Yoga Marrakech is happy to announce the following dates as retreats for 2012   September 27 to October 1 Oct 25 to 29 Nov 22 to 26 All retreats consist of 4 nights accomdotion, airport transfer to and from the yoga center, yoga instruction, meditation, pranayama instruction, vegetarian meals For more information contact heartofa@gmail.com

WEEKLY YOGA, PRANAYAMA, MUDRA, MANTRA, MEDITATION CLASSES ARE HELD IN GUELIZ THE NEW TOWN   MONDAY WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY AT 8H10 AM CLASSES ARE ONE HOUR 20 MINS MORE INFO CONTACT HEARTOFA@GMAIL.COM

YOGA MARRAKECH OFFERS YOGA RETREATS THROUGH SUMMER   ONE DAY TO 10 DAY YOGA RETREATS OPTIONAL HOLISTIC MASSAGE, YOGA, PRANAYAMA, MEDITATION, VEGETARIAN RAW CUISINE FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT HEARTOFA@GMAIL.COM

WE ARE EXCITED AND HAPPY TO SHARE THE FUN AT YOGA MARRAKECH HEALING RETREAT CENTER ON SATURDAY FEB 11 AT 6PM WE PERFORM 45 SUN SALUTES OR NEARLY AN HOUR WORTH OF FLOWING BREATHING SWEATING HEATING MOVING WITH INDIAN MANTRA MUSIC AND HUNDREDS OF CANDLES THIS IS AN EVENT NOT TO MISS ESP IF YOU [...]

YOGA MARRAKECH  IS TEACHING ANOTHER WORKSHOP SUNDAY FEB 19 FROM 8H30 TO 11H30 AT THE HOLISTIC HEALING YOGA CENTRE IN THE PALMARAIE   THIS WORKSHOP FOCUSES ON THE COUNTER BALANCE OF MOON ASANAS TO SOLAR ASANAS THE EFFECT THEY HAVE ON THE BODY, WHEN TO PRACTICE THEM, THE CHANDRANAMASKAR ROUTINE, AND THE NADI CHANNELS   [...]

Fibre Tibet is giving away an organic cashmere Ocean Shawl -- a $185 value!

This week's question: How do you make a difference in the world?

ENTERING TO WIN IS EASY: Add your answer to our weekly question in the comments section below.

For another chance to win, enter on Facebook too! Join your My Yoga Online community on Facebook and enter to win!

Share the love: Tell your friends about this great giveaway. Just click “SHARE” at the top of this post.

This weeks prize: The Ocean Shawl from Fibre Tibet -- a $185 value! This shawl is made from 100% Grade A organic cashmere collected by Tibetan nomads in Ngari, Tibet.  All proceeds are returned to these people who often live on less than $1 per day. 

Fibre Tibet's super fine, Grade A, organic cashmere shawls look great, feel wonderful, and are designed to make a difference in the world. The Fibre Tibet shawls are a collection formed with the collaboration of Himalayan artisans and European design and technique. The cashmere is collected by Tibetan nomads, in Ngari, Tibet, and the pieces are handwoven by a cooperative in Kathmandu, Nepal all under the technical direction of Italian knitwear designer Alberto Zanone. All profits from the shawls are returned to the nomads and artisans who live on less than $1 per day. The Fibre Tibet collection generates positive social, environmental, and economic impact for Tibetan nomads and supports the development of businesses run by Tibetans in the Himalayan region. Fibre Tibet has been featured in W, Elle, Elle Décor, Glamour, Real Simple, Town & Country among others.

Fibre Tibet's shawls are designed to make a difference in the world. Win one of their beautiful cashmere shawls -- a $185 value!

Fibre Tibet on Facebook

Fibre Tibet on Twitter

Fibre Tibet on Pinterest

Fibre Tibet on Instagram

The fine print: Click here to read the official contest rules. By submitting a comment on this blog or commenting on or ‘liking’ the Facebook post, you agree to the official contest rules.

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Ziliotto is giving away a $200 gift certificate!

This week's question: How is your own personal style reflected in your yoga practice? 

