Yoga Video Series from Expert Village

Expert Village has a great online video series hosted by Lynne Nicole Smith. She is a certified yoga instructor and registered yoga teacher through Yoga Alliance. She is also a certified integral qigong and tai chi teacher and dance instructor. She leads classes and workshops throughout New England at various retreat centers, yoga studios, senior centers and elementary schools, and is now expanding her movement instruction on a national level.

Yoga: 3 Part Breath -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

Coming from the Sanskrit root meaning "to bind" or "join", the word yoga is about joining the mind to the body, the human to the divine, or the individual to the infinite.

The various styles of yoga share a common belief: positioning the body into a particular posture while focusing mind and breath leads to physical and spiritual well-being. The arts of positioning the body has been passed on for thousands of years, and encompass some of the oldest cultural traditions known to exist. To practice yoga, then, is also to join with the ancient sages, drawing human history up into oneself and connecting with the past, present and future. In this free video series on yoga, registered yoga instructor, Lynn Nicole Smith performs several yoga poses for relieving stress and increasing flexibility.

Smith discusses a few breathing techniques, including: the ha breath, mindful breathing, the three-part breath and even the barrel breath. She then demonstrates a variety of yoga poses, such as: the warrior two pose, triangle pose, tree pose, straddle stretch, cat and dog pose, pigeon pose and the wind-relieving pose. Watch these videos and learn several rejuvenating yoga poses today.

Yoga, Meditation in Action

I listened to Speaking of Faith this morning and was extremely inspired to get my yoga fitness back in motion again. If you haven't heard Seane Corn speak on yoga be sure to listen to the podcast.
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Yoga studios are cropping up on street corners across the U.S. Now there are yoga classes at YMCAs, law schools, and corporate headquarters. This 5000-year-old spiritual technology is converging intriguingly with 21st-century medical science and with many religious and philosophical perspectives. Seane Corn takes us inside the practicalities and power of yoga, and describes how it helps her face the darkness in herself and the world.

Speaking of Faith: Yoga, Meditation and Action with Seane Corn

Iyengar Practicing Backbends

Interesting to see Iyengar practicing. Wish I could do this! BKS Iyengar practicing some backbends in Pune, India 1991.

My Yoga Online Launches Video Website

I happened to see this announcement recently. This site looks great for yoga fitness online videos!

MyYogaOnline.com (http://www.myyogaonline.com/) has re-launched its website with improved enhancements that ensure all videos stream in full screen near DVD quality at DSL and cable accessible speeds.

Co-Founder Jason Jacobson noted, "By updating our streaming video platform to the latest technology, we are ensuring that our large library of yoga, Pilates, and meditation videos will be available to the greatest number of users worldwide, regardless of computer type, location, or internet speed. No more need for DVD’s, as MyYogaOnline.com’s unprecedented video library of classes in Yoga, Pilates, Mediation and Wellness, are available anytime, anywhere, at the fraction of the cost of one DVD or studio class."

My Yoga Online has been expanding the knowledge of Yoga, health and wellness since its inception in 2005. MyYogaOnline.com provides convenient, flexible and affordable Yoga, Pilates and Meditation programs taught via streaming video by world class certified teachers.

Yoga In The Workforce - The Health Benefits Of Practicing Yoga At Work

More and more employers are realizing the benefits of practicing Yoga in the workforce. With the increase in stress levels of employees, employers are now exploring different ways of relieving these stresses. While some are allowing employees to take naps others have decided to begin practicing yoga at work.

Some businesses have even gone so far as incorporating yoga into the daily routine of their employees and have seen an increase in productivity as well as a more content workforce.

Many employers have become aware of the fact that in addition to reducing stress they're also contributing to the overall health of their employees. As a result employees are taking fewer days off work for sickness. It just makes good business sense to encourage Yoga in the workplace as it seems to be paying dividends in the long term.

Yoga has increased in popularity with business professionals who lead a fast paced and stressful life who find that regular sessions of yoga help to reduce their stress considerably and make them more productive.

The fact that a person practicing Yoga doesn't require the use of bulky equipment simply means that Yoga can be practiced anywhere and is not restricted to a gym or even a designated room within the office. A practitioner can easily perform a series of Yoga exercises at their desk with the use of a reasonable chair in a carpeted office. This makes it convenient for the practitioner as well as economical for the employer.

Another benefit to the employer is the fact that Yoga can be practiced by employees of all ages. Even people who have never exercised in their life are able to start yoga and see results almost immediately. Practicing Yoga in the workplace can also help in relieving those aches and pains which are so common among those employees who work for hours sitting at a desk working on a computer.

