Nothing Beats Natural

Even though you can spend a "pretty penny" on natural skin care products, you will doing your body and the environment a whole lotta good! It took me time to start using natural and organic skin care products. I didn't do it overnight. A lot of time went into this. When I took a holistic nutrition and fitness class, that's what pretty much turned me around. Before this class, I had already started doing my own little research and transition into natural skin care products. This article gives great insight on how to get started. But remember, don't think you have to do it all at once! Take your time and have fun with it!

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(From yogajournal.com daily insight)


Nothing beats the skin-nurturing effect of an herb-rich facial moisturizer or a natural, botanical-brand cleanser. Over the years, however, misunderstandings have cropped up regarding how to define a "natural" skin-care product. Although there's no standard definition for "natural" skin care, a good rule of thumb is to look for products with familiar names, such as chamomile, lavender, rose, and aloe vera, at the top of the ingredient list. (Ingredients are listed on the label in descending order, starting with the largest quantity. Those that, individually, make up less than 1 percent of the product may be displayed toward the bottom of the list in any order.)

IN THIS ISSUE
How "Natural" Is Your Natural Skin-Care Product?

http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/102
Sea Kelp for Silky Skin

http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/106

Practice with Purpose

Something I always try to do in my practice. There are times when I have a purpose before, and then sometimes I create it during the practice. Yoga definitely helps us go inward and investigate. What are my needs right now? What do I want? I always start with a meditation before my practice and I ask myself these questions. If I don't have an answer right away, it always comes through. Let your body tell you.

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(From yogajournal.com/daily insight)

Almost everyone who does yoga will tell you that their "energy" feels different after they've practiced. This is no doubt one of the main reasons why we practice: to change our experience of how energy moves in the body. We want more energy; smoother, more even energy; or energy that is quieter and less agitated.

One way to think of organizing a home practice has to do with consciously manipulating two of the main energies in the body, prana and apana. In the ancient teachings of India, prana is believed to exist above the diaphragm and to have a tendency to move upward; it is "masculine energy" and controls the heart and the respiration. Apana, it is said, exists below the diaphragm and has a tendency to move downward; it is "feminine energy" and controls the organs of the abdomen, pelvis, and legs.

Before starting your practice on any given day, first ascertain which energy you want to increase and then practice the appropriate poses to accomplish your goal. For example, inversions increase apana; standing poses stimulate prana. Forward bends quiet both apana and prana, as do supine poses. If you are feeling scattered and fatigued, you may want your practice to increase apana; if you are dull and unenthusiastic, you may want to increase prana.

IN THIS ISSUE
Bringing Your Practice Home

http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/819
Standing Poses

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/finder/browse_categories/standing
Forward Bends

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/finder/browse_categories/forward_bends

All You Need is Yoga

For me, not necessarily. I know for myself I love a dance class or combo aerobic/dance class to get the blood and oxygen flowing. I guess the "yang" side (active side) of me needs it. Also, to each his own. I feel everyone needs something different but including yoga in your routine is a wonderful thing. What I love about it is you can attend to your own body's needs. For instance, if you're feeling fatigued or run-down, do some restorative, relaxation yoga. If you have a lot of energy or stress, do a few rounds of sun salutations and/or standing poses to ground and center yourself. There is also meditation. Being able to sit with yourself for a few minutes or longer helps slow down the breath, blood pressure and nervous system. There's opportunity to tune into your emotions as well. The benefits of yoga are immense!

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(From yogajournal.com daily insight)


Yoga might be good for flexibility or relaxation, but to be truly fit, do you have to combine it with an activity like running or weight lifting?

Yoga may improve strength, aerobic capacity, and lung function. If you practice yoga, you already knew that. But if you've been told by friends, family, doctors, or even other yoga students that you need to add some power walking for your heart or strength training for your muscles, there's growing evidence that yoga is all you need for a fit mind and body.

Yoga tunes you into your body and helps you to better coordinate your actions. When you bring your breath, your awareness, and your physical body into harmony, you allow your body to work at its maximum fitness capacity. Yoga class is merely a laboratory for how to be in harmony with the body in every activity outside of yoga. The improved physical wellness and fluidity that yoga brings can enhance more than just our physical well-being, as it permeates all levels of our being.