ENTERING TO WIN IS EASY: Add your answer to our weekly question in the comments section below.

For another chance to win, enter on Facebook too! Join your My Yoga Online community on Facebook and enter to win!

Share the love: Tell your friends about this great giveaway. Just click “SHARE” at the top of this post.

This weeks prize: A $200 gift certificate to Ziliotto in Toronto! Don't live near Toronto? Designer Jennifer will help you shop her catalogue and send you a beautiful new outfit! 

Ziliotto provides effortless style to women through easy to wear wardrobe essentials that can be individualized to celebrate your style personality. Ziliotto designer and owner, Jennifer Durand, got her start at Chanel, working along side Karl Lagerfeld in the accessories department. She moved back home to Toronto a few year’s ago to launch her own brand, Ziliotto, with husband Bruno Durand. While Durand designs and manufactures her line 100% in Canada, she offers a look that’s pure Parisian: beautifully made basics with a charming twist that keep from one season to the next.

Win $200 towards beautiful apparel from Ziliotto!

Ziliotto on Facebook

Ziliotto on Twitter

Ziliotto on YouTube

The fine print: Click here to read the official contest rules. By submitting a comment on this blog or commenting on or ‘liking’ the Facebook post, you agree to the official contest rules.

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My Yoga Online is excited to announce we will be at the LOHAS conference this year! Don't miss the CEO and co-founder of MYO, Jason Jacobson, speaking at this year's event.

LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) represents the +$300B market of products and services catering to the conscious consumer.

The LOHAS Business Conference is a thought leader gathering of leading edge entrepreneurs, corporations, visionaries, and creatives who want to make the world a better place. Attendees come away from LOHAS refreshed, motivated and INSPIRED! The mix of attendees from various cross sections of industry and interests is like no other.

The LOHAS Business Conference takes place from June 18-20th in beautiful Boulder, CO.

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Happy Mother's Day! My Yoga Online is pleased to present our new Practice Guide that has been specially designed for all the Moms out there! Our new series Yoga for Busy Moms begins on Mother’s Day – May 12th,so whether you’re a mom, or have a mom in your life that needs some bliss, mark it in your calendar.

We realize that moms will always go the extra mile for everyone around them, all while doing their best to live a healthy lifestyle - and we want to help! Yoga is one of the best things you can do for your overall mental, physical and spiritual wellness. We have carefully selected classes to enhance your practice, as well as your life.

We are all a work in progress and infinitely worth it!

We’re giving moms the chance to practice with the best! The teachers featured in this new series are mothers themselves; theyknow what being a mom is like, and they have developed these yoga classes based on their own personalexperience. Since most moms are usually pressed for time, we have designed this practice guide calendar with quick and easy links to each practice, so that you can do it on your own time. We here at My Yoga Online are confident all of these classes will leave you feeling calm and energized, improve your sleep, and help you reach your bliss.

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prAna is giving away $200 in swimwear!

This week's question: How do you stay in a mindful state when you are off your mat?

ENTERING TO WIN IS EASY: Add your answer to our weekly question in the comments section below.

For another chance to win, enter on Facebook too! Join your My Yoga Online community on Facebook and enter to win!

Share the love: Tell your friends about this great giveaway. Just click “SHARE” at the top of this post.

This weeks prize: $200 in swimwear from prAna's online store!

Breath, life, vitality of the spirit. These qualities infuse not only the name, but also the aspirations, the things prAna make and how they make them. 

prAna was started to give form and function to the connections felt in the founders own lives: to the outdoors, to themselves, and to each other. As their product line evolves and their impact grows, those connections continue to guide them. Mindfulness is at the core of everything they do, and here and now is where change happens.

Win $200 in swimwear from prAna!

prAna on Facebook

prAna on Twitter

prAna on YouTube

prAna on Pinterest

The fine print: Click here to read the official contest rules. By submitting a comment on this blog or commenting on or ‘liking’ the Facebook post, you agree to the official contest rules.

