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Sunday, January 03, 2010 by Kelly Golden
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Empowering Your Intention in 2010
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One of the most common occurrences as one year fades into the next is the creation of a resolution (or a list of them), in hopes of starting the New Year fresh. It is a noble idea delineated by dates on a calendar, but all too often those things that we vow to do, become, achieve, or create end up in the left in the dust, or filed away to come back to sometime in the unnamed future. Yoga often ends up on the list of resolutions with the hope of increasing our health or our balance. But something that is less as well known, is that the practice of yoga itself can add power to resolutions and to your efforts to honor them. Some of the more subtle practices of yoga, like pranayama and meditation, are designed do just that, to make our resolve our reality.
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Saturday, January 02, 2010 by Timothy Burgin
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Premium Membership Giveaway
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We have five 1-year premium memberships to YogaBasics.com to give to our lucky readers! To enter this contest, simply leave a comment to this post and we will randomly select 5 comment authors on January 16th.
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Monday, December 28, 2009 by Kelly Golden
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Pose of the Month: Kurmasana
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 The Bhagavad Gita, one of yoga’s most sacred texts, spends eighteen chapters exploring the path of enlightenment. In Chapter two, verse 58, Krishna says to Arjuna, “Having drawn back all the senses from the objects of sense as a tortoise draws back into his shell that man is a man of firm wisdom.” The instruction is to draw inward like a tortoise in order to find the experience of pratyahara, what the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali define as sense withdrawal. From this place free of external distractions, one can rest in atman (or the true Self), and find eternal peace.
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Monday, December 21, 2009 by Timothy Burgin
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Buddha's Brain by Rick Hanson
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 This fascinating book describes how meditation practices can literally change our minds. Hanson uses neuroanatomy, physiology and psychology to explain how the brain works in creating specific feelings and states of mind. The bad news is that the brain and the body seem to be hardwired to create suffering. The good news is that current research is showing that the brain is malleable and changeable, and it is changed by how we use it. |
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Friday, December 11, 2009 by Timothy Burgin
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The Yoga Bible by Christina Brown
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 This sweet 400-page yoga book covers 170 yoga poses, as well as the other yoga practices of Pranayama, Mudras, Bandhas, and Kriyas. The book starts with a clear, short, and concise introduction to yoga, and ends with a yoga therapy section, but the book’s bulk is focused on teaching the yoga postures, which it does exceptionally well. For each yoga pose the name, benefits, drishti (gaze), prerequisite poses, counter poses, modifications and energetic effects are given. |
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Wednesday, December 09, 2009 by Kelly Golden
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Yoga Teachers Fight Regulations
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Yoga teachers in Virginia are fighting back against planned state regulations of Yoga schools. Three yoga instructors filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop a state mandate which would regulate yoga schools like vocational classes. The officials seeking to impose regulations see it as a way to protect the investments of the students who participate in teacher training programs. Regulations are implemented on vocational classes that prepare students for a job.
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009 by Kelly Golden
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Do we Really Need a Yoga Champ?
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According to the wife of Bikram Choudry, Rajashree Choudry, competition and yoga go hand in hand. To support this she has created two non-profit organizations that sponsor and stage yoga competitions in the U.S. and abroad. The most recent of these was in October at a Bikram studio on the Lower East Side, The New York Regional Yoga Championship.
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Monday, November 30, 2009 by Timothy Burgin
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Enlighten Up!
