Home Practice The Best Way to Improve Your Health and Well Being

by Timothy

Bed in a Mirror by Nina Zolotow

"If you are taking yoga classes but not practicing at home, you may be missing the best—and potentially most therapeutic—part of yoga. Your personal practice is where the deepest work happens, when you go inward and go at your own pace."—from Yoga As Medicine

This quotation from my book got posted on Facebook the other day and generated quite a bit of interest. But not everyone, particularly those who only take classes, agrees with the statement. A woman came up to me at a yoga conference earlier this year to say she’d heard me make a similar comment at a workshop I taught in Los Angeles a few years ago, and it made her really angry. It’s easy to understand that reaction when your experience in class has been so positive, and even healing.

But now scientific research seems to back up the notion that a regular home practice really is the key to health and well-being, perhaps particularly so as we get older. A study recently published in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine by researchers at the University of Maryland and the National Institutes of Health found that, among more than 1000 practitioners of Iyengar yoga, the frequency of home practice predicted positive health more than how long you’ve been practicing or how many classes you attend per week. According to the article “Frequency of yoga practice predicts health: results of a national survey of yoga practitioners,”:

“Frequency of home practice favorably predicted (p < .001): mindfulness, subjective well-being, BMI, fruit and vegetable consumption, vegetarian status, sleep, and fatigue.”

In other words, those who practiced at home the most reported better health and well-being, greater awareness of themselves and others, improved sleep, less fatigue, and healthier body weight. They were even more likely to eat their vegetables!

The study bore out something else I’ve been teaching for years: when you combine the various tools in the yoga toolbox including asana, breathing practices, meditation and even study of yoga philosophy you tend to get even better results. As the authors put it, “an intense practice involving all aspects of yoga practice may be more beneficial to health than a less intense practice that includes only one or two aspects of yoga practice, such as just practicing the physical poses or breath work.”

There also appeared to be additional benefits for combining different types of asana practices, such as standing poses, vigorous practices like Sun Salutations, restorative poses including Savasana, and inversions like Shoulderstand. Different practices appeared to be particularly beneficial for specific conditions. Vigorous asana and inversions seemed to help the most with insomnia and body weight, whereas, according to the authors, “because breath work and meditation appear to influence mindfulness and well-being, they may be particularly useful in treating conditions such as depression and anxiety.”

One finding that may be of particular interest to readers of this blog has to do with fatigue. Overall, older practitioners had less fatigue than younger practitioners, but both groups improved when they did yoga. But it appears to take less practice for older practitioners to experience improvements in energy.

As for the woman who was mad at me for saying that a home practice was more important than going to classes, she went on to say that, almost despite herself, she did try doing her yoga at home. Now she does it regularly and believes it’s the most important part of her practice. She thanked me profusely, though of course most of all she can thank herself!

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Keeping Your Hips Happy and Healthy

by Shari

Cobbler's Pose with Prop

After reading Women's Flexibility is a Liability in Yoga by William Broad and responding with Is Women's Flexibility a Liability in Yoga? Shari's Response to William Broad and Differences Between Male and Female Pelvic Structures I thought some general advice about how to keep your hips healthy and happy would be helpful for both women and men alike.

I suggest you start by finding your hips and assessing your mobility. I often ask my students to begin by locating their hip joints. They are not on the outside of your pelvis but the spot where when you lift your legs up when you are climbing stairs, you feel the muscle moving under your fingers. This is the head of your femur (thigh bone).

Hip Joint Located Behind Inguinal Ligament

Next, test your own amount of leg external and internal rotation. Lie on the floor in Savasana (Corpse pose), with your feet slightly apart. Then, moving from your hips while keeping your legs straight, turn your legs out so your feet turn away from each other. This is external rotation.  As you do this motion, make sure you are doing the movement from your hips not from your lower leg/knee. Observe how far you can turn your legs out, and whether both sides are the same. Next, moving from your hips while keeping your legs straight, turn your legs in so your feet are turning toward each other. This is internal rotation. Again, as you do this exercise, make sure the movement originates from your hips not from your lower leg/knee. Observe how far you can turn your legs in, and whether both sides are the same.

