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.