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 Yogini and filmmaker Kate Churchill set out to capture how the transformative powers of yoga would effect a new practitioner in this superb documentary. She follows Nick, an out of work journalist, as he takes his first yoga classes in the hip yoga studios of New York and as he explores the devotional aspects of yoga in India. Nick is charming, inquisitive, and skeptical of the possibility that yoga can enlighten him. Kate is passionate and unfailing in her desire for yoga to transform Nick, and this eventually leads to a conflict that was courageously shown in the film. These small segments of drama add a bit of spice to the film’s main focus of showing the vast world of yoga through the eyes of a beginner. |
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009 by Kelly Golden
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November Yoga Therapy News
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If your job is to research yoga in the news, you run across amazing articles about how science is again and again proving the physical, mental and emotional benefits of yoga and meditation. So, rather than write a new post every time that science proves what yogis have known for centuries, I’m going to compile them into a collective post and share them about once a month. Here are the ways that yoga benefits your health for November:
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Friday, November 20, 2009 by Timothy Burgin
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Pranakriya Yoga Workout Class
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 This 78-minute audio CD was specifically created for experienced and athletic yogi/nis who are wanting a workout yoga experience. No instruction is given for the pranayama practices, so it is assumed you know and are comfortable with practicing Ujjayi, Kapalabhati and breath retention. The practice is comprised of three modified sun salutes with several challenging balance poses and core strengthening poses added in. The hold times on the poses are on the long side which make the practice challenging, yet Yoganand gives permission to modify the poses or to not hold as long. |
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Friday, November 13, 2009 by Golden & Sullivan
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Pose of the Month: Upavistha Konasana
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 When I think about expanding to the edge of my limits, I think about my earliest days in this practice. Before I understood the depth of Yoga practice, it was all about the stretch for me. I would push my body at all costs, reaching for the “perfection” that only a hyper mobile body and youth can bring. And, invariably I learned a lot of painful lessons, and fell short of learning the one’s with any real meaning. Sure, I had the “yoga” high that so many do after pushing beyond my physical and sometimes mental boundaries, but I didn’t have the strength or foundation to maintain that expansive feeling off my mat. Now, after a fair share of time coupled with many humbling experiences, I approach asana differently. I give equal amounts of focus and attention to the foundation and the strength need to make expansion sustainable just as I do in a really deep stretch. I believe that when practiced with full awareness, Upavista Konasana (Seated Angle) can teach us how to reach to the very edge of our limits through strength and groundedness, so that the feeling of expansion can reach well beyond our mats and into our lives.
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Monday, November 09, 2009 by Kelly Golden
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Yoga Class Tax
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The possibility has been brewing for a while, and as the yoga industry continues to expand, even Uncle Sam wants a cut. In Missouri, yoga studios are now required to pay sales tax on classes and services beginning November 1. This after the decision that yoga studios and classes fall under a state law mandating that places of "amusement, entertainment or recreation, games and athletic events" are subject to sales tax. Yoga teachers are riled by the fact that yoga classes fall under any of these categories, and are paying the taxes “under protest.”
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Saturday, October 31, 2009 by Timothy Burgin
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Eyes Wide Open by Mariana Caplan
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 This illuminating and captivating book by psychologist Mariana Caplan explores the practice of discernment on the spiritual path. Through interviewing thousands of spiritual teachers and practitioners Caplan has uncovered the common traps of modern spirituality and the methods to avoid them. This honest look at the challenges of the spiritual path encourages the reader to carefully examine their spiritual practice as well as their psyche. Caplan’s main message is that psychological transformation and spiritual awakening are inseparably one process, and when this process becomes fragmented problems arise. She illustrates this most clearly through the stories of fallen teachers and guru scandals, but she is insistent that we all have the same weaknesses to overcome and the same dark places to befriend. |
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009 by Kelly Golden
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Catholics and Hindus Briefly Unite
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The Catholic Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue has issued a statement of goodwill to Hindus at the start of the holy festival of Diwali which was welcomed openly. The council stressed that true human development is a result of respecting the freedom of everyone, and they took a giant leap in that direction by crossing often ardent religious boundaries.
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Saturday, October 24, 2009 by Timothy Burgin
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The Lost Souls by Niraj Chag
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 While there have been many Indian/electronic fusion CDs recorded, The Lost Souls stands out by its sultry, mystical and magical sweetness as well as through its minimal use of electronica elements. While the guest vocalists make these tracks shine, they are perfectly balanced and accented by guitars, classical strings, harmonium, tabla, flutes and electronic instrumentation. The lyrics are a mix of original and traditional songs sung in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Braj basha, and Classical Indian sargam. |
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009 by Timothy Burgin
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Autumn Yoga Sequence
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Autumn is associated with physical, emotional, and spiritual transformation and is a time for letting go and releasing the things that are not serving you. In Traditional Chinese Medicine autumn is the time when the metal element is dominant and the energy in the lung and the large intestine channels become the strongest. Activating these energy channels through upper back bends and arm/shoulder opening poses encourages letting go on the physical and mental/emotional levels. Autumn is also a time when nature starts to pull its energy inwards and this 36-step pose sequence activates the energy of groundedness and inner awareness of this season. |
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Kelly Golden
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Eat, Pray, Love, Disrespect?
