I love the early morning practice! It wakes me up and gets me started for the day. I have a good friend, Amy, from Yoga With Spirit, and she does not like to practice first thing in the morning. Now I will admit that my style of yoga, Kripalu, is a little more relaxed and meditative. Amy’s practices Ashtanga and it is a little more vigorous. Maybe that’s the difference!

Anyway, try to practice first thing upon awakening and see if you like it. I believe it is the best way to start the day!

How can yoga be effective for all those differing types of problems? It can be.

Yoga brings the person doing the practice to a place of calm and relaxation. The more they are relaxed the more the body is able to heal itself. This includes bodily healing and mental/emotional healing. All the people in class left with a sense of having been somewhere, having done something beneficial.

We all need healing of one sort or another. My wife is a Reiki master and she sees it all the time. Someone will come to her for a specific problem and leaves with something quite different having been dealt with. In yoga I see people who are so uptight they look like they could pop and when class is over, they are more relaxed and smiling.

Is there a reason to find a teacher and learn yoga? I would say there is. If you are wondering about the cost, then what is you life worth? Ask the instructor what they change and if there is any way to work with them. Many teachers are only in it for the money,but if they truly love the life yoga can give, they will find a way to help you.

As you go through your asanas you may find yourself wishing you were somewhere else. Each posture seems to hurt or you just can’t seem to do it right, or do it at all. Why not change your mind set?

Look at each posture as a chance for adventure, even a wild adventure. First of all, even if you are just an average practitioner, you are stronger, more flexible that most people you know.

When you do that next posture, put a little adventure into it. See if you can stretch a little further or hold that balance a little longer. Don’t let the posture beat you.

As a teacher, I sometime get the student who puts so little effort into their practice that I wonder why they come. After a year, or even two, I see no progress in how strong or flexible they are. They haven’t put enough into it to get anything out of it. Is that you?

Why not go for it? Put all you can into your next practice and see if that little sense of adventure doesn’t put a spark of life into it that you didn’t have before.

Namaste!

New You

We are fast approaching a new year. Would you like to have a healthier you? Here’s the secret to achieving that goal.

Decide that this is going to be your reality.

I know, you’ve tried that before and it didn’t work. We all have the experience where we decide to do something and then when it comes to it, we act as if we had never made that decision.

It isn’t easy, I know. Here is the key that works for me.

Talk to your inner self and tell that self that things are going to be different. Tell it that you want to live life differently and so new ways of dealing with life will have to be learned. No longer will you relieve stress by eating a half gallon of ice cream, you will go for a walk instead.

Your inner self won’t like this change. It is used to dealing with life with all your old defense mechanisms and excuses. It doesn’t want to learn new ways.

When old ways of dealing with things crop up, remind your inner self that this is no longer the way things are done.

Now that you have that part under control, you can begin to decide what types of health issues you want to deal with. Do you want to lose weight? How much? Do you want to become stronger, more flexible? How will you do that?

Learning to take control in this way is a much better way to have the life, the body you want. Without the control, you are at the mercy of your inner self and what life throws at you each day.

Namaste!

It felt great to do my yoga practice this morning and it even felt good to go out and shovel some snow! Just to use my body for something other than to sit around or stuff food into was a delight.

The holidays can bring a lot of stress just in the upsetting of our routine and schedule. We may think we are spontaneous, but most of us are creatures of habit, at least to some degree.

If you are one to love spontaneity, then use it to do something vigorous and invigorating. If you love routine, then find the self discipline to stick to your daily dozen, or whatever it is you do.

When Aunt Mable comes over and uses up your time, instead of stewing about it, find a way to be present to her and then do something physical when she leaves.

Exercise, using your body in some way is a great way to leave stress behind. Don’t let the holidays take it away from you!

Namaste!

Bowflex Series 7

An alternative to walking outside is using our Nordic Track skier. I don’t like using it because I get so bored staring at the wall. I have a book holder on it, but it is pretty hard to read and I am skiing along. The other problem with this infernal machine is that I don’t use it often and when I do get back on it, it really gives my lower back a workout.

That’s not bad, mind you, my lower back, although flexible is not as strong as it could be because I sit in a chair at the computer too much. So, when I get on the Nordic Track, I have to watch it for the first week or so or my back gets so sore I can hardly get out of bed.

One of these days, I’m going to buy a treadmill. I have been looking at them and I want to get a good one. I hate buying things that break after I use it just past the warranty period. I have been looking at the Bowflex Series 7 and it looks pretty good. I don’t know anyone who has one. If I did, I could use it and see if it is everything I want it to be.

Well, I guess I will try the Nordic Track again tomorrow as it is blowing and snowing outside and the windchill is subzero. Maybe Santa will bring me that treadmill.

With fall in the air here in upstate NY, it’s time to start thinking about snow on the ground and winter. One of the things that bums me out about this is that I have a hard time walking in the winter time. I dislocated my left knee a couple of times years ago and I don’t trust it on icy surfaces. that means that my walks become hard to come by.

What do you do to stay in shape? Do you do yoga? I do! Do you walk? How about running? There are several ways that a person can stay in shape, but if we don’t do anything, we become old before our time! Ask me! I sit at a desk most of the time and continually fight against stiff back and that sort of thing.

What can you do this winter to stay in shape? What are your plans for doing so? A friend of mine has a program, actually several, that is designed for those who want to lose a little weight and get in shape at the same time. Although I can’t claim to follow his program religiously( shame on me!) I do try to follow his advice and it does help. You can check it out here!

Stephen

P.S. Scott is a really nice guy and the price is so worth it!

I do want to tell you that, should you decide to join Scott, I will receive a small commission.