Once you can sense how much actual hip rotation you actually have (and whether you are the same on both sides), you can begin to assess your own foot placements for standing poses. Start by exploring your particular hip alignment in wide-legged, side-facing standing poses, such as Warrior 2 or Triangle pose. See whether it is easier to feel your hip position if you step into your standing pose from Mountain pose (Tadasana) by stepping back with your left leg and keeping your right leg stable, rather than stepping the right leg forward and the left leg back (the traditional Iyengar yoga cue). Then, as you take your stance in the pose, first try keeping your front heel in line with your back middle arch and notice how your back leg internal rotation feels. If you find that in order to do this alignment you have to reposition your lower leg moving from your knee to correct this alignment, try a wider front heel to back heel stance and see if this feels like less tension in your knees and back hip.

I remind my students to not square the pelvis (see Squarer's Beware) but to allow the front pelvis to be in the same plane as the front knee and the back knee to be in the same plane as the back pelvis. In these types of poses, your front leg will be in external rotation relative to your back leg, which is in internal rotation. While working with your hips, don’t forget your knee positioning—to protect your knees, please align your knee with the middle of your ankle joint and generally in line with your second toe. All these joints should be lined up. Proper alignment that is optimum for you may take some experimentation, so if in you’re doubt, use a mirror to help you check exactly which direction your knees and hips are facing.

Continue this exploration in all your wide-legged standing poses, such as Extended Side Angle pose and Warrior 1. Try not to force rotation by causing your pelvis to move more than is comfortable over your stable legs. And don’t be afraid to line up your front heel with your back heel if that gives you more a sense of freedom in your hip joints! Turning one joint surface too much in relationship to another (the femur turning in the cup of the acetabula) will put stress and strain on the hip joint capsule and the ligaments that keep the hip within the socket of the acetabula.

 Some rules of thumb for standing poses:

1. Any pain in the groin or knees need to be respected. Please back out of the position.
2. Pay attention to pain in any body part, especially when doing single leg positions (balancing poses) and try to modify to avoid reproducing the pain. It is really important to learn how to use your muscles (which need to contract on both sides of the joints ) and bones to support your weight rather than depending on the ligamentous structures inside the joints to provide stability. Pain can come from compressing the pain sensitive structures inside joints (ligaments, tendons and capsules) or from moving beyond the joints limits of mobility (see Range of Motion: Yoga's Got it Covered).
3. Try to avoid overly stretching the front of your thighs close to your hip crease in your back leg in poses like Warrior 1, Triangle pose, etc. And for lunges, avoid going into your end range with your back leg and “hanging out” there. 

Now on to seated poses! Whether you are sitting in a straight leg position like Staff pose (Dandasana) or in a bent leg position like Seated Crossed Legs (Sukasana), Cobbler’s pose (Baddha Konasana) or Lotus/Half Lotus, it is really important to sit with your knees below your hips. If you have limitations in your hip external rotation, you definitely need to sit on a prop (folded blankets or bolster). And if you can’t lift your pelvis up over the front of your hip joints (this will look like a slumped position), again pleased sit on a prop to allow some space so you can lengthen up and bring your spine back into its natural neutral curves.

Remember the spine has curves for a reason—they serve as a means to distribute weight through the spine along the vertebral bodies. If you sit in a reversed or slumped position, you change the weight-bearing forces onto the facet joints and the soft tissue structures of the back (muscles and ligaments and discs). When you sit with your bones providing the support, you will tire less and breath better!

Finally, in bent leg positions, you may need to support your outer legs to prevent the sensation of hip pain. You can place folded blankets or blocks under your knees to keep your legs from hanging in space.

Sitting in Hero pose (Virasana) is a different hip position—internal rotation. Depending on the degree of internal rotation that you have, it may or may not be possible for you to sit with your knees together. In this case, try sitting on a higher support so your pelvis can be over the heads of your femurs (thigh bones) not behind them, and allow your knees to separate but not roll out. Align your thighs with your hip joints. Try palpating your hips in Hero pose and experiment to see if changing how close together your knees are helps to make the pose more comfortable. Reclined Hero pose (Supta Virasana) is also a different hip position because internal rotation is now superimposed with a backbend and if your hips can’t move into internal rotation, then your lumbar spine and sacrum will try to compensate for the lack of movement which can also cause pain and discomfort. This is especially the case for women because our sacroiliac joints may not lock down in weight bearing in this backbend so there can be an uneven distribution of weight in the back bend position. Learning how to prop for both Hero pose and Reclined Hero pose is really important, and you may need a teacher to help you with these alignment issues.