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So it’s no secret that I take yoga very seriously, but I have a lighter side too. Recent headlines are causing the yogi and the cheeseball in me to clash. I admit that I’m a fan of Julia Roberts, and I also deeply loved the book, Eat, Pray, Love, so when I found out that Ms. Roberts would be playing the part of Elizabeth Gilbert in the movie based on the book, I was elated. Then, the headlines hit that the crew had taken over a Hindu temple in Mirzapur Village, just south of New Delhi in India during the Holy Festival of Navaratri and were refusing to allow devotees to enter. For a brief moment, I was torn and shocked.
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Wednesday, October 07, 2009 by Timothy Burgin
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The Chakra Bible by Patricia Mercier
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 This delightful book on body’s chakra energy centers is well designed and illustrated with beautiful color photographs, charts and drawings. The bulk of the book is straightforward, going through the seven main chakras with a chapter devoted to each one. Each chakra is described with its mental, emotional, spiritual and physical actions and functions. The colors, deities, crystals, mantras, yantras, yoga poses, sounds and herbs that effect and activate the chakra are also explained. |
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Thursday, October 01, 2009 by Timothy Burgin
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Ten Million Moons by Gaura Vani
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 This devotion soaked CD is remarkable blend of many different musical styles, musicians and instruments. Raised as a “Krishna kid,” Gaura Vani draws on his upbringing singing and playing traditional Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali chants to the Hindu god Krishna. This traditional Indian vibe is the uniting factor throughout this beautiful and passionately recorded and produced CD. Gaura Vani reminds me a bit of Jai Uttal’s voice as well as the intricate, funky and fun arrangements and instrumentation.
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009 by Kelly Golden
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Soup Kitchen Yoga
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Often when you spend your days surfing the web for interesting articles about yoga in the news, you encounter the same beautiful bodies in amazing asanas without a touch of fatigue in their faces or cellulite on their bodies. Their hair is perfectly styled, with manicured hands and pedicured feet and only the most pricey yoga clothes. It might turn readers off to lead your article or clip with a dirty, large, poorly dressed, unkempt person on the cover. So when you encounter a person who is breaking through those stereotypes in a profound way, you pay attention, and in the process you open your heart. One yoga teacher has been able to see beyond all of the external gloss of the growing popularity of Western yoga, and find beauty on the floor of a soup kitchen teaching hatha yoga to homeless men.
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Friday, September 25, 2009 by Kelly Golden
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Yoga Event Banned from Town Commons
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In observation of the UN’s international day of peace, Yoga teacher Molly Schlangen of Raymond, NH wanted to lead a group of practitioners in a “Yoga for Peace” practice at the town common area on Sunday September 20. But, when she requested permission from the Raymond selectmen, it was denied. The selectmen said that the request was denied because there was not enough information about Schlagen’s plans for the space.
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Monday, September 21, 2009 by Timothy Burgin
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Total Body Transformation + Weight Loss DVD
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 This is certainly the best independently produced yoga DVD that I have seen, and it has an impressive amount of content and viewing options to boot. Sadie Nardini is an up-and-coming yoga teacher based out of NYC who has a wide following for her numerous (currently 148!) YouTube videos. The DVD has six different 60-90 minute yoga programs to choose from, with a range of focus and intensity. Overall the sequences are quite challenging and definitely build strength and endurance. |
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Saturday, September 05, 2009 by Golden & Sullivan
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Pose of the Month: Purvottanasana
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 I read a line in a book once that has stuck with me for years, “God gather’s his sheep before dark.” It wasn’t in a Christian text, but in a yogic one.; the words of a guru to a struggling student. You will never be left behind in the dark because the sun will always rise even in the blackest night. Purvottonasana (inclined plane pose) is an asana that opens us to that inner light. The light of the divine, the light of God, the light within.
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Tuesday, September 01, 2009 by Timothy Burgin
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Still the Mind by Bodhipaksa
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 Still the Mind is a true gem of an audio CD program. If you have any interest in meditation, and especially if you are new or a beginner at meditation, I highly recommend that you check this title out. It is worth buying just to hear Bodhipaksa’s calm, clear voice and beautiful Scottish accent guide you through these teachings. |
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