Yoga contains many Pranayama techniques for stressful situations. Natural breath, Dirgha Pranayama, Kapalabhati Pranayama, and Ujjayi are just a few of the many useful Pranayama techniques you can learn in a typical Hatha Yoga class.

Once you learn these Pranayama techniques, you can easily incorporate them into your daily life. Many Yoga instructors ask their students to practice Yoga techniques such as: Pranayama, asanas, meditation, and moderate eating habits at home, but unfortunately, the day is busy with many tasks. What is the solution?

If you intend to make a positive change in life, through Yoga practice, you must make some time for yourself. Set an appointment aside for you to practice Yoga at home. If this is not possible, you should set aside some time for formal Yoga instruction, with the guidance of a competent Yoga teacher or Guru.

Many students of Yoga feel more energized, and much less stressed, after Yoga instruction, than before. This is interesting when you consider that the most common reason people do not attend Yoga classes, more often, is that they feel too tired. These same people, who do not attend Yoga classes often, complain about insomnia and irregular sleep patterns.

This is a stress, fatigue, worry, and insomnia cycle, which will ?shave years off? your life, while draining you of life energy. We know that the body contains energy; in Yoga, we call it Prana. You have the power to recharge your life energy through Pranayama, or you can get medical prescriptions.

Why would doctors of western medicine recommend prescriptions, in the above- mentioned case? Many doctors are burdened with patients who refuse to be pro-active about their health. Remember the old saying, ?You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink.?

Yoga practice is the ?water,? which will break the stress, fatigue, worry, and insomnia cycle, but only a comparative small number of people, on this planet, are pro-active about health. Do you think this is cynical?

Consider this: If everyone was pro-active about health, the tobacco industry would have already diversified to selling health products. There would be more health clubs than liquor stores - if all of us took action.

Also, the fast food industry would be geared toward serving more quality products and would have more vegetarian choices on the menu. Industries ?sprout up? to meet consumer demand. If we collectively demand more healthy products; we will receive them.

Yoga has many solutions for stress and complete health, but all of us have to take responsibility for our own health. The public cannot expect the pharmaceutical industry to produce ?magic pills? to compensate for poor health habits.

? Copyright 2006 ? Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

There are however three factors that are 100% under your control, that affect not only your enjoyment of your practice, but just as importantly, the benefits you receive from each practice.

Challenge yourself

One of the purposes of yoga, like every exercise regime, is to incrementally improve your body’s physical capabilities. Yoga of course has the added advantage that it also helps to improve many aspects of your health and well-being that general exercise cannot.

Even with these increased benefits, yoga is not a magic cure-all. Achieving these benefits requires your commitment and effort each time you practice. Achieving incremental improvements to your capabilities requires (and allows) you to further challenge your own physical limitations. Over time gradual improvements result in large gains in your yoga abilities and the health benefits of your practice.

In every posture you should be looking to make sure first that you are stable and comfortable in the posture. You should then be aiming to slowly and smoothly deepen the stretch as far as it remains pain free for you to do so. In all postures you should feel the stretch in the relevant muscles and deepen into the stretch in a controlled manner to avoid damaging your muscles and ligaments. You should challenge your own abilities in order to achieve new yoga abilities, but also listen carefully to your body to know when to stop.

Breathe

There is a lot of discussion and research into the importance and health benefits of yoga breathing. While these may well prove to be real benefits, adopting relaxed, controlled yoga breathing definitely helps to improve your overall yoga practice.

The natural tendency, when practicing an asana (yoga posture) that tests your physical abilities, is to shorten your breath and in some cases, to start breathing through your mouth. This stressful breathing technique encourages you to tense your muscles and fight against the asana and the stretch. This is the opposite of the desired state for practicing yoga. Instead it’s important that you concentrate on your breathing, completing a long, controlled inhale exhale cycle that fills your lungs to capture the maximum amount of oxygen for each breath. Focusing on your breathing in this way, helps you to remain relaxed and allows you to be more aware of your physical condition enabling you to better feel the stretch, be aware of tension in your muscles and concentrate on releasing that tension and loosen to muscles you’re working on. Through this increased awareness of what you body is telling you and by noticing and releasing tension in your muscles, it’s easier to accept each stretch and go deeper into each asana and hold it for longer without injury.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

As with all exercise, the benefits only come with a commitment to regular practice. Only through regular practice of exercise does the body start to develop, strengthen, adapt and change according to the physical demands you are placing on it. Practicing yoga is no different. Regular practice helps to build the muscle strength required to hold asanas. More than that, you’ll develop increased lung capacity and provide the regular stimulation to the internal organs that helps balance chemical and hormone levels. Frequent practice helps to learn any new skill or ability and yoga is no different. In particular repetition helps your body learn the correct position balancing postures, to the extent that it becomes second nature - just like riding a bike. Another area where frequent practice is highly beneficial is learning how to slow and calm your mind, to purge your thoughts of the worries and stresses of the day.