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Yoga to Lose Fat

There are countless weight loss success stories from those who have taken up a consistent and serious yoga practice. So there is little doubt that yoga is an effective weight loss solution and that yoga helps burn calories and reduce fat. The reason though that yoga is so good for helping you lose weight and keep it off, is not simply because of the physical workout that a yoga practice obviously provides. It is also due to the many other benefits and powers of yoga, such as helping you find positivity, joy, confidence, self-love, peace and emotional balance, while also helping you detox, heal and move towards a more wholesome and healthier way of life.  All this combined really helps with the problem of excess weight and obesity. 

These emotional, spiritual and mental benefits though do not mean that yoga cannot give you one mean workout. Ask anyone who has taken a class with my teacher, Ravi Singh, and you will know how rigorous a yoga class can be :-).

There are many excellent yoga routines and targeted exercises which are geared towards helping you burn calories and lose weight.  I have provided many such sets on the website and below you will find a list of them.  Today though I want to detail another such calorie burning yoga exercise for you.  

This exercise, called Yoga March, along with being a calorie burner, is also an excellent exercise for starting your yoga practice and getting warmed up.  Often one thinks that stretching is the best way to warm-up, but one should keep in mind that stretching cold muscles and tendons often puts one at risk for strains and tears.  So, although light stretching is ok to do as a start-up, it is better still to warm-up the entire body with some light aerobic exercise before doing vigorous stretching.  Yoga March fits this bill perfectly.

Yoga March will not only get your blood pumping, it will also get your entire system ready for more vigorous yoga, while at the same time getting you started on your calorie burning routine right away.  Below you will find details of how to practice Yoga March along with illustrations, variations, step-by-step instructions, benefits and practice tips.

More Calorie Burning Yoga Sets and Poses:

As mentioned above here are links to other excellent yoga workouts and exercises for burning calories and losing weight.  In addition, you will find links to the Free Online Hatha Yoga Galleries here and the Kundalini Yoga Exercises collection here.  Both these resources have many more yoga poses and exercises which you will find useful in developing your personal yoga practice.

Online Yoga Exercises for Healthy Weight Loss

Best Yoga for Weight Loss

Post Natal Yoga Exercise to Lose Weight

For Yoga and Meditation Certification Course Students:

For students enrolled in the Yoga Teacher's Training and Meditation Certification Program, I suggest to mix this exercise into your classes as a warm-up from time to time.  There are of course many excellent yoga sets for warming up, but this exercise is as good as any of them.  If you are teaching a targeted weight loss or calorie burning class, then certainly do include this exercise into the routine.  It is an exercise which almost everyone can do and which can be modified according to each student's fitness level and proficiency.  

For those interested in finding out more about these online certification programs you will find information on the Yoga Teacher's Training Program here and the Meditation Certification Course here.

Yoga March Illustrations

B. Duration:

• Start with 1 Minute and build up from there to 5 minutes or more.

C. Yoga March Benefits:

• Helps to strengthen your hearth and cardiovascular system.
• Helps your respiratory and circulatory systems.
• Helps to burn calories and promotes weight loss.
• Good exercise for warming up prior to deep stretching or vigorous yoga.
• Helps to strengthen your calves and legs.
• Helps to stretch and open up your shoulders, arms and chest.

D. Practice Tips for Yoga March:

• Do interval training in order to develop your fitness and stamina.  This means that you can do 1 minute vigorous marching, followed by 30 seconds walking and then 1 minute high intensity again.  This kind of training is very good for developing your fitness rapidly.
• Keep in mind that in addition to yoga exercises, yogic breathing is also a proven method for weight loss.  2 good pranayama techniques for weight loss are Kapalbhati and Bhastrika.
• If you are looking for a combined approach for burning calories, reducing fat and losing weight, you will want to explore the Free Online Weight Loss Program here.
• Teachers if you are requesting the students do this exercise with their eyes closed, be aware they will end up all over the place, so ensure there are no unwanted collisions :-).

PS: If you enjoy this yoga exercise, please do share it with your friends.  I appreciate your support.

