Powerful Yoga for Health

Meditating involves sitting still for a period of time maybe 10 minutes, or maybe 100 minutes. The increased flexibility that yoga brings helps the body to remain comfortable during this physical inactivity. I remember very well being on retreat, and noticing that I had more energy available to me in my meditation practice after doing yoga. Maybe it's something as simple as endorphin release, or maybe it's something more mysterious I don't know and don't really need to know. What I found in my experience was that in the meditation, in which normally I would be struggling to keep my body upright and in which my brain would tend to "go on standby" I was suddenly wide awake if I did yoga just beforehand.

More than that, I noticed that I felt full of life, as if I was plugged into the mains electricity. Those late afternoon meditations were certainly more productive than they used to be. Awareness of the body is said to be the first "foundation" of mindfulness. Mindfulness can't exist in the abstract we have to have something to be mindful of. And it's hard to be aware of what the more subtle elements of our experience are doing if we aren't aware of what relatively substantial parts of our experience are doing. Yoga helps us to be more aware of the body, which helps with the overall process of developing mindfulness. That brings me onto the fourth benefit that I noticed.
Yoga helps to promote a deeper awareness of the body and of its muscles and joints. This has a grounding effect, helping to calm the mind, which in turn slows down our emotions so that we feel more relaxed. At the end of a session of yoga, I'd notice a definite emotional buoyancy accompanied by mental clarity and calmness.

All this makes me think I should get to yoga classes more often. And I want to encourage you to do the same, so I asked my friend and colleague if he'd contribute some basic instruction in yoga. You'll find his advice on the following pages, and you might be interested also in his Body Wisdom CD, which leads you through the asanas that are illustrated here. For more details visit http://www.soundbodytrainer.com/

Keep Your Young Body from Meditation

Yoga is an ancient system of techniques for all-round health and well being of the individual. These techniques have been tested and refined over thousands of years, and are available to anyone willing to learn them. The scientific and easy-to-learn exercises provide a practical, natural and holistic way to achieve health and vitality. Yoga is not a religion. Anyone from any faith can practice the techniques.

Today's life is full of stress. Although we have reached a high level of increasing tension and fatigue. Despite our modern achievements, many people feel restless and unhappy, because life is not in balance any more. Environmental stress and bad personal habits also add to this strain. All this results in various physical and mental diseases such as depression, high blood pressure, heart disease and even cancer.

Yoga Meditation offers a simple and practical solution to these problems and helps us to find a balance in our life. It enables us to deal effectively with the many challenges we constantly face, and to achieve the inner strength, success and happiness we all desire.

People tend to think of Yoga as complicated stretching exercises. Yet the most helpful of these exercises, also called asanas, are not very difficult to practice. It only takes a little time to develop the flexibility of our joints. More importantly, asanas also work on a deeper level: by subtle pressure on the glands of our body, they balance our hormones. Hormones play a key role in our overall health and well-being. Almost all physical and mental diseases can be linked to an imbalance in the glands of our body. For more details visit http://www.soundbodytrainer.com/