Learn from a Yoga teacher who remains calm ?under fire.? It is easy to have the appearance of being calm and quite another matter to actually put it into practice daily. In life, you will see stressful situations and hectic moments, but the person, who remains calm, during a naturally stressful time, is a person you can learn from.

Now, what if the calmest person you know is not a Yoga teacher? You should learn by watching him or her, in action, and enhance your own powers of observation. Later, you could visualize yourself being calm in a similar chaotic situation.

Does this sound unrealistic? No, but the Sanskrit word ?Grahana? comes to mind. This is a complex word, but one of the ways it can be defined is, as a perception, or the process of seeing things as they are. Grahana is a meditative state where your mind focuses on observing without judgment.

Some people scoff at the idea of Yogis, who practice positive visualization and observe life, with mindfulness. You may hear people say, ?That will never work,? or ?Meditation is a waste of time.? The truth is the person who is negative in life, does practice his or her own negative brand of Grahana. In fact, some Yoga teachers would say negativity is the opposite of Grahana because it is non-acceptance.

On the other hand, if we constantly look at the world with a pessimistic viewpoint, is this a truthful perception of life? To the pessimist, a negative perception of life is reality. A negative perception creates the ?cloud of doom,? which follows this person around in life. Self-pity and negative thoughts are created, envisioned, and become a constant daily cycle, within the life of a pessimist.

Remember the saying: ?Be careful what you wish for.? You could also say, ?Be mindful of what you visualize.? A mindful and positive perception of life is ?light baggage,? in comparison to the burden of negative thought.

Look at stress as a tool, which you can use for good. When you come to a Yoga class, you will notice that some of your problems seem to evaporate. What happened? You filtered thoughts, concentrated, meditated, and prioritized all of the day?s problems.

If you took part in a Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, or Kundalini Yoga class, the muscles in your body feel much less tense - due to the physical techniques you learned and practiced. When you finish your Yoga class, you are ready to put the daily stress of life to good use. This is a form of ?Yoga off the mat.?

Yoga is not a ?magic stress killer,? but Yoga does have many techniques for effective stress management.

? Copyright 2006 ? Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

While people who have disorders such as ADHD and autism may very well also possess learning disabilities, these types of disorders don’t belong in the learning disability category. Diagnoses that do belong, however, can greatly vary, ranging from reading disorders, such as dyslexia, to disorders that disallow for the comprehension of mathematics, such as dyscalculia.

Those who are plagued with learning disabilities are not always of high or low intelligence, though presence on both ends of the spectrum are possible. Likewise, a person born with a learning disability wasn’t necessarily born with an inability to learn. Instead, the individual simply possesses a processing impairment, such as an auditory impairment or visual impairment, that makes their ability to learn from routine ways of teaching particularly difficult.

While learning disabilities can weaken a person’s ability to learn, the damage they do often falls into deeper crevices. Some people, particularly children, with learning disabilities may have severe self esteem issues, anger problems, behavioral problems, and a desire to quit things like school or extracurricular activities.

How Yoga Helps
The treatment of a learning disability can vary from person to person. Different disabilities require different treatment options and even then, therapy must be determined on an individual basis: what works for one person with dyslexia may not work for another. However, yoga, because it does not focus on the disability but the person, can benefit a variety of people with a variety of learning problems.

Self Esteem: Self esteem can be a hard thing for some people to obtain, particularly when that person feels as though they have something wrong with them. Yoga is a vehicle of self-awareness, self-realization, and self-acceptance, three things that work together to increase a person’s sense of self, ultimately solidifying their self esteem.

People who do yoga feel better about themselves and the world around them. They become motivated, better able to tackle the hardships a learning disability, or any kind of disability, can bring. Yoga also helps them gain acceptance of their disability, accepting that they have it and learning what can help minimize the effects of it. Yoga also provides time for self-reflection, helping students to become less influenced by their negative capacities and more influenced by their positive ones.