Related posts:

1. Bhastrika Yoga Breathing Exercise to Burn Fat for Natural Weight Loss & More
2. Easy Fat Burning Exercise | Yoga Jumping Jacks
3. Rapid Weight Loss Yoga Exercise Video
4. Healthy Ayurveda Diet To Burn Fat & Lose Weight
5. Yoga Exercise to Tone Thighs and Buttocks

Previously, guest author, Richard wrote popular articles about Om Mantra Chanting, The Awakening of Kundalini and Energy Centers, Yoga Pranayama for Beginners and So Hum Mantra Meditation.  Today he teaches us 3 wonderful Buddhist Meditation Techniques. Each of these techniques is time tested and will suit different aspirants depending on their personality and preferences.  Read on below and find one that is right for you.

Richard is a meditation teacher and author, and you will find more information on the courses he offers on his website How to Meditate n Heal.

How to Meditate -- Three Different Buddhist Meditation Techniques

By Richard Crown

 

Discover how to meditate using the path that best suits your personality. You can successfully practice meditation many different ways. Choose the method below that best suits you, or combine the practices.

Buddhist Meditation Technique One: Empty Mind

Vipassana, or Anapanasati, is the classical Theraveda Buddhist meditation technique. Buddha reached Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in North India using this empty mind meditation practice.

The method is very simple. There are only three basic components. The actual practice is very difficult.

1. Sit in a meditation posture. Full lotus is best if you can do it without discomfort. Other postures that work well are the half lotus and Burmese postures. If you?re uncomfortable on the floor, sitting comfortably erect on a chair with both feet flat on the ground will work better for you. 
2. Use diaphragmatic (abdominal) breathing. Observe the feel of your breath coming in through your nose and going out through your mouth. Breathe deeply, gently and regularly. This will soon become an effortless habit.
3. Observe your thoughts without following them. Simply watch each thought arise in your mind and then disappear.

After some time, your thoughts will slow. You?ll notice a small gap between thoughts. Rest your mind in these gaps of ?no thought? as long as possible, making them longer and longer, until no more thoughts arise. Your mind becomes empty and calm.

Buddhists liken the untrained mind to a drunken monkey leaping about. There?s absolutely no way to predict or control a drunken monkey?s next wild antic. The same is true of your mind. Wild, crazy thoughts leap about in an ever shifting landscape of stories that continually stir up your emotions.

Many years of dedicated, daily Vipassana practice can be necessary to tame your ?monkey mind?. But the wise understand that the path is the goal.  

Buddhist Meditation Technique Two: Loving Kindness

Buddhist have developed other methods that are also used by Gurus and Yogis.

Mahayana Buddhism advocates actively practicing loving kindness to work first for your own liberation, then for the liberation of all beings. A popular mehtta (loving kindness) meditation is:

1. Visualize Buddha directly in front of you. At his sides and behind him are all the many other Buddhas, Bodhisatvas and Daikinis.
2. See and feel their immense love pouring into your heart.
3. Visualize the people you love most directly behind you, then your friends behind them and then the rest of humanity behind them.
4. Send the love pouring into the front of your heart out of your back into all those behind you. This beautiful stream of love flowing through you cleanses and purifies you very quickly.

Notice that this method involves actively using your mind to visualize, observe and control subtle energy. This is quite easy to learn with a good teacher. He will give you the initiations to bring this type of mediation to life for you, saving you years of practice.

Buddhist Meditation Technique Three: Guru Puja

Vajrayana Buddhism, or the Diamond Path, is practiced by Tibetan Buddhists. Gurus and Yogis often use the same kinds of practices. These are very powerful methods. Sometimes realization occurs instantly if the student is ready.

1. The teacher, or Guru, uses his psychic abilities to place his own ability to meditate in deep states into his student?s minds. Students instantly become able to meditate in very profound states.
2. The student then diligently does the practice the Guru prescribes to anchor the state in himself.

There is another very important aspect of Guru Puja. The student actually worships the Divine aspect of his Guru?s nature, which has been completely purified and dissolved into the Divine by the Guru?s own devoted practice.