The bony structure and joint orientation of your hips in the acetabulum of the pelvis are variables that cannot be changed. Bones can only move in certain ways due to form and function. We may try to compensate for our immobility by excessively overusing our soft tissue ligaments and joint capsules to try to gain flexibility that we lack. Or, we may inadvertently try to make our hips move beyond their anatomical possibilities by the sports that we do or the yoga that we practice because we think the goal is more flexibility. This certainly can cause excessive wear and tear of the hip joint leading to cartilage deterioration and arthritis. So the issue really is our perception of what a pose is supposed to look like. How a pose feels is very individualistic, and it is not good to struggle with a pose that always causes pain. Sometimes for some of us certain poses aren’t attainable in the classical sense, but I believe that if we can recreate the feel of the pose we can get the benefits. For example, Dancer’s pose (Natarajasana) is a challenging balancing backbend in which you raise one bent leg behind you and reach overhead with one bent arm to hold the toes of your raised foot. However, modifying this pose by reaching your straight arm back to hold your foot instead of up overhead will allow you to recreate the beauty and concentration of the classical pose.

For healthy aging, I believe that struggle may not always be the best way to go; instead, learning to be less aggressive and more adaptive is a best way to approach asana. Mental focus and alertness with concentration on using the breath to create asana is more satisfying than trying to force oneself into contortions that may not be possible for one’s innate physical structure. This is how we balance and protect ourselves from injury during the physical asana practice.

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Relieve Your Digestive Issues With The Benefits Swedish Bitters

By Mary Fisher

Despite its unpleasant flavors and tastes, the Swedish bitters have already provided various health benefits such as enhancing liver functions, relieving allergic reactions, and soothing chicken pox and eye strains. Commonly, it is made up of senna, flowering ash, aloe, myrrh, rhubarb, and angelica leaves, alongside with other herbs. Before your consumptions, you should consult with your personal healthcare professionals.

Also, it should not be applied when you are experiencing diarrhea and carrying your baby within your wombs. But, the benefits Swedish Bitters would be an essential component for the Candida medications by enhancing the secretions of digestive enzymes, enhancing your digestion and increasing acidity phases. It needs alkaline conditions, environments, and settings to develop to its fungal formats around your body.

Written in this journal are the numerous health advantages from drinking the Swedish Bitters, most significantly the positive aftermaths on your digestive and immune setups. It became appropriate during, before, and after the Candida medicament because it excellently preserves your digestive operations. Despite those advantages, not all factors are appropriate for that medicament, however are still advantageous for easy, smooth, and efficient internal operations.

By stimulating the production of hydrochloric acid, it sustains healthy yet acidic environments inside your tummy. One of the misconceptions connected with this absorption is the existence of concerns in connection with the alkaline or acidic conditions, yet remember that enhancing your acidity is the quickest method of stabilizing your digestive structures. It aids with managing the production of insulin inside your pancreas.

Because of this, your emotion and mood levels are drastically enhanced, alongside with preventing the augmentation of blood sugar pressures. Furthermore, your liver was considered as essential for your digestive functions, promoting the efficient cleansing and functioning activities of that organ. Since it stimulates the bile, it assists in burning fats and promoting easy eliminations.

Stress and adrenaline generation is an important factor for the Candida development because it weakens the adrenal glands, causing the interrupted immune setups. Bitters have delivered subtle however advantageous answers. It minimizes stress that permits the adrenals to excellently operate because dangerous factors break your safeguard against Candida.

Also, it serves as their support because it repairs, restores, and relieves the functions of your stomach, preventing the Leaky Gut Syndrome. It refers to the ailment wherein food from the intestine enters the blood stream, resulting to immune reactions. It stimulates peristalsis, the contractions and compressions assisting with your digestions, thus it assists with relieving mild constipations.

You might be capable of relieving physical irritations, discomforts, and pains after meals through consumptions of this medicine. Some professionals have advised that its supplementary consumptions have resolved digestive issues. Also, it enhances your secretions of enzymes found on your stomach which are responsible of disintegrating your food.

An insect bite is effortlessly alleviated through this prescription however it needs to be utilized after learning about that difficulty. In alleviating the throat disorders and difficulties, it needs to be diluted inside the glass of water which is taken in after and before your meals. Looking for the best provider of this prescription is advised for patrons wishing to attain its advantages.

About the Author:

For an endless list of health benefits Swedish Bitters tonic has for your body, take a moment to review the online posts. You can order this supplement through this website at http://www.pauloberdorf.net/index.php?route=product/product&path=76&product_id=250.