Conscious Breathing: If there is one function that can help just about anything, it’s probably the act of conscious breathing. Breathing helps a person on innumerable levels. From increasing circulation to providing oxidation, from ridding the body of stagnant energy to bringing in fresh forces, breathing helps people to be more in tune, more empowered, and more ready to learn.

Breathing can also help thwart a major element of learning disabilities: frustration.. Because frustration comes along with nearly every learning disability, with some people succumbing to aggravation and hindering their ability to learn even more, the breathing techniques taught in yoga can help people to relax, rejuvenate, and try again.

Concentration: The ability to concentrate is a major factor in the ability to learn. Oftentimes, those with learning disabilities have an impaired ability to concentrate. Yoga, however, facilitates concentration.. Not only does the actual practice of it require students to focus on their breathing as it weaves through the poses, but yoga also gives people the ability to focus when away from the studio.

Yoga increases the circulation of oxygen and blood to the brain, allowing people to focus, to concentrate, and to remember things with greater clarity. It also stimulates the Central Nervous system, the system that serves as the messenger between the brain and the rest of the body. Through the meditation and mindful practices of yoga, people become more centered and balanced, allowing them to focus on tasks at hand with greater attentiveness.

Eye Movements: People who have dyslexia, a learning disability that affects reading and writing, may particularly benefit from practicing yoga. This is because parts of yoga involve eye exercises, with students forming poses and focusing on a certain spot for an extended period of time. These eye exercises can increase the efficiency of the optic nerve, relax the muscles of the face, and increase the functionality of certain areas of the brain. These benefits all work together to improve a person’s ability to focus visually, helping them to correctly recognize words in the process.

People with learning disabilities may need a wide range of therapies. Children, in particular, may require more one on one attention during class or tutoring. Even with therapy, however, learning disabilities might not go away entirely. Because many are biological or genetic, some people are just programmed to learn differently than others. However, yoga can help those afflicted to accept their impairment and gain strength by removing the focus from their disabilities and placing it on their abilities.

About us: TWISTED is a medical yoga studio at the Center for Osteopathic Medicine in Boulder, Colorado. Twisted integrates osteopathic medicine, Hatha yoga and mindfulness practices to teach optimal balance between physical, mental, and emotional health. It aims to educate and help people to live a healthy life from the inside out. Rehabilitation programs offer a comprehensive treatment regime for the whole being, empowering each person one breath at a time to stimulate the body?s natural healing potential.

The course of MS is unpredictable. The four categories used to classify the clinical course in a person with MS are: Relapsing - remitting, Primary-progressive, Secondary-progressive, and Progressive-relapsing. In the absence of a resolution, several treatment options must step in to relieve the burden MS places on so many lives. Physical activity is extremely important for individuals with MS, and yoga is now recognized as an excellent means of MS management.

What is MS?

MS is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s defensive immune system attacks and destroys the fatty tissue, the myelin surrounding nerves in the brain and spinal cord. These myelin sheaths perform the same function as insulation around an electrical wire. Without the myelin insulation, nerve impulses from brain to body can short out and become confused, misdirected, or be completely blocked. Symptoms can include numbness and/or tingling in the extremities, weakness, lack of coordination and/or balance, gait difficulties, slurring of speech, blurred or double vision, bowel and bladder dysfunction, vertigo, and heat intolerance.

While no one knows for certain why some people get MS, there is some speculation to its cause. Because those who have family members with MS are at a slightly increased risk, there is speculation that it may be somewhat genetic. There also seems to be a link between where a person lived as a child and getting the disease as an adult. Those who grew up in colder climates, farther from the equator than other geographical locations are more likely to get it, suggesting that it may possess an environmental link. The risk also increases for those people who are of Western European ancestry. And, along these lines, the risk is greatly higher for women than men, with MS infecting three times more females than males.

How Yoga Helps?

Yoga is an excellent means of MS management whether the individual manifests little or no outward signs of the disease, or whether they spend most of their time in a wheel chair. Physical activity is extremely important for individuals with MS. The benefits of yoga postures, breath exercises, and meditation may include increased body awareness, as well as a release of muscular tension, a practice that will help keep muscles from atrophying and relieve spasticity. Yoga may also increase balance and coordination, flexibility and strength, control over fatigue, increased tolerance to heat, improved circulation and breathing, improved organ function, enhanced alertness, better management of stress and on overall feeling of well-being.

