Breath

Welcome to 2017! It can be hard to stick to your New Year's resolution all on your own, so we're creating a mindfulness movement for the New Year! Join us for our 30 Day Meditation Challenge and meditate your way to the best year yet! Videos will be posted daily to this article.

Have you tried meditating before? New to the practice? Need to get back into it -- this series is perfect for you! 

Day 1: The basics of meditation -- what to expect, how to prepare, and some short meditations to get you (back) into the groove.

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.

-Rumi

“Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace.”  - Bhagavad Gita

Spine = Foundation

Have you ever heard anyone use the term "get a backbone?" Perhaps you’ve used it yourself.  Or "that person is so spineless." Well, there is a scientific reason behind these old adages. It turns out the spine is linked to many things, courage and confidence included.

Did you know that sage (Salvia Officinalis) is actually one of the biggest members of the mint family? There are well over 900 different species of sage worldwide. Many species of this plant are recognized for their healing properties. In fact, there are reports from various countries that state the pharmacology and therapeutic properties of the plant. This article will specifically cover the healing benefits of the Salvia Officinalis variety.

Yoga is great for your physical health, and fitness goals draw many of us to the mat. Some come to class because the elongating poses complement other activities like running, and some are motivated by the family member who can miraculously touch her toes, or the coworker who’s traded her sweaters for halter dresses since discovering Ashtanga. Yoga is a good workout. But if you’re in it for the “yoga butt,” you might be tempted to tune out all the other stuff, like when your teacher starts going on about the breath.

One of my yoga teachers says we don’t notice the breath until we’re out of it.

By the time I started a yoga teacher training in 2011, I was out of it, both figuratively and literally: my breath was labored, shallow, strained. I was a first-year 4^th grade teacher, and my heart was always racing, whether I was standing in front of my classroom, lying in bed, or brushing my teeth. I was clearly overwhelmed, my body was rebelling, and I couldn’t find the off switch. I was sure my short, panicky breaths were announcing my anxiety to the world.

Jobs, family, relationships, and social functions often tend to take precedence over our own needs. It is easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day demands of life. Whether we feel a sense of obligation or not, the day can slip away without time to ourselves. It's those days that leave us open to stress, anxiety, and a loss of sense of self. That is why it is important to squeeze a little bit of “me time” into our daily routine. Whether it be five minutes or five hours, the following five are ways you can break away and take precedence over your day.

Power struggles seem to be more and more common as the number of individuals “taking back their power” increases. Where perhaps men, corporations, religious figures, medical practitioners and “anyone in a position of authority” used to automatically assume the upper hand in both conversation and assumed appropriate action, these days individuals are learning how to manage their own lives. Yogic breathing is the perfect tool to use when looking at how to alleviate the potentially harmful affects of power-struggles in any relationship situation, be it work, intimate or otherwise.

Frying an egg while standing on your head in a bathtub is virtually impossible; it’s certainly not the best posture or venue for cooking. Similarly, there are practical considerations for physical space and posture to enhance all levels of meditation experiences.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that yoga has infiltrated mainstream pop culture.  One could find a yoga studio in virtually every large city in the world. Yet the way yoga is practiced can vary widely from place to place.