Your Family Can Use Good Healthy Products

By Tyler Dropski

Green cleaning, the concept of merely utilizing products and services with eco-friendly ingredients that promote a healthy lifestyle, is catching on rapidly all around the nation. Making use of green products when cleaning is smart as it is not harmful and does not cause skin and respiratory issues.

Numerous chemicals in a lot of industrial-strength cleaning products could have a harmful impact on human health levels, and green cleaning is an active endeavor to permanently avoid this. These products could cause severe health issues when a person is exposed to it or whenever somebody inhales or ingests it. Absorption of chemical substances in the skin can be dangerous to the reproductive system and can cause problems relating to the eyes and respiratory system, as well as other severe allergy symptoms.

Respiratory diseases may also be obtained when air ventilation systems are filled with microorganisms. Frequent contact with chemical substances could cause cancer and brain ailments. It's also been identified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency that there are much more toxins indoors compared to outside. This just means that people who work inside office buildings are frequently subjected to harmful chemicals. And you should always want to avoid those because it will cause health problems.

The earth is also affected by cleaning products which have chemical substances based on a number of research studies. A large number of chemicals is used by commercial buildings across the country every year. This volume is worrying as it could be bad for expecting mothers, senior citizens, kids, and people with different illnesses.

The quality of air inside structures could contain unwanted organisms, and chemicals meted out by repellents can include ingredients that prove harmful to a person's health if continually inhaled over a long time period. Unsafe chemicals could move into the circulatory system and constitute the foundation for major upset to the nervous system, resulting in dizziness, lethargy, asthma and many more.

Some of the best choices include bergamot, Roman chamomile, and spruce. As soon as you read the remainder of this informative article, you'll have a better concept of how you would like to use several of these calming oils in your travels.

This is just a small sample of the methods that people are using essential oils to de-stress while on a trip. I hope you got a few tips here and maybe you could look for new means to unwind in your travels.

Many businesses choose the traditional cleaning approaches while others are already practicing green methods. The wellness of employees are promoted by companies that implement green methods. As it's a cost-effective practice, green cleaning is being increasingly more accepted as a healthy bet for companies who want to reduce their effect on the environment.

About the Author:

When you want your aromatherapy certification or learn how to make your own natural shampoo check out our video.

Five Helpful Tips in Caring for Your Eyes

by Alesha Wilson
(Wilmington, NC)

You need to care for your eyesight so that you won’t have problems doing the things you normally do. There are some people who have difficulties with their eyesight especially as they grow older. But that doesn’t mean that it can’t be helped. To maintain clear eyesight, remember these things:

1. Rest your eyes. If you love reading books, sometimes you forget to put the book down for a break. Rather than reading non-stop, make sure that you rest every hour or so. Just put the book down, close your eyes, and relax for a bit. You can also use this time to reflect on what you have just read.

2. Do not wash your eyes after too much strain. After you’ve spent hours reading a good book without rest or after you have spent your entire day in front of the computer, you should wait for a few minutes before washing your eyes. Also avoid washing your eyes immediately after you have woken up.

3. Stay away from too much computer or television exposure. These days most jobs require that you use the computer for long hours, but you need to take a break every once in a while. Make sure that every thirty minutes you look away from the screen and blink your eyes at interval.

4. Keep a healthy lifestyle. Babies are usually recommended foods rich in beta-carotene or vitamin A so that their eyesight will develop well. Even as you grow older, you should not forget the habit of eating foods rich in this vitamin. However, don’t just focus on this one. There are other vitamins that your body needs too.

5. Use eyeglasses if necessary. If you are starting to feel dizzy every time you try to read something and if you are already beginning to tumble because you can’t see the bump on the floor, then it’s probably time to ask your doctor for prescription eyeglasses.

The importance of the eyes cannot be emphasized enough. You need to make sure that you are not overworking the eyes. It’s better not to be able to finish your book in a day as long as you can read more books in the future thanks to your healthy eyes.

Alesha Wilson is a staff writer at RockwellNutrition.com, a leading natural health website that supplies Genestra Brands products.

View the original article here

Reasons Why Acupuncture Columbus Is Good For Your Health

By Eric McDonald

This traditional 3,000 year technique that came from China is a widely popular and accepted form of alternative therapy. Many people from Columbus, OH go for this therapy whenever they can. Because it helps them find the balance between their yin and yang energies.