In 2003, the specific link between MS help and yoga was researched in a study conducted by the Oregon Health and Sciences University. In this study, the researchers worked with 69 MS patients, having some of them participate in yoga, some of them participate in other types of exercise, and some of them participate in no exercise at all. The researchers concluded that those who participated in yoga and exercise classes had a significant improvement in fatigue, a cornerstone of MS progression.

Because MS may have progressed beyond a person’s ability to participate in other forms of exercise, yoga is a good choice, with a certain adaptability and versatility to it. For instance, to help balance, poses such as The Mountain and Warrior can be used with the help of a wall where The Tree and The Eagle poses can be used with the help of a chair. Many poses are restorative, helping the person performing them to feel relaxed and rejuvenated.

Yoga can also benefit MS in several other ways. One way is the empowerment yoga provides, empowering people to make wise choices about other factors that can help MS. One of these factors is healthy eating. Because it’s important that those with MS eat meals that are healthy and well-balanced, a person’s choice in diet can greatly affect the degree to which MS is debilitating. Yoga has a way of filling a person’s mind and body with constructive emotions, allowing them to want to do everything they can to relieve the symptoms of the disease. It makes people self-aware, helping them to realize what actions need to be taken to keep MS in check and helping them to want to perform those actions.

Another way yoga helps is by perpetuating a positive attitude, something that can prove helpful even where modern medicine fails. Yoga helps people to look inward, focusing on the positive emotions they have within them and giving their inner being the ability to heal. This takes the focus off the disease of MS, causing it to loosen its grip in the process. It also helps people to relax, be less stressed, and to believe MS is a disease that they can keep in check. In keeping with the belief that “he who thinks he can and he who thinks he can’t is right either way” yoga makes people more optimistic when it comes to their disease, and their life in general.

About us: TWISTED is a medical yoga studio at the Center for Osteopathic Medicine in Boulder, Colorado. Twisted integrates osteopathic medicine, hatha yoga and mindfulness practices to teach optimal balance between physical, mental, and emotional health. It aims to educate and help people to live a healthy life from the inside out. Rehabilitation programs offer a comprehensive treatment regime for the whole being, empowering each person one breath at a time to stimulate the body?s natural healing potential.

Practicing yoga is a great way to energize your day. Yoga helps release tension and clear blockages, allowing energy to flow freely, creating an overall sense of vitality and well-being. Yoga poses don’t create energy, they release energy and they also keep us from expending energy in activities that don’t do anything for us. Often we have so much tension stored in our bodies that we are forced to use our energy for support. If we can release that tension, we will be free to use this energy for whatever we really want to do.

Yoga helps you Manage Stress

Stress is a natural part of life?s pulsation. Stress can be motivating or disabling. Poor stress management drains energy out of the body, leaving you tired and unmotivated. Yoga helps you manage the accumulation of stress by helping you consciously release it. The mindfulness aspect of yoga trains the mind to focus on body sensations, to bring the body-mind back into synch. Naturally stress begins to rapidly diminish. Restoration and rejuvenation arise from the body’s ability to self-regulate as the mind-body duality diminishes.

Yoga Tones Muscles

Life is movement and movement is life - how we move can bring balance or imbalance to our muscle tone. The practice of connecting to your breath stimulates the body?s natural intelligence to move into alignment when performing yoga poses. Therefore, the integration in the body develops balanced muscle tone and increased energy.A person?s energy level is dictated by their metabolic rate, the rate at which their body is able to convert substances into energy. The expedience of this rate is based on a person?s metabolism, a process that is contingent on their muscle mass; a person with more muscle tone will have a vastly higher metabolism than someone who has a small amount of muscle mass. In other words, a person with good muscle tone will have much more energy that someone whose muscular tone is minimal.

Yoga Stimulates Blood Flow

Yoga stimulates a person?s body into an open highway, unclogging avenues through which blood, oxygen, and nutrients - all elements of energy - can travel. The way yoga does this is by cultivating balanced action when performing yoga poses… Balanced action is when we engage enough muscular energy to create stability and strength in a pose balanced with organic energy, extension through the bones, to create freedom in the joints. The breath always leads the way- it is what fuels the vehicle of the body into contraction and expansion of the body?s natural pulsation.

