @ and leave no spaces).

Tribe Magazine has a distribution of 30,000 copies and is distributed around Sydney and the Southern Highlands. It will keep growing and hopefully will go national in the not too distant future. Have a look at the online version I think you will find it interesting.

Sirrka is a woman of many talents and has also written a book “FitKid7 – 7 Simple Steps for a Fit and Healthy Child”. She also created a Cd for Children so they can go to sleep easily. (Adults love it too!). You can find both of them here: www.fitkid7.com

She also started a little service where she sends you an uplifting and motivating SMS daily. You can find more information at the Tribe Magazine website www.tribemagazine.com.au

Till next time

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

www.yogainahurry.com

How to Find Your Authentic Self and Happiness

Connie — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:40:57 +0000

It seems that the quest for happiness and fulfilment is as old as humanity itself.

One Buddhist blessing contains the words “may all beings be happy”. Happiness is an emotion and we are driven by emotions even so we would like to believe that we are such rational human beings. The Self Help Industry is booming, lots of people are aware that something is amiss in their lives but they just don’t know what. Nearly everybody seems to be searching for something. We live in a time of unprecedented wealth and technological advances that even our parents wouldn’t have dreamt of – at least in the so called developed world – and yet there seems to be increased unhappiness and more suicides than ever before.

One intriguing healing method is called the MEM or Mace Energy Method, named after Dr. Mace. My business partner Charly and I talked to Sherrie Hatfield who has been practising MEM for a number of years. You can find Sherrie and more information here http://www.themacemethod.com

Want to go straight to the source? Dr. Mace’s website is www.macemethod.com
Dr. Mace has written a fascinating book:

What makes the Mace Method of dealing with emotional issues so attractive?

• it works with your mind
• there is no disclosure (you don’t have to talk about the old, upsetting and unresolved issues)
• the process doesn’t go round in circles
• the method is quick acting
• sometimes there are amazing results after only one session

So what is the Mace Energy Method and how does it actually work?
• It works from the premise that you know yourself better than anybody else ever could (so you are in the best position to be your own therapist)
• The only thing that stops you from being happy and reaching your full potential are unwanted feelings (guilt, shame, low self esteem)
• Talking about whatever upset you makes things worse
• Focussing attention on negative events or feelings makes them grow
• Negative feelings – if given enough attention and time – will create a negative identity (Law of Attraction is at work here)
• The more negative feelings we have the more negative identities we have
• The negative identities have to be de-constructed

The above points are all very interesting but how are we going to start the de-construction process without tearing the whole building down and getting ourselves into a much bigger mess? You also might be wondering what these negative identities actually are and where they come from.

1. The very first identity we have is our body at birth.
2. Usually our name comes a close second.
3. We assume a sibling identity depending on where we are in the birth order of the family.
4. We have a daughter or son identity
5. We develop a separate identity for each friend we interact with
6. We have a car driving identity, one for going shopping for groceries and maybe another one for clothes shopping….so each of us has lots of identities.

How many identities have YOU got?

Any positive identities we have feel good to us, there is no need to de-construct these. There are also lots of negative identities – the come about through stress, trauma, overwhelm of any sort, shocks, upsets – you get the picture. All of our identities get us to play certain roles in life. Imagine that each of these identities is a costume that you can hang into a cupboard. Now imagine that you hang all of your identities into the cupboard. You take off all roles. What is left? Have a good look. Try and answer this question before you go and listen to the show to find out!

Sherrie has also made a very generous offer for our listeners – she will give a 15% discount for the first session that any Stretchyourmindandbody listener books with her! Here is her site again: http://www.themacemethod.com

Till next time

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

www.yogainahurry.com

The Healing Power of Flower Essences

Connie — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:39:50 +0000

Flower essences are amazing healing substances. They are energy medicines made from flowers. There are many different types of flower esssences nowadays. The Bach Flower essences were the first ones to be used extensively throughout Europe and then the rest of the world. Dr. Edward Bach lived in England during the middle of last century and was a pioneer in this field.

Many different ranges of flower essences have been discovered and developed over the ensuing years. Today there is a vast choice available. They are sourced from different environments all over the world.

To understand how flower essences work and how they should be applied, we first need to look at the underlying philosophy explaining health and disease:

Mind, body and emotions are interrelated and interdependent
We are made up of energy
Energy equals matter, the only difference is that rate of vibration
Thoughts and feeling have a higher vibrational rate than our dense, physical body
Negative emotions are a major contributor to disease by being held inside our body, then being distorted by not being dealt with or expressed
Held in emotions cause blockages and eventually disease in the area of the body they are held in
Every physical problem has an emotional counterpart
One way of addressing the various emotional and health problems is to find the right energy and then creating balance in the overall energy system of the body
Flower essences are one of the tools available to us to restore balance and harmony in mind and body

To get a clear understanding of the flower essences, we need to consider the following:

Each plant has its own rate of vibration or energy
Each part of a plant (roots, leaves, stems, flowers) has different rates of vibration
Flower of each plant has the highest vibration or highest expression
The highest vibration of the plant will bring out the highest expression in humans
Flower essence drops contain the qualities, energy and beauty of the flower they are made from

Annie Meredith has been involved with Flower Essences for nearly 30 years. She has been a practitioner using Traditional Chinese Medicine and flower essences. She is also a lecturer and was touring the world teaching about the Australian Bush Flower Essences.

Recently she created her own range of essences especially for female problems and issues. They are called the “Spirit of Woman” Australian Wildflower Essences. She has also written a book entitled “The Essence of Woman”.

Annie shared lots of valuable and interesting information with us. To listen to the full interview please go here:

Annie is giving away a free e-book called “Flower Power” which contains lots of information about Flower Essences. Go here Spirit of Woman Essences to get your free copy of the book and find out more about these amazing essences.

Till next time

Connie Your Yoga Partner

from

Yoga in a Hurry

How to Become a Great Public Speaker

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