Yoga

Meditation & Yoga 2011 : yoga meditation

Yoga Meditation , ,

A Program to Relax, Refresh and Rejuvenate with Meditation in the Presence of   H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Secaucus, NJ – March 8, 2011- The Art of Living Foundation is hosting Meditation and Yoga 2011 -MY 2011, in the presence of spiritual leader and humanitarian His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. This day-long program will feature unique and informative sessions giving participants the life skills to manage their mind and emotions, increase productivity, and bring balance into their lives. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is the founder of Art of Living, an international non-profit organization engaged in stress-management and service initiatives all over the world.

The event MY2011 will be held on April 9th from 10 AM- 6:00 PM, at the Meadowlands Exposition Center at 355 Plaza Drive in Secaucus, New Jersey.

 

The negative impact of stress on our lives is vast. Meditation and Yoga 2011 will introduce techniques for de-stressing through a combination of yoga, meditation and breath-work. The techniques rejuvenatethebody and the mind. Participants can experience the peace of meditation in a natural and easy way.

 

The Art of Living programs, taught to millions of people all over the world, are effective in bringing about overall well-being.

Based on ancient wisdom, the programs are made relevant for modern life.

Art of Living has been active in New Jersey for more than ten years. 6,000 people in New Jersey alone have benefited from the programs. It is a volunteer-based organization with courses held in fourteen cities of New Jersey. There are four main centers in New Jersey: in Metuchen, Jersey City, Mahwah and East Windsor.

Says one local course participant: “Since practicing the techniques taught by The Art of Living, I feel far more at home with myself and the world. The relationship with my inner self has increased immensely. [My world-view] has greater depth and perspective. Now all the dots connect in a cohesive way.” There are also special youth programs in New Jersey and New York area for children and teenagers. Through these community service programs, the youth, at a critical age, learn to manage their stress improving their grades and their relationships.

“Spring is a time for renewal and rejuvenation. Sri Sri will be discussing the techniques to harmonize the mind and body through yoga, breathing and meditation, so that individuals can achieve inner peace and strength to move ahead unshaken by the events of life,” says Vikas Chawla, senior instructor of Art of Living and a resident of Somerset, New Jersey. Although we cannot eliminate all the causes of stress in our lives, we can learn to effectively handle our state of mind and our behavior, thus making ourselves truly resilient.

Join us for an inspiring evening with Sri Sri, and for a day dedicated to self-development and renewal.  

For detailed event schedule and information please contact us @ gayathri.uchila@artofliving.org |732 738 4457.

About the Art of Living Foundation: Founded in 1981, the Art of Living Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational and humanitarian organization working in special consultative status with the United Nations Social and Economic Council on initiatives related to health, meditation, education, sustainable development, conflict resolution and disaster relief. One of the world’s largest volunteer-based organizations, the Foundation works to create a violence-free, stress-free world by strengthening the individual. The Foundation has benefited more than 25 million people across 151 countries.

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4 Physical Benefits Of Yoga : benefits of Yoga

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Copyright (c) 2011 Andrew Holtom

As the benefits of yoga are becoming more clear to people, more people are starting to practice yoga in their homes or local gym classes. This fantastic exercise system has been around for almost 5000 years. There have been thousands of hours dedicated to studying yoga and finding out if it is worth practicing. Simply put, yoga is one of the best exercise systems in the world. It is for this reason that it is popular. If you would like to learn more about the physical benefits of yoga and whether or not it is for you – read on.

1. Flexibility: Regardless of what physical condition you are in, you will be able to practice yoga. Yoga does not rely on you having fantastic flexibility. It helps your work and strengthen your own bodies flexibility. Yoga teaches you how to safely stretch you muscles. When you safely stretch your muscles, you can get rid of the lactic acid that normally builds up with your muscles. This lactic acid usually causes tension, fatigure, pain and stiffness. With yoga this lactic acid is cleared and makes you feel much better physically after exercising. yoga also helps your body lubricate the joints and helps the motion of the joints. In the end, you will see you are more fluid and powerful throughout your entire body.

2. Strength: While yoga is not the ultimate strength building exercise, it does help you build your muscles depending on what exercises you are performing. The Power styles of yoga such as Ashtanga help increase your physical strength and muscle tone at a much quicker rate. The other styles of yoga also help with strength building but only specific exercises.

3. Posture: One of the greatest benefits of yoga is that it helps you work on your posture.

This is fantastic for people who have been struggling with posture their entire lives. The yoga positions used help you increase your strength and flexibility. This flexibility and strength is needed to be the foundation of a good posture. The standing and sitting positions for yoga automatically help you work on your core strength. Since you rely on those deep abdominal muscles to maintain each pose, you will be building this core strength automatically. Since yoga helps you work on your body awareness, after a few weeks of practicing yoga, you will automatically know when you are slumping or slouching and you will WANT to fix it.

4. Heart: Yoga has an extremely beneficial effect on heart disease. Since yoga is known to lower blood pressure and slow down the heart rate, it is constantly recommended to people with heart problems. Reducing the heart rate can help benefit people who suffer from strokes, hypertension and heart disease. More and more western physicians are recommending yoga to people with heart issues.

This only touches on the physical benefits of yoga. There are many more benefits of yoga that you can also take advantage of. You can gain the benefits of yoga in your own home through a yoga DVD or through a class at a local gym. Decide which one is for you and start practicing yoga.