Balanced action helps your body to become flexible. Because a person may have a restriction that they are unaware of, gaining flexibility helps energy get to its destination with ease. Breathing, along these lines, helps oxygenate the blood, helping drive the life force of energy to muscles, organs, and any part of the body that is need of some reserves.

Yoga is Vitality

Yoga provides a direct route for tapping into your true self: a self that, by nature, is fluid and vital, not rigid and dull. All yoga postures are expressions of your true self. When the postures are practiced with mindfulness and meaning they naturally shift you out of a habitual negative rut or help you celebrate the joy that you brought to the mat. Yoga brings self awareness to our habitual patterns that either support the expression of one?s true heart or not. From this place of clarity we can then make life-affirming choices.

People can find energy in many things - protein shakes, energy powders, even energy pills - but yoga remains one of the most natural and effective ways to balance the energy in your body, giving you the ability to make the most of each and every day.

About us: TWISTED is a medical yoga studio at the Center for Osteopathic Medicine in Boulder, Colorado. Twisted integrates osteopathic medicine, Hatha yoga and mindfulness practices to teach optimal balance between physical, mental, and emotional health. It aims to educate and help people to live a healthy life from the inside out. Rehabilitation programs offer a comprehensive treatment regime for the whole being, empowering each person one breath at a time to stimulate the body?s natural healing potential.

In yoga this exercise is called the Bidalasna- or the cat pose! Generally speaking I don’t think much of yoga when it comes to getting in shape! Because it is not intense enough to stimulate your metabolism or muscle growth! This is a cat nap; this is the way cats stretch after a good rest! And it does wonders for strengthening and aligning your lower back and abs.

But this yoga movement has been intensified and made useful for you to use to get six pack abs! This allows me to stretch my lower back and abs as well- which is great for your overall abdominal development and posture!

Rest on your hands and knees on a padded surface- fist down with your hands beneath your shoulders and your knees beneath your hops, slowly raise your head toward the ceiling and arch your back by pressing your mid section toward the floor.

Hold this starting position for a few seconds, and then drop your head between your arms, as you do this you suck in your gut to round your back.

Pause and return to the starting position!

Do three set of 20 repetitions or take the set to failure, which is all you need to give your abs a good workout.

About the Author

Rob Maraby is the author of 25 fitness books as well as many other articles on losing weight and getting six pack abs articles!

His latest book is the fast abs program- a simple way to get six pack abs in just 4 minutes using nothing but your couch, check it out at http://www.mindnmuscle.com/abs/6-pack-abs-stomach.htm

Yoga was developed in India at least three thousand years ago, and is a discipline that uses breath control, meditation and physical exercises. There are number of things about yoga that make it particular appealing, chiefly because it helps to promote mental and physical well being. The purpose of the philosophy and technique is to achieve a heightened awareness, and ultimately, to attain spiritual enlightenment.

First, there are some basic principals about yoga that are an integral part of its teachings. These come mainly from the Bhagavad Gita, which is one of the primary religious texts outlining ways to achieve liberation from one’s worldly worries and desires.

There are many different types of yoga, and one of the most popular forms in the West is hatha yoga, which focuses on strengthening, toning and relaxation. Most yoga exercises focus on proper positioning of the body in various postures. One of the high points about yoga is its benefit to overall body health. Daily practice improves strength, suppleness, and circulation. It promotes relaxation and increases range of motion, which helps to reduce the likelihood of muscle strain. Many people use it as a primary source of exercise, and others use it complementarily - such as with running, to help strengthen a host of different muscles.

Yogis believe that breath is the bridge between mind and body. Pranayama are specific exercises in which the person breathes deeply, concentrating on the breath as it enters and exits the nostrils. This puts the person at ease and allows their muscles to warm up gradually. This focus on breathing allows deep muscle relaxation, releases tension, and induces a tranquil state.

Yoga can be especially useful to older people and those with disabilities who are recovering from an illness. However, anyone can benefit from the slow, gentle exercises and the positive effect they have on hormonal balance, alleviating depression, and increasing strength and flexibility. One of the best things about yoga is that it is accessible to people of all ages and physical fitness levels.

One of the important differences between yoga and a typical workout exercise is an emphasis on process. While many exercise programs encourage you to push and strain every muscle in your body, to eradicate the ‘negative’ things in your body, the positive thing about yoga is that it has an entirely different approach. It focuses on developing awareness of the body as it is, accepting and working within its limits.

About the Author

Health Wholeness Guide provides information on health and fitness related resources that provides for easy reference.