IN THIS ISSUE
Is Yoga Enough to Keep You Fit?

http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/739
Yoga for Runners

http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/192

When fear sets in

I know purging the past either from your body, closet, basement, attic, etc is a good thing, but what happens when the fear sets in? I want to purge and process what's been coming up for me (from last post) but then I get that sensation in my stomach of butterflies and nerves. My body and self is definitely yearning for freedom and peace from all of this. It's very strong and I know I can do it. It's like I have to tell that voice of fear to "SHUT UP!" just so I can move on. Maybe it's because I had coffee this morning. I only did it because I need to get "things moving" in the ol' colon if you know what I mean. Then that tells me that something is either stuck or not ready to merge. Anyway, needed to get that off of my chest.

Purging the past

Over the weekend, I learned how much of the past I have been holding in my body. I really appreciate my massage classes and the school, because I feel it's a very safe place for releasing emotions or other physical pain the body may be experiencing. The areas we worked on was the ribs and spine. I have NEVER had my ribs worked on before in any bodywork or massage I received in the past. I know I hold some anger in my spine and right side of my ribs. But the left ribs hold a lot of hurt and sadness. No images popped up. Just feelings. However, these feelings were definitely old, probably from childhood, teenage years and twenties. I had emotional releases both days with lots of crying. Of course, afterward I felt amazing! Lots of spaces opened up. It's amazing how much we can hold in a certain area of our bodies.

If you think of the ribs, they're a protective cage. They protect our vital organs--stomach, spleen, liver, pancreas, gallbladder. In my experience, why wouldn't some traumas, both physical and emotional, want to go there? It's the perfect place! I haven't had any issues with my spleen (at least that I know of), so I wasn't aware of all this holding. It's like a box with old memories, situations, feelings, reactions, and people in my life that I put into it and tucked it away behind my left side of ribs. It helps me to think in metaphors with this stuff to help me understand and when I share it with others. I know I've only tapped into it, but my willingness to really have a "purge", on a scale of 1-10 is at a 10.

Today I feel melancholy and a little distant. I don't want to be at work, but it's something I gotta do. I feel like I lost weight from the weekend which I probably did. Those protective layers or boxes have been shed and emptied. I feel scared about going deeper because of the images or memories that may pop up, but yet, I'm curious and want to know. I need to do this. It's okay.

Stay-cation appreciation

Another alternative to vacation: stay-cation. I just learned this term yesterday. Sometimes just staying home for a week can be just as relaxing and replenishing as going away somewhere. I have found that, for me, it's truly a vacation. Last week, my mother came to visit. Since she's been to San Francisco before, we didn't have to do all those touristy things that you would normally do when visiting a new city. We would wake up whenever; have coffee, tea and breakfast; and then either go shopping, walking, visiting her brother in hayward, museum, or just lounge around. I'm very close with my mother these days than I have ever been in my life. I appreciate everything she has done right down to giving birth to me. I feel all the work I have done (and still doing) on myself has really made a difference in the people in my life, even those who would push my buttons or drive me crazy! This stay-cation really allowed me to appreciate everyone and everything around me--my apartment, the materials in my apartment, my job, my health, my husband, my family, my cats, the sunshine and sky!

So I decided to start a meditation practice for myself. Since I'm really busy at this time in my life, I decided to meditate for up to 10 minutes when I can. Focusing on what I'm grateful for and what I want to create for myself--career, life, with my husband, etc. This is something that my therapist recommended to me and I have found such wonderful value with it. I have experienced the joy and grateful-ness through my whole body and being and I want others to experience it too. Down the road, I want to build up my practice to a daily exercise. That's my goal and declaration.

Nothing to Envy

Something that I catch myself doing these days. I've always had that mind chatter, "You're not good enough" or "You don't deserve it". It's bullshit! I remember in the past envying what others in my life would have and it would get me down for good couple of hours (or days!). It's amazing what awarenesses come into view about yourself you thought didn't exist. Instead, I try to be grateful for what I have and be joyful for those who have what they have. The more I do this, the more I feel joy in my life.
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(From yogajournal.com daily insight)

Because we want to keep it hidden, envy can be particularly difficult to deal with. How many of us are willing to cop to the heart-twisting feeling that pops up when a friend calls to tell you she's just received a fellowship, or the sense of injustice that clouds your first glimpse of your wealthy friend's fabulous new apartment?

