Pranayama are breathing exercises developed by the ancient yogis for purification. Prana translates into "life force energy" and Yama translates into "control or mastery of". Thus, Pranyama is used to control, cultivate, and modify the Prana in the body. Prana is taken in through the air we breathe, and since the Pranayama exercises increase the amount of air we take in, they also increase our intake of Prana.
For all Pranayama (except Kapalabhati), the breath is slow and steady, breathed in and out of the nose and down into the belly. Always sit with a straight spine and a relaxed body. While you are practicing Pranayama, let go of any thoughts by focusing on the breathing involved with the Pranayama.
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Do you experience “negative, unwanted thoughts” that may hinder your New Year's resolutions? A new study in the journal, Psychological Science, suggests that writing down such thoughts, and subsequently discarding them, may result in a corresponding mental release. From a yogic perspective, releasing what does not serve invites deeper integrity and alignment with one’s intentions and self.
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If you couldn’t resist checking your horoscope to see what the new year holds, you’re not alone. Astrology is firmly embedded in popular culture, familiar as one-size-fits-most newspaper horoscopes and famous as that hoary pick-up line, “What’s your sign?” Little known in the West, however, is the astrology of the yogis known as Jyotish, or the Science of Light.
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As January comes to a close and New Year’s resolutions begin to lose steam, helpful advice abounds: Use positive affirmations. Visualize a successful outcome. Find a workout buddy. Good suggestions, all of them. But how about calling on the ultimate “workout buddy”—a supreme being and the master of kundalini energy? If you haven’t already guessed, I’m talking about that great yogi known as Lord Ganesha.
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If someone offered you a vacation, no strings attached,
would you take it? Sure, why not? If you had the key to peace, contentment, and
better health would you use it? Of course you would. Is meditation already practice
part of your daily routine? Are you new to the idea of meditation? Or are you
like me, an on-again, off-again meditator?
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“A drunken monkey stung by a scorpion” is an often repeated description of the mind. It lurches and spins from thought to thought, dwelling on the past, daydreaming about the future, latching onto one distraction after another. The harder you try to pin it down, the quicker and wilier it becomes. Anchoring the mind in the present is not easy. It takes dedicated practice to calm the waves of the mind for meditation. Or, in the words of that great Star Wars yogi, “Do or do not. There is no try.” But with its countless benefits, meditation is one of the most important things you can do for your overall health and well-being.
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You commit to sit, and then you learn how. The next stage of
meditation is sustaining your practice day in and day out. For many of us, this
is the hard part. But don’t wait for inspiration to come to you, like a bolt
from the blue. Instead, take an active role, tending the sparks of inspiration
and coaxing them into the inner fire
of tapas or self-discipline. Here are seven ways to keep the flames
burning:
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A recent blog posted the nude Sara Underwood yoga video published by
Playboy in 2009, reigniting controversy as to the broader role of nudity and
sexuality in yoga. Clichés of beautiful, bendy,
hyper-sexed “yoga goddesses” are memorialized on Playboy’s yoga
website, in a paean to the homogenous images of “yoginis” that
litter pop culture. Such depictions engender fears that female yoga
practitioners will be reduced to sexual objects, reinforcing stereotypes.
Nonetheless, to the ire of feminists, Playboy has been featuring strong women,
including Olympic athletes, for decades. But is something lost in translation?
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Scarlett and Rhett. Rick and Ilsa. Elizabeth and Darcy. All great stories remind us that when we look beyond the maya (illusion) of daily existence, we can glimpse the profound. And every timeless romance of fiction and film mirrors the grand cosmic union of Shiva, the Lord of Yoga, and his consort, Shakti.
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Yoga in yet another treasured American institution, the military, has recently spurred frustration among evangelicals. Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, expresses that “the military seems intent on driving religion out and replacing it with wacky substitutes.” No form of spirituality, Perkins contends, is “as constructive as a personal relationship with God.” These grievances highlight important ideological differences and misapprehensions as to what, exactly, meditation is. Do modern conceptualizations of mindfulness preclude “a personal relationship with God?” Or do they transcend such artificially-rendered binaries?
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When Patanjali outlined the practice of yoga two thousand years ago, he used a form of short, easy-to-remember sayings that could be recited or chanted as slokas, the Sanskrit root for the English word “slogan.” Today we know slogans as catchy phrases used to promote products or sum up larger ideas, like “It’s the real thing,” or “Be all that you can be.” But if yoga has one ageless, all-encompassing slogan, it’s Patanjali’s second sutra:
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Last year
New York Times reporter William Broad started a firestorm of words by painting yoga as a body-wrecking fitness fad. The response from the yoga community was passionate and ongoing. Many teachers, however, regard yoga injuries non-news in the West, where we approach yoga primarily as a physical fitness regimen rather than as a system of personal transformation. To protect yourself from injury, focus on yoga’s history as “inner-cise” versus exercise.
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Last month, yogis thrilled to the news that kirtan wallah Krishna Das was not only nominated for a Grammy but also slated to open the ceremonies in Los Angeles. Though he took the stage before nearly 30 million turned on their televisions, Krishna Das sang to what was likely the largest kirtan audience in the U.S. in 87 years, since Paramahansa Yogananda led 3,000 people in a call-and-response hymn at Carnegie Hall in 1926.
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Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) is one of the first poses that yoga students learn, on its own or as part of Surya Namaskara. Because it’s a familiar favorite, the tendency is to slip into Down Dog like a beloved pair of sneakers, often without noticing that the arches are sagging or the heels are worn down. To keep this asana fresh, approach it with a beginner’s mind:
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In India, the mother is considered the first guru, and yet the practice and teaching of yoga was long the domain of men. That changed during the mid-20th century, when several women “midwifed” yoga’s introduction to the West. Today, Friday, March 8, marks International Women’s Day, a fitting time to look at some of yoga’s most influential women.
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