You must first realize this Yoga student is very loyal and should not be taken for granted. Yoga teachers are human, and feel frustration, but this is a person who willingly gives his or her time to learn Yoga from you. The Yoga teacher / student relationship should never be taken for granted.

A loyal Yoga student is valuable, persistent, dedicated, and you should make him or her aware that you notice the effort. If you praise what he or she does right, your cueing, and assisting, will not be perceived as criticism. Self-worth is part of human nature and creates a Yoga student who is anxious to perform better at your next Yoga class.

When you speak to your Yoga students, no effort, on your part, should be wasted. Each word you speak, within your Yoga class, should have a high value and purpose. Some Yoga teachers relish every opportunity to criticize their students. Criticizing gives some Yoga teachers an opportunity to hear their own voice and feel important.

Be sure that what you have to say to your Yoga students is really helpful. Remember that criticism also makes your Yoga students feel unimportant. If a student perceives that a Yoga teacher is bolstering his or her ego, through criticism, the feeling of inspiration to come to more Yoga classes is gone.

Pure criticism tends to make Yoga students, and people in general, defensive, emotionally dejected, and causes a lack of enthusiasm, within the Yoga class. Knowing this, every Yoga teacher should use his or her knowledge to influence students. The difference is that a Yoga student has a distinct feeling of free will, when a Yoga teacher influences him or her, with compassion and true purpose.

There is a reason why students keep coming back to the same Yoga teacher. The reason will differ between students, and we cannot please everyone, but Yoga teacher ethics tell us to speak, assist, and cue with compassion.

When the ego is involved in teaching, this is the opposite of Yogic philosophy. There is no place for the ?drill sergeant mentality? in Yoga. The Hatha Yoga teacher, who lets his or her ego guide the lesson plan, during a Yoga class, should be teaching something else.

The point is that all forms of Yoga require teachers who listen empathically, observe with mindfulness, and find solutions for mental, physical, and spiritual health. When a Yoga teacher truly cares about a student?s quality of life, the positive energy can be felt within the classroom. This is the purest form of influence.

? Copyright 2006 ? Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

There are many types of Yoga meditation, but all of them are similar to branches on a tree, leading to the same trunk. When you attend a Yoga class, you may be guided by your Yoga teacher, through meditation, in a variety of ways, but you will usually develop a favorite method of Yoga meditation.

Most likely, your favorite method will be the form of Yoga meditation, which brings you the most success. You cannot force yourself to meditate. Usually, a state of Yoga meditation will occur through focused observance and non-effort.

Breath awareness meditation is the first method, which I teach to beginning meditation students, and to students of Yoga. A beginner Yoga student can easily grasp the concepts of breath awareness and realize the deeper benefits of meditation.

Drawing the spine, into the straightest line possible, is the first goal, because poor spinal alignment is counter productive to meditation, and is not helpful for proper breathing. Many beginning Yoga students may have difficulty sitting straight, without a back rest. Some cultures have no difficulty sitting on the floor, while others sit in chairs, or on furniture, which brings them off the floor; and these Yoga students are used to back support.

If a Yoga student is sitting on the floor, in an uncomfortable position, he or she may not be able to concentrate on anything more than discomfort. Therefore, consider using chairs as a Yoga meditation prop. If you use a chair with a straight back, and lumbar support, this is ideal for seated Yoga meditation.

There is also another Yoga meditation posture where chairs become a handy Yoga prop. Place a chair at the head of your Yoga mat. Lay down on your Yoga mat, with your feet facing the chair. Then place your lower legs on the seat of the chair. You will want to adjust your body, so that the lower legs are parallel to the floor, the upper legs are perpendicular to the floor, and the back is flat.

Now that you have settled in, take some time to observe your breath, without trying to change, force, or lengthen your breathing cycle. Most Yoga students will try to control their breath, but the secret of Yogic breath awareness meditation is non-effort and observance.

Take the time to observe your breath, without effort or judgment; this will allow you to filter out conscious thoughts about your breath, noises, or your next task. Once you have put the distractions of life aside, you will notice that the cycle of your breath expands.

This is just the beginning of the many rewards you can reap from Yoga meditation. The Yoga meditation methods you learn from your local Yoga studio will reduce stress, calm your mind, and possibly lower your blood pressure. A life with less anxiety, and worry, is well worth the time it takes to practice Yoga meditation.

? Copyright 2006 ? Paul Jerard / Aura Publications