A strong personal connection between teacher and student is necessary to make this type of practice work best.

1. Meditate on your Guru, the Guru?s picture or an object that your Guru has impregnated with energy.
2. See/feel the Guru?s Divine essence entering your heart and mind. Expand the Divine luminescence out through your entire being until you become Divine, just like your teacher.

The Divine essence is a lovely luminescent energy that is the inherent, basic nature of all humans. Becoming enlightened is the process of stripping away everything in your mind that?s obscuring your luminescence. Your Divinity then shines forth to all.

A good teacher can guide you through the process of discovering your inner luminescence in a few weeks or months. It?s then up to you to continue your practice, going ever deeper into Divinity.

Please, choose your meditation technique and start meditating today. Liberation isn?t far away!

About Richard

You can find helpful meditation resources on Richard Crown?s site How to Meditate n Heal where he teaches all of the techniques above and more via Skype and Teleconference. Books, videos and the blog are all free for you. Meditation webinars, forum and personal courses are also available. Have a look now!

Related posts:

1. Buddhist Meditation Video
2. Zen Buddhist Meditation Technique Wins Survey
3. Free Online Guided Meditation Techniques E-Book
4. Pranayama for Beginners | The Basics of Yoga Breathing Techniques
5. Meditation Techniques, Types and Practice – A Comprehensive Guide

In part 1 of this series, Ways to Simplify Your Life, I provided some tips on how you can simplify you life.  The 3 tips from part 1 were a detailed discussion into how to move towards financial freedom, the importance of having peaceful relationships and how to balance your entertainment and level of stimulation.  Simplifying your life is essential in order to make time for spiritual practice and to un-clutter your mind for meditation to blossom.  Today I will continue this important topic and provide you some more life simplification tips.

5 More Ways to Simplify Your Life

1. Be With Nature:

You are an animal on this planet.  Forgot?  If you forget you will lose your connection with nature and not being able to connect with nature will make it very difficult to connect with other human animals.  This wonderful world, with wide rivers, tall trees and starry skies is your world. When was the last time you looked up at the night sky and wondered about it all?  When did you last sit in the shade of a tree and enjoyed the singing birds?  

We get so entangled in our lives and are caught in so much ego aggrendization and self protection, that the simplicity and joy of just living has become a distant memory.  So get it back by getting back to nature.

Spending time in nature will help you break the ever isolating activity of the ego mind. You will be able to step out of the clutches of society and your busy life for some time and just be aware of and connected to life.  This will give you some much needed perspective of your life as you will be able to step back and observe from afar.  This is not just contributing to simplicity, but is also part of the process of meditation.

2. Be in the Moment:

One of the best ways to simplify your life and thinking is to learn to live in the moment.  All the worrying about the future and all the rehashing of the past can be swept aside by adopting this all important approach.

Live moment to moment, day to day and see what happens.  Don't be afraid.  Having a plan about things is fine, but fretting and endlessly obsessing on what is going to happen is the surest way to miss living your life altogether.  Books have been written on this topic and here is an article on the website which discusses more on how to live in the moment - Zen Mind - The Secret to Living in the Now. 

3. Be Honest:

I should rephrase that to "Be Totally Honest".  A lot of time and energy is wasted in planning what to say and in manipulating situations to gain desired results.  If you decided to be completely honest instead, then you would not need to play all these games, waste all this precious time and complicate matters unnecessarily.  

This may not be as easy to do as it seems, but it is eye opening if you try it.  Be honest in word and action.  So no deception of others and more importantly, no deception of yourself.  Just resolve to be totally honest and see how it makes so many situations simpler and how it gives you so much more insight into who you really are.

You can read more about this topic as well in the following 2 articles - SM Meditation Program - Honesty and How to Live Life.

4. Be a Rebel:

You may wonder what being a rebel has to do with living a simple life?  I say it is essential for doing so, as otherwise you will be caught in the rat race of society and will succumb to the burning ambition which is so much a part of the human consciousness you inherit.  In order to reject the great momentum of materialism and demand for outward success, you will undoubtedly have to rebel.

