Archive for the ‘Relaxation Techniques’ Category

KarmaTube: Be the Change

In the age of YouTube, it’s fun to sit back and watch a video of twins talking or a cat using the potty. But KarmaTube wants videos to do more than entertain: they view video as a medium to inspire action–either in the world or in your own heart.

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The website features videos that both pull your heartstrings and make you want to jump out of your seat and do something: Recent ones showed how some creative kids in Thailand started their own football team; a project that provides handmade hats to orphans in South Africa; and how one woman found art to help heal after the loss of a child. After each video, KarmaTube suggests ways you can create change based on what you just saw, whether this means thinking about tackling a problem in a new way, or volunteering in your community.

Visit here to watch a video, suggest a video, create a video, or spread the word.

We want to know: What do you do that inspires Karma Yoga (the yoga of action) in others?

Read the whole story on:http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/

Mediations on Fasting

fasting225.jpgHunger. Reincarnation. Yoga. Cooking. Prayer. Restraint. Family. Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice, a new book of insights and meditations by yoga instructor and Oberlin College creative writing professor, Kazim Ali, touches on these parts of the human experience. Writing about the Islam occasion of Ramadan, Ali articulates the process of fasting from dusk to dawn:

“Twenty-nine or thirty days to explore the line
between the interior of the body and the surrounding world, to think
about what is brought to us and what we owe,” he writes.
He also compares the process to yoga. “[Yoga] is a practice, not unlike fasting, that allows us to practice linking
the inside-the private experiences of the body and the mind-with the
outside, the pulsing, breathing, actual world.”

Even if you’ve never fasted in your life, Ali addresses the other way we deny our appetites–something most human beings can relate to.

We want to know: Have you ever denied your appetite? What was the result?

Read the whole story on:http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/

When Medicine and Yoga Meet: Q & A with Loren Fishman, MD

It isn’t often that your doctor takes off his coat, puts on shorts, and leads a yoga class. Unless your doctor is

Yogis: Take Action On Earth Day

full-20earth2.jpgYogis around the globe will be celebrating Earth Day on Friday. After all, yoga and caring for the Earth go hand-in hand. As Green Yoga Association founder Laura Cornell tells Yoga Buzz, “Yoga starts with the Earth. Period. Our bodies are made from the elements of the planet, our blood from its waters, the air we breathe from its atmosphere. We are not separate. When we recognize this deeply, we are on our way towards the first step of yoga–ahimsa.”

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This Earth Day, take your love of the planet one step further–and take action. Many studios are offering up free and donation-based classes, live drumming, and community events. Here are a few other ways you can thank the Earth:

1. Become a Yoga Energy Activist. Shiva Rea invites you to respond to the ongoing energy crisis by commit yourself to becoming an Energy Activist Watch the video here.

2. Practice Yoga Outside. Feel your feet connect with the ground, the wind in your hair, and give gratitude to Mother Nature.

3. Unplug. Forsake television, turn off the lights, cell phone and computers, and spend time with your friends or family instead.

4. Reduce Water Consumption. Think before you flush and cut five minutes from your shower.

5. Dedicate Your Practice. Set an intention for your practice, and send lovingkindness to the Earth.

To read these ideas and more, visit Shiva Rea’s Yoga Energy Activism, Green Yoga, and Global Green

We want to know: How will you celebrate Earth Day?

Read the whole story on:http://blogs.yogajournal.com/yogabuzz/

Yogis Aid Japan’s Tsunami Victims

People around the globe jumped into action to support relief efforts and aid to the victims of Japan’s devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and those efforts continue. Yogis have been helping in their own unique ways, with donation classes, fundraisers, and even a Bakesale for Japan, which raised almost $125,000 and counting.

small pendant.jpgFor her part, Sarah Baroni, a yogini and jewerly designer in Arcata, California, decided to create the Healing Pendant and donate 100 percent of the net proceeds from its sale to the organization Direct Relief International. “We make jewelry, it’s just the most logical thing for us to do to do our small part to help,” Baroni says.

The pendant’s three charms–a dove, a Biwa pearl, and amethyst–represent peace, regeneration, and inner strength, qualities that Baroni wishes for the people of Japan right now.