It never sleeps until it catches your attention and before you know it you are so stressed out that all you want to do is lie down and never move. That is why this ancient Chinese medicine called the acupuncture Columbus is mostly recommended by many health care experts. Because of its therapeutic way of using needles to restore balance and order within our system.

So you are interested about going under the needle, but you feel uncertain about it because you do not have enough knowledge. And what to expect from one session, but do not worry because this short guide will be able to give you a rough idea about what this is. By definition acupuncture is the pricking of the tissue or skin using needles, the purpose of is to treat various ailments and alleviate pain.

Once you gain the approval of your GP visiting the acupuncturist on your next appointment should not scare you. There are many things you can expect from the treatment aside from being poked with sterile needles. Before this step happens the acupuncturist will use their tool kit to assess the current state of your health, and like all medical practitioner they will often ask about your wellness and check areas around the body thoroughly.

During an acupuncture the practitioner will review your health history by asking several questions. At that point they will survey the shape and color of your tongue and the coating around it. Then they will check your pulse and extra examinations if required. Most acupuncturist carry a special kit that helps them assess your body, so they can administer the treatment properly and accurately.

Remember that each individuals have different needs and wants, so your treatment could be extensive or shorter than others. However an acupuncture procedure usually cost around a hundred dollars, and depending on how many treatments you need in a week per month totals how much you will pay. Be aware of this aspect and include it in your conversation with your general practitioner and acupuncturist first.

There are many kinds of health conditions that have been improved through the implementation of acupuncture. But most common conditions reported are problems with the pain around the neck and back, nausea, anxiety, headache, depression, infertility, and insomnia. Once you have your appointment set you should know what to expect in each session.

Mental stress often happens when there are aspects in our lives that are is not going very great, and we are very affected by these. Which is why people who undergo stress often show signs and symptoms of depression. Depression is a condition among sufferers of dejection and despondency which results in lack of sleep and appetite.

The pressure points are where your Qi flows. This is pronounced as chee, and energy flows through this channel. When you are beyond stress the warm thin needle helps release the pressure from these areas. Which allows you to feel slowly the release and relaxation.

About the Author:

If you are interested in acupuncture Columbus healer is the best person to use. Make an appointment online through this site http://ohiowholisticacupuncture.com.

Change Your Future With The Intuitive Readings

By Edna Booker

In life, it is necessary to take a self-reflection and try to imagine what the future can be like. Most people try this at the beginning of the New Year. However, it can be done at any time, as it can help you have a more clear and focused sense of direction. In some cases, though, you need the help of people with the extra power to help you in this journey. Through the intuitive readings, you get better understandings of your hidden powers, and take advantage of them to change your future.

An intuitive reading is an art that has been in existence for centuries. It is an ancient method of divining that has been used reliably to change the course of the life of individuals and help them live a more fulfilling life. It is often defined as the art of foretelling someone's future or the processes of taking a snapshot of what will happen in an individual's future.

The subject is different for everyone and this depends on who is conducting the readings and the focus. Generally, it can focus on different subjects including the attempt to release blocked energies, release of past trauma, working through an existing hardship, tapping into past lives, and even helping someone to activate the hidden strengths and get to their highest potential in life.

The sessions are led intuitively, as suggested by the name. With the right professionals, you get that each of the sessions is completely unique and highly individualized. In a typical session, there is a lot of processing, releasing and transmuting of energies in the mental, the emotional, and the physical energy bodies. To some people, it feels like a talk therapy session while to others, it feels like having a psychic surgery.

This is where the readings come in. The reader is doing nothing more than picking up the energetic patterns off of the client when giving the reading. These patterns are used to integrate the client's current state of mind and all the decisions that have been made up to this point in life.

Unlike the psychic readings, most of the intuitive readers do not actually read the future of the individual but instead focus on the individual energy and access extra-sensory information. People with this power help the clients access their internal strengths and discover their special gifts. At the end of the session, the client should be more self-assured. They should feel more knowledgeable and empowered about their hidden gifts and abilities.

For this reason, it is necessary that you pay attention to your inner feelings in regards to the reader. If you feel disempowered in their presence or when you go through their website, then their methods may not work for you.

In this regard, using is as a tool of predicting our future is useless. Instead, it can be an extremely important tool for self-empowerment by helping us understand our strengths as well as weaknesses. In this way, the strengths that you previously aware of are brought to light and you are shown how to take advantage of all your strengths to reach your highest potential in life.

About the Author:

You can visit www.benitacrandall.com for more helpful information about How To Exploit The Intuitive Readings For Personal Development.