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Tuesday, January 24, 2012 by Amber Baker
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Could Yoga Help You Get A Job?
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Mental flexibility, patience, adaptability, and the ability to handle stress are often cited benefits of yoga and meditation. These are also some of the same skills many employers look for and hope to cultivate in their employees. People who have or are able to develop these practices may be seen as an asset to employers for these reasons, and they may even cost less to employ. Ohio State University researcher Maryanna Klatt led a pilot study which found that six weeks of guided workplace meditation and yoga can lower feelings of stress by more than 10%. She believes these findings are also significant in understanding and improving the way people handle stress in the workplace. “If they can’t change the external events in their life, they can instead change the way they view the stress, which can make a difference in how they experience their day-to-day life,” Klatt notes.
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Thursday, January 19, 2012 by Tosca Braun
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Is Spiritual Yoga Better for You?
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According to a recent study, Kripalu yoga that incorporates spiritual and ethical guidelines (integrative yoga) may be more effective at decreasing anxiety-related symptoms than yoga taught without these principles (exercise-based yoga). Integrative yoga also appears more effective at reducing levels of the hormone salivary cortisol, which is an indicator of stress. This is the first study indicating that yoga practiced in its original context may provide additional benefits over yoga that is divorced of its spiritual origins.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012 by Timothy Burgin
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Weekly Yoga Planner
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To help you with renewed efforts to practice yoga in the new year we have created a Weekly Yoga Planner for you to print and use. You can use this yoga planner as a guide for the following:
• Schedule your yoga practices and classes.
• Document your intentions, goals, and reflections.
• Keep track of your progress.
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As research studies continue to validate claims of the many benefits of yoga, there are still skeptics out there who try to dispute them. A recent article in the online journal Independent Woman, Chrissie Russell posed the question “Is Yoga Actually Bad for You?” citing two studies which she states didn’t show yoga as effective relief for back pain. Closer examination shows that both studies actually showed that yoga is an effective way to treat lower back pain. While one study’s results showed that that yoga wasn’t more effective than a simple stretching class, the primary researcher stated that she may have confounded her own results by making the stretching class too much like a yoga class, rather than like the typical stretch classes found at most gyms.
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Thursday, December 29, 2011 by Tosca Braun
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Bikram Loses Yoga Copyright
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In a small victory won by yoga studios which offer classes resembling Bikram Choudhury’s trademarked 90-minute, 26-pose heated yoga flow, the US Copyright Office has determined that yoga poses and sequences cannot be copyrighted. The decision was reached in response to litigation filed by Bikram against several yoga studios alleged to infringe on copyright laws. Bikram’s lawsuits also claim violation of teacher-certification agreements and trademark infringement, signifying the Copyright Office’s decision will not end the litigation any time soon.
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Tuesday, December 13, 2011 by Tosca Braun
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Mindfulness May Reduce Smoking Cravings
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Interesting new research suggests that practicing mindfulness may be helpful in smoking cessation efforts. A recent study indicates that mindfulness alone (absent explicit instructions to stop or information about the dangers of smoking) has the potential to significantly reduce neurological cravings after being exposed to visual smoking cues. Although this research is highly preliminary, this information could prove to be helpful for those with a history of failed attempts at changing behaviors using conventional methods.
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Saturday, December 03, 2011 by Timothy Burgin
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Winter Yoga & Meditation Retreat
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Come join YogaBasics.com on a 8-day yoga retreat at the Finca Luna Nueva Eco-Lodge and Rainforest Spa in San Ramon, Costa Rica. Enjoy morning and afternoon yoga practices led by Timothy Burgin, while having plenty of free time to relax and explore the beautiful Rainforest, get a relaxing spa treatment (massage, facial, reflexology), or go on an amazing adventure excursion (kayaking, rafting, waterfall and volcano treks, canyoneering, horseback riding, canopy zip line tours).
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Monday, November 28, 2011 by Tosca Braun
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Is Yoga Demonic?
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While numerous reports have documented Christianity and yoga to prove uneasy bedfellows, a Seattle pastor has fanned the flames of debate by calling yoga “absolute paganism” that can lead to “demonism.” In a lengthy blog post claiming to summarize the history and traditions
of yoga, Mark Driscoll employs apologetics (reasoned arguments intended
to justify a religious doctrine) to rebut the tenets of yoga and
demonstrate “why it is, in fact, demonic.”