Furthermore, you will have not just have to rebel once, but will have to be in rebellion to guard against getting swept up in the madness.  As a rebel you will be able to think for yourself and forge a different path.  If you have people around you wondering what the hell you are doing, that is a good sign, keep doing it :-).

5. Eat Simple Foods:

This is along the lines of balancing your stimulation and pursuit of pleasure, but as it is such an important area, it deserves it's own place on the list.

Eating simple, fresh, wholesome food is not just excellent for you health, but it also lends itself to creating an organism which is sensitive and refined.  Furthermore, it helps you master your mind and senses, as you learn not to be a slave to your taste buds.  Such discipline goes hand in hand with being able to live simply and with composure.

Simplifying your diet sends a message to all the sensory aspects of your life, that you are indeed not the slave but the master.

Summary of Ways to Simplify Your Life

From time to time all our lives get complicated, that is unavoidable, but there are certainly steps you can take which help to prevent such complications and at the very least by following these tips, you will not invite complications unnecessarily.  Also these suggestions will help you untangle your life, if indeed it has become overly busy and complicated.

The reason that simple living is so vital is that it helps you towards fulfilling the ultimate goal of human life, Self-Realization or Enlightenment.  Enlightenment is the greatest challenge we face and we ought to do everything we can to help set the stage for it to occur, and simplification of your life and decluttering of your mind certainly help you to walk this difficult path.

Stay tuned for part 3 of this series as I am not done sharing life simplification tips with you just yet :-).

Related posts:

1. 3 Ways to Simplify Your Life
2. How to Simplify Your Life – Part 1
3. 3 Beautiful Words that Can Change Your Life
4. 10 Things You Should Do Everyday For a Happy, Meaningful & Good Life (Combined)
5. 5 Unusual Ways to Get More Energy

A vacation can be a great opportunity for spiritual growth as I explained in the article Planning a Spiritual Vacation, but it can also sometimes be disruptive to an established practice, as discussed in the article, It's Wonderful but Dangerous to Your Meditation Practice.  With summer time around the corner for us, it is time for vacations and travel once again, and this time I want to present to you the benefits of doing yoga while traveling and while on vacation.  This article is by guest author Wesley Vonn, who is a fitness enthusiast and blogger, who is dedicated to healthy living for mind, body and soul.

If you would like to be a guest author on Master of Meditation and Yoga, please email me at anmol@anmolmehta.com.

Benefits of Yoga for Travelers and Vacationers

By

Wesley Vonn

People who travel for business or vacation on a consistent basis can reap great results by practicing yoga when they travel.  Yoga is stimulating to the mind and body, and it also reduces anxiety that many people often run into during extended travel periods.  When a person is traveling to another state, country or continent, numerous things can happen to cause physical or mental anxiety.  If a traveler experiences stress or discomfort while traveling, yoga may be the simplest and most effective solution.

Many times, when people travel from one location to another, cramped necks, headaches and sore muscles can surface in abundance.  Yoga is an excellent physical activity that can be done in small time increments between flights or during a quick car break on a long road trip. Yoga can also be done in a hotel room and the best thing about it is you can do it whether you are staying at a luxury hotel in Las Vegas or a cabin in the woods.  Releasing pressure from swollen joints and improving the blood flow to allow oxygen to circulate better in the body are two important benefits that yoga can provide to travelers.  

The American Osteopathic Association provides an informative online article that details the numerous health benefits people can experience by engaging in regular yoga sessions.  Less mental stress, spiritual benefits, sharper clarity of mind and stronger bodies are just a few health-related positive aspects that yoga can have on a person?s life.

Performing yoga on a regular basis can also help to alleviate hunger cravings that many travelers experience.  Busy people who travel often for business or pleasure often snack while they are on the go because they rarely have time to prepare healthy meals when they are traveling.  Taking part in a yoga session a few times each week helps the body to get better sleep at night; and this reduces restlessness and lethargy that many people try to make up for by eating more food and consuming more caffeine.

