There was slim pickens this month, searching the internet for news and current info on yoga. But we previaled and found some interesting articles, the first two are only for those with a sense of humor:

Put the ‘Man’ in Mantra: Meditation Made Easy

Calm Down, Right Now! Don't Let Relaxation Stress You Out

Cancer Patients Can Feel Better With Yoga

Yoga to Relieve Scoliosis-Related Pain

Embracing Menopause Through Yoga

The big news is the new format for our newsletter and all of the hassles we've gone through to upgrade our subscription service. We did not expect such a HUGE number of people to sign up and were quite overwhelmed.

We have also been working hard on a new yoga store, its not quite finished but we've gone ahead and uploaded it so you can check it out. We now have a shopping cart and new lower prices for yoga mats and props.

We've updated Yoga Music Radio, adding new songs and a new playlist. If you haven't checked out our free internet radio station do so now! 24 hours of great music to do yoga to. Listen to our broadcast two ways: 1) at Live365.com or 2) with SonicBox iM Tuner.

Breathing in Asana

Our natural tendency is to hold the breath or use stress induced breathing while holding a posture. This creates stress in the body. To create relaxation, breathe slowly and deeply in all of the asanas. There are several ways to breathe in asanas, and these will differ with teacher and tradtion. I like to emphasize different breathing techniques or pranayamas while holding different postures.

Use dirga pranayama in most postures. Focus on activley breathing into the chest in backbends and chest opening poses (pigeon, yoga mudra, warrior I, fish, bridge). For forward folding postures and belly down postures you can focus on just breathing into the belly (child, forward fold, cobra, boat)

Use Ujjiaj pranayama when holding strength building postures to increase endurance and focus (downward dog, standing squat, warrior III, warrior I, sun salutations)

Refuge by Gabrielle Roth & the Mirrors
All of Gabrielle's CDs are great, and "Refuge" is no exception. It is quite different from her previous works as she joins with Boris Grebenshikov who sings tratitional Tibitian chants over the Mirrors tribal beats and grooves. Overall the tone is mellow but full of light and soul, and this is a great CD to practice yoga to. Best of all, the roalties from this album are being donated to Tibitian Buddhist causes. Listen to it here
Yoga Poems, Lines to Unfold By by Leza Lowitz
I'm not one for poetry, but I really like this little book. The book is divided into 8 sections correlating with the eight limbs of yoga. The poems describe personal, physical, mental and emotional aspects of the practice of yoga. It's cool to read about another's yoga practice, especially using short poems describing the essence of the expericiences. More info here

CompuBank is the sponsor for this issue of YogaBasicsNews. CompuBank provides better banking services (Unlimited check writing, ATM rebates, Free domestic wires, and Real-time statements) and saves you money. And you can access your account and pay all your bills online. Check out what they have to offer and help suppoort this newsletter. Thanks!

Want to sponsor YogaBasicsNews or YogaBasics.com? Check out our Sponsor page for all the details!

Every month we will randomly select active subscribers to win free stuff: T-shirts, cds, stickers, yoga mats, yoga props and more!

This Month's Winners:

Joan E. Ryan: Yoga Poems, Lines to Unfold By by Leza Lowitz.

Sheryl Duna: Refuge by Gabrielle Roth & the Mirrors.

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