...I suppose it was only a matter of time before the mass marketing about diet and fitness and weight loss caught up with yoga.

After all, yoga is certainly going through a period of resurgance - not the first, as these things typically move in cycles as does most of the market.

Typically though, when you read about yoga, the topic is peace of mind, spirituality, relaxation, meditation, perhaps physical conditioning and strength (both physical and mental).

This time though, the debate rests squarely on yoga's ability to shed pounds in a society that is struggling with record levels of obesity on the one hand, and a severe "thin" image problem held by popular celebrities on the other.

A recent study started the heated debate by claiming a link ...more

yoga for Beginners: More Stress Management Tools

...>This is a stress, fatigue, worry, and insomnia cycle, which will shave years off your life, while draining you of life energy. We know that the body contains energy; in yoga, we call it prana. You have the power to recharge your life energy through Pranayama, or you can get medical prescriptions.

Why would doctors of western medicine recommend prescriptions, in the above- mentioned case? Many doctors are burdened with patients who refuse to be pro-active about their health. Remember the old saying, You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink.

yoga practice is the water, which will break the stress, fatigue, worry, and insomnia cycle, but only a comparative small number of people, on this planet, are pro-active about health. Do you think this is...more

Bhakti yoga, The yoga of Love

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Bhakti yoga, the most direct path to Cosmic Consciousness, to awareness of the Absolute, is the yoga of love and pure spiritual devotion to God, Who is Love. It is the yoga of blissful exhilaration, of purest love. In Bhakti yoga, the devotee is the lover and the deity, the Divine, the Godhead, is the beloved. Bhakti yoga causes its devotees to be fully aware, to be fully and ever conscious, of the fact that all is the manifestation of the Divine. It causes the veil of ignorance, the veil of the sense of separateness from the Divine, to fall from the eyes, from the consciousness, of the devotee. It makes the devotee aware of the fact that ego and material consciousness are of no importance whatsoever. Why be egotistic of the petty materialis...more

Teaching Peace in yoga class

...en do you teach peace in a yoga class?

Pranayama or breath practice lends itself to the quest for peace. Guide your students to slow down their breath and become aware of the peaceful rhythm of the inhalation and exhalation. Teach your students to passively accept their breath rather than force it to become deeper. You can be more literal about it as well encouraging students to draw peace into their body with each inhalation and release tension with each exhalation. Simply following the breath brings peace to the body and mind.

When leading guided relaxation help students to become aware of the spaces in their bodies where peace already exists. Then use breath and yoga postures to expand that feeling of peace throughout the class.

mantras are a particularly effective way to shift our minds towards peace. I love Tich Nhat Hanhs mantra from Peace is Every Step Breathing in I calm my body, Breathing out I smile. Tich Nhat Hanh teaches that peace and happine...more

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