Yoga Fitness and Happiness with Mind Body Smile

This is a very thoughtful video on yoga breathing techniques. As a great way to warm up your yoga practice, Dr. Rob's plan will refresh and renew.

Be sure to visit their site MindBodySmile when you get a chance. Enjoy.



Video transcription:

Another spectacular day in the Universe
Yoga breath, my intention of the day
The first thing we do as an independent being and new
To take a breath, you do not think, each cell knows just what to do
Yet a shallow breath is often what we do, forgetting the control and connection with you
To not fill our lungs, less oxygen and we do not renew
It is an unconscious thing, poor posture, bad habits, and many unhappy things
Yet the yogi’s know, the breath is the best, a vital practice to make you new
To focus on the breath, a special yoga thing, to reconnect the mind and all beautiful things
To bring the energy of life, a mindfully conscious and uplifting flight
To release tension, bring strength and allow all things to be
For the best of a breath, I start with the nose, a slow wave in
Fill up the abdominal lungs first, then expand the chest, feeling the energy flow in to you
In slow, focus the expansion of the intercostals, strength of the abdominals, subclavicular too
Then the top of the lungs, building up for you, for God is all of me and of you
Feel the energy of life, and the beauty of the Universe in you
Now feel it at its peak, a moment at the top, the beauty of all things
Now slowly out with a smile, loving life all of the while, more wonderful things
You focused on the breath, for this is what brings in clean energy for you
Becoming mindful of the body, the earth, the Universe, and all things that are loving in you

Namaste,

Dr. Rob

States Requiring Yoga Instructors to be Certified

I read this in the Washington Post today - and found it a bit alarming. "The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia recently declared that studios offering yoga teacher instruction must be certified. That involves a $2,500 fee, audits, annual charges of at least $500 and a pile of paperwork....As yoga grows into a mainstream activity for stressed professionals and parents, similar dust-ups are playing out nationwide. In June, New York's State Education Department sent a letter to yoga instructor training programs telling them that those that aren't licensed faced a $50,000 fine. The state backed off after yoga instructors complained and the media covered the controversy. Michigan also started regulating the programs this year."

You can read the rest at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/23/AR2009082302152.html

Yoga Fitness: Hatha Yoga Video Tutorial

This fantastic 11 episode series walks through all aspects of Yoga Fitness using Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga is a specialized branch of bodily postures and techniques for health and longevity. Hatha is useful, and produces spectacular physical results, but this branch of yoga is little used by yogis bent on spiritual liberation.

The Raja Yoga seeks to control the changes in consciousness, and by this control to rule the material vehicles. The Hatha Yoga seeks to control the vibrations of matter, and by this control to evoke the desired changes in consciousness.

The weak point in Hatha Yoga is that action on this line cannot reach beyond the astral plane, and the great strain imposed on the comparatively intractable matter of the physical plane sometimes leads to atrophy of the very organs, the activity of which is necessary for effecting the changes in consciousness that would be useful.

Yoga in Hawaii - This is My Dream

How could anything be better than this! Yoga in Hawaii. I really would love to do something like this. This school offers three main tracks of hatha yoga study: a gentle track (Yoga Basics), a more vigorous one (Vinyasa Flow) and a very athletic form of yoga (Ashtanga)—depending on your personal inclination. Taught in the traditional style of the yoga masters, they include pranayama and meditation.

Located in the Kaimuki district of Honolulu, Yoga Hawaii is a community that believes that all yoga styles ultimately lead to stillness, an experience of deep peace, and a returning back to Source energy.

Please, if anyone goes, write a review or at least post a comment.

Tibetan Buddhism - Amazing Video Series on Sound Healing

Sometimes life gets so busy and passes you by that you're not sure where the time went. Time to meditate, time to do yoga, time to read, and time to spend with family & friends. I don't know what happened over the last six months but it always seems like by mid January I'm back to grounding myself again. February is my NaYoPraMo month (modeled after NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writers Month) - it is my National Yoga Practice Month. More to come on that.

Anyway I found this wonderful series of videos on Tibetan Sound Healing from the Ligmincha Institute in Virginia. It is given by Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, founder and spiritual director. He is an author as well as a highly respected and beloved teacher to students throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe. He was ordained as a monk at Menri Monastery near Dolanji, India. There he was recognized by head teacher Lopon Sangye Tenzin Rinpoche as a reincarnation of the famous master Khyung Tul Rinpoche, a renowned meditation master, teacher, scholar and healer who died in the mid-20th century.

Fluent in English, Tenzin Rinpoche is renowned for his depth of wisdom; his clear, engaging teaching style - and his ability to make the ancient Tibetan teachings highly accessible and relevant to the lives of Westerners.

Please take some time - each video is about nine minutes and there are seven videos in the series. Enjoy!