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Monday, October 31, 2011 by Tosca Braun
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Yoga for Illegal Immigrants
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The issue of illegal immigration is a tendentious one, generating deep cultural and ideological schisms with enormous economic and personal impact. Enter yoga classes for migrants hoping to cross the US-Mexican border; Jap Singh Khalsa in Mexico’s northern state of Coahuila is offering once-weekly yoga classes to Central Americans at a migrant shelter in hopes it will facilitate coping “with the stress of their arduous and often dangerous trek.” Singh teaches the migrants how to manage the physical and emotional stress of the journey in his yoga classes.
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One of the beautiful things about yoga is that people of all abilities and health conditions are able to benefit from a regular, conscientious practice. Yoga instructor Matthew Sanford exemplifies this both in his practice and teaching. He leads his classes from a wheelchair, and several of his students come to class this way. Although his students come to yoga with different abilities than many yogis and yoginis, they leave class just as grateful and relaxed as anyone else.
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Wednesday, October 19, 2011 by Tosca Braun
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Yoga Pants Ignite Controversy
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Yoga Pants: By turns celebrated and maligned, this sartorial novelty is not without its share of press—and controversy! Fashion aficionados mourn the trend as excessively laid back and sloppy, while devotees cite comfort and convenience as support for wearing them outside of yoga class. Most recently, an Ohio’s Loveland High School added to the fray, claiming yoga pants are “too revealing” to be worn by students.
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Monday, October 10, 2011 by Tosca Braun
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Yoga + Orgasm = Yogasm
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Women orgasming in yoga class; amidst recent headlines of bong-, wine-, and chocolate-toking yogis, to say nothing of the commonly-touted sexual benefits of westernized Tantra yoga, this may inspire yawns among the desensitized. Yet the spin of a recent ditty is worth noting, if for its rather unorthodox anecdote. A NYC woman breathing and employing root lock in lotus position “wasn’t prepared for what happened after her [toned, tattooed, sexy] instructor pressed his body against her back and synchronized his breath with hers, lifting her ribs as she inhaled, and pushing down on her thighs as she exhaled.” The result: a “tingling all over” yogasm (yoga orgasm).
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Tuesday, September 20, 2011 by Timothy Burgin
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A.M. Energy DVD by Shiva Rea
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 Shiva Rea continues to produce some of the best yoga DVDs available, both in content and in production. As the title suggests, this DVD is intended as an energizing morning practice, and it contains three 20-minute practices that you can mix together or do separately with the opening meditation and ending shavasana. The first segment, Body Mandala 108, focuses on toning and strengthening the upper body and core.
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Tuesday, September 13, 2011 by Amber Baker
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The Yoga Genome Project
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“Doctors can’t prescribe until yogi’s describe” is the motto of the newly announced Yoga Genome Project created by the Yoga Care Foundation (YCF). This ambitious research project is designed to help medical professionals decipher the many styles of yoga so they can effectively recommend its use as a therapeutic modality.
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Friday, September 09, 2011 by Amber Baker
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Yoga Alliance Launches YA+
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The Yoga Alliance recently announced the launch of a companion organization: YA+. The benefits of the new program were touted in an email announcement sent out to current Yoga Alliance members. The intention of the program appears to be a response to community feedback and as an effort to make the Yoga Alliance more relevant in the ongoing debate about regulating yoga teacher training.
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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 by Timothy Burgin
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White Lama by Douglas Veenhof
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 Theos Bernard was an aspiring yogi in the 1930’s who’s enthusiasm and zeal for yoga lead him to seek out the yoga masters and tantric practitioners in India and Tibet. At that time, Tibet’s borders were closed off to foreigners but through the insistence, good fortune and wise planning of Bernard, he was not only allowed into Tibet, but was allowed access to monasteries, temples and secret shrines, many which had never been seen by a westerner before. The story of Bernard’s life and adventures is so amazing and well written that this book is hard to put down.
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Tuesday, August 30, 2011 by Tosca Braun
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Yoga Asana Championships?
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The concept of yoga as a sport is a controversial one, with outspoken proponents of Bikram yoga pushing for yoga to be recognized at the level of the Olympic Games. The 2011 Illionois Yoga Asana Championships took place recently, with more than 100 participants given three minutes to demonstrate up to seven poses, “judged on strength, flexibility, expression, completion, control, grace, poise and the more ambiguous, ‘heart of the yogi.’”