Envy so often looks like something else—resentment, perhaps, or a sense of dissatisfaction with your own life, your own income, your own family. For many people, envy simply merges with an overall feeling of not being quite good enough. Because envy is rooted in the feeling of lack or deficiency, the assumption that there's not enough to go around, its best antidotes will be practices that activate your own feelings of natural abundance.

Forget about the person you envy. Forget about what she has that you wish were yours. Look instead at the energy that feeling is made of, and you'll notice that nothing in the feeling has any real solidity. Perhaps, at that moment, you might open to the insight that the energy forming and dissolving within your mind and heart is not really separate from the energy around you. Perhaps, at that moment, you might realize that the person you envy is not really someone separate from you; that you lack nothing because you are, at your deepest core, part of a vast field of energy that contains potentially everything you could ever want or need.

IN THIS ISSUE
Nothing to Envy

http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/2545
The Wellspring of Joy

http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/1157
Think Pieces

http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1106

Notice Your Obstacles, Then Conquer Them

I love how yoga relates to life. In this article, I'm amazed how going upside down is so hard for people when we used to do it as little kids. I remember my first experience. I was learning handstand and just couldn't do it. I felt like I was going to go through the wall or something. Even though I knew the wall was there to support me I didn't trust it or myself. I would see others go up with no problem and it both made me envious and hopeful at the same time. Now I do it like it's nothing but I'm aware on those days when I don't feel stable or confident. I inquiry within myself to see what's going on in my life. are there changes coming up? am I looking through a tunnel with a situation in my life and not the whole picture? What I love about inversions is that they give us the opportunity to "literally" look at things from a different perspective. The longer you stay and focus, shifts start to happen in your life and with other people in your life. So if you're worried about falling out of an inversion, let it happen! Be love and acceptance.

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(From yogajournal.com daily insight)

Inversions such as Pincha Mayurasana (Feathered Peacock Pose) present wonderful opportunities for profound physical and mental transformation, but they're also rife with obstacles. Begin by simply noticing the obstacles that keep you from going upside down easily. When you acknowledge these blocks, you have something to work with, and a pathway to new possibilities reveals itself. You can nudge things along by cultivating meditative awareness and breaking inversions down into smaller, easier steps. This makes the goal of "perfection" less important; instead, you can work creatively and enjoy the journey, no matter how long it takes.

If the physical aspect is hanging you up, concentrate on your upper body or your abdominal muscles to create the conditions necessary to go upside down. If fear is the problem and it takes hold, fully experience its texture as it arises, stay steady as those feelings move through you, and observe how they naturally dissolve.


IN THIS ISSUE
Pincha Mayurasana (Feathered Peacock Pose)

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/1711
This Side Up: Building a Forearm Balance

http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1775

Forgive Yourself

(From yogajournal.com daily insight)

Most religious traditions place high value on apology, forgiveness, and making amends. Yoga teaching, too, speaks to the importance of dealing ethically with others. The concept of karma tells us, in part, that our actions will come back to us. Karma yoga is the practice of selflessly putting ourselves in service to others, and part of this is trying to right the wrongs we have done.

But how do we make amends if our apologies are rejected? In the sacred Hindu text the Bhagavad Gita, the god Krishna tells the yogi Arjuna that it is a mistake to focus on the results of our efforts instead of on the efforts themselves: "The man who is devoted and not attached to the fruit of his actions obtains tranquility." Put simply, the crucial point in apology is not that you're successful but that you make the effort.

Kelly McGonigal, who teaches yoga and is a research psychologist at Stanford University, offers a four-step practice rooted in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy that can take us through the process of making amends. "First," she says, "recognize that you've done something that caused suffering or harm. Second, sit with the feeling of remorse and regret. Feel it in your body, and experience the emotions. Don't push them away or wallow in them." The third step, McGonigal says, is moving into a place of compassion for yourself as well as the person you harmed. Fueled by those compassionate feelings, we can move to the final step of setting an intention toward positive action.

IN THIS ISSUE
Forgive Yourself

http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/2413
Do Yoga, Do Good

http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/1492