Because yoga requires such a small investment of time and monetary contributions, it is easy for a person to try it out without much risk.  You may be surprised to learn how well you feel after just a few yoga workouts in one week.  Many people begin to make a morning habit of participating in a yoga session before starting their day so they can reap maximum benefits from the activity.

(Added by Anmol:)

Here are some nice yoga sets to do while traveling which will help you achieve the above benefits outlined by Wes.

Morning Wake-up Series

Kundalini Yoga Morning Wake-up Series

Yoga Poses for Beginners

Spinal Warm-up Series

Wesley Vonn is dedicated to fitness and living healthy for the positive effects it had on my mood, anxiety, sleep, and overall well-being. He is a true believer in living healthy for the mind, body and soul.

Related posts:

1. Planning a Spiritual Vacation | What I Learned from My Vacation
2. Laughter Yoga Free Videos and Health Benefits
3. Benefits of Yoga Testimonials Pouring In
4. Benefits of Yoga, Your Stories | Diseases, Depression, Stress, Weight Loss & More Benefited
5. Top 10 Health Benefits of Yoga

If you want to have a nice flat stomach and toned abs, there are a few important things that you must do.  Besides the obvious of watching your diet, you need to develop an exercise routine that combines both, aerobic exercise along with stomach specific resistance exercises.  Although there is evidence that resistance exercises help burn fat, aerobic routines are still the best way to help reduce belly fat and body fat in general.  Along with aerobic exercises though, you need to combine abdominal training, to achieve the final result of a flat and toned stomach.  Luckily yoga can provide you both, an aerobic exercise as well as stomach toning exercises.

Another important aspect of toning muscles and stomach muscles especially is that you need to vary the routines and exercises you do from time to time.  This variation ensures that muscles are being worked out effectively and the most is being achieved from the exercises, as muscles get used to repeated patterns and respond less and less to the same routines.  For this reason it's good to have many different abdominal workouts in your yoga toolbox and change these routines up from time to time.

Below (#5) you will find a list of abdominal workouts already published on the website, which have been quite popular and are very effective.  But for those of you who have already been doing these yoga poses and routines for some time and are looking for some variation, below is another great set of abdominal exercises for you.

Some of these exercises are completely new, while others have been published previously.  The set though combines them to form a nice new routine.  In addition, this set utilizes a chair as a prop to help you do some of the exercises. For those who are new to yoga, also notice the use of the strap for doing the challenging Yoga Boat Pose, which is by the way, excellent for toning and firming your stomach.

For Yoga Certification Program Students:

For those who are enrolled in the Yoga Certification Course (link here), the yoga leg extensions is an excellent exercise if you are teaching a senior, kids or newbie class.  This is a good way to introduce yoga abdominal training to beginners and those who are unfit.  Also, it is worth having straps available in your yoga studio so you can show them how to use it for difficult poses like Boat Pose.  If you do not have straps you can use a rolled up towel or other such substitute.

For students in the Meditation Teacher's Course (link here), if you are teaching a gentle yoga class or simple stretches prior to meditation, the above advice applies to your class as well.

This set was presented in the December 2012 edition of the Mastery of Meditation and Yoga newsletter.  

 

Yoga Ab Exercises For Flat Toned Stomach:

Some titles below are links to the article with all the details including cautions, benefits, practice tips, etc.  So click that to read the full article.

Related posts:

1. Terrific Yoga Ab Exercises & Workout for Toned Stomach
2. Best Yoga Exercise to Get Firm Toned Abs
3. Powerful Yoga Ab Crunches to Get Toned Six Pack Abs
4. Kundalini Yoga Frog Pose for Eternally Toned Legs
5. Yoga Not Best for Improving Memory?

Do you know your kid’s anatomy? To teach kids we recommend a foundation in anatomy about kids and also fun ways to teach anatomy to kids.  We do a day and a half of this in our Kids Yoga Teacher Certification. Yoga Alliance required 10 hours of anatomy training for Children’s Yoga Teacher Certification. Anatomy [...]