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Wednesday, August 24, 2011 by Amber Baker
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Meditation Shown to Change Your Brain
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Meditation doesn’t just affect the way you feel, new studies show that it actually changes the way your brain processes information. In two recent studies, people with meditation practices not only reacted differently to stimulus than those without, their brains handled the input in entirely different ways.
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Wednesday, August 17, 2011 by Timothy Burgin
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A Video Game for your Chakras!
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 New Age guru Deepak Chopra continues to lead the way in spiritual marketing with his upcoming Xbox 360 Kinect and Wii video game Leela. The goal of Leela is to navigate through 43 exercises that explore the chakras, your seven main energy centers in the body. Through the use of motion sensors, players will be guided to breathe deeply, relax and to move through several body movement exercises.
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Wednesday, August 10, 2011 by Tosca Braun
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NYC Bikram Studio Loses Yoga War
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When Bikram Yoga Manhattan sent out their newsletter last week announcing studio closure of their Penn Station location, owner and director Raffael Pacitti lambasted nearby studios Yoga to the People (YTTP) for offering Bikram classes in all but name for over 50% cheaper, making it “impossible to continue.” The charges stem from Pacitti’s complaints that YTTP recently opened three locations within walking distance of Penn Station, offering “traditional” or “hot yoga” classes that are identical to Bikram from instructors untrained in the Bikram approach.
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Friday, July 29, 2011 by Tosca Braun
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Yoga Therapy and Research Symposiums
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Yoga therapy is a relatively recent innovation; while texts on the therapeutic applications of yoga exist, yoga was traditionally taught to promote optimal stages of spiritual attunement. The field has grown remarkably in the past decade, informed by recent advances in medicine and spurred on by increasing consumer demand for complementary and alternative treatment modalities. If you are an interested yoga practitioner, yoga therapist or instructor, or simply curious, two upcoming conferences will help you learn more about the exciting frontiers in yoga’s evolving role in the US healthcare system and the scientific community.
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Thursday, July 21, 2011 by Amber Baker
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Yoga Helps Philly Parkinson's Patients
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Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that creates impaired movement or trembling of the muscles for approximately 6 million people in the US. Traditional medical treatment is not very hopeful as the prescribed pharmaceuticals can loose their effectiveness in controlling PD’s symptoms and can also cause severe side effects. But at a small studio in the Philadelphia area, yoga instructor Theresa Conroy has been bringing hope to Parkinson’s Disease patients for the last five years.
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Sunday, July 17, 2011 by Tosca Braun
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Pranayma Reported Causing Deaths
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A recent article headline suggests that the widespread use of Kapalabhati pranayama (“skull-polishing breath”) in India—promoted by Swami Ramdev’s popular television campaigns and yoga camps—is dangerous and may lead to death, echoing lesser admonitions voiced by B.K.S. Iyengar and other yogis concerned about the impact of selling Kapalabhati as a quick fix.
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Friday, July 08, 2011 by Tosca Braun
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Is Yoga Manly Enough for Men?
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While yoga is more commonly practiced than ever before, women still eclipse men at the rate of 76% to 24%, according to a 2008 survey. Many reasons have been theorized for the paucity of men in the yoga world; fewer male yoga instructors, a feminization of the practice as a whole—reflected on yoga magazine covers and in popular ads, a cultural belief that men are supposed to do “manly” forms of exercise (i.e. sports or weight-lifting), less easily activated mirror neurons, and limited flexibility among males compared to females following adolescence.
None of these trends or associations do much to attract males to the practice. And yet, there is a wealth of benefits for men who practice yoga.
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Tuesday, July 05, 2011 by Tosca Braun
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Yoga Moves Outdoors for the Summer
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As we move into summertime, the warm days naturally draw yogis around the country to practice yoga outdoors. While practicing yoga in nature is indisputably becoming more common, sunnier climes—from Florida to Boulder—have offered outdoor yoga as a staple over the past decade. And of course, the concept of yogis practicing outdoors is perhaps as ancient as sadhana itself, age-old clichés of yogis in caves notwithstanding. As modern American yogis begin to increasingly embrace outdoor practice, a briefing on the benefits of time spent outdoors is in order.
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