Andrew Holtom is an experienced practitioner of yoga and pilates exercises. His range of yoga DVDs are listed and available from his site http://www.getfitwithpilates.com where you can also grab yourself a free ebook worth £9.95

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Benefits of Prenatal Yoga

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The benefits from doing prenatal yoga are numerous. A pregnant woman doing this type of yoga is getting adequate exercise to help her stay active. She is performing yoga moves that are safe during pregnancy. This type of exercise helps a mother-to-be relax, in addition to helping her prepare for the process of childbirth. Prenatal yoga can be done in different locations. As the pregnancy progresses, a pregnant woman will need to change the type of stretches performed because of changes to her body.

It is a smart decision to decide to do prenatal yoga. A person can make the decision to do this type of yoga at home or by visiting a yoga studio. A person deciding to practice yoga at home can purchase DVDs about prenatal yoga. Visiting a yoga studio can help women who are new to yoga because it provides them the opportunity to work with an instructor to get proper training on the moves. An instructor will also be able to help them learn how to breathe throughout the moves. A pregnant woman should practice yoga at least 3 times a week.

During pregnancy, the body is constantly changing. There are certain poses that pregnant women can do to relieve pain or improve their resting position. To help alleviate back pain a person taking prenatal yoga would benefit from the position called Pelvic tilt or Cat-Cow. Another beneficial position taught is the side-lying position. This is a great resting pose where a person relaxes and practices breathing exercises. The pelvis is opened by doing certain poses like the squatting and the Cobbler’s pose.

With each new trimester, a pregnant woman becomes less balanced. This woman needs to take precaution when doing certain prenatal yoga moves. When a woman reaches the second trimester it is not recommended to hold yoga poses for an extended period. During the third trimester, a woman should only practice the standing yoga poses. Props should also be used to maintain balance. Prenatal Yoga is a great way to strengthen muscles, tone the body and learn great breathing techniques. All of these things are beneficial during childbirth.

S. Brooks is a specialized researcher focusing on providing valuable information & solutions for every day issues

For more interesting & useful information on this subject go to: http://www.prenatalyogainfo.com

Yoga Meditation – How Yoga and Meditation Go Hand in Hand : yoga meditation

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Yoga meditation is not only about physical postures! Our modern day yoga class tends to focus on postures only. If a little deeper study of yoga meditation is applied then it will become apparent that postures are only a small part of the practice. Postures are necessary to learn, but yoga meditation is essentially to eliminate feelings of incompletion and limitation in order to connect with our true Self.

Traditionally there are four paths of yoga. Jnana, Bhakti, Karma and Raja. These paths are not separate, they all work together in forming the art of yoga. Only a Yogi or Yogini will concentrate on perfecting the art of one of these paths only. Most commonly all four paths are blended together to balance out yoga practices. Most meditators will have preference for one or two of the paths. This is natural, but even so, it is impossible to abandon or ignore the other paths.

• Jnana explores the nature of our being. It’s focus is on knowledge and wisdom.
• Bhakti concentrates on services to God, love, compassion and devotion.
• Karma is service to others, mindfulness and actions.
• Raja emphasized meditation. It deals directly with our mind’s thoughts.

Even though these paths are all integrated, it is helpful to understand which one is mostly aligned with your objectives. This path will be your main emphasis and the others will be used to enhance your chosen path.

In yoga meditation train your mind to be one-pointed. There will be many obstacles along the way. Some of these may include doubt, laziness, fear of failure etc. Getting around these obstacles and not letting them interrupt your journey can be achieved by training your mind to stay focused on your objectives.

A mantra or short prayer can also assist you in achieving this.

Virga means the energy of conviction and persistence. Make sure that you are firmly aware of your convictions. Develop a determination and a strong attitude to succeed in your yoga meditation.

In practice one will focus on the use of the body, senses, breath and different levels of the mind. An awareness of these will be developed and intensified until the center of consciousness is attained.

Contrary to some beliefs, yoga meditation is not a religion. It does, however, contain principles that can be related to certain religions. It is also holistic, dealing with a wide variety of practices including meditation, contemplation, prayer and mantra.

Yoga and Meditation are an important part of the lives of many people.

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Yoga Strap : Yoga

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A yoga strap is likely one of the many yoga accessories also it could be a very good one for beginning students who lack flexibility or for anyone practicing yoga that still needs work in such a area. A number of the yoga poses taught in basic forms of yoga are very difficult to do properly if one doesn’t have adequate ability to stretch. In these cases, the yoga strap could be employed to permit people to adopt a modified pose that also allows for plenty of body work and stretch, with much less potential for injury.Most yoga straps are between six to nine feet (1.83-2.74 m) long and are made in materials like cotton, or are alternately made of hemp. Taller people may want to look for those straps that are in longer lengths, but many look for a six-foot strap adequate. The majority of straps are not greatly expensive and are slightly kind of than $ 10 US Dollars (USD).
Plenty of the commercially made yoga strap types feature some type of a buckle, very similar to an extremely long belt, which allows for connecting both ends of your strap together for work in certain poses. Alternately, people could hold each end of your strap below the buckle to help enhance stretch. One common use is when the hands are connected behind the back in various positions. These poses could be hard to keep, and the arms might be adjusted to more comfortable positions when the hands hold the strap at a distance apart from each other, instead of interlocking.
An asana which is difficult for several beginners, which can still prove challenging for intermediate and advance students is forward sitting bend.

The goal of this pose should be to bend using a flat back forward so that the hands are stretched out directly over the feet. Lots of people have very tight hamstrings, and are only able to bend slightly forward at the waist when the legs are outstretched in front.
Having a yoga strap might help in forward sitting bend, can definitely deepen stretch, and may make this pose more simple to perform. Part of the strap is looped around the middle of the feet and the person holds onto the two strap ends while bending the back forward. Many find they can stretch more effectively with the strap than without it, and ultimately find themselves improving their flexibility and ability to approximate the pose in its more advanced form.