Research has shown that taking short breaks during the day where basic yoga exercises are performed can relieve pain, reduce fatigue and increase safety in the workforce due to the improvements in these areas. While all employees would benefit by having Yoga in the workforce, employees whose daily tasks are repetitive such as office workers or factory workers would benefit most from practicing yoga in the workforce.

To download your FREE guide "STRESS-BUSTING STRETCHES" click on Yoga Stretches For The Office and for a limited time you'll also receive our Weekly Yoga For Exercise Or Alternative Health newsletter, jammed packed full of special offers and reviews delivered to your inbox absolutely FREE.

Yoga For Health has now partnered with one of the fastest growing healthy living companies in the country. This is great news as we are now pleased to offer Yoga Accessories like YOGA MATS, CLOTHES, STRAPS and SHOES at discounted prices. Visit us today!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=B_D_Kenny http://EzineArticles.com/?Yoga-In-The-Workforce---The-Health-Benefits-Of-Practicing-Yoga-At-Work&id=1129024

Yoga Block - What Happened?

I imagine that if you are a reader of this blog you've been wondering what happened to me and the results of my Yoga month. I'm very sorry about the delay on this - at the end of Feb. there was a sickness in my family that forced me to travel to Arizona in March.

Good news was that I got through three weeks of my Yoga month but ended up with spotty sessions during the last week. March was overwhelming with the trip combined with an awful work schedule. Suddenly, two months had passed!

By the end of February my flexibility was pretty amazing plus being down three pounds. Unfortunately, as usual with trips - my yoga routines ended.

So now I'm back on track - gearing up for summer with April showing promise to continue my own yoga progression.

Yoga Week 1 Complete of 28 Days!

Woo Hoo!! I did it this week. I was able to complete 8 straight days of Yoga. It was tough - I just about missed it on Super Tuesday. The day was very stressful at work causing me to forget about doing any exercise - plus, I unfortunately ate a large dinner and watched the Super Tuesday results.

Suddenly, at around 9:30pm, it occurred to me that I had forgotten to do Yoga. So I just started doing some positions while watching the results. Not the best workout - but I managed to do about 20 minutes. Anything counts in my book.

I hope you're finding a way to do it as well! Keep on going.

My Own 28 Days of Yoga

Alright, I'm a bit depressed after I found that someone else had thought of a National Yoga Practice Month. I woked up last week with the ultimate inspiration that I am going to do yoga every day in February - well, except Feb. 29th since it is a leap year.

I then remembered NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writers Month last November that many budding writers use as inspiration to get their writing skills down. This has become so popular that many have copied this idea for other topics - blogging, filmmaking, etc.

I thought that yoga would be great and that February would be an excellent month to try this. It's cold, cloudy, Christmas is over, all the last obligations are done - generally very uninspiring. So, thinking of doing 28 days of yoga seems like a good cause. I really didn't think I would start a trend with a NaYoPraMo site. Someone thought of it first - check out:

http://woyopracmo.ning.com/
http://nayopracmo.wordpress.com/

Anyway - I'm going to do it! I've started today and will report my progress week by week. Don't worry - you have time to catch up as well. If you start tomorrow you can get 2 yoga sessions in on a Saturday.

Good luck and I hope you join me on this journey!

My Personal Yoga Journey

I should start this post by noting that I haven't updated it in six weeks due to my own personal journey getting back into yoga again. After Thanksgiving I had gained yet another five pounds of body fat and was reaching my point of ultimate frustration. Part of the reason I started this blog in the first place was to not only learn about yoga - but also to motivate myself to get back into doing it as a part of my lifestyle. I really want to change my life.

So, beginning about December 1st I started a full yoga program - be it only 30 minutes a day. But, from Nov 26th to Dec 24th I was doing yoga about six days a week. At first I was very disappointed with my overall yoga fitness - my flexibility was horrible, I started to see how poorly I was breathing, and my balance was completely shot. Nevertheless, I kept at it.

By the end of December much had changed for the positive. First, I lost five pounds over the month! Second, my flexibility increased dramatically - funny story; near the end of Dec. I was at home and happened to drop some papers on the floor. When I reached down to pick them up I literally just about flipped over completely on my back. My head accelerated so fast toward the floor due to my increased flexibility that I thought I was going to knock myself out by conking my forehead. I haven't seen the floor accelerate toward me so fast!

I imagine you're wondering what kind of workout I was doing. I just started with simple Hatha Yoga positions and some breathing. Now, I didn't dig deep on the breathing side - just basic breath with positions. If you look at my October 22nd entry on Beginning Yoga you will see the kinds of positions I was doing.

I hope this gives you some charge to get started or to get back into yoga!