The whirlwind in my life, better known as the Toronto Yoga Show has finally subsided.  The confessions, off hand remarks and jokes I heard at the booth are an important part of keeping my yoga business healthy.  Whether you teach kids classes, retreats, camps, or do any other ventures, it is always important to listen [...]

Show You Care on Valentine’s Day. Last week I got a nice surprise from one of the kids at the end of yoga class that would be a great surprise for your kids for Valentine’s Day to truly show you care. First, a bit about last week’s surprise, which came on a day that should [...]

After each Module of Kids Yoga Teacher Training new teachers express their gratitude for the opportunity to train with real kids present. Seeing kids do yoga illuminates the difference between yoga with kids and yoga with adults. Here are some of lessons of doing yoga with real children.

When I was a kid I loved watching the Justice League, the caped crusaders who banded together to fight evil.  It was exciting to see all that power in one room. Many years later, one of my first yoga students owned a very popular restaurant in downtown Toronto.  She came in one day talking about [...]

I love Mind Body Green! It such a great resource and read for anyone looking to improve their life. MindBodyGreen.com is a yoga and wellness lifestyle website, started by Jason Wachob. As Curator and one of the founders of MindBodyGreen, Jason’s goal is to make wellness and yoga accessible. After years of successfully trading equities on [...]

“Do no harm.  No harm in what I’m eating, what I’m drinking, what I’m thinking”. Kris Carr Jake over at Wanderlust, sent me this video from Kris Carr’s talk at the Wanderlust Speaker Series. Wanderlust is releasing speakeasy videos from their Vermont and California festivals. The speakers include (but are not limited to) Kris Carr, Majora Carter, Maty [...]

In Yoga Peeps Episode 85, Jennifer Wolfe, Doula and Prenatal Yoga Instructor, discusses her best selling prenatal dvd, poses for breech baby turning, and ones to avoid, to set intentions, finding where the intensity is in a pose or in pregnancy, exploring with consciousness, the fear/tension/pain cycle, how pleasure reaches the brain before pain, knowing [...]

Jennifer Wolfe Shownotes: Doug Swenson – Vinyasa Flow Yoga Amazon DVD: Prenatal Yoga doula, hypnotherapist, best selling prenatal dvd, poses for breech baby turning, and ones to avoid, set itentions, where is the intensity in a pose or in pregnancy, explore with consciousness, fear/tension/pain cycle, pleasure reaches the brain before pain, knowing what’s best for you based on [...]

In Episode 84, Clive Mayhew, the Founder of Yoga Aid, and Lara talk about the cultural differences of giving, Yoga Aid in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Italy, US, Wanderlust in Tahoe in July, to raise money for Off the Mat into the World, how yoga has changed his life, and how making time for it [...]

Cancer is tough enough. Reading about all the research on yoga benefits to cancer patients is even harder when you can't shell out the hundred (or sometimes hundreds) of dollars to pay for a studio membership. Enter Yoga Bear. Non-profit Yoga Bear was founded in 2006 and is dedicated to providing cancer survivors with opportunities for wellness

2 Vote(s)

More than 1,000 studies have been conducted to determine whether yoga helps people who are fighting a disease. Here's a sample from the medical literature: Depression: Patients diagnosed with depression showed significant reductions in anger, anxiety and neurotic symptoms after completing yoga classes, according to researchers in Californi

5 Vote(s)

A group of parents and religious leaders in upstate New York want yoga classes out of public schools, saying the instruction violates boundaries between church and state. Two high school teachers began using yoga last year to help students relieve stress before exams. Special education teacher Martha Duchscherer and Spanish teacher Kerry Perre

5 Vote(s)

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, falls are the leading cause of injury death for people ages 65 and older. Researchers from the School of Podiatric Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia examined the gait and postural stability of 24 elderly females who were enrolled in an Iyengar yoga program specifically des

5 Vote(s)

Yoga may be reverentially called a "practice," but Bikram Choudhury is pushing for it to be a competitive-and perhaps one day Olympic-sport. In competitions, yogis take the stage individually and are given three minutes to perform seven asanas or postures before a panel of judges. The poses are scored on alignment, grace, stability, confiden

4 Vote(s)